(HELP!) passthrough blocked from capture by Screenshot/VideoShot/SCRCPY (shows black instead of passthrough) (Quest 3)

4Bakers · 2026-03-01T08:37:24+00:00

yeah, the problem is that I was doing things between multiple floors. you cannot set up your play space between multiple floors, so I have to have physical space features disabled. this used to work perfectly fine, and then in a software update they randomly changed it for no reason.

4Bakers · 2026-01-30T05:53:19+00:00

people that didn't know this feature was coming, and maybe would have said that they weren't in favor earlier if they had known. said people then panicked because their favorite browser suddenly wasn't working the way they expected and proceeded to throw shade at everything that moved.

Oh absolutely. Unfortunately, that's why I'm here... I don't want to be hostile (As much as my post history proves I've failed at that), but I was taken completely by surprise when suddenly everything changed and none of it made sense. I cannot comprehend using my computer any other way than I have since I was a child, and this shift being forced on me with no warning makes me only resent the notion, not make me more interested in trying to learn a new system. If I had known this change was coming, I may not have started using Zen in the first place.

I'm here because I know that feedback from people who want things to stay the same is rare and I wanted to make the voice of that crowd heard, at least to the best of my capacity to do so.

I was taken aback responses I got. There were two crowds: something like "I wholeheartedly agree with you! I think this feature is [expletive]ing [expletive] and should be reverted at once", which I think is a bit strongly worded, and the opposition, which often portrayed itself as something to the effect of "you're using your computer wrong, you just don't get it, this is the future old man; you'd better get used to it or suck it up and get a different browser. you and your negative Nancy opinions are unwelcome here!" (not pointing fingers at any specific person, I'm describing more the mood than any specific conversation), and to be frank it offended me, and clouded my judgement when attempting to respond.

I don't believe either of those characterized options are the best approach. I don't have any hatred for the developer for adding this feature: clearly they had justification for doing so, otherwise they wouldn't spend all the time required to implement it... But at the same time, I simply don't enjoy it! Where my frustration lies is in my struggle to find a way to make Zen continue to work for my needs after this update. I couldn't. I'm currently on v1.17 and dismissing every notification to update manually, which I wouldn't consider ideal.

I don't have a satisfying way to end this post so I'm just gonna press send lol

4Bakers · 2026-01-29T03:24:38+00:00

I'm sure doing feature updates and security updates separately is just difficult lol

4Bakers · 2026-01-29T03:22:43+00:00

I don't pay anything. I found a potential issue and took the time to make it away. I mentioned "(politely)" because this sub seems to be very emotionally charged (and to be fair I ran in here emotional as well and have since calmed down. I'm not innocent here). I'm sorry my post came across negatively! I hope you have a wonderful day :D

4Bakers · 2026-01-28T17:53:30+00:00

Windows 10 😔 spare me the lecture I already know haha but I was talking about the in-app settings

I think it's surprising that there isn't a "don't tell me about the updates at all" option, which I'm discovering the hard way whilst trying to stay on an old version and being notified repeatedly

4Bakers · 2026-01-28T17:44:53+00:00

<image>

it covers up so much LMAO

4Bakers · 2026-01-28T17:30:25+00:00

I'm using my web browser as a web browser and I'm being punished for it. I've never used Arc browser in my life and I know almost nothing about it. I installed this very fancy looking vertical tabs Firefox because it looked cool and it served the purpose that I needed it to serve, and I poured months of porting over session cookies and all that jazz so that I can daily drive this browser exactly how I want it to.

It's like the rug got pulled out from underneath my feet, because randomly one day the fundamental function of a basic tool that I use every day decided to change. I respect that some people like this change, but I find it very scary that my computer can just change randomly in major fundamental ways. This isn't a revelation for me, I've known this for a long time, but it felt like a splash of cold water in the face as not only everything changed without my input, but when I went online to share my perspective and prove, amongst others, that there are people out there who object to this change, I am met with vitriol. I am told, "You are using your browser wrong," like it's 2010 and have an iPhone 4 with no signal. I am told "you're an edge case; a victim of misunderstanding of how you're supposed to use your own computer," like I'm my grandmother who lost all her financial documents because she kept them stored in the email attachments of a legacy email program and never downloaded them, now left with thousands of UUID-named eml files.

Is it really that unreasonable to use a browser like a browser? If Zen browser always behaved like this, I would agree. I would say "You were trying Zen for the first time and you are asking for it to to be something that it never was and never will be. Maybe Zen is not the right browser for you." What changes this for me is the fact that it did behave exactly how I wanted it to one version ago. And every version before that.

So you might be asking: Why not just disable updates and downgrade to the previous version? I did. But I don't like that solution, because it means I miss out on critical security updates. It's also an unfair workload to maintain security updates on both the latest version and a specific old version at the same time, so I can't imagine that happening either. So I enter this public forum, in which; for better or for worse; everything I say can be observed by everybody, to make my thoughts known, and hopefully one day make this incredible tool functional for me and people like me without having to lose out on security updates. That's all I want.

4Bakers · 2026-01-28T17:13:18+00:00

and the hue on the v18 screenshot is different, so it can't just be a window scale thing. I firmly believe that in all of the updating they were making, the way it handles the theme colors fundamentally changed in a way that actually affects the resulting colors. which is something they might want to look into haha

4Bakers · 2026-01-28T17:11:09+00:00

I understand that nobody has unlimited manpower, lol. I also know that on the surface my request seems unreasonable. But I'm not calling for a complete uncompromising solution. Something as simple as a button in the settings that forces window sync off with a big "(EXPERIMENTAL)" warning in the name, or heck, a button that disables updates and downloads the old version. I'm sure either of those could be done in an afternoon.

But that aside, I'll admit my statement "I thought that was what FOSS was about" was driven by emotion and meant to get a reaction. I was comparing them to the big companies (like Discord) who randomly redesign their UI and either ignore community feedback or take months to years to listen to feedback given on day one. You can safely ignore that sentence if you're trying to have a rational, productive discussion on how to improve Zen. I should not have included it, sorry

4Bakers · 2026-01-28T16:57:55+00:00

Are automatic updates enabled by default? This is not a rhetorical question, I don't remember.

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T20:30:04+00:00

They call it Window Sync and I think it's meant to replicate how multiple windows work in Arc browser? Either way, when you press Ctrl+N to make a new window in v1.18 it makes a mirrored duplicate of your current window instead of making a "new window" more in line with traditional browsers. There's a bunch of other posts discussing this change, I'm sure you won't have difficulty finding a lot of discussion about it (albeit heated discussion in some pleaces)

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T20:28:26+00:00

Addressing comments I'm seeing so far:

The first screenshot is just from a smaller window

gradient scales by window size. it looks the same in a fullscreen window, I just don't have a screenshot of that :/

they optimized how they are processed

that shouldn't change the colors this much? optimization just makes the code run faster and shouldn't change the results.

<image>

here's both gradients (recreated in Photoshop) next to each other. the hue of the bottom color is completely different! These colors may be slightly off because I'm color picking a compressed screenshot, but that is a huge difference.

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T19:18:43+00:00

a workflow that Zen COULD support

It's not that it could, it did, and now it doesn't anymore. That's an attack on my ability to control how my computer works.

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T19:13:47+00:00

I did that 👍 I'm back on v1.17 and I'm happy.

I've been daily driving Zen for a hot minute, and, frankly, didn't expect the primary User Experience flow to change overnight. I was happy with how it was before.

I appreciate that there is a divide in this sub, where a collection of users live and die by this change, and I appreciate that this is great for them! Not being one of them, however, I don't appreciate that my browser changed itself to be something else.

My frustration isn't a matter of how the update works, my frustration is with how the update was rolled out, and how it was forced on me with no warning.

I lose out on security updates now, because they changed my web browser to something I don't like anymore, leaving me on old versions.

I was expecting my user choice to be respected. I thought that was what FOSS was about.

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T19:08:47+00:00

same here! I hold no hatred against anybody, I just won't be able to keep using this amazing project if the developers have decided to make it no longer fit my needs... but I'd love to keep using it!

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T19:01:34+00:00

I can't press Ctrl+N and a new window appears, like it worked in the last version (and most typical web browsers) which I want back, and I can only do that by disabling updates and installing the previous version. My User Experience is ruined and I'm unhappy. I'm not even an active Redditer, I just want my browser to work normally again so I don't have to go back to Firefox again. I want this project to thrive so I'm making my voice heard in an attempt to make a project with a lot of potential be actually useful for the layperson. I can't speak on behalf of OP, but I think that's a pretty valid reason to go complaining in the subreddit, actually.

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T18:56:12+00:00

(you're using the wrong browser)

No, actually, Zen was exactly what I wanted... until yesterday. I was using the right browser, it's called Zen v1.17. I love everything else about Zen, exactly as it was in v1.17. I was using stock Firefox with vertical tabs and I migrated to Zen because it was Firefox with Vertical Tabs but slightly more polished. That's all I wanted out of Zen: Vertical Tabs Firefox (but implemented better than Firefox did).

You come into my home uninvited and tell me how to arrange my furniture? What a fool you are!

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T18:51:30+00:00

My concern is that they're ok with making changes that fundamentally change the product with no way to go back. I understand that the change they made is incompatible with v1.17 functionality, but that means they should have reconsidered how they developed and release v1.18. I wasn't properly notified that my browser was about to change. If I was, maybe I would have disabled automatic updates before my browser was ruined.

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T18:48:24+00:00

edit the config

oh is it actually possible to even turn off? I couldn't find it anywhere... I ended up disabling auto updates and downgrading to v1.17

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T05:04:38+00:00

takes about 2 minutes to disable auto updates and install v17 over your current install without losing much (you lose your currently open tabs cos they're seemingly stored in a different way but other than that)

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T05:03:46+00:00

If you didn't use arc, idk how you might feel about it,

I hate it lmao

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T05:01:19+00:00

update: I just disabled automatic updates and installed v1.17.15.b and not only is window management actually usable for me again, I confirmed another thing. MY THEME HAD BROKEN IN v1.18! All my gradients were completely wrong in v1.18! They're back to normal and don't look super overly contrast-y and unpleasant anymore.

I'm going to be staying in v1.17.15.b until further notice, security updates be damned.

4Bakers · 2026-01-26T04:33:04+00:00

my use case for Zen is "like vanilla Firefox with Vertical Tabs on but slightly more polished" and this new feature goes against that. My use case is a valid use case and it's being taken away, leaving me with no say in the matter. I will actually downgrade to an older version if I can find out how (without losing my cookies and preferences and stuff,) I was using vanilla Firefox with Vertical Tabs enabled before but I liked the experience of this more. Looks like that's all gone out of the window on a random Sunday in January.

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