BARCELONA—While I'm certainly not a prude, I still found it somewhat unnerving to strap a Galaxy Gear VR headset to my face and watch some porn while sitting in a cafe surrounded by dozens of other people. It was kind of like when you watch porn with friends, "for a laugh," but exponentially more awkward. What is the etiquette of watching porn in public, exactly?

As I watch the three actors (yes, of course, the first VR clip is a threesome) do their stuff, I find myself wondering about my responsibilities as a tech journalist. How do you objectively review some VR porn? "This is just another gizmo that you're putting through its paces, Seb. Focus on the tech. Focus on the big-picture stuff, the long-term repercussions of millions of people watching VR porn in their bedrooms. Don't stare directly into the—oh shit, too late. It's coming right at me! Oh no! Aiiiiiiieee..."

VR porn is really quite something

You will probably be unsurprised to hear that VR porn is awesome. It's like porn, but better. The porn I was sampling—made by Naughty America—was essentially a standard first-person-perspective film, but with the ability to look around. Unlike some VR experiences that are just two-dimensional 360-degree panoramas, Naughty America's porn is stereoscopic; stuff actually sticks out, or comes flying at you. You really do want to reach out and touch things.

I watched three different scenes as I sat there in the cafe. In all three of them, "I" (a male actor) was reclining on some kind of sofa, looking down at my muscular physique and giant appendage. In some scenes, other people did things to me—in other scenes, I was much more proactive.

To be honest, it was a bit weird, looking down and seeing someone else's body. But, after a few minutes of watching, I began to feel a sense of agency; I began to feel that yes, those rippling muscles were mine; I began to feel that it was me being tended to by two other beautiful people.

And of course, just as I was starting to get into it, the demo ended and I found myself back in the real world, being grinned at by a couple of guys from Naughty America. "Pretty cool, eh?"

All I can do is nod. Why did the demo have to end so soon?

Tumescent tech

Right now Naughty America's films only allow for a 180-degree field of view, primarily because a standard porn scene doesn't require anything greater, but also because it's technologically quite challenging as well. Different varieties of porn—orgies and the like—would require a 360-degree field of view, but it doesn't seem that Naughty America is working on that just yet.

When I asked Ian Paul, the company's CIO, about how they actually film the VR scenes, he refused to tell me anything. "I can't give away anything right now." Basically, according to Paul, it's quite hard to shoot a 3D VR film from an actor's perspective, and lots of porn studios are currently trying to find the optimal setup. "Some of our early efforts weren't as good. It's much better now," he said. I tried to get some tech details out of him, but he really wouldn't budge. My guess would be some kind of head-mounted camera, or perhaps something around the actor's neck.

Paul said that one of the difficulties with the VR process is that the director can't immediately see the output from the VR camera rig; they have to finish filming, get the footage onto a computer, and then check it out. Another thing: in all of Naughty America's VR videos, the camera viewpoint was fixed: it didn't move around at all. Presumably this is another technical issue that'll need to be ironed out before the studio can produce more adventurous, free-roaming porn.

How do you distribute VR porn?

Right now, if you want to watch some VR porn, you have to download a file to your smartphone, slot it into some kind of virtual reality device (Gear VR, Google Cardboard), and press play. The files aren't small, either: about 4GB for a 45-minute film (and obviously, a 360-degree film would be even larger). Each playback device needs a slightly different file, too. We're a few years away from some kind of standardised VR film format, I expect.

Naughty America would love to distribute its VR porn through other channels, of course, but at the moment Samsung won't allow adult content onto its Gear VR store. "We're hoping Samsung will see the light," Paul said. That's actually the main reason Paul is at Mobile World Congress: to see if Samsung's arm can be twisted.

In the meantime, though, manually downloading VR porn probably won't be too much of a barrier. I expect most VR early adopters will be PC gaming types who have no problem sideloading a video.

If you have a VR headset and want to try out some VR porn, you have a couple of options: find some free VR porn by doing some googling, or sign up for a free trial at Naughty America and give it a whirl. The company currently has about 30 VR films for your delectation.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and buy a VR headset.

Update: We now have a guide to buying the best VR headset. If you can't choose between Gear VR, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, or Oculus Rift, check it out.