How to Get into VR • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Get into VR

#121

Post by hesdeadjim » Wed, May 03, 2017, 9:26 PM UTC

aaron-lebo wrote: post #97

whicks wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's $900 The Oculus Rift is $500, $598 with the Touch controllers and and extra sensor.[1] [1]: https://www.oculus.com/cart/

It's $800 + tax for the Vive (you probably want to buy some light stands, too). What's the Rift at that price missing compared to the Vive?

Oh man they aren't even comparable. The tracking on the Vive is for all intents and purposes, perfect. It is truly room-scale and the headset and controllers have sub-millimeter tracking resolution in a space up to 15x15'.

The Oculus on the other hand uses image sensors with a limited field of view, so it is much easier to lose tracking on your hands when you move quickly, bend over, or turn around. They will sell you a third sensor to expand tracking to 360 degrees, but at that point you are basically buying a shitty Vive.

Re: How to Get into VR

#122

Post by faitswulff » Wed, May 03, 2017, 9:54 PM UTC

sevensor wrote: post #94

> VR is a new medium This is just blatantly not true, at least not on the implied timescale. VR has been around for literally decades, including immersive VR with head and hand tracking. I know because I used it in 1998. The current VR hype cycle is based on this all having gotten a lot cheaper and faster. To top it off, listing Snow Crash and Neuromancer as suggested reading is just silly. Those are the exact same b…

They quote this earlier in the article before contradicting themselves with that claim:

> “VR is not a new technology. It just became accessible.” – Jeremy Bailenson (Stanford VHIL)

Re: How to Get into VR

#123

Post by monk_e_boy » Wed, May 03, 2017, 10:07 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #8

> The development of VR has been surprisingly tied to science fiction. Authors in the field have envisioned the futures that engineers set out to build Incidentally, the high romanticism of VR one of the reasons why I am highly skeptical of the industry. The article argues "VR will also enable immersive concerts, reinvented museums, and live, court-side sporting events", but what is it doing now outside of games, whi…

Education. I taught over a hundred kids with google VR. None of these kids have had to opportunity to go to a big city or see the seven modern wonders of the world or go scuba diving. They loved it. They learnt a huge amount.

Re: How to Get into VR

#124

Post by return0 » Wed, May 03, 2017, 10:15 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #102

return0 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can plug into Second Life or High Fidelity with a VR headset, but few people do. Which was disappointing to me, because among the crowds in SL/opensim/highfidelity there are many creators and early adopters.

Crowds? High Fidelity? Where? I've tried it, and it's mostly empty. High Fidelity may have made the mistake of bringing up their world empty. They should have used a terrain generator and SpeedTree to fill the world with virgin, natural terrain. Then let people buy real estate, clear it, and develop. This would also impel people to do good graphical work. SpeedTree builds a good-looking nature. It would encourage peo…

Only SL has some crowd. Highfidelity has some good architectural ideas, but development is moving so slowly. They deliberately chose empty regions, though i think they will eventually have to add extensive in-world building controls to make building more fun.

Re: How to Get into VR

#125

Post by return0 » Wed, May 03, 2017, 10:18 PM UTC

GraffitiTim wrote: post #103

minimaxir wrote: post #8

> The development of VR has been surprisingly tied to science fiction. Authors in the field have envisioned the futures that engineers set out to build Incidentally, the high romanticism of VR one of the reasons why I am highly skeptical of the industry. The article argues "VR will also enable immersive concerts, reinvented museums, and live, court-side sporting events", but what is it doing now outside of games, whi…

We are using VR to help people overcome fears at Fearless. http://FearlessVR.com It is based on lots of research showing that VR exposure therapy is extremely effective.

Great idea. I do have an irrational fear of cockroaches, but i am not sure overcoming the fear of spiders is a good thing.

Re: How to Get into VR

#126

Post by fudged71 » Wed, May 03, 2017, 10:31 PM UTC

return0 wrote: post #90

skizm wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what's funny? I actually think Ready Player One nailed the only use case that might be a game changer for VR: remote schools. You can just make all learning materials virtual. VR school means no physical real estate, buses, cafeterias, bullying, janitors, you can cut like 90% of support staff, the list goes on. Also if you divide people by location (like we do now) you can still coordinate field trips and/or…

> a game changer for VR: remote schools. A great advantage of VR compared to other interactive learning environments is that it eliminates all distractions and forces you to focus on the subject. I believe it could also lead to revival of MOOCs. We first need cheaper, lighter, no-hassle headsets.

Yes, until users have the expectation of their phone and other distractions are part of the VR experience. Maybe we'll call it AR.

Re: How to Get into VR

#127

Post by JKCalhoun » Wed, May 03, 2017, 10:32 PM UTC

haydenlee wrote: post #31

jarsin wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO of unity believes that AR/VR will be bigger than the internet and develop in much the same way [1]. Obviously he is biased but still pretty big statement from a CEO of the most popular game engine. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODXMhaNIF5E

Bit of a cringey statement to say "bigger than the internet" considering almost every AR/VR application will rely heavily on the internet. I think the spirit of his statement was that it'll be bigger than the Web.

He meant to say "bigger than the Beatles".

Re: How to Get into VR

#128

Post by haydenlee » Wed, May 03, 2017, 10:34 PM UTC

mbesto wrote: post #113

haydenlee wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

immersive concerts - TheWaveVR [0] reinvented museums - TiltBrush [1] court-side sporting events - NextVR [2] Not to mention architecture [3], communication [4], collaboration [5], medicine [6], 3d modeling [7], game development [8], film [9] and the myriad of other industries I'm forgetting. Also if you haven't tried any of the latest games on Oculus Rift or Vive you're really missing out. They've gotten incredible…

How much of these companies are actually making money?

Almost every company I mentioned is already making money.

Re: How to Get into VR

#129

Post by lincolnpark » Wed, May 03, 2017, 10:38 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #8

> The development of VR has been surprisingly tied to science fiction. Authors in the field have envisioned the futures that engineers set out to build Incidentally, the high romanticism of VR one of the reasons why I am highly skeptical of the industry. The article argues "VR will also enable immersive concerts, reinvented museums, and live, court-side sporting events", but what is it doing now outside of games, whi…

We're developing a VR application for chronic pain management. http://karunavr.com I don't think it's too sci-fi.

Re: How to Get into VR

#130

Post by haydenlee » Wed, May 03, 2017, 10:42 PM UTC

hesdeadjim wrote: post #121

aaron-lebo wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's $800 + tax for the Vive (you probably want to buy some light stands, too). What's the Rift at that price missing compared to the Vive?

Oh man they aren't even comparable. The tracking on the Vive is for all intents and purposes, perfect. It is truly room-scale and the headset and controllers have sub-millimeter tracking resolution in a space up to 15x15'. The Oculus on the other hand uses image sensors with a limited field of view, so it is much easier to lose tracking on your hands when you move quickly, bend over, or turn around. They will sell yo…

Most people I speak to find the Oculus Rift much more comfortable and the addition of built-in headphones is amazing. I still haven't figured out how to put my headphones on while putting on the Vive.

The FoV is pretty good on the Oculus cameras albiet a bit less than the vive's lighthouse. With two cameras I don't run into many issues unless playing Onward or something that requires me turning 360. I'm travelling atm so I actually just use one camera.

Very "comparable" and I'd argue you're actually getting more value for the $200 cheaper Rift than the Vive due to comfort and ergonomics of the HMD and controllers.