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Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

#31

Post by rusk »

jplayer01 wrote: post #24
rusk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

Being downvoted for an uncontroversial opinion is also boring and quite shitty, and becoming quite typical of this site. Wish the site would finally get rid of the fucking downvote system. If people disagree, they should actually comment and talk about it, instead of blindly downvoting whatever opinion they happen to disagree with.

I can understand being upset by downvotes. It irks me from time to time too. But you just have to accept that perhaps you didn't formulate your argument clearly enough, or that not enough people agreed with you to upvote and cancel out the downvotes ...

Downvotes can be a little cruel but they do work well at helping to eliminate noise. It's not an ideal system but it is simple and effective.

Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

#32

Post by zmmmmm »

newzombie wrote: post #17

The very main reason VR isn't taking off is because it has no killer app , that is, an app that other platforms can't have, and that people love. End-of-story. What's to understand here is that it's not said that this killer app "exists". If VR is only a cooler screen, then it will sell like cooler screens. Now maybe it's a killer screen, that is a screen that everybody wants. I guess there is a competitive advantage…

I don't know if it will happen, but a killer app that ought to exist is exercise. I've never found anything that gamified exercise the way the Occulus Quest does. The kind of full body workout I get from ducking, weaving, dodging and swinging at fast moving opponents, all at 6:30am in the morning without leaving my home, is simply amazing.

Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

#33

Post by bartread »

I have the PSVR and in many ways it's great.

For example, it's tough to beat Wipeout VR as a future racing experience. The fact that you can look around/through the corners the way you do in the real world when you're driving a vehicle really changes the way the game plays and makes it much more immersive.

OTOH some games do seem to cause quite severe motion sickness (I forget the name of the one I'm particularly thinking of because I haven't played it in ages, for obvious reasons).

The other problem is that ergonomically it's an absolute arse-ache. I have the first gen PSVR which is just an festooning nightmare of cables. The lenses are also way too prone to fogging.

I believe the second gen headsets are better but there are still cable management issues.

It's also, frankly, not that comfortable to wear. It's not painful or anything like that, but I'm no fan of wearing hats because they tend to make me feel too hot, so you can imagine what having a bulky conglomeration of plastic and electronics strapped to my face for long periods feels like.

Really these things need to be wireless and rechargeable but then, of course, you open the system up to more latency issues.

One area I haven't had so many issues, which is touched on in the article, is the drop in quality, and in particular graphical fidelity.

Wipeout VR, I think, runs at 4K on a PS4 Pro but only 1080P with PSVR. I haven't found this to be something that bothers me at all, or at least not with this game.

On the other hand I have found the drop in quality with Driveclub VR to be noticeable to the point where it does detract from the experience.

It really does very much depend on the game though.

Still, overall impressions of the experiences on offer are fairly positive.

Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

#34

Post by zmmmmm »

Kiro wrote: post #13

I'm a firm believer that Oculus Quest is the new beginning of VR. I used to be a real skeptic but now I've turned. I think it's futile to analyse the market pre-Quest and I'm excited of what's to come.

I agree. I bought the Gear VR and actually only got the quest because Samsung stopped supporting Gear VR on new phones. I didn't expect to be much better but it solves every single high order problem with the low end headsets. It's a completely different thing.

Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

#35

Post by donkeyd »

roenxi wrote: post #19
donkeyd wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they just don't have the quality or framerate to really send home the "future of gaming" VR has been sold as Have you actually played with the Quest? I've had many people use mine, also people who used Vive or Rift before and nobody was disappointed with the quality of it. If realism and frame rate were the most important part of gaming, then Pokemon Go and Candy Crush wouldn't be as profitable as they are. The maj…

> The majority of people want [X current product] not [Y under active development]. I've lost count of the number of times people have used that template and turned out to be humerously wrong. My favourite is probably when people tried to use it for Japanese phones > iPhones then the next generation iPhone wiped the competition in Japan. People want good entertainment more than they want their senses stimulated, but…

I'm not predicting though, I'm just observing. The most popular free games on mobile are consistently low quality arcade games. Also, I'm not saying it's the only thing people play, GTA and RDR are super high grossing franchises and they are high quality sagas. I'm mostly rebutting against the notion that lack of quality is holding back consumer grade VR.

Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

#37

Post by TulliusCicero »

newzombie wrote: post #17

The very main reason VR isn't taking off is because it has no killer app , that is, an app that other platforms can't have, and that people love. End-of-story. What's to understand here is that it's not said that this killer app "exists". If VR is only a cooler screen, then it will sell like cooler screens. Now maybe it's a killer screen, that is a screen that everybody wants. I guess there is a competitive advantage…

Beat Saber has been a killer app for a lot of people.

VR still has a lot of room to improve tech-wise before it's a mature platform, though. Resolution remains not that great, ditto for FoV, physical feedback is meh, most headsets are pretty bulky, etc.

I have a Rift CV1 and a Quest, they're fun platforms for enthusiasts, but it doesn't feel ready to go fully mainstream yet.

Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

#38

Post by altacc »

unnouinceput wrote: post #25

For me personally VR it feels still weird, too cartoonish, not an immersive experience as expected. What I'd argue people would want is AR instead. That one is way more fun when done right

I think this depends upon the system you use and what you're viewing. I was underwhelmed by a couple of VR headsets (Samsung Gear plus something I forget) but changed my mind after using a Rift, as that was so much better. The media/game matters too. Anything trying to look real does indeed still look cartoonish, but it's a different story for games where looking like the real world isn't the goal. Then you can enjoy the immersion without comparing to reality.

Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

#40

Post by sundvor »

kstenerud wrote: post #30

Another issue is motion sickness. For a significant portion of us this is a huge problem.

I tried the Dirt Rally game with my Lenovo VR kit. Super, super fun ... until my stomach revolted. As opposed to Elite Dangerous where I could go on for hours, I merely lasted 10 minutes before I had to stop.
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