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John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

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Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#131

Post by nitrogen »

kkdsafjid wrote: post #81
nitrogen wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to disagree. This argument comes up in every discussion about wealth inequality. 'The non-wealthy can't complain, because everything is so cheap now.' Real wealth is, you know... actual wealth. It's being able to start a high 6-figure to 8-figure business (or even smaller if you are satisfied) and not being laughed at as a failure. It's being able to buy rather than rent everything you want to buy. It's having…

People can now buy a haedset for 400$, rather than 100000$. That creates wealth. That you personally care more about starting a business than about using a VR headset is not really relevant.

It creates purchasing power only in VR, but that is not the same thing as wealth. I think it's important to keep that distinction. Wealth is more directly connected to financial stability than the price of specific technology products.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#132

Post by dougmwne »

criddell wrote: post #122
paxys wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small successes haven't gone anywhere. However a system that needs billions of dollars in corporate funding worth of research to come into existence cannot be one by definition.

What makes you think VR headsets take billions of dollars to launch? The first Oculus was a Kickstarter project.

I think what Facebook and its vendors are building takes huge investment and lots of the best engineers you can hire. It's not just an lcd panel with lenses glued on, it's a room scale computer vision system, a VR optimised cpu/gpu with a suite of sensors, a VR software platform, controllers packed with sensors, computer vision tracking of controllers and hands, developer tools, a consumer app store, first party apps, a social VR metaverse, a telemetry system, a manufacturing and distribution supply chain, and a marketing push to get it into millions of hands (and it's also highly likely each headset is sold at a loss). I don't know how much money it takes to do all that, but I know you can't raise it on kickstarter.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#133

Post by kridsdale1 »

uf00lme wrote: post #118
jonny_wonny wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His Joe Rogan podcast is pretty incredible, if you haven’t seen it yet.

Thank you for this comment, didn’t know he had been on Joe Rogan

Rogan was a massive Quake player back in the day

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#134

Post by hombre_fatal »

shard wrote: post #84
nitrogen wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to disagree. This argument comes up in every discussion about wealth inequality. 'The non-wealthy can't complain, because everything is so cheap now.' Real wealth is, you know... actual wealth. It's being able to start a high 6-figure to 8-figure business (or even smaller if you are satisfied) and not being laughed at as a failure. It's being able to buy rather than rent everything you want to buy. It's having…

> It's being able to start a high 6-figure to 8-figure business (or even smaller if you are satisfied) and not being laughed at as a failure. I suspect this is a bit of a SV bubble viewpoint. I don't think that in the general population, if you tell people you are pulling 8-figures in your business, you would be considered a failure.

Yep, sounds like someone who spends way too much time on forums. Do they even have a 6-figure business that's literally getting laughed at? And was that "laughter" more than maybe an internet comment, at most? Starts to sound more like superstition.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#135

Post by paxys »

criddell wrote: post #122
paxys wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small successes haven't gone anywhere. However a system that needs billions of dollars in corporate funding worth of research to come into existence cannot be one by definition.

What makes you think VR headsets take billions of dollars to launch? The first Oculus was a Kickstarter project.

It also used to cause motion sickness, had terrible resolution, lots of lag and no games/software that supported it. AR/VR as a whole has come a LONG way since then to make it an actual consumer product.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#136

Post by ilaksh »

aantix wrote: post #23
test1235 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I could really hear it in his talk why he moved on to spend more time on his next passion what is he moving onto?

AGI, artificial general intelligence as an independent researcher.

Actually I just realized, after thinking about the forward looking AR research talk by the VP or whoever, that AGI is actually the long-term research goal for Facebook's AR. They want a personal assistant that understands the world well enough to insert content that you need.

So John is actually still working on the next phase of the Facebook AR project in my opinion.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#137

Post by zmmmmm »

aantix wrote: post #47

Could Oculus 2 serve as an ok display for coding?

Oculus 1 is nearly there, so I have a feeling Oculus 2 could be great. Having said that, there are people who use Oculus 1 all day. There is an app called Immersed that let's you create giant virtual VR monitors and put them wherever you want, which is pretty wild - see:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/428916969861808130/...

It's easy to imagine how useful this could be eg: when working with complex web apps where having 4 screens (IDE, terminal, browser, browser console) actually has great utility.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#138

Post by smolder »

kkdsafjid wrote: post #60
smolder wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me, too. I think economic pressures like you described generally harm quality of life. We end up with less "real wealth" --all the work-products that would otherwise make net QoL better, for the sake of monetary wealth concentration. As usual this comes down to the incentives and disincentives we've baked into our system not aligning with the best overall outcome. They align with the perceived needs of the biggest fi…

Being able to buy a VR headset for 400$ is "real wealth".

I appreciate that. Economy of scale makes it possible for really amazing products, concentrating the efforts of many, to be spread far and wide. That is a great thing, but there are very serious negatives that come along with that incentive to scale when it's not tempered. Hegemonic industries disproportionately empower owners over workers and limit opportunity, competition, and diversity to the point where the "best" products can shove anti-consumer features down people's throats. You get unsteerable inertia.

It's not cut-and-dry bad the way we do things, but there is a lack of balance. There's a lot wrong that could be better if it wasn't someone's perverse bread and butter. Extreme wealth and power inequality, whether for people or companies, don't make for a just, healthy society.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#139

Post by zmmmmm »

modzu wrote: post #43

question for VR people: is the tech at a place yet where a headset could be a monitor replacement for productivity work? i mean my laptop screen is 13" -- could i instead be coding on a virtual 100" screen, still using my regular OS, keyboard and trackpad?

Nearly. Some people do, but I get too much eye strain. Having said that, Oculus2 might be enough of a step up.

See this pic for an example:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/428916969861808130/...

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#140

Post by leereeves »

blackearl wrote: post #85
mikepurvis wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's clearly not a mass market thing either— mass market is mobile games raking in millions, Switches selling out during quarantine, the upcoming PS5 launch, and Epic having splashy platform wars with Apple and Valve. Those are billion dollar gaming events which all have nothing to do with VR. There's no non-nerd out there who thinks "maybe I'll try VR", and goes into a store to buy... whatever it is, goes home t…

I completely disagree. Quest and a game like Beat Saber are about as broad as you can get. Right out of the box you're swinging your arms around to popular EDM music. The price point is low enough to make it a solid holiday buy for a good amount of people as well. VR is also one of those things that you can show anyone and really wow them. It's not like handing a controller to a non-gamer and having them discouraged…

Many games like Beat Saber, in which you move with the beat, have been popular fads, but home hardware for those games (like Dance Dance Revolution dance pads or Guitar Hero guitar controllers) has never been more than a niche product.

VR needs more than that.

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