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When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

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Re: When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

#241

Post by aksss »

site-packages1 wrote: post #202
dougmwne wrote: post #89

I very much think that folks on HN are jaded by the long wait and the unfulfilled promises of VR. I recently picked up a Quest 2 as my first VR headset and I am blown away and convinced it is the future. The thing is, I also recognize that while it is already an incredible achievement, it's still probably 5-20 years from hitting its iPhone moment. By then, my initial excitement will have gone away and I'll have tired…

I played with a really nicely Oculus set up the other day, it was totally amazing and immersive. In particular this was a racing sim, and when I was headed toward a wall I got the feeling like in a real car when you're about to hit something. It was very cool. Unfortunately, I lost my lunch after 5 minutes or so and had to lay in a dark room for a couple hours to get over a bout of nausea. Excited for the future thou…

I used to get massive nausea after playing fps games on my 10' projector screen - solved it by using a pair of acupressure wrist bands. Not sure if that would work for VR but probably worth a try. Plenty of studies behind it: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7575310/

Re: When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

#242

Post by gonehome »

lqet wrote: post #150
gonehome wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The headsets are pretty cool - I’ve played with all of them except for the Valve Index. Though there’s something unpleasant about them that keeps me from going back when the novelty wears off. I think it might be because I don’t want to be standing and moving around when playing a game and if you’re not doing that, the motion is kind of unpleasant. I’m not sure this is something it can really overcome. I think an AR…

> I think it might be because I don’t want to be standing and moving around when playing a game and if you’re not doing that, the motion is kind of unpleasant. Could this be because of the missing resistance while moving / throwing / touching VR objects?

It's more about movement across space.

VR tries a few tricks for this, teleportation, tunnel vision, etc. but ultimately if you're doing movement like you would in a normal FPS/RPG style game where your character is walking and you are not it's unpleasant.

You can get used to it, but I still prefer just sitting and playing on a couch with a TV. The VR controls are still a little clunky though and better haptics would definitely help, but that's not most of the issue.

Re: When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

#243

Post by valbaca »

blhack wrote: post #233
rocky1138 wrote: post #229

I know I'm late to the conversation, but one of the biggest unreported problems with VR adoption is that it's impossible to show anyone what it is like to actually experience it. You can't share a video or a photo with a friend and have them understand. They have to do it to understand it.

And what's worse is that the most accessible version of "VR", google cardboard (or equivalents) is actually a terrible representation of VR. So people will try that, dismiss VR as a gimmick, and not revisit it again. A proper VR rig is likely going to cost you >$2000, and it's going to need a dedicated room of your house. It's really inaccessible. But man when it works... Playing skyrim, or fallout in my vive was suc…

"likely going to cost you >$2000, and it's going to need a dedicated room of your house"

Sounds exactly like the requirements of the very first home TVs.

Re: When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

#244

Post by aksss »

babyshake wrote: post #115
dougmwne wrote: post #89

I very much think that folks on HN are jaded by the long wait and the unfulfilled promises of VR. I recently picked up a Quest 2 as my first VR headset and I am blown away and convinced it is the future. The thing is, I also recognize that while it is already an incredible achievement, it's still probably 5-20 years from hitting its iPhone moment. By then, my initial excitement will have gone away and I'll have tired…

With everything happening with major movies going direct to streaming, I actually am expecting a big development somewhat related to VR in the next year or two. It's a device much smaller than a VR headset you wear on your face that gives you a theatrical quality audio-visual viewing experience, and only allows you to purchase/rent and not sideload anything. I'm thinking it could sell for around $500 and I'm pretty s…

Hasn't Hammacher-Schlemmer been selling something like this for years? Lastest variation: https://www.hammacher.com/product/wearable-virtual-cinema

Re: When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

#246

Post by mikenew »

The Valve Index and the Quest have been sold out for just about the entire year. Half Life: Alyx is one of the best gaming experiences I've had in my life. I have witnessed everyone who tried Beat Saber completely fall in love with it after about 10 minutes, including people who were 100% positive that they hated video games and would not enjoy it. It is obvious, if you have the right system and you do the right things, that VR is mind blowing.

BUT, the VR ecosystem is a shitshow. So many manufactures are making crappy headsets and wondering why they don't sell. The HTC Cosmos Elite, for example, ships with old base stations and clunky-as-hell Vive wands, and costs almost as much as an Index. Windows Mixed Reality is, for one, not "mixed reality" at all, and the tracking is so fucking broken I'm honestly surprised we haven't seen class action lawsuits. Most VR games are just normal 2d games with VR tacked on, or if they are made for VR they're tiny.

Valve made a good headset and it's been sold out since launch. They made a good game and it's won awards and sold to pretty much every single person who can play it. Facebook (as much as I hate they're a major player here) made a good headset with the Quest (not with the Rift), and it's been sold out since it launched as well.

Just make good products and we'll buy them FFS. It's not that complicated.

Re: When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

#247

Post by augstein »

billti wrote: post #179
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think there are probably some narrow applications where it’s clearly better than not having it, but I’m skeptical of VR as a platform. Fitness. It is much easier to grind in a VR game for an hour than it is to grind on a treadmill for the same amount of time. I have a Quest, the games suck, but the fitness experience is paradigm changing. Beat Saber was and still is the Quest's killer app, but there are lot of si…

Yeah, I used to struggle to get a work-out in most days. When I'm not feeling it, I play Thrill of the Fight on my Quest (boxing game - I'm a casual boxing fan). It's the most I sweat out of any workout, and I can go for 45 without getting bored (unlike the rower or going for a run). I actually got the Quest 2 when it came out, but being as the Quest 1 plays that game fine, and I figure I'll ruin it by sweating into…

This exactly.

I‘ve had a Quest 1 and loved most of it, except that for me, it was extremely uncomfortable and even left marks in my face after a while. So I sold it before the Quest 2 was released.

For me a VR headset needs to be at most half the weight of a Quest 1 (~0.5kg) to consider it for now. And a bigger FOV would also be nice :-)

Re: When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

#248

Post by dougmwne »

zn44 wrote: post #240
dougmwne wrote: post #89

I very much think that folks on HN are jaded by the long wait and the unfulfilled promises of VR. I recently picked up a Quest 2 as my first VR headset and I am blown away and convinced it is the future. The thing is, I also recognize that while it is already an incredible achievement, it's still probably 5-20 years from hitting its iPhone moment. By then, my initial excitement will have gone away and I'll have tired…

“ All entertainment since sung epic poetry has aimed to briefly take us into another world. ” Maybe it is just me but I can achieve perfectly satisfactory immersion with a good book.

Fair point and I can as well. It takes a great book, time, a good atmosphere, a nice state of mind and the page can disappear and I enter that other world. The last book that did this to me was The City and the Stars and it was just incredible. But with VR you are instantly, automatically and with zero effort just THERE. The immersive pull is probably thousands of times stronger if you could quantify it by number of seconds till you stop caring about the real world.

Re: When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

#249

Post by an_opabinia »

Impossible wrote: post #218
an_opabinia wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a little more hope for Facebook now that they've started acquiring studios and letting them run independently The reality is, the acquisition of best VR game of any objective measure, Beat Saber, set back VR for all game developers because it will rob other VR platforms of a doorbuster title (i.e. Beat Saber 2). Also, it enables Beat Games to keep using unlicensed music by fiat of Facebook's legal might, a c…

I worked on the Horizon team, and there's only so much I'm comfortable saying, but I can say the team burnt me out and I quit. There isn't a 100% chance that Beat Saber 2 will be exclusive, but you're right that it's likely and if that happens it will be a shame. My hope is that Facebook moving away from PC VR as a focus means they won't see it as competition, and start releasing previously exclusive games on Steam i…

Well by no means I meant to shit on what you do, it is of course going to be a well engineered and nice product. I understand it's tough in most roles to do anything about like, sterility - it's above everyone's pay grade at giant companies. So please take it with a bit of exaggeration, it's certainly frustrating as an outsider to see that kind of money lit on fire and talented people getting burnt out. A more experienced and culturally thoughtful decision maker would do things differently.

Re: When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

#250

Post by seanmcdirmid »

gonehome wrote: post #219
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The idea of puffing and sweating inside a heavy VR headset doesn't seem very alluring to me for some reason... It is like hanging out in a sweaty gym, you get used to it. But the quest isn't exactly idea for it, which is why I think my headset konked out after a year of heavy use. I hope it gets better. > not "grinding" and distracting yourself while getting this physical thing done. To each their own of course. Sh…

I got one of these for my SO: https://www.amazon.com/VR-Cover-Silicone-Oculus-Quest/dp/B08... It works really well and mostly solves 80% of the issue. She's really good at beatsaber (top ten in global leaderboards for many of the songs), but plays under my account (just because I already had one). Somewhat comically this lead to a coworker seeing my username and asking me about my beatsaber ability. I'm pretty medioc…

I'll give it a try, thanks!

I like Beatsaber a lot, it is less of a grind than FitXR, but I still come back to FitXR since I can get a better workout there (Beatsaber is a good warmup).

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