Live data from Hacker News

What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

blog.immersed.team

41–50 of 461 posts

Re: What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

#41

As someone who has spent quite some time tuning their VR setup for iRacing, I highly recommend the Pimax headsets (Pimax 8K X has dual native 4K). Best resolution and FOV, decently priced, light software, and surprisingly great support. I 3d printed some supports to mount a vive headstrap to it, and removed the vive headphones in favor of Airpods. 200 degrees of FOV @ 75hz would be incredible for work with a far supe…

What do you mean by light software? Are they not just dumb displays?

Re: What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

#42
post #26

This is a great breakdown of the early state of VR productivity. There are still a few key items that are barriers for me personally: 1. Eye and face tracking. The author mentions lip syncing and hand tracking. That goes a long way, but it doesn't recreate the video experience to me. There are a few vtubers out there that are doing some seriously impressive tracking, but it requires tons of special equipment at the m…

There are actually a few decent choices for eye tracking now (a company that was just acquired by Bytedance had a pretty good eye-tracking standalone), and there are a few crazy headsets that do all of your listed requirements for 1. and more, but they're all in the $1,000+ range.

Lighter-weight headsets is something necessary but also something that is in sort of a weird spot. The Quest 2 is actually a lot heavier than average, because it's standalone. As cool as it is, it's regressive in some interesting ways.

For better displays, there's already some pretty impressive displays these days if you don't mind jumping up in price a few notches. Enthusiast-range, for sure, but still consumer models.

Re: What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

#43
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It requires an Oculus account. There are ways to get a new one even now that don't require you to make a Facebook account. If you check the subreddit you'll probably be able to figure it out in about ten minutes. I make a habit of not mentioning exactly how to do it here because I don't trust employees of companies on HN to avoid fixing any user-beneficial problem involving their work.

They say they will eventually force everyone to Facebook. At least, that's what they said when I got mine back in January.

Nope, that's not what they were saying. They did say that they'd eventually cut out the store for people on legacy Oculus accounts, but your headset would still be perfectly usable; you'd still be able to load .apks in like you can now, you'd still be able to use it with a computer, and it would still more or less work just fine, as long as you weren't depending on Oculus functionality beforehand.

It'd be more like a Wii without Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. It really won't be that different unless you're dependent on their online services.

However, eventually they'll be getting rid of the avenues to make a new account without a Facebook account like they've already slowly been doing. Which is a bad move, but while the avenues are available they might as well be taken.

Re: What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

#45
post #30
post #7

The most critical thing in this piece: Get a better head-strap! He mentions it in passing in the article, but 90% of the strain from wearing the Quest 2 for extended periods of time can be traced to the garbage default head-strap. You want something that properly balances the headset. If you want, you can even get one that gives you a bit of extra charge, too. There are plenty of options. Something critical that does…

> The Quest 2 is really cheap But it requires a FB account right? Or is there a way to use it without one?

Yep, according to the FAQ [1]:

> Quest 2 requires everyone to use a Facebook account to log in.

> If you are an existing Oculus user and have an Oculus account, you will have the option to log in with your Oculus account and merge your Facebook and Oculus accounts.

I can't speak how enforced these are, but even if it's a soft requirement for now, it's enough for me to avoid it. Pity, since it seems pretty good tech wise.

[1] https://support.oculus.com/fb/

Re: What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

#46
post #37

There is a part of me that is disturbed. I like working at my big wooden table overlooking the city, nice natural light filtering in, the ability to detach from the screen and pace around to take a break. VR for work seems like a trap, you'll be consumed, ensnared by something that demands all your attention. You won't know freedom. Maybe this is the current state of headsets, clunky, like a chain with cables, bad tr…

It depends on how you design the VR office. I've found myself staring aimlessly into the distance in Microsoft's WMR Cliff House a number of times.

Re: What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

#47
post #41

As someone who has spent quite some time tuning their VR setup for iRacing, I highly recommend the Pimax headsets (Pimax 8K X has dual native 4K). Best resolution and FOV, decently priced, light software, and surprisingly great support. I 3d printed some supports to mount a vive headstrap to it, and removed the vive headphones in favor of Airpods. 200 degrees of FOV @ 75hz would be incredible for work with a far supe…

What do you mean by light software? Are they not just dumb displays?

I haven't used one of those, but I can guess what he means based on owning an Oculus Rift 2. Let's say I want to start playing a Steam game with my headset. To do so, I must install the Oculus software, sign in with my Facebook account (it's a brick with a headstrap without an account), then find the setting that enables "non-Oculus software" to operate the Rift display. Using the Rift always starts the Oculus software. There are shortcuts on the headset that throw you into Oculus's own environment for buying and launching games.

Re: What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

#48
post #7

The most critical thing in this piece: Get a better head-strap! He mentions it in passing in the article, but 90% of the strain from wearing the Quest 2 for extended periods of time can be traced to the garbage default head-strap. You want something that properly balances the headset. If you want, you can even get one that gives you a bit of extra charge, too. There are plenty of options. Something critical that does…

Recommendations for a strap? We have the Oculus Elite Strap and while better, isn't as comfortable as our Rift S "strap".

Hi! OP here - I use a GoQuestVR Halo strap. I'd originally purchased it for my Quest 1, and adapted it to fit the Quest 2. There are several makers of this form factor now, though.

Re: What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

#49
post #44

For me, the problem is I wear glasses and I have no interest in switching to contact lenses. I’ve never found a car headset that worked with glasses well

I haven't looked into it for other devices, but it is technically possible with the Quest to get custom lenses for the Quest. Not from FB, but other companies have filled this space.

I've gotten rid of my unit, but back when I had it, custom lenses were the best thing I did for comfort. I can't wear glasses close to my eyes, and was just generally miserable with the glasses squished in an already small space. The custom lenses solved all of that.

Re: What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week

#50
This is such a great post, and really covers the spiritual aspects of what it's like to work for prolonged periods in VR. Glad to see Immersed getting traction, and taking VR forward. We all benefit from this.

For Linux enthusiasts (possibly the OP as as well): SimulaVR (www.simulavr.com) is working on a portable Linux VR headset with office/programmer productivity as the #1 goal. It will offer the following advantages over the OP's Immersed setup:

1. *More than double the text quality.* We are making a headset with more than double the PPD (pixels-per-degree) of the Oculus Quest 2. This is extremely important for facilitating multi-hour VR sessions without eye fatigue.

2. *Proper window management.* SimulaVR is a fully functional Linux window manager (built over Wayland/wlroots infrastructure). Unlike Immersed, it isn't just emulating screens on another host OS. This means you get an unlimited number of windows, popups can (when desired) behave as new windows, etc. No hacks are required to get this sort of functionality. It will also later on facilitate proper 3D/VR applications being able to share the same space with 2D applications.

3. *Proper portability.* Our headset is going to be fully portable (with a detachable compute pack in the back), and won't require you to tether your headset to another computer over WiFi, or take along an additional laptop just to get your VR computer working somewhere else.

4. *Proper hackability.* Simula is built over FOSS, and is not tethered to the Facebook platform. If there's something you want to change or tweak, you're free to do so.

One thing Immersed has though is immediate availability and scalability (there are an unlimited supply of Oculus Quests floating around :). We're likely going to be constrained on the number of headsets we can produce, at least initially, and will have to queue first to the early users.

We (and the industry at large) also have a lot of work ahead of us to improve upon a VR-centric UX (incorporating proper tiling management, and other things). Very exciting.

Post reply on HN