Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#161

Post by grogenaut » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 9:58 PM UTC

vagab0nd wrote: post #108

grogenaut wrote: post #98

I have a vive and a quest 2 and I tried working like that when travelling. The quest won't work in a car as it uses gyros. I tried for about 18 hours each device to work in VR. Many things are not there yet. My vive is attached to a 5 monitor dual GPU beast that drives a central 144hz 4k HDR 43" and 5 2560x144 monitors. The vive couldn't touch the physical setup for comfort or resolution or just non-fussiness. I cons…

> The quest won't work in a car as it uses gyros. Am I reading it correctly you are trying to use VR in a vehicle while someone is driving? I get car sick very easily when riding. I also get motion sickness when using VR. I cannot imagine being affected by both at the same time.

I have definitely tried to use VR in a car while someone's driving I don't get motion sickness very easy so I often try to make myself throw up. When I first tried VR something was bugged with elite dangerous and so I was just sitting there doing as many barrel rolls and backflips as possible trying to make myself throw up and one of my co-workers came in looked at the 2D monitor asked me what I was doing said they got very motion sick easily and then about 10 seconds later I started hearing gagging the 2D was making them nauseous and it wasn't even bothering me.

Yeah we were driving across Texas going to a lake and I was sitting in the passenger seat so I figured I would try out and see how it worked. It did not it freaked out constantly. I think if you had a vibe with a laser tracking system it would actually work but that would be interesting to mount inside of a suburban.

One of my favorite things I ever did was sitting in the bendy middle section of a bus in Seattle which constantly moves while going up and down the hills and playing super stardust HD on Vita that almost got me.

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#162

Post by kypro » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #160

However good the software gets at providing a desktop / working environment, I simply couldn't handle shutting myself off like that, just wouldn't find it comfortable. Unless you somehow know that wouldn't bother you, I'd recommend trying it first (or sufficiently within return window) before getting too set on the idea.

The Quest Pro has full colour pass-through mode I believe. So it shouldn't feel so much like shutting yourself off as it does with other VR headsets. Plus, they're not fully enclosed so you still have peripheral vision.

Would be awkward using them in public though...

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#163

Post by grogenaut » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

tim-fan wrote: post #133

grogenaut wrote: post #98

I have a vive and a quest 2 and I tried working like that when travelling. The quest won't work in a car as it uses gyros. I tried for about 18 hours each device to work in VR. Many things are not there yet. My vive is attached to a 5 monitor dual GPU beast that drives a central 144hz 4k HDR 43" and 5 2560x144 monitors. The vive couldn't touch the physical setup for comfort or resolution or just non-fussiness. I cons…

> The quest won't work in a car as it uses gyros. I did try the quest 2 on a plane and it worked well, apart from when the plane was turning or in turbulence. I suppose the visual tracking makes an assumption that the world is static, which is usually true but breaks down when the plane is bouncing up and down.

It did work a little bit better in a plane when I tried it however I couldn't get past the unlock screen because I hadn't quite paired it correctly and I didn't have internet and the quest needed to do something with the internet. This actually brings up one of the biggest issues I have with some of these systems is they are too tied to the internet for remote work

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#164

Post by greggman3 » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 10:00 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #13

You can comfortably work in VR, but the trick is that you can't use any of the headsets as is. There are upgrades that you really need: A better head strap, ideally one with an adjustment knob at the back to easily loosen and tighten the headset. Also one with an extra battery that both gives you longer unplugged time but more importantly balances the headset front to back. And a better headset/face interface. You ca…

> There are upgrades that you really need: A better head strap, ideally one with an adjustment knob at the back to easily loosen and tighten the headset. Also one with an extra battery that both gives you longer unplugged time but more importantly balances the headset front to back.

IMO, until VR gets the size and weight of safety goggles you need the device to rest on your forehead. The PSVR is still the single most comformtable VR system that's shipped because there is no pressure on your face whatsoever.

Apparently you can get these for Quest 2. Here's one. Don't own a Quest 2 though so I haven't tried it

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B599S56K

I go have a Rift S. It tried to copy PSVR but failed to make it as good. You have really crank the back of the head strap below the ridge of the back of your head to get the HMD to rest on your forehead and not your face, and then it slowly slides and it's back to resting on your face.

Let me also add, if the thing requires a strap that goes over the top of your head then it's a fail!

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#165

Post by grogenaut » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 10:01 PM UTC

grogenaut wrote: post #98

I have a vive and a quest 2 and I tried working like that when travelling. The quest won't work in a car as it uses gyros. I tried for about 18 hours each device to work in VR. Many things are not there yet. My vive is attached to a 5 monitor dual GPU beast that drives a central 144hz 4k HDR 43" and 5 2560x144 monitors. The vive couldn't touch the physical setup for comfort or resolution or just non-fussiness. I cons…

As an addendum one of the things I also remembered in a lower comment is that the Facebook devices definitely seem at random intervals to need some type of internet connection which is not always available when you're working remotely so if you were going to plan on working locally off your laptop with no internet there are definitely cases where all the sudden your display decides it needs to talk to the mothership and therefore your display is now locking you out until you get back into cell or network coverag.

Similar some of the applications and steam sometimes surprisingly want internet connectivity and so some of the desktop applications also will lock themselves out randomly

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#166

Post by jstrieb » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 10:05 PM UTC

Can't comment on what it's like with a modern headset, but I have used an old Oculus Go with great success, despite its low resolution. It's definitely uncomfortable and hard on the eyes for long periods of time, but the focus it affords makes it worthwhile for short bursts.

I set everything up to interface with my computer using a web browser on the headset, which might not match your use case.

https://jstrieb.github.io/posts/vr-programming/

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#167

Post by epaulson » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 10:16 PM UTC

rock_hard wrote: post #57

jedberg wrote: post #13

You can comfortably work in VR, but the trick is that you can't use any of the headsets as is. There are upgrades that you really need: A better head strap, ideally one with an adjustment knob at the back to easily loosen and tighten the headset. Also one with an extra battery that both gives you longer unplugged time but more importantly balances the headset front to back. And a better headset/face interface. You ca…

I started to use my Quest Pro with my MacBook when I am on the go and it’s pretty awesome if the alternative is a laptop screen! But it’s also not yet perfect I haven’t tried it in wired mode but wireless has a bit of latency (which is fine for coding and other productivity stuff but not workable for games for example) It’s really nice that it’s easy to switch between pass through to see your environment and VR mode…

Can you share a pointer to setup information for this? I bought a Meta Quest Pro a little while ago (my first VR headset) and really have no idea what I'm doing with it yet.

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#168

Post by tomxor » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 10:16 PM UTC

It's not ready.

It doesn't really matter which headset you use or what specs they have, they are all way to heavy and uncomfortable to use for work. And I say that as someone who enjoys gaming on them quite a lot.

John Carmack mentioned the concept of VR for work specifically in his latest presentation on the pro2... something he's clearly interested in and believes will eventually happen but in his words were something along the lines of "this is going to need a lot of painful dogfooding before it's useful". Once they are down to the weight of some very chunky sunglasses - then we can start to be a bit more serious about it. It will happen, in the not too distant future, but if you force it right now I believe you will be in for a lot of discomfort and ultimately bail.

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#169

Post by moron4hire » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 10:27 PM UTC

greggman3 wrote: post #164

jedberg wrote: post #13

You can comfortably work in VR, but the trick is that you can't use any of the headsets as is. There are upgrades that you really need: A better head strap, ideally one with an adjustment knob at the back to easily loosen and tighten the headset. Also one with an extra battery that both gives you longer unplugged time but more importantly balances the headset front to back. And a better headset/face interface. You ca…

> There are upgrades that you really need: A better head strap, ideally one with an adjustment knob at the back to easily loosen and tighten the headset. Also one with an extra battery that both gives you longer unplugged time but more importantly balances the headset front to back. IMO, until VR gets the size and weight of safety goggles you need the device to rest on your forehead. The PSVR is still the single most…

I have that strap for my Quest 2. It's very good. Better than the 1st party battery-pack strap.

This configuration is called a "halo" strap.

I also have the Quest Pro now. It comes with a halo strap. Nothing touches your cheeks. Resolution is also very high, and the new pancake lenses are very clear.

That's another problem with older headsets. The Fresnel lenses in previous systems cause "god rays" around any bright objects on dark backgrounds. Like, say, light text on a dark background for a dark-mode UI.

Pancake lenses don't have that problem. They also have a much larger sweet spot, so you don't have to get the headset perfectly adjusted every time, and you can look around with just your eyes, not moving your head, more.

I think the Vive Flow was the first commercially available headset to use the pancake lenses, but the Flow is otherwise not a great experience. The Quest Pro is really impressive.

Re: Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

#170

Post by cardosof » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 10:42 PM UTC

vagab0nd wrote: post #108

grogenaut wrote: post #98

I have a vive and a quest 2 and I tried working like that when travelling. The quest won't work in a car as it uses gyros. I tried for about 18 hours each device to work in VR. Many things are not there yet. My vive is attached to a 5 monitor dual GPU beast that drives a central 144hz 4k HDR 43" and 5 2560x144 monitors. The vive couldn't touch the physical setup for comfort or resolution or just non-fussiness. I cons…

> The quest won't work in a car as it uses gyros. Am I reading it correctly you are trying to use VR in a vehicle while someone is driving? I get car sick very easily when riding. I also get motion sickness when using VR. I cannot imagine being affected by both at the same time.

the AI is driving

On a more serious note since this is not Reddit, I have watched movies in VR during bus trips (6h long routes). It works, it's way better than looking at laptop/tablet/phone.