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VR Is Not Dead

yadin.com

41–50 of 68 posts

Re: VR Is Not Dead

#41
post #30

The biggest impediment for VR is the fundamentally asocial nature of it. If there are fewer headsets in a room than there are people, it’s going to be awkward for at least one person. Trying to help someone debug something in their headset without me being able to see what they see is a problem (granted, this could be solved by software). Having to share headsets sucks. You have to faff with head straps, adjust IPD,…

I completely disagree. A lot of people lead pretty solitary lives explicitly when it comes you how they spend their time with technology. There is a lot of solitary phone, computer and video game time these days.

I think the biggest impediment is just how bulky they are. If we can make them so it’s just like picking up and putting on a pair of lightweight glasses, the same way you pick up a controller, I think that there would be a lot more uptake, especially in the gaming space.

Re: VR Is Not Dead

#42
post #30

The biggest impediment for VR is the fundamentally asocial nature of it. If there are fewer headsets in a room than there are people, it’s going to be awkward for at least one person. Trying to help someone debug something in their headset without me being able to see what they see is a problem (granted, this could be solved by software). Having to share headsets sucks. You have to faff with head straps, adjust IPD,…

These are valid points but the upside of vr is still much bigger than the current downsides. The ability to explore worlds as if you're actually there is something no other medium really offers.

Re: VR Is Not Dead

#43
post #30

The biggest impediment for VR is the fundamentally asocial nature of it. If there are fewer headsets in a room than there are people, it’s going to be awkward for at least one person. Trying to help someone debug something in their headset without me being able to see what they see is a problem (granted, this could be solved by software). Having to share headsets sucks. You have to faff with head straps, adjust IPD,…

The only thing I regularly used a VR headset for, was to join clubs and socialize in VRchat during covid lockdowns. So VR provided an avenue of socializing when there were no better options. VRChat is still growing and up to 70k peak concurrent users.

Re: VR Is Not Dead

#44
post #30

The biggest impediment for VR is the fundamentally asocial nature of it. If there are fewer headsets in a room than there are people, it’s going to be awkward for at least one person. Trying to help someone debug something in their headset without me being able to see what they see is a problem (granted, this could be solved by software). Having to share headsets sucks. You have to faff with head straps, adjust IPD,…

I do wish someone attempted a ground up AR OS where experiences are shared to nearby users by default. AR versions of airdrop are pervasive, that sort of thing.

For example, think of the opposite of Apple's People Awareness feature. Instead of an immersive experience fading away when a person comes near, the AR user's experience fades in as you approach.

I think it would be pretty magical, honestly. One of the wow moments the public never got to (because of adoption rates) is a shared AR experience. Really compelling stuff.

Re: VR Is Not Dead

#46

VR's problem, in my opinion, is that I can get immersed (fully, exactly as the author describes it) in a 2D game just fine - the lack of stereo vision or head-tracking or motion controls is no more an impediment to my immersion than the limited binocular overlap or peripheral vision or lag in a VR headset. And 2D is a heck of a lot cheaper and more convenient (and less nauseating). That's not to say VR can never be s…

> I can get immersed in a 2D game just fine

You're probably the last generation who would think so.

Re: VR Is Not Dead

#47
post #30

The biggest impediment for VR is the fundamentally asocial nature of it. If there are fewer headsets in a room than there are people, it’s going to be awkward for at least one person. Trying to help someone debug something in their headset without me being able to see what they see is a problem (granted, this could be solved by software). Having to share headsets sucks. You have to faff with head straps, adjust IPD,…

Are video game consoles "fundamentally asocial" because there are likely fewer controllers than people in a household? Are computers, because they only have one mouse and keyboard? The existence of VR chat suggests it handles social gaming just fine.

I can think of a lot of impediments to VR (the weight of the headset and vertigo being the biggest) but needing everyone in a room to share a single headset at the same time seems like an extremely fringe case. The real problem there is just the cost of buying enough headsets.

Re: VR Is Not Dead

#48

VR's problem, in my opinion, is that I can get immersed (fully, exactly as the author describes it) in a 2D game just fine - the lack of stereo vision or head-tracking or motion controls is no more an impediment to my immersion than the limited binocular overlap or peripheral vision or lag in a VR headset. And 2D is a heck of a lot cheaper and more convenient (and less nauseating). That's not to say VR can never be s…

I recently started enjoying virtual bike tours on my exercise bike, but vertigo when the camera turns is an issue. I absolutely wouldn't do it on a treadmill.

Re: VR Is Not Dead

#49
Practically speaking, as a fat guy who sweats from the top of his head a lot, and especially in warmer climates, the idea of having this bulky thing on my head for a large part of the day, is an instant dealbreaker already. I've tried them a couple of times and they just f cking warm my head immediately. Maybe if they built a cooling mechanism that would help.

But then on top of that you add the expensive cost of the headset, the battery issue, the limited mobility, not being able to go to c0rn sites without Meta being all up in my b'ness, etc. etc. etc.

There is like, zero upside to this thing. None. Zilch.

At least the smartphone was easy to adopt en masse cause it combined a music player, mini browser, portability, GPS, game machine and all in a nice portable package that, at worst, just takes up more space in your pants pocket.

But if they can ever invent hardware that doesn't sit on one's head or rest on top of your ears (which also chafes on a hot day), then this thing could really start to get some traction cause much of the friction (figuratively speaking) would be removed. Meta glasses are a step in the right direction but they're not very immersive.

Re: VR Is Not Dead

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most important quality of any successful trend (eg windows, internet, smart phones, cloud computing) has been convenience. Which is also the reason why I think Meta Glasses have a real chance to take off.

Meta Glasses will just recreate the whole “glasshole” response that Google Glasses got, except with a company that has even worse of a reputation.

It has a chance because they don't have a reputation to lose.
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