Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
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Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#2> "Mass adoption remains impeded by the hardware required to run it, in my opinion. Take videogames - you need a very powerful PC, a good amount of space, sensors set up around it, and of course the VR helmet itself.
> "The cost runs to thousands and for most it is completely impractical not to mention too expensive.
The Oculus Quest is about 50$ more than a PS4 Pro / Xbox X at launch. Still expensive but not in the thousands.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#3> A major issue is that the price of headsets has remained very expensive.
They mention it in passing in a later paragraph, but the cost of the headset is peanuts compared to the cost of a system that can provide a consistent, high-framerate, high-quality image. While cheaper options exist (Daydream/Gear VR, Oculus Quest, PSVR) they just don't have the quality or framerate to really send home the "future of gaming" VR has been sold as.
I'd argue we're still minimum three years away from seeing mass adoption of VR in the household/consumer market. With raytracing still being in its infancy and software optimizations for many-core CPUs just beginning, it'll still be some time before mid-level good VR experience.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#4I suspect the software has an effect too. There's certainly some neat stuff you can experience with VR headsets now, and apps have been made for it, but none of the things released so far have been a big enough hit to make people want go out and buy the systems to experiece them.
They just don't have their Super Mario Bros/Tetris/Wii Sports/Minecraft/whatever equivalent yet, the thing that'll set the world on fire enough that people will be all like "I'll have to buy a VR headset now, to experience this product everyone else is talking about"
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#5> "Mass adoption remains impeded by the hardware required to run it, in my opinion. Take videogames - you need a very powerful PC, a good amount of space, sensors set up around it, and of course the VR helmet itself. > "The cost runs to thousands and for most it is completely impractical not to mention too expensive. The Oculus Quest is about 50$ more than a PS4 Pro / Xbox X at launch. Still expensive but not in the…
I think it's the same issue that's happening with electric cars. People remember only the disadvantages of old technology and aren't aware of new tech being much better and more user friendly. With VR, people think it's cables, bulky PC's and complex setup, because that's their first and only experience with it. With electric cars, it's range anxiety, slow charging and degrading batteries. Meanwhile, the media tends to strengthen this bias with articles like this one and reporting every single incident with a Tesla.
The only way to change people's minds is to let them experience the alternative, I see this both with my Quest and my Tesla. We recently had a game night at work, where multiple people brought VR headsets, but mine was the only tetherless one. I let people play Tea for God, which is a procedurally generated game that lets people walk a long distance in a restricted play area. Many of them had played VR games before, but nobody experienced anything like this and many people asked me more about it, even days later, because they weren't aware that the technology existed.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#6> A major issue is that the price of headsets has remained very expensive. They mention it in passing in a later paragraph, but the cost of the headset is peanuts compared to the cost of a system that can provide a consistent, high-framerate, high-quality image. While cheaper options exist (Daydream/Gear VR, Oculus Quest, PSVR) they just don't have the quality or framerate to really send home the "future of gaming" V…
> they just don't have the quality or framerate to really send home the "future of gaming" VR has been sold as
Have you actually played with the Quest? I've had many people use mine, also people who used Vive or Rift before and nobody was disappointed with the quality of it. If realism and frame rate were the most important part of gaming, then Pokemon Go and Candy Crush wouldn't be as profitable as they are. The majority of people want simple, arcade style entertainment, not hyper realistic sagas that take hours to finish.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#7I suspect the software has an effect too. There's certainly some neat stuff you can experience with VR headsets now, and apps have been made for it, but none of the things released so far have been a big enough hit to make people want go out and buy the systems to experiece them. They just don't have their Super Mario Bros/Tetris/Wii Sports/Minecraft/whatever equivalent yet, the thing that'll set the world on fire en…
The Valve Index (by Steam) has been sold out in December after they announced Half-Life Alyx which is included with every Index. This is won't be the time everyone goes VR yet but the market is expanding.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#8> A major issue is that the price of headsets has remained very expensive. They mention it in passing in a later paragraph, but the cost of the headset is peanuts compared to the cost of a system that can provide a consistent, high-framerate, high-quality image. While cheaper options exist (Daydream/Gear VR, Oculus Quest, PSVR) they just don't have the quality or framerate to really send home the "future of gaming" V…
> they just don't have the quality or framerate to really send home the "future of gaming" VR has been sold as Have you actually played with the Quest? I've had many people use mine, also people who used Vive or Rift before and nobody was disappointed with the quality of it. If realism and frame rate were the most important part of gaming, then Pokemon Go and Candy Crush wouldn't be as profitable as they are. The maj…
Agreed. I've seen numerous people put on a Quest, play 5 minutes of Beat Sabre, and come out _very_ excited.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#9 vr is just expensive and requires fairly high end hardware still. There are also are all kinds of software issues with it. like when i was playing a well known racing game, very often the camera would be somewhere other than the driver's seat. And those are the kind of games that really are quite heavy on vr adoption and are the natural fit for this type of control.
many games do not naturally lend themself to vr, and by those i mean the most popular genres, like fps, rpg, action-adventure. Basically every game that requires your feet to move about in a virtual world. I don't think it is suitable for strategy or management games either. So that leaves simulation, racing and some very old genres like on-rails-shooters. which is a sizeable market, but not the mainstream gaming market.
Re: Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality
#10I suspect the software has an effect too. There's certainly some neat stuff you can experience with VR headsets now, and apps have been made for it, but none of the things released so far have been a big enough hit to make people want go out and buy the systems to experiece them. They just don't have their Super Mario Bros/Tetris/Wii Sports/Minecraft/whatever equivalent yet, the thing that'll set the world on fire en…
The Valve Index (by Steam) has been sold out in December after they announced Half-Life Alyx which is included with every Index. This is won't be the time everyone goes VR yet but the market is expanding.
Yeah, the market certainly is. And Valve making a Half-Life game for their system was probably the best move they could make as far as increasing demand goes too.