this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
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Personally, I actually expect VR to disappear from the market once more, or at least for there to be a long gap before the next stuff comes out.
In fact, I think, the Apple headset was the last notable hardware release of the current hype wave.
So, yeah, the big privacy-invasive companies would definitely be a dealbreaker for me, but I don't think this cycle really matters yet.
One problem is that there's a massive upfront cost to get into VR as a consumer. Even the cheaper headsets are several hundred dollars, similar to a full console purchase. Which means not a lot of people are going to invest in the hardware, which means there isn't as much of a market to produce games for, which means not a lot of people are going to invest in the hardware, etc etc etc.
On top of that, VR has the awkward problem of locomotion. Either you're teleporting around the game world, getting motion sick moving around the game world, or standing in one place at all times. None of these options are ideal, and the only real solutions to this issue involve insanely pricy hardware purchases.
Maybe one day we'll figure it out, maybe we'll all be living in tubes playing games with our minds or whatever.
VR is the next 3DTV. Itβs a neat technology that doesnβt need to be mainstream, but we have no shortage of company marketers desperately trying to create a narrative that every home needs it.
Well, there is the problem that if people spend several hundred dollars or more to buy a VR headset and potentially upgrade their PC/console for it, then they do expect blockbuster titles. A minigame collection, like the Wii had, isn't going to fly. And blockbuster titles will only be produced, if there's enough of an audience.
Like, yeah, it doesn't need to be fully mainstream, but there is currently a disconnect between the number of ~~rich nerds~~ wealthy techies that may naturally be interested in a VR headset and the audience size needed to pay for blockbuster titles.
Beat Saber is ridiculously awesome... but I never want to wear a fucking headset to do my work.
VR is useful for recreation not business.
Yea, but how long did you play it? This generation's guitar hero
Have it since 2018, currently play about 5 hrs a week.
It's fun exercise!
Beat Saber is the gateway drug. It's the VR equivalent of Tetris with how simple, fun and ubiquitous it is.
Probably about six hours a week.
Modded Skyrim in VR is amazing too. I've put my Index on and had hours slip by without realizing it. There's nothing like wandering around Skyrim and killing dragons in VR. And then of course there's also Half Life Alyx. That game will make you forget you're in a game...
Originally, I had typed out that IMHO VR never made it beyond being a gimmick. And yeah, Beat Saber is pretty much the reason why I decided to reformulate. Some people buy VR goggles primarily to play Beat Saber. If they're frequently doing so, then they're getting their money's worth out of it, then that is absolutely legit.
And well, I imagine, there will be use-cases for business, like being able to walk around in a CAD design or architecture draft, that's probably useful, too. But yeah, just for taking a call, I actively don't want to be embedded into a 3D world every time.
You don't want to wear the current iteration of headsets for work. Projects are in motion to make much smaller and more lightweight ones. They're stupid expensive right now but that'll change with time.
I value my eyesight. I never want to have a backlit screen three inches from my eyes for eight straight hours. I, personally, use a projector for gaming to try and minimize how much strain I put on my eyes.
Working in VR is immensely unhealthy and there simply isn't a work around for it.
The brightness of the sky outside dwarfs that of any display we can make, much less a tiny VR display. If they could squeeze the nits needed to make a VR screen look like real life into a display that small while retaining the quality, they would.
It might actually hurt your vision because it's not bright enough, much like trying to read under a dim light starts to cause eye strain.
The human body is complex and we don't understand everything that's going in but heavy phone usage is strongly correlated with myopia - maybe that's because people suffering from near sightedness really love their phones... but I think I'm going to need strong evidence that it's not the more obvious reason before accepting that explanation.
VR might actually improve vision because the light level is extremely consistent but early studies don't support that conclusion. I think long term VR usage is DOA, it's fun as hell to beat some sabers or spin up elite dangerous, but it should be done in moderation... and definitely shouldn't be required for 40 hours a week unless we get some really compelling studies.
Phones are different because your eyes are focusing at a point a foot in front of you, whereas in VR that shouldn't be the case. You're focusing on a simulated point a couple of meters out in the distance, though it is usually is still fixed.
Make no mistake, I'm not saying wearing VR for hours every day is healthy, for your eyes or otherwise, I'm only responding to your claim about screen brightness. I don't think any VR displays have even hit 1000 nits yet, and on the displays that have, that's peak brightness, the whole display can't use all that energy at once, only small sections at a time. Meanwhile the sky is on the order of 10,000+ nits. The brightness of the sun will certainly hurt your eyes at over a billion nits.
I would love for an optometrist to explain why I'm wrong though.