3 ms·

While it's natural to be skeptical, I'd withhold judgement until after you've tried either the Vive or consumer Rift. One of VR's challenges is that it need to

by lhl 11y ago

While it's natural to be skeptical, I'd withhold judgement until after you've tried either the Vive or consumer Rift. One of VR's challenges is that it need to be experienced to really understand it. Until you feel presence, the excitement doesn't really make sense. On the flip side, I haven't met a lot of people slag it once they have. (Note: Prior DKs and mobile VR generally does not induce presence for most people)

ethbro 11y ago
Or, to put it another way: would "staring a small screen that can display two colors (something and black) and typing slowly on a typewriter-like entry system" have sounded like a compelling experience? How about "maneuvering a block on your desk that corresponds to a dot on a screen, with buttons to initiate actions"? Surely there's no way those would beat the experience of a time-tested, bona-fide, genuine newspaper!
- te_chris 11y ago
  TBH, a newspaper is still a much better way to get my news than the internet, especially with recent bloated design trends. YMMV.
  - lhl 11y ago
    Really? Did you realize that the newspaper published only news from the day before at the latest, once a day? (Crazy I know.) Just a few people called "editors" decide what you read. And it doesn't ever get updated, even if it's wrong or something new happened. You can't even find primary sources or citations! God forbid you'd want to ever search for anything by a keyword.
    - te_chris 11y ago
      I genuinely don't understand your point. You make it sounds like newspaper editorial policy is some gross conspiracy, or that newspapers aren't published every day. Or that I somehow even mentioned wanting keyword search anyway - as if that's even relevant to getting a daily news overview. Seriously, what's your point?
      - lhl 11y ago
        Well, since you asked, I was merely noting the ways in which digital delivery of news has more depth, breadth, relevancy, timeliness, and searchability, but yes, those factors don't matter to some people.
Zikes 11y ago
Even lower-powered VR can have a lot of utility. I've heard folks use the Samsung Gear VR for movie watching, where it uses an application to make it seem like you're in a room with a 100+ inch television, and apparently the sense of presence is so great that it's perfect for watching movies while traveling. Here's John Carmack's post on the subject: http://techblog.netflix.com/2015/09/john-carmack-on-developing-netflix-app.html http://techblog.netflix.com/2015/09/john-carmack-on-developi...
- lhl 11y ago
  As a VR dev/enthusiast, I agree that the Gear VR is surprisingly not bad (I have an S6 Gear VR IE) - the fact that it's mobile makes it really easy to share, and it's a huge leap over the cardboard (most people can wear it without getting sick). The resolution is better than the DK2 and the experience it provides can be immersive and fun - IMO, it's especially well suited for 360 video content (being untethered, 360 video doesn't support positional tracking anyway), but IMO, the Vive/CB/CV1s are on a different level. Two things to note: * Pixel density and screen door effect (pixel fill) are artifacts that are much worse in the Gear VR (and similar) than in most displays. The consumer PC-class gear mostly solve the latter, but some people are more sensitive to this than others. While using the Gear VR in a plane mostly beats any other way you can watch media, I wouldn't get rid of your 4K TV yet... * Within VR, "presence" is actually a term of art that refers to a type of immersion which refers to the illusion/perception of being physically present within a virtual world. When this kicks in, it happens at a subconscious level, but its easily broken right now. One of the biggest requirements is solid tracking - because the Gear VR doesn't have positional tracking (handling translation), presence is rarely, if ever achieved. (Even when you're watching TV, pay attention to how often you move your head, even slightly and imagine if the TV moved along with your head movements). If you'd like to read more about presence (like with most things I suppose) Wikipedia isn't a bad place to start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immersion_(virtual_reality) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immersion_(virtual_reality) A pretty interesting paper I ran across while searching just now: http://www.ism.univmed.fr/mestre/projects/virtual%20reality/Pres_2005.pdf http://www.ism.univmed.fr/mestre/projects/virtual%20reality/...

by lhl 11y ago

ethbro 11y ago

Or, to put it another way: would "staring a small screen that can display two colors (something and black) and typing slowly on a typewriter-like entry system" have sounded like a compelling experience? How about "maneuvering a block on your desk that corresponds to a dot on a screen, with buttons to initiate actions"? Surely there's no way those would beat the experience of a time-tested, bona-fide, genuine newspaper!

te_chris 11y ago
TBH, a newspaper is still a much better way to get my news than the internet, especially with recent bloated design trends. YMMV.
- lhl 11y ago
  Really? Did you realize that the newspaper published only news from the day before at the latest, once a day? (Crazy I know.) Just a few people called "editors" decide what you read. And it doesn't ever get updated, even if it's wrong or something new happened. You can't even find primary sources or citations! God forbid you'd want to ever search for anything by a keyword.
  - te_chris 11y ago
    I genuinely don't understand your point. You make it sounds like newspaper editorial policy is some gross conspiracy, or that newspapers aren't published every day. Or that I somehow even mentioned wanting keyword search anyway - as if that's even relevant to getting a daily news overview. Seriously, what's your point?
    - lhl 11y ago
      Well, since you asked, I was merely noting the ways in which digital delivery of news has more depth, breadth, relevancy, timeliness, and searchability, but yes, those factors don't matter to some people.

Zikes 11y ago

Even lower-powered VR can have a lot of utility. I've heard folks use the Samsung Gear VR for movie watching, where it uses an application to make it seem like you're in a room with a 100+ inch television, and apparently the sense of presence is so great that it's perfect for watching movies while traveling. Here's John Carmack's post on the subject: http://techblog.netflix.com/2015/09/john-carmack-on-developing-netflix-app.html http://techblog.netflix.com/2015/09/john-carmack-on-developi...

lhl 11y ago
As a VR dev/enthusiast, I agree that the Gear VR is surprisingly not bad (I have an S6 Gear VR IE) - the fact that it's mobile makes it really easy to share, and it's a huge leap over the cardboard (most people can wear it without getting sick). The resolution is better than the DK2 and the experience it provides can be immersive and fun - IMO, it's especially well suited for 360 video content (being untethered, 360 video doesn't support positional tracking anyway), but IMO, the Vive/CB/CV1s are on a different level. Two things to note: * Pixel density and screen door effect (pixel fill) are artifacts that are much worse in the Gear VR (and similar) than in most displays. The consumer PC-class gear mostly solve the latter, but some people are more sensitive to this than others. While using the Gear VR in a plane mostly beats any other way you can watch media, I wouldn't get rid of your 4K TV yet... * Within VR, "presence" is actually a term of art that refers to a type of immersion which refers to the illusion/perception of being physically present within a virtual world. When this kicks in, it happens at a subconscious level, but its easily broken right now. One of the biggest requirements is solid tracking - because the Gear VR doesn't have positional tracking (handling translation), presence is rarely, if ever achieved. (Even when you're watching TV, pay attention to how often you move your head, even slightly and imagine if the TV moved along with your head movements). If you'd like to read more about presence (like with most things I suppose) Wikipedia isn't a bad place to start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immersion_(virtual_reality) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immersion_(virtual_reality) A pretty interesting paper I ran across while searching just now: http://www.ism.univmed.fr/mestre/projects/virtual%20reality/Pres_2005.pdf http://www.ism.univmed.fr/mestre/projects/virtual%20reality/...