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Is there anyone else here, who has used VR in the form of an HMD, that thinks this is all just a passing fad that will fail miserably? Can I note for a moment

Is there anyone else here, who has used VR in the form of an HMD, that thinks this is all just a passing fad that will fail miserably? Can I note for a moment that this technology has been hyped since 2012 and we're only seeing the first consumer-facing products now? One of which is nothing other than Google Cardboard (GearVR) and one which is $600? The only real attempt at targeting consumers is coming from Sony, and it costs nearly as much as the console itself does. This is still decidedly a hobbyist market, and it doesn't look like that will change for another year at least. But let's put the price of adoption aside for a moment and assume that at some point it will come down in price. Even then I can't imagine that the average household will be buying this. For one, you wouldn't want to use an HMD in any context other than sitting alone in a room, and that's something that the nerdy hobbyist market doesn't mind, but to the average person it makes it nothing other than a novel toy. I keep hearing people on CNBC talk about how this year the Superbowl will be able to be watched via an HMD, and how this is the future of media. Are they serious? Have they ever heard of a Superbowl party? I watch football around friends, and we enjoy good food and beers. It's a social event first, and a content event second. How does an HMD fit into that? It doesn't. And I think most media we have today (save for video games) are social events. I watched the Breaking Bad finale with friends. I watch scary movies with friends. And that's not to say that I don't sometimes watch things alone, but when content creators have to worry about accommodating both of these experiences, it's difficult to make the VR experience comparatively worthwhile. VR content is going to face the same fate as 3D movies do today. It might be the evolution of video games. But that's a far cry from the hype that it gets. I think that the evolution of Google Glass is what will really take off.

pierre 11y ago
I was doubtfull about VR until I get a gearVR some weeks ago. I now spend ~1 hour a day using it to watch netflix. Some game (drift, lands end) were interesting to play but content is lacking. Bigger TV screen for cheap that follow where you look seems like to be the killer VR feature. I can see it get a wide adoption.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
Suttonian 11y ago
No I don't think it's a passing fad or will fail miserably - but I do know you're not alone. Yeah - VR is expensive right now. Maybe the price will drop a little - but this is one of the reasons why it will be niche for quite some time. I totally agree with you that I don't think many people will watch the superbowl in VR...but! What I predict (take with pinch of salt) is that as the Oculus and Vive are delivered there will be the common realization of some of the limitations and problems with VR (motion sickness, people who wear glasses etc) and the popularity will go down a little - but long term this type of thing just has so much potential I can only imagine it growing in the long term. Something I notice in your comment is that you seem to be assuming that you can't have social experiences in VR, I see social in VR as one of its greatest strengths. You could see your buddies in VR as legendary warriors fighting demons. Or maybe some of your buddies are the demons. There's a huge market for that type of thing (or there will be). AR like Google Glass (HoloLens, Magic Leap...) is also going to take off. Eventually AR and VR may converge. Want presence and to be fully immersed? Switch to VR mode.
- vectorpush 11y ago
  > people who wear glasses Just as a sidenote, I recently purchased a GearVR headset for use with my galaxy S6 and the headset allows me to calibrate the diopter such that I don't even need to use my glasses (though it is also possible to use it with them, though I prefer without). I feel like this will be a must-have for any future HMD, as in my experience it solves the glasses problem entirely.
  - jeff_marshall 11y ago
    You are lucky you don't have astigmatism :) Even with diopter adjustment, I still prefer to wear my glasses (oculus DK2 in my case). I should really look into corrective surgery (lasik, etc.) again...
- dmicah 11y ago
  For the comment: "You could see your buddies in VR as legendary warriors fighting demons. Or maybe some of your buddies are the demons." How is this facilitated by VR? It seems the same experience can be had with a traditional non-VR video game?
Bjartr 11y ago
> Can I note for a moment that this technology has been hyped since 2012 and we're only seeing the first consumer-facing products now? Sure, but I'd like to know what the significance of that is? In 2012 it was only an idea, it was 2013 when it became a physical thing at all that people could work with. Then people had to figure out how to fix the problems that were apparent once it was a physical thing you could actually use. Then you have to get people on board to create compelling content for an unproven peripheral. All the while working on the underlying driver and SDK, which includes all the problems and slowdowns that come from immature volatile software being a moving target. For a new physical product, in a new consumer media niche, using new technology, using new software, needing a launch lineup of software developed by third parties, all originally started by community effort to take 4 years to go from idea to shipping consumer product is damn impressive, regardless of whether or not all this effort will ultimately succeed.
prawn 11y ago
Not a passing fad. It will take off with time. Not everything is cheap or perfect at an early release. We're trying to fool senses that have had millions of years to evolve.
- nickysielicki 11y ago
  My qualms with VR don't have anything to do with the technology itself. Having been blown away by the Vive, I know just how far along we are and firmly believe that a photorealistic experience can be had. What I am saying is that most people have been assuming that the general population is interested in such an experience, and I don't think they will be.
  - vectorpush 11y ago
    Perhaps not the general population, but among moderate and hardcore gamers (a billion dollar industry) it will be a must-have. I'm also convinced that when talented directors start to produce blockbuster movies and television shows in stereoscopic 360 while leveraging tasteful artistic nuance to produce quality content, the general population will soon follow.
  - prawn 11y ago
    Things the varying subsets of the general population show interest in: - addictive phone/puzzle games - big budget games (CoD, etc) - movies - travel - porn - immersive escapism - customising their surroundings I think we'll see all of these things play out in VR. Travel and interior design are both expensive and VR can provide some steps towards both. You get home from work, shattered, eat and then just lie around in your little apartment. Why not have it feel like it's palatial, like you have epic views over islands or in space. With videos playing on huge virtual screens within that. My brother lives interstate. With VR, we could watch a video together as though we were in a cinema beside each other. Or play Xbox as though we were in the same room. In either case, it's not as though we need contact or photorealistic avatars - it could be a dark shape next to you. Right now, many people watch abysmal TV nightly just to relax. I think we'll see people just hanging out in VR worlds as an alternative to the depressing reality of many real lives. I think if you had some decent approximation of the world of Avatar (as one example), there'd be millions of people who would spend hours each day existing in that neon/blacklight environment rather than switching on TV and watching any old junk.
VikingCoder 11y ago
You need to watch the Fantastic Contraption Twitch streams. Social VR. http://www.twitch.tv/colinnorthway/v/34121601 http://www.twitch.tv/colinnorthway/v/34121601
bitL 11y ago
I think the major problem of VR is that it makes a lot of people feel dizzy due to using pinhole camera perspective. If you think about it, we somehow learned to live with current approach to compute perspective transform based on similar triangles, but that's not how a healthy eye perceives the world. In fact, the retina and brain do a plenty of computations to make our perception smooth. Neurosurgeons would tell you they see these kinds of perspective after eye surgeries when brain is not 100% in sync with eyes. One example is when you take a camera next to a tall chimney and make a sweep shot from bottom to the top - you can see that chimney's dimensions "dance", they just get pretty distorted in every frame by a different ratio. Your eyes don't do that. You perceive the chimney as straight regardless of which angle you look. VR that close to eyes must compensate for it. However, even the latest Oculus VR makes people feel dizzy... I don't see a future for this gen of VR unless they fix this substantial problem.
outworlder 11y ago
> Can I note for a moment that this technology has been hyped since 2012 and we're only seeing the first consumer-facing products now? That sentence makes me want to say "get off my lawn". VR technology (including HMD) has been hyped (and tried, in many forms) for decades now. I personally believe we now have the tech to actually deliver something useful this time. We shall see. Watching Super Bowl with friends is not yet feasible. But there are other use cases that are better suited. And don't underestimate games.
Aoyagi 11y ago
I don't see VR becoming popular in terms of gaming with current control schemes. Only games where the character actually sits in a chair (so basically only simulators) are somewhat viable, but I'd still prefer to see my hands and the wheel/HOTAS/whatever.

pierre 11y ago

I was doubtfull about VR until I get a gearVR some weeks ago. I now spend ~1 hour a day using it to watch netflix. Some game (drift, lands end) were interesting to play but content is lacking. Bigger TV screen for cheap that follow where you look seems like to be the killer VR feature. I can see it get a wide adoption.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Suttonian 11y ago

No I don't think it's a passing fad or will fail miserably - but I do know you're not alone. Yeah - VR is expensive right now. Maybe the price will drop a little - but this is one of the reasons why it will be niche for quite some time. I totally agree with you that I don't think many people will watch the superbowl in VR...but! What I predict (take with pinch of salt) is that as the Oculus and Vive are delivered there will be the common realization of some of the limitations and problems with VR (motion sickness, people who wear glasses etc) and the popularity will go down a little - but long term this type of thing just has so much potential I can only imagine it growing in the long term. Something I notice in your comment is that you seem to be assuming that you can't have social experiences in VR, I see social in VR as one of its greatest strengths. You could see your buddies in VR as legendary warriors fighting demons. Or maybe some of your buddies are the demons. There's a huge market for that type of thing (or there will be). AR like Google Glass (HoloLens, Magic Leap...) is also going to take off. Eventually AR and VR may converge. Want presence and to be fully immersed? Switch to VR mode.

vectorpush 11y ago
> people who wear glasses Just as a sidenote, I recently purchased a GearVR headset for use with my galaxy S6 and the headset allows me to calibrate the diopter such that I don't even need to use my glasses (though it is also possible to use it with them, though I prefer without). I feel like this will be a must-have for any future HMD, as in my experience it solves the glasses problem entirely.
- jeff_marshall 11y ago
  You are lucky you don't have astigmatism :) Even with diopter adjustment, I still prefer to wear my glasses (oculus DK2 in my case). I should really look into corrective surgery (lasik, etc.) again...
dmicah 11y ago
For the comment: "You could see your buddies in VR as legendary warriors fighting demons. Or maybe some of your buddies are the demons." How is this facilitated by VR? It seems the same experience can be had with a traditional non-VR video game?

Bjartr 11y ago

> Can I note for a moment that this technology has been hyped since 2012 and we're only seeing the first consumer-facing products now? Sure, but I'd like to know what the significance of that is? In 2012 it was only an idea, it was 2013 when it became a physical thing at all that people could work with. Then people had to figure out how to fix the problems that were apparent once it was a physical thing you could actually use. Then you have to get people on board to create compelling content for an unproven peripheral. All the while working on the underlying driver and SDK, which includes all the problems and slowdowns that come from immature volatile software being a moving target. For a new physical product, in a new consumer media niche, using new technology, using new software, needing a launch lineup of software developed by third parties, all originally started by community effort to take 4 years to go from idea to shipping consumer product is damn impressive, regardless of whether or not all this effort will ultimately succeed.

prawn 11y ago

Not a passing fad. It will take off with time. Not everything is cheap or perfect at an early release. We're trying to fool senses that have had millions of years to evolve.

nickysielicki 11y ago
My qualms with VR don't have anything to do with the technology itself. Having been blown away by the Vive, I know just how far along we are and firmly believe that a photorealistic experience can be had. What I am saying is that most people have been assuming that the general population is interested in such an experience, and I don't think they will be.
- vectorpush 11y ago
  Perhaps not the general population, but among moderate and hardcore gamers (a billion dollar industry) it will be a must-have. I'm also convinced that when talented directors start to produce blockbuster movies and television shows in stereoscopic 360 while leveraging tasteful artistic nuance to produce quality content, the general population will soon follow.
- prawn 11y ago
  Things the varying subsets of the general population show interest in: - addictive phone/puzzle games - big budget games (CoD, etc) - movies - travel - porn - immersive escapism - customising their surroundings I think we'll see all of these things play out in VR. Travel and interior design are both expensive and VR can provide some steps towards both. You get home from work, shattered, eat and then just lie around in your little apartment. Why not have it feel like it's palatial, like you have epic views over islands or in space. With videos playing on huge virtual screens within that. My brother lives interstate. With VR, we could watch a video together as though we were in a cinema beside each other. Or play Xbox as though we were in the same room. In either case, it's not as though we need contact or photorealistic avatars - it could be a dark shape next to you. Right now, many people watch abysmal TV nightly just to relax. I think we'll see people just hanging out in VR worlds as an alternative to the depressing reality of many real lives. I think if you had some decent approximation of the world of Avatar (as one example), there'd be millions of people who would spend hours each day existing in that neon/blacklight environment rather than switching on TV and watching any old junk.

VikingCoder 11y ago

You need to watch the Fantastic Contraption Twitch streams. Social VR. http://www.twitch.tv/colinnorthway/v/34121601 http://www.twitch.tv/colinnorthway/v/34121601

bitL 11y ago

I think the major problem of VR is that it makes a lot of people feel dizzy due to using pinhole camera perspective. If you think about it, we somehow learned to live with current approach to compute perspective transform based on similar triangles, but that's not how a healthy eye perceives the world. In fact, the retina and brain do a plenty of computations to make our perception smooth. Neurosurgeons would tell you they see these kinds of perspective after eye surgeries when brain is not 100% in sync with eyes. One example is when you take a camera next to a tall chimney and make a sweep shot from bottom to the top - you can see that chimney's dimensions "dance", they just get pretty distorted in every frame by a different ratio. Your eyes don't do that. You perceive the chimney as straight regardless of which angle you look. VR that close to eyes must compensate for it. However, even the latest Oculus VR makes people feel dizzy... I don't see a future for this gen of VR unless they fix this substantial problem.

outworlder 11y ago

> Can I note for a moment that this technology has been hyped since 2012 and we're only seeing the first consumer-facing products now? That sentence makes me want to say "get off my lawn". VR technology (including HMD) has been hyped (and tried, in many forms) for decades now. I personally believe we now have the tech to actually deliver something useful this time. We shall see. Watching Super Bowl with friends is not yet feasible. But there are other use cases that are better suited. And don't underestimate games.

Aoyagi 11y ago

I don't see VR becoming popular in terms of gaming with current control schemes. Only games where the character actually sits in a chair (so basically only simulators) are somewhat viable, but I'd still prefer to see my hands and the wheel/HOTAS/whatever.