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I think that there is overoptimism in VR right now where the technology is going to progress slower than people think, there will be more difficult roadblocks t

I think that there is overoptimism in VR right now where the technology is going to progress slower than people think, there will be more difficult roadblocks than people think, and the best practices around VR software will take a while to develop. It will happen, it's just not going to be easy. This article strikes me as saying something akin to "Cellular phones are a stupid idea and will never take off. They're heavy, the size of a brick, and you can only use them in the few areas where there are towers nearby." Well yeah, if we were perpetually stuck in 1985 sure, but fortunately we're not. I'd argue that the current generation of VR (Rift/Vive/Gear/PS4/etc) is already multiple orders of magnitude more successful than past attempts, and, to continue the cell phone analogy, we're essentially in 1985 right now.

blinkenlichten 10y ago
Did you not read the article? The points he makes are not due to technological or environmental constraints. It's about what people actually are interested in and capable of doing. Pretty much everybody wants to be able to use a phone on the go. However, if cellphones made 90% of people nauseous after a short time just from walking around with them, they wouldn't be that popular.
- Deregibus 10y ago
  I did read the article, and yes, his points are largely due to technological and environmental constraints. He presents a combination of current and past VR tech (with a healthy dose of strawman mixed in) and uses that to make the claim that VR will never work. It's not going to live up to the current hype, but you can say that about almost everything. Nausea from VR is not some sort of intrinsic property, it's due to a number of physical factors, many of which can be solved technically by better hardware or by the design of VR experiences. It's not going to be easy, but it's not an intractable problem. The difference between the VR we have now and the VR we had in the past is that now there is momentum towards moving the technology forward. You have multiple companies competing to develop hardware. You have many developers working on VR experiences and learning what does and does not work. You actually have people buying these things and using that software.
flukus 10y ago
> I'd argue that the current generation of VR (Rift/Vive/Gear/PS4/etc) is already multiple orders of magnitude more successful than past attempts Are they, I haven't seen sales number? Has anyone beaten the virtual boys 350,000 units?
- T-A 10y ago
  http://uploadvr.com/zuckerberg-1-million-people-use-vr-every-month/ http://uploadvr.com/zuckerberg-1-million-people-use-vr-every... Some forecasts for the rest of the year here: https://www.superdataresearch.com/vr-market-update-october-2016/ https://www.superdataresearch.com/vr-market-update-october-2...

blinkenlichten 10y ago

Did you not read the article? The points he makes are not due to technological or environmental constraints. It's about what people actually are interested in and capable of doing. Pretty much everybody wants to be able to use a phone on the go. However, if cellphones made 90% of people nauseous after a short time just from walking around with them, they wouldn't be that popular.

Deregibus 10y ago
I did read the article, and yes, his points are largely due to technological and environmental constraints. He presents a combination of current and past VR tech (with a healthy dose of strawman mixed in) and uses that to make the claim that VR will never work. It's not going to live up to the current hype, but you can say that about almost everything. Nausea from VR is not some sort of intrinsic property, it's due to a number of physical factors, many of which can be solved technically by better hardware or by the design of VR experiences. It's not going to be easy, but it's not an intractable problem. The difference between the VR we have now and the VR we had in the past is that now there is momentum towards moving the technology forward. You have multiple companies competing to develop hardware. You have many developers working on VR experiences and learning what does and does not work. You actually have people buying these things and using that software.

flukus 10y ago

> I'd argue that the current generation of VR (Rift/Vive/Gear/PS4/etc) is already multiple orders of magnitude more successful than past attempts Are they, I haven't seen sales number? Has anyone beaten the virtual boys 350,000 units?

T-A 10y ago
http://uploadvr.com/zuckerberg-1-million-people-use-vr-every-month/ http://uploadvr.com/zuckerberg-1-million-people-use-vr-every... Some forecasts for the rest of the year here: https://www.superdataresearch.com/vr-market-update-october-2016/ https://www.superdataresearch.com/vr-market-update-october-2...