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These aren't 1st generation products. There has already been a VR craze, back in the 1990s.
by tpeo 9y ago
These aren't 1st generation products. There has already been a VR craze, back in the 1990s.
- whicks 9y agoThe VR devices that are out today are incomparable with the devices of the "VR craze" of the 1990s.
- tpeo 9y agoWell, I didn't say they were comparable. I just sort of pointed out they existed. Current generation video game consoles are also incomparable to Pong. But hey, that's the difference between 1st and 8th generation consoles.
- calafrax 9y agoThey are much better but they are still basically the same designs as the late 90's. A lot of things have improved but most of the problems are things that were recognized before and still aren't perfect. They still need to get smaller, lighter, higher resolution, faster refresh rate, 4-8X GPU power, and wireless, but in another decade they should be awesome.
- 52-6F-62 9y agoAhem, I would like to refer you to The Lawnmower Man (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104692/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104692/) I kid. It's a movie from the 90's about VR turning groundskeepers into geniuses. I'm over simplifying. Watch it. I dare you. I might watch it again.
- coldtea 9y agoAnd the VR devices of 2050 would be incomparable with the devices of the 2nd "VR craze" of the late 201x's. The question is whether they are enough, not whether they are merely better.
- delecti 9y agoThese are 1st generation products in the same sense that the original iPod was. Sure it's not inaccurate to say that walkmans existed in the 70s, but it's not an equivalent product category.
- Animats 9y ago1985. VPL Research, the first gloves and goggles maker. I knew some of those people.
- tpeo 9y agoSounds like you might have some stories to tell.
- Animats 9y agoBack then, people thought gloves were going to be really important. Much effort went into making gloves that would faithfully record finger motions. Manipulation in 3D space without firm tactile feedback turned out to be like trying to do precision work wearing an oven mitten. It's not impossible, but it's really slow, and tiring. If you've done tweezer work under a microscope, you know the feeling. Autodesk had a VR ping-pong demo, with the paddle position reporting to the computers. It took a small rack of 1980s PCs and, I think, Matrox graphics cards. Matrox had one of the few graphics cards of the 1980s with hardware geometry support, the 4x4 multiplier unit. Nobody bought it because it was so expensive. There wasn't enough compute power in the 1980s for general collision detection, let alone game physics, so you couldn't align things by pushing them against each other. Various kinds of "snap" were tried, but now there was a mode problem. In VR, you don't have a keyboard, and doing keyboard-like things is hard. Mode controls are a problem. The '90s brought all sorts of 3D input devices, from robot arm like devices for input to magnetically levitated trackballs. All that stuff has disappeared. There have been real improvements in 3D GUIs driven by a mouse with a thumbwheel. (Try Autodesk Inventor or Autodesk Fusion, both of which have free trials.) Newer VR systems don't use gloves; they just give you a sort of game controller for each hand. OK for gaming, but not for fine manipulation. Good for shooting, not for putting a nut on a bolt.
- mlvljr 9y agoNon-pro version of Fusion has a free home-and-startup license, in fact, auto-updated annually (unless am wrong) :)
- 9y ago
- BatFastard 9y agoThis is at least the third VR crazy, mid 90's with VRML, 2007 with virtual worlds, and now 360 movies and VR games with better stereo vision headsets. This one will stick I think, but headsets need to improve and content needs to improve.