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The move to casual is risky if it alienates the current user-base of gamers. However, it is my understanding that the number of VR gamers isn’t high enough to

The move to casual is risky if it alienates the current user-base of gamers. However, it is my understanding that the number of VR gamers isn’t high enough to drive self-sustaining profits for VR developers. There’s a case to be made that a platform like VR can’t be sustained by gaming. That VR needs a killer business application. If that is true, then the Quest isn’t equipped to handle business use-cases (battery-life), and neither is the current Rift, whose onerous setup is a non-starter in an office. If the Rift S is a plug-and-play solution to sitting VR, and if the increase in resolution and lenses makes text legible, then we will finally have a practical platform for business software. The most immediate business use I see is remote collaboration. While meetings and white boards stand out as obvious wins, I’m thinking there is opportunity in reimagining the original killer apps: spreadsheets, word-processors, calendars, email, and of course, the web browser. No one could fix email. No one could figure out social browsing. No one could solve voice-dictation. No one seems to follow anyone’s calendar but their own. And as for spreadsheets, the monstrosity that is Airtable implies large unmet needs. VR needs a killer app, and it won’t be Doom. It will be the next Netscape, Excel, or Word.

leoc 8y ago
VR is already selling quite strongly to firms who use it for various kinds of training. One good indication of this is the strong market of backpack PCs https://www.roadtovr.com/vr-backpack-pc-at-a-glance/ https://www.roadtovr.com/vr-backpack-pc-at-a-glance/ despite the face that the backpack PC seems to have almost no adoption among home VR users. It also underlines the fact that current workplace VR users aren't particularly price-sensitive. It futher seems unlikely that they're usually all that bothered about sensor setup, though maybe some value or would value the wide play area that markerless inside-out tracking affords.
- karmakaze 8y ago
  TIL Backpack PCs are a thing. I wonder how people would react if I sat in a coffee shop with a backpack PC/keyboard and doing dev in VR. Can I code on a Quest?
  - leoc 8y ago
    Well, if you were sitting down you'd be better off with a gaming laptop. (Unless you want the backpack for the gargoyle chic of course ... ;) ) As Quest is an Android-ish mobile device, I assume it's not a great development platform even if you choose to sideload things. You'd probably want to use the Rift S or one of the high-end WinMR HMDs plugged into a Windows laptop. (Only Valve's SteamVR is supported on Linux, but there's no SteamVR HMD with markerless inside-out tracking out there yet. You could use a Rift and clamp a SteamVR Tracking base station to your table, if it's stable enough, using a battery pack to power it. That would be so Linux-on-the-desktop, in more ways than one.) But then you'd run into the big (and hard-to-fix) limitation of first-gen VR, the very low pixel density compared to conventional displays, which is a particular problem when you're working with text. It's a problem with is partly compensated for by the unlimited virtual screen size that VR gives you, especially in comparison to the small and awkwardly-placed screens you're often stuck with in a mobile context. So you could certainly give it a go, especially if you get one of the highest-res WinMR headsets, but on balance the laptop screen would probably still be more practical for coding today.
- wildermuthn 8y ago
  Good example of non-gaming uses that seem to have traction! The key is figuring how to enable businesses to make more money by using VR. In a previous thread about VR, someone was quite negative about the utility of VR, but ended with “talk to me once there’s an Excel of VR.” There are billion-dollar opportunities here, but only if VR is accessible as a platform in the same way a PC is. To your point about backpack VR, however, the Quest will undoubtably accelerate these kind of use cases!

leoc 8y ago

VR is already selling quite strongly to firms who use it for various kinds of training. One good indication of this is the strong market of backpack PCs https://www.roadtovr.com/vr-backpack-pc-at-a-glance/ https://www.roadtovr.com/vr-backpack-pc-at-a-glance/ despite the face that the backpack PC seems to have almost no adoption among home VR users. It also underlines the fact that current workplace VR users aren't particularly price-sensitive. It futher seems unlikely that they're usually all that bothered about sensor setup, though maybe some value or would value the wide play area that markerless inside-out tracking affords.

karmakaze 8y ago
TIL Backpack PCs are a thing. I wonder how people would react if I sat in a coffee shop with a backpack PC/keyboard and doing dev in VR. Can I code on a Quest?
- leoc 8y ago
  Well, if you were sitting down you'd be better off with a gaming laptop. (Unless you want the backpack for the gargoyle chic of course ... ;) ) As Quest is an Android-ish mobile device, I assume it's not a great development platform even if you choose to sideload things. You'd probably want to use the Rift S or one of the high-end WinMR HMDs plugged into a Windows laptop. (Only Valve's SteamVR is supported on Linux, but there's no SteamVR HMD with markerless inside-out tracking out there yet. You could use a Rift and clamp a SteamVR Tracking base station to your table, if it's stable enough, using a battery pack to power it. That would be so Linux-on-the-desktop, in more ways than one.) But then you'd run into the big (and hard-to-fix) limitation of first-gen VR, the very low pixel density compared to conventional displays, which is a particular problem when you're working with text. It's a problem with is partly compensated for by the unlimited virtual screen size that VR gives you, especially in comparison to the small and awkwardly-placed screens you're often stuck with in a mobile context. So you could certainly give it a go, especially if you get one of the highest-res WinMR headsets, but on balance the laptop screen would probably still be more practical for coding today.
wildermuthn 8y ago
Good example of non-gaming uses that seem to have traction! The key is figuring how to enable businesses to make more money by using VR. In a previous thread about VR, someone was quite negative about the utility of VR, but ended with “talk to me once there’s an Excel of VR.” There are billion-dollar opportunities here, but only if VR is accessible as a platform in the same way a PC is. To your point about backpack VR, however, the Quest will undoubtably accelerate these kind of use cases!