6 ms·

"only now 30 years later are we starting to see virtual reality" As Tom Hall said (paraphrase) "No one wants to strap shit to their face". I'd bet it's still v

"only now 30 years later are we starting to see virtual reality" As Tom Hall said (paraphrase) "No one wants to strap shit to their face". I'd bet it's still very much a novelty in 30 years.

benja123 5y ago
I am not sure. In the past year I have actually started to see quite a few non techie friends buy the oculus quest and are avid users. I do feel like we are at a turning point where VR will become the dominant non mobile gaming device of the future. If it will be used much outside of gaming is the big question.
- bemmu 5y ago
  Agree with you. I think we've just entered a period of rapid adoption, and the driver is FB making better and better low-cost entry level devices, hopefully pulling along more and more competitors.
toxik 5y ago
And jesus christ the motion sickness is just unbearable for me. It can ruin me for an entire day.
- benja123 5y ago
  Try games where you are static (beat saber, table tennis etc.). Do not play games where you are in any vehicle or need to walk around.
  - Robotbeat 5y ago
    Yeah, I really wish people qualified where they're having the problems. Seated experiences where you use smooth locomotion are bad. Aircraft (or spaceship) cockpit type experiences are even worse because not only do you have translation that's out of sync with your inner ear and sense of movement, but you have rotation as well (which is much worse). also, newer headsets are much, much better than in the 90s.
  - toxik 5y ago
    Right, but as I'm sure you realize, if that's the case, then mass-adoption of VR is a non-starter. We /love/ games and movies that transport us to places. There are very very few movies with a static camera, though I do happen to like them.
- Baeocystin 5y ago
  It's bizarre how inverse-correlated motion sickness susceptibility vs VR sickness appear to be. I don't get motion sick at all, but even a few minutes in a poorly-designed VR experience makes me want to puke. Some of my friends are complete opposites. Most people I know are lean one direction or another, usually pretty strongly. I do wonder if this is a simple statistical fluke, or if it's pointing at some deeper aspect of our biology.
  - cortesoft 5y ago
    I get very motion sick, but I do fine in VR. The only time I get sick with VR is when the motion is not correlated with my head movement.. for example, if you turn the camera with a controller.
    - toxik 5y ago
      I was "walking" around in some VR meeting thing called RecRoom, I wanted to throw up. If I was teleported, it was mostly okay, still nauseating but holy cow it physically hurt to move like that.
  - AnimalMuppet 5y ago
    But motion sickness is when there's acceleration. That is, the physical acceleration is the cause of the sickness. It's not the visuals. VR sickness is when there's somewhat equivalent visuals, but not acceleration. So I could see motion sickness and VR sickness being essentially opposites.
    - Baeocystin 5y ago
      Exactly so. What I find interesting is that folks seem to be naturally prone to one or the other, but not both.
      - IggleSniggle 5y ago
        Arm-chair psycho-psychologist: Extra attuned to your eyes, and you get VR sickness because your body keeps refusing to follow what your eyes are telling your brain. Extra attuned to your body, and you get motion sickness because your eyes keep refusing to confirm what your body is telling you. Anecdotal evidence: if you get motion sickness, you can help mitigate it by focusing on the horizon (ie, feed your eyes what your body is already telling you). If you get VR sickness, maybe you can concentrate your focus on your body/breath to mitigate.
Baeocystin 5y ago
I've got a long-standing bet with a friend that 'VR' will take off as soon as it becomes 'AR', ie transparent glasses that overlay information on the real world. That, IMO, is the killer feature, and once it hits takeoff, the headset era of VR will be looked back at as a necessary stepstone that was ultimately completely replaced with what ultimately will be used.
- ghaff 5y ago
  VR by itself is probably a thing. There are times when you want an immersive experience such as gaming or virtual exploration. But I expect it's a niche. I'm not wearing VR to your virtual meeting. AR, in the inobstrusive/genuinely useful sense is harder but seems far more interesting. Yes, there are social factors to deal with as well, but I can certainly see worn information displays becoming a thing.
  - Baeocystin 5y ago
    I don't disagree! Rather, it's just that I expect AR glasses to have a fully-blacked-out mode when necessary, and those full-immersion times will just be one (small, I'm willing to bet) mode of the overall headset. As a side note, my friend and I first made this bet back in the DK2 days, and I was ~60% confident I was correct. What pushed me in to the 90%+ region was playing with an Oculus Quest. The guardian mode, freedom from wires, hand tracking, pass-through mode, etc... Everything that felt like a real step forward was also something that will ultimately apply to AR glasses. It really made me think I was on the right track.
    - ghaff 5y ago
      I think the other things that's happened with VR is just the quality/size of TVs generally. No that doesn't deal with a few specific aspects of VR like flight simulators and FPS. But having a high-res 75" or whatever screen in front of you basically handles "virtual reality" for anything that doesn't involve looking around.
  - StanislavPetrov 5y ago
Strilanc 5y ago
I think VR headsets are within a factor of 10 of the cost of a good monitor, and within a factor of 5 of the angular resolution of 20:20 vision. It seems very plausible to me as the resolution goes up and costs come down that e.g. a company would start pushing employees towards a headset instead of multiple monitors within the next decade.
fnord77 5y ago
I don't think people will even want to wear glasses. 3D TVs were hyped for a while a few years ago but died off quickly.

"only now 30 years later are we starting to see virtual reality" As Tom Hall said (paraphrase) "No one wants to strap shit to their face". I'd bet it's still very much a novelty in 30 years.

benja123 5y ago

I am not sure. In the past year I have actually started to see quite a few non techie friends buy the oculus quest and are avid users. I do feel like we are at a turning point where VR will become the dominant non mobile gaming device of the future. If it will be used much outside of gaming is the big question.

bemmu 5y ago
Agree with you. I think we've just entered a period of rapid adoption, and the driver is FB making better and better low-cost entry level devices, hopefully pulling along more and more competitors.

toxik 5y ago

And jesus christ the motion sickness is just unbearable for me. It can ruin me for an entire day.

benja123 5y ago
Try games where you are static (beat saber, table tennis etc.). Do not play games where you are in any vehicle or need to walk around.
- Robotbeat 5y ago
  Yeah, I really wish people qualified where they're having the problems. Seated experiences where you use smooth locomotion are bad. Aircraft (or spaceship) cockpit type experiences are even worse because not only do you have translation that's out of sync with your inner ear and sense of movement, but you have rotation as well (which is much worse). also, newer headsets are much, much better than in the 90s.
- toxik 5y ago
  Right, but as I'm sure you realize, if that's the case, then mass-adoption of VR is a non-starter. We /love/ games and movies that transport us to places. There are very very few movies with a static camera, though I do happen to like them.
Baeocystin 5y ago
It's bizarre how inverse-correlated motion sickness susceptibility vs VR sickness appear to be. I don't get motion sick at all, but even a few minutes in a poorly-designed VR experience makes me want to puke. Some of my friends are complete opposites. Most people I know are lean one direction or another, usually pretty strongly. I do wonder if this is a simple statistical fluke, or if it's pointing at some deeper aspect of our biology.
- cortesoft 5y ago
  I get very motion sick, but I do fine in VR. The only time I get sick with VR is when the motion is not correlated with my head movement.. for example, if you turn the camera with a controller.
  - toxik 5y ago
    I was "walking" around in some VR meeting thing called RecRoom, I wanted to throw up. If I was teleported, it was mostly okay, still nauseating but holy cow it physically hurt to move like that.
- AnimalMuppet 5y ago
  But motion sickness is when there's acceleration. That is, the physical acceleration is the cause of the sickness. It's not the visuals. VR sickness is when there's somewhat equivalent visuals, but not acceleration. So I could see motion sickness and VR sickness being essentially opposites.
  - Baeocystin 5y ago
    Exactly so. What I find interesting is that folks seem to be naturally prone to one or the other, but not both.
    - IggleSniggle 5y ago
      Arm-chair psycho-psychologist: Extra attuned to your eyes, and you get VR sickness because your body keeps refusing to follow what your eyes are telling your brain. Extra attuned to your body, and you get motion sickness because your eyes keep refusing to confirm what your body is telling you. Anecdotal evidence: if you get motion sickness, you can help mitigate it by focusing on the horizon (ie, feed your eyes what your body is already telling you). If you get VR sickness, maybe you can concentrate your focus on your body/breath to mitigate.

Baeocystin 5y ago

I've got a long-standing bet with a friend that 'VR' will take off as soon as it becomes 'AR', ie transparent glasses that overlay information on the real world. That, IMO, is the killer feature, and once it hits takeoff, the headset era of VR will be looked back at as a necessary stepstone that was ultimately completely replaced with what ultimately will be used.

ghaff 5y ago
VR by itself is probably a thing. There are times when you want an immersive experience such as gaming or virtual exploration. But I expect it's a niche. I'm not wearing VR to your virtual meeting. AR, in the inobstrusive/genuinely useful sense is harder but seems far more interesting. Yes, there are social factors to deal with as well, but I can certainly see worn information displays becoming a thing.
- Baeocystin 5y ago
  I don't disagree! Rather, it's just that I expect AR glasses to have a fully-blacked-out mode when necessary, and those full-immersion times will just be one (small, I'm willing to bet) mode of the overall headset. As a side note, my friend and I first made this bet back in the DK2 days, and I was ~60% confident I was correct. What pushed me in to the 90%+ region was playing with an Oculus Quest. The guardian mode, freedom from wires, hand tracking, pass-through mode, etc... Everything that felt like a real step forward was also something that will ultimately apply to AR glasses. It really made me think I was on the right track.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    I think the other things that's happened with VR is just the quality/size of TVs generally. No that doesn't deal with a few specific aspects of VR like flight simulators and FPS. But having a high-res 75" or whatever screen in front of you basically handles "virtual reality" for anything that doesn't involve looking around.
- StanislavPetrov 5y ago

Strilanc 5y ago

I think VR headsets are within a factor of 10 of the cost of a good monitor, and within a factor of 5 of the angular resolution of 20:20 vision. It seems very plausible to me as the resolution goes up and costs come down that e.g. a company would start pushing employees towards a headset instead of multiple monitors within the next decade.

fnord77 5y ago

I don't think people will even want to wear glasses. 3D TVs were hyped for a while a few years ago but died off quickly.