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>I'm not sure if there's technical reasons for it, but it feels like nobody is taking VR development seriously. The "technical" reason for it is very very very

>I'm not sure if there's technical reasons for it, but it feels like nobody is taking VR development seriously. The "technical" reason for it is very very very simple: Nearly no video games are actually improved by "increased immersion" to an extreme. Chess won't be more fun because you have to physically move digital chess pieces around a virtual board, people playing Call of Duty do not want to physically move their arms around to aim, and don't want to jump around to move, and if you aren't doing those things you don't want the downsides that are inherent to a VR system, like extreme seclusion of wearing a headset, physical ability being an inherent filter, clunky UI, nausea etc. The TWO areas where VR is useful, flight simulators and driving simulators, haven't even fully adopted VR simply because it's too much hassle. VR is only a gimmick unless you can benefit from that extra immersion, and most things cannot. The Wii sold gangbusters because everyone and their grandma could understand "swing remote to swing tennis racket", but you couldn't actually build a hyperaccurate tennis sim off of that because a Wiimote is NOT a tennis racket and you cannot get beyond that. VR is the same way. Everyone can experience the "Oh VR is soooo coool" gimmick but very few genres inherently benefit from what VR provides.

wvenable 3y ago
Where VR shines, in my opinion, is in fitness. Where the goal is ultimately to move around in a gamified way. That's effectively how I use my Quest 2 and I'm not alone. Recently I've been trying to increase my table tennis skills.
- LordShredda 3y ago
  But why does it need a heavy screen attached to your head? Just get some shorts and go outside, and if you can afford a quest 2 then surely you can afford a tennis table
  - wvenable 3y ago
    It's not that heavy. I don't have the room for a tennis table nor am I close enough to my friends to play it for 30 minutes every night like I do in VR.
int_19h 3y ago
I think part of the problem is this weird insistence that VR means having to physically move arms around etc. For most games, the visual experience of VR can vastly improve immersion, but control schemes nearly universally suck. Simulators work so much better largely because they don't fall into the same trap - if you're playing a flight sim, say, you're still probably using the same stick/throttle/pedals as you would without the headset. For space sims, I find that headset + mouse combo works amazingly well (End Space is a good showcase of what can be done there). And so on. But for some reason there's practically no uptake on any of this outside of sims. I would love to see a first-person shooter that is fully VR enabled while still allowing me to use WASD + mouse. In fact, I already kinda sorta do that by using 2D theater mode with games like Insurgency: Sandstorm, but that doesn't give you the actually useful VR stuff like the ability to turn your head to look around etc. If somebody were to make an FPS that did all that, they'd have my money in a heartbeat.
- numpad0 3y ago
  That some reason is motion sickness. There has to be consistency with your perception, else it develops into compounding vection feelings. It tend not to apply for vehicular controls hence sim usage.
  - int_19h 3y ago
    That varies from person to person. I have played games with keyboard and mouse in VR (e.g. Polynomial 2, or the unofficial GTA 5 VR mod), and it works great for me.
scheeseman486 3y ago
>The TWO areas where VR is useful, flight simulators and driving simulators, haven't even fully adopted VR simply because it's too much hassle. I see this come up, over and over again. It's so obviously wrong based on even a basic reading of the market. The Quest is unambiguously the most popular VR headset and it's store has barely any cockpit simulators at all. As for tennis, one of the perks of Quest is that you can take it anywhere, including a real tennis court: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atuIRf59hzc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atuIRf59hzc At a smaller scale, Eleven Table Tennis is an extremely accurate VR Table Tennis game that supports paddle attachments. It is extremely close to the real thing, professionals use it for practice.
baby 3y ago
> Nearly no video games are actually improved by "increased immersion" to an extreme. Chess won't be more fun because you have to physically move digital chess pieces around a virtual board Couldn’t disagree more. Experiences in VR are insanely immersive and this is why there’s so much love for VR. Also, I played Catan (a board game) in VR and it was the most social experience I’ve ever had in a video game.

wvenable 3y ago

Where VR shines, in my opinion, is in fitness. Where the goal is ultimately to move around in a gamified way. That's effectively how I use my Quest 2 and I'm not alone. Recently I've been trying to increase my table tennis skills.

LordShredda 3y ago
But why does it need a heavy screen attached to your head? Just get some shorts and go outside, and if you can afford a quest 2 then surely you can afford a tennis table
- wvenable 3y ago
  It's not that heavy. I don't have the room for a tennis table nor am I close enough to my friends to play it for 30 minutes every night like I do in VR.

int_19h 3y ago

I think part of the problem is this weird insistence that VR means having to physically move arms around etc. For most games, the visual experience of VR can vastly improve immersion, but control schemes nearly universally suck. Simulators work so much better largely because they don't fall into the same trap - if you're playing a flight sim, say, you're still probably using the same stick/throttle/pedals as you would without the headset. For space sims, I find that headset + mouse combo works amazingly well (End Space is a good showcase of what can be done there). And so on. But for some reason there's practically no uptake on any of this outside of sims. I would love to see a first-person shooter that is fully VR enabled while still allowing me to use WASD + mouse. In fact, I already kinda sorta do that by using 2D theater mode with games like Insurgency: Sandstorm, but that doesn't give you the actually useful VR stuff like the ability to turn your head to look around etc. If somebody were to make an FPS that did all that, they'd have my money in a heartbeat.

numpad0 3y ago
That some reason is motion sickness. There has to be consistency with your perception, else it develops into compounding vection feelings. It tend not to apply for vehicular controls hence sim usage.
- int_19h 3y ago
  That varies from person to person. I have played games with keyboard and mouse in VR (e.g. Polynomial 2, or the unofficial GTA 5 VR mod), and it works great for me.

scheeseman486 3y ago

>The TWO areas where VR is useful, flight simulators and driving simulators, haven't even fully adopted VR simply because it's too much hassle. I see this come up, over and over again. It's so obviously wrong based on even a basic reading of the market. The Quest is unambiguously the most popular VR headset and it's store has barely any cockpit simulators at all. As for tennis, one of the perks of Quest is that you can take it anywhere, including a real tennis court: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atuIRf59hzc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atuIRf59hzc At a smaller scale, Eleven Table Tennis is an extremely accurate VR Table Tennis game that supports paddle attachments. It is extremely close to the real thing, professionals use it for practice.

baby 3y ago

> Nearly no video games are actually improved by "increased immersion" to an extreme. Chess won't be more fun because you have to physically move digital chess pieces around a virtual board Couldn’t disagree more. Experiences in VR are insanely immersive and this is why there’s so much love for VR. Also, I played Catan (a board game) in VR and it was the most social experience I’ve ever had in a video game.