3 ms·

It's telling that the article you link to wastes several paragraphs on Nintendo's Virtual Boy, which didn't have any head tracking, displayed only red and black

It's telling that the article you link to wastes several paragraphs on Nintendo's Virtual Boy, which didn't have any head tracking, displayed only red and black, and couldn't even render 3D models. Yep, totally applicable to modern consoles that can render highly detailed cities, with convincing physics, surround sound, and multiplayer connectivity that would be unimaginable in 1995. The first wave of VR headsets came out while 3D gaming was in its infancy. Some genres (FPS, fighters) made sense early; platformers and RPGs were only really honed after the VR craze was dead and buried.

Theodores 13y ago
Picking holes in the BBC article, are we! The BBC article is about the history of VR headsets hence it includes a mention of everything that went before - simples. This new fangled headset does not solve the problems - 1) motion sickness and 2) nobody wants to wear these things in their front room. As a consequence it is only going to appeal to a few gamers rather than suddenly persuade millions of people that do not game to rush out and buy VR headsets. If 2) wasn't the case then, given how high resolution panels have been available for quite a few years in affordable phones, we would have headsets for a wider range of non-game applications - e.g. watching 2D/3D movies, watching porn and taking photos. There are a few of these more basic headsets out there but nobody is queuing up for them and none of the big companies are desperate to sell them. I wasted at least one whole summer playing the original Elite and the top 3/4 of the screen was black and white, mostly black with an occasional wireframe model of some space ship. The lower quarter of the screen was four colour and even chunkier graphics than the top due to how Bell+Braben did that cool mode 0/2 switch that had not been done before on the BBC Micro. I can still remember most of the hot keys - S, X, <, >, H for hyperspace... Elite was truly the most original and innovative game ever. In terms of rocket science and pioneering innovation it was in an entirely different league to this new fangled VR headset which is not really anything more than a mobile phone strapped to some ski goggles.

Theodores 13y ago

Picking holes in the BBC article, are we! The BBC article is about the history of VR headsets hence it includes a mention of everything that went before - simples. This new fangled headset does not solve the problems - 1) motion sickness and 2) nobody wants to wear these things in their front room. As a consequence it is only going to appeal to a few gamers rather than suddenly persuade millions of people that do not game to rush out and buy VR headsets. If 2) wasn't the case then, given how high resolution panels have been available for quite a few years in affordable phones, we would have headsets for a wider range of non-game applications - e.g. watching 2D/3D movies, watching porn and taking photos. There are a few of these more basic headsets out there but nobody is queuing up for them and none of the big companies are desperate to sell them. I wasted at least one whole summer playing the original Elite and the top 3/4 of the screen was black and white, mostly black with an occasional wireframe model of some space ship. The lower quarter of the screen was four colour and even chunkier graphics than the top due to how Bell+Braben did that cool mode 0/2 switch that had not been done before on the BBC Micro. I can still remember most of the hot keys - S, X, <, >, H for hyperspace... Elite was truly the most original and innovative game ever. In terms of rocket science and pioneering innovation it was in an entirely different league to this new fangled VR headset which is not really anything more than a mobile phone strapped to some ski goggles.