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0 pointssantoshalper6y ago0 comments

VR has been a wet fart compared to 3d graphics. Tons of hype but very little progress and almost no broader impact on the technology or games industry.

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SmellyGeekBoy6y ago

Not sure why you've been so heavily downvoted, perhaps there are a lot of people here working in the field. It definitely seems the case that the average consumer couldn't care less about it, however.

VR is the new 3D TV.

tabs_masterrace6y ago

I don't think VR utopia is going to start anytime soon (that will be a slow generational shift), but VR already has sparked the interest of a lot of consumers, that are holding of for now. I wouldn't be surprised though, if one of the next headsets, i.e. Valve Index, if prices reasonably, suddenly showed unexpected high demand and sold out. There are tons of people, who want to try it, even if its just a gimmick for now. We've seen things like the Nintendo Wii selling tens of millions of units based on a gimmick. At that point the average consumer might become more aware of VR, and things might start picking up on the software-side.

pjmlp6y ago

People were already trying to play Doom on the first iteractions of VR headsets during the mid-90's.

I don't believe it ever become a real thing.

AR on the other hand, has quite a few interesting industrial applications.

mxfh6y ago

VR is a high friction/opportunity cost setup clutch and not a casual setup and interaction thing as TV.

The biggest issue with VR is that it's by nature not a passive/low energy thing in it's default mode, it's way closer to sports and work than TV, so more niche as a recreational time activity.

In essence VR competes with activites like soccer, badminton, shooting ranges, lasertag, trampolin parks etc. not general purpose home use TV. If you benchmark it against them VR, on it's current trajectory has a place to exist in garages and arcades.

If VR/MR/AR gets away from being marketed as high energy activity there is a future there, if there is found a way to make headset's superficial or significantly lighter and easy to handle at resolution better than TV screens at the equivalent distance. Powerful wireless (standalone) headsets and couch compatible VR might take off.

smcl6y ago

In the Wolfenstein 3D black book, written by the author of this article actually, there's even mention of a company trying to do this with Wolfenstein 3D

bluedino6y ago

I remember a million years ago at an arcade, seeing stand-up pods where you wore a VR headset and could play Duke3D

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