I mean yeah it’s obvious that it’s an oportunity for making money on a new marked and so on, but, even if it’s a bit silly, dreaming of VR technology like in Ready Player One(minus the distopian world) for real life it feels like the bad guys already won, when we will have the technology. Like the omni One is just about to be launched for the market and it’s sold in a bundle with the pico 4, which is owned by Tik Tok. Do you get what is grinding my gears about that?
Personally, I actually expect VR to disappear from the market once more, or at least for there to be a long gap before the next stuff comes out.
In fact, I think, the Apple headset was the last notable hardware release of the current hype wave.So, yeah, the big privacy-invasive companies would definitely be a dealbreaker for me, but I don’t think this cycle really matters yet.
Beat Saber is ridiculously awesome… but I never want to wear a fucking headset to do my work.
VR is useful for recreation not business.
Modded Skyrim in VR is amazing too. I’ve put my Index on and had hours slip by without realizing it. There’s nothing like wandering around Skyrim and killing dragons in VR. And then of course there’s also Half Life Alyx. That game will make you forget you’re in a game…
Originally, I had typed out that IMHO VR never made it beyond being a gimmick. And yeah, Beat Saber is pretty much the reason why I decided to reformulate. Some people buy VR goggles primarily to play Beat Saber. If they’re frequently doing so, then they’re getting their money’s worth out of it, then that is absolutely legit.
And well, I imagine, there will be use-cases for business, like being able to walk around in a CAD design or architecture draft, that’s probably useful, too. But yeah, just for taking a call, I actively don’t want to be embedded into a 3D world every time.
Yea, but how long did you play it? This generation’s guitar hero
Beat Saber is the gateway drug. It’s the VR equivalent of Tetris with how simple, fun and ubiquitous it is.
Have it since 2018, currently play about 5 hrs a week.
It’s fun exercise!Probably about six hours a week.
VR is the next 3DTV. It’s a neat technology that doesn’t need to be mainstream, but we have no shortage of company marketers desperately trying to create a narrative that every home needs it.
Well, there is the problem that if people spend several hundred dollars or more to buy a VR headset and potentially upgrade their PC/console for it, then they do expect blockbuster titles. A minigame collection, like the Wii had, isn’t going to fly. And blockbuster titles will only be produced, if there’s enough of an audience.
Like, yeah, it doesn’t need to be fully mainstream, but there is currently a disconnect between the number of
rich nerdswealthy techies that may naturally be interested in a VR headset and the audience size needed to pay for blockbuster titles.
One problem is that there’s a massive upfront cost to get into VR as a consumer. Even the cheaper headsets are several hundred dollars, similar to a full console purchase. Which means not a lot of people are going to invest in the hardware, which means there isn’t as much of a market to produce games for, which means not a lot of people are going to invest in the hardware, etc etc etc.
On top of that, VR has the awkward problem of locomotion. Either you’re teleporting around the game world, getting motion sick moving around the game world, or standing in one place at all times. None of these options are ideal, and the only real solutions to this issue involve insanely pricy hardware purchases.
Maybe one day we’ll figure it out, maybe we’ll all be living in tubes playing games with our minds or whatever.
Have you used any VR tech? It’s not something to be worried about
I think it’s pretty great that Zuckerberg went all-in on the thankfully-wrong bet that his Second Life knockoff would somehow be popular and that people would actually want to strap a computer on their face to use it. 🤡
Which is to say, VR isn’t particularly high on the list of things I’m concerned about giant tech companies’ control of.
I recommend reading The Verge’s review of the Apple Vision Pro which concludes:
Apple may have inadvertently revealed that some of these core ideas are actually dead ends — that they can’t ever be executed well enough to become mainstream. This is the best video passthrough headset ever made, and that might mean camera-based mixed reality passthrough could just be a road to nowhere. This is the best hand- and eye-tracking ever, and it feels like the mouse, keyboard, and touchscreen are going to remain undefeated for years to come.
As someone who doesn’t want to live in a world where head-mounted cameras in public spaces become ubiquitous or even socially acceptable, I found that review to be good news.
I agree the idea of people wearing some Google glasses does kinda terrify me. At least with a phone you can see when somebody is filming you or not paying attention to you but reading their emails or whatever.
I’m hype for the Valve Deckard.
Assuming it ever comes out. I’m WAITING…
Valve is working hard on it to make absolutely sure it doesn’t suck.
I’ve got a quest and meta feels like an overly attached ex girlfriend. The setup experience was terrible, simply because of the meta crap they hacked into the oculus experience.
Having used someone else’s quest that they’ve already sold their soul to sign up for they’re actually very good hardware wise, just a shame that’s because they’re subsidised by their ability to collect data
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It’s certainly not ideal but is probably necessary to develop the technology. In a handful of years I’m hoping there will be less toxic options.
I think that most companies have been doing it absolutely wrong. Likely because they’re more interested in sucking more data from people to sell for profit than designing products that would appreciably improve people’s lives. Most of the handful of genuinely useful products are kept priced far too high for consumers. Apple, as insanely expensive as their product is, actually does seem to have identified some of the major issues that others have been completely ignoring but their implementation is a bit ridiculous.
The two companies that I know of that are actually making useful products are Xreal and Viture (haven’t tried the latter but they’re much my FOSS-friendly). For the price of a quality monitor/TV, they provide HMDs in a sunglasses form-factor that are actually usable for productivity despite only having 1080p displays. And don’t have creepy cameras. Yes, the lower FOV makes them less immersive but that’s actually beneficial - you can talk to and see other people in the “real” world. This and low weight makes them comfortable to wear all day and I’ve barely used my laptop or Steam Deck monitor since getting them setup.
TikTok has a VR now? The company that is tracking people’s retina signatures has a device that people strap over their eyes?
Ok I found this post like a week late, but TikTok bought a VR company called Pico several years ago and they were investing money into new software and headsets, but recently cancelled all of their planned games. They are still making a new headset, but they also seemed to cancel their entry into the US market. They also had a ton of layoffs last year.
So basically, I think they’ve lost interest in VR.
Or they got enough eye scans already and don’t need to continue the charade.
*Conspiracy theory intensifies!
I wouldn’t be on lemmy if I wasn’t worried by the weight of foreign bilionaire on technology that should be accessible for everyone.
But I doubt that VR will got that mainstream considering all the practical diffictulties to use-it
I don’t think about VR produxts from those kinds of companies at all any more than their evil apps and websites.
(Copying my comment from YT):
I fear AR will change society for the worse while making Facebook a lot of money. The reason why the internet currently has a bad effect on society is because it lets you block out the bad parts of reality while locking yourself a cozy bubble of content that suits you personally. Applying the same filter to people’s vision will only exasperate these effects. And a shift to AR will benefit Facebook massively: now, instead of just being able to influence what ads/posts you see, they will have the power to choose what parts of reality you percieve. Nobody will percieve the same reality anymore. Can you still see society being able to reach consensus then? Problems that are currently public will become private problems of those who cannot afford the AR to block them out. And all for Facebooks profit.
A truly responsible attempt at AR would focus on technologies that create the same experience for multiple – ideally an unlimited amount – of people. Think 3D tabletop diaplays, smart objects (think reMarkable tablet), holograms. This is accessible to anyone in the room (= inclusive), and guarantees that everybody will still be locked into the same, shared experience of reality.
The big companies can invest the money. That least to “better” products. Small manufacturers will struggle to compete for now.
My hope is, as the tech matures, more good options will become available. I’m also hoping Valve maintain that business model. They seem to have clicked that not screwing over your customers in the short term pays huge dividends in the long term. They also don’t seem adverse to supporting open source, which offers a way through this period.
I don’t give a shit. I can’t imagine ever using VR for anything other than a curious novelty. It’ll go the way of 3D TVs and keep going around and around every 20 years or so.
I didn’t think about it much tbh.
Meta bought valve?
