If there are fewer headsets in a room than there are people, it’s going to be awkward for at least one person. Trying to help someone debug something in their headset without me being able to see what they see is a problem (granted, this could be solved by software).
Having to share headsets sucks. You have to faff with head straps, adjust IPD, focus. I’ve had exactly one evening where everyone had a headset and things worked well for everyone involved. I’ve had dozens if not hundreds of events filled with awkward moments, setup issues, problems, where everyone is continuously taking the headset off and need to figure something out. And this was while working for a VR company where everyone was quite computer and VR literate.
Reflecting on it, it felt kind of like 90s and 2000s LAN parties, before the days of DHCP. Randomly copying values around, IP conflicts and not understanding subnet values. Good times.
For example, think of the opposite of Apple's People Awareness feature. Instead of an immersive experience fading away when a person comes near, the AR user's experience fades in as you approach.
I think it would be pretty magical, honestly. One of the wow moments the public never got to (because of adoption rates) is a shared AR experience. Really compelling stuff.
I can think of a lot of impediments to VR (the weight of the headset and vertigo being the biggest) but needing everyone in a room to share a single headset at the same time seems like an extremely fringe case. The real problem there is just the cost of buying enough headsets.
I think the biggest impediment is just how bulky they are. If we can make them so it’s just like picking up and putting on a pair of lightweight glasses, the same way you pick up a controller, I think that there would be a lot more uptake, especially in the gaming space.
That's not to say VR can never be successful, but I think it needs to offer something more compelling than just "immersion." Exercise or AR might be viable routes.
They're different experiences. I don't need Tetris or PacMan in VR. Conversely, Half-Life 1/2 etc are not remotely intense as Half-Life Alyx. In the first 2 you're watching a movie. In the later you're in the world of Half-Life
The reason movies exist isn't simply "immersion", it's a different experience than reading a book.
Examples:
- Before going on a trip, pre-visiting the destination in Google Earth with VR is very spatially informative & makes directional intuition memorable upon arrival at the real world destination.
- Virtual role-play with environmental cues that cause make-believe to be ever more real.
But most people don't need this very often. Picking up a book or throwing on some earbuds to listen to a book are far more frequent and compatible with simultaneous other activities. VR feels the same--a high-demand focused experience that is infrequently worth the effort.
I think that the relatively low living space area for most of the world is a huge strain on VR adoption.
Meta glasses somewhat justify themselves just for recording hikes/cycles/weddings etc.
You're probably the last generation who would think so.
What held it back from mainstream imo is an inherent space issue (you need room) and a lack of multiplayer participation (need even more room). Compared to sitting on a couch in a small studio with a few friends, it doesnt stand a chance.
The other problem is most peoples first experience is with some shitty mall vr room where the “game” consists of free unity assets slapped together in a way that makes marky marks horizons look polished. Few people start off with something like the half life one.
I know some people complain of motion sickness, but that doesn't bother me. I just want controls like Mario or Zelda on a regular joystick. Why can't this be done?
It doesn't even have to be first person. I'd play a third person game like Mario or Zelda with a VR camera tracking them. I just want that kind of movement.
Pushing a button to teleport in short hops is annoying as hell. I hate everything about it.
I gave up trying in frustration.
The game Moss did this well for a platformers. But it could also be really fun for realtime strategy/simulation games (StarCraft, sim city) or sports games like Madden.
I think even being the Lakitu camera in Mario 64 would work.
And you're right, it would kick ass for strategy, sim, and sports games.
I wonder if folks have tried building the movement and camera before the main gameplay loop. Just to see what feels right.
How would editing work?
Do you think these will win over video world models like Genie?
Have you played with DiamondWM and other open source video world models?
So from where I'm sitting in my middle class suburbs, it's certainly not dead, but it's basically the modern equivalent of those actuated flight sim entertainment experiences from the 80s/90s.
VR seems to be much bigger among the perpetually online. For us normies VR is hardly a blip on the radar.
I still don't even really understand what Horizon Worlds or the Metaverse even was, or if there's a distinction between the two. I've heard of VRChat, but from the little I've seen, it seems extremely unappealing.
I still think that most people don't want to strap a computer screen to their face, for any reason. I've done it, it's not very pleasant.
There is no way this ever can be close to safe for your health than, say, not using it.
But then on top of that you add the expensive cost of the headset, the battery issue, the limited mobility, not being able to go to c0rn sites without Meta being all up in my b'ness, etc. etc. etc.
There is like, zero upside to this thing. None. Zilch.
At least the smartphone was easy to adopt en masse cause it combined a music player, mini browser, portability, GPS, game machine and all in a nice portable package that, at worst, just takes up more space in your pants pocket.
But if they can ever invent hardware that doesn't sit on one's head or rest on top of your ears (which also chafes on a hot day), then this thing could really start to get some traction cause much of the friction (figuratively speaking) would be removed. Meta glasses are a step in the right direction but they're not very immersive.
Disagree. It‘s quite mature and usable.
I worked on a software that offered VR as a feature. The user‘s started enthusiastically with eg. dedicated VR rooms. But it became clear that the immersive delta to a screen is surprisingly low. We‘re all trained to immerse into 2D screens on a daily basis. If you then observe how people are ridiculed while wearing a VR headset by their colleagues or how people with complicated hair style hesitate wearing a headset: then you understand why it‘s just not a good fit for B2B.
It's the only app I use. I think my issue is that VR is very much a solo experience.
It's hard for me to have the free time and room to play with my kids and family. I would rather play 2d games with the kids.
(2) I think the Horizon Worlds problem is not so much that the whole idea is cringe but rather than the authoring tools weren't good enough for users or brands to create interesting worlds. I wanted it to work but I couldn't find worlds I wanted to visit and was strongly alienated by the platform's inability to incorporate JPG images or GLB models. No way I'm going to waste my time learning an awkward interface to make worlds based on dumbed-down computational solid geometry where I can't apply those skills to other platforms.
(3) Part of that problem is that the MQ3 has enough RAM that you can use video game programming techniques to make interesting worlds but very little headroom for user-generated content in systems like Horizon Worlds and VRChat. The 16GB Apple Vision Pro is better but I find it completely comfortable to author for PC VR with a 64GB workstation as much as I love the standalone MQ3 experience.