VR gets reality check with decline in investment

[Knutz Scorpio]

I haven't spent any more then $200 on my latest computer and it runs SL fine, and the computers before that I spent less and still had acceptable SL performance. Nine years ago when I first started SL I went higher budget to build a new "gaming rig", that was a true learning experience and since then I've been content to build my systems from used parts that others considered too old for their use.

VR has been way out of my budget but been creeping down to where I might bite. When the headsets came down in price I started getting interested until I realized they had to be tethered to a $1000 system, I could possibly scrounge something cheaper with used parts but would still be way too expensive. When this Oculus Quest comes out I'm definitely interested, but I'm going to spend a whole lot of time researching others' experiences and I suspect I'll talk myself into waiting for yet the next generation of VR equipment.

 

[Sid]

At the moment I have a laptop, that can handle SL smoothly (with 2 extra vans underneath it, for extra cooling) .

Did I mention I have a really huge laptop?

 

[Grandma Bates]

... snip....

Now THAT is promising. The VR hardware that works without a computer is definitely the avenue to success. I'm curious to see what content develops that changes the equation.

Usually when new technology is introduced people keep talking about the "killer app" that will motivate people to purchase it. That kind of discussion has not happened with VR, at least not with the same zeal as other technologies. It is still in the stage where people are not even sure how easy it will be to use and how it will change over the next year. When you have this kind of technology and porn is not enough to sell it then there are still big stumbling blocks.

To make matters worse consumer confidence is decreasing, and many people feel that the economic expansion is going to turn around. This tech has been around but has always been too expensive. The timing is pretty bad for this technology.

I have personally tried it a while ago when the University of Maine was pushing it for help in teaching geometry. It has great potential, and there are many ways it can be used. Nobody has stepped forward with a broad vision and a compelling story. It needs someone with the charisma and vision of a Steve Jobs to come out of the woodwork and that Zuckerburg (spelling) fellow likely only sees this a just another way to track peoples' wants.

Eventually it will catch on and be a big thing, but there is no way to tell how long it will be until it explodes.

 

[Myficals]

Eventually it will catch on and be a big thing, but there is no way to tell how long it will be until it explodes.

Personally, I don't see it ever "exploding" per se, not in the way smartphones, or tablets for example, exploded. Mostly for the reason Noodles raised earlier, that the use of VR tech runs counter to the way people casually engage with media and technology, I don't really see it ever rising above niche product status. Not that I don't think it'll be a big niche that it carves. There are plenty of potential areas where VR can achieve a great deal of success. I just don't see it changing the cultural landscape in the same way that mobile devices have over the last decade.

 

[Caliandris]

It has the same problem 3D movies have. Especially for home use.

People don't really single task anymore. Having any experience that's so "Needs to be the focus" is just not going to take off. I know it's not VR, but like I play Overwatch, when I die waiting for respawn, between matches. Even when the match is live and slow, I am browsing in another window or on my phone. This is worse with TV (See the 3D TV problem. I know I am not alone. I can't even remember the last time we watched the TV in my house and everyone was 100% paying attention.

VR requires too much focus.

THIS, definitely THIS. I'm out of the picture when it comes to VR headsets because they give me migraine, but even if I were able to use them without suffering days of migraine, I wouldn't be using them because they require me to lose my ability to switch focus at need. You can't watch a toddler safely and use a VR headset. You can't watch for the postman arriving/keep an eye on the clock/watch a dog or elderly person. You can do all those things with a desktop computer and SL, for example. You can also easily switch between answering email, looking at the news headlines, sorting photographs, making textures.

I think the VR experience is similar to the sort of hobby you go into a shed to pursue and then shut everything else out. With VR that's the only way to do it... you can't multitask. And I agree, few people single task - if I am watching television, I generally have a craft project on the go. I listen to radio while I do housework, or audible, I sometimes play a game, watch tv, have a conversation at the same time.

 

[Kalel]

THIS, definitely THIS. I'm out of the picture when it comes to VR headsets because they give me migraine, but even if I were able to use them without suffering days of migraine, I wouldn't be using them because they require me to lose my ability to switch focus at need. You can't watch a toddler safely and use a VR headset. You can't watch for the postman arriving/keep an eye on the clock/watch a dog or elderly person. You can do all those things with a desktop computer and SL, for example. You can also easily switch between answering email, looking at the news headlines, sorting photographs, making textures.

I think the VR experience is similar to the sort of hobby you go into a shed to pursue and then shut everything else out. With VR that's the only way to do it... you can't multitask. And I agree, few people single task - if I am watching television, I generally have a craft project on the go. I listen to radio while I do housework, or audible, I sometimes play a game, watch tv, have a conversation at the same time.

you guys are overly VR focused in this threadi think VR and AR are synonymous..

I think this is when AR or Agumented realitty comes into play.... VR requires full focus and invovlement while AR will allow multitasking in Real life and virtual life. Google Glasses was ahead of it's time but i believe it will eventually reach that point as long as it's not too invasive...

VR will be for heavy use while AR will be for light use.

 

[Kalel]

We are in a slum right now.. wallets are tight... people fighting trying to fight and hold onto current tech... and the money..

once it's all over there will be another technologyical shift... VR will come right back up...

 

[Beebo Brink]

THIS, definitely THIS. I'm out of the picture when it comes to VR headsets because they give me migraine, but even if I were able to use them without suffering days of migraine, I wouldn't be using them because they require me to lose my ability to switch focus at need. You can't watch a toddler safely and use a VR headset. You can't watch for the postman arriving/keep an eye on the clock/watch a dog or elderly person. You can do all those things with a desktop computer and SL, for example.

This is a driving force in the widespread use of smart phones and tablets. They are portable and fit into a lifestyle in which we are constantly multi-tasking. With a tablet, I can sit in the living room with my wife; she watches football and I browse the web, a companionable arrangement that simply isn't possible with my desktop computer, which is in another room. VR would result in even greater isolation.

you guys are overly VR focused in this threadi think VR and AR are synonymous.

They're both high tech, but they're hardly synonymous. In fact, they're more like polar opposites: VR replaces our surroundings and takes us elsewhere, while AR infiltrates our environment and (supposedly) enhances it.

I find the prospect of Augmented Reality to be somewhat alarming. As if our attention isn't already being pulled in so many different directions, as if driving with mobile phone users isn't dangerous enough already. But in any event, I'm too old to deal with AR -- my ability to handle multiple streams of perceptive input has gotten worse year by year. Younger, more plastic, minds can probably adjust much better.

 

[Caliandris]

This is a driving force in the widespread use of smart phones and tablets. They are portable and fit into a lifestyle in which we are constantly multi-tasking. With a tablet, I can sit in the living room with my wife; she watches football and I browse the web, a companionable arrangement that simply isn't possible with my desktop computer, which is in another room. VR would result in even greater isolation.


They're both high tech, but they're hardly synonymous. In fact, they're more like polar opposites: VR replaces our surroundings and takes us elsewhere, while AR infiltrates our environment and (supposedly) enhances it.

I find the prospect of Augmented Reality to be somewhat alarming. As if our attention isn't already being pulled in so many different directions, as if driving with mobile phone users isn't dangerous enough already. But in any event, I'm too old to deal with AR -- my ability to handle multiple streams of perceptive input has gotten worse year by year. Younger, more plastic, minds can probably adjust much better.

I'm pretty old. I'm a lot less able to absorb information than my son in his twenties, but I find it depends on my level of interest too - far from destroying concentration I think you need high levels of concentration to be able to deal with different streams of information adequately and I find my ability rises with interest and declines with boredom.

 

[PandoraB]

It has the same problem 3D movies have. Especially for home use.

People don't really single task anymore. Having any experience that's so "Needs to be the focus" is just not going to take off. I know it's not VR, but like I play Overwatch, when I die waiting for respawn, between matches. Even when the match is live and slow, I am browsing in another window or on my phone. This is worse with TV (See the 3D TV problem. I know I am not alone. I can't even remember the last time we watched the TV in my house and everyone was 100% paying attention.

VR requires too much focus.

This is also my problem with VR, I *love* videogames, and prolly spend 2 - 6 hrs a day playing them. But I play them with a 2nd screen open to browse/check forums/chat/ect. If I would go VR I would maybe go 30 mins playing and then would have to unplug again, and thats without bathroom breaks.

Thats what I liked about the Vive, wich has an external camera so you could watch picture in picture what happens outside. Of course then I wonder if Im just maybe not the target audience for VR. I can see mobile VR maybe growing, but without an killer app it would be nothing more then a gizmo.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Our holiday office party (we have it in January, don't judge) always offers an array of door prizes that range from the trivial to the truly awesome. This year there was an Occulus Go in the batch, which I didn't win, of course not, because I've only worked there for 19 fucking years and never won a single fucking door prize, much less one I really really really wanted.

Not bitter. No, not me.

 

[8bit Biologist]

IMHO, it's that the space is still being treated as entertainment, and not taken seriously, by the developers themselves. There needs to be legitimate reasons to be in the environment, on a daily and regular basis. To work, to get tax advice, to get therapy, to look for a new car, etc... That kind of utilitarian regime would grow familiarity with the VR space, and result in more time spent, and then, money spent in this world that you spend increasing amounts of time in.

Short of that, it remains an expensive novelty.

 

[Sid]

As long as the VR goggles don't become standard equipment like a mouse for a desktop, laptop or gaming console, VR will be nothing more then a niche.

 

[Noodles]

This is also my problem with VR, I *love* videogames, and prolly spend 2 - 6 hrs a day playing them. But I play them with a 2nd screen open to browse/check forums/chat/ect. If I would go VR I would maybe go 30 mins playing and then would have to unplug again, and thats without bathroom breaks.

Thats what I liked about the Vive, wich has an external camera so you could watch picture in picture what happens outside. Of course then I wonder if Im just maybe not the target audience for VR. I can see mobile VR maybe growing, but without an killer app it would be nothing more then a gizmo.

This is the same problem 3D TV and movies have and why they had yet another failure to launch a few years ago.

People very rarely single task anymore. And VR is very much a "single task" activity.

Maybe the killer App for VR is a Virtual mirror of our phones that we can use in whatever VR thing we are doing.

 

[Casey Pelous]

As long as the VR goggles don't become standard equipment like a mouse for a desktop, laptop or gaming console, VR will be nothing more then a niche.

I tend to think you're right, Sid -- but I do uneasily recall the first time I saw one of those newfangled "mouse" contraptions and thought it was really dumb and useless. It ranks up there with my assessment of the Compact Disc as "only for really mainstream music -- no way you'll ever be able to buy a Los Lobos CD."

In short, if I make a prophesy about technology, you'd be well advised to invest heavily in whatever I've decided won't make it.

It seems to me someone needs to come up with some sort of compelling business use for VR -- what the spreadsheet was to early PC's. I've no clue what that might be, but if that were to happen, then VR headsets would quickly become much more common.

And, of course, there's always porn as a market driver -- it has never failed us before!

 

[Sid]

Don't forget the VR goggles are already more then 20 years no real success.
I doubt it will ever become mainstream.

 

[Adeon Writer]

Oculus Quest release day is today, a 6 DOF, totally wireless, PCless headset now exists. For 400 dollars. Any changes? I guess we'll see soon. Lay man reviews inbound in the next few days.

 

[8bit Biologist]

I don't think it's the hardware. I think it's the utility of the software. When I can use the VR goggles to do my work efficiently, respond to e-mails, set up appointments, etc, then you'll find me in that space regularly.

 

[Erich Templar]

Just a little reminder from 1995:

Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana

The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Cristiano]

I don't think it's the hardware. I think it's the utility of the software. When I can use the VR goggles to do my work efficiently, respond to e-mails, set up appointments, etc, then you'll find me in that space regularly.

I think it is a combination. Having spent a small amount of time with my new Oculus Quest (I also own the Rift and Go), I will definitely say it is a game changing consumer VR device. Markets are fickle so it may not catch on, but the sheer amount of promotion Oculus has put into it along with the early response and fantastic reviews makes me think it may solve part of the equation. No, the killer VR apps don't yet seem to be there, but the Quest is the most polished and accessible experience I've seen with VR. I hope it enjoys wide success.