1687

Not lately. The wife moved furniture around and put the headset away. I think it was a hint. But I used to spend at least an hour a day when it was new. I still think it’s an amazing experience.

1688

It’s 3D television all over again. It’s just not that impressive relative to how amazing modern games look. And certainly not enough to offset the price, difficulty of setup, sweaty face, nausea, of extended play.

It’s like the “pepsi challenge”

In his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), author Malcolm Gladwell presents evidence that suggests Pepsi’s success over Coca-Cola in the “Pepsi Challenge” is a result of the flawed nature of the “sip test” method. His research shows that tasters will generally prefer the sweeter of two beverages based on a single sip, even if they prefer a less sweet beverage over the course of an entire can.

Sure, for 10 minutes it’s a novelty, and the sweet taste of novelty is interesting. But play for an hour, play for a few hours, play for a week… suddenly the downsides of very low resolution screen door effects, nausea, 1 pound of complex, sweaty stuff strapped to your face, the control limitations, the fact that nobody else can see what you’re doing and have fun with you … starts to really weigh on you. And that’s the part that actually matters.

1689

It certainly hasn’t changed my world. But it has enhanced it.

1690

Maybe that was your experience but it certainly hasn’t been mine (approaching 2 years of use). To me it’s just another gaming device to play exclusives on. I’ve probably had more time with it than I have my PS4 - but I still love my PS4 and am glad I bought it. :)

1691

Dammit, my own thoughts are wrong yet again.

1692

We’ll just see what the market says here. I predict … an extended, lukewarm near-death experience.

1693

Is your argument that VR won’t be successful commercially, or that we can’t like it?

I ask because I agree that it will be a couple more revisions before it becomes a commercial success. Need to remove wires, update the resolution and developers need to continue refining experiences. I personally think that there is too much potential, and the market is slowly growing, that Facebook and others will continue to refine the experience.

I disagree with you with regards to the experience. It is awesome technology. Playing LA Noire VR has been almost transcendental. I have been playing more often in my headset, and now with my new HOTAS (thanks @Editer) I will be spending more time in the cockpit VR as well. Doing VR Tourism is a killer app, especially once the can move from 2d pictures painted and actually let you walk through castles and buildings. Make it multiplayer as well and I can see it being used a lot to see new places and relive or plan vacations.

1694

I think a lot of people confuse the Pepsi Challenge with a sustainable business. That’s what I think. I mean, people used to love the Wii and Kinect, too, right?

1695

3D TV might be an easy comparison to make, but it is a rather flawed one. No matter how great 3D TV technology could have gotten it was still limited by the size of the screen. It could never be something like even an IMAX 3D experience because the experience remained locked in a rectangle in front of you. 3D TV lacked any sense of immersion. The very thing that made 3D TV “meh” was the same thing that makes VR awesome.

No matter how display technology increased, no matter how fast refresh rates got, no matter how high pixel density got, 3D TV was still just a window into a world. VR is being inside a world. It will benefit by the progress of display technology more than 3D TV could have, outside of wall sized TVs becoming the norm.

VR also has a better chance of not dying off like 3D TV since there is an existing market where the technology is in demand and the price point is on target with what people spend. For people who play sims and spend money on multiple monitors and a track IR, a rift or vive will likely save them money.

1696

Europa Universalis 4 VR is gonna be so lit.

1697

I dont think we are confused. I mean most people in this thread think VR is awesome (I do) but also think its not going to be mainstream or commercially successfull for a long time. Shrug.

1698

You do know that Pepsi is really popular and successful, right?

1699

Pepsi being popular, to me, is like Trump getting elected. Just wrong.

1700

Eh, there are a number of systems which already can achieve something akin to this.

There are systems that project directly into your eye, albeit I think they are all prohibitively expensive.

I worked with a company called IMMY that had a solution that essentially used reflected DLP to create a nice, large screen either projected over reality or onto a blank screen, without needing to have a large LCD or LED display. It worked pretty well, and was cost effective, and the system was pretty light weight. I think they company may have run into financial troubles though.

1701

My big disappointment with VR is motion sickness and my inability to get over it. There was always lots of talk about getting your VR legs but at this point I think it’s bullshit, or it requires some very extended periods of misery that I do not want to go through.

I mean as long as they don’t move the camera, I can play VR for hours without a hint of nausea. As soon as the view point moves without me though I range from ug to hurk. Cockpits and certain techniques do help a lot, surprisingly so, but not enough to completely eliminate the feeling.

So all of that eliminates a large swath of games and development possibilities.

No, not really. It was kinda cool, and I was excited to try each, with high hopes, but neither survived first contact. VR absolutely did. I haven’t pushed it much because it’s a big pain to setup and the cables do suck, but I can’t imagine this going away. It’s way too cool to be abandoned, though it could go away for a decade or more like it already did, waiting for tech to advance again. This time I am hoping it just gets enough angel investing, big company, and startup interest to keep it alive until we get something slick enough to go mainstream.

1702

That’s a testament to how VR will affect each person so differently. The first time my viewpoint moved steadily in a VR experience I had the strangest inner ear buzzing effect. It felt like a literal vibration just inside and below each ear. However, that went away with time. For me, it very much felt like I got my VR legs. I was never nauseated, and I have always loved roller coasters Etc. I don’t think I would have been able to handle something like Quake right off the bat, but who knows.

I agree that there is something very different about this when compared to technology like the Wii or 3D TV. It sounds very new wavey, and when pressed to describe it I can break it down into each of its component parts but the whole effect really does seem greater than the sum of its parts.

1703

Pretty much, yeah.

1704

I feel the same. I know I am one side of a spectrum for VR appreciation and it helps that I don’t get VR sick at all. However even skeptics have cackled with delight when I’ve had them try out certain games on my Oculus Rift. Several that had no interest in the current gen are now talking about picking up a Rift and the newly lower price point is helping a lot.

For my money there is plenty of content right now to offer 10s or even 100s of hours of immersive fun :-)

1705

I barely have room to get 7.1 speakers mounted around the living room. And when I’m PC gaming, I am a laptop gamer. How are you supposed to get a great experience like that?

That restriction is going to go away as soon as inside-out tracking becomes the norm.

1706

Will do!

-Roger (now at Magic Leap)