I used to be a pretty hardcore gamer. Now I'm a bit older, have other responsibilities, and considerably less time. Also, home improvement is expensive.<p>I desperately wanted to love VR, but could not bring myself to buy a unit. The demos I tried just could not bring me to pay that amount of money given the limited games and limited quality of them. Many of the ones with the greatest potential seem like they require multiple friends to also have VR.<p>I have a Daydream View headset and have barely touched it since getting it with my Pixel XL. Discoverability for Daydream apps on the Play store is a horrible experience right now. There's not even a filter, and no way to sort by newest, so you end up seeing the same crap over and over mixed in with generic VR apps that aren't made for Daydream (and thus a lower quality experience), or random apps that show up when searching for "Daydream" because that's the best way I've found to filter.<p>I DESPERATELY want VR to take off, and I've wanted this my entire geeky life. But it just isn't there yet.<p>Once the price comes down and quality comes up, and ideally isn't tethered, then I think we'll see a huge market open up. But I spent $5k on my last gaming computer (excluding peripherals) a few years ago, and I couldn't bring myself to purchase this.
HTC vive is in trouble. The tech is basically licensed from valve (I say licensed, valve give it away for free I believe). There are multiple competing headsets (LG) due for release soon also licensing the valve lighthouse tech.<p>But no one is interested in the HTC app store, everyone gets their content from valve via steam.<p>So HTC can't sell their headset as a loss leader and make the money back on games, because they don't have any monopoly on the games channel.<p>The other major competitor Oculus is owned by Facebook who basically have infinite money. They have undercut the price of the vive significantly (presumably selling it at a loss) and throw money at all the studios to make Oculus exclusive content.<p>I have a vive, I think it's amazing tech. I think the lighthouse technology is far more promising than the camera tracking used by Oculus. I far prefer the open philosophy, and the strategy of not making content hardware exclusive. I want it to succeed (and maybe it will via other partners with valve). But right now, i think HTC are going to struggle to make it work for them.
Does this suggest the VR industry is in trouble? Is it jettisoning an unprofitable money pit or is it the opposite - that VR is doing well and HTC needs money, so it's selling the crown jewels? Both (VR not doing well, HTC needs $)? Not familiar with the numbers.<p>Fuck. If Google ends up with Vive and Facebook has Occulus that'll about kill my interest in the tech. Both of those companies would rather flail aimlessly at making money over providing a quality product and the last thing I'd like to do is invest in their ecosystems further. Though Google is capable of subsidizing the tech for awhile, which might be nice...<p>It's finally starting to get reasonably priced for what it is (I have earned the right to complain; bought a Vive a ~year ago). Haven't touched it for about 8 of those months because the games weren't fundamentally better than non-VR and in a lot of ways were worse.<p>So much potential there, though. Play Quake in VR and realize what 21 year old (and free) tech is capable of.
A couple of comments mention 1995 and 21 year old technology.<p>For the curious, here is a PC Magazine article on VR from March 1995:<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=79i1lfAqumUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=true" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.com/books?id=79i1lfAqumUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA...</a>
I tried out a VR kit at the mall. It was a novelty experience for me.<p>I’d have been living the dream if it was 1995. But it was just OK to me now. Back in 95 I was in college and did a project using an SGI Origin something or other with an infinite reality engine, VR headset and inductance based flock of birds tracking system.<p>They felt about the same to me, although the graphics then were like that Duran Duran video.<p>The main reason I’d want a car system today would be to free myself from a fixed screen. Not for games in particular but for general computing use.<p>We’re getting there but the resolution isn’t there yet.
Honestly they only thing I'm interested in when it comes to VR is virtual desktops. I've not played any games on VR but I don't game much anymore. Really I just want to have unlimited virtual desktops for work.
My opinion? VR is on its last legs. I've tried it, and while it's cool... blocking my entire vision and attention just isn't realistic.<p>That said, from what I've seen, I do think AR is going to be the next big thing.
VR won't be a huge knockout until wearable contacts get developed. I would imagine that would be followed by implants. Until then VR is a cool novelty and it will be spread by actual interesting apps/games being developed for it that aren't just ports.