I wanted to love VR. I dreamed of having a headset when I was younger and kickedstarted the oculus rift. I imagined a million worlds that would be within virtual reach. It would be the coolest!<p>VR has been nothing but a complete disappointment to me. Motion Sickness, headaches, sweaty headsets and detachment. Never played a VR game that wasn’t better without it, somewhat like 3D movies.
I have my doubts this will ever be anything other that a use once toy for most.<p>Seeing Facebook further latch onto our faces fills me with dread. I don’t think we will interact with each other in VR with business or pleasure outside of some fringe groups.
More fads, more ewaste…<p>AR on the other hand, either as a small projector or special glasses — that is exciting.
This is such a strange article. It doesn't present anything or explain how a VR workstation can actually work.<p>Has anyone actually worked this way?<p>I spent about an hour with a Vive headset and it was the most obnoxious experience I ever had. The lack of feedback, the requirements of a large room free of obstacle, the awful screen door effect, the poor precision from the dual wands.<p>Overall, I was exhausted after just 30 minutes. That's not to mention the physical portion of using a headset + the wands.<p>There might a middle ground where you are sitting or lying down. But that still doesn't solve efficient input. As far as I see it, nothing really beats a keyboard.<p>I got into it thinking that we had passed the hype cycle, but it really felt like I was still in the tech demo hell.
I work in Immersed every day as a developer. It's a fantastic experience.<p>Primary work goes on an IMAX sized 2880x1800 screen in front of me divided up with TMUX and Vim. Slack in a vertical 1440 x 900 to my right, and media + reference on a drawing table oriented 1440 x 900 below where my lap would be.<p>Instead of a boring room in my house, I'm in a nebula that's beautiful but non-distracting.
SimulaVR [1] is introducing a new class of products (virtual reality computer or VRC) that aims to develop a full linux desktop in a headset. I'm excited about using this with Stardust XR [2] and my NixOS configuration.<p>We're obviously in a very early stage of consumer VR hardware and I agree with most people that AR (passthrough or glasses) would be preferable to VR. There are a lot of open problems in this space - a lot of these problems spoil the user experience, right now. But, engineers are solving them slowly over time and I don't predict a future (say 50 years from now) where people are still using their fingers to peck at keys and are still stuck with a 25" monitor (at least in the majority of cases).<p>Happy to be an early adopter - maybe I'll even discover some problems that I can solve and benefit from the inevitable deluge of capital.<p>[1]: <a href="https://simulavr.com/" rel="nofollow">https://simulavr.com/</a>
[2]: <a href="https://stardustxr.org/" rel="nofollow">https://stardustxr.org/</a>
Whenever I read dismissive comments about new tech I think that this same people would have dismissed the internet in the early days.. who needs all this complicated stuff when you can just go to the library ???
Interesting. I’ve been idly speccing out a Linux workstation from System76 to replace my 8-year-old PC but maybe I should look into the Simula One. An evolution of form as well as function. Thought oculus would be too low-resolution for this sort of thing. I’m pretty finicky about my keyboard height/monitor height/monitor distance ergonomics and this would take care of a lot of problems that are quite difficult to solve in meatspace, especially if you want to lie down.<p>At this point it’s a race for who builds the first sensory deprivation tank VR workstation I guess.
It's such an exciting new wave of technology, I just wish it wasn't being spearheaded by Facebook. On the other hand, I can't wait to see how they further corrupt humanity with yet another tool in their pocket
This reads like a prequel to E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops"<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops#:~:text=%22The%20Machine%20Stops%22%20is%20a,Forster.&text=The%20story%2C%20set%20in%20a,instant%20messaging%20and%20the%20Internet" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops#:~:text=%22T...</a>.
This article is bullshit. It's strange that the article faked the header image using Google's Daydream View but shows the user using hand tracking. The article doesn't go into any technical specifics about the headset or setup.<p>If you're really interested in coding in VR, I suggest looking at <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/hmdprogramming" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/hmdprogramming</a>. I've experimented with programming in VR using Vive + Virtual Desktop, GearVR, Daydream, Quest and others, and you can find some of my notes in that subreddit: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/fc5sfr/oculus_quest_termux_selfcontained_hmd_cyberdeck/fj8pxm1/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/fc5sfr/oculus_qu...</a><p>The biggest limitation of current headsets is the resolution which is ~20pixels per degree on consumer headsets and needs to get closer to ~60ppd to match real world resolutions. Furthermore, there are multiple layers of blurring due to the VR composition passes so you lose ~50% of your headset's resolution if the app doesn't implement proper text rendering.
So they think people will put on a headset in order to shop.<p>Versus me picking up my phone and ordering something within a minute. Or texting someone a simple message.<p>What VR and metaverse miss is that they haven’t solved the asynchronous problem.
> I have Facebook's Oculus strapped to my face<p>I know many people call their Quest 1 or 2's just "my Oculus", but I didn't expect a large site to do the same, really shows how dumb it was to scrap that name.<p>It is also a smidge funny that they used both Facebook and Oculus when "Meta" doesn't want you to use either anymore, in the context of VR.
It's incredible the amount of, "VR was bad for me when I tried it" comments that show up on every VR post. It's an emerging technology. Desktops now vs desktops 40 years ago ate ass.<p>I'm not ready to spend all day in a vr headset but I'm glad some people are.
I think when people have this big game changing ideas around VR, what they're generally imagining is actually is still not there. Low friction experiences that still allow freedom of movement. It is possible that VR tech evolves to the point that it can be a low friction experience (this is a bit debatable, but from my experiences I'd still call it a pretty big hassle).<p>Freedom of movement is the large one. Omni treadmills are one way of dealing with this, but anyone that has tried them knows that they are an awkward experience on their own (you can definitely get used to it, but you'll never mistake it for walking normally). They also massively increase the friction in using a VR headset.<p>If the virtual environment you were in was able to be dynamically projected over real world obstacles, then you'd be able to move freely... and you'd no longer be using VR but AR. The one thing I think VR is really accomplishing right now is pushing technology development that will allow AR in the future.<p>I do think that AR is going to be a defining breakout period for these technologies and VR is effectively dead in the water. Even a small whiff of AR in the form of Pokemon Go got people seriously jazzed and met those basic requirements I set out... Just without the immersion people are looking for out of VR.
I bought an Oculus a couple of years ago out of curiosity and because I wanted to support the technology. My disappointment is that it essentially a gaming platform. I've never been attracted to games, not IRL, not in early PC's and now not in VR. There are 360 degree videos on YouTube, but accessing them is awkward and they aren't that good. The screen door effect and view not extending to the periphery detracts from the experience. But once in awhile, when "immersion" hits you like a drug, it's amazing. I think it's still too early unless you are a gamer. ymmv of course.
I bought an Index recently and love it. Lots of fun games and to be honest a lot of hours logged are in the free valve demos and the Steam VR environments (quests which award items for your avatar). That being said I have zero desire to do work in VR. I don’t experience motion sickness (except momentarily in Pistol Whip), but I can’t imagine VR doing anything but hindering my ability to focus. I personally have moved to just one screen and although there is a lot of cool customization that exists in the VR space I don’t need a bunch of other screens bringing distractions.
The future will be a lightweight headset integrating VR and AR, so that we can switch from one to the other easily, and even switch everything off.<p>With this headset, we won't have to carry anything else: no screen, no computer, no keyboard, etc.<p>We will even be able to share virtual contents with one another when needed.<p>We won't be isolated from the outside world.
This sounds awful. I already feel disconnected from the world around me, my community, nature, fresh air. Why would anyone want this for themselves? To be productive? If this is the next step in productivity, we need to start looking at how to be <i>less</i> productive.
People don't seem to understand that VR was always an element of dystopian fiction. It's one of the things we do when we are confined to Earth. The others are gambling (with apes?), drugs, mindless hedonism (there's an app for that), following cults and crazy ideologies (Qanon? flat Earth?), pointless political intrigue, and war both physical and cultural. There will be a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.<p>Starship is the most important project at this point in human history. Without a frontier there is nothing but meaningless conflict, repetition, and stagnation. We will sit here on Earth and basically masturbate until some black swan event destroys our civilization or even our entire biosphere. That event could be something stupid we do, an asteroid, a gamma ray burst, who knows... but it doesn't matter. If we stay here intelligent life dies.<p>I think Starship is even more important than fighting climate change, since winning that battle still leaves us trapped in a cyberpunk dystopia that just happens to be a little more sustainable. That means instead of global warming trashing our civilization we might get a few more centuries of pointless masturbation before something else kills us.<p>Edit:<p>Keep in mind too how frontiers work. Novelty is imported from the frontier back to the old culture. The frontier revives everything. It's like going for a hike in the woods or a trip to a new city, but at civilization scale. Even if only 0.001% of humanity ever goes to space, I predict a civilization-wide effect.<p>As an added bonus as far as we know there are no natives in our immediate region of space. The "new world" of Europe's great age of frontier exploration was not a pure frontier, and it came with the moral baggage of war and displacement. The new frontier is pure. It's all exploration, no conquest. It's going to be more like the settling of the Polynesian archipelago (by the original Polynesians) than the European age of colonialism.<p>Anyway what a crazy rant from an article about VR... but I think it's relevant. Every time I hear about the metaverse or NFTs or some other bit of wank this is the thought that runs through my head.
PSA: You can no longer buy a business-class Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook/Meta.<p>Presumably while sales reworks the product line for Metaverse pricing.<p>If you don’t want a Facebook account for your VR device, the only other option for Immersed looks like a Vive Focus 3.
> A VR headset is just like a stereoscope from the 1800s, except the image is on screens fixed just past your nose, and you're in space. Your eyes are free to change angle as the images on the screen move, but your lenses are accommodating screens that are at a fixed distance.<p>Never thought about that. You can throw processing at VR to dial up the frame rate, throw in more expensive displays to increase the resolution but at the end of the day your mind still expects to change focus as it flits from "near" to "far" objects in "the meta" ... and I don't see how we'll ever be ever to accommodate that.
VR is still early due to the cost and complexity of PCVR. While Facebook Meta has a great compelling product that I use daily, their brand is just toxic to most people in developed countries.<p>I believe VR is ready for work, you can invest in an HP G2 and beefy enough PC. However, I believe its main current use cases are still either fitness or virtually socializing with people you cannot physically meet with due to either lockdowns, distance, or just convenience.
It's funny that if you wanted to simulate an ultra-realistic VR work environment, you just need to put on clear airsoft goggles and sit in your desk, it would include real feedback to your body and all. But having to work with those goggles is very uncomfortable, now imagine doing it with actual VR.
What would it take (in terms of tech and number of years) to come up with something similar to VR (or AR) but without the burden of wearing a headset or glasses? Like the way Tony Stark interacts with JARVIS. I hope it won't take 50 years!
My main problem with VR is that whatever you do you still need to move.
Im just going to say it but i think the measuring bar for VR will be the first brain chip for it. THAT will be the beginning of the metaverse.
Stock photo shows person wearing a Google Daydream headset, making a pinching gesture like they expect hand tracking to be a thing on a 5 year old smartphone in a glorified "cardboard" viewer.
My earlier attempts at this failed miserably. Mostly due to distance between eyes issues and res being too low for good text reading.<p>...both surmountable issues given time so I do expect this to take over eventually.
I’ve only engaged with VR in passing, but am curious to think more carefully about it. If anyone is moving in the other direction and wants to pass along a headset, email is in profile.
Forget VR. Even without VR 3d games gives me motion sickness. I wanted to play the much praised "The Witness" games by Jonathan Blow. Too sad i could not because of motion sickness. Has any one found a solution that worked to get rid of motion sickness?.