QOTW: Do you think virtual reality is a fad?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This.^

Ad VR has been around for a long time, aircraft simulators are a prime example, which about as close to AR as you can get. AR headsets take it a stage further and makes it more immersive and cheaper and has many military and industrial applications.

Whether it will ever be mainstream a consumer item is another question. It does come down to cost, but I suspect it will be a fad or a niche market for gamers.

AR is used in fast military jets, but never really caught on in vehicles and Google glass failed to catch on.

Well you could argue,that HUD technology is an early form of AR used in aircraft and the de Havilland Mosquito was the first to implement it in the 1940s. The North American A-5 Vigilante and Blackburn Buccaneer were the first jsts to implement it in the 1950s. Also,AR was used on attack helicopters like the AH64 Apache,ie,if you look at the HMD,it also a monocle which projected battlefield information into one of the WSO's eyes.

[peterb]

Well you could argue,that HUD technology is an early form of AR used in aircraft and the de Havilland Mosquito was the first to implement it in the 1940s. The North American A-5 Vigilante and Blackburn Buccaneer were the first jsts to implement it in the 1950s. Also,AR was used on attack helicopters like the AH64 Apache,ie,if you look at the HMD,it also a monocle which projected battlefield information into one of the WSO's eyes.

All true, so I wouldn't argue with that at all - just re-inforces my point!

[Corky34]

Its not been popular or short lived so it's certainly not a fad.

IMO the real question is if it will be widely adopted and i think the answer to that is no, not until it comes in a consumer acceptable format, currently VR/AR is to bulky, cumbersome, and expensive for most people to bother with.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

All true, so I wouldn't argue with that at all - just re-enforces my point!

Yeah,but it also shows commerical/military usage does not equal consumer uptake. VR is pretty cool,but it needs more time for pricing to drop and the experience to improve on cheapo setups!

Edit!!

To everyone,if you don't know who Techmoan is,then its a fantastic channel if you are interested in historical consumer electronics:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5I...W9gZPVkvzM8_Cw

I thought I was upto date with various old audiovisual formats,and apparently I was not!!



1080p/720p video recording back in 1993!!

It just shows how many things we take for granted took ages to catch on with various failures in its path!

[peterb]

Yeah,but it also shows commerical/military usage does not equal consumer uptake. VR is pretty cool,but it needs more time for pricing to drop and the experience to improve!

Exactly so. It is an exremely powerful industrial/military tool, but I suspect limited consumer use (certainly until prices fall and/or a 'killer application' can be found for it. AR is more than just a headset, but a headset is a cheaper way of implementing AR for the right application. As for VR, it would be better called 'simulated reality'.

[cptwhite_uk]

It's going to be a slow burner, the interest is there but the product isn't ready for mass market adaptation. The hype has mostly past for now, I expect it to be continue to be used by a minority in the consumer space and gradually find a niche in sectors other than entertainment, mostly in institutions that have the financial clout to justify it's expensive - big industry and institutions of that nature. Price will come down, and experience and ease of use will improve, then maybe in another 10-15 years it might get a second wind in the public space. I'm expecting it to eventually be a big thing, but not in the near future.

[DanceswithUnix]

That £400 VR headset and controller is more a niche product for on and off usage.

Usage is a big thing, not everyone wants to play Elite which is 80% of the use mine gets. Occasionally I play the gun slinger but only the shooting gallery as I don't have the area to duck and dive about in behind my desk even if I wheel the chair away. Dirt Rally is utterly impressive, but possibly because my graphics card is under spec tends to give me motion sickness so I can only play half an hour at a time.

Interesting that the minimum GPU spec for the Microsoft headset standard is really low to allow laptop use, I wonder what they expect people to run with that.

The absolute cost isn't that high, many people lose more than the cost of a headset in depreciation of their car every single month. The difference there is that new cars, iPhones and flat screen TVs are status symbols to many, an HMD just isn't. That could change if everyone is on some sort of VRbook social media.

That "research" puzzles me though. That seemed a pretty large percentage adoption for a new consumer technology based entirely off PS4 VR numbers where the possible audience is just percentage of PS4 owning households *not* percentage of adults.

Personally I wish I could find a game that my wife enjoyed playing in VR and I would get her a headset. You put that thing on, and you shut yourself off from the world, and you look a bit of a dick to anyone watching

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Exactly so. It is an exremely powerful industrial/military tool, but I suspect limited consumer use (certainly until prices fall and/or a 'killer application' can be found for it. AR is more than just a headset, but a headset is a cheaper way of implementing AR for the right application.

Technically speaking games like Pokemon Go and Ingress are AR,so AR has already penetrated the market to a degree,and I can see more games,etc using it.

Usage is a big thing, not everyone wants to play Elite which is 80% of the use mine gets. Occasionally I play the gun slinger but only the shooting gallery as I don't have the area to duck and dive about in behind my desk even if I wheel the chair away. Dirt Rally is utterly impressive, but possibly because my graphics card is under spec tends to give me motion sickness so I can only play half an hour at a time.

Interesting that the minimum GPU spec for the Microsoft headset standard is really low to allow laptop use, I wonder what they expect people to run with that.

The absolute cost isn't that high, many people lose more than the cost of a headset in depreciation of their car every single month. The difference there is that new cars, iPhones and flat screen TVs are status symbols to many, an HMD just isn't. That could change if everyone is on some sort of VRbook social media.

That "research" puzzles me though. That seemed a pretty large percentage adoption for a new consumer technology based entirely off PS4 VR numbers where the possible audience is just percentage of PS4 owning households *not* percentage of adults.

Personally I wish I could find a game that my wife enjoyed playing in VR and I would get her a headset. You put that thing on, and you shut yourself off from the world, and you look a bit of a dick to anyone watching

But then include games like Overwatch,etc and VR is not really useful and that has 30 million players. A TV will get far more usage than a VR headset and last longer. A 5 year old VR headset is probably not going to be supported that well like a 5 year old graphics card,but a 5 year old TV or car is still fine,especially as most broadcast stuff is not in 4K still,let alone HD.

For a drone,utterly brilliant though as it means you can fly it easier - saw some demos of that at a show.

Its like the Wii - lots of people bought,it played the odd game and it gathered dust. The issue is I think the same of VR,the games I would want to play normally would probably be more of a PITA anyway and a VR headset is not going to replace my monitor. So that is an added cost to my computer. I could justify buying another qHD 25" screen for my desktop for produtivity uses,and the total cost would be as much as a VR headset,but I would get better usage out of two screens,that the odd VR game I would want to play and I honestly don't like the controllers - there is more work being done on sensory gloves,etc but that again is another cost.

My last monitor also lasted the better part of a decade. I don't think a current VR headset would last even 5 years before support became an issue.

OTH,then why would I want to spend £400 to £500 on a VR headset and some controllers,etc when I could spend that on another lens for my photography setup,etc so its also the case my other hobbies leech money away from my more frivolous computing ones!

[peterb]

AR probably has more consumer application than VR (or simulated reality).

[LSG501]

I can see use case scenarios for both AR and VR in my line of 3D work (visualisation) but it all depends on the cost to end users etc in my opinion and if I'm honest outside of niche gaming I can see more use in businesses than homes.

AR and VR can show a client how something that doesn't exist could/would look like in a location, such as a new building on a street or how a room would look when fully finished and furnished.

Depending on how accessories progress you could utilise a 'moving floor' to allow them to walk round a 3D model prior to building it and give them a sense of what it would like like.

So is it a fad, well if it is a fad it's one that's been trying to come into fruition for several decades in one form or another so I can't see it 'going away' but I'm not sure it will end up being quite what everyone envisaged several decades ago.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

[Troopa]

Its a Fad!
-Too big and heavy and no games

[spacein_vader]

Consumer VR is not a fad. A year ago it was a fad, now it's a failure.

I'm sure they'll try again in a few years, hopefully they'll get price/performance right AND have a killer usage for it by then.

[Gunbuster]

I can see it being a niche item like steering wheels and flight sticks. I can't see it being more than a novelty in the main stream.

[Iota]

not until it comes in a consumer acceptable format, currently VR/AR is to bulky, cumbersome, and expensive for most people to bother with.

Interesting that the minimum GPU spec for the Microsoft headset standard is really low to allow laptop use, I wonder what they expect people to run with that.

it all depends on the cost to end users

Corky and others sum this up nicely for me personally. Cost aside for one moment, I simply do not like the current headset designs, not so much for the size of them, but for the simple fact that I don't get to see what is going on around me. The only headset I've got any form of interest in is the Microsoft AR headset, purely because it looks like you can still see what's going on around you.

I get claustrophobic, it isn't a case of motion sickness for me.

Until headset designers get that part right, then it's simply a non-starter for me.

[DanceswithUnix]

Corky and others sum this up nicely for me personally. Cost aside for one moment, I simply do not like the current headset designs, not so much for the size of them, but for the simple fact that I don't get to see what is going on around me. The only headset I've got any form of interest in is the Microsoft AR headset, purely because it looks like you can still see what's going on around you.

I get claustrophobic, it isn't a case of motion sickness for me.

Until headset designers get that part right, then it's simply a non-starter for me.

I don't believe the current Microsoft spec headsets are any different, AIUI the cameras on them are to track movement without using the tracking pods that Oculus etc use. The Hololens is different, but having reality bleed through is rather limiting.

Have you tried a HMD? I get claustrophobic pretty easily, but never have when using the Rift. Quite the opposite, sometimes when playing Elite space can feel dauntingly empty, when playing Dirt Rally in a stage with big jumps it seems a very long way down as the trees flash past. One of the demos stands you on a skyscraper ledge.