QOTW: Do you think virtual reality is a fad?

[HEXUS]

Or do you still have high hopes for a VR or AR future?

Read more.

[Friesiansam]

I hope it won't be but, suspect it will go the same was as 3D television.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It all boils down to cost and that includes the headsets and the hardware to drive them. Its kind of indicated by the PS4 VR selling as much(or even more) than the combined total of the PC equivalents.

However,VR adoption is starting to falter a bit.

http://variety.com/2017/digital/news...th-1202633072/

Based on multiple surveys with 12,000 consumers, YouGov found that the adoption of VR hardware has effectively stalled. 7 percent of U.S. adults now own a VR headset, according to YouGov, compared to 6 percent a year ago. “The penetration has plateaued,” Fuller said.

Fuller also shared some reasons voiced by consumers about why they haven’t bought into VR just yet. On the top of that list continues to be the high price for VR systems, despite recent price cuts. “Cost is a major constraint to consumer adoption,” he said. However, consumers also told YouGov that they fear of nausea and isolation, and believe that there isn’t enough good content available for them.

“The constraints to growth in VR have not been addressed,” Fuller said. “I don’t see industry-wide efforts to address these.”

Aside from the cost issue, Fuller argued that the industry also could do more to embrace additional forms of content that go beyond gaming, with data showing that a significant amount of consumers were looking to watch movies, take house tours and even do shopping in VR.

AR,has already seen quite decent market penetration with games like Pokemon Go and Ingress,but these also do bring a social aspect to them and work with exisiting hardware.

[DanceswithUnix]

I think VR will be crippled by the cost and availability of graphics cards.

Oculus Rift: £350
Vega 56/GTX 1070: £800

and that is on the cheap, most people I know with a rift bought a 1080 or 1080ti before the prices shot up because you really want those pixels fluid.

So that basically leaves you buying a PS4.

Edit: I know plenty of people who want a VR headset, but the cost won't get past the wife veto. Then there is the fact that most people buy laptops, and you can't upgrade one of those to VR spec.

[EvilCycle]

For home use it is very touch and go because of price etc. - I hope it doesn't fail but it isn't looking promising in all honesty.

However, public and professional usage I can see big markets for, surgery practice being a good exmple of professional use, now with public use there are already VR Centres in arcades (saw one in the Trafford centre not long ago). If the likes of sega arcade replaced the screens on their arcade simulation machines with a VR headset, they would be on to a winner!

[Ttaskmaster]

Given how many companies are adopting VR kit for things other than playing computer games, I'd say it's a bit more than a fad.
We ourselves have VR kit operating with our site view drones, our pipe cameras and in some of our training courses.

Given better tech with better pricing and better content, VR would see far more use in the home, too.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Given how many companies are adopting VR kit for things other than playing computer games, I'd say it's a bit more than a fad.
We ourselves have VR kit operating with our site view drones, our pipe cameras and in some of our training courses.

Given better tech with better pricing and better content, VR would see far more use in the home, too.

TBH,this is more a question in the consumer space I suspect,and I would expect for military and commercial use,technology like VR,retinal projection,etc has been in use for somewhat longer!

In fact things like autofocus,first appeared in the 1950s with the Polaroid developed camera in U2 AFAIK,decades before it was used in consumer cameras.

[Ttaskmaster]

TBH,this is more a question in the consumer space I suspect,and I would expect for military and commercial use,technology like VR,retinal projection,etc has been in use for somewhat longer!

There are always a few 'bleeding edge' companies... I'm talking mainstream, though.
We were still using VHS in 2006, for example, yet even we are now embracing technology... and the more people like us use it, the cheaper it will get overall.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There are always a few 'bleeding edge' companies... I'm talking mainstream, though.
We were still using VHS in 2006, for example, yet even we are now embracing technology... and the more people like us use it, the cheaper it will get overall.

A lot of leading edge has been pushed by the military and space. Even the maths behind RSA was actually discovered by people working for GCHQ years before it was commerically discovered:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_(cryptosystem)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36385839

The US nuclear weapons force still uses a 1970s-era computer system and 8-inch floppy disks, a government report has revealed.

The Government Accountability Office said the Pentagon was one of several departments where "legacy systems" urgently needed to be replaced.

The report said taxpayers spent $61bn (£41bn) a year on maintaining ageing technologies.

It said that was three times more than the investment on modern IT systems.

The report said that the Department of Defence systems that co-ordinated intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft "runs on an IBM Series-1 Computer - a 1970s computing system - and uses eight-inch floppy disks".

"This system remains in use because, in short, it still works," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt Col Valerie Henderson told the AFP news agency.

TBH,for a lot of systems reliability and also knowing the faults inside and out are probably more important.

Regarding mainstream,cost will always be the limiting factor. Once cost drops,more people will use VR. I suspect AR has more users since current phone hardware is more than enough to drive it. Games like Pokemon Go and Ingress are examples of popular AR usage in the mainstream.

[DemonHighwayman]

I don't think it's a fad and i'm not just saying that because I bought a headset. It's been going a few years now and last I heard it was doing better than the iphone did at the same point in it's history.

[Ttaskmaster]

A lot of leading edge has been pushed by the military and space.

Yes....... But until everyone else starts finding uses for the tech, it remains niche market stuff.

Gore-tex, for example.
Back in the day, it was something massively expensive that you had to buy yourself and cost hundreds of pounds. Nowadays soldiers actually get issued it, and it's found in even dirt cheap civvy garments.

Once cost drops,more people will use VR.

It's already dropped.
We're using a load of them in our office-based training courses. There's one right now on our sign-up board, for Mental Health Awareness. That's got nothing to do with water utilities and civil engineering, yet we're still dropping the cash for dozens of HTC HMDs and PC rigs... and we're a company that doesn't lead any edge - We barely use smartphones for our managers. The most recent OS we have is Win7 and we're still running much older, so to see even a single VR headset in our office would be stunning.... yet here they are.

[Saracen]

VR, per se, is not a fad and has a variety of highly useful specialist applications, ranging from architectural design to microsurgery.

As a consumer tech, I think it's too early to tell but I suspect it's more than a 3D-style fad .... but a huge amount rests on software/media availability.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It's already dropped.
We're using a load of them in our office-based training courses. There's one right now on our sign-up board, for Mental Health Awareness. That's got nothing to do with water utilities and civil engineering, yet we're still dropping the cash for dozens of HTC HMDs and PC rigs... and we're a company that doesn't lead any edge - We barely use smartphones for our managers. The most recent OS we have is Win7 and we're still running much older, so to see even a single VR headset in our office would be stunning.... yet here they are.

As actually research(look at my first post),has indicated VR adoption has slowed down amongst Joe and Jane public. Nobody "needs" VR for watching TV,or doing most normal things. Its like with 3D - lots of geeks and companies have used it even years ago. In reality a combination of cost and various issues,meant it really didn't push forward.

AF in cameras only broke the market since it relied on Polaroid and Konica(actually Honeywell who made the AF modules) to implement relatively affordable solutions in the 1970s. AF SLRs only become mainstream much later when the cost had fallen to make it viable.

You only have to look at a channel like Techmoan,and you will realise how many times companies have tried to push audiovisual tech,even some with noticeable improvements and it fell flat.

Video recording also was not a new thing even by the 1980s - guess which won that battle,VHS. It won not only because of cost,but worldwide more rental firms stocked VHS recorders,meaning it was easier to get hold off as people tended to rent them as they were still quite expensive. Yet,Betamax,Video2000,etc were all much better. Laserdisc was much better too,and was only a niche product.

Remember you are posting on a tech forum full of techies. You have a GTX980TI - I don't know anyone with one in RL who has a £500 graphics card. I know two people who have a GTX1070 and I have the fastest card amongst all the people I know. Almost every gamer I know has something under £300.

Want does not equal need. In the RL,the only two people I know who have VR headsets and they both backed Occulus with a pledge,and most of my mates are techies,geeks or work in the computing industry.

What you are talking about is a company so its "cheap" - decades ago when I visited one of the sites a big pharma company was using,they had 3D virtualisation in use for some aspects of drug design,etc.

Cost is way too much for the average person. There are also technical issues too,like nausea,etc which still affect people. Most people would also rather have a laptop than a desktop anyway and most people don't self-build,so you hit a wall of GPU power there.

This is why the PS4 VR has sold better than any PC equivalent,but even then it has limitations too,ie,due to use of reprojection,etc to make up for the lack of grunt consoles have.

Also MS has not really done much about VR support too.

Edit!!

Don't conflate affordability to a geek or company as equal to affordability for an average person,since its a case of whether its worth investing the money for the usage incurred. Tech is our interest and hobby.

More people would probably spend £400 on a 4K TV or a phone than £400 on a VR headset and controllers,since for many people that £400 TV or phone will simply get more usage.

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

If that device was now £200 with the controllers and could be powered off their console or laptop,then more people might throw money at it just for a play around with it.

Its why after Android came onto the market,we have had far more penetration of tablets and capacitive screen touch phones.

Once the entry point for a solid VR experience starts to drop further,you will see more people buy it and by extension more companies will find consumer uses for it.

[peterb]

VR, per se, is not a fad and has a variety of highly useful specialist applications, ranging from architectural design to microsurgery.

As a consumer tech, I think it's too early to tell but I suspect it's more than a 3D-style fad .... but a huge amount rests on software/media availability.

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.

[johnroe]

I'd like to see VR succeed. It seems to be one of those ideals that tech has promised for decades. It has immense potential in many fields, and could take gaming to the next level.

And I'm confident that it will become popular in the future. I think many companies test out specialist equipment on niche groups, whether that be gamers or surgeons. I like the look of the new HTC wireless unit.

[Agrippa]

Fad? No, of course not. Inevitability? Yes.