Latest Windows 10 build injects Win32 apps into Mixed Reality

[HEXUS]

Insider Preview build 18329 also adds Top Apps in search, dark mode Mail & Calendar.

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[DanceswithUnix]

Has anyone seen Mixed Reality headset sales figures? VR headsets seemed to do rather well over Christmas, specially the PS4 VR.

[cheesemp]

Has anyone seen Mixed Reality headset sales figures? VR headsets seemed to do rather well over Christmas, specially the PS4 VR.

I've not seen any figures but the lenovo set hit £200 around Christmas which I don't take as a good sign. I understand its probably the worst MR headset so take that with a pinch of salt.

[DanceswithUnix]

Supposedly Sony sold 700K units over Christmas. The new Oculus Go sold 555K units which I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but standard Rift and Vive figures weren't bad either at 160k and 130k units.

https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2019/01...-expectations/

So the Lenovo set at £200 is very interesting, that is clearly the sort of price that the market really wants for a VR headset. I'm not sure the Oculus Go with only 3 degrees of freedom really counts.

[ET3D]

The Steam Hardware Survey shows a growing percentage of Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Though Vive and Rift still rule.

[DanceswithUnix]

The Steam Hardware Survey shows a growing percentage of Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Though Vive and Rift still rule.

Which is understandable. Still very happy with my Rift, but whilst just about everyone who tries it wants one they all baulk at £350 price tag (plus new GPU for quite a few).
Looks like Ebuyer and Scan still have them at just under £200.

Edit: To put that in perspective, if I wanted to be able to use the Rift downstairs without moving the sensors around all the time I would need another pair of sensors at nearly £60 each, so that's about £110 to get ease of use in another room. That's why it stays upstairs

[ET3D]

Which is why I only have a Go. I don't have a powerful enough PC nor the space required for a PC headset, and I dislike the idea of my head being tied to cables. But what the Oculus Go proved to me was that the real problem is resolution.

I really love the idea of Windows Mixed Reality. When the current VR trend started, my first thought was of working in a VR room with any number of screens anywhere I want them. With the addition of Win32, that's what WMR provides. But VR headsets are simply too low res to make working with text in VR practical.

[DanceswithUnix]

Which is why I only have a Go. I don't have a powerful enough PC nor the space required for a PC headset, and I dislike the idea of my head being tied to cables. But what the Oculus Go proved to me was that the real problem is resolution.

I really love the idea of Windows Mixed Reality. When the current VR trend started, my first thought was of working in a VR room with any number of screens anywhere I want them. With the addition of Win32, that's what WMR provides. But VR headsets are simply too low res to make working with text in VR practical.

That's understandable. First time playing Elite in VR my initial reaction was "Ewww so low res", but it didn't take long before I was hooked and can't go back to my 1440p monitor despite all its nice tiny pixels. A big part of that was the parallax though, I find myself leaning forward in the seat to see out past the edge of the cockpit to see where a fighter has gone

I can't see VR ever being useful for text work though. I found having three monitors was already hard on my neck for office tasks, you really want your main task in front of you and a simple monitor does that really well.

[ET3D]

That's understandable. First time playing Elite in VR my initial reaction was "Ewww so low res", but it didn't take long before I was hooked and can't go back to my 1440p monitor despite all its nice tiny pixels. A big part of that was the parallax though, I find myself leaning forward in the seat to see out past the edge of the cockpit to see where a fighter has gone

The Oculus Go definitely lacks in the game capabilities department, due to being 3DOF and having a low power CPU/GPU, and I'd guess that a more well featured headset will indeed have these 'I'd rather play in VR' moments.

The Go is more something that shows potential of VR. Still, there are quite a few things there that I'd be happier to use more regularly if resolution was higher. And at least one game demo I'd love to be made into a full game (Tomb Raider VR: Lara's Escape).

I can't see VR ever being useful for text work though. I found having three monitors was already hard on my neck for office tasks, you really want your main task in front of you and a simple monitor does that really well.

I won't say 'ever'. I think that the tech isn't there yet, but it could be there in the next 5-10 years. I'm not saying that it would be something to use all day, but it would still open up a nice way of interaction that could be useful. I think that the ability to create your own work place organisation and workflow in VR could be useful for quite a few things. Of course, AR will be even better, but AR tech will likely take even longer to mature.