"Room-scale VR’s time will come. In a couple of decades ..."

April 6, 2016 12:11 PM

RockPaperShotgun's John Walker offers a refreshing counter-view to the prevalent 'VR is the new dawn of humanity' hype doing the rounds at the moment. This is the reality of using current VR hardware in a room that isn't huge and empty.
posted by GallonOfAlan (4 comments total)

As a sourpuss, I will enjoy this.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:17 PM on April 6, 2016

VR is the dream that tech people can’t let go. There are things that seem like a great idea, but really are not things that people will want in real life. It’s of course really hard to predict those things, but this seems like one to me, like 3D television (and movies). I looked at a demo of a 3D TV and said "cool" and moved on. Wait, I actually bought a 3D TV, a good one, but don’t have the glasses or anything.
posted by bongo_x at 12:26 PM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

It’s an inch wide, so heavy. I know VR can’t yet remove the lag with wireless headsets, but if this is the best we can do, it’s really not worth trying. Cords like this are going to be as laughable as early ’90s brick-sized mobile phones.

This is an implicit contradiction. Does he want systems like this not to be made at all?

As far the technology, It sounds like he set up the system wrong and he got bad tracking on the devices.
posted by demiurge at 12:26 PM on April 6, 2016

I predict VR will be really good for some things, less good for other things, and not good at all for a lot of things.

But I guess, this being The Internet, I'm supposed to pick a side or something.
posted by bondcliff at 12:28 PM on April 6, 2016 [2 favorites]