I think it has a lot of potential outside of those two things, but the problem as with all modern technology is that the companies making it always do so in the most abusive, hostile way possible so everyone rejects it immediately as another Big Tech trap.
Think about how useful AR could have been for all manner of different tasks and professions, and what we have instead is pervert-glasses with built in surveillance, connected to the giant propaganda machine in the sky.
Apple’s “Apple Vision Pro” vision was actually a reasonable assortment of reasonable ideas when you watch their announcement marketing, and then what we got was an overpriced, underdeveloped toy as we’ve come to expect from them.
VR/AR is going to be a casualty of this era of tech, an era which will be remembered as taking the forward-looking, human focussed applied-science field that we love it for and turning it into a tool of extractive capitalism, an enormous vehicle for investment fraud, and an enabler of fascist authoritarianism.
Hopefully one day we will recover. In the mean-time, I still have hopes for the Steam Frame which is what it should be: a dumb, unopinionated peripheral.
companies making it always do so in the most abusive, hostile way possible so everyone rejects it immediately as another Big Tech trap
Yes, everyone rejects Big Tech, that’s why the companies are so small.
Apple’s “Apple Vision Pro” vision was actually a reasonable assortment of reasonable ideas
Disagree. It failed for the same reason every headset before it did. The entire concept is fundamentally flawed. No one wants to wear a goofy fucking facemask all day. And I think it’s pretty apparent from their advertising that that’s exactly what they expected people to do.
Meta expected companies to hold business meetings in VR. Why would anyone do that? What’s the point?
Valve certainly understood the assignment by making it a “streaming-first headset” designed primarily to be connected wirelessly to a PC. This just made it way smaller and lighter.
They were also brilliant in developing and implementing FEX so that you can running any X86 Windows game on an ARM Linux headset.
I only tested it like twice, on a meeting with my friends when we were working on a game in our free time, but I was honestly surprised how better the meeting went in VR.
Being used to just staring at flat faces on Zoom, you kind of forget how much you are actually missing in the term of expressions. It’s hard to describe, but it just felt a lot better when people are in a 3D space and can gesture around.
The whiteboard tools were also nice, like being able to draw with the pointy end of your controller either on table in front of you, or place a virtual blackboard against your wall at home.
Sure, in-person meetings are better, but this was pretty close to the point where it felt almost as a real meeting.
For standups and the like it’s an overkill, but brainstorming sessions were a lot better.
Of course, we never did that again, because the hassle of setting up headsets is too annoying. But especially for remote teams, I can imagine it being nice for occasional meetings.
It also might’ve just been the novelty effect and it would get old amd annoying soon.
I’m an electrical engineer and embedded systems developer. I’d love a lightweight headset that gave me the equivalent of a huge high resolution virtual monitor/AR setup that I could use without needing a huge physical space.
I can’t come up with a practical use for VR outside of gaming. It’s not practical, comfortable, or worth the effort to rub one out with the headset on.
VR is a dead end outside of gaming and porn. I don’t know why so many tech companies are obsessed with making it into something more.
I think it has a lot of potential outside of those two things, but the problem as with all modern technology is that the companies making it always do so in the most abusive, hostile way possible so everyone rejects it immediately as another Big Tech trap.
Think about how useful AR could have been for all manner of different tasks and professions, and what we have instead is pervert-glasses with built in surveillance, connected to the giant propaganda machine in the sky.
Apple’s “Apple Vision Pro” vision was actually a reasonable assortment of reasonable ideas when you watch their announcement marketing, and then what we got was an overpriced, underdeveloped toy as we’ve come to expect from them.
VR/AR is going to be a casualty of this era of tech, an era which will be remembered as taking the forward-looking, human focussed applied-science field that we love it for and turning it into a tool of extractive capitalism, an enormous vehicle for investment fraud, and an enabler of fascist authoritarianism.
Hopefully one day we will recover. In the mean-time, I still have hopes for the Steam Frame which is what it should be: a dumb, unopinionated peripheral.
Yes, everyone rejects Big Tech, that’s why the companies are so small.
Disagree. It failed for the same reason every headset before it did. The entire concept is fundamentally flawed. No one wants to wear a goofy fucking facemask all day. And I think it’s pretty apparent from their advertising that that’s exactly what they expected people to do.
Meta expected companies to hold business meetings in VR. Why would anyone do that? What’s the point?
Valve certainly understood the assignment by making it a “streaming-first headset” designed primarily to be connected wirelessly to a PC. This just made it way smaller and lighter.
They were also brilliant in developing and implementing FEX so that you can running any X86 Windows game on an ARM Linux headset.
I only tested it like twice, on a meeting with my friends when we were working on a game in our free time, but I was honestly surprised how better the meeting went in VR.
Being used to just staring at flat faces on Zoom, you kind of forget how much you are actually missing in the term of expressions. It’s hard to describe, but it just felt a lot better when people are in a 3D space and can gesture around.
The whiteboard tools were also nice, like being able to draw with the pointy end of your controller either on table in front of you, or place a virtual blackboard against your wall at home.
Sure, in-person meetings are better, but this was pretty close to the point where it felt almost as a real meeting.
For standups and the like it’s an overkill, but brainstorming sessions were a lot better.
Of course, we never did that again, because the hassle of setting up headsets is too annoying. But especially for remote teams, I can imagine it being nice for occasional meetings.
It also might’ve just been the novelty effect and it would get old amd annoying soon.
I’m an electrical engineer and embedded systems developer. I’d love a lightweight headset that gave me the equivalent of a huge high resolution virtual monitor/AR setup that I could use without needing a huge physical space.
Well the new Steam Frame will probably give you that, minus the high resolution. Is already being developed by KDE. Has been for a while.
Xreal makes a headset that’s not much bulkier than a set of eyeglasses that’ll do that for you. I forget what it’s called though.
I can’t come up with a practical use for VR outside of gaming. It’s not practical, comfortable, or worth the effort to rub one out with the headset on.