Comment by mrguyorama
3 years ago
The actual concept of VR was basically done the second the Vive came out. Now you can have really good immersion for a Flight Simulator game that won't come out for a few years and nobody really knew it would happen yet, and the couple driving simulation games on PC that somehow haven't died, and a smattering of immersive FPS games.
Nothing else really benefits from the increased immersion, and everything struggles with the discomfort, nausea, cost, loneliness, and extra development effort of VR.
VR isn't the next generation of graphics, it's just the display equivalent of a really powerful direct drive racing wheel with load cell brake or that airbus branded joystick that costs $500 bucks. It's for turbo nerds.
You're missing something. Yes it's for turbo nerds, but it's also for ultra casuals.
I have shown Beat Saber to probably around 30 people at this point. The game is set up in the living room with the TV mirroring the headset and the audio coming through the living room speakers. So it feels like a party environment with everyone trading off with watching and playing. Without even a single exception, every person who has tried it has absolutely loved it. Even several people who have never touched a digital game of any kind in their life, and took all manner of convincing to even try it at all.
In any other game you play, there is always some mapping of inputs into actions. Doesn't matter if it's MKB or game controller or touch screen; you have to learn that deflecting a joystick moves the player camera, or pressing "A" causes your character to jump. But in VR, at least in games like Beat Saber, you simple move your body in exactly the way you'd expect. You don't press a button at the right time to slice a block, you just slice the block. Couple that with the immersion you get in both sound and visuals, and it adds up to something that feels absolutely magical.
Yes, many things do struggle with clunky movement, nausea, etc. There are many games that I have no desire to play in VR. But the stuff that shines bright shines really bright, and I think there's a huge amount of potential there.
I've played BeatSaber for the first time just last night, and had a similar experience: party atmosphere, everyone who joined in loved it, even people who don't game. It felt natural and fun.
And 30 minutes later, we were all bored, put the headset to rest, and forgot it even exists.
Everything I've seen from VR so far is on the ultra casual side, arcade games or slightly more. Nothing as complex as Minecraft, not to mention some AAA RPG or Action game, seems even slightly plausible at the moment. Even HL: Alyx is ultimately a visually stunning version of those old on-rails shooters more than a sequel to HL2's extraordinary gameplay.
Sounds like Rock Band. But everyone could participate at the same time.
I’ve had similar experiences with friends and Beat Saber, but how many of those 30 friends enjoyed the experience enough to get VR themselves? If your experience is like mine? Zero.
It is a cool novelty. Cool experiences while using it but the least popular gaming device in the house. Even my kids’ low end Atom-based laptops get more gaming use for chess.com and Minecraft.
Yes, I will "ultra casually" strap this thing on my face...
I think we have different definitions of "casual" -- when we used that term to describe Farmville in the 00's, we meant that you could refresh your fb page, click a link, click on 2-5 objects in the Farmville pane and come back the next day to do the same thing.
If you're strapping on an immersive experience to do the equivalent of five mouse clicks in 90 seconds, you're doing it wrong. Wrong from the client's perspective because you've got to boot the VR headset, launch the app in order to do the equivalent of those 5-7 mouse clicks. A heavy investment of time and effort for something that could be done with your finger and your phone. And wrong from the content perspective because if your virtual environment is limited to the equivalent of 5-7 mouse clicks... it doesn't sound all that compelling.
I think you’re really understating the nausea and discomfort. Maybe this is a first step towards mass adoption, but it will not happen unless significant improvement is made to the user comfort, now matter how great some VR experiences are.
It's getting there iteratively. The headsets are getting lighter and more comfortable.
The nausea won't be going away though. There will always be a class of apps/games that cause nausea for many people, because it's caused by a decoupling of virtual movement from real movement, not from any technological shortcoming. Any game or app that does this will make some people want to upchuck
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Have you used any of the newer models?
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Do you recall the Kinect? Casuals loved it!
But then, of course, very few of them went and bought an Xbox + Kinect to use it.
And it cost an order of magnitude less than the vision pro
> Yes it's for turbo nerds, but it's also for ultra casuals.
If the $600 version isn't a smashing success for ultra casuals - then the $3500 version certainly will not be as well.
VR was a dream - and it's failed in spectacular fashion.
I have a Vive... and have used it maybe a handful of times. Once the novelty runs out, it's just a subpar experience that requires re-arranging your space/desk/room and becomes a huge PITA for normal things.
>VR was a dream - and it's failed in spectacular fashion.
My whole point is that VR is a smash hit for exactly what it was always meant for. One of the earliest integrations with the Oculus dev kits was Euro Truck Simulator 2. VR is basically essential if you enjoy sim racing. VR is an incredible experience for flight simmers. VR is awesome if you like gun games, as Hot dogs horse shoes and hand grenades has no equal in video gaming, and lots of first person shooters work great in VR.
But that's all it ever will be and all it can be for normal people. It's a peripheral, not a console in it's own right.
Maybe it can be good in enterprise setups, like architecture, or training, but that still leaves it in an incredible niche.
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Have them slide one Saber down the other. It's the best haptic feedback in VR.
Being able to stream what people are doing to a TV is the killer app for Quest 2.