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Comment by KenanSulayman | Hacker News Reader

I wanted to play with the Rift and develop some apps for it, but the Mac isn't supported. So I got an external GPU to power it. Using Windows, because they abandoned Mac driver development. That's EUR 449 for the Rift and EUR 699 for the eGPU incl. the respective GPU. EUR 1198.

I eventually returned the Rift because I couldn't find a reasonable way to get it working with my Mac. I was checking out the Vive because everyone seems to be using it for development. It's EUR 699. WOW. That's when I thought: "screw it."

I would love to build something with it. It seems to have so much potential. But I really think that the current prices for the headsets are simply outrageous.

For me, it's far too expensive for a hobby. Maybe when it's more affordable. I don't want to know how much the "Pro" will cost.

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> "almost no current laptops have the GPU performance for the recommended spec, though upcoming mobile GPUs may be able to support this level of performance."

This WAS true in 2015 but is NOT TRUE today. All the Nvidia Pascal-generation desktop GPUs (2016) run extremely well on laptops. Since 2016, there is no more "mobile class" Nvidia GPU designation.

The "VR Ready" laptops are popular, and they have a 1050, 1060, 1070, and even an Nvidia 1080 GPU. These are very powerful gaming laptops, and some are still in slim form factors like the Razor Blade, and relatively affordable for a laptop ($1400-2000)

Yep, my VR machine is an ASUS laptop with a 1070 in it because my desktop runs older cards in SLI, which isn't supported. I'm sure it cost less than their MacBook.

> Toys for rich kids, really

Alternatively, potentially valuable business tools, that return their investment in a short period of time. The most interesting uses of VR that I've seen have all been business related, rather than games or entertainment.

Architecture is one obvious case (I almost took a job working for a company that did VR for architecture, until I found out I wouldn't be working with the VR part), it gives you an unprecedented sense of scale that's otherwise not possible in regular imaging.

The business opportunities for VR are much more interesting than the entertainment ones, in my opinion.

We developed a product for editing architecture models in VR (VRsketch.eu). I wonder what company did you try to work with? The potential is enormous, a bit unclear how to sell those though, architecture is a tricky market :)

The company I interviewed at was Phoria. They're more of a VR digital agency than a company that specifically deals with architecture.

I think that VR is one of those things where the best way to sell it is to do live demos. Most people have never tried VR, and it's an entirely new paradigm, people can't even conceptualise it before they try it.

I never seriously considered buying a VR headset until I tried an HTC Vive for the first time. I didn't end up buying one, for financial reasons, but I considered it.

Anecdote:

We're doing a sizable home remodel and our architect gave us a SketchUp model to take a look at. I threw it into VR and my wife and I started walking around the house giving them feedback.

They asked to try it out and found it completely transformative. They're going into VR multiple times a day now for all of their work.

They said the same for Second Life, though.

You can build a computer that has no problem running VR for like $700, less if you're willing to buy second hand. + $600 for the headset you're looking at $1300 for a whole dev setup, I think that's probably less than what your laptop cost.

Your biggest issue was not just abandoning the Mac completely, to be honest.

And no, it's not far too expensive for a hobby. People spend more than that on lots and lots of hobbies.

It's funny to see a Mac user complain about toys for rich kids.

I went through similar turmoil pricing out dodgy eGPU builds to do CUDA on my Mac. Eventually I realised it wasn't worth it and I may as well just build a PC with the ability to add more GPUs down the line.

It was definitely the right decision, sucks they I had to move that part of my work away from MacOS but if Apple isn't interested in seriously supporting this work then why bother (This was long before the iMac pro was even announced and my current build outperforms it for less than half the price).

The message from Apple is clear, this is not the platform if you are interested in working on the cutting edge.

> I was checking out the Vive because everyone seems to be using it for development

Not everyone, and the Rift is at a bargain price now. I was blown away with the Rift experience and quality of the product, definitely worth the asking price.

I own both headsets and personally believe they are far from "toys for rich kids." I never thought a VR headset would provide so many new experiences and opportunities. Attending OC4 was a great experience and I made professional connects that provide me an avenue into the game industry should I wish to apply my skills there. Lots of new friends as well, the price point keeps the CoD crowd largely out of the mix; on that front it's like the friends you make on irc but you can talk to them face to face. Overall it has been very much a positive experience for me. Just my 2c.

I've mostly used mine for Elite:Dangerous. Can you recommend some other uses that you've appreciated?

Try Rec Room

Echo Arena. Best VR game out there hands down.

If the Pro is marked up, it's going to fail hard. I can maybe imagine them introducing it at the Vive's original price point, leaving them free to continue selling the current Vive at a bargain price?

The big question for me is, the Vive Pro will be sold headset-only for upgrading folks. What's that gonna cost, because that will answer a lot of questions about how expensive this hobby is to maintain over time.

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