Forget "useful" for a moment. How does good VR make you feel? Have you not had any "wow" moments?
I'm constantly surprised how blown away people are when they try (real) VR for the first time. That's what makes me optimistic about it as a medium.
I'm constantly surprised how blown away people are when they try (real) VR for the first time. That's what makes me optimistic about it as a medium.
We had few "VR experience center"s in our little city, they were popular when they just opened, but now most of it are closed.
So, I think "blown away" is not enough, usefulness is important.
Maybe the barrier to entry for VR hardware is low enough now that some small team will invent something that makes it a must-have, but I remain as skeptical now as I was when Oculus first hit the hype train. I haven't really used an Oculus or a Vive, so I hope this isn't coming from a place of abundant ignorance, but VR just feels like hype feeding hype. I haven't heard a VR concept that justifies it yet. The only one I even want to try is Tilt Brush.
There's only one way to find out. I'm over a year into VR ownership and it still fascinates me.
I'd prefer to use words along the lines of "inspring", "enchanting", "compelling" if we're going to discuss the potential of VR.
(I'm not belittling the large number of practical applications of VR in healthcare, training, education and content creation - but I don't think they will drive mainstream adoption in the way that creative, immersive applications could)
Watch out when comparing current typical art mediums with VR, a technology still in the property of a 2-3 big tech companies, paired with countless patents, and which costs hundreds of dollars, not including the top gaming rig that you also need to have.
Currently, if you want to convey a message, or exprime yourself creatively: - via music, you can buy any kind of instrument off the shelf. - via movies, you can just start with a $200 camcorder and record stuff. In both cases, consuption can be done with any device compatible with the digital format.
right now it's not possible with VR, at the state of things.
(of course a badly set up machine can cause problems. If the frame rate tanks or the tracking is messed up then all bets are off)
VR = an entirely new medium.
Just look at the number of arts projects that use VR. I hear about something new weekly. I don't recall artists around the world getting excited about 3D movies.
(Yes - VR has some similarity with games and other interactive content but cinema has some similarity with theatre and the novel has some similarity with poetry)
I happen to think that VR will not disappear as it clearly already is useful for certain applications. It might even be widely-used by general public some day. I am reasonably sure that day will not be in next 3-5 years.
I do however find comparisons to 3D TV/movies glib and unenlightening.
I agree that VR is a different medium and that 3D movies probably aren't, but you lost me at why that should matter. I still don't understand that, but that's fine as I also lost interest when you made this personal. I will not respond to any further comments in this thread.
Btw, I think we have common friends in Brighton. Your name occasionally came up when I used to work at Aptivate.
Hey! It's so odd when the virtual and real overlap. :-) I'll be seeing Alan this week hopefully.