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Comment by tashoecraft | Hacker News Reader

Because who sits around at work on a vr headset? Vr is inherently anti (local) social. Vr is fantastic for certain things right now, sim racing being the one I’m familiar with, that it completely blows away any alternative.

The big issue I’ve found is the UX and software is atrocious. Things are not intuitive, there’s walled gardens (f you oculus). I’ve had so many moments of knowing what I want to do, but being totally unable to figure out how to do it.

I’ll be excited once Apple enters space to figure out a bunch of this stuff and the rest of the field can just copy them.

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Isn't Apple just going to do a walled garden as well? I'm skipping this platform as well until there are open standards and we don't have to develop one version of each app for each platform.

Apple's walled gardens tend to be set up to serve 80% of the population so well they don't care.

> 80% of the population

How do you get to this number when Apple has only 25-35% market share..

Slightly tongue-in-cheek answer is that the rest can’t afford their devices.

I doubt it. A lot of people could afford it but either think using Apple fuels an anticonsumer empire or think that it offers little advantage over the competition.

There's WebVRR.

Anti-socials are a big market and that is their target audience.

Comments like these make me feel like VR proponents are just people who don't know TrackIR exists.

I'm not sure VR can really compete with a device that for ~200$ allows you proper view directed freelook in loads of games without having to seal your eyes off under a visor. With a modestly sized panel I didn't notice any less immersion using head tracking versus a (for me, highly annoying) head-encasing visor.

It also leaves room for having sim-appropriate peripherals that you can actually use because they aren't obscured by the screen.

Just my experience having tried both and being a big simulation enthusiast (flight sim, driving, arma milsim, all that stuff).

Personally I have TrackIR and a large ultrawide screen, but I still prefer my VR headset for sim racing. I don't find them annoying and haven't really had any issues using peripherals, although I'm one of the (seemingly) odd ones who doesn't care about buying a button box to start my car.

The VR sim racing experience is so unbelievably compelling. I think anyone who shits on VR needs to first be setup with a nice sim racing rig in VR. It is unbelievably immersive in a way that TrackIR or triple monitors or whatever else just cannot deliver.

> Comments like these make me feel like VR proponents are just people who don't know TrackIR exists.

Comments like this make me feel like TrackIR proponents are just people who don't know depth perception exists or that things can happen in places that aren't in front of you. TrackIR is an _input_ device. VR HMD is a _display_ device. The two are not interchangeable. TrackIR doesn't magically make you able to look over your shoulder.

TrackIR accomplishes the task that many people seem to think only a vr headset can give them: Headtracking freelook immersion; they are extremely comparable.

And binocular depth perception is only one method of depth perception..

edit:

> or that things can happen in places that aren't in front of you

> TrackIR doesn't magically make you able to look over your shoulder.

No idea how to decipher this: I have no issue looking around in any of the games I use trackIR with. It gives you the exact same freedom of input it just doesn't seal me off from being able to see what's going on irl around me.

This is simply not true. TrackIR doesn't give you freelook immersion. It allows you to slightly tilt or move your head. To call that freelook is disingenuous.

False, you have three axis panning as well as pitch, yaw and roll.

Which one of those is not your head tilting or moving slightly?

> I have no issue looking around in any of the games I use trackIR with

So you have screens behind you? And above you? And to either side of you? And at other odd angles? Suddenly your $200 is looking a lot more expensive, otherwise you're comparing apples to plastic oranges. Screen coverage for _actual_ free look would cost many times more than an HMD, take up many times more space, and it will _still_ be feeding the same image to both eyes unless you use 3D goggles which is yet another expense (a very significant one if you don't want your framerate to crater because you've just cut your display Hz in half).

> It gives you the exact same freedom of input

This is blatantly false. Freedom offered by motion tracking is restricted to screen space. A VR HMD integrates a full sphere of stereoptic screen space, something that you're deliberately ignoring.

It is blatantly true unless you have never used it. If I look left or right I can.. look left and right. That includes looking behind myself if I turn far enough, and no your view doesn’t leave the screen that’s the point, what.

You don’t track 1:1 that’s the entire point. You’ve no clue what you’re on about. An array of monitors would make tracking moot if I had such a setup.

Some next-gen VR HMDs have started to integrate TrackIR technology.

The only major point where TrackIR shines is price. Other than that it doesn't compare well to VR. A flat screen, no matter how interactive, can't compare to a VR HMD for all encompassing immersion. TrackIR on its own is also limited entertainment wise. Its most common use case is for sims, while VR is more versatile.

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