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Comment by grumple | Hacker News Reader

Tying this to my non-existent facebook account means I won't even think about buying it. A headset that doesn't constantly feed my data to big tech would be fantastic.

Quest 1 is still going strong though (until our 2 year facebook-less amnesty runs up). Great piece of hardware. The biggest problem I see is that there's not been much adoption in terms of creating software from major software companies. I don't think the hardware is a limitation for the current gen. We could do so much more with vr than what we are doing right now.

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I obviously agree and loathe the fact that Facebook is now tying the Quest to a FB account.

However I enjoy VR too much so I think I’ll just bite the bullet and make a burner FB, covering my tracks as well as I can.

Until you get locked out because your account looks suspicious. This used to happen to my burner FB account every time I clicked the "developer" link in FB. I would get locked out and they'd ask me to send a scan of my passport. It was possible to get back by re-doing the phone activation, but I could not do any FB social auth development for customers without sending a scan of my passport.

It’s not like FB is the only one making VR headsets.

None are quite like the Quest, though. It's qualitatively different.

The main difference as far as I'm aware is that it's wireless and doesn't require a computer. It seems there are a few others have already hit the wireless mark. Not needing a computer is a big deal, but doesn't affect me personally (I only use it at home; I still want wireless though).

It's a pretty big difference. The issue is that you're basically going to need on-board computing in order to compensate for the lower bitrate of wirelessness, a problem that gets worse as the resolution increase. You need to do warping on the headset itself (as well as sophisticated compression) or you'll have motion sickness. So while it's possible to hack wirelessness on some of the other headsets currently, that becomes less and less feasible as resolution improves. Also, not requiring a computer is a bigger advantage than you might think. I also use my Quest only at home, but I'm able to use it anywhere in my house (wireless video direct to a headset without on-board computing uses 60GHz WiGig, and therefore is basically line-of-sight and very short distance only) and regardless of what the main computer is being used for. (Also, requiring a gaming PC for operations easily doubles the cost of the solution.) A separate wireless adapter (WiGig) on the PC also adds cost and is bulkier than the lower bandwidth Wifi connection you can use if you have on-board computing.

An example of how it's qualitatively different is I use it outside (at dusk). That's not really practical with other devices, and it's a completely different experience.

> However I enjoy VR too much

What do you do with it? I remember trying it out like 2 years ago and didn't find it that engaging / useful / interesting that I would want one at home.

Quest is a great little piece of hardware that I'd like to buy since my PC is not good enough for VR games, but having to create and tie a FB Account to it just seems wrong.

So you never use google, don’t have an iPhone, and never purchase from Amazon or any other online store? Your only footprint online is hacker news? Only cash offline? I think that ship sailed many years ago and you’ve already died on the hill.

For years I’ve thought the hardware is the problem. The experience of all past headsets —- since the Oculus DK1 —- has been good enough to get a feel, or idea, of what this could be, but has never crossed that line where VR can become mass market. Discomfort, simulator sickness, and that “cross-eyed” feeling are something enthusiasts can push through, but the masses still view VR as a tech demo. And until there is a mass market install base, no-one is willing to spend the money creating great content.

IMHO this chicken-and-egg problem will only be solved when there is a step change in the hardware. I hope the Quest 2 is it.

I’ve been moving off google services to privately hosted email. Apple seems to care about user privacy more than other tech companies. There’s nothing wrong with ordering online, without internet services our lives would be worse and I wouldn’t have a job. I try to order from small businesses over Amazon whenever possible.

You can reduce your dependence on big tech without eliminating it entirely. The world isn’t black and white. Facebook in particular is far more offensive to me than any of the companies you named, so I expend extra effort to avoid it.

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