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Comment by in3d | Hacker News Reader

It’s hard to see why VR headsets with pass-through would win out over AR headsets (like the Hololens) in the long term for such uses. But I suppose if you need something right now, VR would be more available and cheaper.

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One reason is that with hololens / magic leap you can’t create black. The display is like a ‘screen’ layer in photoshop and can only add additional light, so you can’t get great contrast and anything you add to the scene has a ghost-like quality.

All those demos you’ve seen of AR glasses making screens on a wall are faked. Magic leap paid a special effects house to make a lot of their ‘real’ demos.

Also - field of view. Magic leap has an AWFUL field of view.

I think it's interesting to think about adding elements to what we experience in reality via AR.

Versus importing elements from reality into a VR experience.

Based on your comments I would say one of the big advantages of importing from reality into VR would be to be able to move around without colliding into physical objects in the real world.

That would be really cool. Like a game that had virtual objects but in the same places as the physical world, but hey don’t need to be the same thing.

Long term I think the idea of a computer almost permanently between us and our number one most trusted sensory organ is a fast recipe for Utopia / Dystopia.

AFAIK, AR headsets are still additive displays, ie. no way of displaying black. That’s the only advantage I see in using VR headsets for AR

Also waveguides have other limitations, like image fidelity, FoV, needing darker environments and significant display artifacts.

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