Comment by m33k44 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by m33k44 | Hacker News Reader

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> Have you decided on a specific idea or are you interested in the space generally?

Thinking of developing educational content and digital twin in the related domain.

> Right now the greatest number of users and app sales seems to be at the low-ish end but not absolute low end ($300 Quest)

Those would be the gamers. But I am targeting students. And not many students can afford high-end devices. I am more interested in devices such as Google Cardboard, Zapbox and AR4E. High cost of devices should not become a roadblock for educational content distribution.

> Of course I could imagine exceptions here, so apologies in advance if you have some specific application in mind where the above factors aren't important.

I am thinking of developing educational content using Space exploration as a theme. Some applications that I have in mind will require interaction and collaboration. So a set of ZapBox and CloudXR is the ideal combination. But to start with I will use Google Cardboard.

BTW, what are you working on?

> Those would be the gamers. But I am targeting students. And not many students can afford high-end devices. I am more interested in devices such as Google Cardboard, Zapbox and AR4E. High cost of devices should not become a roadblock for educational content distribution.

> Some applications that I have in mind will require interaction and collaboration

I think this would be a much easier decision if there weren't the fundamental UI differences between the two categories. As I'm sure you know already, the lowest-end devices lack positional tracking for both the headset and the controllers, putting them in basically a different category experience and software-design wise than the $300 Quest and all the more expensive systems.

As far as I know the most successful product of that type was the Oculus Go which has been discontinued. The similar GearVR phone-based system people often bought but didn't use despite owning, which itself was a huge jump in quality over what Cardboard offers.

So as far as I can tell the category seems like a dead-end at this point, it doesn't seem to be receiving substantial software or hardware investment and will likely disappear altogether as positional tracking gets cheaper.

In contrast FB is launching a $150M fund specifically for VR educational content - I expect basically none of that will go towards pre-positional-tracking systems and software.

So I guess it depends on what your time horizon is - I'd just be aware that any investments into designing software for 3DOF systems are likely to depreciate pretty quickly.

> BTW, what are you working on?

I added a link to it in my profile, it's a little out of date but there's a video there (and a sign up to get a free copy when the beta launches!).

> the lowest-end devices lack positional tracking for both the headset and the controllers

That is the reason I am excited about ZapBox and AR4E headsets. Both promise support for interaction using controllers.

> So as far as I can tell the category seems like a dead-end at this point, it doesn't seem to be receiving substantial software or hardware investment and will likely disappear altogether as positional tracking gets cheaper.

If that happens, then it will be a shame. We need lot of low-cost headsets for XR to proliferate. Otherwise it will remain a niche market.

> In contrast FB is launching a $150M fund specifically for VR educational content

One of the things I am trying to avoid is vendor-lockin.

> So I guess it depends on what your time horizon is - I'd just be aware that any investments into designing software for 3DOF systems are likely to depreciate pretty quickly.

Hence planning to use open source software and standard APIs as much as possible e.g. Godot engine, Vulkan Scene Graph, Monado, OpenXR complaint API etc.

> there's a video there (and a sign up to get a free copy when the beta launches!).

I am not able to see video. I am using Firefox 93 x86_64 on Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS.

Are you a designer or a software engineer?

> …it will be a shame. We need lot of low-cost headsets for XR to proliferate

I agree, I’m just expecting today’s mid-market to be tomorrow’s low end (and to eventually have working old devices being basically thrown away due to over-supply like is the case for computers and phones).

BTW I don’t have the same reservations about the others with tracked controllers, just Cardboard since (for more interactive content) optimizing for head look only is limiting.

> Are you a designer or a software engineer?

For my current VR project I’m doing both the UI and the programming.

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