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Comment by tluyben2 | Hacker News Reader

If you work with Immersed (which I do every day) you just work on your laptop while you see 5 large monitors (virtual desktops) hanging over a large planet in space (for instance). It is really nice and I have been doing it for months; I kind of forget where I am as it is very good for focusing, especially with the right sound on as well.

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i find that whenever i look anywhere in the vr visual field that isn't straight ahead, i see blurring/artefacts/etc. does it work better for younger people/people with better eyes?

No it doesn't, but you get used to turning your head more than moving your eyes.

I am almost 50. I don’t really notice it when working.

Just curious how it works: do you touch type and never use mouse?

Not the parent poster, but I'd assume that most developers who are working with a laptop keyboard+touchpad can do it without looking down. A mouse would be more difficult, that's for sure.

Not sure about mouse operation, but the touch typing is mentioned in two separate sections:

1. Yes, you have no vision of the keyboard, so learning to touch type is essential

2. Lying down position, right hand on laptop keyboard, left hand on external USB keyboard (two-handed touch typing).

They've committed wholly and solely to pursuing this solution.

Horizon Workrooms offers keyboard passthrough, which works amazingly well. You just see your keyboard in VR along with your real hands, when you look down. No more touch typing!

Is this basically AR then? Or do they create a virtual representation of your hands/keyboard?

Exactly. It's AR. It basically overlays the video at exactly that part in VR.

This is the "reverse" approach to AR. With Hololens etc. you see the real world and they overlay the screen over your real world. With the Quest, it's called passthrough, and you see everything on screens but real-time video from the real world is mixed in.

Yes. VR passthrough mode basically trumps AR (in my opinion).

I use a Magic Trackpad, but I've used a mouse before and it was also acceptable. You figure out where things are pretty quickly.

But also I switched to Vim and TMux so that I would need to take my hands off of the keyboard less.

I just use the MacBook trackpad; works fine for me. And yes I touch type. If I couldn’t I would struggle. When I was in primary school (in the 80s), I had a choice from our municipal in the Netherlands between learning to touch type and something else (I forgot) or nothing as extra curricular. I am still happy I picked touch typing! Gift that keeps on giving.

Nice -- thanks for replying! I mostly touch type, but I sometimes need to glance at the keyboard to find infrequently used keys like Insert.

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