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Comment by causality0 | Hacker News Reader

My biggest issue has always been that users are really damn good at immersing themselves using just a screen and a controller, and that's about a hundred times more convenient than any VR system.

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> users are really damn good at immersing themselves using just a screen and a controller

Not only that, but VR/AR doesn't solve any incremental immersion blockers. My brain is very good at 'not looking away from the screen,' it's awful at overriding my inner ear balance, temperature sense, smell sense, circadian rhythm, etc.

that limits you to things you can do while watching the screen. Wanna to actually go rollerblading with Margot Robbie or have Tony Hawk teach you to do tricks? or ...

> Wanna to actually go rollerblading with Margot Robbie or have Tony Hawk teach you to do tricks?

Is anyone expecting this as a realistic possibility? As AR glasses are today they would need to become much more powerful while also much smaller. (With the current glasses it feels one might snap their neck in a rollerblading tumble very easily just because of the added weight and lever arm on the head.)

Right. When a twenty year old Gameboy advance game can make someone let out a blood-curdling scream, how are you supposed to convince them that now they need strap something to their head and hands?

VR is absolutely breathtaking at transporting you. Oculus Welcome with its cosy camper van and robot was almost a religious experience for me. But VR doesn't make video games one iota more fun to play. At least not enough to justify the expense and inconvenience. Especially since the price of admission seems to be going up.

The only game I’ve played on VR that is worth standing for two hours is Population One, and then only when you have a good squad that will talk and strategize.

I don’t know what it is exactly about that game, but it’s really the only good VR game (and it’s great!)

I remember being very very engaged in Pong. It doesn't mean FPSes never happened or aren't valuable.

Were people still playing Pong seven years after the release of the Atari 2600? Because that's where we currently are in the timeline of VR.

Sure but that limits the applications. Want to have Gordon Ramsey to advise you while you are cooking? Or have r2d2 roaming your house? or play poker at your actual house with lock stock and two smoking barrels characters? and so on ...

To do those things you're already going to have to make VR an order of magnitude more convenient than it currently is, which means it's not relevant to my comment.

I am not talking about VR I am talking about AR.

Then why did you reply to a comment about VR?

Because most companies were looking at both but over-focusing on VR

That would be fucking wild. Gordan Ramsey standing next to you treating you like shit while you're trying to cook. Screaming at you like on the show and making jokes along the way

I'd totally pay for that (I'm serious).

Hopefully the AR isn't too good to avoid potential future headlines like:

  "Man kills wife in fit of rage, throwing knife at virtual Gordan Ramsey"
   - Says "he didn't see her behind the Gordan Ramsey avatar"

we are talking about AR :)

Good point. Just changed VR -> AR. :)

guy should have spent more time practicing his cooking skills, and less time on knife-throwing.

Reading that back, it really could have done with a comma after the "good".

Sounds very different without one. (!)

Lol. Or even "man sees Gordon Ramsey in kitchen with wife..."

But I don't want any of those things. I'm sure each of them would be an interesting novelty for 5 minutes.

good then you don't use it. I personally would find talking to say Richard Feynman seating in my living room way more engaging for learning physics than some boring prof in a huge lecture hall.

Sure, and having Niccolo Paganini playing violin in your personal concert hall would be better than going to a random orchestra.

But that is not what you'd be getting. You can very well listen to Feynman's pre-recorded lectures on YouTube today, and that's the best than can be done. Listening to the same clip being played while some image of him is projected on your glasses to make it look like he's in your living room will not improve the experience.

Have you used chatGPT 4 much? I'd try it before coming to this conclusion. And yes you can train a model for Feynman's voice and movements based on video's that we have.

You seem be be claiming that having a conversation with GPT-4 would be as enlightening as having a conversation with Richard Feynman, and that the only missing piece is AR good enough to replay it in your living room instead of on a screen. I promise you, you are much more confident in GPT-4's abilities if you really think thia than it's most adoring creator.

Yes, and ChatGPT sucks. (Unless you really love to talk to the world's most sanitized ad copy; but to each his own, I won't judge.)

I'm a physicist and would be beyond thrilled to talk with Richard Feynman in my living room, it feels like VR only solves the "in my living room" part of the equation. I would fully appreciate just having a video call with Prof. Feynman (that's how I speak to most living physicists I know). Is this tech actually out there?

The closest I've seen is tech that would put his face and voice over the answers that come from chat GPT. Again, with no respect to the late professor, but his appearance is again the least interesting part "talk with Rchiard Feynman" is his appearance and voice. If I could get his help on some of my research, I wouldn't care if he looked like a blob fish and had the voice of Foghorn Leghorn. On the other hand, if I'm just getting ChatGPT answers, then there's no reason not to just make it look like the Crypt Keeper.

Can you use AR goggles while cooking? Won't they get steamed up?

can you cook in real glasses ?

I can’t cook to begin with

We have "onion" googles in our kitchen already.

the whole thing is stupid. are you suppose to be cooking with digital onions?

Digital onions are a microtransaction of 99 cents.

VR ping pong is awesome. You never have to chase for the missed ball!

>You never have to chase for the missed ball!

That's a feature? You can do that with a real ping pong ball... I'd love to not have to do it...

> Want to have Gordon Ramsey to advise you while you are cooking?

We got that way back when god invented the book. Or I could prop my phone up against the back of the counter and have a little youtube in my field of view.

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