Comment by brigadier132 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by brigadier132 | Hacker News Reader

VR is failing because it requires too much activation energy. Games are fundamentally about leisure. VR as it exists requires clearing space and standing and moving. It's also high intensity. High intensity is good under certain circumstances but I think humans are actually wired to prefer lower intensity things.

When VR becomes something that is effortless to use and I can just slip on some glasses and not even feel them on my head is when it will break out.

Apple has some fundamental aspects of VR right such as controlling the UI with eyes and slight hand movements. Also most apps are geared towards sitting down. The problem is their headset is too heavy.

edit: Also I know there are people the above doesn't apply to, I'm basically going off of revealed preference. There is a reason why there are so many people that prefer watching others play games rather than playing themselves for example. There is also a reason mobile games are so popular over desktop.

I think what you described is Apple's basic strategy for this space in the future. If you squint, you can see the seeds of it with the Vision Pro: the hardware sucks (and will continue to suck for years, because most of it is constrained by current chips and optics), but the OS is already pretty extensively designed to be something that you casually use in the middle of doing other stuff, as with a phone or tablet.

Standing and moving is too much effort for consuming content. Meta needs to invent some kind of electric wheelchair with direct neural injection, paralysing the consumer from the neck down. The human race will achieve its final sentient blob form.

You may dislike what I'm saying about humanity but I'm more concerned about the truth of it. There is a lot of evidence that we have evolved to avoid expending energy.

I'm not the one who is downvoting you. I got rid of my Quest 3 because of VR sickness. Aside from causing severe sickness that took a couple of days to pass, it was too heavy and uncomfortable to wear.

Copy/pasting from one of my other comments:

Curiously, what games are you playing? I find that games that involve real world motion didn't match virtual world motion (ie, any racing or flying game), I feel sick within seconds, but games where the two worlds always match (ie, Beat Saber, Pokerstars VR, Superhot VR, Space Pirate Trainer), I could play for literally HOURS and feel fine.

That's right. The cause of motion sickness is when vestibular input (sense of physical movement) does not match visual input. If I am standing and moving naturally in a VR world I can stay there for hours without feeling nauseous. FPS or flight sims cause VR sickness.

VR sickness is the inverse of car sickness.

- VR FPS game: Visually moving while physically static.

- Car passenger in back seat: Physically moving while visually static (car interior).

You just need to look at bipedalism to see that. Dynamic stability-based walking is bad at a lot of things, but it's great for conserving energy while moving long distances.

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