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Comment by aboardRat4 | Hacker News Reader

Has anyone found any real use for VR?

HL Alyx notwithstanding

Yes, our company [1] is profitable providing a B2B XR meeting platform used by various heavy industries for different internal and external use cases including product design, high-impact sales and training.

We're in Oil & Gas, Healthcare and Higher Ed amongst others and currently support Quest, HoloLens and Magic Leap.

We (and loads of competitors) are growing at a steady pace, the numbers probably wouldn't excite a VC associate, but there's more to life and business than that.

[1] https://fracturereality.io/

There is a lot of usage: Video games, workout, 3D modeling, adult content, ... But most of them are pretty niche. Maybe they will one day explode to the mainstream, but, even as a VR enthusiast, I doubt it will happen as long as you have to strap a weird looking bulky machine on your face.

> strap a weird looking bulky machine on your face.

i think the hardware people should go all in, a develop a full body suit, may be even encase it in a shell which could suspend you (for free walking, turning etc), and make VR truly immersive. Could even use sonic/air pressure to produce haptic feedback on the body to simulate touch.

Yes I game in it all the time. Also it's great for VR porn. And for reading books in bed. Not having to hold up a device. And I like doing teams meetings in VR even though Microsoft Mesh is still very lacking compared to competing products like Arthur.

HL Alyx notwithstanding, BeatSaber is a good workout.

Flight simulators

And racing sims. Saves me money when I don't have to warm up as much before going to track days.

Those really set off vertigo for me. Visual perception of rotation not matching the inner ear's perception of movement.

Second this, VR is perfect for workouts.

I'd also recommend checking out Sprint Vector if you have a decent PC for PCVR (via Steam Link) - I was fully drenched in sweat after a 30 min gameplay session. Gorilla Tag is also nice for workouts while being fun, no PC needed.

> Second this, VR is perfect for workouts.

So is the real world.

You might be under a misconception here. The workout is happening with the real body in the real world. "VR" is just a medium of choice for extra fun and motivation, like playing a game.

The outside view of VR workouts is usually the "play a game, workout by accident" appeal.

Although I believe it's usually the other way around. People play games where they are moving quite a lot and afterwards realize that they are actual getting exhausted. And then they realize that they didn't really notice that exhaustion while doing the actual movement ( focus on the game, outside world mostly blocked off ) so the thinking is "wow I can do workouts without having to dread them and without being pulled away by other distractions, and all that from my living room"

There are already studies that show people feel less exhaustion while doing a VR Workout compared to a classic workout when done at the same intensity

The "real world" isn't very real either. It's all built environment, contrived. Even the countryside is largely man-made (farms, roads, paths, save for the occasional old growth forest).

Says to me you have never tried it.

Try it once and come back to update your comments.

Is this a joke? XD

Media consumption on airplanes.

Headsets are too heavy. Compute and battery needs to be somewhere else.

AR is better than VR. Passthrough with overlay opens up lots of interesting opportunities for AI learning about mechanical tasks, and AI feedback about what you're doing.

Boxing.

I love boxing, but having proper sparrings multiple times a week is insanely hard on the body and recovery.

Putting on my Quest 3 lets me enjoy a boxing match or two without any damage to my body and need for recovery.

I am biased since we are developing it but fitness is one of the strongest segments in VR, that plus social experiences for the younger generations.

I play a lot of games, work from VR, and am also learning to paint and DJ in VR without the expensive paint/ink/DJ equipment etc.

Immersed app for virtual monitors

Use? Sure.

Profitable use? Not really. At least not at the scale that is really needed long-term...

Isn't like 70% of current VR usage for adult content?

Not on standalone VR, there it's more like Gorilla Tag, Horizon Worlds, etc.

Beat Saber sounds like a more accurate contender for the largest use

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