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Comment by untog | Hacker News Reader

I think VR is fundamentally broken, because you're going to try to react to things in a way that doesn't work. With a head-mounted display, the game can react as you move your head. Great. But then you'll instinctively try to walk towards something and it won't work (or you'll hit the wall). Same with picking things up, etc.

It seems like it's deep in the uncanny valley of experience.

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It's not difficult to learn not to start walking when you're in VR. I've seen some people lean left and right when they play an FPS for the first few times, but they get used to it. VR with a simple controller though is just not good enough. You'll need arm/hand tracking and probably a gun controller for shooters. If you can track 6 degrees of freedom of the gun controller and 6 DOF of the head, then you have your first immersive VR right there.

I think it's just a matter of time before the other pieces to the VR puzzle catch up. Omni-directional treadmills are already in existence and are a basic step towards allowing you to walk in a VR environment. Developments in prosthetics with 'feeling' could help pave way towards shoes, gloves or other garments that could provide you with the sensory experiences of walking on different surfaces or picking up in-game items.

But at that point you've gone from a games console being something that takes up a small amount of space underneath your TV to something that takes up an entire room. From requiring you to pick up a controller to putting on an entire outfit.

I'm just not sure the average consumer is in any way ready/willing for that.

I think the first successful VR you'll see will be closer to an arcade machine than a home console.

Agreed. But that's at odds with the OPs assertion that " head-mounted-display virtual reality is a huge missed opportunity for next-gen consoles."

> I think the first successful VR you'll see will be closer to an arcade machine than a home console.

I was just thinking about this. My development rig has 2 27" screens. If I added a 3rd one, this would cover most of my field of view horizontally. What if someone sold a console rig packaged with 3 screen and a mount? (Work with IKEA to produce a compatible cheap desk.) This kind of thing is already done and is awesome for vehicular games. (Racing, tank, aircraft...) A 3 screen rig also could still strike a kid as "awesome," so would draw money from the wallets of parents.

Or, for arcade-type settings, how about a seat with a projected 360 dome, HOTAS controls, and motion simulation?

I agree, it'll certainly be uncanny.

Except, we adapt. I think Uncanny Valley will slowly shrink - Things will improve, and we'll get used to some of the oddities.

I mean, he mentions it in the article: People were used to 400ms latency and still had fun. Is there a much tighter threshold here? Sure. But I'm all for it, and I'm sure a lot of people are. Not everyone, but things improve and change.

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