Ask HN: Will VR (Oculus) be a hit? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Will VR (Oculus) be a hit?

2 pointsbillconan2 comments

I want to do something for VR devices, but many reviews seem to be negative, saying it will be doomed as soon as being launched.

I want to ask your opinion on VR (not necessarily oculus)?

I have tried both oculus dk1 and dk2 briefly. but I wear heavy prescription glasses, I don't think they are very friendly to shortsightedness. I can't see clearly if I take off my glasses, but if I wear them, oculus pushes my glasses too close to my face.

looking around within a game feels great, but as soon as I move in the game (with keyboard), I start to feel dizzy.

But I see its potential in non-game use cases. I think it could replace monitors. But I never had a chance to wear it long enough to tell.

Will you feel dizzy if you use it to watch a movie? which is relatively static? how about coding with it or painting? Will you buy it when it's out?

I think so. Though my bets are on mobile VR taking off very soon. Although you're limited by the processing power of the phone the ability to carry a VR headset anywhere and be untethered is totally worth the trade off.

Watching a movie in the GearVR as if you were in a movie theatre is one of the most pleasant VR experiences out there. I'm also a big fan of cardboard for its portability and thriftiness, but it is definitely a limited VR experience. Think of it as a gateway VR experience.

With room scale VR on the way with Oculus CV1 and the Vive we're also going to see much more compelling VR experiences. The caveat here is that they'll be quite inaccessible as they'll require a pretty hefty gaming rig and a dedicated space for walking around. But things like Oculus Touch will bring the interactivity of VR to a new level. Right now it's very much just sit and rotate your head. It'll get better I think. There are also a lot of unsolved challenges like storytelling, capturing a users attention when they're free to look anywhere, limited input, etc.

It's a great time to be a VR developer.

I don't think it will be a hit, yet anyway. The tech is still too new, and requires a lot of improvements. It also doesn't work for every game (FPS' are terrible, but driving games are great), and I don't really see that changing.

In a few years, once it's better overall, I don't see why it couldn't become commonplace. Currently it's just not good enough.

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