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Ask HN: Where is VR going?

4 points by sghiassy ↗ HN
Where is VR going in 5 years? Will Apple Vision Pro or the Metaverse going to be able to shake VR/AR/MR out of being a gaming side piece?

Every technology goes the Technology Hype Cycle (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner_hype_cycle) but it seems VR is stuck with hardware that’s not socially acceptable or enjoyable.

I’m starting to think seriously about non-gaming applications of VR and am interested learning more if there’s a future there

Thx in advance! :]

14 comments

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PaulHoule
I just got an MQ3 and I am also interested in building things that are not really games but basically games with theme parks as an inspiration.
progne
Is it viable as a coding environment?
smoldesu
In the same way an iPad is, I guess. It's got a browser, you can install apps and do a surprising amount of stuff with it. As-is though, it's not going to change anyone's mind about VR work. You'll still want your laptop and keyboard.

All this is why I'm not holding out much hope for non-entertainment AR applications. Even if your headset is great and as simple to use as unplugging it and putting it on, you won't daily-drive it unless it's better than everything else. For programming, I don't think any VR headsets are going to offer better experiences than Intellij or VS Code.

progne
> I don't think any VR headsets are going to offer better experiences than Intellij or VS Code.

What I mean to ask is whether tools like this are sufficiently legible on a 2D screen as displayed by MQ3, with a VR desktop? Or to see it well do the fonts have to be so large that there isn't enough room to work?

smoldesu
I only have the Quest 1, which in my experience felt closer to a 900p screen in your field of view. Not great, but you could comfortably read a full-sized terminal if you wanted. And of course, you can move your head around to navigate more if needed.

It's better than you'd expect, given the age and price. My bigger concern is that I just don't want to work in VR. Once the novelty wore off, I just wanted to use a normal computer again. I had much better experience with entertainment like 3D movies and Half Life Alyx/Beat Saber.

PaulHoule
A MQ2 or a MQ3 can ‘track’ certain keyboards like the Apple Magic Keyboard so you can very much work at a desk with a keyboard and mouse and have numerous windows in which you can run IntelliJ or whatever.
h2odragon
I've heard people saying "meta-lenses" will finally make head mounted displays possible in 5 years.

I'm deeply cynical. At this point "VR" is indelibly stained with ripoffs.

"Immersive simulation" will still be a goal, and there will be plenty of utopian promises and large valuations that come to nothing in the future; I expect they'll find different names for them.

Eventually, long after anyone cares about the quirky package of tricks we currently label "VR", it will become possible, as a byproduct of other technologies that have real applications.

Sort of like the AT&T "Video call" visions they touted for years; that always seemed to be hunting for a market. We can do that trivially now, but no one really wants it enough for it to be a common thing.

sghiassy
Consider me skeptical as well, VR should’ve taken off by now but hasn’t gone much anywhere

My doubt stems from Apple’s entry this late in the game. If any company can rebrand a piece of technology, they can.

I like your premise that VR will eventually take hold, but in a way that doesn’t feel like VR

al2o3cr
Re: the hype-cycle - it's important to call out that not every technology has much of the last two phases. I'd say VR's first ride (starting back in the late 90s) is a great example of this, where all that was left after the hype-wave was a tiny, highly-specialized set of uses.
sghiassy
That’s a strong point

Do you consider Apple’s entry an indicator that the technology has legs to go more mainstream?

layer8
Not the GP, but I don’t think so, not really. It’s Tim Cook’s idea of what the next big thing could/should be, and he wants to leave a legacy like that if at all possible, but it’s unlikely to work out IMO.
layer8
I don’t think it will go much beyond a novelty, aside from niches like gaming and some industry applications, until it becomes feasible to reduce it to a Google Glass-like form factor, which doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. My guess is the Apple Vision Pro will be similar to people trying to use an iPad as a full laptop replacement, and most giving up on that because for most use-cases it’s just too cumbersome and not adequate.
wsgeorge
> until it becomes feasible to reduce it to a Google Glass-like form factor

Doesn't Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses do this?

layer8
The Meta Ray-Bans don’t display anything, they just have a camera and audio. So no.