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The Future of VR

Posted By: F4UDash4

The Future of VR - 08/12/19 12:34 PM

I love VR, I've not flown a non VR flight sim in at least a year. But of course I know there are some drawbacks. First there is the resolution issue. I'm flying IL2 BOS almost exclusively for the last few months and it looks great, but enemy aircraft orientation is tough to make out until you are real close. And I have to have icons on to be competitive at all. Luckily there is a mod that makes the stock icons less intrusive.

Another fault is limited peripheral vision. Almost non existent. Makes it real hard to check six, having to turn your head several degrees farther than I would have to in real life. Of course I don't have to fight G's while doing so biggrin

So how long until these issues are done away with? Resolution rivaling reality and field of vision also matching reality?

Of course assuming PC power advances enough to drive the hardware, which I think it will.

It seems to me that the VR hype train has slowed quite a bit over the last year or two but I still have hopes that within 10 years VR headsets will be much more "powerful" than they are today.
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: The Future of VR - 08/12/19 12:40 PM

In my opinion I don't think VR will catch on with the mainstream market due to cost and the discomfort many people feel when they have a heavy VR set resting on their head. I see VR as another accessory like Track IR that will be popular within a niche segment of the overall gaming market but that's it.
Posted By: BlueHeron

Re: The Future of VR - 08/12/19 02:22 PM

Unexpectedly, I find one of the biggest deterrents to adopting VR is that it's extremely anti-social. It cuts you off from everyone else in the room, where as with traditional gaming you are still away of other people and can talk with them.
Posted By: Sluggish Controls

Re: The Future of VR - 08/12/19 03:20 PM

Originally Posted by BlueHeron
Unexpectedly, I find one of the biggest deterrents to adopting VR is that it's extremely anti-social. It cuts you off from everyone else in the room, where as with traditional gaming you are still away of other people and can talk with them.


Exactly how I felt when I tried VR.
Loved the experience in itself, and instantly hated what I perceived as cutting myself off from friends and family.
Gaming doesn't need to go that far for me biggrin

Cheers,
Slug
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: The Future of VR - 08/12/19 03:32 PM

Ok, so it's settled then. The ideal target demo for VR should be single males who play flight, space and racing sims and who have the disposable income to spend. That's niche enough. biggrin
Posted By: vonBaur

Re: The Future of VR - 08/12/19 04:00 PM

Most of the drawbacks you mention could be overcome fairly easily, I would think, F4. A single, passive 3D, OLED screen of about seven to ten inches curved in an arc of about 15 to 25 degrees would provide a significant field of view and probably increase the overlap angle significantly. In fact, I don't see why the overlap wouldn't be the same as real life. There are already 1080 resolution screens smaller than that on cell phones, though not in 3D (yet). I know that many gamers are used to higher resolutions than that, but I think most who are holding back from VR would be happy with it.
Posted By: Crane Hunter

Re: The Future of VR - 08/12/19 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
In my opinion I don't think VR will catch on with the mainstream market due to cost and the discomfort many people feel when they have a heavy VR set resting on their head. I see VR as another accessory like Track IR that will be popular within a niche segment of the overall gaming market but that's it.


[Linked Image]

VR will eventually dominate gaming, although it admittedly still has a long way to go before it does.
Posted By: F4UDash4

Re: The Future of VR - 08/12/19 04:41 PM

I don't get the anti-social at all, it's not as if my wife watches me play non VR video games.

And if a simming buddy is around he can see what's going on on the monitor with mirroring on and with my headphones lifted on one ear we can talk. Did that Saturday in fact.

As for niche market, yes it is but less so than a decent HOTAS (less because a HOTAS is only good for simming, VR is useful for non sim activities) . And the price, for Oculus Rift at least, is coming down.
Posted By: CyBerkut

Re: The Future of VR - 08/12/19 09:29 PM

Augmented Reality (aka Mixed Reality) will probably solve a lot of concerns over social isolation... but as F4 says, it is easy enough to share the VR experience if desired.
Posted By: Crane Hunter

Re: The Future of VR - 08/13/19 09:01 PM

I think it'll be 4 or 5 more years before we start to see AAA games designed from the ground up with a VR focus, together with significantly improved hardware, and 10 years before its a technologically mature and seamless experience.
Posted By: BlueHeron

Re: The Future of VR - 08/14/19 09:29 PM

Originally Posted by F4UDash4
I don't get the anti-social at all, it's not as if my wife watches me play non VR video games.


Mine neither, but we share a home office and she's often there to work/study/surf while I'm simming. Even though we're doing different things, we talk and it's time together. Or she'll need to interrupt me for some reason other.

But if I'm in VR, I might as well be on the moon. smile So if we're together, it's inconvenient; if I'm home alone then VR is magical!
Posted By: Docjonel

Re: The Future of VR - 08/17/19 07:46 AM

I have no interest in non-VR flight and racing sims since I got my Rift.
I am still in awe every time I get into a cockpit in IL2: BoS and realize my dream of flying a WW2 fighter plane. It's also the only way I'll drive iRacing even though the reduced resolution is an issue.
Once eye tracking is perfected (they're almost there) then they can do foveated rendering where only the small central part of the screen you are looking at is rendered in high detail.
My first VR device was a Gear VR for my Samsung phone and the Rift is much lighter on my face than that. This will hopefully continue to improve.
The cord-free, PC-free Oculus Quest may be the real game changer though.
I still believe VR will become increasingly mainstream.
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