They promote it like it’s a skateboard: cool tricks, fast paced, hip and happy. I don’t think that’s why you want a VR headset at all, it’s actually the opposite: immersion, sinking into a another world, it’s concious dreaming.
The D&D pitch could be perfect. I’d love to play a VR/AR d&d game. But in the video, the first thing he does is take off the headset and smile? It makes no sense. He should be totally enraptured, not happy to take it off.
It’s like they don’t get their own product.
I love my Meta Quest 2, and I'll blindly buy Quest 3 as soon as available. It's an awesome game console, and the games' quality is very consistent (I also do PC VR, and even though PC VR has some neat stuff, it's much more effort. I usually can do PC VR only 1 hour in a row because any frame jitter gives nausea, while Quest manages 1 frame drops per hour).
That being said, I'm expecting to be let down: - No more Carmack. I'm pretty confident he helped push quality forward, and quality is really what puts Quest 2 ahead of its league. You must really have 0 head tracking issue and 0 frame drop. - the design with camera islands screams at "designers wanted a say", but they forgot practical use. Quest 2 was smooth, which makes it easy to put into a bag and out, and camera' lenses were kinda protected. Here you've got the worst part of all. If my smartphones are any reference, the ones with islands are scratched within 6 months. My Quest 2 is 2 years old and looks to be able to sustain 5 years without a hitch. I'm not optimistic about Quest 3.
The metaverse is nonsense, and the Quest Pro flopped. But apparently the main Quest devices are pretty compelling toys.
I wonder if this is a high point, or if they’ll maintain the momentum. Also interested to see if they can ever really build out + monetize their game library .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_co...
Ah, what a deal. The same price it was 1 year ago.
However, its still a headset and so far the vast populace hasn't been interested in putting a headset on for hours. Clearly Meta is betting this is a "at the margins" issue, that by making the headset slimmer, cooler, and lighter that more people will start using them. I'm not sure, my guess is that the form base form factor is an issue.
Second, there is no user experience that is shockingly compelling yet. I have hope that generative AI can help here, but it looks like we are still a little ways off.
I think Mark knew he had to get away from Apple as they are a horrific partner, and he needed a platform, but the technology is too far off. He's using billions to jam a round peg into a square hole (IMO).
I think that is the reason why I don't feel anything towards VR headsets. While I am totally into technology, I'm just not interested in games.
Actually, I am not interested in entertainment at all.
I wonder what makes people different, so that some are very much into entertainment and some are not?
The strength of the ecosystem will encourage it to be smoothly integrated into daily use, as opposed to being an awkward gaming device you pick up when you want to mess around in VR.
We'll see. Exciting times, the surprise announcement makes me optimistic for the quality of Apple's offering – Zuckerberg is worried.
Someone is getting nervous.
* 40% slimmer optic profile (without foam) * full color passthrough for AR
I'm not sure who this was for but it did nothing to make me interested in their headset and just confirmed what I already assumed about it.
I got an email from Apple about their event this month, and it said “Code New Worlds”, which in my mind seems to confirm they’re actually going ahead with an AR/VR device. Why?
Where is the market? How many of these things sell? What do people actually do with them?
I like the idea of an AR experience for enabling better work environments, even as a programmer, but my sense is that these technologies are very far in the future still. These will be toys for a while yet.
So what’s the motivation to get into this space? What is the opportunity that Apple sees, for example?
Part of me is optimistic that there’s some incredible application around the corner and it’ll be an exciting moment in the digital space. The other part of me feels like we’re really grasping here, and it’s just a toy (albeit a pretty cool one).
With desktop GUIs, Apple created the market and built a beautiful product that was also expensive and closed (the Mac II).
Microsoft's cheap GUI environment seemed like a pointless also-ran for years, until suddenly the software and hardware stars aligned and it was good enough to power 95% of apps that people wanted, for a fraction of what Apple charged.
Of course we haven't yet seen what Apple Reality Pro actually does. Looking forward to it!
My prediction is that eye contact will be the “killer app” of VR. I keep waiting for someone to release an affordable headset that would let you make eye contact with your family/colleagues.
But here we are, 4 generations in and Meta isn’t doing it.
Kinda bizarre, but the future can wait I guess. Hopefully the Quest Pro will prove out the use case at least for the business market.
IIRC there was a famous article here some time ago, how some folk got banned on facebook and got locked out of his Oculus.
Anyway, I didn't care much for VR games and I wouldn't be surprised if mainstream use of VR is not games. Meetings are way better than Zoom/Meet whatever, watching movies on planes and such is way better than on a phone or tablet, with better resolution working would be viable and passthrough would enable things like redesigning your home in a way that's simply not possible with any other screen. There's tons of great non-gaming use cases for VR that's significantly better than any other platform.
I mean, I absolutely do not want one from Facebook, or anything else from Zuck, but even if a company not founded on advertising revenue offered one I don't know why I'd want it.
I am a bit confused on the placement of this device in comparison to the Quest Pro now though, does this have better resolution? Processor? Passthrough?
Definitely an interesting month for the VR/AR world with Apple's announcement coming next week.
The future is weird.
As a side note, I miss the Oculus branding. Meta Quest never sounds right to my ears.
And yet... trying these out just doesn't seem to be a thing anywhere. I can walk into any tech store and see a non-working unit in a glass case, or if I'm lucky pick up a slightly sticky broken controller, but I can't try one out for 5 minutes to see if I like it.
I'd bet that Apple's headset will be announced with a store experience to go along with it. I'm sure it'll be by appointment only to begin with as they'll have many more people wanting to try it than who will want to buy, but I'm sure there will be a way to experience them before buying. The Apple Watch was effectively a new product category where people needed a new level of persuasion, and Apple had fitting appointments that were very well done, and Apple Stores have always been known for being primarily focused on using the products, even letting you try AirPods, so I can't imagine these will be stuck in a glass case.
The problem is the software. There just isn't enough high quality software of it being released.
It kind of reminds me of the Xbox. It's like, this capable platform. But it just has no games that I'm interested in, as opposed to the Playstation or Nintendo.
As far as VR goes in general, HN is extremely crotchety. I love VR. I love games in VR. I love sculpting in VR. I love hanging in VR. But what I'm really excited about, as someone with a tendency to change seating locations constantly throughout the day, is working in VR. I want a multi-monitor setup in bed. I want one on the couch. I want one on an airplane, in an Uber, etc.
I was hopeful with the Oculus Pro, but I've heard that the resolution just isn't there, for programming tasks it feels like you're reading text on a 720p CRT.
I have high hopes for this space, and am very excited to hear more about this, as well as what Apple announces. What I don't have high hopes for are the responses to my VR enthusiasm. I understand that you would never strap something Facebook makes to your head, or that you just don't like the one or two gimmick games you tried, that's okay.
Given they decided to announce this earlier they must have looked at the Apple XR spec leaks and will undercut Apple's efforts to attempt to sell their headset. The first new form factor of an Apple product is the worst one to buy (Unless you are a collector)
Meta is clearly far ahead in AI, XR and vision research than Apple is. But then the goal is obvious and it is the AR glasses. Either way, the death of Meta Platforms Inc. (Formerly Facebook) has been greatly exaggerated here.
We'll see about Apple's headset but the leaks only show that the hardware and the price is very underwhelming. The most important thing to look out for is the software. But no doubt that Apple will try to justify the high price at the last minute.
That's interesting, are prices coming down now?
How (in)convenient is streaming to it from a PC/Steam? How about from a different room, is it very sensitive to signal strength? Is the added latency noticeable?
Things I would love to know is:
- How does it compare to the Pico 4? - Screen specs - FOV specs - Pass-through, is it better than the Pico 4's?
Will be interesting to see how Apple's headset compares.
I’m waiting for a headset that I can use during travel in place of an external monitor, but I don’t think this is it yet.
"The eyes are the window to the soul."
edit: My mistake, I misread the PR, quest 3 does not have eye tracking. Boo.
then again, they tried something like this already. but it never took off.
virtual boy (iirc?) I was still a kid... the technology has come a long way, they should be already working on doing something in this space... again.
I was hoping for some news during this gaming showcase.
perhaps someday vr will be competitive, but not today.
twice gpu performance.
pancake headset.
OMG
And yet... trying these out just doesn't seem to be a thing anywhere. I can walk into any tech store and see a non-working unit in a glass case, or if I'm lucky pick up a slightly sticky broken controller, but I can't try one out for 5 minutes to see if I like it.
I'd bet that Apple's headset will be announced with a store experience to go along with it. I'm sure it'll be by appointment only to begin with as they'll have many more people wanting to try it than who will want to buy, but I'm sure there will be a way to experience them before buying. The Apple Watch was effectively a new product category where people needed a new level of persuasion, and Apple had fitting appointments that were very well done, and Apple Stores have always been known for being primarily focused on using the products, even letting you try AirPods, so I can't imagine these will be stuck in a glass case.