Whats holding back AR/VR is the hardware, and user experience, period. Price at $299 is fine. Content is actually pretty good. Headsets are heavy, fragmented from other ecosystems, and hard for new people to figure out. AAA games will not save VR. Hardware developments will.
Whats the point of advanced vr headsets if all they ever produce vr games wise is more indies like the current vr market is flooded with, it will keep vr ticking over but wont go mainstream at that rate, people want more like Resident Evil 7 & Half Life Alyx.
Better hardware never hurts, but I think it`s more about content and marketing. I don`t think the next FPS is going to open the floodgates for VR. I think we need more novel experiences and a better way of marketing them. More in person demos of VR should help too.
Unfortunately you`re right. Facebook didn`t need to do this because they cornered the market with money. I wonder if Valve decides to enter the standalone market, they could be a better alternative. But it comes back to SOC and HW, due to cost most companies don`t have a chance
All of the wireless VR stuff I wanted to do with Quest but can`t because I won`t buy one! :D It works great as a standalone Android device, just experimenting with WebXR and eventually OpenXR more, and it`s been a great SteamVR headset. I plan to keep it a long time.
I know VR is a spatial computing new medium that goes far beyond games in usefulness and entertainment. Yet, games is one of the main markets. And no mainstream gamer is paying console price at best on a device that won`t let them play their favorite games in VR.
Good point my fear is Apple will be able to compete but their pratices will be just as bad as Facebook. Especially because they already have big brand awareness, a new company would try their best to be open and friendly to win goodwill and customers, but Apple doesn`t need to.
Are we comparing it to the quest?
it would for me, but I have disabilities and such... idk about fully abled people
sounds like it`s 25% hardware, 75% software
On GeekBench, 100% faster CPU single-core and 150% faster CPU on multi-core. I haven`t had a chance to run any 3D benchmarks myself. That`s right. I`m afraid that the advantage Oculus had is 2~3 years ahead of nearly everyone else. Apple definitely has it ready for a while. Google could potentially do it, but I doubt they had the bandwidth esp. with all the recent brain drain...
Not because they have a big brand awareness but I fear they won`t compete with Quest for the same market, it will be like Android v iOS, people with money go for iOS, people who want affordability and flexibility will go for Quest, I wonder if apple VR will allow for side loading
The question is, will Apple be willing to take a loss like Facebook? Because they can have the best hardware but people will still look for something affordable.
2h life battery is way too short Interface is confusing Many games are confusing too Accessibility is still a concern Current social functions sometimes work... Sometimes. There are still many things to solve before it reaches masses comfort is a big one too...
By hardware, I assume you also included the system software running on it? I`m saying this bc its relatively easy to put together the electronics bits, but things like 6DoF tracking (head & hand), latency mitigation, etc taking much more effort and investment to get right.
Even on a laptop, it changes the game. I plug my MacBook Pro in 1x/day and the rest of the time I`m free. Very excited to see the M1 in other applications.
I mean, Apple does have an advantage with the M1 SoC, but even it will not be able to run at full-tilt forever, it will also require considerable cooling. We need headsets with better cooling solutions and better power efficiency. Just look Quest performance against Focus 3.
If Apple really releases a XR headset with all the specs that many news are speculating, it should be powered by something like the M1. I`m honestly all for it
2/ This is also why I think Apple has a huge advantage with their M1 SoC, even if they come late to the party. Their power consumption/speed ratio for their mobile chip is amazing.
I agree with you there, hardware developments will make VR mainstream. There are still tech issues we need to solve & making things easier is key for mass adoption User experience we are slowly getting there but fragmented ecosystems is something we need to put more time on
My thoughts exactly, apple has such a big head start over oculus that people dont even begin to appreciate. Also playing with apples ARKIT4 I feel AR will have mass adoption way before VR. Having a phone with a big battery next to headsets can offload processing is another+
AR yes, VR I do think is software. AAA games is probably not the issue in two ways. One is that most people in XR don`t want to be in the games industry, they want to be in the tech industry. Second is that we need useful, interesting, new, daily use software more than fortnite.
A lot of it also comes down to silicon used to transcode / switch the media streams. The power envelope of the SoC performance of the integrated gpu (arm Mali..) the heat dissipation, battery life , etc all impact the size of the hardware. My extreme, its all about the SoC.
