I mean yeah it’s obvious that it’s an oportunity for making money on a new marked and so on, but, even if it’s a bit silly, dreaming of VR technology like in Ready Player One(minus the distopian world) for real life it feels like the bad guys already won, when we will have the technology. Like the omni One is just about to be launched for the market and it’s sold in a bundle with the pico 4, which is owned by Tik Tok. Do you get what is grinding my gears about that?
Have you used any VR tech? It’s not something to be worried about
I think it’s pretty great that Zuckerberg went all-in on the thankfully-wrong bet that his Second Life knockoff would somehow be popular and that people would actually want to strap a computer on their face to use it. 🤡
Which is to say, VR isn’t particularly high on the list of things I’m concerned about giant tech companies’ control of.
I recommend reading The Verge’s review of the Apple Vision Pro which concludes:
Apple may have inadvertently revealed that some of these core ideas are actually dead ends — that they can’t ever be executed well enough to become mainstream. This is the best video passthrough headset ever made, and that might mean camera-based mixed reality passthrough could just be a road to nowhere. This is the best hand- and eye-tracking ever, and it feels like the mouse, keyboard, and touchscreen are going to remain undefeated for years to come.
As someone who doesn’t want to live in a world where head-mounted cameras in public spaces become ubiquitous or even socially acceptable, I found that review to be good news.
I agree the idea of people wearing some Google glasses does kinda terrify me. At least with a phone you can see when somebody is filming you or not paying attention to you but reading their emails or whatever.
TikTok has a VR now? The company that is tracking people’s retina signatures has a device that people strap over their eyes?
Ok I found this post like a week late, but TikTok bought a VR company called Pico several years ago and they were investing money into new software and headsets, but recently cancelled all of their planned games. They are still making a new headset, but they also seemed to cancel their entry into the US market. They also had a ton of layoffs last year.
So basically, I think they’ve lost interest in VR.
Or they got enough eye scans already and don’t need to continue the charade.
*Conspiracy theory intensifies!
I’ve got a quest and meta feels like an overly attached ex girlfriend. The setup experience was terrible, simply because of the meta crap they hacked into the oculus experience.
Having used someone else’s quest that they’ve already sold their soul to sign up for they’re actually very good hardware wise, just a shame that’s because they’re subsidised by their ability to collect data
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Personally, I actually expect VR to disappear from the market once more, or at least for there to be a long gap before the next stuff comes out.
In fact, I think, the Apple headset was the last notable hardware release of the current hype wave.So, yeah, the big privacy-invasive companies would definitely be a dealbreaker for me, but I don’t think this cycle really matters yet.
Beat Saber is ridiculously awesome… but I never want to wear a fucking headset to do my work.
VR is useful for recreation not business.
I mean it’s basically inevitable that major hardware was going to be fairly dominated by big companies, just like how you’re not going to find many small businesses producing regular ass non-vr monitors and the like, especially at the high end of things.
But overall, it’s still a fairly diverse market. Beyond what you’ve mentioned, there’s the valve index as easily the most major competitor. I’ve heard good things about pimax headsets, and they seem to be as close to a small business as the industry really can manage. Rumors say Sony is bringing psvr2 compatability to PC, which would be a huge advantage given the insanely cheap price tag for the quality. The apple vision exists, I guess, though it’s locked in apples walled garden. The htc vive still seems to be around.
