Re:Oculus Rift is Shipping
by pmoriarty on Monday March 28, 2016 @10:30PM
(#11379113)
I've personally demoed the Gear VR to about 70 to 80 people, and in my experience nausea/vr-sickness is a problem for a tiny minority of people (maybe 2 or 3 out of 70 or 80 for properly designed experiences). With the consumer version of the Oculus Rift, that should be even less of a problem, due to the higher specs.
Much more of a problem is physical comfort of the headset itself. After the novelty wears off, few but the most dedicated want to stay in VR for extended periods of time, or even bother with putting the headset on anymore. Headsets are just too bulky and uncomfortable. Even regular glasses are too much of a hassle for a lot of people. VR headsets have the uncomfort of regular glasses multiplied by a hundred.
I don't think VR will fully take off until you can experience VR with something as comfortable and unobtrusive as contact lenses. Until then, it will remain a novelty or used for purposes where it really does not have much competition, like tele-surgery. There are some other niches where people will likely use a headset, like to play an occasional game or for videoconferencing, but then they'll take off the headset and go back to monitors for more mundane tasks that don't benefit from immersion, like word processing, web surfing, etc. Even for movies, current headsets are a bit too much, when you could just as easily watch a movie unencumbered by the bulk.
That's not to say VR isn't impressive. It is. I was blown away by it when I first experienced it, despite being spoiled and knowing what to expect by watching videos and reading about it. There's nothing like the real thing, though. But eventually all that wears off, and then you have to deal with the day-to-day choice of whether to put on the headset again.. and that's where I think for now headsets are too uncomfortable for regular, casual use.
Much more of a problem is physical comfort of the headset itself. After the novelty wears off, few but the most dedicated want to stay in VR for extended periods of time, or even bother with putting the headset on anymore. Headsets are just too bulky and uncomfortable. Even regular glasses are too much of a hassle for a lot of people. VR headsets have the uncomfort of regular glasses multiplied by a hundred.
I don't think VR will fully take off until you can experience VR with something as comfortable and unobtrusive as contact lenses. Until then, it will remain a novelty or used for purposes where it really does not have much competition, like tele-surgery. There are some other niches where people will likely use a headset, like to play an occasional game or for videoconferencing, but then they'll take off the headset and go back to monitors for more mundane tasks that don't benefit from immersion, like word processing, web surfing, etc. Even for movies, current headsets are a bit too much, when you could just as easily watch a movie unencumbered by the bulk.
That's not to say VR isn't impressive. It is. I was blown away by it when I first experienced it, despite being spoiled and knowing what to expect by watching videos and reading about it. There's nothing like the real thing, though. But eventually all that wears off, and then you have to deal with the day-to-day choice of whether to put on the headset again.. and that's where I think for now headsets are too uncomfortable for regular, casual use.