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Re:Daydream – Google VR by atom-morgan on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @02:46PM (#12638138)
VR has so many possibilities outside of gaming I think saying gaming is the tip of the iceberg might be exaggerating gaming's overall role in VR.
Re:Daydream – Google VR by beefield on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @03:09PM (#12638400)
Could you mention a few?

(I definitely am not trying to be sarcastic, your statement is pretty much what I think, but somehow whenever I try to think of these practical opportunities, I fail to grasp anything with even remotely the potential user base of gaming.)

Re:Daydream – Google VR by corysama on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @05:45PM (#12639771)
Training. There are already training sims for surgical assistants using consumer hardware. Extend that to any job that involves highly skilled work away from a keyboard and mouse. Nursing, mechanics, maintenance, construction machinery, etc...

Design and simulation. The auto and oil industry have paid millions for whole-wall, multi-user, 3D display systems because they want slightly better visualization tools for people doing car design and oil exploration. Spending on that saves them 10X on avoiding wasted effort. Commoditize that to fashion, gadgets, furniture...

Real estate. In the near future, you would be considered an idiot to pay for a building to be built without walking through it first. Very soon when shopping for a house, you will walk through 50 prospective houses in VR before bothering to visit 5 in meatspace. Architects already call VR visualization "cheating" because it is so much more effective --even for professionals-- than drafting and CAD on flat media.

Education. Firing full-scale catapults is a much more engaging way to teach physics than staring at diagrams of catapults.

Tourism. VR won't replace going there. VR will replace not going there. To say that most people don't go to most places is a comic understatement. For people who can't travel because of personal/financial/health constraints, being able to get out of the house/hospital bed/nursing home for just a while would be quite a boon.

Socialization. The telephone is basically lightweight social VR. Social VR is like the telephone but more intense. The phone will not be replaced by VR. VR opens up more intense options for being with other people you couldn't be with otherwise. Instead of just sitting in the same room having a chat, you can hike through Minecraft mountains, play D&D, paint a sculpture, or shoot catapults together.

Re:Daydream – Google VR by talmand on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @03:23PM (#12638529)
Education for one. A properly scanned museum would be interesting to walk through.

Able to walk around construction projects before they start. Able to walk around construction projects as they are built.

Main deal I could expect out of a cheap version of VR technology with decent enough data connection is telepresence. One could attend any event, large or small, around the world as if you were there.

Re:Daydream – Google VR by strictnein on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @04:21PM (#12639110)
Did a hackday on that focused on a non-gaming VR solution, and while I can't say what that was, I will point out two previous training related uses:

In 2001/2002 they trained surgeons with it and found significant improvements:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1422600/

Siemens has done training for Oil Rig crews while the rig was being constructed. Reduced real world training times:

http://www.siemens.com/innovation/en/home/pictures-of-the-fu...

Re:Daydream – Google VR by rrdharan on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @04:52PM (#12639376)
I imagine videoconferencing / telepresence type things have a lot of potential? There's all kinds of interesting ways you can imagine a VR meeting could be more effective than your typical group Hangout/Skype video call.
Re:Daydream – Google VR by tomcart on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @05:18PM (#12639563)
If video conferencing wearing a VR headset, don't you necessarily lose the eye contact piece, seen as a key part of high end VC hardware/software?
Re:Daydream – Google VR by jhbadger on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @03:43PM (#12638704)
360 videos, especially of exotic locations (the great Pyramids, temples in India, etc.). I really enjoy these now (using cardboard), but better resolution and smoother panning would be even better.
Re:Daydream – Google VR by nogridbag on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @05:49PM (#12639810)
I used Autodesk Homestyler to take floor plans of a preconstruction condo and visualize what it looks like in 3D. But ideally, it would be much cooler to walk around with a VR headset on to really get an idea of the space (given you don't bump into walls or fall in a lake). I'm not a VR expert so I'm not even sure if Daydream supports this or if the user must be stationary.

Autodesk previously demoed their app working with project tango so you can walk around holding a tablet as a viewport.

Re:Daydream – Google VR by wehadfun on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @03:42PM (#12638690)
I asked the same question and got downvoted to oblivion. In what situation would you watch netflix on this as opposed to your 60 inch TV?
Re:Daydream – Google VR by dragonwriter on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @06:08PM (#12639962)
> In what situation would you watch netflix on this as opposed to your 60 inch TV?

I don't have a 60 inch TV, I do have a phone (and tend to keep a pretty recent one), so the marginal cost of Daydream over what I would have anyway vs. the marginal cost of a 60-inch TV over what I would have anyway is a pretty clear win for Daydream.

Re:Daydream – Google VR by Corrado on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @04:11PM (#12639002)
How about on a long, boring, airline flight?
Re:Daydream – Google VR by wehadfun on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @04:49PM (#12639357)
Yes, on a flight, passenger in a car/bus, maybe on a machine on gym.
Re:Daydream – Google VR by shiftpgdn on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @03:55PM (#12638839)
When Netflix starts serving up hardcore pornography.
Re:Daydream – Google VR by imtringued on Wednesday October 05, 2016 @05:37AM (#12642593)
What about gaming's overall role in promoting development of powerful GPUs?