> But I have yet to find any lasting appeal to the "low-end" VR experiences. It really gives a poor impression of what the tech is capable of and walk away with a "gimmicky" feeling.

I'd argue that even "high-end" VR leaves many with a bad impression walking away with a "gimmicky" feeling. The Rift continues to be the worst technology investment I've made, no amount of personal enthusiasm for the concept makes up for the fact many people get motion sick on these things eventually. Feeling sick for "fun" in my free time is not up there with my favorite leisure activities.

Outside of a handful of impressive tech demos (RoboRecall etc), the vast majority of the content on the Rift is equally low rent too.

Each to their own but my experience has been the opposite. I just purchased an Oculus Rift with touch controllers, being carefully optimistic but a bit skeptical, thinking it was going to be as you said "Gimmicky", somewhere on par with 3D cinema experience-wise.

But man, it totally blew my mind how good and immersive it is. Maybe the strongest feeling of "wow, we really live in the future" I've had. The low latency combined with excellent controls really creates a feeling of being there. Google Earth by itself is worth the price of Oculus many times over. Then there are titles like Lone Echo, Robo Recall, Beat Saber, Skyrim VR, Quake 1 and Quake 2, Minecraft etc etc. Sure there aren't a ton of AAA titles yet but those that are hold an amazing quality IMO and has spoiled me from "normal" gaming

Could that just be a game design problem?

When iPhone came out, the games were gimmicky.

Same for Facebook platform.

And then there was Farmville. And then there was Angry Birds. And then there was Pokemon Go.

Games which were designed AROUND the limitations of the platform, rather than being a crappy stripped down version of previous fully realized gaming experiences.

GearVR and Rift owner here. Social VR, for example AltspaceVR, is also quite worthwhile with mobile VR like the GearVR. Yes, you cannot look around people and you have only one 'hand', but that's good enough. Another feature I regularly use is PhoneCast to use most Android 2D apps in VR. I remember catching up 4 seasons of The Walking Dead in double speed with BsPlayer every night. Of course BigScreen will also be a killer app when it's released for mobile to watch movies with others.

Speaking of Bigscreen...it was released for mobile today :-D

Oculus Go launch title and also Samsung GearVR support

Congrats! Tempting to grab a couple Go's for Bigscreen, just to watch movies comfortably in bed or something.

It's great for watching movies on an airplane. None of the games have done anything for me, but the movies are cool.

Watching TV on an airplane is the #1 reason I would buy a VR headset. The in-seat screen UIs are atrocious and they tend to only have ~4 or so episodes of any given show. Unfortunately, the Oculus Go's battery life is only about 2 hours according to the Ars Technica review[1]. Some planes have AC outlets, but YMMV.

[1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/05/oculus-go-review-the-...

For the record, the upcoming Lenovo Mirage Solo headset has a 4000 mAh battery and (purportedly) 10-hour battery life. Of course, it is double the price of the Oculus Go.

it looks like it is available now: https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/virtual-reality-and-sm...

I saw a review that mentioned Oculus discouraged using it while it was plugged in, so even on a flight with outlets you wouldnt be able to watch 2 movies on a 4 hour flight with it.

What about the noise level on a plane? Are they able to cancel that out?

You can provide your own noise cancelling headphones - you're not forced to use the headphones integrated into the strap.

What I think Oculus really nailed down was the controllers. Playing Robo Recall, I can sometimes even believe I'm holding an actual, although lightweight, weapon on my hands.

That said, resolution is not the greatest asset. I doubt this device improves on that – if anything it will probably be worse.

What blows people away is not the display, it's the head and position tracking, of both the HMD and the controls. It's amazing how you can "see" them and accurately pick them up on a table. I hope this device has that.

Actually Steam/Vive brought that tech first to market with the HTC Vive + Lighthouse, and after trying both the Lighthouse tech has noticeably less latency (through less complex tracking mechanisms). Plus side is Valve is giving away the tech for free.

What do you mean it is giving away the tech for free?

You can use Vive's lighthouse tracking commercially for free, with no royalties or patent licensing. For whatever reason, Facebook still decided to re-invent an inferior implementation using cameras and computer vision.

"Inferior" is debatable. It is pretty darn accurate. And it could potentially track my coffee mug, which has value :)

I don't think it's debatable. The Oculus tracking system at best does the same as the Lighthouse tracking, except lighthouse has less latency, less processing requirement (you can track a room full of hundreds or thousands of discrete balls since there's no CV loop). Plus in theory multiple users can use the same set of lighthouse emitters (they work kind of like Wii's IR based tracking system).

I don't think lighthouse was originally royalty-free and without any licensing fees back in 2016 when these systems released, pretty sure that was announced later.

>I doubt this device improves on that – if anything it will probably be worse.

It's actually higher resolution than the Rift.

it's for consuming 360-ish video experiences, which i think is less gimmicky than you're implying. good 360 videos are fun and immersive and let you explore visually in a way that flat film doesn't. i actually think this kind of passive engagement with "VR" will be more common (because it's easier) than highly interactive video games.

Out of curiosity; are their any VR platforms which pair with a drone such that the orientation of the drone is based on the direction your head looks? (I have neither a drone, nor a VR headset)

Or are drones oriented only by hand-held controls?

Yes. https://www.dji.com/dji-goggles

I actually enjoy watching regular video on the light wireless headsets.

Can you watch 2D streams (Netflix, Youtube, etc) on the headset?

The PC VR headsets have virtual theaters that you can watch any 2d content in. I'm sure this will have the same.

The review mentioned it did, but I don't understand why they have a virtual room. Why not just display the video at full resolution?

Why do I have to have my head and face oriented toward a virtual screen? Why would I want to look down at a virtual coffee table, or up at a virtual ceiling, or behind me at a virtual couch while the movie is playing at some fraction of the device's resolution in a different virtual direction?

1. Video Goggles have existed since the 90s, they want to differentiate themselves from that dead technology. So being able to look around a screen is actually pretty neat.

2. The screen simulates your full range of vision. So to fill it edge to edge would be impossible to watch. You would have to pick an arbitrary fraction of the screen to show at a time. Why not set up a virtual space where you can move closer or further away from the screen or move around like you can in real space? Self configuring!

Moving closer or further is an interesting idea - except I expect I'd be watching video either sitting in a chair or lying down, and thus quite stationary.

As for it adding to the experience, for optimal viewing in real life, we turn off the lights precisely to avoid the surroundings from distracting from the experience...

All of useful video players including the Netflix one have an empty space mode that is just that. And the virtual environment adds to the experience.

You can, but the experience is often like watching a giant standard-def TV set - none of the consumer grade VR headsets have the resolution to do this well yet. I personally find watching a film on an tablet or phone significantly better, unless the isolation offered by strapping a VR headset to your face is more important to you.

It has a native Netflix app (one of Carmacks pet projects)

Is there a site that lists available 360 content?

Really think the industrial design team at Oculus are outstanding, I was blown away with how nice my Rift headset looks, feels and how well considered each device is.

This is before I get into the Touch controllers which become invisible the fit so naturally to your hand.

Really like the design of the Go too but wont be buying one because for me the hand presence is what makes VR.

In my experience all VR has been rather gimmicky and poor. At least this one is cheaper/doesn’t require a headset.

What you look like is your driving decision on which VR device to buy? For me, that'd be mostly irrelevant.

It wasn't a huge factor, but I bought it partly as a party trick to pull out when people are over. Having it look less ugly and intimidating was definitely a plus when getting new people to try out VR for the first time.

On the other hand, I own only the Gear VR, and this looks like the logical next step up for me.

Just an FYI, though I'm sure you're already aware, this doesn't offer any improvements over the Gear VR's VR experience. The screen and performance are worse than the newest Galaxies.

It does offer better ease of use (always ready, no messing with docking your phone) and a lighter weight. Additionally it (obviously) doesn't take away from your phone's battery life.

Again, I'm sure you're aware of all that, but I'd hate for someone to spend $200, expecting something that this is not.