I'd be curious if you feel the same way in a year or so. When I first got into VR I felt very strongly it was the future, but that novelty wore off over the course of a year. I go back every few months to catch up on experiences I've missed and try out new tech, but the novelty has still worn off.

VR is not a daily use experience for me, and I assume for a lot of consumers, but it is still amazing.

I find that a) the bulkiness of the headset (and the added wires and external sensors of the Valve Index) and b) the fact that I don't always feel like waving my arms around or reaching stuff after sitting in front of the PC all day, made it wear off for me.

I was into Pokerstars VR for a while but interacting with people through the microphone made me realize I don't really enjoy talking to strangers from around the country while playing poker.

Waving your arms around after spending a day sitting at the PC is a really good thing to do though, just saying :)

Yes, I agree!

Kind of!

I was developing neck pain from Pokerstars - it's not exactly table tennis. On the other hand, Moss was a very cool game but I found it annoying on my joints to reach under virtual corners and even get on all fours to look under something. Amazingly cool concept, but it's not exactly physical therapy after a computer posture.

Is it a realistic option for watching TV/movies without a TV in the room?

Steam VR has a player that can use your PC to stream stuff, including even controlling your PC desktop. I don't think it's comfortable to have a screen right in your face with a heavy thing on your head, it's easier to watch something in a relaxed posture, moving your neck how you see fit.

I think it will take off when the gear becomes slim and light - like a much newer generation of glasses. Something that as far as I know is still in the realm of sci-fi - but not far.

The novelty hasn't worn off for me because I don't treat it as a game console. I treat it as a new form factor computer.

I use it daily for HIIT workouts, and I use it to spend time with family and friends who are either far away or busy with life i.e. kids. It's way better than FaceTime or Zoom.

I have been using Beat Saber to clear my Apple Watch exercise rings. I am curious what games or apps you use to do HIIT.

Mostly FitXR since it's competitive and SuperNatural. Both are subscription based, $6/month and $15/month if paid yearly. I tend to end with Thrill of the Fight.

In addition to Beat Saber, you might want to check out games like Until You Fall and SynthRiders.

I've lost 20 lbs playing video games.

For the sake of argument let's take you folks' word that it's the future of gaming (for the subset that can tolerate and enjoy the headsets). How much money is in that?

I don't believe for a moment that it'll extend into work interactions. Maybe family visiting type experiences, again for the subset that can enjoy the headset setup.

I want to disclose a bias I have here: I run a video startup, so I'm pretty incentivized to believe VR will become a standard in several work contexts.

That said, when I try my hardest to think objectively about the future of work, I think VR is going to be everywhere.

Workers going into factories will become exceedingly rare. The cost of humans is high both from a safety and headcount perspective, and more and more of manufacturing pipelines are becoming automated end-to-end. Service repairs will likely happen remotely and only require humans to be onsite if absolutely necessary in the future. It's good for business.

There is a ton on "dark factories" to be found online. Also, there are many startups that have significant traction which are bridging these two worlds via AR:

https://www.mirareality.com/

When it comes to knowledge work, I think anywhere where you have to work with visuals will become a predominant VR stomping ground. If you need to be working with 3D models (lots of engineering + manufacturing) or flat UIs (being able to point and pan and modify is more natural with hand gestures), VR will likely win out. I also think VR will create a space for completely new ways of constructing software architecture. This could be a bridge to creating architectures visually for the first time (want to define a service that automagically becomes a kubernetes service and node on the backend? create a box here and give it some parameters!). The interactivity of this kind of build feels very natural, and it's how we actually already do things in a more limited 2d context. My guess is the killer feature here with VR is the immersiveness allowing for better synchronous collboration.

I could be totally wrong about this stuff, but I think a lot of our lives will change with VR. There are some serious hurdles we need to get over, most notably form factor, weight, and nausea. I feel like these are solvable problems, but honestly that's mostly a hunch more than anything. Would love to hear from others who know more than me!

I think I agree, though from a more skeptical standpoint. To be fair I haven't used VR much lately, but at first glance I see a lot of parallels between this and the iPad.

The iPad is a fantastic device, and it definitely changed the way many people use computers. People use them for all sorts of things, because they feature properties that make them more comfortable for plenty of work applications.

I'd argue however they haven't had the significant, "post-PC" impact people used to believe they'd have. I remember the narrative back then was predicting they would change the way most people interacted with computers, and PCs would stick around "like trucks" just for the "heavy" or specific jobs for which they'd the absolutely required.

What I've seen instead is that iPads (and all tablets really) act mostly as a utility or compliment, and when I had one I only casually used it for light tasks when my computer was out of reach or battery.

So in my case, I don't doubt a lot of places will have VR headsets for work, but I still don't think people will consider them indispensable except for very specific applications. I think we'll keep seeing more remote service repairs, for example, but not that workers going into factories will become exceedingly rare— only less extraordinary. I think it's probable VR will become as common for 3D artists as tablets are for 2D artists, but don't necessarily think it'll spill out into software architecture or other keyboard-centric applications like that.

In summary, I think VR will become more commonplace and be a fantastic tool in many contexts, but I don't think at the moment that it will signify a significant paradigm shift in most work contexts.

This feels like a highly probable outcome as well. It feels natural. We shall see! I do wonder if there are patterns we can see in the past of other devices (like the iPad) that ended up being utilities more than main devices.

This was surprisingly persuasive. You're thinking about actual productivity and not just dreaming of avatars sitting at a virtual conference table. (Ick.)

I agree with the other commenter that people are going to keep showing up in factories and repair shops, but there may be a decent sized niche of genuine utility.

Do us a favor: stay independent and stay interesting. Don't get acquired by Zuck. Maybe the MechE's in my family will use your stuff one day.

Yeah I agree. The idea of 1-for-1 bridging avatars around a conference table feels horrible. That's not a world I want to live in.

I do agree it's highly probable that VR becomes a utility until we have another leap in technology (contact-lens form factor?). We shall see!

> Do us a favor: stay independent and stay interesting. Don't get acquired by Zuck. Maybe the MechE's in my family will use your stuff one day.

Thank you I really appreciate this compliment. :) My father is actually a MechE so this comment hits close to home. My background is in materials science as well as computer science. After this company, I think I'll go back to my roots in more physics, chemistry and biology and try to do something within bioengineering. Then again, who knows. I feel, as I get older, the only thing that's certain is that I have no idea what I'll value in 2-3 more years, and I think that's a good thing!

Hope you and your loved ones are doing well internet friend.

Facebook loses about $150 per Quest 2 sold (basing this off of what an engineer who worked on it told me). Either way, they're not making money off the hardware.

They plan on making it up via game sales in the Oculus Rift Store, and services. Same as what Sony did with the PS4 (which was quite successful). I see "Quest Season Passes" in VR's future.

I've tried working in VR and it's... ok. If you're ok with working on a single monitor at < 1440p you'll be fine.

At 1440p and above resolution isn't there yet and pushing multiple monitors through to the headset is still (to my knowledge) not practical. The remote desktop-like apps I've tried only do a single monitor.

I like the bet that Quest 2 made with making the headset do all the processing, but it fails for tasks like this.

I think eventually we'll get a headset where working in VR becomes practical and affordable, but we're not there yet. Maybe apple pulls off a Gear-VR-like setup where you plonk your phone in front of some lenses on your face. But AFAIK anything better than the Quest 2 is substantially more expensive.

My wild guess is that practical work VR is 2-3 years away. Meta's next headset iteration might do it + price drops.

ImmersedVR can do multiple virtual monitors. But I think the real step forward is dropping the desktop metaphor and having windows floating free in VR, like Simula are doing. They whole concept of a monitor is more constricting than useful in VR.

Here’s the thing though. I remember when the iPhone came out. The web browser experience was a horrible low resolution experience; it was slow, clunky, and you had to charge it every day. Yet none of it mattered - almost overnight everyone became glued to their phones. It didn’t need hyping up like “just wait for 4k to come out and then it will really take off” - people wanted it despite all the original flaws. Same with original game consoles. I don’t know, I just don’t see it.

The original iPhone was also better than anything else mobile at the time though. Much better.

As clunky an experience you describe, the rest were far far worse.

VR is a cool niche experience, but the friction is still far too high for me. I wear glasses, and it needs to be only slightly more friction than that. Whether AR or VR, I don't much even care, as software experiences will adapt to the hardware at some point.

Wow what are your favorite apps? And a bit more leading question, what apps have you used in the last week?

Not OP, but I also picked up a Quest 2 and was impressed after finding all previous VR experiences I'd tried gimmicky and not holding my attention for long.

Lately I've been sinking time into:

Half-Life Alyx

I Expect You To Die (and its sequel)

The Climb (and eventually its sequel, I assume)

Creed

In no particular order (well, except for Alyx, which is the gold standard)...

- Half Life: Alyx

- Lucky's Tale

- Beat Saber

- Thumper

The problem is that the problems are mostly the same problems we had since 2012. I am not sure if we can really address them without new breakthrough technologies.