I’ll do you one better…

It’s been almost 3 years since Half Life Alyx and nothing in the Vr space has come even remotely close.

It’s the killer app problem. There are a few very cool experiences in VR, but overall it a sad environment.

I have no doubt it’ll be big. Just curious on HOW SLOWLY it’s going.

My take is simply that the resolution is too low relative to average users expectations (set by their tv and smartphone).

Every single person with whom I have shared my Quest 2 has said something to the effect of “is it supposed to be so blurry?” and “this thing is uncomfortable”.

The tech is really cool - and the experiences are not totally there (as you say) - but it’s not developed enough as a product.

That sounds more like issues with IPD adjustment rather than resolution issues. I feel that resolution is already good enough for gaming especially if you pair the Quest 2 with a VR ready PC. The resolution only isn't good enough for work. Reading a lot of text on a Quest 2 is nausea inducing. Since the Quest Pro's resolution isn't much better than Quest 2, I don't have high hopes for it when work involves a lot of reading and writing, but Quest 2 is already great for design collaboration.

I agree that it’s “good enough” for gaming - but the Q2 has obviously much worse perceived resolution than most people’s televisions and phone screens (regardless of IPD adjustment).

We can hand wave away the poor resolution because the whole package is kind of amazing, but it undercuts the argument that ‘this is the future!’ when first impressions are that it looks like the past.

The Quest 2 is all about immersion and presence. Most people are impressed by that despite standalone limitations. Maybe they played the wrong games, or they don’t like to move? Sedentary people really hate VR from my anecdotal experience.

Graphics and visual fidelity can be solved easily. PCVR works well with the Quest 2

I don't think it's a killer app problem so much as a general UX issue. I really love RE4, I've played it 100x on the GC and Wii, I could play it in my sleep.

I got it on VR and it was awesome. It was so much more intense and fucking cool and extra flexible (I can hold a knife and a shotgun at the same time???? fucking amazing).

The main thing is that I don't want to just play video games. I like to jump around a bit and do other things. Switching apps is just really annoying in VR, usually it's not even possible.

Probably a better example is Netflix. I usually have TV shows on throughout the day, pausing them constantly for seconds, minutes, or hours, as I do something else, or often letting them play in the background. Can't do that on my Quest 2, it's either "sit in front of a TV and do nothing else" or don't.

To me, these issues are really more OS level/ platform level. The VR UX is out of whack with how I want to use it. Individually though, I can say that my experience is that a VR version of something can be way cooler.

Also, I'd like to have a keyboard interface. If I could wear something like fingerless gloves + have a keyboard hooked up and I just sit at my desk with N virtual monitors that would be amazing. But again, that's not really an "app" problem, it's the OS/platform/UX.

Wanting to multitask VR and non-VR workloads is...... unusual. You may be extremely niche here.

I don't know anyone who sits down to just do one thing, everyone hops between apps.

Believe it or not, some people are still able to focus, even in 2022.

Sounds niche.

I think I'd like that. Having some way to pop up an overlay that I can interact with (reply to a chat message, check a YT video, etc) while the game remains in the primary display. Sort of an AR in VR.

It makes me sad that not even VR is going to escape the pervasiveness of smartphones.

This is possible on PCVR

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamVR/comments/manbp4/how_do_i_ge...

It’s not really possible on Quest 2 for the hardware intensive apps because it doesn’t have enough RAM and the XR2 is still weak processor

I think we agree, but terminology wise its not a killer app problem. Its an install base problem. (which is a chicken and egg problem) If the install base was there, big studios would invest the time.

Yea, same-same.

It'll happen eventually, that projects like HL-A won't seem sooo risky and not require an entity like Valve that seems to have done it mostly for bragging rights - or something.

I think given the size and cost of games like this, it's going to be a very slow crawl... and not an explosion like iPhone was.

Multiplayer VR games are part of the metaverse… the metaverse is just XR with a network connection over the internet. That’s all it is which one reason I don’t understand all the hate for such a neutral medium from fellow techies