VR will never become mass market until it no longer means wearing a big silly looking thing on your head.
There are various types of HMDs that look more or less like glasses, though those aren’t really VR-oriented.
For myself, I don’t care what it looks like to other people.
But what I want is a monitor replacement. Something that is at least as good as a monitor. Comfort, resolution, clarity, ability to be worn all day, etc. Give me a better monitor, and I will buy that.
Existing headsets aren’t there.
They can provide a wider field of view than a monitor, which is good for filling peripheral view in some games. But they aren’t something that people would use as a general monitor replacement. You don’t want to code or web-browse all day on them.
If it’s not a monitor replacement, then it’s a toy, a specialized accessory for a small number of games. I’m not saying that that isn’t worthwhile to some people. If I were a hardcore flight-simmer, a genre that is a good match for the technology, that might be worth it to me. But it’s definitely not a no-brainer, and it’s something that I’d just pull out on specific occasions to enhance a game.
I have a flightstick, throttle, and pedals, and those are, frankly, probably larger wins for flight-simming, and I rarely wind up pulling those out. They mostly gather dust.
There are various types of HMDs that look more or less like glasses, though those aren’t really VR-oriented.
For myself, I don’t care what it looks like to other people.
But what I want is a monitor replacement. Something that is at least as good as a monitor. Comfort, resolution, clarity, ability to be worn all day, etc. Give me a better monitor, and I will buy that.
Existing headsets aren’t there.
They can provide a wider field of view than a monitor, which is good for filling peripheral view in some games. But they aren’t something that people would use as a general monitor replacement. You don’t want to code or web-browse all day on them.
If it’s not a monitor replacement, then it’s a toy, a specialized accessory for a small number of games. I’m not saying that that isn’t worthwhile to some people. If I were a hardcore flight-simmer, a genre that is a good match for the technology, that might be worth it to me. But it’s definitely not a no-brainer, and it’s something that I’d just pull out on specific occasions to enhance a game.
I have a flightstick, throttle, and pedals, and those are, frankly, probably larger wins for flight-simming, and I rarely wind up pulling those out. They mostly gather dust.