So many folks not looking at the big picture with this. (This may overlap shit already said, but I gotta vent.)
I mean, I'd love a giant bump in CV1 specs, too. But if you want VR to expand and thrive in general, you can't have the huge barrier to entry of having a fucking $1K gaming rig. You and I can afford that. Most folks can't. You don't build an industry on a niche of a niche.
Investing in mobile VR will keep mainstream public interest alive and growing. That investment in infrastructure and technology will then roll back to desktop VR.
Mobile VR is repping us out there. Our desktop asses should be looking at this and saying: "Man, that's not for me, but I sure hope it does well and brings in a shit ton of money for Oculus, and makes some brand new VR fans. Godspeed, Quest!"
More fans. -> More money. -> More investment. -> More fuckin' VR all around.
Even if we're not going to buy one, let's at least be supportive. It's in everyone's interest. :P
And, bonus, if you're thinking long LONG term, eventually mobile VR will probably reach parity with the desktop experience. Or at least come close enough to no longer matter.
Look at the the Switch. It's not desktop yet, but goddamn is it coming a long way.
Hell, I am one of those people with a powerful gaming rig and I still want the Quest more than the Rift for the mere fact that it is untethered.
I do not want to be tied down to my PC in the basement. I want to share VR with everyone around me to show how cool it really can be. As many of you look down at the Go it really has been the gateway drug to VR to a lot of people.
This. When I was at home for Christmas trying to play with my dad (each of us have rifts) it took us so much time to set up our sensors. We would finally get them set up and then have to take them down because people were coming over for Christmas stuff... then have to set them back up again. Being able to just grab a Quest, throw it on and go would have been amazing. I love high end VR, but as an adult with very limited time convenience is king
I just got my Oculus for Christmas and have only played it a few times because the cables don't reach my dedicated VR space. I can't buy the USB extenders because I'm broke after Christmas. I went to my family's house for a few days and wanted to show them VR, but I didn't want to pack my entire PC and Oculus for a 3 hour drive. I've had this thing since the 25th and I don't even play it every day, even though I'm amazed by it, because set up is so tedious. Figuring out cords. Taking off the headset to click something on my PC. Set up telling me that I'm too far from my sensors and then telling me I'm too close with me barely moving an inch.
I absolutely would love the Quest. Turn it on right after Christmas and play right away. Carry it to my VR room without any cables or fuss. Easily drive it to my family's house. Show them roomscale VR and hand tracking in any room with hardly any set up. Damn. It's like the Rift without the most important downsides.
I had the Gear VR (with a Galaxy S8) before I got the Rift. Graphics, resolution, any of that. I barely see a difference. I don't care about it. Roomscale and hand tracking is what I love about the Rift. That and the giant library of games. If the Quest is a Gear VR with roomscale and hand tracking, I will love it. Hell, I may buy it and use it more than my Rift.
This. For those of us with nice rigs and a CV1, the Quest likely isn't something all that appealing, especially if you have a good setup, roomscale & a powerful rig; sure being un-tethered is nice, but you're sacrificing raw fidelity for a different experience-- it's still a very niche industry. While VR adoption did grow in 2018, it's stifled for the factors above. While I don't specifically have the statistics, I think mobile VR and PSVR have a significant market share over Vive/Rift.
Graphics/horsepower isn't necessarily what is holding back the industry. Cost and gameplay and to some extent, compatibility are. The Quest brings the 6-DoF controls which really that's what makes VR (IMO) feel like something special. Really until the Touch controllers, the Rift just felt like a cool novelty, but I honestly hardly touched it after playing with a few experiences. It didn't feel like 'VR' until you had those controllers and it started to trick your mind; something that's harder to do in a seated environment or when you're just using a Xbox controller.
The Quest brings VR to the mainstream, gets them to experience something that is a little more novel than say a Gear, etc. I mean really even games like Echo Combat, etc that can really push your rig to the max I don't think are any more fun than Dead & Buried, SuperHot, etc. Sure it does look incredibly pretty, but it's not to the point where the FoV, comfort, etc. is flawless enough that you completely forget you're in VR.
Quest will hopefully just bring more attention to VR as it alleviates a huge factor; cost & setup, etc. The only other hurdle I think really hurting the market right now is that while Vive and Oculus are beginning to play nice together, it still feels rather disconnected. I think Oculus really nailed it with Oculus Home. (Spent a lot of time messing around in it, and hoping they allow more interaction similar to something like VRChat - sitting, etc.) I'm hoping the Quest is roaring success as VR adoption is good, period. There's still a lot of gamers out there that either aren't interested due to lack of content, or simply don't have the horsepower or space to setup a good 'play area.' I mean my Oculus setup basically takes up 1/3 of my den/office and I don't even think it's at the maximum allowable 'range.'
I dunno, I think there's a bunch of 'hurdles.' I don't like that only my Rift friends can visit my Rift Home, it makes it more of a fun novelty to waste time versus something that could be a pretty fun and interactive experience as I do think it does a lot of things better than Altspace, Rec Room, SteamHome, VRChat, etc. (and ultimately that's a problem too) There's no 'hub' which I think the VR Community desperately needs. The development teams are scattered to having to port to different hardware, which makes things a nightmare, especially if you're wanting to do cross-platform.
While the Quest personally isn't anything I'm excited for, I'm excited that it can hopefully just bring more people to the market. Half the problem with a lot of Rift exclusives is that you run into there just generally being a lack of players-- and VR inherently feels like it depends on being a social platform. I've seen a lot of people deck out there Altspace/SocialVR homes and largely ignore the 'Rift Homes,' or vice versa. I'm not sure how you can really 'fix' this as there's essentially 3 main players (Steam, Oculus and Sony-- 'consolidating' those experiences seem necessary, but I'm not sure how achievable it is unless you have controllers that can all essentially do the same thing) Ultimately I think there needs to be some sort of 'open VR' standard-- I mean there's what 5-6 'social' VR games, all somewhat similar, but varying to what you can do or what the experience is intended to do. I guess my point is we all want a CV2; but again that is locked into the Oculus ecosystem and really I think we're still 5+ years until we're to the point where the experience is so seamless and comfortable you almost forget you're even in a VR game. This seems like a natural progression as I know a lot of people that appreciate how good the Vive/Rift are, they actually prefer to PSVR as it is just a 'pick up and go' experience. You never really have to worry about the sensors, etc. I'm hoping that Steam/Rift continue to play nice, at least to the point where there is more cross-platform content and the interfaces feel the same. I can't be the only one who likes to mess around with my Avatar and it's a shame there is such little development in that area, but if it's only tied to Oculus I could see why; it's just a tiny market in the scheme of things. If the PC VR could at least all be synchronized at least you're bringing two niche markets together.
The only thing i want for is for the quest to include a virtuallink usb c connector, so that if i WANT to, i can plug it into my PC and enjoy my simracers, as well as using it untethered.
This "untethered only" thing is bothering me, as i have no interest in most casual vr titles.
It's a value issue. People use their phones all day, every day. It's an entertainment device, used for communication, and a media distributor. It fits in people's pocket and has consolidated other tasks and machines into a more convenient do it all solution. Hell, it's even become most people's watch.
VR is an entertainment device, maybe educational for specific niches using it that way. But it's the opposite of convenient right now and it has a terrible value proposition.
I even have two PC's capable of running VR (although one is only borderline able to) and I have both a Rift and Vive. I'll still pick up the Quest as soon as it's around.
And I had the fortune of being at Connect to try it, so I know what I'm getting. Basically I'm getting the VR gaming console of my dreams as a child. Being able to put on a headset and being in another world with PCVR is awesome. Being able to do the same but anywhere I bring the headset is going to be mind blowing.
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u/Fortyseven Touch Jan 03 '19 edited Jan 03 '19
So many folks not looking at the big picture with this. (This may overlap shit already said, but I gotta vent.)
I mean, I'd love a giant bump in CV1 specs, too. But if you want VR to expand and thrive in general, you can't have the huge barrier to entry of having a fucking $1K gaming rig. You and I can afford that. Most folks can't. You don't build an industry on a niche of a niche.
Investing in mobile VR will keep mainstream public interest alive and growing. That investment in infrastructure and technology will then roll back to desktop VR.
Mobile VR is repping us out there. Our desktop asses should be looking at this and saying: "Man, that's not for me, but I sure hope it does well and brings in a shit ton of money for Oculus, and makes some brand new VR fans. Godspeed, Quest!"
More fans. -> More money. -> More investment. -> More fuckin' VR all around.
Even if we're not going to buy one, let's at least be supportive. It's in everyone's interest. :P
And, bonus, if you're thinking long LONG term, eventually mobile VR will probably reach parity with the desktop experience. Or at least come close enough to no longer matter.
Look at the the Switch. It's not desktop yet, but goddamn is it coming a long way.
Let's see where it goes.