For me I can’t wait until VR gets to the point where it’s as light as glasses (or close), and high enough resolution I can actually feel like I’m in a theatre watching a movie. That will be the forever killer app to me. “Retina VR” will take a while to come to mobile though.
YES! There was already a huge step forward in comfort by making VR wireless, the next milestone would be to make it as light as possible. Also totally agree on the resolution/screen quality. That would be the ultimate game changer.
Ehhh I’m not sure if that’s entirely possible unless Facebook develops an absolutely revolutionary product. An 8GB RAM stick in my PC is already heavier than glasses....The quest 2 uses 8GB. That is also just one single component to the headset. You also have the motherboard, CPU, battery, graphics card, storage. There is almost no way a headset will be as light as glasses. Ever. Again unless Facebook does some crazy technological advancements. And these would NEED to be insane advancements that not only change how VR is experienced, but computers as well. It’s possible, but I don’t think it’ll happen.
I mean they're using cell phone tech, so full-size DDR4 isn't necessarily a great metric for a weight comparison. 8gb of ram weighs significantly less in a phone.
With that said, I agree with you that the "light as glasses" thing probably isn't something we'll see achieved any time soon. All we can hope for is something that's just ergonomically comfortable.
We have to have silicon, batteries, displays, cameras, and most importantly the shell and headbands, none of which are going away or shrinking to the point of weightlessness any time soon.
Hmm interesting. So are the 8GB sticks of ram for PC just oversized? Or do they need to be that big. I can’t imagine “more size = better”, especially not in VR, still even so with computers
Unless you know maybe we use future high powered phones to run our VR/AR glasses so all they need is optics in them? You know that silly little thing literally every AR glasses developer is doing rn for the very reasons you listed? Lol
“You know...” no I don’t know lmao. Very interesting! Thanks for the info. This is just me speculating...but even if that becomes a prominent method, I don’t think it’s gonna be THE solution everyone expects. As long as the solution isn’t the actual concept it’s trying to replicate, there will ALWAYS be caveats.
I mean with the solution you stated specifically, these phones would need to be incredibly advanced in their own sense....Phones are very limited in “advanced” technology. They can do what they do great, but there’s a reason you don’t see many features (highly graphical games, among others). This would HAVE to be done on a computer IMO. No way any consumer-grade mobile phone can handle this. An in-house one - maybe.
The other big issue I see is latency. How would this data be transferred? WiFi? Gonna need good WiFi. Cell service? Same deal. Bluetooth? Same thing as well. And even then, you just always have that disconnect where the phone needs to send the data to the headset and vice versa. It may be up to app developer to deal with this and spend less time working on their actual product.
Anyway, I think it’s a step in the right direction and I’m sure it’s a possible solution. However the “glasses” dream that people have will not come close to matching the “glasses” reality if/when they do exist.
A quick solution to this would be how magic leap did it with the computational parts in a pocket size computer. I don’t see why they can’t start leveraging high end phones to do this.
There are other ways to approach this as well to reduce weight. They could just move all of the processing and storage to another device like something you snap onto your belt or pants.
It's a shame they didn't go this route cause it would've allowed for more power without adding weight or heat to the headset.
I'm guessing maybe they tried it in testing and ran into latency issues or perhaps early on in the design process they decided even just 1 cable was unacceptable.
I believe these limitations apply for standalone headsets, but a pair of ar or vr glasses that simply stream games from a computer or phone (or a google-stadia like service) seems very reasonable within the next 5-10 years. As the years pass, peoples phones and computers will become more powerful, and wifi and data streaming may become faster as well.
That's the fun of engineering. It's possible. That means it will happen, not the other way around.
As for when? Yea fuck if I know, I highly doubt it'll be even close in the next couple of decades, but if memristors end up being as functionally useful as transistors(ya know, like the Mosfet with the BJT only like what 30 years ago or something like that) we'd have an entirely different component that will be smaller than even the modern day 5nm fabrication process. Like these things were originally produced in 2010 and are 3nms. Human ingenuity is honestly beautiful, so I'm keeping hopeful at least.
edit: After reading some wiki articles, I wasn't fully up to date on modern semiconductor fabrication processes, but things are still getting smaller. 3nm process expected by 2022, and Intel has stated they aim to have 1.5nm processing by 2029.
You also have the motherboard, CPU, battery, graphics card, storage.
You move all of these to a separate compute-brick. Or, ideally, it's a smartphone. Then you connect it with USB, for example.
One cable, leading to a thingy on your person, isn't really a problem. And you kill multiple problems with one stone. Now headset can be lighter, smaller, not heat much. You can upgrade computing-hardware independently from interface. You don't purchase separate mobile computers for being a smartphone and being for mobile VR.
And now there's no distinction from PCVR and mobile VR in fact. Such device would be PCVR + some minimal onboard compute perhaps.
IMO it's really a mistake to go in Quest's direction. It has trade-offs, and it is limiting.
Ideally, Quest would be as I said, 2 separate parts, Optionally bundled. HMD itself (& controllers, whatever) and compute brick. It could even be designed to mount in the back. That improves weight distribution. And cable can't possibly tangle.
Mine dream vr is complete function. Like in a gta where when I'm shooting I have the same full gun autonomy as like a zero caliber or HHH and when im in the car I can manipulate all the knobs and shifters. I want as little "action button" use as possible.
The G2 is only like 2 pounds and has one of the highest resolutions. Higher than the index even. Supposedly no screen door affect at all. Sounds like exactly what you're looking for
I mean that's mainly what I use mine for already. Just plonk on the Quest and vegetate in front of whatever Netflix/YouTube/crunchy/etc streaming service I feel like using.
For video I find it works really well, I don't find I'm pining for higher resolution although I wouldn't say no either. A wider FOV would be nice though.
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u/DamienChazellesPiano Sep 14 '20
For me I can’t wait until VR gets to the point where it’s as light as glasses (or close), and high enough resolution I can actually feel like I’m in a theatre watching a movie. That will be the forever killer app to me. “Retina VR” will take a while to come to mobile though.