Rift, Vive, and Virtual Reality

Don't know about mass appeal but oculus quest has been sold out pretty much since launch. How much of that is due to covid19 or the rumoured cheaper model that might or might not replace quest who knows. Similarly valve index has been sold out most of the time.

But that might be relatively low production runs of those devices.

If Apple were to try to sell an HMD, they would probably commit to production of millions of units per quarter.
 
The apple device is probably wearable glasses with simple display. Not something as fancy as hololens. iPhone will probably have all the real logic and it would only push 2d images for glasses to show. Super cheap, enough for something like simple navigation in city, notifications from phone, read sms/email/...
 
Facebook halts Oculus Quest sales in Germany amid privacy concerns
Headset’s Facebook-login requirement may fall afoul of GDPR’s “coupling ban.”

Facebook subsidiary Oculus says it has "temporarily paused" sales of Oculus Quest headsets to customers in Germany. Reports suggest the move is in response to concerns from German regulators about the recently announced requirement that all Oculus users will need to use a Facebook account by 2023 to log in to the device.

...

Breaking up a coupling?

In a statement provided to Heise Online, the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HCDPFI) said, in part:

"The obligation to create a Facebook account [to access an Oculus headset] is legally extremely questionable, at least for those who have already bought a headset. Whether this also applies to new customers is definitely open to discussion. That should largely depend on the design of the contract, which we do not have."

The group goes on to cite the GDPR's so-called "coupling ban", which prohibits tying one side of a contract (say, the EULA needed to use an Oculus headset) to the sharing of specific personal data (say, the data included in a user's personal Facebook account).

Facebook's requirement that "the use of the headset should be linked to the establishment of a Facebook account" would seem to violate this coupling ban, HCDPFI said. "For those users who already have a headset and do not log in with a Facebook account after 2023, there is also no immediately suitable alternative to continuing to use the headset. The compulsion to use Facebook is therefore exerted on both old and new customers."

Read full article @ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020...quest-sales-in-germany-amid-privacy-concerns/
 
I think they took a liberty making me have an account with oculus. It's a piece of hardware I did'nt have to make an account for my monitor or my joystick
 
Isn't the Oculus software a big suite with their own game store, etc.? HP Reverb is WMR which means you use the Win10 store for the required software, but I don't think you need to be logged in with an account.
 
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BTW, in the NBA playoffs, they're showing some close court level camera angles and calling it Oculus.

A little logo appears too.

So are they live-streaming the games and you could put on your Oculus and walk around the edges of the court?
 
Half Life Alyx deservedly gets vr game of the year reward.

https://uploadvr.com/half-life-alyx-vr-awards/

But what's all of this other stuff,... I thought I follow vr closely and I just had no clue
Half-Life: Alyx Wins VR Game Of The Year At 2020 VR Awards

You can see the full list of winners below.

VR Film of the Year:
Myth: A Frozen Tale – Walt Disney Animation
VR Social Influencer:
Thrillseeker
VR Hardware of the Year:
Index – Valve
VR Game of the Year:
Half-Life: Alyx – Valve
VR Experience of the Year:
The Under Presents – Tender Claws
VR Marketing of the Year:
Virtual Market 4 – HIKKY Co., LTD.
Rising VR Company of the Year:
KLIP VR Immersive Technologies Private Limited
Innovative VR Company of the Year:
Qualcomm
VR Education and Training of the Year:
MEL Chemistry – MEL Science
VR Healthcare of the Year:
Fundamental Surgery @HomeVR modality – Fundamental VR
Out-of-home VR Entertainment of the Year:
Avengers: Damage Control – ILMxLAB & The VOID
VR Social Impact Award:
Alcove – AARP Innovation Labs
VR Enterprise Solution of the Year:
BRP-Rotax VR Job Assessment – MEDIASQUAD GmbH
VR Lifetime Achievement Award by Accenture:
Cher Wang, Founder, HTC
 
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VR kanojo is the only top selling porn vr game.
I wonder why the dev didn't capitalize on this and make a bazillion of DLC or microtransactions like team ninja did with dead or alive extreme.

and why its the only top seller? i assume there are tons of other porn vr games on steam.

EDIT: WTF i just realized all this year, Skyrim VR is still top selling and FULL PRICE !!!!
 
It's still not a mainstream thing, sorry. Price of entry is still way too high. :(

Are you sure about that? Quest2 is 299$ and it's fully self contained inside out tracked solution that comes with 2 controllers. No pc/phone/console needed. Quest2 has really nice display, tracking and also will double down as pc headset via usb or wireless link. Wireless requires additional commercial software though. If one gets past facebook quest2 is kind of a holy grail device as far as quality and pricepoint goes.

I would be willing to bet that quest2 was reason for quest1 being sold out all the time. It's likely facebook didn't want to invest ton of money to manufacture something with short lifespan. Assuming quest2 is not similarly manufacturing limited it can sell a lot of units and move vr a lot more toward mainstream.
 
My guess is when Apple finally comes out with some kind of HMD glasses, it will boost the market.

They will get enough hype and they will probably wait until they can make it light enough but still have enough power and passable battery life.

They will probably charge over $500 for it but sell millions of units in the first year, enough to move the needle in the market.
 
My bet is apple is in AR not VR boat. Holy grail for apple is to replace phone display with ar device. Have a computing box in backpack/pocket and use AR display+voice+gestures to control apps/calls/games/... I firmly believe moving phone displays to AR devices is the next big disruption on mobile computing. afaik. facebook also wants to do AR devices but time is not right yet.
 
That's should be awesome for VR and non vr.

But depending on the game, as some games have a void of low frequency audio.
 
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