Get what you are saying, except...yea, not like we can just run out and try one before we buy.
You don't "run around in the house with a VR kit on." Your space just needs to be 1.5mx2m at the minimum and no larger than 5mx5m and you can enjoy room scale. It's not about "running around," it's about having the presence that you are somewhere else by allowing natural movement within a space. You don't go far, but enough to feel like you're there.
You should try it before you assume it's not for you.
Get what you are saying, except...yea, not like we can just run out and try one before we buy.
Price of both Rift and Vive are a rip off to be honest, this breaks all expectations people had of reasonably priced VR which was promised over and over again.
Never buy a first generation product. Applies to cars, phones, and now VR.
Yah. Im not seeing a VR revolution at the current pricing scheme. The tech is better, but the price is still well out of mass market range just like it always has been.
My biggest issue with buying in on the gen 1 tech is there still a ton of improvement to be made in the HMD. The 4k displays AMD announced for one. Foveated rendering for another. People are already showing off stuff that is going to make gen 1 obsolete quickly. Its too expensive to just toss after a year or even two of use. If we want to compare it to a high end monitor I expect to get a solid 5-6 years out of a monitor. That's not happening with the cv1 or the vive. In some ways the technically inferior Sony HMD is a better buy. At least you know that the platform isn't going to change for years.
~10 years ago, folks were paying $2000 for a 46 inch TV, $3000 for a 50'' and $4000 for a 55''. HDTVs were 'pay to play' and more than what we are talking here. Assume $1000-1500 for a minimum-viable PC + $800 for the VR headset. Its not HUGE, but is a more 'personal' purchase vs. a TV that you can share (simultaneously) with the family or friends. Considering a VR headset is maybe only 30-40% more than a flagship phone, its not all that bad...
You could and still can get a perfectly functional TV for less than $300. You can expect that TV to remain useful for upwards of a decade. Apples and oranges. If they were charging that much for an upscale experience in a mature market I would be less worried about it. Its more about the expected lifetime than absolutely cost. Vs phones... well again its a mature market, but also those flagship phones have been driven by subsidies and financing. If you could pick up a CV1 for $200 with a monthly subscription to occulus net (or whatever) I'm sure they would move a lot more of them. Still doesn't change my feeling that everyone that buys a HMD is going to be looking wistfully at the gen 2 units next year.
You could and still can get a perfectly functional TV for less than $300. You can expect that TV to remain useful for upwards of a decade. Apples and oranges. If they were charging that much for an upscale experience in a mature market I would be less worried about it. Its more about the expected lifetime than absolutely cost. Vs phones... well again its a mature market, but also those flagship phones have been driven by subsidies and financing. If you could pick up a CV1 for $200 with a monthly subscription to occulus net (or whatever) I'm sure they would move a lot more of them. Still doesn't change my feeling that everyone that buys a HMD is going to be looking wistfully at the gen 2 units next year.
The Vive has changed considerably from its initial reveal.
If people think gen 2 is going to be cheap, they are in for a rude awakening. It will be the same price if not more, as gen 1 goes down in price. We are still 5 years out before prices are mainstream, if that. Video cards to run them are still $300-600, it's only going to get worse the more advanced they get.
I wouldn't be surprised if what we see is fragmentation. I know that a lot of people think of fragmentation as a bad thing, and to a degree, they're right. However, what's important is that we set a standard of what we're looking for, and I think we kind of have that with our 90 FPS minimum. We may just end up with something like the TV market where you can pay a premium for a higher resolution, but in the end, you get just about the same thing.
So, after reading the Anandtech review of the Rift, I'm starting to have doubts on buying a VR headset right now. Is there any reason to hold on to a pre-order that would probably ship March 28th?
You're assuming that there will be "gen 2" units next year. The CV1 hasn't hardly changed from what we saw over a year ago with Crescent Bay. Nor has the Vive changed from the original design. Considering these designs are limited by other technologies (namely, screen manufacturers) then we're at their mercy of what can be produced. AMD's announced 1440p setup is an interesting step, but that device has yet to be tried by anyone.
These technologies take time to develop. Miniaturization in the screen space with high refresh rates isn't easy and requires new production methods. If and when true Gen 2's come along, I'll happily buy them up at the current price point (or higher, depending on if the economics of scale for new technologies pan out) with the rest of the early adopters.
Not if you have doubts. If you are expecting perfect, this won't be it.
So, after reading the Anandtech review of the Rift, I'm starting to have doubts on buying a VR headset right now. Is there any reason to hold on to a pre-order that would probably ship March 28th?
Fragmentation happens as soon as we hit a place where they are good enough for the common market. At that point you will have the race to push price down. That will create fragmentation as companies experiment with what corners they can cut to make a cheaper unit while others continue to push the technology forward with bleeding edge units with bleeding edge prices.
Having never seen any of the 1st gen unites in person I can't really tell if that is the case already, but I am guessing we will know soon as enough people get these in their hands to form a real consensus.
Hm... I didn't get that vibe from the first look. The only complaint that I saw was with games that have extremely fine detail, which their only example was Project CARS. Although, later in the article, he mentions that even with the negative aspect, he still wanted to play more.
So, after reading the Anandtech review of the Rift, I'm starting to have doubts on buying a VR headset right now. Is there any reason to hold on to a pre-order that would probably ship March 28th?
AMD is already demoing HMD with 4k per eye.
There are multiple companies demoing eye tracking and foveated rendering. These are a big deal, especially the foveated rendering and it'll be ready for market soon.
Yah OVR and HTC haven't shown us any radical new designs for awhile, but it doesn't mean they aren't developing them. At some point you have to get a product to market with the tech that you have now. The point is that VR is going to be a very rapidly moving space for the next few years. If HTC and OVR don't step up someone else will and hook into the open VR standard.
It'll be a year or two before titles come out that really make use of it well