[IshKebab]

I've tried Hololens and it is honestly pretty amazing. The field of view really sucks but I'm sure they'll improve that, and it doesn't actually matter quite so much for AR.

But it is still a less compelling proposition than VR. The main market is games where seeing the real world is kind of pointless. Good VR is much more immersive, and being taken to another world is much cooler than seeing some floating planets or fish or whatever in an office (even though that is cool).

[Andrex]

Gaming is like the lowest on my list of applications for AR... At the top is some kind of AR desktop environment that makes spinning up and managing arbitrary virtual monitors/windows a snap.

[IshKebab]

Hololens lets you do that. You can put windows on any walls. It's... cool. But not useful. Real screens are just much better. Nobody is going to pay much money to do something with AR that isn't particularly useful, and is better with existing technology.

They might pay money to do something that they literally can't do using any other technology, i.e. AR games.

[awestroke]

Sounds like VR would be better for that

[pabo]

But VR would prevent you from interacting with your real environment. For instance, with AR you could still grab your tea mug without switching context.

[pochamago]

At this stage, I honestly think it would be easier to get pre-modeled tea mugs that your VR headset can track than to have a good experience replacing your desktop with AR. Even just modeling it yourself and gluing a vive puck to the bottom seems pretty easy. I understand that the mug is really just one example, but for almost any given problem VR seems like it's ready to be adjusted to deal with it far better than AR is ready to even create the fundamental experience of being a desktop monitor replacement.

[Aeolun]

I think good AR is most important if it can be sufficiently miniaturized. I can totally see myself wearing AR glasses if they don’t look like I’m wearing Godzilla on my head.

[tomp]

Isn’t it the exact opposite? Only with AR can you turn everyday spaces, like a home or an office, into games... with VR you’d be bumping into walls and tripping over things

[gbear605]

A large point of video games is escape. AR takes that away. Plus, most people’s spaces aren’t set up for a game. For example, I couldn’t play Minecraft: Earth in my apartment since there isn’t a good flat space.

[IshKebab]

No, VR lets you map a room so you can avoid walking into things. There are plenty of games that don't need a lot of space at all (the first Rift was a sit-down experience!)

[ulfw]

Let’s be honest. Both are nothing more than niche.