[srajabi]

Basically Carmack is frustrated by:

1. Rate of progress on AR/VR at meta

2. People within Meta not "Giving a Dam!" / Poor decisions made within the org

3. Poor quality of the execution which I guess is related to #2

Relevant quote: "It pains me to hear people say that they don't even get their headset out to show off at the company because they know it's going to be a mess of charging and updating before they can make it do something cool," Carmack said at the time. "VR should be a delight to demo for your friends."

[2pEXgD0fZ5cF]

As an early and complete VR adopter I have ranted in the past on how fast VR loses it's luster. But for me the reason is not setup (charging, updating, putting everything into place, et cetera), it's software.

The good VR games are really good, games like HL Alyx. But after almost 10 years of VR usage I still can't name more than 3-7 pieces of VR Software (games included) I would put into the "worth it" category. Anything else is just very short lived, feel like tech demos. Fun? Sure, but ultimately worse than regular software/games. Gimmicky overhead, so to speak.

Hence why my VR setup is collecting dust most of the time.

Seeing Facebook's vision for VR, which is just rebuilding products we had as far back as 2003 (Second Life) and even 2014 (VR Chat), but worse and riddled with ads and darkpatterns, is what has made me lose even more of my interest. I have to add that I was an Oculus owner in the past, I am now an Index owner, but what Facebook does is still relevant because they are the "VR believers", pouring the most money into it.

In short: There is just nothing interesting happening, my VR setup is collecting dust. Demoing it to my friends is basically the only thing I do with it nowadays but they lost interest too. I don't agree that it's a hardware problem, for me it's a software problem. Also: too much "vision", too little actual determined (software) projects.

[dylan604]

This was my gripe about all console games. Real gamers that are daily users have their systems kept up to date, but I'm not one of those. I'm one of those that plays a few times a month, and only when I have nothing else to do. Because of the infrequent use of the console, I'm guaranteed to have to do an update on every use. The update alone cuts into the time allotted for gaming. So I play even less and less to the point that after my last move (3 years ago), I never even plugged my console in.

So I totally sympathize with the loss of enthusiasm for the delays from forced updates.

[quartz]

Nintendo seems to be the best at this. I pulled my Wii out of storage to play with my 4 year old earlier this month. Plugged it in and was off and running having a blast playing Wii Sports and Mario Kart.

[dagmx]

The Wii is barely online. That’s a big part of it.

[ricardobeat]

The PlayStation has had the ability to keep itself up-to-date while in sleep mode for almost a decade now.

[brundolf]

OT, but for consoles you just leave it in sleep-mode and it'll update things quietly throughout the day. It's more of a problem for desktops

[solardev]

Why don't you just turn on auto updates?

[bombcar]

I don’t know what it is but those don’t seem enough. Maybe it fights with sleep somehow but my Xbox is supposed to keep games updated and if I haven’t played in a week I seem to have a download. Annoying.

[philistine]

On Xbox One and Series S/X you can turn on sleep mode, which uses far more energy but makes sure the console never goes without an update. I'm like you, I can go long periods without opening it and this mode keeps my system always up-to-date.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hardware-network/power/l...

[bombcar]

Deep sleep with updates seems to keep the system updated - it’s the games that apparently wait until you want to play.

[Razengan]

I rarely put my VR headset on because I have to COMMIT to it and stop doing everything else; i.e. no host OS's GUI is VR-friendly.

Why did smartphones supersede computers in usage? and laptops supersede desktops? because of the low commitment barrier: something you can pick up and put down at any time without necessarily pausing other activities, is always going to be preferred by the masses.

So all current VR is sitting behind a user-commitment barrier, often collecting dust. Looking forward to see how Apple will tackle this problem.

[fudgefactorfive]

I completely agree with this sentiment.

I think VR has the same issue that smartphones had at the start of their cycle, the UI/UX is not designed to intuitively mesh with how users actually want to use the system. Even things like keyboard inputs are just not quite there yet, resorting to clunky index-finger typing at best and type-by-laser at worst.

I think we are moving towards a usable version of AR eventually (with tech still needing to catch up on weight/latency/tracking) but full VR is almost only useful for games.

As much as I'm not an Apple-enthusiast, the one thing they (used to) get right is the sort of UX where you almost don't even need to explain how to do things, they just intuitively make sense and you can just let intent directly flow. Given their current trends though I'm not convinced their alternative AR/VR UI will be that though.

I'm essentially waiting for glasses that go full VR when they need to, and otherwise just allow me to overlay a GUI on reality with minimal effort.

E.g. a video player following me around while I do normal stuff. Helpful, and importantly, optional popups overlayed on real objects to enhance my interactions, not completely replace them with a crude 3D facsimile.

[Razengan]

Yes, AR+VR should converge into something similar to the differentiation between windowed- vs fullscreen-mode today: AR should be translucent, non-intrusive visuals overlaid atop your vision of meatspace, and when you need to sit down and fully immerse yourself into a game or movie, you would temporarily switch to VR, on the same device.

So until we have lightweight and powerful-enough glasses — not bulky headsets — everything else is just a public-funded prototype on the way to the real goal.

[Geee]

One cool thing Apple can do is display mirroring from all your devices into VR. They also have 3D models of all their products, so they can redraw your devices inside VR without needing to use see-through AR. Keyboard, mouse and display with mirrored UI. iPhone and Watch too.

[FormerBandmate]

The whole metaverse concept Facebook is doing honestly reminds me of Neom. Unaccountable god-king has a wild idea based on very real trends, has no real idea how to do it but a limitless supply of money from other things, and the whole concept gets taken over entirely by corruption

[DSingularity]

Has neom fallen already?

[xixixao]

That’s the correct quote. The Quest Pro with its wireless charger actually largely solves this problem. Try not using an Android phone for a month, and then use it. It’s the same nightmare (after all the headsets are Android devices with internal batteries).

It’s an important gripe, but it will be solved. I think there are more fundamental issues. It’s hard to explain, but even with superphysical level of improvement I don’t see people enmass wearing VR or MR headsets the way we use phones, airpods, and to lesser extent watches.

[greazy]

I manually update every few months. It's fine?