[ChrisMarshallNY]

I suspect most video game developers would suggest otherwise.

The engines are really good. In fact, I think that a couple of movies have been made, using Unreal.

Those are coming together with AR.

That said, advertisers could easily kill this, and there's so much money in ads, that I don't know if there's any way to prevent that.

[jayd16]

Uhm, no. It's incredibly expensive to make high quality content suitable for 3D viewing. Compared to shooting some video it's way more expensive.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Not sure why that is a "no." Many modern video games are completely VR-immersive, and with impressive quality, if you have the kit.

Yeah, it's expensive, but pro anything is expensive. I have friends that have made movies, and have given me some insight into the process. It's not really something that I think I'd enjoy.

What will kill it, will be cheap-ass ads, splattered around a high-quality scene.

[smoldesu]

> What will kill it, will be cheap-ass ads, splattered around a high-quality scene.

I'll take "Things that never stopped the Internet from succeeding" for $400, Alex.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I hope that you're right, but there are folks that might argue about the definition of "succeeding."

For advertisers, the only metric is "$". Others may have different priorities.

But you have a point. A stroll around the Ginza District at night, shows how advertising can actually become a cultural heritage.

[smoldesu]

Well, free content has to be subsidized somehow. On HN, all of our conversations are basically being used to advertise YC and related jobs. YouTube and Twitch are amortized with advertisements and premium tiers, and even email and search breaks even with suggested results. Greed is one half of the equation, but paying to keep a zero-friction service online is another half. Considering where the internet is now, I'd argue things aren't half as greedy as they could be; competition is forced, Hacker News is not given a safe-haven to exist away from it's peers. Ad-supported, sub-supported and free/static content all has a place on the modern internet.

And I mean... I own a Quest 1. I've not seen an advertisement anywhere besides the "Store" and "Browser" apps to my knowledge. If you want to immerse yourself in a scene, nothing stops you. There's probably a reality where Roblox-style VR is supported by ads, but that will exist on all headsets. The only way to guarantee advertisement becoming the norm is to lock out competitors and make it impossible for Open Source software to compete. Apple is quite good at that last part.

[jayd16]

> Not sure why that is a "no."

Just consider how much live action content an unskilled teen can produce vs how much CG content they can produce. The labor differential is massive. Making movies is hard but making immersive CG is on a different level.

As far as democratizing 3d content creation, I think live action depth aware capture on the iPhone is the immediate path forward.

[fidotron]

You have been able to buy decent stereo 360 cameras off the shelf for years.

The current serious producers have built their own cameras, but these tend to come with an expensive pipeline of compositors to make up for a lack of willingness to automate position and color calibration.

The problem, as I alluded to earlier, is creatively it is far closer to theater than cinema, and many people want to make cinema.