I also feel like the lack of precise/physical controls is going to make gaming a non-starter. Which is really the main reason I’m excited about VR in the first place.
Owning a Rift and a Quest 2 has pretty much convinced me I'll never be into VR. VR makes for incredible immersion but, for me, terrible gaming. Instead of putting the cool stuff from games into reality, it puts the worst parts of reality into my games. Instead of walking and crouching with a touch of a finger, now I have to walk and crouch. To look behind me I have to actually turn around. Instead of everything being in focus all the time, I have to look at things one by one. Not for me.
I'm a bit of a VR enthusiast. I have 8 headsets (DK1, Quest 1, Quest 2, Oculus Go, Vive Pro 2, HP Reverb G2, Pico 4, Pimax Crystal). I will easily spend 2 - 6 hours a day in VR. That said, I just refuse to play any game with a stupid movement system. If I can't use my control to move around, I am not going to play the game. It's great to have those options for people who want them, but when a game tries to force me to walk in my personal space or physically turn, they are going to lose me. I don't have the balance to do that stuff.
The Pico 4 is actually a really good headset. It's not officially released in the US market, but can be imported from EU sellers, which is how I got mine. The resolution is pretty good and good enough to replace a monitor, imo. I've used it with the Immersed app and liked it. It's also really small and light compared to other headsets.
The Pimax Crystal has great resolution and virtually no glare, but it is too heavy and bulky to wear for extended periods of time.
At work, I have setup and support the Meta Quest 3. It's also a good headset, but I don't feel compelled to get one at all. The visuals comfort are on par with the Pico 4, but the Pico 4 is cheaper and not dragged down by the Meta software. Though, it should be noted that I use it for PCVR almost exclusively with Virtual Desktop.
I would assume someone could easily integrate a controller for their app using the Game Controller framework [1]. So its not impossible. The only complaint I could see is there not being a standardize visionOS physical controller. But I assume that you could assume the PlayStation DualSense or SteelSeries Nimbus+[2] is probably what you should target controls for.
Unfortunately, a gamepad is just not sufficient for immersive VR gaming: you need something like the Meta Quest controller. And the lack of a first-party controller means that games will be forced to build sub-par gesture based controls as the default, with physical controls as an afterthought. (We already saw this play out with the Apple TV.)
As a result, I highly doubt we'll get anything as advanced as Half-Life: Alyx on the platform.
>As a result, I highly doubt we'll get anything as advanced as Half-Life: Alyx on the platform.
How many years of VR gaming on how many other devices have produced how many Half-Life: Alyxs? And even Alyx was basically a vanity experiment designed to sell hardware. There simply isn't much content that has justified the medium yet. At a certain point I wonder if the future of VR gaming is just providing the biggest screen in your house to play your traditional games with a Bluetooth controller.
* Universe Sandbox was the first pinaccle I experienced and still hasn't been topped in its own curious way. It demonstrated at the very beginning where VR UX could go, and that has nothing to do with stupid floating 2D planes.
* RecRoom "dungeons" are the best collaborative gameplay that I have experienced.
> a gamepad is just not sufficient for immersive VR gaming
This seems strange, since so many folks love giant ultrawide screens for immersion whether playing console or PC and whether with controller or mouse+keyboard. They carry on how much immersion there is, and it's not nearly as visually immersed. So it seems less likely it's about the controller.
If they find the ultrawide immersive, and the controller is fine, why not AVP, since the "look around" control is just turn your head?
Do you not feel immersed when driving a car? You have fewer controls, and can't run around, you just sit there in your car seat, turn the wheel, turn your head, and gas and brake.
It’s like how physically interactive Wii Sports felt 18 years ago, but even more so.
Could you play have played a bowling game with a gamepad instead? Sure. But then it doesn’t feel at all like bowling, it feels like playing a bowling video game.
The interaction through VR game controllers takes that concept much further, playing Walkabout Mini Golf or Eleven Table Tennis feels practically like the real thing. Playing those games with thumb sticks and buttons would be basically pointless.
It's funny you mention that metaphor in particular: driving a car does feel less immersive to me than walking. When I drive, I'm in the car; when I walk, I'm in the world.
But then you’re limiting the reach of your app even further to tiny % of people who have Vision Pro but also the tiny % who have the controller you designed it for.
Really vr games don’t shine with a traditional controller it’s actually the precision hand tracking from controllers not the 3d that makes them good. So you’d have to build for something specific then hope enough people own both to make you money.