When I first started looking into the up-rise of VR it all seemed real exciting and the next huge thing. As I’ve read more into it (though still never actually tried it) I am getting bit more skeptical. The fact that it is difficult to use for more then an hour before feeling woozy isn’t a great sign, early days or not. It also completely closes the user off from the external world, it is a very non-social form of entertainment. Which is fine for some apps but may forever be kept platform specific for that reason. I could be wrong though, as I said I have never myself experienced it. When I first heard of VR I thought it was the next step to almighty techno god, imagine extreme virtual worlds blazing around you in complete VR…but after looking into it more the whole thing seems like it may (for awhile at least) be more of an app-specific platform (which is not nearly as exciting in my opinion even if those apps are real cool for what they are). Just a few skeptical thoughts.
It seems to me AR and VR aren’t the only two contenders, also increasing in power is good ol fashion screens that are getting higher and higher quality. In the excitement for AR and VR it seems easy to forget that 4k screens with 3d capabilities right out of the box (like nintendo 3ds) could be around the corner and probably won’t be app specific (all apps, all games, all movies, all television programs could implement the power of 4k, 3d entertainment without the use of any head set at all). Imagine phone screens with 3d “layers” in them. 4k Curved screens that wrapped around the user when gaming (like those screens space museums). It could be that hardware development efforts and interests may be ultimately better placed into the upgrading of good ol fashion screens to be 3D, spherical, dynamic and interactive in other creative ways. It seems Nintendo is going with the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy. They may, as usual…be on the right path in focusing on upgrading screen technology to new heights rather then trying to adopt a new, introspective platform altogether.
Lets not forget interactive projectors being beamed on spherical screens (like space museum again). If we can have amazing vr, ar AND screen technology that is great. But if all this focus on vr takes hardware designers off of coming up with new ways to simply increase screen technology in new creative ways…the whole thing could be more of an exciting, but ultimately off course De-tour for a few years (for those of us who are more interested in developing for universal systems).
But who knows, time will tell. It’s exciting to see what is around the corner regardless.