Future Timeline

I wonder what some companies (like Valve) and some people (like Mark Zuckerberg) had thought. That VR will flourish, when new headsets are more expensive (Quest 2 was even upped in price!), new graphics cards are more expensive (GTX 1080 $600, RTX 4080 $1200) and there is hardly any good, more ambitious software? Smartphones exploded in popularity, because literally every quarter, there were new, better devices, lower prices, new features, etc. Compare that to the 3-year old Quest 2 (and 3-year old Snapdragon XR2) or the relatively new $1500 (!!) Quest Pro, which is only 50% (!) faster. Valve Index is from 2019 and still sells for the same price. Half-Life Alyx came out in 2020. In 2022 there were only 9.6 million VR headsets sold, as many as predicted (in 2015) for 2017. Some had predicted 100 million sold in 2022, literally 10x more than the actual number. I know only 1 person who actively uses VR every week (Pimax 5K) for something other than Beat Saber. And my personal opinion is, that the whole idea of trying to run VR on any hardware which is below PS5 level of specs and PSVR2 level of control is misguided, misjudged, ill-advised and off-track. My own impressions from Quest 2 and PSVR1 are negative. I wouldn't want them even for $99.

Could it be that current VR (and immersion) technology isn't advanced enough to justify its price?

Stacking LEDs instead of placing them side by side could enable fully immersive virtual reality displays
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-02-sta ... rsive.html

Take apart your laptop screen, and at its heart you'll find a plate patterned with pixels of red, green, and blue LEDs, arranged end to end like a meticulous Lite Brite display. When electrically powered, the LEDs together can produce every shade in the rainbow to generate full-color displays. Over the years, the size of individual pixels has shrunk, enabling many more of them to be packed into devices to produce sharper, higher-resolution digital displays.

But much like computer transistors, LEDs are reaching a limit to how small they can be while also performing effectively. This limit is especially noticeable in close-range displays such as augmented and virtual reality devices, where limited pixel density results in a "screen door effect" such that users perceive stripes in the space between pixels.

This time something positive. PSVR2 will be released worldwide on February 22th. One of the launch games (here's a link to all announced launch games) is Gran Turismo 7, which will be much better in VR than Gran Turismo Sport. This ~7 minute video reviews how it plays, compared to GT Sport using PS4 and PSVR1. I do think that PSVR2 is a bit pricey, but at least it's much more advanced and you get everything in one package, no need to buy PS Move or Camera separately. Townsmen VR from HandyGames reminds me of Black & White from Lionhead Studios, which is a concept that can work well in VR. I played Black & White in the early 2000s. Basically, you play god with ~medieval-level people.

I imagine the issue is coding the dang metaverse. Its already troublesome coding regular things now imagine an error in a metaverse style massive code

I think I'm just about ready to buy my first VR headset. There are about 3 or so games that I would like to play in VR so it is finally time. However from the perspective of a non-enthusiast I will say that I feel very overwhelmed by the number of options and its not really clear to me what their strengths and weaknesses are. Does anyone know if there is a decently affordable headset that can run games standalone (Beatsaber, specifically) but also can connect to your PC for more high-end rendering?

peekpok wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 11:37 pm I think I'm just about ready to buy my first VR headset. There are about 3 or so games that I would like to play in VR so it is finally time. However from the perspective of a non-enthusiast I will say that I feel very overwhelmed by the number of options and its not really clear to me what their strengths and weaknesses are. Does anyone know if there is a decently affordable headset that can run games standalone (Beatsaber, specifically) but also can connect to your PC for more high-end rendering?

This might be helpful for you: Meta Quest 2 vs HTC Vive XR Elite vs Pico 4: What's the difference?





You specifically mention Beat Saber, which to my knowledge is Meta exclusive atm but is supported by PSVR and coming to PSVR2 later, if you wanted to go the console route instead of PC. While the Pico 4 appears to have the best resolution, it's lack of a library (no exclusives) and non-availability if you're in the United States are points going against it for a first-time adopter. BS is also on SteamVR, but the price point of the Vive may not exactly be within everyone's budget.

Something else to keep in mind is that the Quest 3 may very well release later this year, as well as whatever offerings Apple could bring to more mainstream enthusiast. So, depending on if you have the money to spend it may be worth waiting.

Edit: Just remembered Apple VR's hypothetical price range of 3K. Unless that turns out to be a literal Holodeck, I wouldn't worry about it.

Here's 21-minute Digital Foundry PSVR2 review:


Here's 14-minute Digital Foundry Gran Turismo 7 VR review:


I think that PSVR2 is a significant step forward in all areas compared to PSVR1 released on October 13th, 2016. It's better and simpler to use. Isn't cheap, but also isn't very expensive. The PS5 console as a whole is a significant step forward in all areas compared to PS4 as well. There's even eye tracking. Gran Turismo 7 in VR looks much better than GT Sport (2017 game from Polyphony Digital) in VR or Driveclub (2014 game from Evolution Studios) in VR. However, the are still limitations, as talked about in the video.

In my opinion, we can expect PS6 in Q4 2028 and PSVR3 in 2029 or 2030 (Q4 2030 most probable). Meanwhile, there may be a PS5 Pro (disc-based, $599) and a PS5 Slim (discless, $349) in Q4 2024. 2 TB SSD models may be out. PSVR2 may get a price cut in 3 years or so. I don't know how much faster can the PS6 be. I expected PS4 to be 100x faster than the PS3 (completely wrong) and PS5 to be 100x faster than the PS4 (completely wrong again). PS6 may be 4-5x faster than the PS5, 48 GB of RAM, 4 TB SSD and a probably a similar size. It will probably feature 3D cache. In 2030 games will be still supporting PS5, but by 2031 games will be coming out for PS6 and other next-gen consoles. PSVR3 may have 4x the PSVR2 resolution which is currently 2,000 × 2,040 pixels per eye (960 × 1,080 pixels per eye in PSVR1).