My speculation about the next few years of VR

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Started by the-pi-guy, May 03, 2019, 02:13 AM

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the-pi-guy

This speculation is based off current VR headsets, patents from various companies and how I expect the market to receive it.  

Oculus, HTC:

Of all the major companies in the VR space, their actions moving forward seem to be the most predictable.  
Their current actions are toward making VR mainstream, by making the headsets as easy to use as possible.  

Oculus in particular is hedging it's bets on the Oculus Quest.  A standalone VR headset that doesn't require a PC.

I think they'll be successful.  It's basically wireless VR with no prior requirements to buy in.

I think they'll still release a major upgrade to PCVR in a few years when it can be a substantial upgrade.

Sony:

I think Sony will take a middle ground approach and they'll make an easier to use headset that'll also be a solid improvement.  

The biggest question that I have for the PSVR2 is what kind of tracking it will use.  
Sony's current tracking offering is poor peanuts compared to what we see on the PC, and good tracking goes a long way to making immersion work.  The controllers especially need improvements.

Check out what Valve's controllers are doing:
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/valvesoftware/images/index/videos/Finger_Tracking_v3.mp4


Either way, I expect Sony's VR market to grow at a faster pace than right now.  


Valve:

Valve is dedicated to making as good of a headset as they can.  Whether they decide to go towards ease of use like the HTC, will largely depend on if markerless tracking reaches a point where they feel comfortable dropping lighthouse.  Seeing as they've invested quite a bit in lighthouse, I think it'll be a while.  

Unless their games blow everything away, I dont think that they'll capture much of the market.  A major Half Life game could go a very long way, though.




With all this said, I wouldn't be surprised if in 3 years, all the headset makers will in a closer space.  Where ease of use and high quality VR are able to coincide.  


So what would you like to see out of VR in the next 3 years?  
Who do you think will succeed?