joeztan

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joeztan
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  • After a VR-free year from Apple, VR headsets deemed "the biggest loser" of 2016

    joeztanjoeztan
    Disclaimer: I'm an early VR adopter, technology enthusiast and a KickStarter backer for Oculus in 2012.

    My biggest tip to people is to give it a try and see for yourself. It'll open your mind to what the future has in store.

    2016 was the first year that consumer PC VR headsets came out. To me VR / AR in 2016 feels like 1995-2000 when the first serious consumer 3D GPUs were coming on to the PC market. It has taken around 20 years to go from S3     ViRGE to an Nvidia GTX 1080, in that time the industry matured and 3D content and applications (from 3D games to supercomputer simulations) became very compelling.

    Nowadays you can't buy any PC/Mac, or even smartphone, without some form of 3D GPU in it.

    In my opinion the current state of Oculus Rift and HTC/Valve Vive on PC hardware is already good enough, and it will build rapidly forward. The real challenge is producing compelling content and making it more affordable. But all emerging technologies started out this way.

    Recently Khronos (the people behind OpenGL and Vulkan) have started the formation of an industry VR consortium (https://www.khronos.org/vr/). Just think about that, VR in 2016 is like consumer 3D GPUs in 1995 when well supported consumer industry wide API weren't even around (we now have mature OpenGL/Vulkan and Direct X support in the two major GPU companies)!

    Notably both Apple and Microsoft are currently missing in the Khronos group, it is an indication of the strategy of both these companies.

    Basically it's too early to tell whether VR will be a niche or the next computing platform, the next couple of years will create a clearer picture. Right now I'm just marvelling at where the technology is at. In 2012, the original KickStarter supporter for Oculus started and four years on we have the first commercial units selling in the hundreds of thousands. By 2020 it'll be really clear where things are at, and Apple will probably jump in at this stage.

    One correction on the AppleInsider post:

    "Facebook's Oculus Rift is expected to only sell 335,000 units this year, while cheaper smartphone-based VR headsets such as HTC's Vive, Google Daydream and Samsung's Gear VR are not doing much better. "

    Last I heard the HTC Vive was not a smartphone-based VR headset.
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