Mobile VR

I'm talking about Gear VR, Google Daydream, Google Cardboard, etc.

Do you have a setup? Do you want one? What do you use it for (or want to use it for)? Do you think it's a fad like 3D laptops, or the next big thing like smartphones?

 

I think it's a fad personally. I don't see the appeal of it at all. The SoCs aren't fast enough to output high image quality, the battery gets murdered, and when the SoC throttles because of the heat, get ready to vomit.

 

Trying to push low-end VR into the hands of everyone might be a fad. I think VR holds a lot of promise, but that it's better served by a powerful computer rendering a regular 3D game than a phone serving psuedo-VR, like watching 2D YouTube videos in a virtual theatre. Still, a lot of developers seem to be onboard and I'll definitely keep a keen eye on the Daydream platform. Perhaps in conjugation with Vulkan, Unreal, and Unity enough buzz could be generated. There's something nice and simplistic about Daydream, along with its controller, that's taking me back to the early Wii days.

 

I agree with @Convel , the VR technology for the smartphones is still in it's early ages.. Not to mention that the PC's are still lacking content for VR, since it is a fairly new technology... The drawback for me here is that phones are too weak to support VR on a level that it would be enjoyable.

A friend of mine has a Galaxy S7 Edge with the Gear VR kit. it is awesome at a point, but the pixels you can count int the glasses just because the phone's screen resolution is too small, makes the overall experience lack luster, tbh...

I think that they are taking the right steps in making the technology affordable for everyone, but it is still far from being awesome to use... Especially, that the screens should be at least 4K to be able not to count the pixels in the glasses, should have some kind of power optimization option or an additional battery, cuz the phone suffers from it dramatically.

Just get a GTX 980 on your laptop / desktop and enjoy al the VR you want

 

On the desktop side, it's going to be beyond amazing for flight simulation.

On the mobile side, I don't have a concrete use case for it, but I played around with Gear VR at Best Buy and thought it was incredibly cool. So I'm in search of a concrete use case so I have an excuse to buy it

 

I can't say, it is pretty awesome that it is already available for a mobile device, but I think, if you are investing additional funds into it, I would suggest to wait and wait for maybe another generation of phones with better screens or what so ever. Because for my self, the quality of the image you see through the Gear VR is a bit disappointing.. I would save that money, as mentioned, for a later generation or invest into a better gpu and have it on my pc/laptop, cuz it is more developed there

 

So the ZTE Axon 7 just happened. I was really curious to see if it would be packing Daydream compatible hardware or not, given the emphasis on VR pre-launch. Turns out it does, and that the "Top-End 2K Sharp Screen" is AMOLED.

http://www.gizmochina.com/2016/05/26/zte-vr-announced-will-support-googles-daydream-platform/
http://www.gizmochina.com/2016/05/05/zte-axon-2-come-top-end-2k-sharp-screen-perfect-vr/

 

I have a few and I can say they are little more than a novelty item. They are enjoyable for a bit, but I quickly lost interest and haven't attempted to use them since. It may be better for kids, or as an introduction on the new VR products coming out. Unless you can get it cheap or free, don't bother with it.

I will say that for movies it is a nice experience, if the device is comfortable.