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Comment by didgeoridoo | Hacker News Reader

I'd go so far as to say 3DoF was a massive setback for popular perceptions of VR.

Low-resolution spherical imagery and video is just not that impressive, and that's all you get with 3DoF. Contrast with the presence and immersion you get with even the cheapest 6DoF headsets, and it's not even the same technology category.

So, now we have a bunch of people walking around thinking they "tried VR" because they had a Gear or a Go or a Cardboard, but they didn't get what the big deal was about.

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Yes, 3DOF was a gimmick and lead to the perception that VR was another 3DTV waiting to happen. Turns out "VR" is, 3DOF devices and phone holder VR of the mid-2010s had a similar adoption and failure curve as 3DTV. I didn't really get excited about VR until I tried Vive, as tracked controllers are important also.

I bet there are a large number of people who have felt sick because of 3DOF "VR", as well, and have since written off VR because they don't want to feel sick again. Having a system that ignores most of your movements but not all of them is a recipe for motion sickness, even if it _is_ running at 90 frames per second. Developers at Oculus and elsewhere have poured tons of energy into solving that with stuff like Asynchronous Spacewarp, where the goal is to respond to every little movement your body makes as soon as possible. As it turns out, this is really important. And I think we've all learned here that simply having hands is huge. (It doesn't even matter if they do anything: being able to see your hands is immediately reassuring). So it's really sad to me that the product people went on to ignore (might even say sabotage) that effort with the Go.

I think there are huge differences between Cardboard, Gear and Go.

I believe the Go was a good step to get many people into VR in the first place. I know it pulled me in. But now is a good time to move on.

I agree. I bought a Go on Black Friday for under $100 and it impressed me so much for such a low cost that I’m looking for a “real” VR headset. Unfortunately it seems I started looking just as companies stopped making any affordable 6dof headsets and the jump from $100 for the Go to $1000 for the only currently available VR headset is just too much for me so I’ll be waiting a bit longer. But dipping my toes in the water definitely whetted my appetite for more.

The Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest are both in active production; they're just usually sold out (as is the Valve Index, presumably being the $1000 headset you're referring to.)

$400 for the rift S/Quest are nowhere near $1000 though. As a Quest owner, I'll say that I've been pretty happy with it.

Funnily enough I had the opposite experience. 3D spherical video made a lot of sense and I could immediately see the point. I still use my Gear VR pretty regularly. Meanwhile my expensive fancy headset sits gathering dust because it's just too much faff to get everything set up and use it, and the overall experience isn't really much better.

I recognize your point of view. For me the Quest was a game changer. Just press the power button and you are ready to go. Even your previous boundary settings are retained. Just step into the circle and fly.

The latest vive changed my mind on VR. I guess I’m in that cohort

What does it bring?

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