HACKER Q&A
📣 sghiassy

Where is VR going?


Where is VR going in 5 years? Will Apple Vision Pro or the Metaverse going to be able to shake VR/AR/MR out of being a gaming side piece?

Every technology goes the Technology Hype Cycle (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner_hype_cycle) but it seems VR is stuck with hardware that’s not socially acceptable or enjoyable.

I’m starting to think seriously about non-gaming applications of VR and am interested learning more if there’s a future there

Thx in advance! :]


  👤 layer8 Accepted Answer ✓
I don’t think it will go much beyond a novelty, aside from niches like gaming and some industry applications, until it becomes feasible to reduce it to a Google Glass-like form factor, which doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. My guess is the Apple Vision Pro will be similar to people trying to use an iPad as a full laptop replacement, and most giving up on that because for most use-cases it’s just too cumbersome and not adequate.

👤 h2odragon
I've heard people saying "meta-lenses" will finally make head mounted displays possible in 5 years.

I'm deeply cynical. At this point "VR" is indelibly stained with ripoffs.

"Immersive simulation" will still be a goal, and there will be plenty of utopian promises and large valuations that come to nothing in the future; I expect they'll find different names for them.

Eventually, long after anyone cares about the quirky package of tricks we currently label "VR", it will become possible, as a byproduct of other technologies that have real applications.

Sort of like the AT&T "Video call" visions they touted for years; that always seemed to be hunting for a market. We can do that trivially now, but no one really wants it enough for it to be a common thing.


👤 PaulHoule
I just got an MQ3 and I am also interested in building things that are not really games but basically games with theme parks as an inspiration.

👤 al2o3cr
Re: the hype-cycle - it's important to call out that not every technology has much of the last two phases. I'd say VR's first ride (starting back in the late 90s) is a great example of this, where all that was left after the hype-wave was a tiny, highly-specialized set of uses.