10 thoughts on “Virtual Reality”

1. I am an avid flight simulation user. I own numerous sims but in the last year or longer the only ones I’ve flown are those that support my Oculus Rift. So you can say I’m a believer.

   But VR still has quite a ways to go visually, much less with any other senses. Resolution limitations make it difficult to identify other aircraft at more than a few hundred yards distance. Field of view limitations makes peripheral vision almost non existent.

   It’s going to be at least a few years before VR rivals “being there”.

   1. I’ve quit using my VR for flight sim, but then most of my simming is understanding systems and instrument navigation. I’m too often looking at other things like charts that don’t work well inside VR. But for VFR flying and practicing approaches and landing, VR is awesome but still has a ways to go.

      I use a Samsung Odyssey.

      1. I’ve seen, but not used, apps that allow you to insert a custom knee board, map, chart etc. into your virtual cockpit.

         1. I’ve seen them too, and I also have models with built-in Garmin GPS and/or EFB’s. But then the resolution and screen door effects become the problem. I do look forward to the next generation of VR, which I hoped would be here by now.

2. I recently got an Oculus Quest, which solves a lot of the issues of earlier headsets. The biggest of these issues solved is a completely untethered experience, which makes using it very natural for almost everyone I’ve had try it out. Just slap on the headset, grab the controllers (which are pretty intuitive as well), and you’re off.

   There’s also no need to set up beacons of any sort; you just map out a cleared space on your floor, and it keeps track of where you are very well. Walking around even a limited amount in a VR space is a huge step up from a sitting experience, and not needing to keep track of a cable is a huge bonus.

   It’s down on power from something like the Rift, of course, since you’re not working with a whole desktop computer to drive it, and this is more on the level of a decent flagship phone. But the refresh rates are solid, and the resolution is enough for gaming (Beat Saber, Superhot, that sort of thing.) Not clear enough for flight sims, of course, as Ctrot mentioned, but I don’t think it’ll be long before it is.

   I don’t think we’ve got the “iPod” of VR here yet, but we’re getting very close; this is probably the equivalent of those early Creative, iRiver, or Rio mp3 players that preceded the iPod. Give it another year.

   1. Given that my interest in VR is almost solely aviation related and virtual aircraft flying is best done from a seated position the cable on my Oculus Rift is no bother.

3. VR could be the salvation of the American Republic. If someone designed a VR experience in which progressives ruled the world, and that world obeyed their every command without totally annihilating itself (which would be the real world result), perhaps we could set them all up with such an experience so they’d leave normal people alone.

   1. Put a million ‘Progressives’ in a VR MMO which simulated the utopia they claim to want, and within a year they’d have set up virtual death camps for those who aren’t ‘progressive’ enough.

4. People shell out a lot of money on smut but teledildonics can’t be too expensive on either end or the audience will be too small. VR and teledildonics could be really good for sex workers once cam girls can get set up on their own without having to be part of a virtual brothel.

5. I’ve found VR to be awesome for watching movies. Within YouTubeVR, you can make the screen almost any size you want. If you want an IMAX experience at home, you can have it. And if it is 180 or 360 video, then it is just that much more of an experience. Of course, that can work for porn too, but I’m not seeing the porn industry pushing improvements in VR as it did for the Internet. I wish it would, but I haven’t seen evidence of it.

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