VR isn’t dead. It was just taking a nap

Zenbane said:

Bigger is not always better either.

I mean... a laptop is typically cheaper than a Mainframe, and a Laptop is definitely better for the common home
:D

I better catchphrase for Pricing in Business is this:
Fast, Cheap, Good. Pick any Two.

Ah, but the problem there is that a VR-Ready or better yet, Oculus Recommended class of laptop ISN'T cheap still.  I know, I just bought one so I could work on making the stalled out Linux support happen for most of the VR HMD's and motion controllers.  If the PiMax 8K works out...most of them have an issue.  I already HAVE sensor systems for motion/position that're fully supported under ALL major OSes.  Some of this stuff Oculus is off doing isn't helping them any.  If I can assemble a proper VR setup for the price of the Vive's current price that works, or do it for cheaper...


So, let's see if I can do that sort-of right now.


Price of a PiMax 4k : $399
Price of a Nolo VR sensor set: $199

Ooops.  We're at price point with a semi-credible display unit right now with full immersion- and while I bought Oculus now, in a very short time, I'll be considering (and probably BUYING) that configuration above.  Clock's ticking on Oculus- first one to get credible on ALL platforms for their current price, where the performance is similar...you're going to find that with Revive and similar, they're done in the marketplace.  The config that does the work right for the right price for pretty much everyone will become the preferred platform unless there's support issues.  Problem with Oculus is that they can't even manage to properly support or document the free games they had in the Touch lineup.  I had to figure it out on my own for a problem that people shouldn't have had to deal with.  On Win X, you MUST install the DirectX End-user libraries web pack (yes, DirectX 9...) to keep the game from crashing at start because of missing sound "shaders" for the positional audio that the DX9 pack installs and isn't installed on Win X.  You can't "stay on top" like they are right now when you falter on your support like that.  Ask ATI about that one...they used to be the top dog over even NVidia at one point.

MadScientist_42 said:
Ah, but the problem there is that a VR-Ready or better yet, Oculus Recommended class of laptop ISN'T cheap still.

The quote about "Fast, Cheap, Good. Pick any two." pertains to the making of a product. Not necessarily the consumer's purchasing behavior. So a VR Ready machine needs to end up Fast and Good, so it isn't going to be Cheap. If you want it to be Fast but Cheap, then it isn't going to be very good (e.g. can't play high-end VR games).

I don't think fast and cheap exists when talking about PC's. Speed is what you pay for mostly, storage space can contribute but is generally fairly cheap.

BeastyBaiter said:

I don't think fast and cheap exists when talking about PC's. Speed is what you pay for mostly, storage space can contribute but is generally fairly cheap.

The terms "fast" and "cheap" apply to the person you're paying to build the machine for you. If you want an Oculus Ready machine built for you, and you want the builder to dedicate all their time to building the machine as quickly as possible (e.g, fast) then you will probably have to pay a high price, especially if you want the machine to be good.

The phrase doesn't apply to the speed in which the machine operates itself lol

An unusual perspective and not at all what it sounded like you were saying, but yeah, I'll buy that. I think I spent about 6 hours building my current PC. Sure I could have thrown it together in 30 minutes, but there would have been an epic cable monster visible in it. Of course, that has zero impact on VR performance and is just cosmetic.