What is the state of VR treadmills in December 2016 ?

[HiThere_]

At a time when Oculus is doing front facing standing VR, HTC Vive is doing roomscale, everyone seems to be replacing foot movement with teleportation mechanics (or even not moving at all), and Virtuix Omni is cancelling international pre-orders as it switches from an affordable home product to an expensive high end public product... I am left wondering what the state of VR treadmills in December 2016 is...

Like does anyone here currently own one, and more importantly (manage to) use one on the Oculus Store products ?

[Anonymous]

My guess is it will likely be a while before something like that will be mainstream. I'd imagine most versions of such treadmills will be for training purposes, or specialty entertainment venues. 

Think about it. What is the fitness level of your average player, who can currently afford a VR setup? Most people I see sweat chunks playing very basic movement games, and are completely sore from ducking after playing SuperHot, or can't move their arms after a few games of Long Bow or The Climb. 

I'm just not sure that the consumer interest is high enough at this point make affordable, home VR treadmills. Maybe when VR is a lot more affordable and reaches a lot more households?

[edmg]

As of a few weeks ago, pretty much everyone except Virtuix was either vaporware or chasing the Chinese VR arcade market.

Virtuix started shipping production units to America... then cancelled all non-US orders and said they're aiming at the Chinese VR arcade market.

So, basically, the consumer treadmill market is going nowhere right now.

[kevinw729]

There seems to be a miscomprehension that these companies
are only looking at the Chinese VR Arcade market. The reality is that the Digital
Out-of-Home Entertainment (DOE) scene has been burgeoning internationally.



Only recently the Virtuix Omni system was launched as part of the 'Omni-Arena',
aimed at Western amusement facilities:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBw_7WgfjkI&t=11s



There are also three other omni-directional systems gaining credence (such as KATVR), and at least two of these have plans for
Western release in the DOE sector for 2017. While a fourth Western design has already started
deployment on test.


The evolving Chinese Arcade scene is developing their own approaches to this market with their VR Walker systems, and the new standing-VR platforms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppAZWGQuJPU


Fundamentally, it is the pricing of PC based VR that made any additional peripheral
an unpalatable addition to an already expensive investment, (as we stated back
in 2014). Likewise, the need to offer a "high-end" VR experience to
benefit from this technology seems more suited to public-space than consumer
applications.



There are plans for even more sophisticated immersive navigational systems for
DOE application in the coming months - underlining the current thinking that
the best VR "presence" will be relegated (for the next five years) to
DOE application.

[kzintzi]

feeling VERY sad about the Omni crap - I've been waiting for a while to purchase one and was even prepared to spend $1200AU that PLE were initially charging for pre-orders but now it's commercial interests only and $7000+

I rarely wish ill of people but here's hoping they gag on the results. Having said that I fear they'll just shrug it off and do well coz China is a massive market.

I'll just wrap my disappointment around me and not buy one if they ever release them to consumers.

[edmg]

Again, Virtuix were pre-selling into the consumer market for two or three years. They just cancelled every single non-US consumer order, and have closed further US consumer orders.

I don't know of any other company that's anywhere near actually selling a viable treadmill into the consumer market.

[kevinw729]

I
get the impression that they are as much the victim as yourself. They had been
promised a different approach to the market from the HMD manufacturers, and a different
launch window. But especially it was having the support pulled away from them
with the whole “seated experience” decision that impacted all in that sphere of
development. Sadly, Start-Up’s make poor business decisions – why we voiced
cation about drinking all the Kool aide spouted.

[kevink808]

I would buy the Virtuix Omni TODAY if they were still taking pre-orders, but based on shipment lots, they aren't projecting to fill all kickstarter and pre-orders until Dec 2017!!  Would really have liked this for FPS.

[HiThere_]

I checked the Cyberith Virtualizer and that one isn't doing too well either (maybe worse).

Then there's Kat Walk but turns out that one is worth ~9000$...

And it looks like nobody here has managed to get his hands on any kind of home VR treadmill.

I think edmg provided a good summary up there (twice).

[edmg]

I'm pretty sure Cyberith said they'd abandoned the home market about a year back.