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 ?

[kevink808]

Omni is the only one that appears to have made it to market and filling orders.  There are videos of people who got their units.  They are delivering about only a few hundred a month and plan to scale to 1000 per month in early 2017.  Problem is, they have 20,000 kickstarters and pre-orders to deliver and shut down additional sales until they stabilize.

[kevinw729]

https://www.facebook.com/nathie944/videos/1297187027009301/

[kevink808]

^^^ What hardware is that?

[Pablito]

I wanted the Omni too.  Serious disappointment.  Any honest person knows the treadmill approach is the only rational way to maneuver through a virtual space.  Roomscale is nothing more than a waste of time fairy-tale with its major limitations, and teleport is so weak and faithless I would need plastic underwear with sensors in the crotch to pretend I still had some balls.  What sorry state of affairs VR has found itself in! 

[kevinw729]

Pablito said:

...Any honest person knows the treadmill approach is the only rational way to maneuver through a virtual space.  Roomscale is nothing more than a waste of time fairy-tale with its major limitations...What sorry state of affairs VR has found itself in! 

I can understand the disappointment from the consumer VR perspective. Promised so much and achieved so little. But regarding Room-Scale, the Arean-Scale sector in DOE offers a very impressive alternative. The success of The VOID Ghostbusters experience and the new Zero Latency V-Park systems offers a 1:1 locomotion platform that offers virtual navigation. Obviously, this needs an Arena-Scale environment to enjoy (so is not consumer) but has achieved a navigation of virtual environments well beyond the roots in the Virtual Infantry and Room Breach VR simulation of the 90's.

[kevinw729]

kevink808 said:

^^^ What hardware is that?

Chinese prototype being evaluated for DOE (Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment) application.

[HiThere_]

Found this review from a (rare enough) early Virtuix Omni user : http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/49nbih/a_full_month_with_the_virtuix_omni_my_review

[loregnum]

I sure hope this tech won't be abandoned for us home users as I would really like one of these and feel it'd take immersion to a whole new level. I'd also think it would help big time for a lot of VR sickness which I can feel.

[kevink808]

Cyril said:

Found this review from a (rare enough) early Virtuix Omni user : http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/49nbih/a_full_month_with_the_virtuix_omni_my_review

Damn that piece of hardware sound so bad ass.  I want one!

[flexy123]

I don't think in a mill. years that treadmills or these hamster-wheels would ever become mainstream even if I don't doubt that they might work well.

I was thinking about this (problem of actual movement in VR space), and I think it's REALLY an issue. Even a, say, 3x3m VR space/room of course cannot be a solution since...well, a limited space has walls, for a start.

Here is what I think:

When the problem of motion sickness in VR is addressed at some point, the desire for being able to 1:1 move in VR space w/ treadmills etc. will likely also become less....and I think we'll ultimately settle on controller/gaze/joystick etc. movements by hand instead...rather than treadmills for VR. This will definitely not ever become mainstream, for a number of reasons.

Maybe far ahead in the future, there will be ways to "tap" into nerves, so that we can move in VR using nerve impulses without *actually* moving in real life. Basically, all we need to do is *think* we want to move and the device will know this. Something like this.