The idea of virtual reality is very much engrained in gamer’s
minds, it’s not long now until consumers can get their mind on the first
iteration of VR headsets. Currently the big two products are the Oculus Rift
and Sony’s Morpheus. The idea of these headsets are to fully immerse the player
within a world that they would most likely never be able to visit, both
headsets achieve this, but to what extent?
Currently there are barriers to entry, be that physically or
technically. This is somewhat of a phase as of now. A lot of issues are currently
being ironed out by the developers and will continue to be fixed until the
products release. But there are some issues that are not so simple. One of the
major barriers is the technical limitations of the hardware/system to drive the
display on the headset. Currently a person would need a very powerful computer
to achieve the 75 frames per second of the 75 hz panel on the Oculus Rift, and
requiring a £700+ PC is a tall order for most consumers. The same issue plagues
Sony’s Morpheus, it is only able to achieve 30-60 fps, it only costs £350 for
the Playstation 4 but the visual fidelity of the content is severely downgraded
compared to the Oculus Rift. These issues are very much based around the development
of graphical hardware. The VR scene requires hardware that just isn’t yet
available on a wallet friendly level.
The reason it’s important for VR headsets to require such
high framerates is because having a low FPS very much spoils the immersion and is
also a contributor to the infamous VR motion sickness. This problem will
eventually be resolved when manufactures deliver GPU/CPUs powerful enough in
order to drive the displays that are affordable to the majority of consumers.
This is a LinusTechTips interview with
the Oculus Rift founder and CEO Palmer Lucky
Palmer notes that there is a “diminishing return” between 90
– 120FPS to it’s pretty reasonable to estimate that in the next 5 years we will
see the development of games move to higher frame rates, or at least having a
high fidelity 30-60 option and a “VR 120FPS” option.
Another limitation in reaching these goals is the
TECH in the headset. It’s ok to say “we need 120hz”, but to install a 120hz
panel on a small headset isn't simple. 120hz and 144hz screen tech is still quite
a new thing, and implementing it on a ultra-low latency 7” LED panel is not
cheap. Yet again, this is another issue that only time can resolve, but it’s
just another one out of many things that create a barrier for VR to become successful
and immersive.Motion sickness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yczrE08LJ-0
Loss of balance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INDKNA7kXoo
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