Daksa Crendraven
Imperial Guardians
SpaceMonkey's Alliance
6
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Posted - 2016.02.02 10:25:46 -
[1] - Quote
Quote:- VR headsets are still expensive and the PC & GPU set needed are not cheap either if you have to upgrade.
True. But there are two aspects that we need to evaluate before jumping to this type of conclusion:
- A big part of the VR headset cost surplus (at least 1/3 i think) comes from the fact that the industry is still producing overdesigned standalone products (CV1 and the Vive are perfect examples) with a lot of unnecessary modules and feature for the basic "high-end" playability. An Oculus CV1 without mic/headphones and xbox controller could be 25 to 30% cheaper, imho.
- Another key aspect (imho) about the price, is the lack of regional agreements and a decentralized distribution paradigm: again, the CV1 is $599 in USA, AND $836 in Italy. I will not be part of the Valkyrie launch (after 1 yr of waiting as a DK2 owner and a lot of experience in various beta-testing programs with different games) exactly because of this.
- I believe, that a possible reviewed *CV2*, designed without unnecessary modules and with a reduced price-margin between regional areas could be avaible on the market at something like: $470-499. With a reasonable transposition of $500-520 for me...
This could be the "right price" for the hi-end HMD. (that's its actually -30-40% in my area)
Quote:- Some VR games benefit from additional hardware (steering wheel, HOTAS joystick, ...)
Most non-VR games benifit from additional hardware. The HMD support, in a sense is part of this. In my opinion, the Elite:Dangerous paradigm in that is just perfect.
Quote:- especially the Vive could benefit from usage in larger rooms (lighthouse system)
And yet, it will suffer if applied as product to larger mass. After all, Isnt' the rejection of thought a key mechanics in that particular process that sees a perfect computer-illiterate, not-geek, normal person choosing the simplest solution in the market? the lighthouse system is a GREAT thing. A modular, optional implementation of it could be even Greater!
Quote: - Will we see price drops and adoption by the masses over time ?
In my opinion: yes. The CV1 first round of large-scale sell will be perfectly inside the current prevision (maybe something worser than expected, due to price).
In the meantime platforms like the Razer OSVR Hacker Dev Kit (thanks to the SteamVR/OSVR/OpenVR api implementation in A LOT of games as a practical substitute of the uber-buggy oculus-runtime (and the oculus-runtime support for OSVR games and stacks from 0.8) will play a key-role in the adoption of the low-cost OSVR native HMD's, probably as an hi-volume sold, little brother of the CV1.. and probably in a very short-span of time.
As a result of this, we will end to see a VR second generation made essentially by competitive, modular hmd's (maybe with screen-interchangeable models too.. the best upgrade feature that you can put on an HMD, and im sure that every DK2 owner around is perfectly aware of this). This means: Cheaper devices of course, but also a possible "uber-enthusiast", hi-price zone.. that will be probably end to be dominated by Oculus (or... who knows! Some other producer that have still not exposed his cards on the table).
I believe that all of them are going to be full SteamVR/OSVR compatibile (the oculus runtime IS OSVR compatibile at the moment, and it will probably end by giving support to games in the same way Elite:Dangerous and games like Talos Principle are supported, today).
The GPU market in the meantime, will split into two price trances.
The usual main market-zone that sees new chipsets and new boards ruling the market, and a VR zone.. that will be basically be a VR approved list of devices with X2 performances from the "normal boards" and obviously an X2 price...
Maybe following a mechanic that is already known to us since the first "dual-gpu" board.
It will just become a real market-rule, i presume.
Quote:- Will VR stay a luxury item for the few (like elaborate hydraulic seats for sims) ?
Probably not. The market will split itself into different zones, i think.. Exactly like in the Android ARM SoC early days for example.
Google (with Cardboard and similar clones) will rule out the 360-ŠVR contents market with youtube and facebook as top-platforms (and certainly some others newcomers).
The we will probably see another smartphone related market-zone. In the same spirit of the Samsung Gear VR. They will probably ends up to be one of the biggest market spot of VR for all non-GPU-based *premium* contents... Research, Industry, and RL, not-entertainment related implementations will be probably based on these.
Then Gaming! Us! (and probably, the VR PRO line)
We will have, a cheaper line.. probably the biggest one in terms of gaming-market, made by cheaper modular ( with pay-per-install external modules) hmds based on OSVR/OpenVR and a second more pricey but probably with a particular "closed" support layer and dedicated "pro" hardware support (but still 100% OSVR/OpenVR compatibile) and with all the news or pricey additions that the market, at that point will be able to produce.
My 2 cents. |