I have, believe it or not, a friend. I have several, in fact, but this friend's name is Tom. Tom primarily spends his money on bits and pieces for his PC, and is extremely excited about the impending virtual reality revolution — so much so that he's bought an incredible "gaming chair" with attached steering wheel, pedals and HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) control scheme, ready to play everything from Elite: Dangerous to a variety of racing games in glorious, stereoscopic, head-tracking 3D.
Me, I'm yet to be convinced by the value of VR. I know that theoretically it should be enormously exciting, but at present, there are two big things that put me off: firstly, the cost, which, for however much HTC and Oculus might try to argue that they're making VR more mainstream, is well out of the budget of most people; and secondly the fact that there's still a fundamental disconnect between yourself and the virtual reality into which you're trying to immerse yourself.
There's not a lot to say about the cost, really — it's a lot, I can't afford it, because I'd have to upgrade my PC as well as buy all the hardware, that's about it — so I'll focus on the latter aspect, because that's what bothers me about the technology long-term.
There are certain applications for which VR seems ideally suited. Something like Elite: Dangerous, for example, will likely be very good indeed, because the entire Elite experience is based on you sitting in a chair in your spaceship cockpit, flipping switches and jiggling joysticks in order to fly around and do spacey things. Likewise, driving games will also be very good, since again, the experience is based around you sitting in a chair holding on to a steering wheel for dear life. In other words, the experiences that my friend Tom is already pretty much set up for will probably be pretty good, though I do still find myself wondering how you'll find the right buttons to press with a bloody great helmet attached to your face — particularly if you're not using a fancy-pants HOTAS setup.
It's when we get into other types of experience that I feel the disconnect between the real and the virtual will be somewhat more jarring. Anything first-person would theoretically be excellent in VR, were it not for the fact that you're not actually going anywhere; the lack of physicality to motion through the world seems like something that would be very disconcerting indeed. There are companies that are attempting to get around this very issue, most notably with a big-ass treadmill-like thing that allows you to actually physically walk in order to control your motion through the game world, but at this point you're escalating the already substantial costs of VR even further just to get the feeling of immersion that VR is theoretically supposed to provide.
I don't know. I think my issue is that I'm yet to see a true "killer app" for VR; something which, without a doubt, shows that VR is the absolute only way to do this. Until that killer app comes along — or technology improves to allow things like true haptic feedback and a true feeling of physically inhabiting "another world" — then I shall remain both cautious and skeptical about the whole thing, and very surprised if it takes off with anyone but the most dedicated enthusiasts of expensive lumps of plastic wired up to their computer.
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And of course we've already seen via TV ads using VR goggles what dangers lie for the player if they actually move around through reality while believing they are in VR. So the treadmill idea does sound at least safer – but as you say expensive! I know no-body who has the kind of money they would require at the moment. However in the future, as the then 'old' technology becomes cheaper, it may be worth checking out.
It reminds me of a great book by Daphne du Maurier called THE HOUSE ON THE STRAND – her best in my view, where the protagonist goes back into Medieval times while remaining in his own time. Very gripping and extremely problematical for the said character. Grab a copy from the library if you haven't read it – I think you'll really like it. 😀
I suppose the ELITE game is not for PC but for one of the play-station type set-ups?
VR is an odd prospect. I was pretty solidly "anti" for a very long time. One of the things that I've heard people say over-and-over is that "you won't ever really get it until you experience it." I always chalked that up to the ravings of the converted and didn't pay it much heed. Then, the other day, the company I worked for received a promotional package from one of our business partner that included a Google Cardboard and an accompanying interactive VR video. Now Google cardboard is the lowest rung of the VR tech ladder – but after just afew minutes of experiencing the video with the depth of field and head-tracking, etc etc, I was immediately intrigued to see and do more with this tech. When I realized that I didn't just have to watch the frames being presented to me in the video, but could rotate in my office chair for a 360 view, and look up and down to fully see the soccer stadiums shown in the video, my mind reeled at the possibilities.
I think VR has a long way to go – as you mentioned, the prices aren't there to make the tech anything remotely close to consumer friendly. I'd say that's another 5 years to a decade away. I'm also not quite sure I actually want this tech for gaming – but that's mostly because the VR experience is more geared toward 1st person endeavors and various vehicle sims – the sorts of games I have no interest in. But after my brief experience, I know that I want to see and do more with modern VR . . . and that's not somewhere that I was a week ago. My brain went into overdrive cooking all sorts of cool visual, semi interactive applications. Imagine a high end resort hotel emailing a confirmation that includes a link to a VR video of your room. Or a car company accompanying the launch of their newest model with a video that allows you to sit in the vehicle and see its interior with head tracking. I'd eat that shit up. Is VR going to be a "revolution" of new media? No – no more than 3D TVs were. Is it far less stupid than I thought it was . . . yeah . . . yeah it is.