[quote quote=824]Open thread on Virtual reality. I don’t own a system (yet) but I’ve experienced Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive, and the PSVR and have been fascinated by VR since first experiencing it at uni in 1996. VR’s been discussed for many decades, going back to Aldous Huxley’s fictional “feelies”, a type of movie that was “more real than real life”. How far will VR go, now that it’s here? In VR we can conjour any environment that we can imagine, that can be programmed. We already have job simulators in VR – in the future, will depressing office cubicles come with a VR system that allows EVERYONE to work in a glamorous virtual “penthouse office”, regardless of where they work in reality? Will they even need to travel to a real office at all to do their work? In the past, something as basic as a crappy Tamagotchi “pet” was capable of utterly obsessing children and adults alike, who would get upset when their Tamagotchi “died” because they lost it or went on holiday without it. Will we have infinitely better “virtual pets” that aren’t crappy liquid crystal displays, but actually richly detailed, behaviorally complex, and utterly and bizarrely original virtual entities? Would a VR version of a Tamagotchi be infinitely better than the shitty hand-held toy, or would something be “lost” in the translation to VR? Will we end up with a class of person who spends most of their time in VR e.g. socialising, playing, and even earning a living COMPLETELY immersed in various virtual realms? Will we even have a class of person, a “VR native”, who actually has most of their *formative experiences* in VR, who views those realms as “real”, as “home”, and who views the actual world around them, of broken glass, crime, and dirt, as something they are FORCED to immerse themselves in only when they absolutely need to, like a whale that occasionally needs to come up for air, but which doesn’t see the world above the waves in any way as ‘home’? How far from reality will virtual reality take us? What’s in store for us, what will translate well or badly into VR, and what scope for changing our behaviour or perspective does it offer?[/quote]

You know something else I find interesting is that when we are creating quotes for work at the agency I work at – it’s the norm to include VR/AR ideas. Again to me still a bit too clunky especially at events where foot traffic backups can happen and you want to give people ample time for their “experience”. As time goes on the budgets for really cool things will decrease but the issues are:
1. Ideation
2. Creation which includes a 3D world build or some type of video shoot
3. Will it be interactive? If yes – then programming it
4. Will the user be sitting, standing or other and the creation of this space
5. Will there be multiple users at once and how to move traffic
6. The need for an “operator” and “usher” to get people set up. The operator in case of the need for a reboot or tech dilemma
7. The design and creation of the space itself
8. The technology and equipment that will be in use from headsets to the computers to run the “show”

There is more – just so much to consider for a 2 minute VR ride!