Metaverse & VR

What does Lain think of VR & the metaverse? As of late it's been being pushed by corporations and Facebook seems to be going all in on this concept, with their new headset being priced and marketed as a desktop replacement. Other companies like Apple and Microsoft are also aiming to cleave their way into the enterprise AR/VR market and are creating spaces within the "Metaverse" to accommodate their devices. This being said, the messaging on these things has been vague and confusing, to say the least. I personally think that the entire concept has potential outside of the very limited scope that's been advertised, however it would involve being open with development tools and tinker-friendly headsets than any developer would probably be comfortable with.

check the catalog, 2 other VR threads addressed this. second life was arguably better

zogberg and macrothick joined to create an even worse way raping your ass

Beat Saber is an easy way to get exercise when the weather is bad and is fun. VRChat and its alternative are cool, it's nice to be able to approach people and start a conversation in a no risk environment. People building their own virtual spaces, casual unenforced copyright infringement, gig opportunities for 3d artists, live music events where you can turn down the volume so you can hear people talk, dudes having e-sex as anime girls and furries, all good stuff. It should go without saying, the only value in any of this comes from people using the technology to on their own build things that interest them and sharing it with others. The bigger the corporation, the less they can allow the direct access necessary for this, they have to keep it locked down and carefully manage any tools they give anyone, and so the failure of the Facebookverse is fortunately a clear conclusion. Even VRChat is running into this problem with their belated enforcement of the modding ban and the resulting backlash. The Oculus marketshare situation is bad, but not apocalyptic. Third party unapproved VR games can be used with it afaik.

The current implementation of this, Meta, is failing hard on a financial level. Just peruse a few headlines. I heard that a lot of the people designing it admit that they don't even know what they're supposed to be doing at their jobs. Maybe there is a future for this type of medium but I don't think this current manifestation of it is going to be it.

it's unlikely I'll buy another high end laptop or desktop. I'm going to go all in with a standalone VR headset. Probably starting with meta quest 3 when it comes out. If software doesn't exist I will create it. I'd prefer something more open, but that's not how it is yet.

Nobody wants this and it's a stupid idea. Basically, you had those autistic spectrum tech-bros who wanted to create 'cool' sci-fi stuff they saw in the movies when they were kids and silicon valley venture capitalists who wanted the next platform (after the internet and mobile) to make money on. And they both spectacularly failed. The latest iteration of vr is 10 years old, billions of dollars have been poured into it and it has failed to achieve any sort of mainstream penetration. Nobody cares. People are either completely uninterested or they try it out, use for 15 minutes, get a headache/puke their guts out and never use it again because vr suffers from the same fundamental issues it did in the 90s. It's pathetic.

There is a french company working on a AR headset called Lynx R1. If it ever sees the light of day seems to be a more open alternative to the silicon valley ones.

>>64818 Latest headline is John Carmack left with a snippy company wide email because it pissed him off how inefficiently the company does everything. >We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort. There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy. Some may scoff and contend we are doing just fine, but others will laugh and say “Half? Ha! I’m at quarter efficiency!” >It has been a struggle for me. I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I’m evidently not persuasive enough. A good fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up, but I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it.

>>65931 Nothing pleases me more than to see the autist who ruined id Games with his bullshit get some just desserts over a stupid tech fad.

>>64812 Metaverse is the worst implementation of VR technologies imaginable. Essentially they took a technology capable of immersing you into fantasy settings and decided that it would be the perfect thing for using at work. Oh boy, I can't wait to stair at my spreadsheets through what looks like a screen door while in a magical fairy land! No. The true way forward for enhancing the human mind is AR. VR is for immersion.

I like the idea but not the way it's heading by big corporations. Going the other way it could have potential to have an environment more like the old days of the internet if it were to be implimented in such a way it can be used on meshnets and web3 type networks with proper security and means to prevent or minimize datamining users. Am I missing anything in my vision of what tech would help? Sadly only open hardware / open source devices relating to VR im aware of currently is SlimeVR for motion tracking so that holds back these sorts of people interested in these things from getting involved. Maybe more people will eventually step up and say no corporations and be able to finally escape surveillance in their own little world.