According to Palmer Lucky, Your crappy PC is the biggest barrier to VR adoption

[Qub3d]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/01/oculus-founder-your-crappy-pc-is-the-biggest-barrier-to-vr-adoption/

 

The headline comes from this paragraph:

"Most people have not had a reason to own a high-end PC for a long time," Luckey said in a wide-ranging AMA conversation with the "Glorious PC Master Race" subreddit yesterday. "Your crappy PC is the biggest barrier to adoption [for high-end VR]..."

 

Frankly, I agree. The whole "ballpark" fracas was a bad move, but I'd rather have exceptional VR if it is only a 30% price increase when considering a computer investment with the Rift. I dunno, what do you guys think?

 

As a counterpoint, though, a commenter on the Ars article said the following: 

I see a lot of companies are banking on this huge vr market boom, boy, are they up for a rude awakening. Reminds me of early 3d tv pushed a few years ago.

 

Which is a valid point. Would it be better to have good VR that is out of the reach of the majority (putting it at risk to never go mainstream) or would it be better to have an average product that many could have, even if it results in a stigma like VR in the 90s?

[thekeemo]

A good point that tb brought up was cheaper vr headsets mean more money to get a better pc

[afyeung]

 

They took it completely out of context lol. Palmer responded to a redditor who said he had "a crappy pc". Palmer wasn't the one to bring it up.

[The Official Czex]

I own a 2200 USD PC.

 

I'm not about to spend a third of that on a headset for VR.

[Mohenjo]

Poor Australia, the Headset ends up costing 1200 dollars. Thats as much as you need to spend on a PC  

[GeekJump]

The reason I invested in a PC was to be able to play the newest titles without having to invest more money on hardware. VR right now looks like its going to cost, on the lower end, the same as a console. And, one the high end, the price for an entire mid-range gaming pc...

 

I rather buy a console and have access to the few console exclusives than buy VR and enjoy even fewer VR capable titles.

 

Sidenote: I remember a while back someone (pretty sure it was this forum) told me 3d tv's were still a thing. If he is still active and watching this...SUCK IT! I WAS RIGHT BIATCH!

[-iSynthesis]

Seriously, what the hell is the hype with VR? In my eyes it's totally pointless, it's going to die out like wii fit.

Thank you. I don't see a single point in it. Maybe some games may be cool with it but it's crap for productivity, it's crap for competetive gaming, crap for everything than maybe 1-2 games. 

[KE2012]

Biggest barrier to VR is the loan it costs to buy it, not our crappy pc's.

[werto165]

To be honest I probably spend most of my time in racing games in the oculus. Assetto corsa and pcars. And star citizen when it finally releases.

[Misanthrope]

VR Isn't a good enough reason to upgrade, so fuck off Palmer, wait until your crap actually had apps for it to convince us instead of resorting to insultd

[LAwLz]

"The biggest barrier to VR adoption is that people can't afford it. So let's make the problem even worse by pricing our product twice as high as we have repeatedly said it would cost!"

 

Yeah... That statement does not really help your case, Palmer.

[Octagoncow]

Wow this was taken out of context. He was responding to this question:

"My question is: according to you, how long until someone in my financial situation (not a lot of disposable income) would be able to get into VR ? Would I need to wait for eye-tracking tech to be widely available cheaply for example (for foveated rendering, allowing my crappy computer to run some of the games in VR) ?"

So he was referring to a single computer which the owner had previously referred to as crappy.

[lightningterror]

 Buy us new pcs then. Do a giveaway. Entire population gets high end pcs.

[ShadowCaptain]

my PC is great though

[LinusTech]

Seriously, what the hell is the hype with VR? In my eyes it's totally pointless, it's going to die out like wii fit.

 

The hype is that it's freaking amazing.

 

Like, get lost just painting pictures in 3D space on the Vive for HOURS amazing..

 

It won't die, it's not pointless.

 

It's just expensive right now.

[ITS-PARTY-TIME]

my pc is not crappy... how dare you hurt my e peen

[boarder2k7]

The hype is that it's freaking amazing.

Like, get lost just painting pictures in 3D space on the Vive for HOURS amazing..

It won't die, it's not pointless.

It's just expensive right now.

This is how I feel. My limited VR experience (google cardboard type stuff) leads me to believe the real stuff could be amazing for some things.

It also has medical applications, I backed an app to be used to help with vision therapy issues using the Rift DK hardware.

I just wish they had hit their target price. At <$400 I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

[raphidy]

That clickbait title article. Anyway, upgrade when you can because vr needs a powerful pc. That's the point. Otherwise get cheap VR like gear vr.

[WereCat]

No. The biggest barrier is that most people (me included) have no option to try VR in their location or anywhere close.

Then it is price for the "not crappy PC" and the VR itself.

My PC can't handle VR but it is just because of my 770.

I would jump on the VR bandwagon if I could try it first at least. I have no idea how good \ bad it is.

[Lethal Seraph]

Yeah I don't see myself spending that much just for a headset. An multi directional treadmill maybe, but not a headset.

[Linus_torvalds]

The price of that crappy piece of shit (VR) is barrier 

[Guest Kloaked]

Is this what journalism has come to? Taking reddit posts out of context?

This is amazing.

[TetraSky]

Well he's not wrong... But we're limited by what Intel, Nvidia and AMD are releasing. If they are refusing to release anything that's more than "10% better" (if that), we can't exactly have super high end PCs. As it is, it will take at least 5 more years before VR can run on most hardware and not just the Super High End, most expensive hardware.

[werto165]

The price of that crappy peace of shit (VR) is barrier 

Make peace with your shit. 

[thexzenon]

He's not wrong, you know.