this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 minutes ago

Spatial compute seems cool still. VR raves are sick VR to let people with some disabilities experience more social scenes and some enhanced forms of remote work are very cool to me.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The only "metaverse" that gained any traction is VRChat and that's mostly just a way for furries to show off their character designs.

All the ones that started as a way to leech money from home working have gone nowhere.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

To a surprise of no one. The headsets are fucking uncomfortable. Which doesn't bother me when the goal is a gaming session because I gain something that I like (playing immersive games) to offset it. But to see some fucking avatars of people for a meeting that most likely could have been an email or two? No thanks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Yeah, I can wear mine for an hour or so. Any more and I'll be picking my glasses out of my face.

I'm not sure who would want to wear it for 8 hours a day every day. It's they think that people will embrace the corpo subservient life if only they can pretend they're in Minority Report...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago

They're pricey, but you can find prescription inserts for vr headsets.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

There was never non-manufactured hype for it. I saw people who were paid to be excited about it be excited about it, and literally nobody else cared. Nobody else even knew what the hype was event supposed to be for.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

If Facebook wasn't behind it trying to make it a thing then it might stand a chance to become a thing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

cries in PortalTV

[–] [email protected] 135 points 1 day ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 35 minutes ago

My same reaction. I bet most people don't even know the term.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Some people just love looking at themselves.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

You're joking, but there are lots of people in VRChat that love spending a lot of time looking at their own avatar in front of in-game mirrors.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

Man, I hate looking at myself in mirrors or even hearing myself in recordings. I just don't understand people who actually like it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 minute ago

I think it's also to do with how photogenic someone is. I'm the same as you, my photos/videos/voice always feel weird and awkward to me. The other day I came across this relatable story:

My mother is gorgeous. Stunning, even. She was homecoming queen in high school and has the smile of a true crime cliché (that is to say, it lights up a room). Blonde, razor-cut bangs frame her big, brown eyes – rimmed in her signature liquid liner, always – which literally twinkle when she laughs.

There is no photographic evidence of this.

I cannot make sense of it, but something happens to this dear, beautiful woman whenever a camera comes near. Her face contorts at the click of a shutter. A combination of the following features appears in every picture she’s ever taken: squeezed-shut lids. Crossed eye. Eyebrow askance. Elvis lip. Cowlick. I sometimes insist a particular picture isn’t as bad as she thinks; I’m lying. Her driver’s license photo? Horrendous. Her Facebook profile picture? A close-up of the family dog.

I take comfort in this whenever I come across a less-than-flattering image of myself. Photos do not reflect reality, I think. Just look at all the terrible pictures of Mom!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

Theres no other feedback of your own avatar except for viewing it, if i am trying to immerse my self i wanna make sure i dont look jacked up.

Source: me, i play.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, in VR you're really just checking how well you did your avatar. There's a sense of accomplishment in doing something that looks like you with a very limited set of tools. Haven't tried it in VR, but I know the exact feeling from The Sims series.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

I understand checking when first creating it, but I find it weird to check it after that. I don't even make my avatar in games look anything like myself. It's not that I'm bad looking or anything, I just don't like looking at myself, and that includes pictures, videos, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

A good 200 of them are pissed right now.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Within the billionaire bubble there was a lot of hype. Outside of that, not so much.

A new platform to colonize, gathering info on what people were looking at in the virtual world and selling that to advertising made their wallets go very erect.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think the biggest part was selling people fake clout for a nearly 100% profit margin. They were going to sell us virtual clothes and status ~~in mass~~ en masse for our very real money. Not that this doesn't already happen in gaming but it would have been expanded greatly

[–] [email protected] 7 points 17 hours ago

Yeah man.....for like 2 weeks, and then it released. Then again when they added legs. For like a day.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

We already have wide screens. Just ask the users to place their hand dividing their face so that each eye sees an independent image. Then just play stereo images and watch the new eye disease craze grow!..."95% of Americans have one lazy eye or two!" "Scientists don't known why, but you can fix it with this weird hydrogen peroxide hack!"

[–] [email protected] 12 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I bet Meta spent a lot of money to develop the Metaverse. Would they really just drop it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago

They already did years before Facebook rename themselves.

It was called project loom

[–] [email protected] 67 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I always thought this metaverse crap was just an obvious money-making scheme that preyed on isolated people during COVID-19. They only started developing their metaverse platforms during the pandemic. Of course they all failed to capitalize because the world largely returned to normal while they were still flaunting NFTs and unfinished metaverse platforms that still can't do better than a private Minecraft SMP with your friends.

[–] shortwavesurfer 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I suspect that it's one of those things that will happen at some point in the future, but we just don't have the technology and equipment ready for it just yet. I figure it's similar to AI research in like 2007 when they were able to put the computer on Jeopardy and have it compete against the contestants. It worked, but it wasn't ready for mainstream usage at the time.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (11 children)

The second life/metaverse/virtual reality concept will never be widely accepted by the majority of the population because it just isn't what the vast majority of people want. They want communication methods that compliment their real world lives.

Yes, it will probably be more popular at some point than it has been so far if they can pull off affordable ultra realism, but the escapism of virtual worlds appeals to a relatively small portion of the population. Not to mention that a lot of people have a limited amount of free time, and even if it was extremely popular at first, the novelty would wear off fairly quickly for most people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Gaming is an absolutely massive economic sector, driven by the escapism of virtual worlds. The functional kernel of the metaverse is a universal game lobby, a place for people to congregate while they navigate between the games they play together.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 hours ago

I think you're right about affordability.

There's a subset of the population who will pursue VR for gaming et cetera, but it's a limited subset. While the same hardware or tech might be able to be used for casual AR / VR helpful type things like meetings or informational things those applications just aren't beneficial enough to make it worth the cost of the hardware.

If there was more content, more useful applications, and the cost was negligible, then sure it will take off.

In my 20s I would've been interested in VR for gaming and would've been excited about the potential applications of AR. Now in my 40s it's clear that tech doesn't bring me joy, and I'd like to diminish it's role in my life. As in, I want tech to improve my well being and quality of life rather than consume my time and limit my experience of life.

20 years from now, I can imagine myself as a reluctant late-adopter of AR. I just absolutely will not tolerate ads in this regard. I'd rather forage for twigs and berries in the wilderness than allow adverts to be injected into my experience of realiity.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A big problem with virtual worlds is that it doesn’t really take that long to get to the “end.” The end of the landscape, the end of the mechanics, the end of the economy, whatever. Then you’re stuck waiting for DLC, and that runs out in short order, too.

In reality, even if you stay in one place your whole life, you know there’s more to see; or are the wealthiest person in the world, there’s still more.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

I had assumed the metaverse was more about augmented reality than an alternate reality. I don't really know anything about it though.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

will never be widely accepted by the majority of the populatioj because it just isn’t what the vast majority of people want. They want communication methods that compliment their real world lives

I don't think that's strictly true, but I do think it would require their real world lives to get shockingly worse to increase the appeal of living in a "better" world.

This is usually how you see these kind of things presented in fiction: everyone uses a "metaverse", but it requires a full on completely society destroying dystopia to also exist to make it sufficiently appealing.

I'd put money on the next round of VR worlds getting a lot more buy-in since you've got a generation of kids growing up that are already living mostly online, and a species that seems hell-bent on diving in to a nice authoritarian dystopia, so uh, the next 20 years will probably be real interesting,

[–] shortwavesurfer 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think what we will get out of all this virtual reality research is good augmented reality devices because being able to look at something and pull up information on that thing or instructions on how to use it, etc. would be damn useful. I think I've heard of companies using AR and VR for training purposes, like how to work machines in a factory, etc. before you actually start using them.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

I see people buying $300 AR glasses as a portable monitor to watch porn comfortably while in bed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Remote medical procedures, remote military weapons, remote repair of datellites, etc. will all benefit as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Do any of these applications really require AR / VR though?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

Require? No.

Likely to be improved by more spacial awareness? Yes.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think that's just a coincidence because it was also just after buying Oculus and developing the Quest 2 which sold like hotcakes. I think things fizzled out because everyone I know, myself included, got tired of VR after a couple weeks because the software just isn't there and it can be quite isolating to use.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

SteamVR on PC is excellent FYI. Lots of great VR games on Steam

[–] [email protected] 8 points 23 hours ago

Yes, but it is also very different. I have a VR headset and use it every now and then. But compared to "normal" gaming it is quite different.

When playing a non-VR game you can just minimize the game and check stuff between rounds/matches/when you pause/etc. With VR I feel like you have to be there all the time, and the headsets are still heavy so you can't play as long. Not to mention you are usually standing.

I like VR and think it will be good eventually, but it is not there yet. It is 100% playable as it is, but the overall tech is not quite there yet.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Alyx has ruined almost every other VR game for me purely from how polished of an experience it is. Every other game that isn't an arcade, driving/racing sim or a fitness game just feels clunky to me.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There were hype around this thing??

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Zuckerberg was so hyped, he renamed his entire fucking company Meta.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago

But Zuckerberg was pretty much alone, I don't recall anyone agreeing with his claims.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Ironically, Zuck is all about FAIR now. Shouldn't it be MAIR now? :)

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