2016 is shaping to be the year of VR. With the two giant companies HTC and Oculus going head to head, they are bringing out their big guns with their latest headsets and the competition is on to see which one comes out ahead.
The thing which makes people very intrigued about virtual reality is that it is uncharted ground. Everyone is curious to see what this new technology will accomplish. But before you jump into the bandwagon, you may want to reconsider.VR is an exciting technology for sure, but we have good reasons to believe why you shouldn’t get carried away and why we think it may not be the game changer most people think it is going to be.
Hefty Requirements
The entry barrier to virtual reality in terms of hardware is large. In fact, properly using a VR headset will require you to first invest nearly 700 to 800 dollars on a computer that can handle it. Furthermore, there are rumors and reports about much current hardware not being properly compatible with VR. Some users are reporting crashing as well as poor performances across most last gen hardware which is not a good sign.
Furthermore, VR also forces you to make some undesirable adjustments to your home. The HTC Vive, for example, requires you to have a space with at least 3 meters by 3 meters square area dedicated just for the headset. That is a space of a typical household bathroom that you will need to clear out to make room for one gadget.
Expensive
Since VR is a new a cutting edge technology, it’s regarded as an enthusiast hardware and is thus priced accordingly. In other words, it is very pricey.
The price range of these headsets starts from $600 and goes as high as $800. This alone is a huge point of contention for most customers who are looking to get into VR. When you also couple this with the fact that you’re going to need a $700 machine to run VR properly, you are looking at a grand total of anaverage $1,400 to become a user of virtual reality. That price is simply too much for some people who would rather use that amount of money to buy a small car.
Lack of Applications
Even if you are the lucky few who manage to join the VR club, you’re going to be disappointed. Currently, there isn’t much to do with virtual reality. Companies are simply not taking the hardware seriously enough to develop amazing applications for it.
Many game developers prefer to stay clear of the VR as it’s not mature enough. Right now, there is a very limited library of games as well as applications that utilize VR and there is not a single app that can be named a system seller.
Health Concerns
Finally, there are the concerns about the extended usage of VR. People for a long time have seen VR as unfriendly to the users due to its effects on the eyes of the wearer. Many people are saying that using these headsets gives them headaches and motion sickness. There have also been many cases of people who find the VR headsets too bulky and develop neck pains from using them too much.
Both HTC and Oculus claim to have solved these issues with their light headsets that are calibrated properly to each individual’s eye, but the issue still remains and people simply dislike playing VR for more than half an hour at a time.
Author Bio:
The author of this article is Alvin Carrick. He is a software engineer who has worked with the biggest tech firms in the world. Currently, he writes for SEO companies California |Intellect Square, where he reports on the latest technologies and breakthroughs. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+