Enthusiast Opts For $2200 Laser Eye Surgery To Enhance Oculus Rift Experience

An anonymous reader writes After 30 years of wearing glasses, one man says that the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has prompted him to get laser eye surgery. With farsightedness and astigmatism, he says, "Never thought much about the laser surgery until the Rift, that's for sure." He has an appointment to get the $2200 surgery on the 13th of this month. "For me it is clear, my eyeglasses are like an obstacle for optimal VR experience," he said. He hopes the surgery will remove his need for glasses, which can be uncomfortable inside of the Rift, if they fit at all, and cause several issues such as scratched lenses and lower field of view. Oculus plans to make the consumer version of the Oculus Rift (aka CV1) more friendly to glasses wearers, "...we have a lot of great ideas for supporting glasses in the consumer version [of the Rift] (especially since a huge portion of the Oculus team wears glasses everyday!)" they noted in their Kickstarter.

Comments

Reality not sufficient,

[Anonymous Coward]

so... dude has lived his life with the inconvenience of glasses, and incomplete vision
for a great amount of time. thought about the cost of surgery and said meh....

then one day, not the forests, or the mountains... not the clouds in the sky.
not beautiful women at the beach and not the smile of a newborn....

but virtual reality.

better fix my eyes to get the most out of vr.

Re: Reality not sufficient,

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes it does. The guy can see with glasses. He can see all those things you mentioned. What he can't do is properly experience VR without this surgery so why not go for it? He really had no reason to do so before.

Barring an unfortunate mistake this will improve his quality of life all around and if it allows him to get more enjoyment out of his gaming experience who are we to question his motives.

I'm quite sure every person alive has done something in their lives with motives others would call silly or pointless

Re:Reality not sufficient,

[xeno]

Mod parent up. Wish I had points.

I had my eyes zapped about 5 years ago, and even with some complications I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Why? I did it beause glasses were making me hesitant to play with my kids.

As they grew older, I was always getting them knocked off in game play or horsing around, and then I found myself declining to play or playing soft or begging off.... Sport lenses were always a half-measure, and contacts are a maintenance timesink vs continual risks of infection. For a while I was interested in intracorneal rings (the only corrective eye surgery that is 99+% reversable) but there wasn't enough data and they were never really popular in the US. I had PRK instead of LASIK because my astigamtism's anomalies were near the surface (the "flap" would contain irregularities). The final thing that swayed me was that laser surgery (in my case) could be performed in about 10-15% of the corneal depth that is safe to treat. This meant plenty of safety margin for the initial treatment, plus I can have it re-corrected to better than 20/20 as necessary over multiple years without hitting safety limits -- basically I'll die many years before hitting any kind of limit on corneal correction. The PRK process is a much slower recovery than LASIK, and I had some complications that added a couple weeks to that, but I remember the first afternoon after getting the "bandage contacts" off and seeing with my fresh new 20/15 eyes... looking across Lake Washington at ripples in the water from canoe oars, and seeing the color and texture of the window trim on the Safeco building well over a mile away from my car on the 520 bridge. The world is absolutely fucking gorgeous again.

But would I have done it specifically for gameplay? What?

Jesus, dude, go outside and look at a tree.

Re:Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

Too invasive.
Too much risk of harming the eye.
Better off to go with surgery.

Processing in the game

[lorinc]

Isn't it completly overkill? I mean, the games can adjust their rendering so as to compensate the visual defects of the player. You just enter your needed correction in a parameter box et voilà. Thet clearly doesn't seem overly complicated to do.

Re:Processing in the game

[grumbel5969]

While there are some fancy light field displays that might be able to adjust for vision defects in software, those are still years after. However the Oculus Rift has swappable lenses, so it shouldn't be to hard to design some lenses that correct whatever vision defect you might have. The consumer version will probably have some adjustable optics to correct for vision issues, at least thats how the first wave of consumer VR headsets back in 1995 worked.

Re: Seriously?

[MikeJones8766]

Yes, they can. I have astigmatisms in both eyes and wear contacts with no problems.

Re: Seriously?

[guises]

This isn't true. Contacts have come a long way, you can even get soft contacts now which will work with an astigmatism. Talk to your optometrist - I used to think that I wouldn't be able to wear contacts without pain, but for me at least that also has changed.

Re:Best $4400 I've ever spent in my life

[wiredlogic]

It's only a good idea for the under 30 crowd and the farsighted. Otherwise you don't get much bang for the buck once presbyopia sets in down the line (which it will).

just the old movie BrainStorm

[turkeydance]

some will sacrifice reality for virtuality.

Don't underestimate the lifelong risks of surgery

[Nerdorable]

I have severe myopia, so anything more than a few feet from me is a blur unless I am wearing my glasses or contacts. I'm an avid gamer (Partnered on Twitch.tv) and I used to be an active equestrian. My lifestyle lead many people to recommend LASIK or PRK surgery, but the risks turned me off from both. LASIK creates an eye flap that can be dislocated, torn, etc., which can permanently damage your eye. This flap is not created with PRK, although there are similar risks associated with that surgery. Our eyes have protective layers for a reason and permanently shaving these off with surgery creates a lifelong risk. One of my friends practices jiu jitsu and he's suffered some major injuries while sparring because of LASIK. One girl that I rode with also supposedly had "successful" surgery, but she became extremely sensitive to light and had to wear sunglasses while riding, which defeated the purpose of getting the surgery. She also had trouble seeing at night and would complain about halos or glare with light. Nearly all of the people that I know who have had either surgery have to carry eyedrops. I'd rather put on glasses or put in contacts that deal with any of the risks associated with these surgeries.

Stupid title and article.

[nitehawk214]

It might as well have said "People that can afford rift can also afford laser surgery."

As someone who had a $3000 laser surgery done recently. I suggest everyone that qualifies (not all conditions can be fixed) and can afford it to get it. It really is the best money I have ever spent in my life.

I am an amateur astronomer, so one could say about me: "Man buys $3000 laser surgery to enhance $2000 telescope experience." Am I a dope because I spent more on my eyes than my telescope? I get a hell of a lot more use out of my eyes than the scope. Every waking moment vs. that once a month it is actually clear and dark out.

It also enhances my exercising experience, my playing hockey experience, my driving experience, and my swimming experience. I think it helps me not get headaches when staring at a computer screen for hours at a time at work. (though that last one is highly subjective, the rest are true)

Re:Seriously?

[quenda]

So why not install suitable corrective lenses in the VR headset, as is commonly done for scuba-diving masks?