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Valve's "Room Scale VR Survey" Finds a Lot of People Play In Their Bedrooms (itworld.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the never-leave-the-bed dept.

itwbennett writes: Earlier this week Valve published the results of a "Room Scale VR Survey" completed by 2008 members of its VR Community. The findings: 860 (~43%) of respondents said their gaming PC was in their bedroom and 1,393 (~69%) said they were not willing to move their PC to accommodate a VR experience. The average space respondents feel they can devote to VR is about 8.5'x 9'. Why does this matter? Well, last March, Valve and HTC debuted the HTV Vive virtual reality system consisting of a VR visor, a couple of custom controllers and a tracking system the allows the user to wander around a 15'x15' area. 'While the Vive system certainly sounds impressive I've had questions about how practical it'll be,' writes Peter Smith. 'How many people have a 15'x15' clear area in front of their PC? Turns out, not many.' 'According to this survey at least, using all of the 15'x15' space the system can track is going to leave most users frustrated,' adds Smith.

4 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Well, obviously by Dahamma · · Score: 5, Informative

    When you live in your parents' basement, your gaming room is also your bedroom. And it's hard to get enough space for VR with that damn washer and dryer in the way.

    1. Re:Well, obviously by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 5, Funny

      When you live in your parents' basement, your gaming room is also your bedroom. And it's hard to get enough space for VR with that damn washer and dryer in the way.

      I live in my own house with my family and my gaming machine is still in our bedroom because it's a big ugly box that doesn't look good in the living room. That and I don't want people to see I'm running windows.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    2. Re:Well, obviously by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Funny

      might be preferable to admitting you are married and have your desktop computer in your bedroom.

      I hadn't considered there might be shame associated with being married and having a gaming machine in the bedroom. What other not-actually-shameful things should I be ashamed about? Is my TV is too small? Is my brand of skillet not elite enough?

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  2. Please.... someone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...Tell me this isn't an afterthought. How can you get this deep into product development and suddenly realize so few people will be able to use it? It's been of my assumption that for the physical VR experience, you'd have to go to a wealthy friends' house.