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The First Real Boom in Virtual Reality? It's Pornography. (wsj.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Pornography has provided the first real boom in VR, and adult-entertainment companies like Naughty America are leading the way. In the 18 months after producing its first VR video, the San Diego-based studio released 108 more, making it one of the most prolific producers of VR content in the world. In 2017, the company operated a booth at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and became the first adult business allowed to exhibit in 19 years.
It's not surprising that adult-entertainment companies are among the first movers in the nascent VR industry. After adult content helped popularize new media formats like VHS, Blu-ray and streaming video, the idea that porn drives digital innovation became a widely accepted truth. What is surprising is how big VR porn has become, and how quickly. In 2016, Samsung, HTC, Google, Sony and Facebook-owned Oculus sold just over 6.1 million headsets worldwide, according to an estimate from SuperData, a videogame market research firm. In December 2016 alone, Naughty America's customers downloaded more than 20 million VR videos, the company said. VR porn consumers are also more willing to pay for content than consumers of typical online porn.
It's not surprising that adult-entertainment companies are among the first movers in the nascent VR industry. After adult content helped popularize new media formats like VHS, Blu-ray and streaming video, the idea that porn drives digital innovation became a widely accepted truth. What is surprising is how big VR porn has become, and how quickly. In 2016, Samsung, HTC, Google, Sony and Facebook-owned Oculus sold just over 6.1 million headsets worldwide, according to an estimate from SuperData, a videogame market research firm. In December 2016 alone, Naughty America's customers downloaded more than 20 million VR videos, the company said. VR porn consumers are also more willing to pay for content than consumers of typical online porn.
I fell into the VR trap and bought an Oculus Rift after a demo. I was really excited and my computer a big beast i7 with a 1080ti was more than up to the task.
Then I noticed all the garbage content and the crap resolution of the headset and it's complete inability to support users that wear glasses. It's certainly a neat idea but the high frame rate requirement to prevent the nausea factor makes the content just looks like garbage. 4k gaming just looks a million times better and on a big display is just as immersive. All the jagged edges of the low poly crap you see in VR is just not worth the price of entry to see.
VR is not ready for prime time. Computers aren't fast enough to match current state of the art content we have in the non VR world in VR. The headsets themselves are low resolution with optical issues and without the ability to support users who don't have perfect 20/20 vision.
It's sort of a bad joke at this point for people who shell out the money for a headset that for most users will eventually disappoint them and sit on a shelf collecting dust.