VR headsets for 2022 – ready for virtual worlds?

Here’s another recap of popular consumer VR headsets, whether you’re a fan of off-world adventures or not.

Are VR headsets still bulky? Are standalone devices all you need? Low-end or high-end? If you’re into VR gaming, are there a lot of choices? Are you okay with the Facebook (Meta Platforms) ecosystem?

This Space.com article has links to related topics as well:

  • What causes motion sickness in VR, and how can you avoid it?
  • How to build a PC for VR
  • How to set up your room for VR play
  • VR headset deals

Each highlighted device includes information on:

  • Supported platforms (a really important factor)
  • Price
  • Resolution
  • Field of view
  • Refresh rate
  • Controllers
  • Pros & cons
  • Recap
  • Link to full review

• Space.com > “Best VR headsets 2022: Oculus Quest 2, Valve Index, PSVR, and more…” by Gerald Lynch (May 3, 2022) – Enter virtual worlds with the best VR headsets, whether you’re looking for immersive gaming, virtual cinema experiences or interactive workouts.

If you want to watch movies on a virtual cinema, and play a few games then the Oculus Quest 2 [by Reality Labs of Meta Platforms] is perfect, but if you want more cutting edge tech and graphics, then you should look at other options from HTC, Valve, and HP. VR is also branching out away from games completely with devices like the HTC Vive Flow, which is a travel VR headset that plugs into your phone to escape the hustle and bustle of your commute.

  1. OCULUS QUEST 2
  2. VALVE INDEX
  3. PLAYSTATION VR
  4. HTC VIVE PRO 2
  5. HTC COSMOS ELITE
  6. HP REVERB G2
  7. HTC VIVE FLOW

2 comments

  1. I found this CNBC article a useful recap of the current virtual reality (VR) consumer business outlook.

    • CNBC > “Meta is opening its first store as VR headsets inch closer to mainstream reality” by Trevor Laurence Jockims, special to CNBC.com (May 8, 2022) – Outlook for the “Field of Dreams” approach?

    Key points

    • Meta Platforms is opening its first physical store to sell items like its Oculus Quest 2 headset this week.
    • The Facebook parent company is prepared to lose $10 billion on its hardware division, Reality Labs, this year, and reported a loss close to $3 billion in the most recent quarter.
    • But some experts say it may only take one or two killer apps for the metaverse to boost VR use from a mere 5% of teens to a big market.

    One-quarter (26%) of teens say they own a virtual reality headset, a level of VR device ownership that is higher than many expected, but with just 5% of teens saying they use the technology on a regular basis, the level of engagement remains ‘uncompelling,’ according to the recently released Piper Sandler research report, ‘Taking Stock with Teens: Spring 2022.’

    … to date, there are only a small number of VR games (just 3% of users on the popular gaming platform Steam have a VR headset).

    … the revenue contribution for its [Meta’s] Reality Labs division – the part of the company that’s designing products for the metaverse — was $695 million. Reality Labs remains a money sink, … posting a loss of $2.96 billion in the first quarter results, … . The company has devoted over $10 billion to build the metaverse.

    On Monday, Meta will open its first physical store and showroom for VR headset technology, where customers will be able to purchase the Quest 2 headset. It is also gearing up for a higher-end headset, currently referred to as Project Cambria and to be released later this year.

    Factors for the business case – of growing media consumption

    • Compelling apps (across multiple platforms?)
    • Headset improvements – latency and head-tracking, resolution
    • Cost
    • Interplay with augmented reality (AR) platforms
    • Adoption of metaverse
    • Presence & community – “Aside from the immersivity, one of the most interesting differences between the metaverse and the internet is presence — your avatar,” Ostadabbas said.
    • Income-producing apps to fund growth
    • Quenching of privacy issues

    References

    Moving toward mainstream reality

    • HP.com > “6 Ways Virtual Reality is Changing the World” (January 5, 2020)

  2. Or ready for virtual work environments?

    So, in some future era will many workers not only play in VR landscapes but also work there? Using refined versions of today’s headsets rather than interacting with current monitors and displays?

    Any research on virtual work environments? This article highlights one such study.

    • PC World > “Working in the Metaverse is going to suck, researchers confirm” by Michael Crider, Staff Writer (June 16, 2022) – A team of researchers put test subjects through a 40-hour work week in VR, with terrible but “expected” results.

    A team of researchers at Coburg University, the University of Cambridge, the University of Primorska, and at Microsoft Research set up the largest – and longest – scale VR working experiment yet performed, with sixteen test subjects spending an entire 40-hour work week in VR. They used a typical commercially-available setup: a Meta Quest 2 headset … and a Logitech K830 keyboard with an integrated trackpad. As a baseline, the same subjects did the same work in a conventional PC environment (with the same keyboard/trackpad input) over another week. [See photos.]

    … the overall tone of the research paper is startlingly negative. With participants ranging from those with no experience in VR to those with extensive experience, the data sets nonetheless show a universal drop in both productivity and comfort with extended VR use. A significant portion of the test subjects — one in nine people, 11 percent — could not complete a single workday in VR before becoming physically unable to continue.

    Working in VR?
    Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

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