Let's talk VR

[FMPONE]

1 minute ago, Castle said:

You will run into a wall as nobody will buy full body for a killer app. They will buy full body for a metaverse though. A properly functioning metaverse is the killer app in my opinion.

Full body VR? you're so far into the future, you're flying to work

[Castle]

2 hours ago, FMPONE said:

Full body VR? you're so far into the future, you're flying to work

Most people I know are full body these days. If you want to see for yourself let me know I can invite you to some events and such. My venue is pretty active.

I actually think its a good idea for anyone who discusses the future of VR to check out this scene. 

Edited April 18, 2021 by Castle

[Radu]

 

I also think VR will play more into the social aspect, having conversations with people, meetings etc with games like HLA being a side dish. Even if they get the cable out of the way, there's still the fact that it gives you motion sickness. It's cool, but it won't beat sitting on your couch with a controller in your hands.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Radu

[Castle]

11 hours ago, Radu said:

I also think VR will play more into the social aspect, having conversations with people, meetings etc with games like HLA being a side dish. Even if they get the cable out of the way, there's still the fact that it gives you motion sickness. It's cool, but it won't beat sitting on your couch with a controller in your hands.

If you have not gone out drinking with your friends while world hopping or chilling in front of a mirror you have not experienced VR. I cannot overstate how good the social aspect is. As far as playing games and such its not that amazing. In fact its kinda meh.

The social aspect is the draw while everything else is just icing. VR requires a hyper social metaverse. The fun thing about this is that I don't believe this is a super well known thing and most of the game industry is completely blind to it. This means that people who know now have a big advantage moving forward while even the biggest AAA giants are still scratching their heads.

[Radu]

@Castle please continue, I think everyone here is curious about how VR could develop.

[Castle]

9 hours ago, Radu said:

@Castle please continue, I think everyone here is curious about how VR could develop.

I am in an interesting situation now where I have been active with metaverse content creation for a few years. I noticed that player numbers have been exploding in the VR club scene recently so I decided to genuinely take it seriously and build a new venue of my own and fully apply my game dev experience. Up until recently its been a more casual thing but now its a full time job. I have learned an immense amount of stuff from how to design social worlds to the kinds of communities that exist and what they want. Its very closely linked to Discord right now so most discords have active communities within the metaverse. VRChat is the largest VR metaverse I am aware of but its not the only one. I have been pretty active regarding talking to devs of other metaverses such as Chill out VR and NEOS. I think I have over 3000 hours on VRC alone but I know people personally who basically live in VR and almost never leave, they sleep in VR.

The social experience of VR is insanely good, It feels like you are actually with your friends hanging out. Its the one thing VR provides that nothing else can compete. Social media cannot compete with the visceral feeling of chilling with friends in VR. If you are within any of the social circles around me now you will meet and talk to hundreds if not thousands of people within the first few months of playing, I am not kidding or exaggerating. Its hyper social to a point that I cannot even remember peoples names. My brain is at its limits and its been this way for awhile. I am an extremely social person as well. I have never experienced anything even close to this before.

----------------
Ok so with the above in mind this is why I say VR requires a hyper social metaverse archetype. Its the on thing VR provides that nothing else really can compete with. Games like Second Life were ahead of their time but its no where near the immersive experience of actually feeling like you are really there talking to people. Seeing people in full body and recognizing them because of their avatar in a night club is amazingly cool. And as we begin going down the rabbit hole of face tracking and improved development tools quality will improve at an exponential rate.

There is a lot of money in full body tracking. But it has almost no real application outside of a social environment.

There is a lot of money in facial tracking. But it has no real application outside of a social environment. (Facial tracking in VR with the right people is weaponized cuteness)

There is a lot of money in avatars and accessories. But these kinds of things are out of scope for anything but a social environment.

There is a lot of money in providing tactile senses while in VR. But something like this would barely be a gimmick for something like HLA but for a social platform it would probably disrupt the entire porn industry.

If you bullet point all of the cool advancements that are coming to VR you will quickly realize that its all best used in a highly social environment. People who are confused about VR ever being able to catch on right now or view it as a gimmick are simply missing the boat.

On another note : I was considering the idea of setting up a monthly game dev drink up at my venue. A VR gamedev drink up would pretty awesome I think.
I think it would also be a good way to show and explain the stuff I am talking about.

[Radu]

2 hours ago, Castle said:

I know people personally who basically live in VR and almost never leave, they sleep in VR.

Not gonna lie, this has always been one of the concerns on the back of my mind, but I didn't expect it to happen any time soon. It's a bit scary actually.

But it's interesting to think about what you wrote overall. 

[Castle]

10 minutes ago, Radu said:

Not gonna lie, this has always been one of the concerns on the back of my mind, but I didn't expect it to happen any time soon. It's a bit scary actually.

But it's interesting to think about what you wrote overall. 

Yep, this is a thing and its been this way for a long time. 

Alcoholism is also big in VR. I know multiple people who have suffered deteriorated health from over drinking. Its extremely common to have a live show or club event where people pass out in game. Your concerns are easily justified.

[Buddy]

1 hour ago, Castle said:

Yep, this is a thing and its been this way for a long time. 

Alcoholism is also big in VR. I know multiple people who have suffered deteriorated health from over drinking. Its extremely common to have a live show or club event where people pass out in game. Your concerns are easily justified.

What kind of age brackets are we talking about? I can't imagine you see a lot of people under 30 considering the hardware requirements?

I have an Index and it never crossed my mind to use it to be social lol

[Castle]

8 minutes ago, Buddy said:

What kind of age brackets are we talking about? I can't imagine you see a lot of people under 30 considering the hardware requirements?

I have an Index and it never crossed my mind to use it to be social lol

18+ for anything I am involved with. My friends range from literally 18 to 60 years old. Age is just a number for the most part in this kind of social environment. The oldest person I have ever hung out with was 68 if I recall.

Also Quest users have a relatively cheap setup and I try to make sure they are able to hang out in my worlds.

edit : as far as the social thing, I am surprised mapcore does not already have a VR meetup. After you experience it you wont want to go back I am not kidding.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Castle

[Lizard]

37 minutes ago, Castle said:

Age is just a number for the most part in this kind of social environment.

[Buddy]

 

50 minutes ago, Castle said:

18+ for anything I am involved with. My friends range from literally 18 to 60 years old. Age is just a number for the most part in this kind of social environment. The oldest person I have ever hung out with was 68 if I recall.

Also Quest users have a relatively cheap setup and I try to make sure they are able to hang out in my worlds.

edit : as far as the social thing, I am surprised mapcore does not already have a VR meetup. After you experience it you wont want to go back I am not kidding.

Are the girls hot? (my pandemic lay count is depressing) 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Buddy

[Castle]

1 hour ago, Lizard said:

I stress the 18+ aspect because anything lower than that gets an instant kick. After that its pretty meaningless.

 

1 hour ago, Buddy said:

Are the girls hot? (my pandemic lay count is depressing) 

LOL

The semi famous streamers and youtube content creators to exotic pole dancing cat girls. The variety of different hotness levels will likely bend your brain. 

edit : To add more to this, I have rationalized that when your identity is your avatar then its a form of transhumanism thus by default everyone in VR who identifies as their avatar as their chosen appearance is trans by default. Its a gray area but honestly its an entire topic by itself.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Castle

[ThunderKeil]

Quote

it's the future of social interactions

Quote

yea no I pretty much exclusively use it to ERP / EWS

you do you dude but idk that sounds like a specific usecase for a very specific crowd of people

[Castle]

26 minutes ago, ThunderKeil said:

you do you dude but idk that sounds like a specific usecase for a very specific crowd of people

VRC is now pushing 45k active players every weekend as far as I can tell. The popularity is increasing and so is money making potential. Assuming its all just because of ERP is pretty ignorant.

edit : Its definitely a facet though!

Edited April 19, 2021 by Castle