In Depth: Are bad hardware and games ruining virtual reality?

By Jamie Carter

VR headset analysis

After decades of hype, is virtual reality being strangled at birth? Dedicated headsets like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Sony PlayStation VR look super-exciting, but most people are getting their first taste of VR as an online 360 video via something a lot more rudimentary.

A survey in July by European IT market analysis company Context revealed that Sony PlayStation VR is the headset UK consumers are most likely to purchase, but Google Cardboard is the one they’ve tried out the most.

Are ‘ad hoc’ VR viewers and smartphone-based systems like Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR the only way VR will catch-on, or are they ruining everything? We’ve asked a few experts to weigh-in on the debate.

The three types of VR

Let’s go over the basics first. Not all VR content and hardware is equal, but it’s important to understand the three different flavours; computer-generated environments, recorded 360 video, and a mixture of the two. Even 360 video can come in two forms, monoscopic and stereoscopic, which give different levels of immersion.

“In mono you can see content all …read more

Source:: techradar.com – Gaming