<story><title>Valve drops VR support for macOS</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/01/valve-drops-vr-support-for-macos/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Taek</author><text>Yeah but have you played beat saber?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m dead serious though the experience you get in a good immersive VR rig is completely unrivaled. Well worth the hassle and overhead. This will get better as costs come down and developers continue to innovate.</text></item><item><author>ashtonkem</author><text>I remain skeptical of the long term viability of VR; I’m old enough to remember when 3D TVs and monitors were going to change the face of both TV and video games, and yet here we are.&lt;p&gt;I priced out VR recently and I was unimpressed with the price per value available, with most systems adding $500-$1,000 to my gaming system’s cost, and some requiring that I modify my room to work properly. And that’s not even accounting for the high cost of a VR capable gaming rig, if you don’t own one. This is a pretty steep financial and logistical hill to climb given the current set of titles available.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wpietri</author><text>I have tried Beat Saber. I rented an Oculus Quest for a couple of weeks over Christmas. Several things, Beat Saber included, were really impressive at first, but the thrill quickly wore off. The kids quickly went back to playing their PS4 and Switch games, and never even mentioned the Quest after it was gone.&lt;p&gt;My basic take is that the technology is really impressive; I agree with proponents that the Quest finally nails it technically. However, I don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s enough better than other options to make it worth the significant drawbacks. Something being immersive is ultimately a function of the player experience, not the hardware. And as is demonstrated to me whenever I try to get the kids to turn off almost any game, non-VR hardware is definitely immersive.&lt;p&gt;If anything, facehugger VR seems less immersive, because the stuff is way less comfortable than other gaming hardware. The kid who loved rhythm games would play Beat Saber less than non-VR games because of neck discomfort and face irritation. Battery life was also lower than the Switch, and of course infinitely lower than the Playstation. Which also cut into immersion.&lt;p&gt;I did really appreciate the new 6-axis controllers; they were very cool, and gave a great sense of spatial freedom. But unfortunately, that freedom is a lie; my sense of immersion quickly ended every time I hit a virtual boundary. To successfully play Superhot, I found I had to continuously maintain two spatial frames of reference: VR and reality. So it ultimately felt less immersive to me than a console game, where I could just plop down on the couch and forget my body entirely.</text></comment>
<story><title>Valve drops VR support for macOS</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/01/valve-drops-vr-support-for-macos/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Taek</author><text>Yeah but have you played beat saber?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m dead serious though the experience you get in a good immersive VR rig is completely unrivaled. Well worth the hassle and overhead. This will get better as costs come down and developers continue to innovate.</text></item><item><author>ashtonkem</author><text>I remain skeptical of the long term viability of VR; I’m old enough to remember when 3D TVs and monitors were going to change the face of both TV and video games, and yet here we are.&lt;p&gt;I priced out VR recently and I was unimpressed with the price per value available, with most systems adding $500-$1,000 to my gaming system’s cost, and some requiring that I modify my room to work properly. And that’s not even accounting for the high cost of a VR capable gaming rig, if you don’t own one. This is a pretty steep financial and logistical hill to climb given the current set of titles available.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>smnrchrds</author><text>I haven&amp;#x27;t played Beat Saber, but I remember Avatar. As beautiful as it was, it remained unique. All new films for the past decade have been released as 3D, but I cannot think of a single one other than Avatar that I would prefer watching in 3D over 2D. Is there reason to believe Beat Saber would not become VR&amp;#x27;s Avatar?</text></comment>