You're talking about streaming/remote control of a PC which can involve significant latency and lag spikes (unless you're tethered with a good USB cable). That is by definition not a stand-alone headset. You're just using it as a fancy VR dongle.
This necessitates two things:
* Your PC is powerful enough to run VR games
* Your PC is in an area that's convenient to play (with plenty of room)
Nearly all Quest 2 users are using it stand-alone. They're not hooking it up to a PC. There's a tiny fraction of users that do the PC VR thing with Steam but that's so small as to be negligible in the overall market.
You're actually kind of making my point: Imagine if you didn't need the PC or the tether and could just play those great, easy-to-mod PC VR games directly on the headset. The market for VR would undergo a massive, positive change.
I bought a cheapish wifi router to use for dedicated AirLink and I do SteamVR -> Quest 2. It works great. No latency (but I will admit the very occasional lag spike, it doesn't bother me and I don't miss a note while Beat Saber is going super fast, so it can't be that bad)
Yes, you do need a gaming PC. I got a gaming laptop for like $2400 AUD 3 years ago and it's going great with VR (and Starfield on Ultra, not in VR)
"The very occasional lag spike" completely destroys the ability to play Beat Saber. It'll drive you crazy (as it did me)!
...and I too tried dedicating my Ubiquiti UniFi 6 Wireless Long-Range Access Point (U6-LR-US) just for the headset to see if that would improve things (set it up with a new hotspot name so it'd be dedicated and only told the headset about it). The Wifi AP was on the wall just about 3 feet from my head and I still got the occasional lag spikes and I confirmed that they were due to the Wifi network (not just rendering spikes on my PC).
There's just too much random interference on the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands for it to be buttery smooth. I suppose I could turn my house into a Faraday cage and that might improve things :)
So you want powerful enough PC on your head? It's impossible for everyone. Valve doesn't make a chip. Even for Apple, their chip is great but not comparable with powerful GeForce.
The CPU/GPU part of the device does not need to go on your head. Manufacturers make it that way for convenience (and lower part count) but that doesn't necessitate that stand-alone headsets be made like that. Apple, for example has the battery in a separate little dongle that you're supposed to put in your pocket. If they can do that there's no reason they couldn't put the CPU/GPU hardware elsewhere too.
The Steam Deck can play some VR games just fine. It just wasn't made for that purpose so as it stands it's currently sub-optimal. With a few minor changes that very same chip/hardware could make a decent VR headset.
I've watched Netflix movies with no issues. The max session time I've ever done in VR is about 4 hours but that was playing a game and had no issues except the imprint from the headset in my forehead... I definitely know people that can't play at all without feeling sick though so ymmv.
InsideEVs just released an article this morning about how many people plan on following through with their reservations. According to the study done by Recurrent Auto, about 75% plan on sticking with their reservation. That's a lot of trucks to sell with the 1.5 million reservations.
I agree with this but I have a feeling the result would be corporate housing and they would require that people either do the commute on their own time or live in corporate housing...very Cyberpunk
I'm basically in the same boat. Every time I read something like this it is pretty discouraging. I'm a manager in an IT department and have dabbled in programming and really enjoyed it, but I feel like no matter what I'll never be good enough to get a job doing it because I didn't have opportunities to do it when I was young. Bummer.
Yeah, after having kids I would way rather make less money and work from home. Right now I'm wasting an hour a day that I should be spending with my girls before they are old enough to go to school. It's heartbreaking.
As an American who is currently working on transitioning out of IT management into software development, this post and these comments have really made me feel like it’s not possible. This is quite the blow as I have been very much enjoying learning these new skills. Am I wasting my time?
