Yes, it's impressive how they've made VR headsets more comfortable to view than cinema 3D glasses. Less blur than a plasma, less blur than a CRT, less blur than a 35mm projector. And far less nauseating 3D.
And even beyond that, native rendered 3D environments are even better than watching filmed content -- you can even lean down and look underneath a virtual desk, or crouch to crawl under a virtual desk, or walk around a virtual museum statue. Many VR apps have perfect 1:1 sync between VR and real life -- they're not the dizzying roller coaster experiences.
Ease has really improve things there too. 50% of the Oculus Quest 2 market are non-gamers, and these models are so easy that a boxed Quest 2 was mailed to a nursing home (some are literally almost jail-like during COVID times), and the 70-year-old was playing VR the same day with no help from the nursing home staff! They skip the rollercoaster apps and just download the comfortable VR apps (Oculus has "Comfort" ratings in their app store). For those who "
hold their nose and buy despite Facebook", these super-easy standalone VR headsets makes it perfect for the hospital bed-ridden or the locked-down individual, the Quest 2 is a gift from heaven for these people.
Vacationing by sitting in a boring residence chair that actually becomes a simulated porch chair of a virtual beachfront house viewing out to the virtual seas and virtual palm trees -- teleporting yourself virtually (this is a real app, it's called the "Alcove" app, with Settings->Beachfront). And being able to play chess on an actual virtual table with a remote family member sitting across the table. And since the Quest 2 has a built in microphone, you're talking to each other in the same room despite both family members living in two different countries. This non-gamer app, "Alcove", is an actual app you can download in the in-VR app store on Quest 2, no computer or phone needed.
Helping the framerate=Hz experience of CRT motion clarity in VR (without a computer needed) -- the Quest 2 has a built-in 4K-capable GPU, a fan-cooled Snapdragon XR running at a higher clockrate than smartphones -- but the fan is so quiet you don't hear it, and with the hot air blowing out a long 1mm slit at the top edge). The graphics of a standalone computerless Quest 2 VR headset has 3D graphics as good as a GTX 1080 from five years ago -- that's downright impressive for $299 playing high-detail standalone VR games such as Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy Edge (FPS) or playing lazy seated/bed games like Down The Rabbit Hole (like a Sierra Quest or Maniac Mansion game, except it's sidescrolling dollhouse-sized true 3D VR) or playing exercise (Beat Saber) burning more calories for cheaper than an annual gym membership. While many hate Facebook, many are holding noses and buying up Quest 2's as if they're RTX 3080's because they're the closest thing to a Star Trek Holodeck you can get today. John Carmack did an amazing job on that VR LCD screen.
And in an Apple-style "One More Thing", it can play PCVR games wirelessly now. So you can play PC-based Half Life Alyx too. Basically a cordless VR headset for your gaming PC. As long as you have a WiFi 5 or WiFi 6 router in the same room (preferably a 2nd router dedicated to just Quest 2) and a powerful RTX graphics card in the PC, it becomes like a "
Wireless HDMI" connection (through nearly lossless H.EVC compression at up to triple-digit megabits per second -- pretty much E-Cinema Digital Cinema bitrates -- no compression artifacts at max settings, and only 22ms latency, less lag than many TVs, at a full frame rate of 90fps 90Hz), to the point where it feels like a wireless version of HDMI. So you can play PCVR as well as in-VR apps (using the in-headset Snapdragon GPU), so you have PC operation (using PC GPU) *and* portable operation (using built-in Snapdragon GPU). Quite flexible.
And while not everyone does this -- it also can optionally doubles as a strobed gaming monitor with Virtual Desktop, and is even capable of optional 60 Hz single strobe (for playing 60 years of legacy 60fps 60Hz content via PC). Virtual Desktop can even display a virtual room with a virtual desk with a virtual computer, and support is being added (in the next few months) to a Logitech Keyboard to map a
3D-rendered VR keyboard into the same physical location of your logitech keyboard! Not everyone would use VR this way, but it's one unorthodox way to get a CRT emulation, since this LCD is so uncannily good at zero motion blur, zero ghosting. You'd wear your VR headset seated at your physical computer, but you're staring into a virtual CRT-motion-clarity instead (in a rendered virtual office).
Now, obviously, some of this is an unconventional optional use -- but consider you get everything of the above for just $299: A desktop gaming monitor, a PCVR headset, a standalone VR headset, a virtual IMAX theatre, a virtual vacation, and a built-in battery powered fan-cooled GPU more powerful than a $299 graphics card of 5 years ago. All in one. Even just one or two of the uses, just pays for the headset itself, alone -- especially if you're in a COVID jail (quarantine).
Certainly isn't grandpa's crappy "Google Cardboard" toy VR. People who only have experience with 60 Hz LCDs don't know what they're missing with these formerly science fiction CRT-beating LCDs now already on the market, being made out of necessity for VR headsets. Zero blur, zero phosphor trails, zero crosstalk, zero double image effect, it's just perfect CRT motion clarity. For those who don't want Facebook, there's the Valve Index, but it's not standalone.
*The only drawback is LCD blacks. However, I saw a FALD VR prototype -- MicroLED local dimming with thousands of LEDs -- that will allow inky-blacks in future headsets by ~2025. But at $299, I didn't bother to wait.
Hello,
Your
first reply here is blank — did you mean to say something in regards to my explanation of low-Hz strobing on a high-Hz-capable panel?
Now in regards to your second reply with two new questions:
1. I believe 120 Hz HFR will standardize for about a decade. 120 fps at 120 Hz is high enough that strobing (flicker) is not too objectionable, for an optional motion blur reduction mode. I think 8K will raise refresh rates before 16K becomes useful. 16K is useful for VR, but I think external direct-view TVs don’t really need to go beyond 8K in the consumer space. Jumbotrons, cinemas, and video walls will still have usefulness to go 16K to go retina for first row of seats at the front for example.
Retina frame rates will be used in specialty venues later this decade.
There is an engineering path to 8K 1000fps 1000Hz display which can be achieved using today’s technologies. For content creation in this sphere, more information can be found in
Ultra High Frame Rates FAQ. A new Christie digital cinema projector is
currently capable of 480 Hz already!
I am working behind the scenes for 1000 Hz advocacy; it is definitely
not unobtainium — at least for industrial / commercial / special venue purposes. Some of them can afford rigs with 8 RTX GPUs built into them, for example, running specialized 1000fps software. I was behind the scenes in convincing Microsoft to remove
the 512 Hz Windows limitation, and now have a Windows Insider build capable of 1000 Hz.
However, for retail televisions, they will be stuck at 120 Hz HFR for a long time due to video industry inertia. Streaming is taking over cable/broadcast, and will be sticking to Hollywood MovieMaker modes.
However, there is already a hack to run YouTube videos at 120fps and 240fps HFR by installing a Chrome extension and playing 60fps videos at 2x or 4x speed. You record 240fps 1080p video, upload to YouTube as 60fps, then play back to a 240 Hz gaming monitor using the chrome extension at 4x playback speed. So you can do 240fps 1080p HFR today with just your own smartphone camera! (Many new smartphones support 240fps slo-mo which can be converted to 240fps real-time HFR video).
So the workflow isn’t
that expensive to do, technology is already here today, and 1000 Hz isn’t going to be expensive technology in the year 2030s+. Specialized/niche, yes. But definitely not unobtainium as 1000 Hz is already running in the laboratories which I’ve seen.
Ultimately, by the end of the century, there’ll be legacy framerates (24fps, 50fps, 60fps) and retina frame rates (1000fps+). 120fps HFR is just a stopgap in my opinion. There is somewhat of a nausea uncanny valley, to the point that
1000fps at 1000Hz is less nauseous than 120fps at 120Hz (and fixes some aspects of the Soap Opera Effect). 1000fps is a superior zero-motion-blur experience that has no flicker and no stroboscopics. Better window effect. Fast motion speeds exactly as sharp as stationary video! As long as it is 1000fps+ native frame rates
or good perceptually-lossless-artifactless-“artificial-intelligence”-interpolated video or other properly modern frame rate amplification technology.