5 Common Misconceptions About Virtual Reality

There’s a lot of common misconceptions about Virtual Reality. This article hopes to address and answer these mistakes.

1. Virtual Reality is Only for Gaming

The most common misconception we hear about VR is that it’s only for gamers. People most often inclusively see people playing games on a VR headset and presume the assumption that it’s only for gaming. However, this misconception couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, I, Mark Metry started a company that is dedicated to promoting awareness and spreading Virtual Reality information and technology to the World.

Kyle Melnick recently wrote a wonderful article about us for VR Scout. He stated “Metry wants to secure the future of VR by ensuring that the world recognizes the endless benefits it could provide. This is just the kind of forward-thinking leadership the virtual reality industry needs to realize its full potential, rather than getting relegated to a newfangled gaming platform. With such a massive growth in technological advances and popularity this year, 2017 is going to be a vital year in building momentum for the revolutionary new medium — and that comes hand-in-hand with mainstream understanding. Which is why Metry aims to educate people about the technology and making it even easier for them to access it themselves.”

The reality of virtual reality is that it’s going to be used by everyone in almost every single field in the future. At the moment, Gaming is the main player however, gaming could end up being just a small niche of the VR market in the coming years. Virtual Reality is going to be effective in the following and more industries and the following resources can be used to learn more:

• Education | Resources and Information
• Healthcare | Resources and Information
• Entertainment | Resources and Information
• Engineering | Resources and Information
• Business | Resources and Information
• Exploration | Resources and Information
• Military (#2) | Resources and Information

Despite Virtual Reality’s broad application spectrum, it’s very self-evident why gaming and will yield the most immediate results for VR developers, creators, and companies. If you are looking for some awesome games for your VR Headset you can access this page to view fantastic virtual reality games.

2. VR is a Brand New Technological Discovery

Virtual Reality is not a new technological discovery. In fact, traces of VR technology have been found since the late 1800’s. The term “Virtual Reality” was coined in the 1938 book Le Théâtre et son Double (The Theater and its Double in English). The very first occurrence of a virtual reality device first appeared in 1962 with the Sensorama created by Ivan Sutherland. It was known as “The Sword of Damocles” in 1966. The entire premise of the device was a head-mounted display that played “3D” visuals, with audio, blowing air and custom aromas to attempt to simulate a Virtual Reality.

The Sword of Damocles VR System — 1966

The concept and consumerism of VR is nothing new. We saw it with the Virtual Boy by Nintendo in 1995. Their system failed due to a plethora of reasons such as lack of software adaptation and lack of times.

Fact / Myth has an extensive article about the entire history of Virtual Reality written by Thomas DeMichele. He says “While consumers weren’t too keen on the first round of VR, certain fields have been using it since day 1. Specifically NASA and the Air Force have contributed a lot to VR. The Air Force is who we owe most of the credit as far as development goes. The tech was never financially viable outside the Military, if it wasn’t for the Air Force we would have lost about 20 years of R&D on VR. Agencies like NASA were also important in much the same way. Essentially if you don’t have a budget like NASA, or the Air Force, and if you don’t have the need for tech like the aforementioned, no one is going to spend hundreds of millions on a moonshot. Suffice to say, if you want to look at the history of VR you look at NASA, the Military, and their work with Silicon Valley, universities, and labs. The tech has been there since the 60’s, but it was only affordable to those with big budgets in the past (and present for that matter).”

That being said, we have a similar giant pushing the movement today. Facebook purchased Oculus for $2B which raised the eyes of everyone. Other technological companies jumped in and really kickstarted the beginning of an industry which will lead to the final technological platform of our time.

3. VR is Expensive and Unaffordable

By now you should know by just being on VU Dream’s website that this misconception is very far from the truth. My company literally gives VR Headsets away for free. Sure, they’re not the best headsets but we also offer headsets that are considered premium in this industry for a low-cost. You probably already have an iPhone or some other smartphone. Half of your work is done, all you need now is a Virtual Reality Headset to enable your immersive experience.

The state of Virtual Reality in 2017 displays 4 kinds of devices. VR Devices are whatever HMD’s are used to showcase the Virtual Reality. These are devices are as follows:

Mobile Phone (Most Affordable)
this is perhaps the most affordable and easiest way to get into Virtual Reality right now. The only thing you need is your smartphone and a mobile VR headset, which you can get one here for a low price.
Average Cost of a Mobile VR Headset is $15–40

All-in-One (Most Affordable other than Mobile)
this is one of the best yet overlooked categories of headsets. There are several devices on our website that are an all-in-one solution. Meaning, you don’t need a cell phone or a computer for them to work. Some headsets run from another device using an HDMI cable or some run completely on their own with an onboard OS.

PS4 + PSVR Game Console (More Affordable than Computer)
The PlayStation VR has become a popular option due to it’s previously existing market. If you have a PS4 you can pick up a PSVR for ($400–600) to get into the VR world. The graphics and capabilities aren’t as high performing as the oculus or Rift but it certainly beats any mobile headset. Xbox or Microsoft hasn’t launched a VR Headset for their system but it’s almost certain that they will release one within the coming years.

Computer (Most Expensive)
The two biggest players in this field are the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Both of these are on the highest end of VR and will provide the user with a true VR experience. The Oculus will set you back $600 and the HTC Vive will cost you $800. However, even on top of this relatively high price you will also need a High-end computer to get everything performing correctly.

To view our recommendations for each of these devices please head over to vudream.com/device for more.

4. VR Looks like Reality

It’s 2017 and VR does not look like our Reality. The Oculus and HTC come the closest but the industry is still working on true virtual reality.With the recent emergence of 4k tv’s, we already have an extremely high-resolution solution. The current issue that faces developers is the speed and bit size of Virtual Reality technology, but that is presumed to be solved in 2017. According to AMD gaming scientist Richard Huddy, for a person with 20/20 vision to process photorealistic graphics, 16K resolution is required. That being said, to reach the point where Virtual Reality is indistinguishable from reality, technology would have to reach 16k resolution.

5. VR is a Fad or Gimmick

Generally speaking, inventions, devices, etc withstand the test of time usually when they prove to be useful for a wide variety of people. Virtual Reality is the ultimate tool for humanity. It has been reported that Virtual Reality is the last computing platform. Nobody knows the full potential of VR down the road. Oculus Executive Jason Rubin says that VR is the last computing platform. “There have been various computing platforms that have come over time and all of them have opened up opportunities that the previous computing platform did not. Mobile, certainly with GPS, being in your pocket and everything else that would be an example. The thing about VR is that if it really works it is a virtual reality. So anything we can imagine we can simulate in VR. We can simulate anything and because of that, it is unbounded by opportunity.”

Rubin’s points are very precise and accurate of the future to come. There is a reason why companies are investing billions of dollars in creating an industry right now in 2017. Here are some fact-based projections for the coming years.

• There are currently 685 VR start-ups
• The number of active VR users is forecast to reach 171 million by 2018
• 500 million VR headsets could be sold by 2025
• Projected that 65% of VR Content will be Non-Gaming
• VR will be a $30 billion market by 2020,
• 75% of the World’s Top Brands have built a VR experience

Virtual Reality is approaching us rapidly, some might say it’s already here. We should all embrace this technology and discover the ways in which it could benefit our lives. I shared 5 talking points in this article but there are many more.

I am sure you have some ideas on how VR will change our lives. Share them with me on my social media or my company website vudream.com