
Unexpectedly Good Things VR Will Probably Cause (2016) - thenomad
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/05/three-unexpectedly-good-things.html
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corysama
4: Many people have reported that slowly conditioning themselves to be
resistant to motion sickness inside VR has also helped them become more
resistant to motion sickness outside of VR. As in, some VR users are saying "I
can read in the car for the first time!"

I emphasize _slowly_ because trying to muscle through motion sickness has the
opposite effect and can even lead to giving yourself an aversion to VR that
resembles having an aversion to tequila after a "bad tequila night". Some
people who have done this to themselves get sick from just the smell of a
headset.

~~~
thenomad
Having muscled through VR sickness exactly once back in the DK1 days, I
heartily agree with the second half of this statement. In the language of my
people, dinnae dae that.

Incidentally, if you're thinking of becoming a VR dev, that's one thing to
bear in mind. You will, by definition, spend a lot of time in an unoptimised
and buggy VR environment that sometimes has _really interesting_ things go
wrong.

Feeling queasy and having to take a lie-down occasionally very much comes with
the territory. Ask me about the dodgy fog shader that had flipped its eye
outputs some time...

~~~
vhold
Yeah I dabbled super briefly with VR development and what I actually struggled
with is how annoying it is to have to keep taking off and putting on the HMD
to do iterative development. I really want something I can keep on my head and
flip it down into view.

The weirdest psychological effect of going in and out of VR like that for me
was a couple of times I turned to look at my scene while _not_ in VR expecting
the item I was editing to be there. A little like that split second after
waking up from a dream and expecting something from the dream to have actually
happened.

~~~
icebraining
Maybe the resolution isn't good enough yet but I really think the solution is
to have a virtual screen inside the VR environment so that you never have to
take off the HMD.

Reminds me of the scene in The Explorers wherein the kid would type in his
computer and control that sphere in 3D space.

~~~
postscapes1
Some guy spent a day at work in VR desktop setting
[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/05/i-tried-t...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/05/i-tried-
to-work-all-day-in-a-vr-headset-so-you-never-have-to)

TLDR verdict: Not yet.

~~~
ghusbands
That article is a waste of time and only serves to muddy the waters, much like
what happened to tilting trains. There are plenty of ways the mentioned issues
could be ameliorated, though there's no way past the resolution issue, right
now.

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truncheon
PR snake oil.

Fitness didn't come true with the Wii. Better be prepared to still go outside
and have a life. Your body will produce vitamins as your reward.

Eyestrain is subjective, and this is far from an optometrist's prescription to
treat any disease or disorder. Doctors recommend tooth brushes, but which is
THE ONE TRUE toothbrush?

Psychology is not hard science. This technology can either harm or help, with
no guarantee of either. Use as directed.

~~~
KirinDave
There is no evidence this is funded by anyone, so please, keep the allegations
to yourself.

> Better be prepared to still go outside and have a life. Your body will
> produce vitamins as your reward.

Many people don't have good fitness options outside a controlled environment,
for a variety of reasons.

> Eyestrain is subjective

No, it's measurable externally!

> but which is THE ONE TRUE toothbrush?

Dentists generally don't give a shit about brands, but ask 20 what the right
toothbrush to get if budget is not a factor and they'll all quickly converge
on one answer that has a fair sum of science backing it.

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new299
Seems like one potential interesting application should be the treatment of
Phantom limb syndrome [1]. This is the sensation that a amputated limb is
still attached, and sufferers often experience pain.

One treatment is the use of a mirror box. I guess this somehow lets them feel
like they can move the limb, and in some cases results in reduced pain.

A VR "mirror" box or other therapy, might be even better.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb)

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Pfhreak
Another side effect that might not be immediately obvious to many cis people
-- VR provides a safe place to explore your gender identity without fear. Want
to swap out for a female/male body when you look down? It's as easy as
toggling a switch in many games.

~~~
dromen
I recently tried the PlayStation VR in a store; it was a really strange
experience to look down at myself when playing the EVE demo, to find out I a)
had a body and b) it was of the other gender.

I thought that was the most interesting part of the experience; the spaceships
looked pretty flat in the distance and I was sad that my hands in-game didn't
move along with my controller (as they do in some games).

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arethuza
I wonder if skiing might be good for VR based exercise - you already wear
goggles, hold poles (controllers) and have your feet clamped into restrictive
boots.

Would need some kind of machine to attach the boots and provide some motion &
feedback...

~~~
TheGRS
If you used it on one of those older ski simulator arcade games it'd be
perfect!

~~~
pimlottc
Eh, the motions you perform machines are only vaguely like actual skiing.

There are, however, exercise machines like Skier's Edge [0] which are much
closer.

0: [http://www.skiersedge.com/](http://www.skiersedge.com/)

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RichardHeart
And progress on: Strobing and low pixel persistance to remove blur
(blurbusters.com) And reduced latency to prevent motion sickness.

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cr0sh
I'm skeptical of #2 - because regardless of the optics, while the focus may be
"at infinity" \- your eyes are still actually focused on a screen mere inches
from your face. This was a problem back in the 1990s - and it will always be a
problem - because optics. It can't be good for the eyes (mainly eyestrain if
anything).

~~~
tedsanders
Could you elaborate? Although your eyes are receiving light from a source that
is centimeters away, they are not focusing on an image centimeters away.

~~~
meheleventyone
Not the OP but the problem is the fixed focal depth so if you are looking at
objects closer or further away your eye focus remains the same but you have to
change the vergence of your eyes. You go wall-eyed or cross-eyed. This is
generally what gives you eye strain and the pause for thought in letting kids
use too much VR. Solutions include using several different overlapped displays
to render objects at different focal depths.

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omilu
If VR goggles reduce eye strain, I can't wait to start using them them for
work, side benefit is during breaks you can browse reddit in complete privacy.

