I find it despicable that support for working hardware can be just abandoned after only a few years, and at least a basic driver should be released (ideally open source) if not the full WMR package, which few cared about anyway.

I'm hoping that Monado takes off at least as I only used Windows begrudgingly anyway.

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[–] [email protected] 94 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I am more than a little surprised. Like I get Microsoft is not overly into VR or MR and even their AR headset has stagnated, but to drop support for products people bought in part because Microsoft backed it, then to just drop it is burning customer confidence and trust. Foolish move.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

Windows phone/mobile vibe

[–] DacoTaco 18 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Its a classic company move tbh. Make something, develop it further, hope it catches on and if it doesnt kill it off because maintaining it costs money.
Its a classic and understandable move. Microsoft has done it a few times tbh. Zune, windows phone, webtv, silverlight, ... :')

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

understandable from a business point of view? sure

Understandable from a customer point of view? get bent

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I agree, but no one is really expecting VR/MR/AR/Spatial Computing to be making money right now. It is about investing in the future of immersive tech.

[–] DacoTaco 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Im not seeing the immersive tech go anywhere any time soon. Microsoft tried it, google tried it, a shit ton of other small businesses tried it. Its not going to go where these businesses live. Id like to be proven wrong but it feel like its just not. We miss the kill app and if it existed with current tech, it wouldve been made already.

I think its best to lay current MR/AR/spacial computing to rest and wait a few years like what happened with 3d/vr in the past 40 years :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I'd imagine apple has more power to give vr/ar cultural relevance than Google or MS. Apple fans are in their own extremely expensive league, and I'm sure there will be premium VR apps developed now. Even the quest 3 seems to be starting to get better software now, come to think of it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm still not sold on the whole spatial computing taking off anyway. I don't actually see what problem it solves. If you look at the Apple headset (I forget when it's actually called) It does not really use the virtual nature very much. It's all about putting 2D displays in the air it's not really making use of the fact that it's an artificial interface.

I was expecting some Iron Man level applications.

[–] dfc09 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

We're a long way off from iron man type shit, but yeah this is the path to getting there. It'll probably take decades but hopefully we can iron out the kinks and inconveniences to not so much "solve" problems vs normal screens, but elevate our ease of access and capabilities.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

It's just software at this point so hopefully Apple can update it. And hopefully other manufacturers will come up with similar products because I don't want Apple controlling in the market. Otherwise there won't be a market.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

You are not wrong, but if you want to be in a position to rise with Immersive tech you have to put the time in now to develop and refine it. Getting out of immersive computing right now is like getting out of AI until right now saying it needs to be more mature first. By the time it is more mature, the market players will have been established. I think Apple has really set the Immersive Computing benchmark based on overviews like this one. Immersive computing is very compelling when done right. https://www.youtube.com/live/xsFuHCTfaZw?si=A9XjgQfKpYJORbJ0

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If enough people bought a WMR for that to matter then it wouldn't be getting shitcanned.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

agreed, but if MS innovated and pushed the tech forward more they could have gained a bigger audience by now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

So if they had made more specs/revisions for a tech that already didn't sell particularly well?

Even stuff like the Valve Index (and HTC Vive before it?) never got a significant marketshare. And WMR, like steam machines before it, would have split that between the three or four manufacturers who followed the spec.

The facebook quest 2 seems to be doing well but that also pushes hard on the closed ecosystem side of things (you CAN use it on PC but it is clearly marketed as standalone). Maybe if MS had done that but... again, if it was just "put more money in" then they would have done it during the past few years of "spend it or lose it" because of inflation.

I loved my HP Reverb G2 (best seated VR ever). I am not at all surprised to see MS fully kill it considering that "the killer apps" have largely been the same for the better part of a decade. The market is stagnant and we are going to need apple's dream of everyone wearing AR goggles 24/7 to come to fruition for there to really be much of a market going forward.