this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024
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Windows MR and HP Reverb VR headsets to lose all functionality in Windows 11 24H2, so don't update if you use those headsets.

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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[–] TheControlled 150 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Update: No longer friends with AR/VR. Now Copilot/ChatGPT (OpenAI) is best friend.

[–] Abucketofpuppies 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I can see this meme in my head

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's like you have AR built in! (is called imagination)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Having Aphantasia doesn't mean that a person has no imagination, he just has no inner eye, no way to see the imagination in his mind.

I know that because I have lots of imagination but have Aphantasia. World building for roleplay and stories is where I am really good, as long as I don't have to do anything with a visual component like drawing

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

There are different forms of aphantasia. I have to try really hard to visualize something in my mind and often have to go into excruciating details to have a clear visualization. Something like TTRPG is unplayable for me because either I drag the entire party into mostly useless details (and we spend at least half an hour in one room) or I play like I have literally no senses. I could just be a talking head in someone's bag.

In my case I'm pretty close to "no imagination".

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

Yeah it is, like most stuff with the brain, a spectrum from low to high Aphantasia.

I can't visualize anything in my mind, I can describe what I know or what I make up but that's it a list of information or details, when it comes to world building highly imaginative details and information, but I have no clue how it really looks like. That's why I love AI art generators, I can input all my imaginary details into the prompt and it then emulates my missing inner eye. Something I never could on my own, how should I draw something when I have only words to describe it? For me AI Art tools are a godsend, a pacemaker for my inner eye so to speak.

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

Then we elect those people to positions of high office

[–] [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.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Windows creates so much e-waste.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Not nearly as much as Apple

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I dunno, with that TPM 2.0 requirements some still perfectly capable computers won't be able to run Windows in 2025, at least not one that is kept up-to-date. That's gonna generate some e-waste in many companies who can't switch to Linux on a whim.

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

Eh, can probably get around that in command line. But still, most people don’t know that, so they’ll assume their shit is outdated, and.. back to e-waste

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The thing businesses want the most is support, and with Windows 10 being EOL in 2025 and Windows 11 requiring a TPM 2.0 to be officially supported, if they encounter a large-scale issue and they're running an unsupported configuration they'll get a tough luck response from Microsoft Support.

[–] excitingburp 1 points 9 months ago

You're being down voted because Apple supporting old hardware is the only thing that Apple is good about. Would have done well in almost any other thread.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Plugging in to use a Windows Mixed Reality headset will not work starting with his[sic] build. Windows Mixed Reality is no longer available to users as Windows Mixed Reality has been announced as deprecated. This includes the Mixed Reality Portal app, and Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR and Steam VR Beta. Existing Windows Mixed Reality devices will continue to work with Steam through November 2026, if users remain on their current released version of Windows 11 (version 23H2) and do not upgrade to this year’s annual feature update for Windows 11 (version 24H2). This deprecation does not impact HoloLens.

No separate driver download at all. It sounds like it will stop working in 2026, even if you don't update.

[–] Passerby6497 12 points 9 months ago

Existing Windows Mixed Reality devices will continue to work with Steam through November 2026, if users remain on their current released version of Windows 11 (version 23H2) and do not upgrade to this year’s annual feature update for Windows 11 (version 24H2).

Tldr: fuck you, if you want to use your hardware, bend over and spread your cheeks cuz your OS is gonna be raw digging the security vulns we'll be releasing over the next 2 years.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

This is why I don't use any 'features' that these types of companies push. Core functionality only. Everything else is them screwing around until they get bored or can't make enough profit then they dump shit and expect you to be happy and follow their next little shit project.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (3 children)

"Monado" has no specific meaning and is just a name.

As a Xenoblade fan, I call BS.

But I do expect we'll see more open source VR solutions and support as adoption increases. They're still in that phase of expensive luxury goods in most cases - PSVR costs more than a PS5 and also requires one to work, Index is $1000, and I don't even know where the Apple headset got its pricing.

Most of these also want to lock down their VR as a platform, instead of being ubiquitous hardware like a monitor, and I think lack of standardization is gonna hurt them in the long run by narrowing their audience.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Most of these also want to lock down their VR as a platform, instead of being ubiquitous hardware like a monitor, and I think lack of standardization is gonna hurt them in the long run by narrowing their audience.

This. This is what I believe is holding back this tech more than anything else. Even pricing. Just make the hardware and let people play with it however they want, just like they could when PCs first became a thing.

[–] Carighan 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

As a Xenoblade fan, I call BS.

What a bunch of jokers!

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

Linux could teach 'em a thing or three

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

If you don't support the hardware in the first place you don't have to continue supporting it!

Guy tapping forehead meme

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I'm hoping the rumoured Deckard is actually a thing, as that will likely be the closest thing to an open source headset.

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

Microsoft is like Alphabet - why would you adopt anything they make? It's going to be abandoned with no support long before the devices are worn out, to include desktop and laptop PCs.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Thanks, can we also kill off copilot before it arrives uninvited?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

As a reverb G2 owner, my rage knows no bounds. Can't even sell the thing in good conscience.

[–] BabyVi 3 points 9 months ago

Former G2 owner here, I felt really scummy selling mine for cheap a year after launch. That purchase was such a fiasco, the damn thing never worked quite right.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

So, this is kind of funny, because when you think "cyberpunk" "high tech, low life", there always was/is the question of how this tech abundance but also poverty can coexist. Surely it takes a lot of money to build all this?

It's waste. That's the answer. It's the repurposed, discarded corporate trash that didn't meet the quarterly goal. It's all starting to make sense you guys!! In new and terrifying ways!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I have one of these, but only use it for SteamVR. Does this mean I can't update either?

AFAIK, the drivers come from Windows.

Edit:

From the article:

Existing Windows Mixed Reality devices will continue to work with Steam through November 2026, if users remain on their current released version of Windows 11 (version 23H2) and do not upgrade to this year’s annual feature update for Windows 11 (version 24H2). This deprecation does not impact HoloLens.

Well fuck. This headset is the only reason I keep a Windows PC around at all.

[–] Psythik 3 points 9 months ago

Well there's always LTSC.

[–] Tekkip20 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It honestly feels good to be on windows 10 LTSC IOT. None of this nonsense bloat installed and you get exactly the security updates you need sparsed out.

I dread the moment I actually have to migrate to Windows 11 but at least this version of Windows 10 I can use like, another 9 years lol.

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

Agreed, although I believe features like WMR don't work with LTSC without additional effort, so something to be aware of for those with VR headsets looking to migrate.

[–] Tekkip20 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That is fair, but personally I felt WMR is a niche feature and those with VRs can game using Steam or other vr application alternatives.

I understand that there are people that wanna use this so I get its stupid they're pulling away a feature that you actually need.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

The problem is those headsets flat out stop working in newer Windows releases. I'd actually prefer if WMR was just a driver + SteamVR/OpenXR shim, but you need the whole thing to use it.

[–] Mango 0 points 9 months ago

Don't make me tap the sign.