- At this year's Oculus Connect — Facebook's annual developer's conference for its VR business — it was impossible to escape the event's tagline: "The time is now."
- Among Facebook's big announcements: Oculus Link, which lets owners of mid-priced Quest headset connect to a PC for high-end games; and new "hand tracking" technology that will eliminate the need for users to clutch special hand controllers.
- But VR has been heralded as the next big thing since Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion in 2014.
- Business Insider spoke to numerous VR and AR developers at the event to get a sense of what they think is holding the technology back and when they think it will finally break into the mainstream.
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At this year's Oculus Connect — Facebook's annual developer's conference for its virtual reality products— it's impossible to escape the event's tagline: "The time is now."
From multiple executive speeches during Tuesday's keynote down to the branded, reusable water bottle handed out to conference-goers at check-in, Facebook wants its development community to believe that the time is indeed now for VR, and for augmented reality, to finally reach mass appeal.
Facebook kicked off the 3-day event with some announcements that had developers in the audience visibly excited.
Perhaps the biggest applause of the two-hour keynote came for Oculus Link, which lets owners of the company's mid-priced Oculus Quest headsets plug into a PC to play higher quality games that were previously only available on the more powerful Rift headsets.
To make VR a more portable and approachable experience for consumers, Facebook also wants to do away with as much hardware as possible. To accomplish this, it said that starting in 2020, Oculus Quest users won't need controllers and can instead interact simply by using their hands — a feature called "hand tracking."
"What you're starting to see is the hardware is getting out of the way and with each step we're getting to a more immersive and natural experience," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on stage.
And what would a Facebook event be without a social media angle? On Tuesday, the company announced Facebook Horizon, a virtual reality world akin to Second Life, where users can create games, play games, and interact with one another.
Of course, VR has been heralded as the next big thing since Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion back in 2014.
And so, for all the razzle dazzle at the event on Wednesday, many developers and industry experts were reluctant to proclaim that VR has officially arrived.
Business Insider spoke to numerous VR developers at the Oculus Connect event.
Here's what developers and industry experts at Facebook's Oculus event believe will be the key catalysts to propel VR and AR into the mainstream:
Cam Mullen created a social app on Oculus called Cheerio which has a goal of helping people make a friend within 60 seconds.
Favorite announcement? I am most excited about Facebook Horizon. They finally announced their plans to build a meta-verse. A meta-verse is a new world where people can walk around virtually, meet people, eventually work, build things, sell things, make money. They finally announced that they're doing it.
Is the time "now" for VR? VR is definitely now for the developers because the hardware is there. The tools are there. You can build anything now. But when a friend asks me, 'Should I buy a VR headset?' The answer right now is, 'There are not that many great experiences.' There are good games, but still, people are not rushing home to use their headset, unless they're an early adopter and obsessive. I think in about two years we'll start to see people going home from work and putting on their headset in the same way they put on Netflix or turn on YouTube today.
Harold Dumur is building immersive AR and VR environments for enterprise businesses.
Favorite announcement? The Occulus Link — that will change the game.
Is the time "now" for VR? I think there's still two years left before VR goes mainstream. The two years is based on Apple. They should be announcing something soon based on a recent acquisition from the Vrvana company from Montreal. They are all putting it together. I can't wait to see what Apple will bring to the table. That will really be a gamechanger — it's consumer, it's their Apple ecosystem for AR and VR. That's a new dynamic. And that dynamic brings speed because the window is closing. And that's something we've never felt before — a window closing. The window of VR was there, but we didn't know when it was going to close. And I feel it now.
Neilda Pacquing uses VR to make workplace training for emergencies, like if an active shooter enters the office.
Favorite announcement? I was really excited about VR for business as a whole because my target markets are businesses and regular employees. It's nice to see there's a lot more research that's getting backed up that's showing the effectiveness of VR training.
Is the time "now" for VR? VR is now! I'm very enthusiastic about where this technology is heading in general. I think something the community needs to do is continue pushing this technology to regular people who have never experienced VR. We're over the early adopter phase and we should continue pushing to the mainstream market and I see us being there right now.
Guillermo de la Isla Yañez develops VR experiences for real estate companies in Mexico.
Favorite announcement? The hand tracking and Oculus Link.
Is the time "now" for VR? I think it's a motivational quote, but I think it's quite true. I think it's the right moment to get into VR. Everyone here is excited about the announcements. The energy, you can feel it. Everyone who's here, we are the ones who are going to take VR and AR to the next level.
Richardo Chamberlain is thinking about how consumers can experience music beyond just listening to it.
Favorite announcement? I think, in general, the fact that hardware's getting removed, that's a great advancement. I think that's always been a friction point between VR and the user. Removing that interface will be key.
Is the time "now" for VR? It feels that it's here but I still see it as very niche, especially for music and consumers. I think that it's going to take time for it to be now and massive.