When I started experimenting with virtual reality a few years ago, I already had a good understanding of how powerful computers had become. I knew that with enough money, you could buy a computer powerful enough to run a normal video game, but powerful enough to run one inside virtual reality as well, so you could look around inside the game itself.
(It turns out that the cheapest ones you can buy, for under $1,000, aren't powerful enough to run vr, but for $1,500 you can buy a powerful laptop.)
What I didn't realize was how important computers had become. For years, people thought computers were a nuisance, that they slowed things down, that they took up space, and so on. But in the last few years, computers have become something that almost everyone needs, and almost everyone wants to use. Even people without a computer are using them, increasingly, for basic operations like banking, shopping, and traveling.
As the computers we use become more powerful, the computers we run inside virtual reality will also need to be more powerful. And so far, the fastest computers you can buy for playing video games aren't powerful enough to run vr.
The best computers you can buy for playing games are about $1,000. The best computers you can buy for running vr are about $3,000. So if you want to play games inside vr, you have to spend at least $3,000.
But most people don't want to spend that much.
Most people don't want to spend that much.
For most people, virtual reality is just a passing fad. They read about it, they try it, but they never spend $3,000, not even to try it. If they did, they would probably find it isn't what they expected. Most video games aren't fun in vr.
Almost every review I've read of the HTC Vive said, "You really need a powerful gaming PC to run VR."
But that's like saying, "If you want to run an app, you need an iPhone."
The truth is that how VR works doesn't matter. VR is a general-purpose technology. You could do VR on your phone, or your gaming laptop, or your TV, or your self-driving car. It makes no practical difference to VR what your hardware looks like.
The issue is whether you can do VR well. A general-purpose technology can still be pretty good if it is good at what it does. And VR does a lot of things well.
VR is already being used in medicine to give patients a preview of what a surgery will look like before they are on the table. Doctors can then plan surgeries more precisely.
VR is also being used in education. A college course designed using VR gives students an interactive experience of the topics they are studying. They can walk around a landscape, or look at a sand table, or examine a microscopic image, or try out a new musical instrument, or virtually walk on Mars.
VR is also being used to train pilots. Pilots can train in VR before ever taking to the sky.
And VR is already being used in gaming. The Oculus Rift is the world's best-selling virtual reality headset.
The Oculus Rift uses a standard laptop as its display. Without an expensive gaming PC, the Rift can run VR games.
Another VR headset, the HTC Vive, uses a gaming PC as its display. The Vive requires a more expensive gaming PC. And if you want to play games in VR, the Vive's real advantage is that it tracks your body's
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