There’s no way I can work eight hours a day, five days a week in this thing. I find myself taking a break every hour or so to grab a drink, which helps.Īfter a whole working day spent in VR I once again readjust my expectations. The foam padding, while comfortable, does not make for a cool or dry experience. My eyes, too, feel dry and tired, as I’m blinking less and they’re being blasted with light at point-blank range. Within the first few hours of checking emails and researching another story though, I began to notice a few things.įirstly, while not incredibly heavy, the weight of the Vive Pro Eye headset is noticeable, and I can feel inklings of pressure around my face. My incredibly ambitious plan for this experiment was to work in VR from 9am to 5pm every day (minus food and bathroom breaks), to replicate jetting off to a proper office. The experiment is back on, but it’s not long before the next hurdle turns up. There’s a bit of lag, which throws me off, but it’s infinitely better than typing blind. I can look down and recentre my hands where they need to be, without leaving the comfort of my virtual cocoon. It takes a while to set up and get the angles right, but it works. An app called Work in VR promises to rescue me with an ingenious solution that uses a webcam to overlay a real-time video of my keyboard into the virtual world. Searching around online, I begin to worry that I’m going to have to brute-force my way through and accept that I’ll be a horrible typer for a while until my brain adjusts. ![]() This magical solution to my work woes appears to be a little more complicated than I thought. After a little digging online, I come across a reddit thread where some of the comments mention this exact pitfall. With the headset on, this imperceptible crutch is no longer there. As I continue writing random sentences to figure out what's wrong with me, I realise that I do occasionally glance down to get my bearings, without even realising it. Taking the headset off, I start another email without looking at the keyboard, and it’s totally fine. It’s immediately obvious though that wearing a headset totally kills my ability to type without looking. Being able to type without looking is something I obviously considered before diving into this experiment, and, as far as I knew, I was a decent touch typer. I’m incredibly slow, and the email is filled with errors. I settle on the latter for its inspirational grandeur, and marvel at the domed ceiling.Ĭlicking compose, I begin to type, and. ![]() Headphones on to firmly shut myself off from the outside world, I spend quite a while zipping in and out of different spaces, trying to decide where I’ll start my new existence.įrom a high-rise office overlooking the view of a sprawling city, to a serene forest and the cavernous interior of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, I’m spoilt for choice. Loading up Virtual Desktop on Steam to begin my New Life of Some Productivity is an exciting experience, to say the least. For most people, the untethered £299 Oculus Quest 2 provides the easiest way to jump into a quality VR experience, without the costs and hassle associated with a monstrous gaming PC. That’s an obscene amount, but you don’t need to spend anywhere near that much to escape from reality. The price of this extremely high-end setup is, in total, just over £5,000. Enter the MSI Aegis Ti5 - a £3,799, monstrously powerful gaming PC that resembles an ancient alien artefact, complete with pulsating lights and an overall sense of something you shouldn’t touch for fear of waking The Overlords from their millennia-long slumber. ![]() To give my brain the absolute best chance of immersion and reduce risks like motion sickness, I needed everything to run at the highest possible resolution and frame rate. To get the best, most immersive experience possible, I opted for a proper desktop VR headset in the form of the HTC Vive Pro Eye, which has a high-res screen, full body tracking, a fast refresh rate, and built-in headphones - everything one needs to comfortably escape from the outside world. Leaving this earthly plane to explore the wonders of the virtual expanse requires the right gear. After spending two weeks working in other realities, I’ve returned to the real world with a new perspective.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |