Tag: Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality Headset Demos for Newbies: Some Do’s and Don’ts

When you’re starting out, keep it simple (Image by Pexels from Pixabay)

There is a fine art (some would call it, a black art) to giving a VR demonstration to someone who has never been in virtual reality before. And, as someone who does it fairly often, I wanted to share some of what I have learned (often, the hard way!) in giving a number of people at my workplace (the University of Manitoba Libraries) their first taste of VR.

In fact, just last week, I had a recently retired coworker (who had never experienced virtual reality before) come in, at my invitation, to try it out for himself. My current set-up at work is an HTC Vive Pro 2 Office Kit, with the traditional Vive “wand” hand controllers, the same set-up which I am proposing for the virtual reality lab project that I am currently working on. (The standard Vive controllers feel more like tools, as opposed to hand extensions, and I can only imagine how much more of a newbie learning curve setting up the Knuckles controllers would be, given how much fidgeting and adjusting I have to do to get my set at home to work “just right”).

Here are some of my tips, tricks, and recommendations for giving inexperienced users a virtual reality demo.

  1. Safety first: clear your demo space! Remove anything and everything that the user can run into or trip over. I very strongly recommend that first-time VR users stick to seated apps, rather than standing ones, and stationary ones instead of ones where you have to move around, “run”, aim weapons, etc. If you question the wisdom of this advice, there is a whole subreddit community called r/VRtoER which consists of nothing but mishaps from people in VR headsets!
  2. Make sure all your equipment is ready to go and up-to-date. For example, if you use a headset with Steam, run SteamVR ahead of time and let it update. Make sure that any software you plan to demo is fully updated to the latest version. Fully charge your headset and/or hand controllers to ensure that they are ready. Nothing is worse than having to end a session early because a device has run out of power!
  3. Explain what VR sickness is and emphasize that they should stop, and NOT push through it, when/if they start to feel sick. Also impress upon the new user that it takes time and patience to build up your tolerance in a VR headset; expecting an inexperienced user to be able to handle anything over 15 minutes at one stretch is too much. It’s also very important to give the new user time between separate virtual reality experiences, even if it is only a few minutes.
  4. Adjust the headset to the user (head straps, interpupillary distance/IPD dial, etc.), explain to the user how to put the headset on and take it off, and practice that first. You want to do everythig you can to make sure that the new user’s experience is optimal. I have found that it is better to have the user learn how to make adjustments to the headset themselves, although I may fiddle with the head straps and IPD dial a bit, after they have put it on, if they are having problems with the comfort or view.
  5. Start off with an app where the new user just sits and looks around. When I used to give demos at work using my Oculus Rift, I always started new users with a couple of introductory VR programs, where they did not have to use the hand controllers. One of them which I can recommend highly is the excellent Introduction to Virtual Reality by Felix & Paul Studios*, which consists of a series of three-dimensional videos of various scenes, e.g. Cirque de Soleil jugglers; a boat in a floating market; a scene inside a round Mongolian yurt where a family is sharing a meal. The reason I start off with something like this is because I want the user to get comfortable with the immersive aspect of the technology (how the scene changes in the headset when you turn your head, look up and down, etc.), before adding on the hand controllers.
  6. Do NOT put the new and inexperienced user in any app which might make him nauseous! It’s tempting to throw the newbie into the deep end, just to get a reaction from him; I get it. However, do you want to be responsible for making him ill in his first virtual reality experience, and perhaps souring him on VR forever? Save Aircar and the roller coaster simulations for later, once they have gotten their VR legs. 😜

For the demo to my retired coworker last week, on my new Vive Pro 2 headset, I tried to find something similar to Felix & Paul’s Introduction to Virtual Reality, only to realize that all the Felix & Paul titles were Meta/Oculus exclusives. Damn! After a frustrating hunt through Steam to find something similar, and striking out, I decided to use a favourite tropical beach world in VRChat, called Deep Blue. I wanted something relaxing for a first experience; getting into a VR headset can be stressful! (Note that I had already logged into VRChat, and set up the world before my coworker arrived; all I had to do is get him set up and put on his headset.)

First, I just had him sit on the dock and look around, to get used to the way it felt to have the headset on, and how the view changed when he looked around. Then, after 5-10 minutes or so, I gave him the hand controllers, and explained how the buttons on them worked, and had him move around in the environment: explore the beach hut, walk along the beach, even go underwater to see the sea turtle!

Then, after I was satisfied that he was handling that experience well, without any VR sickness, I loaded up Il Divino: Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling in VR. This app nicely illustrates one of the main selling points of virtual reality, in my mind: the ability to visit and explore places that you would not normally be able to go see, unless you bought a plane ticket! Also, the app has very simple, teleporter-type movement control, which is easy to explain to a new user (and the difference in movement controls between the first and second apps is a good teaching moment to explain that every app is set up differently, and has different controls).

Next, I introduced my coworker to Google Earth VR, the virtual reality version of the already-familiar Google Earth. What I like about Google Earth VR is that you can always see at a glance how the buttons on the hand controllers work, and there are easy-to-navigate menus with some of the most popular locations, such as the statue of Christ the Redeemer high over the city of Rio de Janeiro. I just let him explore to his heart’s content, wherever he wanted to go! He really was amazed how he could zoom out and see the entire Earth from outer space, too.

My VR demo with my retired coworker went so well, that we actually did move on to Aircar, piloting a flying car in a rainy, Blade Runner-esque urban sci-fi environment (although I very strongly impressed upon him that he should stop as soon as he began to feel sick, which he did). He loved it! Some people take to VR like a duck to water. (However, see point 6 above; for 95-99% of first-time users, this is a BAD idea. And, on the other end of the spectrum, I have also had to stop VR demos after ten minutes because of VR sickness. Monitor your newbie carefully and stop as soon as they feel nauseous! This is not something you can just “push through,” trust me.)

I hope that you found this list of do’s and don’ts to be helpful! And if you have any particular programs, platforms, or apps which you like to use to give newbies demos, please drop a comment and let us know what they are and why you like them. Thanks!

A special thank you to John, for being my guinea pig, and the first person to whom I have demoed my new HTC Vive Pro 2 headset at work!

*You can experience this title in 360° video on YouTube:

Editorial: Why Am I Buying a Meta Quest 2 Wireless VR Headset—After Swearing I Would Boycott Meta Hardware and Software Forever?

I will soon be the owner of a shiny new Meta Quest 2, as shown here in this screen capture from the Meta website

Longtime readers of this blog will know that I have, over the years, developed a well-founded aversion to Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook), its business practices based on surveillance capitalism, and its products and services.

For me, the final straw was when then-Facebook-now-Meta did an about-face, and insisted that users of its then-Oculus-now-Meta virtual reality hardware had to set up accounts on the Facebook social network in order to use the devices (more on that in a moment). I angrily responded by giving away my Oculus Quest 1 to my brother’s family, and upgrading my trusty Oculus Rift to a Valve Index headset using SteamVR. I was DONE with Meta, and I was willing to vote with my feet (and my wallet).

So, it might come as a surprise to some people, to learn that I have decided to purchase a shiny new Meta Quest 2 wireless virtual reality headset. Why did I do this? Several points, which I will take one at a time.

Well, first and foremost, Meta blinked and backtracked after much criticism; you no longer need to set up a Facebook account to use the Meta Quest 2 (although you still have the option to link your Facebook or Instagram account to your Meta account, if you so wish). Instead, you set up a new Meta account for your device, as explained in the following YouTube video from six months ago:

It is now possible to have up to four Meta accounts per device, with one as an admin account, and you will be able to share some (not all, some) apps between Meta accounts using a new app-sharing feature. Note that Meta is still dragging its feet in setting up systems for use in business and academic circles; its “Meta Quest for Business” program is still in beta test with a (U.S. only) waiting list, a rather mystifying decision given the push Meta is already trying to make with Horizon Workrooms for corporate users. Then again, Meta seems to be just generally flailing (and failing) with its still-recent pivot to the metaverse, so who knows?

Second, as you may remember, I am still working on a project to set up a virtual reality lab within the University of Manitoba Libraries. While my original proposal was to purchase and install four high-end PCVR workstations using HTC Vive Pro 2 tethered headsets, we are now looking at offering faculty, staff, and students a wider variety of headsets for use in their teaching, learning, and research activities.

It’s probably not wise to purchase only one kind of VR hardware, which leaves you vulnerable if a company decides to shut down (although this is highly unlikely in the case of both HTC and Meta!). Best not to put all our eggs into one basket; life tends to throw all kinds of unexpected curveballs at you!

One unintended consequence of the coronavirus pandemic is that I had several successive years’ worth of travel and expense funds carried over and built up, some of which had to be spent by a certain deadline, or I would lose the money. So part of that funding went towards a brand-new work PC with a good graphics card, and an HTC Vive Pro 2 Office Kit, which of course is one of the models we are looking at purchasing for the virtual reality lab. However, I still had some money left over that I had to spend soon, and I decided to also buy a Meta Quest 2 as another testing unit, since we are considering also using that device in the virtual reality lab.

Third: while hunting around for easy-to-use, introductory demonstrations of virtual reality for those coworkers who have never experienced VR before, like Felix & Paul Studio’s excellent Introduction to Virtual Reality, I discovered to my great dismay that many apps were only available for Meta devices, and not available on SteamVR at all!

Unfortunately, some VR apps are exclusive to Meta VR headsets

In other words, some of the programs which students might want to use force us to purchase headsets on which they can run. This “walled garden” approach is antithetical to setting up an academic VR lab, where ideally we should be able to run any app on any headset. However, we have little choice, given the way the marketplace is currently structured (and especially given Meta’s outsized influence, with a little under 20 million Quests of various kinds sold, which makes it by far the most popular VR headset).

The University of Manitoba’s School of Nursing recently opened the first virtual reality lab on campus, and they are only using Meta Quest 2 headsets. This lab is currently training nursing students using UbiSim software, with plans to expand its offerings over time (more info here on Mastodon). And the U of M’s Computer Science department is also planning to use Meta Quest 2s in its planned VR lab.

The VR lab at the University of Manitoba School of Nursing

In other words, you can choose not to dance with the 900-pound gorilla in the room (i.e., Meta), but it will severely limit your choice of dance partners! And that is why, despite my lingering antipathy towards Mark Zuckerberg and his company’s business practices, we will likely be buying a number of Meta Quest 2 headsets to add to our planned virtual reality laboratory at the University of Manitoba Libraries, starting with a single test unit purchased on my travel and expense funds for work.

Wish me luck; I am off on yet another adventure!

Editorial: New Year, New Directions—Why I Am Substantially Cutting Back on My Coverage of Second Life, and Refocusing the RyanSchultz.com Blog on Virtual Reality and Social VR

Photo by Jordan Ladikos on Unsplash

When I started this blog in July of 2017, I had never intended to become a Second Life blogger. There were hundreds of other bloggers out there who were doing a far better job than I could of covering Second Life, and they still are! Throw in the Facebook groups, Discord servers, and YouTube channels, and you have a thriving commentary community on the vibrant ecosystem that is Second Life.

The original purpose of my blog was to write about Linden Lab’s foray into social VR, Sansar. I had been fortunate enough to get into the closed beta test of Sansar in January of 2017, an event which prompted the purchase of my first virtual reality headset, and I timed the launch of what was then called The Sansar Newsblog to coincide with the official opening of Sansar to the general public, on July 31st, 2017.

Over the five-and-a-half years that I have been writing this blog, I slowly broadened my coverage to report on other early social virtual reality platforms, such as AltspaceVR, VRChat, and Linden Lab’s founding CEO Philip Rosedales’ ambitious project, High Fidelity. And, as the number of virtual worlds and social VR platforms increased, I began to write more about them, too. My list of metaverse platforms remains one of the most popular pages on the RyanSchultz.com blog.

But my abiding passion for all things metaverse was born on March 20th, 2007, when I set up my first Second Life avatar, Heath Homewood. I often joke that I got my Ph.D. In the Metaverse from nearly 16 years of study at the University of Second Life! And I still believe that SL is the perfect, fully mature model of a metaverse, which newer social VR companies would be wise to study, learn from, and emulate.

I started writing about Second Life because I wanted to share my bounty of tips and tricks on how to pull together a good-looking avatar, without spending a fortune in Linden dollars! I still get an immense sense of satisfaction from creating a polished, head-to-toe avatar look as inexpensively as possible, and sharing with you exactly how I did it, so you could do it, too! I wanted to share my passion with you all.

Second Life was my first love, my introduction to the concept of the metaverse, and a love I still have, and probably always will have. But I have also been doing a lot of thinking these past few months about this blog, and the direction in which I want to take it.

Therefore, I have decided to cut back substantially on my Second Life coverage, and refocus on the reason I started this blog in the first place: virtual reality in general, and social VR in particular.

This doesn’t mean that I will never write about SL again. For example, Second Life will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer, and I have every intention of reporting on that milestone!

But it does mean that my days as the (uncrowned) Freebie Queen of Second Life are now over. I have decided that will no longer be reporting on bargains and free items in SL. Yesterday’s report on the imminent closing of The Free Dove seems a fitting final post in the Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies category on my blog.

I turn 59 in a few days, and it’s time for me to re-find the joy and wonder I once had when I first slipped on my trusty Oculus Rift VR headset five years ago, and went exploring, to see what I could discover. There’s a lot going on in the VR/AR/MR/XR space, and I want to refocus my attention on that.

I know that many of you who followed my Second Life coverage will be disappointed, but I hooe that you will understand and respect my decision. And I also hope that you will continue to join me on this journey!

Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash

A Forgetful Hotel Guest Leads to a Sneak Peek at the New Meta Quest Pro Virtual Reality Headset

Kotaku reported yesterday, in an article titled Meta’s Hyped VR Headset May Have Been Leaked By Guy In A Hotel:

It’s always worth rooting around down the side of the bed, or in the drawers, when you stay in a hotel room. Who knows what exciting items may have been forgotten by the previous guest? Like, for instance, a top-secret Oculus VR headset. That’s what happened to hotel worker Ramiro Cardenas, who claims to have discovered and revealed to the world that Project Cambria is most likely due to be called the Meta Quest Pro. Then he made an unboxing video.

While this is certainly embarrassing for Meta (somebody may even lose his job over this gaffe!), it does give us a sneak peek at the soon-to-be-launched Meta Quest Pro VR headset! Here’s the unboxing video mentioned in the Kotaku article:

It would appear from the article that this is an engineering sample, not intended for sale to the consumer, but I would suspect it’s pretty much identical to what you will be able to buy later this year. Personally, I wish Meta would just focus on building great hardware, instead of throwing money and resources into metaverse platforms such as Horizon Worlds, where it’s clear they don’t really “get” what makes social VR special—community.

Anyway, catch the video while it’s still up! It only about 7,000 views, and you never know when the legal team at Meta will have it taken down (in fact, the hotel employee who posted this might lose his job, as well!).