During the Oculus panel "The Dawn of Mobile VR," Oculus CTO John Carmack decided to answer a popular question he's received: "Why mobile VR?"
Despite the lack of content on virtual reality devices, mobile VR has him the most excited about the future of VR.
Carmack says this is especially true after Gear VR turned out better than everyone expected, even surprising the internal Oculus team.
He took it one step further and stated, "Virtual reality is bigger than gaming." Visions of grandeur aren't typically his thing, but he adds that he, "honestly sees a world with a billion people using virtual reality."
What about AR?
Despite being firmly in the virtual reality camp, Carmack is still a fan of augmented reality.
He says, "In the long run, augmented reality is going to be something ... absolutely everyone in the world will want it ... in its final form," but then adds, "it's still a long ways from that."
Carmack brought up how he's excited about a lot of the technology surrounding augmented reality, like HoloLens and using a collective we likely including the Oculus team, wished them luck noting "it's not a competitive position."
Devs will be able to make AR apps for VR but issues like how there isn't a wide field of view and how it's not immersive "by intention" will generally prevent crossover between the two areas.
In the end, the novelty behind AR will remain secondary to Carmack and co., where he says, "immersive virtual reality is what we do first."
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