Why has my attitude towards AR/VR/MR changed

I really like the AR/VR/MR (augmented/virtual/mixed reality) direction, especially holograms. But 5 years ago I loved it. I do not remember the specific event from which this love began, but I do remember why the feelings cooled

In 2016, I attended the Epam IT cleanup, where I was lucky enough to try glasses from Microsoft — Hololens. It was indescribable. Spiders (not real 😁) were running along the walls of the room in which I was, they had to be killed at a distance with the movement of my hands. This is not VR — where you have drawn borders, and then, sorry everyone 😋 It’s different here — the room in which you are is scanned and objects are projected onto the walls. It can be anything: your laptop desktop with folders, for example. But this time there were spiders, but they were funny, so even arachnophobes, most likely, would not be scared

Hololens simply cannot be bought, only a couple of companies in Russia have them. So my experience was unique and unforgettable

Naturally, I would like to have Hololens. I even once bought myself a special Windows gaming laptop to develop for these glasses even on an emulator. But all the tutorials from Microsoft that I found were very primitive, it wasn’t enough for me, and I sold the laptop

I experimented a lot with these technologies — I even burned my iPhone — it could not stand the load when I traveled virtually to other countries 🚀

5 years ago I even held a meeting at Return on Intelligence.

When you are passionate about something, you want to infect others with your enthusiasm. It was not easy to prove to the company that it’s not only cool, interesting and fun, but that these technologies are the future and it’s worth looking in this direction. A few months after I left, the company ordered different VR glasses, where everyone could test out 😉

Everything takes time. To turn an idea into something more — too

I’m already used to the fact that my ideas are answered “It’s too much for us”, but after a couple of months others do it — and it brings them success.

At first, it hurt me. But when you know what will happen in the end, you no longer try to prove your vision so actively. If your idea does not come to one, there will certainly be those who will be delighted with it 💯

So why did my “love” become “like”?

1. The hype has killed the development of these technologies to the extent that it could have been. They began to be used mainly for entertainment. In the same shopping centers. To save money, they began to use cheap glasses, which don’t provide high-quality immersion in virtual reality. What is the bottom line? Frustrated customers who say and write that VR is bullshit. And when such thoughts go to the masses — nothing good
2. Difficulty or complete lack of ability to get specific glasses. You need to have several glasses for different systems — it’s expensive
3. Insufficient knowledge base and it is primitive
4. Lack of interesting positions for AR/VR developers in Russia. This is the game-development sphere with lower salaries than web developers. Why would specialists waste time and money if they will receive less in this sphere?

Despite these shortcomings, I still believe that a lot will change in the next few years, including in the field of AR/VR/MR. This is the type of party that I won’t miss 😋