Will Microsoft improve the limited field of vision before release?

Terry Freelander

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I really hope Microsoft will improve the limited field of vision.

I'm really excited about Hololens but I doubt I'll buy one if the field of vision is still so small and this makes me worry that an early release with a limited field of vision will lead to poor sales, thereby leaving a potentially ground breaking technology dead in the water.
 

Zulfigar

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Nope, that'll be it until version 2, if enough people complain about it. Who knows, maybe it's a safety aspect so the brain knows that the holograms aren't real.
 

Terry Freelander

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That's the problem though. People won't complain about it. They'll just vote with their wallets making it yet another Microsoft product with huge potential that just falls by the wayside.

Personally, I'll wait until they can fill the field of vision but if too many people make that decision (and lets face it, it won't be a truly viable product until it can feel fully immersive) then Hololens 2 might never see the light of day. The worst thing Microsoft can do is hype it up as much as they have and then release something that is so limited it disappoints everyone. I'd rather wait another year or even two for a first but truly game changing release.

What I don't get is, if they are having such problems filling the field of vision, why not just set it up with two or more display areas like a normal extended display setup?
 
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idokamaroq

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I heard somewhere that the limited field of view is on purpose, to some degree, to prevent motion sickness. If that's the case, I'd like to see it as an adjustable setting, since I never get motion sickness. I know they can't do a full wraparound FOV with it, but I think the hardware can go wider than they are running it.

But, in all honestly, how much can you really see outside the center of your vision? Ya, you know stuff's there, but you can't see it well, anyways.

I get to try it out in a couple days, so I guess then I'll really know whether the limited field of view is a serious issue or not.
 

grahamf

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I think they already are trying to improve it, but I think that if they were going to they might as well wait until the next revision and solve it completely with a wraparound lens. It'll be a while before us common folk (Even the PC Master Race) can get our hands one one, and by then it should be solved.
 

idokamaroq

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So, I tried it out today and here's what I have to say:

When I put the thing on, there was the start screen for that Xray game that was demoed at the W10 devices event. That screen was a little smaller than I was expecting (relative to holding my 5" screened phone about three inches away from the bridge of my nose, held sideways in landscape), and it seemed to be the entire field of view, but I noticed when playing the game that it seems that the holograms do extend below that main center area a little bit, though they do fade out. I'm not sure if that was just some artifact due to lighting and reflections and stuff, done on purpose, or the limitations of the hardware, but it did seem to provide a nice transition from seeing the emptiness in your peripheral vision to looking at the hologram as you turned your head. There wasn't like a hard border. But all that the limited field of view makes you do is turn your head more, instead of just moving your eyes around, and the device was surprisingly light, so turning your head feels fine. You don't get any, like, angular momentum built up or anything.

TL;DR: Field of view is small, but not jarring or disorienting. Just use your neck muscles and turn your head.
 

CygnusOrion

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That's the problem though. People won't complain about it. They'll just vote with their wallets making it yet another Microsoft product with huge potential that just falls by the wayside.

Personally, I'll wait until they can fill the field of vision but if too many people make that decision (and lets face it, it won't be a truly viable product until it can feel fully immersive) then Hololens 2 might never see the light of day. The worst thing Microsoft can do is hype it up as much as they have and then release something that is so limited it disappoints everyone. I'd rather wait another year or even two for a first but truly game changing release.

What I don't get is, if they are having such problems filling the field of vision, why not just set it up with two or more display areas like a normal extended display setup?

MS is not going to sell it to consumer until 2020, so you don't have to worry about that doomsday scenario.
 

Reflexx

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Limited field of view could also be due to figuring out the proper way to beam light into your pupil from off angles. Different eyeball shapes will make coming from a step angler challenging.

Also, much of this is 'peripheral' vision. The light is processed differently, so maybe the way it's protected might need to be tweaked.
 

ytrewq

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There are lot of things that need to be improved before this device is ready for market. It's cool, but few will pay $1k for it in its current state of development, and MS knows it. They're just showing it to build excitement for the future and get developers focused on creating software. When this is released years from now, it will be awesome. For now, don't get too worried about the details.
 

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