Big Tech Forms Global VR Association

GVRA Announced

[not2easy]

Several top players in the Virtual Reality field have joined together to support the sharing of technology and formation of standards. Announced at Techcrunch [techcrunch.com] today - Acer, Google, Sony, HTC, Oculus and others have formed the Global Virtual Reality Association to work towards a global standard in technology and hardware. Not all the big players are on board at the time. The need is clear:

What many in the VR community have been thirsting for is some unification of standards in terms of software and hardware. Games bought in the Oculus store don’t play on the Vive or PS VR. Sensors for the Vive don’t work on Oculus. Sony doesn’t play nice with anyone else’s standards etc. etc.

The goal is to create unified standards globally to expand the use and popularity of VR in Industry, Commerce and Entertainment and to research new uses for VR. The GVRA [gvra.com] site has more information.

[keyplyr]

Excellent idea & yes the need is definitely there. I only dabble in the VR gaming world using Samsung Gear, but before I move up to a higher end (if I ever do) I want to know it will be supported cross-platform.

Not only that, have standards will accelerate forward development.

[engine]

I tried VR and couldn't get on with it, however, I can understand the potential.
Amongst many others, imagine the web in VR!

[keyplyr]

Using a low-end VR headset with a phone as the source is not a good representation of the potential of VR. You really need a gaming computer (or equivalent) with high memory and a fast processor.

[not2easy]

It looks like the big players are trying to avoid the pitfalls of proprietary hardware and coding standards, the things that slow development and acceptance. Think back to Beta Max and the mixed bag of gaming consoles. They are looking for ways to make VR common in education and medicine around the world. Note the absence of MS and Apple from this group.

[engine]

Note the absence of MS and Apple from this group.

Aha! They must be far enough down their own route to want to drive their investment through. Best thing they could do is to make their product/software open source, which I think is unlikely from Microsoft, and highly unlikely from Apple.