Why is the vision correction in VR headsets only an afterthought?

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨deafboy@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

Researchers predict that by the year 2050, about half of the world’s population will have myopia.

Considering the target demographic, a significant number of potential VR users suffer from myopia already. Why are there no more VR headsets with adjustable focus?

Several vendors offer replaceable lenses, or various addons to fit the glasses in, but the obvious solution used by the early cheap headsets like GearVR - adjustable distance between lenses and the display, is not being utilized for some reason.

Is it a technical problem, economical problem? Are the modern lenses somehow tuned for a specific distance?

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Comments

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RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Not everyone has the same prescription for both eyes.

This doesn’t help with astigmatism.
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- copygirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The lenses don’t have to both be at the same distance to be fair.
  
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  - deafboy@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    But would the 2 pictures fit together? When you shorten the lens-display distance, you basically zoom in.
    
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yesman@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
VR isn’t a mature technology. Every design is bad. For what little attention they’ve paid to human eyes, they completely ignore the existence of a human neck. It’s the kind of device that discourages you from playing games because it’s a pain to get out, strap on, and wear. And this is from a guy who keeps his flight sims on the slow hard drive because it takes 5min to get physically set up anyway.

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- Gremour@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It is much better with a specialized strap, like this one for Quest: www.bobovr.com . Why standard one is so crappy, to the point of causing pain, is beyond my comprehension.
  
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BogusCabbage@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
My very simple guess is this. It requires more parts, bigger assembly line, overall higher complexity, adds weight, makes the headset more fragile, and so forth, so I’m sure if they can make a design that accommodates the majority of users, it is cheaper to say “good enough” then to design and accommodate for the rest of the potential users

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xmunk@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Eh? I just bought some cheap lenses that slip into my headset - it might be that the index was better designed for this than some of the other ones on the market but I think slipover lenses are a fine solution to this problem.

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Dave@lemmy.nz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

adjustable distance between lenses and the display

Does this help focus? For the headsets that have this, I thought it was so you could fit your glasses.

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Player2@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Varifocal lenses are bulkier and restrict an already limited FOV. For my part I prefer how it is now with the headset maximizing FOV and using aftermarket lens inserts for vision correction, but of course that is much easier for me since I am the only person using the headset

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ABCDE@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Contact lenses help, but you’re right, there should be an easy way to accommodation a prescription.

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Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Because they are making them to be as “one size fits all” as possible, which also reduces cost. If you need corrective lenses outside of VR, you usually have to get custom made lenses to fit your prescription or just get one/an accessory for one that lets you wear your glasses in the headset.

They could give all the attention in the world to how human eyes vary, and they still would have this issue.

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TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
My eyes need different amounts of focusing power, and different astigmatism, for each.

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urda@lebowski.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I prefer to wear my contacts with my Apple Vision, but sometimes when i do not have my contacts in I Opt for my Zeiss Apple Vision lenses, and the devices knows and “swaps” the distance and interpupillary distance automatically. It’s really invisible to me except for swapping the lenses in and the light guard out.

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- barsquid@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  That seems pretty adequate, given the price.
  
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  - urda@lebowski.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Works pretty well honestly. Only picked up the larger light seal after the vision itself said it needed it, and yeah it was a bit too close with the lenses in. Easy swap.
    
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HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
because it’s cheaper to get contacts

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FrodoSpark@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
My Vive XR elite has diopter dials, but they’re negative adjustments.

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treadful@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Does that even help nearsighted people? The screen is literally an inch or two away from your eyes. There’s nothing to focus on.

I’ve never noticed much of an issue seeing in VR games, though I’m not uberblind either.

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- BradleyUffner@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeah. I’m nearsighted and had to get aftermarket prescription lenses for the index in order to use it comfortably. My nearsightedness isn’t even that strong, but I can’t use it without them.
  
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  - treadful@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That’s weird. I haven’t had much of an issue. Though my experience is with the OG Vive so that display is kind of rough to begin with.
    
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- TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The lenses in a VR headset make it seem like the screen is infinitely far away. If you need glasses normally, then you will need to wear them or something equivalent to see clearly in VR.
  
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