Palmer Luckey: 3D TV was never a real medium, it was a feature The Oculus founder explains why virtual reality is more than a gimmick

Rachel Weber Senior Editor Wednesday 2nd September 2015 Share this article Share

Palmer Luckey, Oculus founder and general virtual reality wunderkind, has dismissed comparisons between VR and the last big technological innovation in the gaming space, 3D TVs.

"The thing about 3D TV is that it was never a real medium, it was another feature for TVs that... it changed the experience, but not fundamentally. It was a little bit of an additional thing, but fundamentally you're still watching a very narrow field-of-view image on a TV on a wall," he told GamesRadar.

"If you're a gamer and you have high end graphics cards - I don't want to stereotype - but you're probably not the kind of person who cares about fashion"

"Virtual reality on the other hand I think is inevitable. If you look at 3D TV and think how far it could go; ultimate 3D TV like with 16K resolution and 240 frames-per-second or whatever, it's still about the same as what we have today. If you think about virtual reality, and what the ultimate conclusion is - it's basically technology that you use to see virtual worlds that are as real as the real world except without any of the limitations of the real world."

3D TV was briefly big news in games back in 2011, as Sony pushed the capabilities of its 3D TV range with PlayStation 3 tie-ins like Killzone 3.

Luckey also repeated his assertion that VR going mainstream is inevitable, even if no one is yet willing to commit to a timeframe.

"It's very clear that VR will take off - it's just a matter of time. Will it take one year, five years, ten years before it's mainstream? I can't say. It's going to depend on how fast we can push this technology, but I think that if you told someone 'Hey what if you could put on a pair of glasses and be anywhere in the world with perfect quality?', very few people would say 'Oh no, that'll never take off'."

He also responded cheekily to suggestions that the look of the headset could be a factor in the uptake of VR.

"If you're a gamer and you have high end graphics cards - I don't want to stereotype - but you're probably not the kind of person who cares about fashion."

Oculus is expected to reveal more about its consumer unit and Oculus Connect later this month.