You're juggling multiple VR projects. How do you decide on hardware upgrades?

Assess the hardware requirements for each VR project to identify any bottlenecks or performance issues. Focus on upgrading components that will provide the most significant impact, such as graphics cards, processors, and memory. Consider future-proofing by selecting hardware that will support upcoming technologies and trends. Allocate your budget strategically, balancing between immediate project needs and long-term benefits. Regularly review and adjust your hardware setup to ensure optimal performance across all projects.

Firstly, expensive. Not just in proper hardware, but also hard skills. No point in having cutting edge tech if your designers are sub par. If you looking to go the unreal route with camera live feeds , green screening and studio lighting, then you are looking at either a topspec i9 or Ryzen 9 processor, if you don't decide to just bite the bullet and go full threadripper. 128gb ram, minumum. Storage, nvme and 2tb and up. And GPU 4090. Now take what you just spent on one rig, thats what your creative should borderline also cost you.

You need to consider the tracking technology used. Is it camera based or using base station lasers? Although most headsets are moving to camera based the lasers have the distinct advantage of preserving privacy. Versus cameras being able to be more portable and less prone to interference at times

First hand experience, 3 routes, Cheap, Medium, Professional. Cheap you need a highly skilled and clued up creative so hardware is offset by creative salary. Medium is most likely the best balanced between hardware and creative capability. Professional, considering you bought all the top tier plugins, you can probably in the beginning get away with someone less skilled, but for more advanced techniques you will need a VERY seasoned creative overseeing the general team from the shadows. Moral of the story, A senior creative can do a lot more with given hardware than a junior creative. So invest in talent first, and invest hard because talent like that is super scarce

It is hard to future proof headsets as VR tech. Over at a rapid pace especially in the standalone VR space. There are always improvements that open up more compute capabilities as well as improvement to ergonomics and weight. Ultimately you pick a platform that is well supported like Meta or SteamVR and pick it based on the use case and apps available

Bla bla bla, Vr this Vr that. How many people do you know that own a top tier Vr headset and gear and hardware to run this correctly? One? Maybe two? You can only think about scaling once you either find the correct market or you find a way to make it a lot more accessible, and the trash you got for mobile phones should not be even considered VR, best case, they can make a presentation more interesting, but until you've not worn one for longer than 2 hours , don't even think about it. And those VR headsets at activations, disgusting.

Workflow is very important. For example comparing Meta Quest development to Apple Vision Pro the Meta Quest is typically easier to deploy and develop for due to being Android which you can do from either Mac or PC. Whereas the Vision Pro can only be deployed from a Mac. The cost of each development platform wildly differs for now so Apple Vision Pro is more expensive. Meta also has the advantage of supporting the workflow for almost a decade now which has smoothed out a lot of deployment issues

Sorry to say, but if your hardware disrupts your workflow, what are you even doing? Hardware upgrades should literally take minutes and if anything, it should speed up the process. And the increased productivity after the initial adjustment period is temporary. 2 , 3 months tops. By that time there is already faster hardware, or more optimised software. If I take the jump from normal processor bound rendering to Realtime rendering and the insane amount of time it saved, it took 3 months to hit the next brick wall - New tech unlocks more creativity and you very quickly reach the end of your current hardware's capabilities and once you DO reach that point, that then becomes the "new" standard of what you can do as a creative.

VR hardware can be tricky. You can’t confirm compatibility for the long run, so try to pick a software with maximum compatibility in your range of field. For example, if you’re trying for MR make sure your builds works for all headsets and accessories with passthrough. Also keep your software information up to date to predict your expenses correctly.