The worst part of Microsoft's holographic computer isn't getting any better
APMicrosoft executives demonstrate the HoloLens.Like the many others who got to try out Microsoft HoloLens - the company's crazy new holographic headset - I found the field-of-view to be a major issue.
The holograms don't fill your entire line of sight, just a little window in the middle of your vision. Move your head too far one way or the other, and the hologram you're looking at becomes invisible.
At this week's E3 video game trade show, hot on the heels of a show-stopping Minecraft-on-HoloLens demo, Microsoft confirmed that this problem won't be getting any better in the final version of HoloLens.
"I think you're never going to get to full peripheral field of view, but certainly the hardware we have the field of view isn't exactly final. But I wouldn't say it's going to be hugely noticeably different either," said Microsoft HoloLens exec Kudo Tsunoda on Giant Bomb Live, a video podcast filmed on the show floor.
In other words, the final HoloLens hardware may be a little better, but not by much.
It's not necessarily a dealbreaker: Microsoft is very specifically positioning HoloLens as a device you only wear to perform certain tasks, like annotating blueprints (or playing Minecraft), so you won't be dealing with these elusive holograms all day, every day.
But the small field-of-view is annoying. Really annoying. And it breaks a lot of the immersive qualities that made HoloLens so appealing in the first place.