He's a great programmer, sure, but this is a problem solved by a generation of engineers before him. Google "CAVE VR" to find some demonstrations of immersive VR environments which have been used in production for long periods of time without nausea or vertigo.
Indeed most of the human-factors research in this area has been in figuring out just what minimum features and precision are necessary in the tracking and display equipment and software stack to prevent these known problems. Making Occulus was simply a matter of shrinking the tech small enough to fit comfortably in a self-contained unit.
> Making Occulus was simply a matter of shrinking the tech small enough to fit comfortably in a self-contained unit.
And landing on the moon was simply a matter of assembling a vehicle based on decades of previous rocket research. I'm not saying Oculus is comparable, but you're simultaneously belittling someone's work and implying that it's already been finished. When in fact it has been extremely innovative and is very much on-going.
CAVE is cool, but it's a less immersive experience than HMD VR. With Oculus I feel like I'm in the virtual world, baring a few annoying problems that are resolved in newer prototypes. When I tried CAVE years ago (early 2000s) I felt like I was in a room with video projected on the walls. I haven't used newer versions of CAVE, so the experience could be much better now.
I also think vertigo is a feature, not a bug, but I understand that a lot of people don't see it that way :).
Indeed most of the human-factors research in this area has been in figuring out just what minimum features and precision are necessary in the tracking and display equipment and software stack to prevent these known problems. Making Occulus was simply a matter of shrinking the tech small enough to fit comfortably in a self-contained unit.