Some may forget that I have barked about computing power and streaming rates for a while.
It will take time but it will come along.
When the great need is there, someone always removes the bottlenecks. Because someone will be willing to pay for their removal. Not until the hardware hits the streets will the need be great.
For now, we have to rely on compression and techniques and that is the smart move made by google to do a 180 video standard.
Very important for this as it starts.
That will keep everyone happy and in VR for now till things get better.
Ultimately, we need a 220 degree for video (movies and the like).
Your not going to enjoy a movie if you have to look behind you much. You won't do that laying down either.
But it becomes more real if you do look 50 degrees to the left or right without the screen getting cut off.
probably not a issue for phones and current model HMD's where the FOV is only 100 degrees.
Generally, Only stand-up games and geo viewing really have a need (potentially) for 360 views.
But Oculus and Sony both have warned dev's about pushing the hardware beyond the limits for a degrading experience. It is not helpful to the industry as a whole. The minimum specs don't take things into account like all/any of the TSR's running in the background of any one computer eating up cpu cycles.
No surprise is that the PiMax 8k HMD is going to find a hard time finding a 8k (2x4k) stream to enjoy for a few years. But if you have downloaded content (overnight lol)... watch out. That will come also.
That's 2x4K x 360 degree sphere of the 200 degrees it can view at a time. The highest FOV with exception to StarVR (210) and that's not a consumer product and it's 2.5k x2. It's a massive stream to pull off. Unless you have a large fiber connection, forget it. You can only compress this so far.
I may join the pre-order on PiMax just to experiment with it. I have a project in mind for it. But, it's a bit ahead of it's time.
They are also bringing a 5k version to market and that is close to StarVR's specs.
But I doubt we really need to go past 3k per eye if we get rid of all the space between the pixels.
Samsung is working on it.
Patients, it all takes time and time falls like domino's. Sorry for the long one !