xesite/blog/excited-for-2022-2021-12-28.markdown

---
title: "Things I'm Excited for in 2022"
date: 2021-12-28
author: ectamorphic
---

2021 has been...a thing. However there are a lot of things that I am looking
forward to in 2022 that I'm gonna summarize in a few categories.

## VR

2021 has been a really dry year for VR tech. The chip shortage has really hurt
the budding VR industry, but there are some things that have been announced that
I am looking forward to.

[VR has really been one of the main things that's been keeping me sane over the
eternal plague. It's become one of my main activities and I am looking forward
to the improvements that come with new generations of VR
tech.](conversation://Cadey/enby)

### Simula One

[Simula](https://simulavr.com/) is trying to create a VR headset that can
function as a monitor replacement. This is something I am _really_ excited for.
The Simula One has a lot of potential to change how people use computers.

Right now a lot of the "working in VR" kinds of projects try to recreate the
_experience_ of using a desktop PC in VR. This makes sense, the existing
paridigm is already there and people are already familiar with it. However there
is also a lot of room for ditching the constraints of the past and really
experimenting with what computing can be if you aren't constrained by monitors.

The Simula One headset is going to have [one of the highest pixels-per-degree on
the market for consumer VR](https://simulavr.com/blog/vr-comparison/). It's
going to be running NixOS and [Monado](https://monado.freedesktop.org/).

I don't really know if it is going to take off and if the result will be any
good, however it's very important that people try these kinds of things. Who
knows what will catch on? They are going to open up a kickstarter in January and
I plan to be one of the early high tier donators.

### Valve "deckard"

Valve has been working on the Steam Deck, but there's also a section of Valve
that has been hard at work on a VR headset codenamed
["deckard"](https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22699914/valve-deckard-standalone-vr-headset-prototype-development).
The rumor mill says it will have an option to run as a standalone headset as
well as a traditional PCVR headset. Other digging into things have found a wifi
chip (a specific wifi6 realtek one) that would allow for streaming VR gameplay
over a network and there are also references to using
[xrdesktop](https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/moving-the-linux-desktop-to-another-reality.html)
as a way to run "flat" applications in a VR space. There are also rumors that it
will support "inside-out" tracking, which is also essential for being a portable
headset.

I would absolutely love to have such a thing. I travel occasionally for work and
I would really love to have a quality PCVR experience on the go. It would let me
be able to not skip my workout days when I'm in a hotel room.

The VR space on Linux is slightly stagnated at the moment due to most of the
investment either being in SteamVR on Windows or on Oculus' fork of Android.
This does make sense though, there is a lot of money to be made in the VR space.

Hopefully Valve can improve the state of VR on Linux with the "deckard".

## Video Games

2021 has had some banger releases. Halo Infinite finally dropped. Final Fantasy
7 Remake came to PC. [Metroid
Dread](https://xeiaso.net/blog/metroid-dread-review-2021-10-10) finally
came out after being rumored for more than half of my lifetime. Forza Horizon 5
raced out into the hearts of millions. Overall, it was a pretty good year to be
a gamer.

[I was going to do a writeup of my thoughts on Halo Infinite, however I really
want to reserve that for when I can do it co-op. From what I've heard of the
development of Infinite there were many points where they didn't think that the
game would ship at all. It came out though. It's decent, movement is really fun,
but overall I don't feel it's going to be genre-defining in the ways they would
have hoped.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)

However 2022 looks like we're going to finally start returning to "normal" with
development schedules. Here's what I'm the most excited for:

### Steam Deck

The [Steam Deck](https://www.steamdeck.com/en/) is a handheld PC that will let
you play games. It's also likely going to be my first "next gen" console, as
despite my repeated attempts I have been unable to get an Xbox Series console or
a PS5.

[Is the Steam Deck really a console? It's much more like a PC, but it's not as
much of a console as the Oculus Quest 2 is.](conversation://Mara/hmm)

[Let's just call it a console for the sake of
argument.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)

I'm excited for this on multiple levels. Valve is going to make it run SteamOS 3
by default. SteamOS is based on Arch Linux and they have been making improvement
after improvement to the Linux kernel and all of the software they are going to
use on it. Valve hopes to have most games on Steam playable like they are on a
PC running windows.

It's also a bit of a chunky boi. It's gonna be a bit hefty, but I'm excited for
what it is going to bring to the ecosystem. It may lead to the year of Linux on
the desktop!

[Isn't that every year though?](conversation://Mara/hmm)

### Splatoon 3

Splatoon is one of my favorite game series. It's a game where you have a bunch
of ink guns and your goal is to cover as much turf as possible. The game feels
like Quake in the best ways. You use your sticks to lead and the gyroscope to
refine your aim, just like you would with a Steam Controller.

[I'm still sad that the Steam Controller failed in the
market.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)

Splatoon 3 looks like it will build on the fundamentals in great ways. I can't
wait to see what they have in store!

### The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild

I have over 400 hours logged in Breath of The Wild. It is in the running for my
favorite games of all time. The really innovative part of Breath of The Wild was
the fact that it was a jRPG without a leveling mechanic, experience points or a
hard-defined story path. You are dumped into the world, given tools to explore
through it and then given free reign to do whatever you want. It is a massive
open world (probably one of the biggest in a Nintendo game save maybe Xenoblade
Chronicles X) and you are given the agency you need to play the game how you
want. You can run straight to Ganon and finish the game in less than an hour.
You can spend hundreds of hours exploring the world to solve all the puzzle
shrines.

Most of all though, the really great part about Breath of The Wild is the fact
that as you play, your skill as a player improves. You learn to chain together
mechanics to do basically whatever you want and the game doesn't stop you. You
can do _whatever you want_ and the real progression system is your skill.

[This sounds weird, but tying progression to player skill is incredibly
anti-meta as far as these games go. Usually jRPGs are very tailored experiences
where you go through the standard "fetch bread -> kill god" kind of power skill
tree, but with Breath of The Wild you can "kill god" right out of the gate and
"fetch bread" later.](conversation://Cadey/enby)

I have no idea what to expect for the sequel to Breath of The Wild, but I'm
excited as heck to see what they come up with.

[This is going to have an article written about it once I've gotten a chance to
play through it. This may take a week to a month. It's gonna be worth the
wait.](conversation://Cadey/enby)

## My Projects

I don't really like having too many project plans ahead of time, but here are
the biggest things I'm already committing myself to do next year. Something
something forward looking statements something something.

### Daily Workout Streams

I love rhythm games. I haven't really had good rhythm games to play until I got
back into VR. I've been playing a lot of [Beat
Saber](https://store.steampowered.com/app/620980/Beat_Saber/) and more recently
[Synth Riders](https://synthridersvr.com/). I've been streaming my play on
[Twitch](https://twitch.tv/princessxen) and I have a playlist of the VODs on
[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJDDsMrk2tSH3nhLWqV8IZLgae1CNYurH).

I live a very sedentary lifestyle, even before COVID, and I want to start to get
back into shape. Doing it [dancing on the
internet](https://youtu.be/q3F06mKP2uk?list=PLJDDsMrk2tSH3nhLWqV8IZLgae1CNYurH&t=4342)
is fun, so why not?

### Spellblade

I have a bunch of unreleased material for Spellblade that I need to go in and
edit up and post.

### V-Tubing

I got a webcam for Christmas that I plan to use for V-Tubing coming soon. I want
to use it for recording conference talks as well as for doing some non-VR gaming
streams.

I have been working on getting a V-Tuber model hacked up out of the one that
I've been using in VRChat, but having no idea what I am doing in Unity has
really not been helping.

---

Hope this was an interesting view into what I'm excited for. This may be my last
post for the year. Stay safe out there, things have been rough.