A long road
In 1962 Morton Heilig built the Sensorama, a booth with 3D film, smells and wind. In 1968 Ivan Sutherland created the first headset, so heavy it hung from the ceiling, hence the nickname Sword of Damocles. Nintendo's Virtual Boy (1995) was a commercial flop.
Oculus and the breakthrough
In 2012 Palmer Luckey raised money on Kickstarter for the Oculus Rift. Facebook bought the company in 2014. In 2016 the Rift, the HTC Vive with room-scale tracking and PlayStation VR came out.
No cables
The Meta Quest (2019) needs no computer; it does the processing itself. In 2024 Apple introduced the Vision Pro, which blends virtual and real worlds. VR is also used in medicine, pilot training and architecture.