Fool me, this is real good shit ! [the VR thread]

[Dio]

Thing is VR should not die because "it can definitely be proven that it can be done right" .. now I wonder what's going to happen if/when "big names" like EA or such would get into "for real" making some really "big title that shows how is done".

Nobody can throw a ten-plus-million dollar budget at VR yet. Even a million is going to need to be a game that still plays well without.

[venusian]

Besides you do have a DK2 then ? "Stay tuned on this channel", news to come in the next week.

This is where we hope to have an edge/advantage, in fact "it's SO EASY TO GET IT WRONG, lot harder to get it right" ( but NOT impossible ).

Are you going to make the LS engine available then?

[gilesgoat]

Besides you do have a DK2 then ? "Stay tuned on this channel", news to come in the next week.

This is where we hope to have an edge/advantage, in fact "it's SO EASY TO GET IT WRONG, lot harder to get it right" ( but NOT impossible ).

Are you going to make the LS engine available then?

No ... this is "our edge" as we are making things right .. and "thankfully" there are "far too many people using Unity" struggling to get some performance out .. besides the engine is "so basically just based on horse sense and simplification" that I'd feel like "anyone else could do probably even better if they want to".

Honestly .. "we still need to actually sell some VR stuff" before we can even say that "VR has done something" .. at the moment it's all into "could be but it's not yet" ..

First let's me see some VR stuff "that sells decently at some decent price and NOT peanuts" and then we'll see again where we are ..

[Yak]

I'd say not, since we're happier developing games than doing tech support .

[gilesgoat]

I'd say not, since we're happier developing games than doing tech support .

That's the second thing .. we/I don't want to become "MR getting crazy supporting people/requests/etc. of <everything>" ending up in EVERYONE ELSE doing "fantastic games" with OUR engine while us become "two poor sods" dealing with "tech support" 24/24 ..

Sorry guys .. that's not what we want, we want to make games and things ... "do your own engine" ...

[venusian]

Was only joking. Honest.

[gravy]

Thing is VR should not die because "it can definitely be proven that it can be done right" .. now I wonder what's going to happen if/when "big names" like EA or such would get into "for real" making some really "big title that shows how is done".

Nobody can throw a ten-plus-million dollar budget at VR yet. Even a million is going to need to be a game that still plays well without.

Except the people that paid $2bn to buy a VR platform

[Dio]

It'd be fucking brave to sponsor a AAA game for the thing now. But you're right, they could do it.

They have the advantage that they're going to get a lot of the patents. Even if VR dies again now, it'll be back in ten years and all those will still be running, so FB gets two bites at the cherry.

[gilesgoat]

It'd be fucking brave to sponsor a AAA game for the thing now. But you're right, they could do it.

They have the advantage that they're going to get a lot of the patents. Even if VR dies again now, it'll be back in ten years and all those will still be running, so FB gets two bites at the cherry.

Venture capitalists maybe

[pogo]

Except the people that paid $2bn to buy a VR platform

Facebook? I shudder to think what sort of game would spring from that company. Something along the lines of Second Life?

More seriously MS have inadvertently showed the limits of such specialist gaming hardware with the Kinect, which although not VR was MS's attempt to get on board motion tracking and immersive gameplay. And they failed spectacularly with it, so much so it almost killed the Xbox One until they cut it loose (and even now it may have done so much damage the Xbox One never recovers).

After that no company is going to be making VR a requirement for their platform, so no developer will release a AAA game that depends on VR. The exception might be Sony or Facebook. Sony might actually come up with something decent – some of their first party stuff and some of the stuff from studios they work closely with has been excellent. But Facebook?

Ten years from now maybe, when VR is cheap enough and perhaps integrated into your phone or an inexpensive Google Glass-like peripheral. But not now or soon.

[Soluzar]

I just got a shipping notification for my DK2. So excited!

Besides you do have a DK2 then ? "Stay tuned on this channel", news to come in the next week.

Excellent timing, for me.

[gravy]

It'd be fucking brave to sponsor a AAA game for the thing now. But you're right, they could do it.

They have the advantage that they're going to get a lot of the patents. Even if VR dies again now, it'll be back in ten years and all those will still be running, so FB gets two bites at the cherry.

They've also employed a lot of very good AAA devs. It could be they just want the realtime mad skills of those guys but I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one go at something spectacular and expensive. I mean why else would they hired IDs creative director and 343s art director.

[gilesgoat]

.. I am getting insane/desperate ..

DON'T KNOW "wtf happened" .. the only thing I can think happened is some recent windows ( 8.1 ) update ..

"All in a sudden no )(&*(&%*(&(*%&$#( way to have the Oculs working on this machine" ...

.. trying to see if there's some magic SDK upgrade that could fix anything .. form "yes I am testing this" to "FUCK I can't work any more" ..

.. more going to my ulcer ..

[pogo]

They've also employed a lot of very good AAA devs. It could be they just want the realtime mad skills of those guys but I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one go at something spectacular and expensive. I mean why else would they hired IDs creative director and 343s art director.

Still think it's most likely to be a new Second Life/Playstation Home. In fact if they're investing a lot in it that seems even more likely. Doing just another social experiment is pointless even for FB, but really investing in it so it has the production values of a AAA game and all of a sudden it becomes an asset. Especially as FB's core products are being attacked on all sides by messaging apps, photo apps, blogging platforms.

Biggest unknown is Sony's plans. Their headset was shown earlier this year pre-E3 which would normally mean it would be in shops for Christmas, but there's still no sign of it. I don't know if the technology's not ready or if they've seen the problems MS had with Kinect and want to keep the PS4 a pure traditional game machine for now.

[gravy]

They've also employed a lot of very good AAA devs. It could be they just want the realtime mad skills of those guys but I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one go at something spectacular and expensive. I mean why else would they hired IDs creative director and 343s art director.

Still think it's most likely to be a new Second Life/Playstation Home. In fact if they're investing a lot in it that seems even more likely. Doing just another social experiment is pointless even for FB, but really investing in it so it has the production values of a AAA game and all of a sudden it becomes an asset. Especially as FB's core products are being attacked on all sides by messaging apps, photo apps, blogging platforms.

Biggest unknown is Sony's plans. Their headset was shown earlier this year pre-E3 which would normally mean it would be in shops for Christmas, but there's still no sign of it. I don't know if the technology's not ready or if they've seen the problems MS had with Kinect and want to keep the PS4 a pure traditional game machine for now.

Just keep making things up eh?