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

[zbandito]

HTC & Valve Steam VR setup including walk around sensors and laser rangefinder, out in 2015.

Odd vertical camera arrangement, eh?

http://www.htcvr.com

[pogo]

Video from that site. You get a brief look at the product after lots of fluff.

[Darkflame]

I cant wait to live in a half virtual world......then maybe people will stop this obsession with vertically strolling sites. EVERYONE has them.
Seriously. Try. Something. New. urg.

Maybe at least...gasp....horizontal scrolling?
Or, you know, pages.

[Jamesac]

So I kind of hate that video. Vive may be decent, despite having a name only slightly better than Wii, but that video made me actively not want it. The message was "stand and watch". I came here to game, and gaming is about doing. I've got better things to do than be a passive observer.

Obviously I'm expecting the headset to be far more than a head-mounted video screen, but that promo video? Terrible.

[pogo]

I'm sure there will be better photos along shortly but this gives you some idea:

edit: One more:

[pogo]

Looks pretty ugly but it is only a prototype. Interesting design: instead of wrapping around your face it drops down like a visor which might be more comfortable, certainly will be more useful for a quick peek at the keyboard/controller. Specs sound impressive but the proof will be in third party i.e. reporter testing.

[gilesgoat]

Looks pretty ugly but it is only a prototype. Interesting design: instead of wrapping around your face it drops down like a visor which might be more comfortable, certainly will be more useful for a quick peek at the keyboard/controller. Specs sound impressive but the proof will be in third party i.e. reporter testing.

.. if you think that's ugly .. consider yourself lucky you haven't seen the PREVIOUS prototype now that was something like "straight out from the lab's desk" .. with people like you thinking "that's ugly" I can see better now why Sony are so "overly cautious" before to put up stuff.

Eeeh you don't know what developers have to deal with

[Darkflame]

pft. Who cares what this stuff looks like. You wont see it when your using it and unless your having some sort of weird console fashion show in your house no one else is going to care.

I do wish everyone could get together on a standard for this stuff though, so any HMD you buy could work on any other HMD-enabled system. Would make it a lot more tempting for developers and consumers alike.

[gilesgoat]

pft. Who cares what this stuff looks like. You wont see it when your using it and unless your having some sort of weird console fashion show in your house no one else is going to care.

I do wish everyone could get together on a standard for this stuff though, so any HMD you buy could work on any other HMD-enabled system. Would make it a lot more tempting for developers and consumers alike.

50% - 50% situation ... if there would be no competition/differences ( I think ) there would be little improvements .. now "in a PURE theorectical way" actually even NOW I don't think "there's so much so" that would actually PREVENT that .. you should not ask this to "the HMD manufacturers" in this case ( I think ) we are going to "hit more" around the OSes/GPU/video card manufacturers.

Anyway there I think a lot of costs/market problems .. and maybe even more in SW development .. remember "all those devices are almost NOTHING if you DO NOT have really NICE SW " .. and the potential to make "really shitty SW" is HIGHER than actually making a nice HW device.

As usual , in a way , it's easier to make a nice HMD device rather than making a really nice VR experience ..

The device is fine, the SW is shit .. your breakfast is out .. and you are fucked ..

[edit] actually, IMHO, it would be "LOT more tempting" for developers if there are .. 5 .. 6 REALLY GOOD devices on the market to go on with rather than "everyone and his dog, 50 .. 100 so and so whatever mixed value devices" around ..

"Less is better than more".

[pogo]

pft. Who cares what this stuff looks like. You wont see it when your using it and unless your having some sort of weird console fashion show in your house no one else is going to care.

If you don’t live on your own then you are very much aware what you look like (your family members/significant other will waste no time telling you). There’s also getting people to try them on in store, to persuade them to buy, and having something that‘s an attractive item for POS displays.

It is just a prototype. The final version should look different, possibly more slimline and lightweight as they’ve a year to work on making things smaller and optimising chip size and power usage. Developer prototypes are often downright ugly and nothing like retail versions. The difference is they’ve chosen to show this one in public, which suggests they think highly of it and it is something like the final version.

[pogo]

More coverage, and very positive:

One year later, Sony’s new Morpheus prototype is still VR done right

The use of Move is interesting, and could be key in providing a usable interface for VR. The problem with traditional controllers is they constrain you to keeping your hands on the controller, limiting interaction and expressibility (keyboard + mouse is even worse, and hobbled by not being able to see the keyboard). Kinkect/gesture recognition is worse in a different direction, imprecise and reliant on ideal conditions/setup. As they say, “done right”, and it’s hard to argue with. Rather puts Oculus on the spot as AFAIK they don’t have any input solution.

[gilesgoat]

TWO things :

- one I am biting my lips here ..
- two "don't judge ANY of those things until you tried them DIRECTLY

.. seeing is believing ... not seeing is thinking you know what you don't really know ..

[Darkflame]

pft. Who cares what this stuff looks like. You wont see it when your using it and unless your having some sort of weird console fashion show in your house no one else is going to care.

If you don’t live on your own then you are very much aware what you look like (your family members/significant other will waste no time telling you).

If you think your EVER going to not look like an idiot when your eyes are covered with a visor I think your kidding yourself.
Doesn't matter how they tweak the curves or make it apple-white and shiny. Its just the nature of big things on your head - or even just covering your eyes.
When playing an even half-good video game it will get better too; Your going to move about. Even if it isn't fancy motion stuff, its just natural instinct to move when your playing games. Lean left and right when driving. lean forward to "look closer" or react in shock when something happens.
Without people in the real world knowing whats going on, your always going to look silly.

But it matters diddly squat. The Wii sold just fine. Hell, plenty of those singing/karaoke games do fine too. Looking silly when playing games is not going to stop sales. Hell, its half of "looking like your having fun".

The use of Move is interesting, and could be key in providing a usable interface for VR. The problem with traditional controllers is they constrain you to keeping your hands on the controller, limiting interaction and expressibility (keyboard + mouse is even worse, and hobbled by not being able to see the keyboard). Kinkect/gesture recognition is worse in a different direction, imprecise and reliant on ideal conditions/setup. As they say, “done right”, and it’s hard to argue with. Rather puts Oculus on the spot as AFAIK they don’t have any input solution.

Leapmotion for VR seems to be putting a lot of effort into it, they have interface libs for VR that seem pretty nice;


https://developer.leapmotion.com/galler ... n-the-moon
Hard to get hands on impressions I trust though because you need to own both a Rift and a Leapmotion.

I certainly think for a large number of US uses hand sensing makes the most sense.

With two exceptions;
1. Games where your character is holding a device anyway. A tennis racket, a gun, a sword. In this case having yor hand empty is going to feel worse, regardless of how good the sensing it.

2. Character movement. Analogue sticks are still by far the best here. Single stick in the hand somewhere comfortably near the thumb.

[pogo]

- two "don't judge ANY of those things until you tried them DIRECTLY

I can’t argue with this except to say initially, and for weeks if not months or even years, most people’s main way of finding out about them will be through the press. You’ll pick up your favourite newspaper or more likely visit your favourite tech web site and read what they have to say. Based on that you’ll decide whether you need to try them out first or even to buy them unseen based solely on press reports.

So not only now but up to and after launch the press will be a very valuable source of information; of which VR platform is best, or best value. Of what works and what doesn’t work. Especially any health issues such as nausea, what causes it and who is most vulnerable to it. Advice on who needs to try first and who can just go ahead and buy them.

So I’ll keep reading the press reports, especially now the hardware vendors are giving the press time with them and letting them report their experiences. The more this happens the more useful it is, and right now it’s the best if not only way for 99% of us to find out about the technology.

[Dio]

I certainly wouldn't be at all surprised if the final displays have some kind of hinge to trivially fold it up and down from the eyes. It's been pointed out many times by developers what a ballache it is continually taking the thing on and off when doing testing, and many similar issues apply in real life (especially if it's hard to remove e.g. glasses wearer like me).