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

[The ghost of raids past]

'ang on a second... Consumer rift is bundled with an Xbox one pad - Xbox one pads have recently been advertised as having a dongle which requires Windows 10 - thus to use the Consumer rift I need Windows 10?
I'm not especially happy about that - I still haven't found a good reason to stop using Windows 7 yet.

Windows 10 is a free upgrade to any with windows 7 or above for 1 year. There seems very little reason to keep with Windows 7.

[pogo]

That would be an odd requirement for the still not out Windows 10. It will obviously be released by the time Rift ships but it will be several years before Windows 10 is on most PCs. But it would explain MS’s involvement as they ramp up to a “Windows 10 everywhere” strategy. The Rift support for Xbox One consists of live streaming of Xbox One games to Rift, but only if both are running Windows 10.

Yes it’s a free upgrade but the advice usually is to hold off upgrading any new version of Windows until you know there are no problems and all your apps are compatible. Windows 8 came out almost three years ago but still only accounts for a small fraction of the installed base. And Windows 10 is potentially an even more disruptive upgrade as it’s skipping a version for most people.

[gravy]

It's Win10 only if you want the pad to work wireless IIRC

[Mqark]

'ang on a second... Consumer rift is bundled with an Xbox one pad - Xbox one pads have recently been advertised as having a dongle which requires Windows 10 - thus to use the Consumer rift I need Windows 10?
I'm not especially happy about that - I still haven't found a good reason to stop using Windows 7 yet.

Windows 10 is a free upgrade to any with windows 7 or above for 1 year. There seems very little reason to keep with Windows 7.

The Konix Emulator currently doesn't play nice with windows 8 (at least on my rig) and there's been little innovation past win 7 that I need on a non-touchscreen desktop PC that's not trying to be a tablet.

And besides - windows. Pfff

[merman]

There's good and bad points about bundling the Xbone controller.

On the one hand people know the layout and developers are familiar with it.

On the other - why not a bespoke controller? How about combining so,e of the best tech - accelerometer, touchpad, feedback - and coming up with new ways to interact.

[gumboot]

Pogo's odd, he's got a point of view about what's going to happen despite never even seen any of this kit in the flesh let alone tried it.

Well that's what happens when companies who aren't Apple try to "invent" things.

[pogo]

Pogo's odd, he's got a point of view about what's going to happen despite never even seen any of this kit in the flesh let alone tried it. And keen to argue the toss with people who've been lucky to have an inside peek into the future.

I don't think the current round of tech is mass market but that's okay, it will be one day and my gut feel is this will be succesful enough to keep it going and an important step towards immersion into synthetic worlds being everyday.

Oddly then I think I agree with the second paragraph. I too think it a niche product, rather than mass market. And like other niche gaming peripherals it will have limited impact, mostly as developers of AAA games can support it but won’t be able to justify betting their livelihood on it.

One day it should be mass market. But I think that will only happen when it moves beyond gaming, so is something you can use all the time and everywhere, not just connected to a PC or console. That means AR rather than VR so it enhances your environment, doesn’t just replace it. Essentially Google or Microsoft’s vision of a multi-purpose, always on smart device. These will still play games, but as with phones and tablets that will be only one of the things they do.

[Whiteball]

Once you've played a good game that is well implemented in VR then you will never be able to play it again without VR.
If they get this right it can not fail to be mainstream for games. It is a 'game changer' in the truest sense of the word.

[Muttley]

'ang on a second... Consumer rift is bundled with an Xbox one pad - Xbox one pads have recently been advertised as having a dongle which requires Windows 10 - thus to use the Consumer rift I need Windows 10?
I'm not especially happy about that - I still haven't found a good reason to stop using Windows 7 yet.

Not even the fact Microsoft are giving all Windows 7 users a free upgrade?

[Jamesac]

So use a wired Xbox 360 pad. Doesn't come with the rift but so what? It's just a standard game pad. It's not an exclusive requirement.

[pogo]

RealDoll is working on AI and robotic heads for its next-gen sex dolls
Commercially available in two years for £6,400. Full body next for £19-38k.

The highlight is the NSFW but fascinating video, which shows using Rift with sex dolls. That’s one use that’s not been mentioned but is probably inevitable as it is will all new media: porn. And not just software for expensive sex dolls but purely digital media such as erotic interactive experiences made for VR.

[Dio]

There's already plenty of VR bongo out there.

[pogo]

More smoke and mirrors: you are not getting to see what he is seeing but what the camera seen at 4:20 is seeing. They bill it as a camera with a Hololens but a camera, even a HD camera, is only the size of a phone today. That’s a large computer with the camera and Hololens bolted on. At the same time the thing on his head looks like a final design, but they are probably years from having it working in such a small space.

Not sure Minecraft is the best thing to show this off: it’s an impressive technical demo but the gameplay sucks. Gestures and voice commands are just too limited, compared to e.g. what you can do with mouse and keyboard, or even an Xbox-type controller. It will get better, maybe much better: MS probably bought Mojang as the killer app for Hololens and they no doubt will keep working on it until launch, whenever that is.

[gumboot]

Might have been a little harsh on Cardboard, before. Still not exactly immersive, but some demos are better than the ones I started with. Definitely worth five quid or so, if you're not going to buy an OR or similar any time soon.

Has anyone had a chance to compare them?

Also, I learned that the switch on the side is just a magnet and that is detected by the phone's compass. So I'm really not sure how it figures out what direction you're facing.

[zbandito]

http://www.roadtovr.com/hands-on-oculus ... al-worlds/