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

[Dio]

Ouch yes. Trying to work out what’s going on. She does not trip, is not pulled over by the cord. It looks like she is tricked by what she is seeing to thinking there is something she can lean on. Which is good that it’s that convincing but also scary. Maybe they need to come with an age warning.

All the existing systems have a big warning. It was under 11s for the first Oculus systems, I think they dropped it to 7s for the later ones. New Scientist had some research reported on that (at least from an eye damage point of view) there were no concerns for any age.

[Darkflame]

pfft, if it convinces you of its environment good enough to make you fall over, to me thats a good thing
(kids love falling over anyway)

[pogo]

[Bod]

Sony has finally announced the final price of the PlayStation VR. The virtual reality headset will cost $399 / £349, and it will be available in October 2016.

Sony also confirmed that the consumer version of the PlayStation VR will have the same technical specs that we've heard about: the main screen will be 1920x1080, and is capable of displaying games at up to 120 frames per second.

[pogo]

Pass me the barf bag !

http://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2016/03 ... ng-woes-2/

Before the Oculus Rift VR headset ships to its first preorder customers in 12 days, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey invited select press to a major preview event, which I wrote about here. I touched on some nausea issues, mostly in terms of particular examples of comfort and discomfort alike, but I skipped the larger question of the platform's immersive feeling in general.

That's because I spent roughly four hours after the preview event feeling sick. I felt stuck in a dizziness spell the likes of which I'd never experienced in over a year of major, lengthy VR preview events. In the past, I'd used more ineffective VR tracking systems, particularly Google Cardboard, and I'd used earlier Oculus kits with more "screendoor" problems and other visual issues.

This close to release it must be the version consumers will receive. They are trying to fix it in software, but it seems a more fundamental platform issue, affecting multiple games. It’s far too late to fix it in hardware, unless they delay shipping by months. But that would be preferable to releasing it, if it easily induces nausea.

[gilesgoat]

Sony has finally announced the final price of the PlayStation VR. The virtual reality headset will cost $399 / £349, and it will be available in October 2016.

Sony also confirmed that the consumer version of the PlayStation VR will have the same technical specs that we've heard about: the main screen will be 1920x1080, and is capable of displaying games at up to 120 frames per second.

I can again repeat that those 120 fps are "the icing on the cake" and is stuff that is going to make tremendous difference.

It's a thing that "if properly done you almost don't see is there" .. it's not a matter how "how fast it goes" but "how incredibly stable and natural the image feels", I almost tried that raspberry thing yesterday .. " and you don't see a thing going out a place " .. Sony engineer must have done tremendous work to have that tracking/etc. working SO fine

[edit] - I also better "don't tell anyone" not "how many minutes" or "how many hours" but "how many DAYS" I so far spent in VR, close to 8 hours a day most of time with the visor on.

I can tell you after N hours is a bit odd "one thing feels more natural, getting back to the real world feels a bit strange for a while"

But also after really so much use you'll find out that "switching between worlds" becomes almost "a second nature", it's like flipping a switch "from here to there" .. you get very used to it.

[Barney]

Giles, are you and Jeff going to support the Samsung Gear VR? I can't afford the other sets, so this is a neat compromise and from the reviews is actually a capable bit of kit - even Minecraft is coming to it (though I'm most looking forward to actually being there in Quake!).

[Rhythm]

So PC World Birstall has a Vive set up for demo. Just tried it and the negatives outweigh the (massive) positives.

Pros:

- ability to move around
- amazing 1:1 fidelity of those controllers
- grid system to keep you in the play zone

Cons:

- ability to move around. Seriously, that cable is fucking lethal
- screen door. Quite a bit worse than Google Cardboard, in fact.
- worst thing by far was that you can't play wearing glasses and there's no diopter control to adjust focus

[KlaxonCow]

Martyn of the Yogscast, who did those Oculus Rift videos I posted before, has gotten his hands on a HTC Vive:

[phattslagg]

That game should come with a sick bag

I'm really hoping there'll be a decent amount of content that doesn't cripple me with motion-sickness within 30 seconds flat.

[KlaxonCow]

Wow, this is one of the most impressive VR videos I've ever seen for the gameplay experience.



Looks like the Vive really has nailed making things nicely intuitive.

[Sir_LANs-a-lot]

I actually LOL'd when he started using the robots as puppets.

[pogo]

First units shipping today. Consumers won’t get them for a day or two but the press have them and are reviewing it.

[Whiteball]

Well, that was complete bollocks.

[Deckard]

Yeah and all the reviews I have read so far say the games could be done on a normal display.............Isn't there a balls out flagship experience to be had here yet ? Seems like a lot of money if there isn't.