Oculus Rift?

[SophosTheWise]

Heya guys

 

You guys have probably already heard of the Oculus Rift (since it's a Kickstarter thing...) and all of you probably had the same reaction - Meh, Virtual Boy 2. Boy, were we wrong.

 

 

And the obligatory Reddit-thread:

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/16o4mu/oculus_rift_reactionsingame_footage/

 

What do you guys think?

[AwesomeOcelot]

No, still meh. I like playing games, all I can see is this being worse for that. Can they give me an experience that's as good as a monitor? Not with a 30ms refresh rate. Are they giving me useful features for gaming? Head tilting and turning if anything will be detrimental to my gaming experience. This is the next Wiimote or Sixaxis. It scares me that people are claiming this is going to revolutionize PC gaming or is going to be the future of a gaming. When it can replace monitors it will be, but it obviously can't now. I can see it being cool for games specifically made for it, but I would wait until a later generation. VR sets have advantages, but there's still issues with it that I can't see getting solved for a while at an affordable price.

 

They making some claims I doubt they can back up, like having a high fps with vsync on the consumer version with stereoscopic 1080p. The kit they're using is 1280×800.

 

I think head (but not necessarily tilt) and eye tracking, also more touch support, will be coming to PC gaming with monitors.

[Gorgon]

It's basically what they wanted to do in the 90s with VR, but couldn't. It would be great for a compact gaming system, something that would fit in a small bag. The real question is how will it do endurance wize. Is it something you could bear having on for a few hours at a time. The hardware issues aren't insurmountable and the screens are already there. Apple retina display for instance. It should be able to mimic stereoscopic vision better than current generation 3D.

[LadyCrimson]

The day I have to play games wearing some large, awkward, thing on my head/over my ears is the day I quit gaming. As a novelty for a few uses, fine, but a complete replacement? No.

 

That looks like it would be uncomfortable to wear for more than a couple hours, not to mention reduce awareness of any other environment going on around you. I don't like that. Playing with my husband, we couldn't look at each other anymore, see that the other person is raising their hand in a "yes" gesture, or see what the other person was seeing (like with two monitors side by side). Too closed off a system.

 

Also, one still looks like a total goober wearing something like that and moving the head around to something no one else can see. Playing on a monitor, my head hardly moves. Wearing that thing, I bet I'd get a neckache in no time.

[Gorgon]

You don't have to move your head at all, the controller can do that. I do kinda suspect the wow factor will wear off after a while. We'll see what actual humans (as opposed to gaming journalists) think when production models start becomming available.

[LadyCrimson]

I know you don't have to move your head ... but people tend to do it instinctively when watching something takes up all their vision - especially when including their peripheral. It's like how people wearing headphones tend to talk really loud even tho they don't have to in order to be heard by others. I know people who still move their heads when playing on a monitor. I mean look at the 2nd/3rd guys in the video. They're moving they're head all over the place and that's when not doing any combat/adrenalin.

[samm]

I think it will be a great gaming experience once the consumer version is out Will certainly affect games' visual design because people will simply see it differently from what they know from a monitor (size of the world and its virtual inhabitants, as well as their visual details etc) and cause a new need for more potent graphics hardware. May be still a bit too unwieldy for some years, but once some combination with a google-glass-project-alike in even smaller, using projectors directly aiming on the eye, it's going to be the end of monitors as we know them.

[Bokishi]

I want one! When's it coming out?

[samm]

Could play avant-garde and order the dev-version right now  They ship by May. There's one sensor lacking however (for head movements forward and backward), and the display will allegedly be higher resolution on the end-user version. The end-user version has no date set in stone yet, they want to launch it when enough content is ready - so that could take some time (year, maybe?)

 

I'm pretty hyped about this actually and will probably buy new high-end hardware for that once it's out, get the feeling that one 7970 just won't be enough  xD

Edited January 19, 2013 by samm

[Bokishi]

same here, I'll wait for the gtx 780 or 880

[Gorgon]

So you need content designed for the display in order to even use it. That's doesn't bode well for the success of the device. Or are they  just talking about having more demos ready for a maximum launch effect.

[samm]

Apart from that maximum launch effect there are the following technical reasons that I can think of: it's not like any game just knows what to do with all those sensor readings or how to alternatingly or even simultaneously render from two viewpoints   Seeing how hyped press and game devs are about this (Doom 3 BFG was not least released for that, Carmack invested quite some time in the Rift), I don't really worry about content.

 

On the plus side: It's possible, that purely as a display, it might be used by any 3D-display-capable game, because said limitation of two viewpoints has already been solved there. Maybe they'll even ship their own display driver à la 3D-Vision, Tridef or iZ3D (R.I.P.)

Edited January 19, 2013 by samm

[ManifestedISO]

Okay, so there have been some development leaps since the Rift's debut. This month at E3, the device was shown using Epic's Unreal Engine 4 tech demo in HD 1080p. Until now, I have been totally ambivalent and ignorant of the potential of the Rift. I assumed it was merely a monitor that sits on my face. Turns out, I was wrong. Some quotes from this article ...

 

 

In it players fly a spaceship using an Xbox 360 controller while the Oculus Rift tracks their head movements. This works incredibly well because just like when you're controlling a vehicle in real life, you can look around and move independently.

 

The sense of space in this demo (no pun intended) was simply astounding. Tilting our head down, we could see our knees in the game; we found ourselves moving our arms and expecting our in-game avatar's arms to move as well.

 

 

Imagine the depth of immersion at being able to move your head view independently of forward control ... 

 

[ravenshrike]

Until the tech can be set so you can shift from VR to AR when other humans are about or loud enough noises outside the headset occur I'll pass.

[samm]

Oculus acquired by Facebook for 2 billion.

 

Please let this be a hoax... oh please...

 

[edit]Otoh, Obs also worked on that ridiculously simple TB "RPG" Stick of Truth and now on a Free to Play *redacted* Tank *redacted* Online *redacted* game. So it shouldn't surprise me that business just has nothing to do with sympathy or principles. It shouldn't, but it still does *sigh*

Edited March 25, 2014 by samm

[ManifestedISO]

Well that validates putting all my chips on Project Morpheus VR for Playstation. Since this thread was last active, I've lost interest in the Oculus ... I think because no emotion or soul seems to emanate from the design. 

[samm]

So far, the Rift was always a technology preview, not a design piece. Morpheus on the other hand works the other way around, design first, function barely good enough. Depends on everyone's priorities to decide which one suits the needs.

[Bokishi]

Haha lameeeee

[Humanoid]

Somewhat amusingly, the realisation arrives: John Carmack is now a Facebook developer.

[Bryy]

I need to stop reading the comments on the OR KS page. They are far, far too stupid.

[Bokishi]

Just realized that Facebook is known for buying businesses and leaving them alone, but supplying ample amounts of funding. I still think occlus is safe for the time being, and may even be developed faster, and become more affordable.

[ManifestedISO]

And drive competition. A trio of designs from Oculus, Sony, and Microsoft, might just elevate this from a niche peripheral. 

[Bokishi]

Good article

 

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-you-shouldn-t-worry-about-facebook-buying-oculus-rift/1100-6418545/

[Aoyagi]

Just realized that Facebook is known for buying businesses and leaving them alone, but supplying ample amounts of funding. I still think occlus is safe for the time being, and may even be developed faster, and become more affordable.

 

 

Good article

 

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-you-shouldn-t-worry-about-facebook-buying-oculus-rift/1100-6418545/

 

Defenders of the deal are always talking (only) about Instagram, but that was a company with already fully developed good economy, not a startup-ish HW developer. As for FB supporting open software, of course they do, they use it in their servers. However, I'm not aware they have ever supported consumer-side open software. Also the article is anything but good if it starts with "Why You Shouldn’t Worry about..."

 

Here's and something I can relate to 

 

Edited March 27, 2014 by Aoyagi

[Mor]

What do you guys think?

That it will be another overpriced gadget mostly for consoles, that will support only "next gen" games.