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villarule123

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Giant Bomb are doing an Oculus live stream currently, and watching it I still can't quite escape from the fact that this technology, for gaming at least, at this moment in time, only seems to revolutionise experiences where you are seated in a first person environment. 

I've not seen everything there is on offer so I'm prepared to revisit that opinion, and of course it's still early days in VR, but on current showing I would run out to join the VR revolution. At worst some of these titles are bad tech demos to my eyes.

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Having watched more of the live stream (which if still going, 8 hours after it started) most of these titles are gimmicks or absolutely dreadful. There are a handful that seem to gain anything from VR.

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You know those VR headsets you see for phones, like the samsung one that you slot a samsung s7 into?

Are they just really expensive things that hold the phone an inch from your face? Or do they actually do something?

Edited by Stevo985
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30 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

You know those VR headsets you see for phones, like the samsung one that you slot a samsung s7 into?

Are they just really expensive things that hold the phone an inch from your face? Or do they actually do something?

The Samsung one has improved sensors and so on that improve latency, and also has lenses that improve the effect considerably.

The ones based off Google Cardboard are just holders for the phone with lenses.

Edited by Chindie
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I'm not sold on it at all. I think it looks quite gimicky to be honest. I love that tech/gaming is evolving but I'm not too sure I like this step in evolution. Simply, the one thing which will put me off and many others is the rather large headset that needs to be worn at all times. Once that develops and it gets streamlined I can see me jumping in then. 

Edited by PieFacE
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20 hours ago, Chindie said:

Giant Bomb are doing an Oculus live stream currently, and watching it I still can't quite escape from the fact that this technology, for gaming at least, at this moment in time, only seems to revolutionise experiences where you are seated in a first person environment. 

I've not seen everything there is on offer so I'm prepared to revisit that opinion, and of course it's still early days in VR, but on current showing I would run out to join the VR revolution. At worst some of these titles are bad tech demos to my eyes.

VR needs to be a standardised experience and thus PC is largely the worst avenue for VR. Yes PC gaming is largely heralded for being the best place to play games if you have a decent system, but not for VR. Oculus Rift's game library is very piecemeal it's very awash with real games and tech-demo's masquerading as games, the biggest issue though is that the variance in quality is huge as PC requirements are not set in stone. One game may target the wide demographic of VR users with a GTX 970 and thus the game looks dated and doesn't look or play great, another may target the 3-4% with a GTX 980Ti and it looks great but very few will play it. 

VR needs a console environment where the hardware spec stays the same and the console manufacturer can go out and contract studios to make games for it, not tech-demo's but actual games. PlayStation VR has games and many of them seem pretty cool and they are only going to get cooler as time goes on, Star Wars: Battlefront VR anyone? It's on the way. Yes the games on PlayStation VR may never look at pretty as an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive VR game targeting the highest spec systems out there, but install base counts for everything. Just having 1-2 million Oculus Rift's in the wild doesn't matter if only 70% can play some games, 26% can play slightly better games and 4% can play the best looking games. On a console if 1-2 million buy PlayStation VR then all of them can play the game and enjoy the game at the same standard and quality as everyone else, and that is going to count for a lot going forward.  

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9 minutes ago, Daweii said:

VR needs to be a standardised experience and thus PC is largely the worst avenue for VR. Yes PC gaming is largely heralded for being the best place to play games if you have a decent system, but not for VR. Oculus Rift's game library is very piecemeal it's very awash with real games and tech-demo's masquerading as games, the biggest issue though is that the variance in quality is huge as PC requirements are not set in stone. One game may target the wide demographic of VR users with a GTX 970 and thus the game looks dated and doesn't look or play great, another may target the 3-4% with a GTX 980Ti and it looks great but very few will play it. 

VR needs a console environment where the hardware spec stays the same and the console manufacturer can go out and contract studios to make games for it, not tech-demo's but actual games. PlayStation VR has games and many of them seem pretty cool and they are only going to get cooler as time goes on, Star Wars: Battlefront VR anyone? It's on the way. Yes the games on PlayStation VR may never look at pretty as an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive VR game targeting the highest spec systems out there, but install base counts for everything. Just having 1-2 million Oculus Rift's in the wild doesn't matter if only 70% can play some games, 26% can play slightly better games and 4% can play the best looking games. On a console if 1-2 million buy PlayStation VR then all of them can play the game and enjoy the game at the same standard and quality as everyone else, and that is going to count for a lot going forward.  

I'm not sure I agree.

The PC has become the avenue for VR because of the power necessary to operate it to a good standard. It's incredibly hardware demanding. The PlayStation VR needs a booster pack to operate to full capacity because the PS4 isn't capable of running it alone.

The Rift specs are so high that most things released today are going to be playable on a Rift machine. There may be some variance in quality but that's standard on PC at this point. Pretty much everything is playable. There's nothing stopping developers making good VR games with this variance. At the moment the problem is understanding how to make VR games. So far the obvious moves have been cockpits, and less commonly 'table top' viewpoints. Going forward they will fix that, but for the time being they have to push the technology and see how things work. That's why the day one Rift offering was rubbish. It literally is tech demos in many cases. That'll change - whether it becomes a successful format with killer titles of up in the air - I'm not convinced.

The PS VR was demoed recently and that had as much tech demo feel as Rift does. Perhaps some of them hide it a little better, but you have things like Headmaster which is absolutely a proof of concept demoing ideas in a mini game. Much like the Rift. Battlefront is being spoken as an 'experience' -they aren't porting Battlefront to VR wholesale, they're developing something that takes elements of it and uses VR to complement it. They may never do a true VR Battlefront.

VR's hurdles to overcome are the technical limitations, working out how it works, what works, how to use VR in gaming successfully, and secondly the cost. The cost is a massive barrier to entry. The Rift and Vive are too expensive at the moment for many to join in, and have associated cost of a PC able to use it. But the PlayStation VR is expensive as well. It's cheaper, but it still isn't going to get massive numbers on board. It won't become mass market until the jumping on point is attainable and justifiable for the masses. I'm not convinced it'll do that any time soon.

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Giant Bomb are doing a Vive live stream at the moment.

Same story as the Oculus so far, the games are slight and very tech demo esque, but the Vive does appear to benefit from the touch control and 'room space' stuff.

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Where I can see this working is in story based, open world games. To give you an increased sense of immersion in a storyline or environment but without hugely demanding controls. Sorta like

Beyond that, I don't see it being anything other than a bit of a sideshow.

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So far it's shown most promise in cockpit based titles, shooting galleries and anything with a table top or similar style environment. Anything else has been a bit slight and messy.

The Vive seems a little more flexible with the room size stuff but it still isn't ideal - movement is always going to be a problem.

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The thing I don't understand is why games have to be developed specifically for it. Surely your VR headset comes with software that coverts the normal mouse movement that controls your field of vision into a head movement sensor built into the VR headset. i.e. instead of moving your mouse you move your head.

Overall I think this could be the future as it would give a proper sense of immersion into FPS, racing, etc. games. It'll be interesting to see how the technology progresses as it could also make motion controls relevant rather than just a gimmick. 

Edited by villa89
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I'm pretty excited by the Virtuix Omni, which has been known about for years but I only just found out about it last week, it's an omnidirectional treadmill for use with VR headsets, with a barrier around the perimeter to stop you falling on your arse. It allows for far more freedom in the games, rather than just being stuck in your seat, or using the same few tricks over and over again to allow you to move but being restricted by the size of your room.

I'll wait and see what the games catalogue looks like, but I've got my eye on the Vive, the Omni, and a beefy graphics card upgrade this time next year.

 

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The motion control stuff is going nowhere with it. It's an integral element of the experience for many games that will be using this tech. Oculus is launching it's own, slightly different, take on the motion control later this year, Vive has launched with it to apparently great effect and PSVR utilises the Move controller where necessary.

That isn't to say it's a requirement though and anything cockpit based just utilises the ability to look around and the immersion that brings with enveloping 3D. By all accounts Elite with VR and a HOTAS set up is a revelation.

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  • 1 year later...

I've just got an Oculus Rift and I can safely say that these are the future, when it becomes more affordable. There's actually a lot of content for it, which I was surprised by. Robo Recall, Superhot VR, Dirt Rally, Echo Arena are just a few of the games that are superb. But easily the most played game so far for me is Eleven Table Tennis, it's almost lifelike apart from the fact you don't have to run around after the ball. 

Google Earth has just been updated to include Streetview, so I can now stand anywhere in the world and it's as if I'm really there. You can't move around in Streetview yet though, I'd imagine that will be in a future update. 

If everyone could afford/try one, I think they would be the next big thing. 

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