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Re: VR

#551

Post by JBlue42 »

ENGNR wrote: post #442
JBlue42 wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Agreed that the first iPhone was special, it let me move across the country without knowing a soul for two thousand miles with confidence. What was your alternative way to move across the country?

There used to be a weird merge between google maps and 2D printing

There was also that old man Rand McNally. Or stopping somewhere and asking for directions. I think you might've managed fine without the iPhone.

It's nice to get accurate directions when you really, really need it. There's also something to be said for getting lost or wandering every now and then.

Re: VR

#552

Post by madrox »

fooey wrote: post #360
evo_9 wrote: post #12

I bought a Vive the week of Thanksgiving and have been using it roughly 2 hours a day. Every other day is my workout day most of the week (unless I'm playing hockey that day/night) and the VIVE has become part of my workout now too. After I complete my normal workout - a mixture of hockey specific training, free weights, aerobic and of course tons of pull-ups - I now spend an additional hour+ in VR. I typically play…

Maybe I'm just lazy, but VR games requiring physical exertion have absolutely zero appeal to me. I want to sit back with a keyboard and controller and relax. I include any kind of room scale in that assessment, and personally, just the idea of wearing a thing on your face and having to crane your neck around to see what's going on sounds like a PITA. I honestly and truly don't understand why people think VR is going…

That was my stance, as well, especially after trying some of the early Oculus demos. I was converted the first time I played a game where I really had to aim a gun and reload it by grabbing a new clip and slamming it into the gun. It's a different kind of experience.

True, it isn't all that different from what you may get out of a Wii or a Kinect, but it's more immersive, and that makes a huge difference in how engaged you become.

Re: VR

#553

Post by e12e »

sevensor wrote: post #290
iplaw wrote: post #10

Blown away? Hyperbole of the century. At CES this year, I tried all the VR/AR tech I could get my hands on. Microsoft HoloLens, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Sony VR, Galaxy Gear, and everything in between. I wasn't expecting much and yet I was still underwhelmed. There is zero immersion, primarily due to the poor resolution, the screen door effect, and the crippled field of view. It felt like watching a scene through a pai…

I'm old enough to remember the last VR boom. I was even lucky enough to work in a CAVE for a bit. That hype train derailed around 2000. The same promises were made, the same breathless enthusiasm, the same feeling that we were about to ascend into the cybernetic matrix. It didn't turn out that way, and the only thing that's fundamentally changed is that the hardware is cheaper. This is going to bankrupt some investor…

> the only thing that's fundamentally changed is that the hardware is cheaper.

The same thing might have been said about the commodore 64. Hardware being accessible to the (rich) consumer vs only to research labs and businesses is enough of a difference to create new industries!

Re: VR

#554

Post by e12e »

freehunter wrote: post #306
JabavuAdams wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The games I like the best works better without VR. Sim racing games could be one exception, but are, for the moment, better with a triple monitor setup. Games like Pillars of Eternity have no need for VR, IMO. This is a very valid criticism. The current limitations of VR require developers to design different kinds of games. I found Valve's The Lab to be excellent. It's frustrating as a designer, because you may no…

I haven't actually played any games in VR yet, but is there any reason the headset couldn't display a normal game? Even if it doesn't need VR and doesn't benefit in any way from head tracking or 3D visuals, just imagining a hypothetical future situation where all 2D monitors on the face of the Earth are replaced by VR headsets, you could still play Pillars of Eternity on a VR headset and it wouldn't be any worse, rig…

I think minecraft is a great illustration of some of the limits of vr today: it defaults to a theatre mode, but also has the option of pov gaming. The latter is terrible for moving around - but works OK for standing still and looking around.

For now simulator-like games such as Elite:Dangerous are the most interesting. I'm sure we'll Se a couple of nice "room scale" games - but "sitting in a cockpit" fixes many of the issues related to movement etc.

Then, I think a backpack rig (Pc) coupled with custom controllers (eg: a softgun with tracking hardware and trigger support) will enable vr theme park games; a typical indoor paintball range with padded corners mapped in 3d - rendered over with vr goggles. I assume the first ones would need custom tracking hw.

Re: VR

#555

Post by e12e »

guelo wrote: post #244

People already spend significant amounts of time on game console screens and there hasn't been an explosion of non-game apps on those.

I remember being surprised at the number of productivity apps available for the gameboy in Japan. I suppose it was a herald of the the success smart phones would become.

It's not just about technology, but also about culture.

Re: VR

#556

Post by andybak »

nsxwolf wrote: post #532
andybak wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy - as that time period includes the Oculus Touch launch titles. That gives me: 1. SuperHot 2. Arizona Sunshine 3. The Unspoken 4. Dead and Buried Looking through Steam sorted by user reviews: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Reviews_DESC&t... Gives me another easy set. I'll stick to things I own or I've heard almost universally good things about: 5. Smashbox Arena 6. Sairento 7. QuivR 8. Distance 9.…

Thanks for this reply. Did not know SuperHot had a VR version. I definitely will check that out at least.

It's short but it's astonishing. Totally worth it.

I can't imagine how the game works not in VR.

Re: VR

#557

Post by [deleted] »

callmeed wrote: post #409
dmix wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laserdisc failed because of cost/competition from competing platforms. 3D TVs were an add-on to a commodity product to help differentiate it in a technologically stagnate market. Google glass was experimental. VR on the other hand is a technology evolution. You could argue we're too early in the adoption hockey stick. But I doubt you could even begin to compare it to those other products. It seems like there are alre…

Ok, so what other mainstream product/technology went through a similar evolution as you claim VR is doing now? Recall 2 things: 1. VR has been tried in the past and went nowhere. 2. Adoption of mainstream things is usually pretty steep (cell phones, PCs, TV, Internet access)[1] If you're saying current VR hardware are the "mainframe computers of the 60s and 70s" and we're still yet to see what the "personal computer…

[deleted]

Re: VR

#558

Post by jackmodern »

SeoxyS wrote: post #547
jackmodern wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this, I work at Facebook and try out all of the demo devices over at Oculus. I keep hoping that they are going to advance the pixel density, but have gotten so disappointed by it that I've stopped testing their new equipment at all in the last few months. That and the team of folks that work on it are outrageously arrogant. Looking at you Charmaine/pedoguy.

If you actually work at Facebook, this maybe isn't something you should share on a public forum…

put in my 2 weeks not long ago.

Re: VR

#559

Post by Vraxx »

nsxwolf wrote: post #258
Vraxx wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall reading in most places that you are not supposed to get the HTC default foam pads wet and that it causes them to degrade quicker. Anecdotally, my wide face cushion has way less definition and is squishier than my narrow face cushion. This is definitely in part because the narrow one gets used less often, but I figured sweat was definitely a factor

I've been totally immersing mine and drying it out so far without any problems. Can't be all that different than sweat itself. If we're not supposed to be getting these wet, then we shouldn't be doing VR workouts at all.

That has been my worry, but I figured I'd just buy new foam pads from HTC at worst. It does say not to get them wet in the manual. To alleviate this, I just purchased replacement pads that were machine washable from a 3rd party supplier.

Re: VR

#560

Post by intrasight »

janoc wrote: post #525
intrasight wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you only need high resolution and high color at the fovea. Eye tracking will be the key to making VR/AR low-power and high-quality.

It won't, no worries. Eye tracking in an HMD, whether AR or VR is hugely complicated from engineering point of view. There is a reason why an HMD eye tracking kit costs several thousands of USD. Moreover, from the rendering point of view, foveated rendering is a fairly complex thing to integrate into a 3D engine too. It is definitelly not "free". Foveated rendering is certainly no panacea.

No panacea but another important piece of the puzzle. The software part may be complex - but it is just software, and once done, we all benefit from 10x battery life. Eye tracking hardware is complex but Lots of ongoing R&D - the outcome of which will be sensor chips which can be added to HMDs.
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