Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World • Hacker News Board

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#31

Post by mtgx » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 1:18 AM UTC

gokfar wrote: post #24

How well would this work for a desktop environment, in combination with a Leap?

Motion sensors with true accuracy are probably still a few years away before they are more than just gimmicks in games, but it would be interesting if you could "interact" with the game with your hands, too, while seeing the virtual weapon that you have through Oculus, in your hands, and using it would be so accurate that it wouldn't feel disconnected from that "real" virtual reality you're in through Oculus. You'd actually feel as if you're fighting with a sword and killing that monster in front of you with it, even though you wouldn't have anything in your hand in the real world.

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#32

Post by aaronblohowiak » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 1:19 AM UTC

mhb wrote: post #28

stock_toaster wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about trauma from "dying" in a game that is so immersive it "tricks" your brain into thinking it is real -- example from the article about him sticking out his tongue to try and catch snow without thinking about it. I wonder if we will start seeing more people in therapy for PTSD from gaming .

Brainstorm: A team of scientists invents "the Hat", a brain/computer interface that allows sensations to be recorded from a person's brain and converted to tape so that others can experience them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)

Also: Strange Days, Total Recall and Blade Runner.

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#33

Post by abe_duarte » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 1:33 AM UTC

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #32

mhb wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brainstorm: A team of scientists invents "the Hat", a brain/computer interface that allows sensations to be recorded from a person's brain and converted to tape so that others can experience them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)

Also: Strange Days, Total Recall and Blade Runner.

awesome movies!

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#34

Post by aaronblohowiak » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 1:34 AM UTC

wlesieutre wrote: post #29

twiceaday wrote: post #4

... only if game developers fully embrace it.

They're handing integration with Unity and UDK, so that's a lot of devs who will be able to use it with minimal effort. Whether they do also depends on enough consumers owning them that devs feel it's worth the time. Bit of a chicken and egg problem; I hope they can pull it off. The 8000 units sold on Kickstarter suggest there's enough demand to make it work.

Also, since the dev kits come with Doom3, I assume Id Tech 4

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#35

Post by abe_duarte » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 1:35 AM UTC

When is this scheduled to come out for retail???

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#36

Post by stock_toaster » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 1:38 AM UTC

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #30

stock_toaster wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about trauma from "dying" in a game that is so immersive it "tricks" your brain into thinking it is real -- example from the article about him sticking out his tongue to try and catch snow without thinking about it. I wonder if we will start seeing more people in therapy for PTSD from gaming .

DFW predicted the rise of an entertainment so engrossing that people lost interest in doing anything else[1]. From bookworms to couch potatoes to video game addiction[2], we have seen ever-enriched simulations develop over the last few hundred years. People are already dying from neglecting their "meatspace" selves[3]; this will only increase in popularity. This does give some hint as to what people will "do" post-si…

I am speaking more of direct sensory based shock, at "dying" or fear (horror genre), as apposed to "neglecting meatspace concerns".

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#37

Post by mtgx » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 2:04 AM UTC

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #30

stock_toaster wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about trauma from "dying" in a game that is so immersive it "tricks" your brain into thinking it is real -- example from the article about him sticking out his tongue to try and catch snow without thinking about it. I wonder if we will start seeing more people in therapy for PTSD from gaming .

DFW predicted the rise of an entertainment so engrossing that people lost interest in doing anything else[1]. From bookworms to couch potatoes to video game addiction[2], we have seen ever-enriched simulations develop over the last few hundred years. People are already dying from neglecting their "meatspace" selves[3]; this will only increase in popularity. This does give some hint as to what people will "do" post-si…

Like it or not, that may be the future, where we're always "plugged in". We already do that with the Internet. We may even feel physical pain from not being able to access the Internet for a few days, and dearly "miss" it. I imagine this sort of feeling will only become more powerful as technology becomes more advanced, more connected, and more realistic.

But I don't think it's all bad. I think it will help with so many things we aren't even foreseeing yet.

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#38

Post by antiterra » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 2:08 AM UTC

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #30

stock_toaster wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about trauma from "dying" in a game that is so immersive it "tricks" your brain into thinking it is real -- example from the article about him sticking out his tongue to try and catch snow without thinking about it. I wonder if we will start seeing more people in therapy for PTSD from gaming .

DFW predicted the rise of an entertainment so engrossing that people lost interest in doing anything else[1]. From bookworms to couch potatoes to video game addiction[2], we have seen ever-enriched simulations develop over the last few hundred years. People are already dying from neglecting their "meatspace" selves[3]; this will only increase in popularity. This does give some hint as to what people will "do" post-si…

I think "The Entertainment" from Infinite Jest was an exaggeration rather than a direct prediction. I mean, a single glance at the screen would freeze someone in place and make one willing to cut off the fingers of another in order to continue watching. "The Entertainment" was also entirely non-interactive and non-social, whereas Starcraft and MMOs have strong interactive elements.

Far more interesting was the bit about the rise and fall of video chat, where people became so self-conscious about their appearance they eventually altered or covered them up before returning to audio-only. Kottke brought this up in relation to Facetime[1].

http://kottke.org/10/06/david-foster-wallace-on-iphone-4s-fa...

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#39

Post by jcurbo » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 2:16 AM UTC

james33 wrote: post #9

I think a more compelling idea for having a camera on the outside is to allow for hand tracking within the game. Imaging if Leap-like functionality were added to the Rift. Flying through space in your star ship, you could reach out and actually interact with the controls in your cockpit. I think that could be a lot more compelling than what we are seeing with games on Kinect today.

Actually I think just having the head tracking for your view, while sitting in a fixed cockpit with your hands on static controls (HOTAS), will make this a killer application for flight sims and similar simulations. There's already head tracking for flight sims that lets you move your view around (TrackIR, Freetrack) and having relatively static controls like a HOTAS means you don't have to worry too much about looking at your hands. I ordered one of these dev kits and am looking forward to trying it out like this.

Re: Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World

#40

Post by martinced » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 2:20 AM UTC

mhb wrote: post #28

stock_toaster wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about trauma from "dying" in a game that is so immersive it "tricks" your brain into thinking it is real -- example from the article about him sticking out his tongue to try and catch snow without thinking about it. I wonder if we will start seeing more people in therapy for PTSD from gaming .

Brainstorm: A team of scientists invents "the Hat", a brain/computer interface that allows sensations to be recorded from a person's brain and converted to tape so that others can experience them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)

In response to your parent, there's also the movie by Wim Wenders "Until the end of the world"

Where IIRC a scientist creates a device that can record dreams and his wife becomes totally addicted to the experience and just can't stop playing and re-playing her dreams.

I think it's in Until the end of the world but cannot swear it ; )

Good movie anyway...

And then there's the movie which is a reflection on immersive videogame as the main plot: David Cronenberg's Existenz. Existenz is considered a flop by many, but an underrated movie by quite some people too.