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John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

oculusvr.com

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Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#131

Post by socialist_coder »

nrp wrote: post #52
socialist_coder wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW their AR stuff was really weird. It looked stupid when I saw it at a convention. I would have dumped them too. If they had been doing Oculus Rift type stuff I'm sure they'd still be at Valve.

I was actually pretty impressed by CastAR. It's certainly the most compelling AR-esque experience I've tried. It opens up a different set of game possibilities than a VR headset like the Rift. Think augmented multiplayer tabletop games rather than immersive worlds.

The market for those types of games is slim.

The tabletop market is already small and the only reason they can turn a profit is because their costs are low.

AR tabletop games would have an even smaller market and also be more expensive to produce.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#133

Post by thenomad »

venomsnake wrote: post #130
thenomad wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solutions to this problem might be really odd. Personally, I've been testing the Wii Balance Board as a useful input device for the Rift - and it's showing some promise. One tester did describe my test game as "Dungeon Segway Challenge", but we're getting there slowly...

Put a gun, sword into the hands of the player. Just think of the Neal Stephenson kickstarter with Rift VR.

That's waaaaaaaaay harder than it looks.

The big problem with swords in VR is physical feedback. If I strike at you with a saber, the saber will stop moving, sooner or later - either because you parry, or because the resistance of your bones and muscle eventually slows the thing down. Either way, it's a key component of a realistic swordfight.

And it's bloody difficult to do in VR. You're not just talking about force feedback, you're talking about enough force to stop a 3 foot long piece of metal being swung with intent by a 200lb man, with the same speed and solidity of collision with another piece of metal - without interfering with the movement of that metal at any other time, risking injuring the person moving the metal, or generally screwing up.

Guns, on the other hand, are much more doable.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#134

Post by ciferkey »

When I was watching Carmack's talk from Quake Con this year all I could think was "how does this man have the time to do all of this?" The email today from Oculus both excited and worried me though. I really hope Carmack is given the chance to dedicate himself to the project. His tweet today was reassuring though: "My time division is now Oculus over Id over Armadillo. Busy busy busy!"

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#135

Post by jlgreco »

nivloc wrote: post #103
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> UIs that float at the bottom of the screen feel very odd when you move your head around and they stay at the bottom of your vision. I haven't used an Oculus, but just thinking about it I suspect the solution is going to be to locate HUD elements in world space locked to the player's position.

That's what CCP did with the EVE-VR demo, and it makes sense in the context of a flight sim. It'll be interesting to see what developers come up with for FPSes. http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/eve-vr-an-expe...

"Wrist-watches" with bullet and health readouts. Just look down at any point in the game and your virtual arm will come up, showing everything that you need to know on the back of it.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#136

Post by corysama »

thenomad wrote: post #133
venomsnake wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put a gun, sword into the hands of the player. Just think of the Neal Stephenson kickstarter with Rift VR.

That's waaaaaaaaay harder than it looks. The big problem with swords in VR is physical feedback. If I strike at you with a saber, the saber will stop moving, sooner or later - either because you parry, or because the resistance of your bones and muscle eventually slows the thing down. Either way, it's a key component of a realistic swordfight. And it's bloody difficult to do in VR. You're not just talking about force…

Not a solution, but an alternative to stopping your hand: http://tacticalhaptics.com/

I've tried this a couple of times at the local VR meetups. It's hard to describe, but it works better than you'd think.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#138

Post by dkersten »

Goronmon wrote: post #129
AndrewDucker wrote: post #62

I've played with an Oculus VR, and I think they're amazing. But I'm not convinced that they're ready for the mass market yet. Not because of any failing on their part, but because I think that they need games, and controllers, specifically designed to work with VR. You can't use mouse/keyboard well if you can't see the mouse/keyboard. UIs that float at the bottom of the screen feel very odd when you move your head ar…

You can't use mouse/keyboard well if you can't see the mouse/keyboard. I can't imagine being able to properly play PC games while also having to constantly look at your mouse/keyboard.

I can touchtype, so I don't need to see my hands or the keyboard. But when I play a game, I never ever ever look at my hands - my eyes are clearly glued to the screen. I know this is definitely the case when I play games on my laptop but with an external screen that is to the side of the laptop because I sit in a way that I look right at the screen and to see the keyboard would mean I'd have to look to the side. In many fast paced game (FPS, MOBA etc) glancing at the keyboard means death...

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#139

Post by malandrew »

thenomad wrote: post #133
venomsnake wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put a gun, sword into the hands of the player. Just think of the Neal Stephenson kickstarter with Rift VR.

That's waaaaaaaaay harder than it looks. The big problem with swords in VR is physical feedback. If I strike at you with a saber, the saber will stop moving, sooner or later - either because you parry, or because the resistance of your bones and muscle eventually slows the thing down. Either way, it's a key component of a realistic swordfight. And it's bloody difficult to do in VR. You're not just talking about force…

Can you use gyroscopes to provide resistive force. Keep a heavy one running at low speed in the sword in a gimble. when you are about to hit something predictively rotate it to the correct orientation and accelerate it to high speed. Not totally sure this would work but if there is anything that can provide counteracting force without physical contact, a gyroscope is it.

You don't even have to make a heavy sword, the gyroscope itself could simulate the force required to overcome the momentum of a heavy broadsword.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#140

Post by mistercow »

themstheones wrote: post #122
untog wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. GPS isn't anywhere near accurate enough for that- believe me, I've tried. It's usually accurate to a few meters, which is fine for an overhead map, but would be horribly jarring when used for AR.

You need to use military grade GPS. It's much more accurate.

Even so, the latency on the compass and GPS is far too high for tracking convincingly.
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