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I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

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Re: I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

#131

Post by usrusr »

hayksaakian wrote: post #113
throwaway13337 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a chicken and egg problem. Because the hardware is so niche, the software makers don't have an audience to justify a big investment. What's more, content - even if it becomes the Mario of the VR - is not as important as the platform itself for control. Companies and investors realize this and so they focus on platforms. And so we have a bunch of companies vying for a turn at the platform while no one wants to ma…

there's no 'mario' or 'angry birds' of VR yet, that opportunity is wide open for the right company

There is not much of an opportunity, because a market capped at one copy per headset is tiny. People did not buy smartphones because they wanted to play angry birds, they played because they already had a phone.

What smartphones had and VR will never have is a feature like pinch to zoom: something that not only looks impressive but also happens to be routinely demonstrated in a social setting, without the explicit intention of showing off.

Re: I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

#132

Post by usrusr »

PeterisP wrote: post #116
colmvp wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think 3D television was a mere incremental improvement whereas the immersion of VR is the next stepping stone of entertainment. Though, I think the full-room experiences are a bit of fad as seated experiences are more comfortable and relatable to how we've always consumed various forms of relaxing entertainment. Instead of the simplistic interactions, I honestly wouldn't mind it if I used a keyboard and mouse inter…

There is quite big market for non-seated entertainment - Wii, Kinect, etc have shown that. It is a very different market from the people who currently have high-end gaming PCs suitable for VR, but the number of people who like and want full-room experiences is quite large.

Maybe I am completely missing some niche where Wii and Kinect are celebrating long term success, but my current impression is that they are more examples for short term novelty success than for a strong long term development. Better than dance dance revolution mats, but only marginally.

Re: I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

#133

Post by usrusr »

bencoder wrote: post #87
Viper007Bond wrote: post #39

Honestly the only reason I'm excited to get one is for racing simulators. Rather than trying to sit close to a big TV or having multiple displays, you can just use one of these for the immersion. Plus you can look around like you would in a real car. Great example (with a bit of augmented reality via green screen mixed in): https://youtu.be/LlFKjWGxZqk

Yeah, I use my DK2 pretty much solely for a flight simulator (FSX with Flyinside). I'm learning to fly in real life and it turns FSX into a realistic way of training for GA flying, rather than only instrument procedures - being able to look around out the windows makes all the difference.

If you are into flight simulation, then you are likely to have experience with the old head tracker / desktop monitor combo as well. How do those experiences compare?

(I'm asking because I have spent quite a bit of time doing headtracked virtual piloting, zero with a VR headset)

Re: I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

#134

Post by vmp »

madaxe_again wrote: post #114
vmp wrote: post #105

I had the DK2 and pretty much the same thing happened, boxed and shelved after a week, after I tried all the best demos - although for a different reason: the eye-strain and nausea was too much to bear for me. I couldn't really explain it since other people, family members and friends, could wear it just fine for any amount of time. I wear glasses but neither lenses or any settings offered relieve, guess I'm simply t…

I had a dk2, and the nausea was real. Had to put it down and sit there pale and sweaty many times. In the vive, at 90fps and all the other bells and whistles - none, even dogfighting in elite, even stick-moving in minecraft. That said, a gtx 670 would be marginal at best - a 970 is the official min spec, and the new generation of pascal cards are essentially built for vr.

That's interesting to hear. The Vive has some unique features that make it sound really cool too. What about screen-door effect? Texts in EliteDangerous weren't readable at all. I'm planning on getting a gtx 1070 once they are out for some sweet sweet 1440p gaming, the 670 served me well but just doesn't cut it anymore for anything higher than 1080p.

Re: I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

#135

Post by usrusr »

__david__ wrote: post #3
RyJones wrote: post #2

I'm in the same place - I probably got 12 hours of gameplay out of it before I unplugged mine. It is exhausting and frustrating to use.

Exhausting in what way? Is it too heavy, or is it somehow cognitively expensive?

I used to do flight simulation with a head tracker to control the virtual cockpit perspective. Hardly any mass added over regular headphones, but it was a world of a difference between holding my head in whatever position that felt comfortable to see the screen and holding it in exactly the right angle to point the camera to where I wanted. It's fun and a great improvement over manually controlling the camera, but also surprisingly exhausting.

Re: I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

#136

Post by ethbro »

madaxe_again wrote: post #110
newhouseb wrote: post #81

To me, the most exciting thing about VR (particularly on the Vive) is not anything gaming related but the possibilities around creation and collaboration that are opened up by being able to program in "the real world." If you've played with Tiltbrush at all you can see a glimpse of this. Your brain's implicit understanding of your presence in 3D space is incredibly vital to understanding the shapes and structure that…

Yup. There's a lot going on right now with people making tools for sculpture, for design, and even stuff like minecraft is a blast on the vive. I've had mine three weeks and managed to spend 6 hours in it solidly on Saturday - 30 minutes and you need a nap? Please. Better make some ovaltine and put your slippers on. On the other hand, I can't take more than 30 minutes of holopoint - it's physically intense and leaves…

> I strapped my 90 year old granddad in, and he was immediately having a blast flipping burgers in job simulator

I think this is what's being undervalued about VR -- the increased proportion of people for whom it "works" vs a 2D monitor.

My opinion has gradually shifted towards the reason some people don't read books, or comics, or watch TV, or play current games having to do with different susceptibility / willpower to suspend disbelief / engage immersion.

Someone who doesn't enjoy a fictional book the way I do isn't reading a different book; I think they just aren't seeing the book with the same realness that makes it exciting to me. Aka the "we're just looking at a rectangle with some colors on it" response to computers.

I feel like VR is the first step in awhile that can really lower the bar in terms of "must be this susceptible to suspending disbelief to ride" (post-graphics fidelity, which probably had its biggest objective jump with the first 3d cards).

Re: I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

#137

Post by ethbro »

kranner wrote: post #84
visarga wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it needs active ventilation.

Forgot to mention that I tried that as well with a USB fan. Something like this one: http://n4.sdlcdn.com/imgs/b/u/4/198x232/Persona-Portable-Min... But yes, an in-built fan (if it weren't too noisy) should help a lot.

You might want to look up fans for paintball helmets. From memory, most of them run off battery, but you could probably have them to use 5v USB. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s?k=paintball+fan

Biggest advantage being that they're specifically designed to move air down through a set of goggles.

Re: I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

#138

Post by exodust »

louhike wrote: post #118
exodust wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having owned an Oculus, I can't agree the tech is ready. Personally I won't be touching the hardware again until it evolves to something like putting a pair of sunglasses on, and the image covers your entire field of vision, with better resolution. The black border around the image was disappointing and prevented full immersion. I also want an integrated tracking camera in my laptop. The less clutter of hardware the…

Do you have the last Oculus headset or one of the alpha version for developers?

I had the DK2, and yes I know the latest model is better... have yet to try it myself, but I heard the screen resolution is basically the same and you can still see the pixels etc.

Re: I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet

#140

Post by jsprogrammer »

pdimitar wrote: post #139

Damn, an overhyped tech carried by massive paid PR campaigns is not holding up. SURPRISE! Never seen that before in human history, no sir. I find Jeff Atwood's piece on VR to be the truest of them all. He nails it at every point.

Can you link to it?
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