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A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

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Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#141

Post by adam12 »

flatline wrote: post #116
partiallypro wrote: post #94

In all of my experiencing of the new VR products, I am firmly in the position that it's not ready for public consumption yet and won't be for quite some time. The only real reason it's being pushed hard is because people have a fear of missing out. Meanwhile, if I were a company I'd be focusing on AR, because at least there you can push for enterprise customers which won't need the full immersion yet that a general c…

VR fundamentally conflicts with how the eyes focus, and it will never be solved with the current technology. For some people it's not a big problem, but a sizeable portion of the population will be unable to use VR at all or for any extended period without ending up with eye strain, headaches, nausea, and/or a general sense of malaise. It will always be something of a niche technology IMO - very cool, but of limited…

> I have only ever watched one film in 3D

what movie?

Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#142

Post by malnourish »

intrasight wrote: post #122
sergiosgc wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see two avenues for great VR games: 1) Cockpit based games. Flying a plane, or spaceship, in VR is immensely better than on a screen. I get nauseous in car racing games but, my friends who do not, rate them as best simulated driving experience ever. 2) Room scale games. Here, I have no idea wich ones. It is a complete green field in terms of gaming. There are some great concepts, like Fantastic Contraption or the "…

I totally agree about "room scale games". Has add-on benefits of getting out of the house and getting some exercise. Here's my idea (shh - don't tell anyone). Buy an abandoned roller skating rink and transform it into a VR game space. Of course this assume that some other entity will create one or more compelling games to be played in your space.

I've always (wishfully) thought that VR will revitalize the arcade.

VR (or AR) laser tag would be an extremely compelling experience.

Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#143

Post by 0xfeba »

sergiosgc wrote: post #113
intrasight wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As was the case with early personal computers - until some "killer apps" arrived. For businesses, the killer app was Lotus 1-2-3 and/or WordPerfect. Rest assured that some clever young things are actively working on the killer apps for VR headsets. I assume there will be at least one, and I assume that it won't be a FPS game.

I see two avenues for great VR games: 1) Cockpit based games. Flying a plane, or spaceship, in VR is immensely better than on a screen. I get nauseous in car racing games but, my friends who do not, rate them as best simulated driving experience ever. 2) Room scale games. Here, I have no idea wich ones. It is a complete green field in terms of gaming. There are some great concepts, like Fantastic Contraption or the "…

I've tried DCS with a Rift. It was mind-blowing. I hate using my screens now, I can't wait for a decent priced VR unit.

My biggest gripe was controls. There are quite a few keyboard shortcuts in DCS. Some of them just require looking at a keyboard, since I use them so infrequently. I can manipulate a HOTAS without looking though, so that's ok.

In DCS, some of the aircraft have clickable cockpits (meaning you can use the mouse to do everything, if you wish). If the Rift controllers could manipulate these, I'd be in heaven.

Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#144

Post by blastofpast »

rocky1138 wrote: post #123
blastofpast wrote: post #110

I wish Valve was publicly traded so that I can invest.

As soon as a gaming developer or publisher becomes publicly traded, the quality of their games drops through the floor. I'm very happy that Valve is private.

You might be right, but it would still be interesting to see how a holocracy run company would cope with being public.

Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#145

Post by komali2 »

malnourish wrote: post #142
intrasight wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree about "room scale games". Has add-on benefits of getting out of the house and getting some exercise. Here's my idea (shh - don't tell anyone). Buy an abandoned roller skating rink and transform it into a VR game space. Of course this assume that some other entity will create one or more compelling games to be played in your space.

I've always (wishfully) thought that VR will revitalize the arcade. VR (or AR) laser tag would be an extremely compelling experience.

It's already being worked on: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/enter-the-void-the-w...

Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#146

Post by drzaiusapelord »

partiallypro wrote: post #94

In all of my experiencing of the new VR products, I am firmly in the position that it's not ready for public consumption yet and won't be for quite some time. The only real reason it's being pushed hard is because people have a fear of missing out. Meanwhile, if I were a company I'd be focusing on AR, because at least there you can push for enterprise customers which won't need the full immersion yet that a general c…

> I am firmly in the position that it's not ready for public consumption yet and won't be for quite some time.

Perhaps right now, but come October the PSVR will be out. Its half the price of the Vive and works with your existing PS4. The reviews for the games have been mostly positive and the graphics in them are incredible compared to the shovelware both the Vive and the Rift suffer from. The move controllers seem to have better back-end processing and will probably never match the smoothness and fidelity of Vive tracking, but I imagine it will be good enough. Sony's 60 to 120fps re-projection seems to be working well too. I'm very impressed at what Sony is attempting to pull off here. VR with maybe 1/3rd the GPU/CPU heft of an average gaming PC is quite the technical hurdle for Sony's engineers.

I think PSVR is going to change everything in terms of VR adoption and how the public sees VR.

>I expect a lot of VR units are shown off to friends and thrown into the closet or put on a shelf to collect dust.

I use mine multiple times a week. Its very exciting to see what the new VR game of the week/month is and try it out. Right now, all the Vive owners I know are enjoying Battle Dome, which is a laser tage/Splatoon style game. Its early access and ugly as sin, but a lot of fun. Or if not that PoolNationVR, which is much more polished.

I've also enjoyed spending some time in AltspaceVR. As far as I'm concerned its the metaverse jr. I am looking forward to what the guys at High Fidelity are doing (which is pretty much Second Life in VR), but I think the more managed, simplistic, and curated AltspaceVR approach will win in the long run.

Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#147

Post by lfowles »

intrasight wrote: post #108
partiallypro wrote: post #94

In all of my experiencing of the new VR products, I am firmly in the position that it's not ready for public consumption yet and won't be for quite some time. The only real reason it's being pushed hard is because people have a fear of missing out. Meanwhile, if I were a company I'd be focusing on AR, because at least there you can push for enterprise customers which won't need the full immersion yet that a general c…

As was the case with early personal computers - until some "killer apps" arrived. For businesses, the killer app was Lotus 1-2-3 and/or WordPerfect. Rest assured that some clever young things are actively working on the killer apps for VR headsets. I assume there will be at least one, and I assume that it won't be a FPS game.

I'm waiting for some sort of Minority Report inspired Excel interface. Manipulating the "minimap" in Fantastic Contraption blew my mind.

Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#148

Post by hinkley »

intrasight wrote: post #108
partiallypro wrote: post #94

In all of my experiencing of the new VR products, I am firmly in the position that it's not ready for public consumption yet and won't be for quite some time. The only real reason it's being pushed hard is because people have a fear of missing out. Meanwhile, if I were a company I'd be focusing on AR, because at least there you can push for enterprise customers which won't need the full immersion yet that a general c…

As was the case with early personal computers - until some "killer apps" arrived. For businesses, the killer app was Lotus 1-2-3 and/or WordPerfect. Rest assured that some clever young things are actively working on the killer apps for VR headsets. I assume there will be at least one, and I assume that it won't be a FPS game.

No. You're seeing a low adoption rate and imagining that it's just the typical adoption cycle taught in Business 101.

VR has been the next big thing for twenty years. It's not a niche technology because of Luddites, it is a niche technology because it works against human physiology and only a lucky few are totally unaffected by it. You're targeting an audience of people who find your product merely tolerable.

And since there are no social constructs or visual cues around this division of humans, you'll never get a network effect like you might with, for instance, a pair of pants designed for very tall people.

Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#149

Post by ethbro »

marricks wrote: post #134
arielweisberg wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you own a CV1 or Vive? How many hours do you have in them? How many people have you demoed them to? The last pair I demoed to spent 3 hours in the Rift, with a single person spending two hours without stopping. This was their first experience ever with VR. VR sickness is a thing and it's varies from person to person and use case to use case, but I have never experienced (personally or vicariously) issues related t…

I've had similar experiences. Showed Edge of Nowhere to someone a week ago, they spent 3 solid hours in. Tried talking to them to see if they wanted to go for a walk or something. No response, too engrossed in game.

> Tried talking to them to see if they wanted to go for a walk or something. No response, [too] engrossed in game.

Future in a nutshell.

Re: A Third of Valve Is Now Working on VR

#150

Post by marricks »

whatever_dude wrote: post #96
baldfat wrote: post #87

Half-Life 3 on VR would be the killer app. It would be this generations Lotus 1 2 3. Though I personally feel VR for video games are a lot like Wii its awesome for a while then its collecting dust throughout the world. I really think the future is Augmented Reality and VR will be for mostly media consumption.

I disagree with that. I played (and finished) HL2 in VR and while it was more of a prototype (e.g. loading screens were static) it already proved modern(ish) FPS games are not the best application of VR. Too many kinks of the genre do not translate well, while other features of VR are left unexplored. For that matter, racing or space exploration games (where the protagonist is seated) translate way better. So I think…

FPS's are definitely not the killer app for VR, it's thinking too much in the old paradigm. Current gamers are spoiled with FPS's that have you turn faster than any human and the default speed is a light jog, which would make most people's stomach turn in VR.

I was most excited about playing HL2 in VR and I had to give up when Freeman stumbled and got up from the ground very near the beginning. The disorientation of having your visuals tell you you're getting up from laying on the ground all while your sitting is AWFUL.

The killer app for VR would have to leverage the strengths of VR, which I'd say is presence. Seeing someone standing by you and talking to you is pretty trippy in VR, I'd say anything with more social aspects would be a start. It might give story driven games a real edge in that platform.

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