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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

#151
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you link to it?

https://blog.codinghorror.com/i-tried-vr-and-it-was-just-ok/

Thanks. There's lots of great points in there, though I have demo'd an old oculus with a Leap Motion that could track both hands and all fingers with ease. Why it isn't bundled and contended by not, I do not know.

Even before this article was published I was saying (I'm sure others were as well) that the reality that the Oculus lets people share is that of a black box strapped to their faces.

I guess the reality phase of the hype cycle has now hit.

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

#152
post #109

There's been a lot of fighting between Vive owners and Oculus owners over which HMD is the best, but they both miss the reality that the biggest challenge to getting the average person to adopt VR isn't room tracking or motion controllers, it's getting them to even want to put the things on. There is very little compelling software at this point that would make anyone but an enthusiast want to use either of them for…

I read the vive was superior in tech (full room, good controllers, steam), but inferior in hardware-ux (to heavy) Luckily I have huge traps from lifting, haha.

The weight is fine if you adjust the straps to sit below your occipital bone at the back of your skull - and the mass then rests behind/atop your head, not on your face. Also when worn like that you can literally violently jump and roll around (as is needed in some titles - holopoint for one) and you forget you're wearing the thing.

That's kinda the key. You forget you're wearing it. You forget what's real and what's not - I've watched friends fall on their faces trying to lean on stuff that doesn't exist. I read of a guy who headbutted his fridge because he forgot you can't clip irl.

That complete suspension of disbelief, even if relatively transient, is what tells this observer that the tech is ready. It's young, yes, but it works, today.

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

#153

It's been my complaint since the beginning: This isn't virtual reality. It's clever, non-sickening head tracking. Great. Now I won't throw up when I move my head around in a 3D space. We're a bit closer, but not nearly close enough, to total immersion. You can play a racing game or a flying game and get some pretty good immersion, maybe even trick your brain here or there. But VR is a fever dream until we understand…

Have you completely missed the HTC Vive?

Not at all. Spatial tracking is great but it's still arbitrarily limited. You're not walking through an environment; you might as well be in a closet simulator.

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

#154
post #21

VR headsets that are attached to big PCs are very much a solo-thing at the moment. I can understand wanting to play a multi-player game like Halo while visiting a friend's house. I got my Oculus Rift a few weeks ago and absolutely love it. Practically use it every day. Lucky's Tale was surprisingly good, and I can no longer Elite: Dangerous without the headset. There's not enough software at the moment. I still want…

I wonder if 3 monitors side by side would be good enough to replace your headset with Elite? Combined with headtracking so when you look at left monitor, the view shifts slightly with your head movement? Or is it that you're completely enclosed in the world more important?

I've got a triple head setup and a TrackIR v5 and play a lot of flight / combat (DCS series) sims (with a Warthog HOTAS), ARMA 3, and Elite Dangerous. It's worth it.

I'm still standoff ish on VR till my setup can be replicated, but I think I'm an outlier in the target market.

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

#155
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if 3 monitors side by side would be good enough to replace your headset with Elite? Combined with headtracking so when you look at left monitor, the view shifts slightly with your head movement? Or is it that you're completely enclosed in the world more important?

I've got a triple head setup and a TrackIR v5 and play a lot of flight / combat (DCS series) sims (with a Warthog HOTAS), ARMA 3, and Elite Dangerous. It's worth it. I'm still standoff ish on VR till my setup can be replicated, but I think I'm an outlier in the target market.

Sounds good. I might invest in a dedicated setup like that. One of the advantages of a triple monitor setup is that our eyes can instantly scan around the screens with only a small amount of head movement. With VR the same move requires a larger head turn, and the resolution not as good. Not to mention the nice desktop area.

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

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree they're great but they are not your hands. I was still pressing the wrong button all the time. I need gloves not wands

I don't think the neural remap is that hard - i mean, you can type, and it doesn't work through a pen and text interpretation. Having used the controllers and leap motion, the controllers I prefer, as grasping nothing is less immersive than grasping a controller - in my view, anyway. Now, gloves with feedback, those will be interesting - but are a way off. I was recently thinking about 3d printing trackable objects t…

Yes I can type. I took a 6 month typing course in 8th grade to learn how.

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

#157
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

I only have limited experience with the headtracker + monitor combo but I much prefer VR.

With the headtracker it more felt like just a convenient input method for head position, whereas with vr, well, it's like you're really in the plane. It doesn't feel like there's some translation between me moving my head and the camera on screen moving.

The loss of visual acuity is an issue, but since I fly only GA this is not so much of an issue - I'm mostly looking out of the windows and try not to focus on the instruments, just like in the real world.

If anyone you know owns a headset (DK2, CV1, Rift), I'd highly recommend borrowing it and trying the free version of FlyInside (15 minute demo limit) to get an idea: https://flyinside-fsx.com/Download

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