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[Virtual Reality] More like 'Virtual...' Uh... 'Virtual...' ...Look, I just hate it, okay?
The Ender
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhbpBMzjE1AMan, I am so excited! John Carmack is putting the Rift right into my Oculus! This is the future of video games! I hear that you will be able to buy the 'This Ain't For Little Girls!' edition with an automated bone saw that will actually amputate your limbs if you take damage in a game! Finally, the authentic experience I always wanted!
I hate the resurgence of interest into 'virtual reality' toys / gimmicks. Yes, Carmack's interview regarding the Oculus Rift was engaging, but let's be honest - listening to Carmack talk about sugar free lemonade would be engaging. The actual piece of tech itself is a Goddamn abomination.
I mean, let's be clear here - we're talking about a possible shift toward putting this on your head as part of your gaming experience:
Nope.
I can't even stand the 3D shutter glasses, to be honest. It looks too weird to have some sunglasses that flicker like b-movie insect eyes. This thing? I mean, it looks like you've been assimilated by the Borg. The 90s TNG Borg.
I won't have it. VR is banned. I am banning VR.
You can't ban VR! You don't have the authority to do that!
Okay, you're right. I can't ban VR. But I sure can whine about my dislike of it as well as voice my rejection of modern trends in technology on the Internet!
Seriously, who is actually excited about this thing (and the inevitable wave of competing products, compatible games, peripherals, etc)? Doesn't anyone else feel a bit weirded out whenever they have to literally strap-on a gaming accessory - especially if it something that fits over / around your head?
I don't understand (and never did, even when I was younger and VR was making it's first waves) the appeal of something like this. Using my mouse/keyboard or a controller always feels better / more responsive than any kind of motion control, and having to turn your head to look around the environment strikes me as being limited/slow in the same way all motion control tends to be. Even if they map the movement perfectly (which they won't) and sort out the resolution limitations (which they won't), it's still just faster to flick my mouse around / use the fucking scroll wheel! I am grafting some abhorrent cybernetic organ to my face in order to get a less responsive experience (which is also low-res).
I can't be the only person who remembers VR, and how much is sucked, right?
Right?
With Love and Courage
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AR is where it is fucking at!
Google Glasses. Soooo much more hotness. They are going to exist in the wild this year.
As far as the control aspect goes. If I have anything to say about it, we'll be using stuff with neural control. I'll totally wear a dumbish looking thing on my head to do stuff like control scrolling/strafing with a thought. Apparently it is pretty difficult to learn to do right now and the equipment isn't really slick, but with better AI like systems and better hardware those things will probably be overcome.
I mean, they are expecting to make AM OLED screens with huge resolution and crazy thinness. Motion tracking on a wii-motion plus or iphones is pretty good these days. Graphics that make starfox for the SNES look good really don't fly these days. A lot of the old vr stuff sucked because the technology wasn't really there. It's a heck of a lot closer these days, but the AR angle really is a lot closer to how we use technology most of the time. VR is just potentially slightly better.
The Virtual Boy is over a decade old, and small, high-pixel-density screens have received a massive boost in development thanks to mobile phones. In fact, the Rift developers have referenced the rise of high density screens for mobile phones as being one of the major drivers for the technology needed for this to work at a satisfactory level. Yes, the resolution on the developer kits isn't fantastic - 1280 x 800, but they are aiming to increase this on the consumer model, and even now that isn't a terrible resolution given how close the screens are to the eyes.
Quite frankly I'm far more willing to take the word of the journalists and developers who've used the device, and they've been nigh-unanimously amazed with it, including the speed and quality of the head-tracking. Without backing fron any large company, they have no reason to puff it up beyond their own opinions, either.
Might it be a bit shit? Sure. From everything that's been shown lately though, that seems very unlikely. You're free to not like it (I hate motion controls with consoles, Wii included, so I can empathise), but I think you're going a bit overboard here.
Also, most games developed for the device use a combination of Rift for head movement, and mouse+keyboard for movement, weapon aiming, and firing. I'm not sure how that would make aiming any slower, but rather, it would increase spatial awareness.
Edit: To put the OP another way: "NGage was terrible, therefore mobile gaming will never take off. Why is anyone even trying it again?"
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OP was a bit facetious / exaggerated, yes. :P
But still, I don't like how this stuff looks, and I feel weird putting these things on. Also, I mean, journalist proof-of-concept kits tend to be of better quality than what the consumer can expect (that's just the nature of mass produced products).
And, even a decade later, I still feel the sting of Virtual Boy.
Not when journalists are using early prototypes, and the comsumer device is still almost a year away.
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But Bluetooth is DIFFERENT!
The Oculus rift is just this big box sitting on your face.
"Hey, don't worry, I'm totally normal. This is totally not at all strange that a mechanical face hugger appears to be eating out of my eye sockets. Just go fix yourself a gin & tonic."
Like, why can't we get nice looking glasses, like the Google glasses @redx posted? Or maybe big booths, like those old arcade cabinets that had monitors wrapped around the whole inside of the unit to immerse you in the experience, but you don't look weird sitting in a big fake spaceship thing because... because I said so!
Yes and yes.
Well, and I just see this as a coming trend (I could be wrong, of course), with computers becoming more and more something you basically... wear. I mean, I've already got earphones / a microphone, I actually lug around my laptop from place to place in a backpack (so you could even say, if we get the the point where it's still in a bag or whatever accessory, making it usable in that state is just a convenience feature). Not something you have sitting at a desk, next to your coffee mug and bobble head Crash Bandicoot, but something you put on.
For whatever reason, I don't like that vision of the future.
Huh. I completely do not understand your point of view at all. Like I am sitting here, reading what you've written and having a hard time mustering why anyone wouldn't want computer/internet access to be easier, lighter and more universal. I guess you and I just don't have the same point of view at all. I will show myself out.
I may or may not have read too much dystopian cyberpunk fiction.
I present to you, sir, a counter-point:
When you overhear your grandchildren talking about the latest iGasm model they played with, you will think back to this thread and say, "My God. He tried to warn us."
I don't like feeling 'plugged in' all of the time. Computing & gaming has always been, for me, a more private experience (occasionally shared with friends during multiplayer sessions, either via on-the-couch console gaming or via internet gaming).
As computing & gaming becomes less a stationary, 'thing you do at the office / in your own home' thing, it starts to leave my comfort zone, because I've always associated 'go out to do [x]' with 'leave computer behind'. Sort of an illusion, because I mean I always have my smart phone with me anyway (and I swapped my desktop machine for a laptop, because I just needed my processing to become portable), but still: it's not like having a smartphone in your pocket is the same as having a screen in front of your eye at all times.
Although, someone on these forums did mention that the last thing humanity invents will be a device that let's us control our own (simulated) reality.
Cause I'm a huge nerd, and if I gotta wear some 8 pound visor on my head for 9 hours when playing VirtuaSkyrim I'm going to need a neck brace.
Yeah, that's why I'm not to bothered by the concept. I might agree that what is shown in the pic for the OP, is a bit bigger than I'm comfortable with, but like headphones, I think it makes more sense to have something that covers one's full field of vision.
I'm also wondering if there might be issues with something that is small and sleek that doesn't cover one's full field of vision. Speaking from experience, every time I get new glass frames, it takes a while to get use to them if the new frames result in the lens shape or size being different. My brain has to adapt to the fact that my field of vision has changed, where either more or less of it is no clearer, while more or less of it is fuzzy. I get the feeling it's going to take much longer for someone to get used to part of their field of vision being dominated by a video, while still being able to see part of their surroundings. I suspect this will give many headaches because it's much different from what people experience while wearing glasses.
The other upside to the device that dominates a person's entire field of vision is that it will discourage morons from wearing such things while doing other activities out in public (okay, less of an issue if they throw one on while on the treadmill or other such devices). With the thing redx linked, I could see some moron getting behind the wheel because "hey, I can still mostly see, even though the video being shown by the thing over my right eye is taking 100% of my attention."
Oh God, don't even get me started on speculating about the idiots that will probably use this crap while they drive.
"Hey Google glasses, pull up a map to the nearest Fatburger."
"Honey, is that a good idea to do while you're driving?"
"Eh, it's fine. The map is kinda-sorta transparent."
"
No matter how convinced your ears and eyes might be, you're still gonna be receiving messages from your body that say you're sitting in a chair or lying on a couch. Sounds more disorienting than immerse.
Not to mention the safety hazard of not being aware of what's actually around you while you flail about wildly trying to pwn n00bs in Modern Warfare 17.
For the hardcore gamer, there will be an offering of saline solution filled tanks & scuba gear. Gear up, go free-float in the tank, and periodically receive electrical feedback as a tactile connection to the virtual world.
IMMERSION!
I'm somewhat encouraged by the interview on the daily show where they talk about hooking quadriplegics up to robotic suits that allow them to move the arms and legs of the robots with their thoughts. If it works one way, maybe it could work the other? Input commands directly to the brain that you are "feeling" something in your virtual environment.
I agree though it's mostly fantastical.
I also agree that the virtual reality thing could diminish certain social aspects of gaming. I suspect sometimes the people coming up with this stuff forget that some people do enjoy watching others play video games. I had a friend who loved playing games on his PS3, the problem was he often picked up games that weren't co-op but with something like Uncharted 2, it wasn't an issues since it was fun watching people play the game. Hell, one of my group friends had an old tradition of horror game night on Thursdays, half the fun of that night besides laughing at the guy that got scarred easily, was commenting on just how comically bad some of the games were. I'm not terribly confident that some of these people will remember that "hey, some people actually like watching people play these games and if we go the .hack route (Sword Art Online if you want a more modern anime take on this), that really kills that aspect when there is no video screen for others to see and the guy is lying or sitting there comatose." (Mind you, I'm pretty sure we're a long ways from hitting that point, but seeing the guy with the goofy ass game paraphernalia and no video screen is either going to be just as boring).
As for speculation about the idiots. Sorry, it's just one of those things you have to do.
I'm totally on board with holodecks.
I remember VR. However, it did not suck.
Oh God, I had such bad taste when I was young.
You had the best taste when you were young.
Unless your preference was for Big Bad Beetle Borgs.
What I want are google glasses where you say 'fatburger' and then it highlights all the exits and turns you need to take to get there.
That was my second thought.
My first thought was "I'm fucking blind. How's this gonna work with glasses?".
My third thought was "How nauseous is this shit gonna make me?"
I'd be fine with that so long as we did tests first to see how much the glasses distracted you while driving.
Thought there were some controllers/gloves that did that via pulling slightly on the skin to trick your hands into thinking that they're holding something.
There's also this
Hear, hear.