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[Oculus Rift+STEM+Omni] IGN best hardware '13, Best of CES 2 years running
TheSonicRetard
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Yesterday, while perusing the forums, I realized there was no Oculus Rift thread and someone told me that I should make one. And that is indeed a noble endeavor, so consider it done. After avoiding any information about Oculus Rift like the plague for damn near 2 years now, I finally broke down the other day and took it all in. About an hour and a half after I started watching videos, I had ordered a dev kit and registered as a developer on the Oculus website. I haven't even tried this stuff yet and it has me completely sold.
What is Oculus Rift?
The thread title sums it up perfectly. It's goddamn virtual reality. The stuff we've been promised in Movies, books, and TV shows since the 70's. The stuff that big gaming companies like Sega, Nintendo and Atari promised and never delivered. More specifically, it's an "indie" Head Mounted Display that does all sorts of motion tracking that works with your PC and various softwares to immerse you in a fully 3D world. Instead of looking at a flat (or stereoscopic) screen in front of you and moving the camera around with glorified RC controls, your head and eyes are the camera. Piloting a mech? Look to your left to see out of the side window as you continue to move forward. Throw a basketball up high? Follow it in the air with your head as though it's actually there.
In short, remember the old fan-made Nintendo Revolution video? This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX2smM87r14
Oculus Rift is that, except not a hoax.
Oculus is only head tracking, how is it in any way similar to that Nintendo On video?
Well, Oculus readily admits that their stuff is only the first step. Peeking around the developers boards, it seems the Razer Hydra motion controllers have become the defacto Oculus controllers. These controllers look sort of like 2 wii nunchucks:
They work quite differently, though. Instead of figuring out relative positioning through gyroscopes and absolute positioning using a stationary IR receiver and an IR camera, the Hydra uses a form of magnetic technology to measure resistance to figure out absolute positioning in the real world. This means that no line of sight is required, and that they are pretty accurate.
Similarly, a product called the Omni is being backed by Oculus as it enters its kickstarter campaign:
Omni is a 2D treadmill that is made up of a special material. When someone special wears non-slip shoes on this material, they can basically walk in place with little to no resistance. This is presumed to be the solution to the problem of immersion-breaking movement. You can, of course, also play games with normal controllers, but where is the fun in that?
Why should I care about this?
Oculus makes believers out of those who play it, without fail. I've watched hundreds of testimonials since ordering it the other day and the theme is the same - even those who are on the fence about the stuff instantly become diehard believers after minutes with the Oculus rift.
The Rift already seems to have its "Killer app," its wii-sports if you will. Dubbed "Tuscany" this is a free demo that seems to show off better than most just what the oculus rift can do. It's fully compatible with the rift and the razer hydra to provide a complete virtual reality playground. Behold:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07IwxUD8N8E
There is a moment in that video where the guy throws a basketball high into the air, arcing it so it'll land behind him. he follows the ball in the air and leans backwards in his chair, stretching his arm out backwards and catches the ball. It's only later in the video, when he's reflecting, that he realizes how incredibly complex what he did was, and yet how the immersion made the experience natural and easy.
Much like Wii Sports, this demo seems to have transcended barriers. No matter how good or bad you are at gaming, how old or young you are, what you've seen or what you've done, a few moments in Tuscany seems to be all it takes to make even 90 year old grandmothers go off about how mind blowing and game changing Rift is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAC5SeNH8jw
It's the sort of product that instantly shows you everything you need to know in order to come to the conclusion that Rift is not a minor innovation, but rather a major step forward.
What is the future of Rift applications?
That's the most exciting part - reading the developer boards on oculus' website reveals thousands of people brimming with ideas. The nature of how different Rift is compared to conventional computing demands a different approach to virtually everything, from UI to what is simply possible. A few people, for example, are attempting to create a usable OS UI within Rift. Their concept demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs9kocefwaA
This is the sort of stuff that Rift will make possible. Medical and military fields stand to benefit immensely from Rift. Combined with Omni and Hydra, there is just so much that seems possible at the moment. it's all crude, but unlike other gimmicky technology *coughKINECTcough* Rift appears to be structurally sound in its foundation, meaning that going forward it'll be more about tweaking concepts to make them work, rather than trying to get a fundamentally broken principal accepted.
In the meanwhile, for the immediate future, Rift has 3 games that officially support it:
Team Fortress 2 VR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P50fvL_EWYY
This is Valve's first Oculus Rift product, a simple update to TF2 to enable VR controls. By contrast to using the SDK to map mouselook to the headset, Valve actually went in and retooled TF2's controls to better support Oculus Rift and the Razer Hydra. The end result, according to those who have used it, is that the small control improvements go unnoticed until you try a game without them, at which point you realize how vital they are. Your crosshair, for example, is not bound to your headtracking, but rather it works like a Wiimote. You are free to aim your crosshair all around your vision, like a mouse on a desktop, and push the screen around the bounding edges also like the Wii. However, turning is achieved primarily through your head tracking. People say that it doesn't replace the normal TF2 experience, and that you'd probably be at a disadvantage compared to someone with a KB&M, but that it's simply fun and worth playing around with.
HAWKEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STUIuKPa5Wo
For gamers, this is likely the killer app beyond Tuscany. HAWKEN is an actiony, arcadey mech fighting game that plays like a fast, arcade version of Mechwarrior. It fully supports Oculus Rift, and is free to play. More than TF2, the benefits of being able to look around in your cockpit are evident, because your sights aren't lined up to your current view. You can be shooting and walking forward, while looking out of the left window to check for enemies sneaking up on you. The way Oculus surrounds your vision is supposed to be especially pronounced in HAWKEN, giving the illusion that you really are sitting inside of a several stories-tall mech. That you can peer downwards and see the ground below you reinforces this.
EVR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUpg9f8I-rQ
Of all the announced Oculus Rift Projects, this one has me the most excited. Though technically not announced - this was a demo put together in 7 weeks using a dev kit - it's assumed that this will become a full game. Set in the EVE Online universe, this has been described as a spiritual successor to Wing Commander and X-wing, albeit in virtual fucking reality holy shit! Unlike HAWKEN and TF2 VR, EVR's control scheme is linked to Oculus Rift in a unique way - while you normally have access to rapid fire guns, you also have a number of target-seeking missiles. To lock onto a target, you simply look at it for a few seconds until the computer starts tracking it, at which point your missiles will automatically hit the target. because this is a 3D space dogfighting game, it seems to translate into players frantically looking all around the cockpit, trying to keep enemies in their vision to take them out. Of all the Rift projects, this seems the most unique.
So where can I get Oculus Rift?
Oculus Rift has no announced price. it has no launch date. It doesn't even have a launch window - most are assuming it'll launch in 2014 for under $300. No major video game consoles existing or upcoming support it, although, given the nature of the Steambox, it'll likely support the Rift by default. Hell, even the final specs for the Rift aren't settled.
BUT you can still get your hands on a Rift today -- or in June at least. Developers can purchase an Oculus Rift dev kit from the Oculus website for $300 - http://www.oculusvr.com/
Purchasing a dev kit gets you a unit in June. these are prototypes running at a lower resolution, in an uglier shell, with unfinished software. The screens on the prototype produce roughly a 720p image, while Oculus is aiming for 1080p in the final. However, and this is the most important part - they work. Those who have already received their dev kits say that, even as unfinished as everything is, the Rift is still absolutely stunning and ready for the spotlight.
Anybody else as completely excited about this as I am?
UPDATE
I've since ordered a Razer Hydra motion controller in anticipation of my Oculus Rift arriving. Below are my thoughts about the Hydra:
UPDATE 9/12/13: Sixense's successor to the Razer Hydra, the STEM, has gone up on kickstarter. It was funded in about an hour. Here's a quick lowdown:
-modular tracking STEM tracking system - tracking is done by these small pods which do positional, absolute, and orientation tracking. They slide into 2 handle-looking controller shells to give them tracking, and the shells have 2 analog sticks, 4 buttons + start, and 2 triggers each. You can also wear the STEMs to provide tracking on body parts or other controller shells by 3rd party companies.
-Wireless, which is a big perk when you're dealing with VR
-Working in tandem with Virtuix Omni, board members of one company are board members of the other. They're attempting to provide a unified, cohesive VR solution with Oculus.
All early bird bundles are gone
So, talking to people, most assume this will be the standard setup for a 5 STEM system-
1 STEM per arm (likely in the controller shells for analog stick support and buttons)
1 STEM for headtracking (this will likely become redundant once the consumer rift launches, in which case this will shift to body tracking)
2 STEMs for foot tracking to be used in conjunction with the Virtuix Omni
the leg tracking is obviously optional and dependent on you owning an Omni. So the 3 tracker solution will likely be the most popular. With a proper 5 tracker solution, and a virtuix omni, you will have:
*Full Arm tracking on both arms, both positional tracking and orientation. Not only track where your hands and arms are, but which way they're facing, what height they're at, etc. This gives you true 1:1 tracking, making the elusive light-saber game everybody wants actually possible.
*Traditional 2 analog control, 8 button, 4 trigger support. This mimicks every conventional controller out there, so there's no excuse for loss of functionality. this can do everything a normal Xbox 360 controller can do, without compromise, plus the added benefit of extremely accurate positional and orientation motion control. No kinect 0-button laggy mouse bullshit. No wiimote waggle bullshit. Real game controls, on top of the best tracking available
*Full positional tracking. Right now, it looks like it'll be used for head tracking, allowing you to lean over in the rift and peak around. Once the consumer model rift hits, with head tracking embedded, this shifts to body tracking. That gives you the ability to actually duck for cover behind stuff, or peer out of a window and look around. Not just pitch, yaw, rot anymore, now full X, Y, Z tracking. The computer knows precisely where your head and body are in the VR world.
*With Virtuix Omni, full leg tracking on both legs. This gives you positional and orientation tracking, the software knows exactly where your legs are even if you're facing the other way, for true 1:1 walking mapping. Virtuix's board is full of people from Sixense's board, and they've begun demonstrating their products in tandem. Add in kinect support, and not only will this be able to very accurately track your walking, with the lowest latency possible, but it'll also be able to figure out skeletal position to do things like shifting of body weight. Imagine standing in mud and shifting your weight, and having you sink into the mud accurately depending on body weight.
This is by far the coolest tracking solution on the market.
What is Oculus Rift?
The thread title sums it up perfectly. It's goddamn virtual reality. The stuff we've been promised in Movies, books, and TV shows since the 70's. The stuff that big gaming companies like Sega, Nintendo and Atari promised and never delivered. More specifically, it's an "indie" Head Mounted Display that does all sorts of motion tracking that works with your PC and various softwares to immerse you in a fully 3D world. Instead of looking at a flat (or stereoscopic) screen in front of you and moving the camera around with glorified RC controls, your head and eyes are the camera. Piloting a mech? Look to your left to see out of the side window as you continue to move forward. Throw a basketball up high? Follow it in the air with your head as though it's actually there.
In short, remember the old fan-made Nintendo Revolution video? This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX2smM87r14Oculus Rift is that, except not a hoax.
Oculus is only head tracking, how is it in any way similar to that Nintendo On video?
Well, Oculus readily admits that their stuff is only the first step. Peeking around the developers boards, it seems the Razer Hydra motion controllers have become the defacto Oculus controllers. These controllers look sort of like 2 wii nunchucks:
They work quite differently, though. Instead of figuring out relative positioning through gyroscopes and absolute positioning using a stationary IR receiver and an IR camera, the Hydra uses a form of magnetic technology to measure resistance to figure out absolute positioning in the real world. This means that no line of sight is required, and that they are pretty accurate.
Similarly, a product called the Omni is being backed by Oculus as it enters its kickstarter campaign:
Omni is a 2D treadmill that is made up of a special material. When someone special wears non-slip shoes on this material, they can basically walk in place with little to no resistance. This is presumed to be the solution to the problem of immersion-breaking movement. You can, of course, also play games with normal controllers, but where is the fun in that?
Why should I care about this?
Oculus makes believers out of those who play it, without fail. I've watched hundreds of testimonials since ordering it the other day and the theme is the same - even those who are on the fence about the stuff instantly become diehard believers after minutes with the Oculus rift.
The Rift already seems to have its "Killer app," its wii-sports if you will. Dubbed "Tuscany" this is a free demo that seems to show off better than most just what the oculus rift can do. It's fully compatible with the rift and the razer hydra to provide a complete virtual reality playground. Behold:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07IwxUD8N8EThere is a moment in that video where the guy throws a basketball high into the air, arcing it so it'll land behind him. he follows the ball in the air and leans backwards in his chair, stretching his arm out backwards and catches the ball. It's only later in the video, when he's reflecting, that he realizes how incredibly complex what he did was, and yet how the immersion made the experience natural and easy.
Much like Wii Sports, this demo seems to have transcended barriers. No matter how good or bad you are at gaming, how old or young you are, what you've seen or what you've done, a few moments in Tuscany seems to be all it takes to make even 90 year old grandmothers go off about how mind blowing and game changing Rift is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAC5SeNH8jwIt's the sort of product that instantly shows you everything you need to know in order to come to the conclusion that Rift is not a minor innovation, but rather a major step forward.
What is the future of Rift applications?
That's the most exciting part - reading the developer boards on oculus' website reveals thousands of people brimming with ideas. The nature of how different Rift is compared to conventional computing demands a different approach to virtually everything, from UI to what is simply possible. A few people, for example, are attempting to create a usable OS UI within Rift. Their concept demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs9kocefwaAThis is the sort of stuff that Rift will make possible. Medical and military fields stand to benefit immensely from Rift. Combined with Omni and Hydra, there is just so much that seems possible at the moment. it's all crude, but unlike other gimmicky technology *coughKINECTcough* Rift appears to be structurally sound in its foundation, meaning that going forward it'll be more about tweaking concepts to make them work, rather than trying to get a fundamentally broken principal accepted.
In the meanwhile, for the immediate future, Rift has 3 games that officially support it:
Team Fortress 2 VR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P50fvL_EWYYThis is Valve's first Oculus Rift product, a simple update to TF2 to enable VR controls. By contrast to using the SDK to map mouselook to the headset, Valve actually went in and retooled TF2's controls to better support Oculus Rift and the Razer Hydra. The end result, according to those who have used it, is that the small control improvements go unnoticed until you try a game without them, at which point you realize how vital they are. Your crosshair, for example, is not bound to your headtracking, but rather it works like a Wiimote. You are free to aim your crosshair all around your vision, like a mouse on a desktop, and push the screen around the bounding edges also like the Wii. However, turning is achieved primarily through your head tracking. People say that it doesn't replace the normal TF2 experience, and that you'd probably be at a disadvantage compared to someone with a KB&M, but that it's simply fun and worth playing around with.
HAWKEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STUIuKPa5WoFor gamers, this is likely the killer app beyond Tuscany. HAWKEN is an actiony, arcadey mech fighting game that plays like a fast, arcade version of Mechwarrior. It fully supports Oculus Rift, and is free to play. More than TF2, the benefits of being able to look around in your cockpit are evident, because your sights aren't lined up to your current view. You can be shooting and walking forward, while looking out of the left window to check for enemies sneaking up on you. The way Oculus surrounds your vision is supposed to be especially pronounced in HAWKEN, giving the illusion that you really are sitting inside of a several stories-tall mech. That you can peer downwards and see the ground below you reinforces this.
EVR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUpg9f8I-rQOf all the announced Oculus Rift Projects, this one has me the most excited. Though technically not announced - this was a demo put together in 7 weeks using a dev kit - it's assumed that this will become a full game. Set in the EVE Online universe, this has been described as a spiritual successor to Wing Commander and X-wing, albeit in virtual fucking reality holy shit! Unlike HAWKEN and TF2 VR, EVR's control scheme is linked to Oculus Rift in a unique way - while you normally have access to rapid fire guns, you also have a number of target-seeking missiles. To lock onto a target, you simply look at it for a few seconds until the computer starts tracking it, at which point your missiles will automatically hit the target. because this is a 3D space dogfighting game, it seems to translate into players frantically looking all around the cockpit, trying to keep enemies in their vision to take them out. Of all the Rift projects, this seems the most unique.
So where can I get Oculus Rift?
Oculus Rift has no announced price. it has no launch date. It doesn't even have a launch window - most are assuming it'll launch in 2014 for under $300. No major video game consoles existing or upcoming support it, although, given the nature of the Steambox, it'll likely support the Rift by default. Hell, even the final specs for the Rift aren't settled.
BUT you can still get your hands on a Rift today -- or in June at least. Developers can purchase an Oculus Rift dev kit from the Oculus website for $300 - http://www.oculusvr.com/
Purchasing a dev kit gets you a unit in June. these are prototypes running at a lower resolution, in an uglier shell, with unfinished software. The screens on the prototype produce roughly a 720p image, while Oculus is aiming for 1080p in the final. However, and this is the most important part - they work. Those who have already received their dev kits say that, even as unfinished as everything is, the Rift is still absolutely stunning and ready for the spotlight.
Anybody else as completely excited about this as I am?
UPDATE
I've since ordered a Razer Hydra motion controller in anticipation of my Oculus Rift arriving. Below are my thoughts about the Hydra:
My Razer Hydra arrived today. The packaging is pretty slick and the unit itself looks awesome. When it's plugged in, it has this pulsating glowing green neon orb at the dock that screams cheesy 90's futuristic. The controllers themselves rest on the Hydra base by way of magnets. They snap into place.
The actual 3D controllers are huge, much bigger than I expected. They are each controller is about 1 and a half times as big as a Wii Nunchuck, although they're shaped similar. They both have analog thumbpads, which feel nice, and a cluster of buttons around the stick. These buttons feel awesome, they don't feel mushy like gamepad buttons because they're actually mechanical microswitches. They feel like a very springy mouse button with a lot of throw.
The positioning of the buttons makes for two of the buttons to be the main action buttons, and the other 2 to be treated as lesser-important buttons. I personally have found trying to hit the left-most buttons with my left hand, and similarly the right-most buttons with my right hand, have been difficult. The positioning of the stick makes it so that hitting those buttons means I'm bending my thumbs in an awkward way. They're not unreachable, just undesirable. I'd compare it to hitting the black and white buttons on the xbox controller.
The other buttons, however, feel great. Pressing the left-most buttons with my right hand, or the right-most buttons with my left hand feels great. The buttons line up in a way that feels similar to an NES or SNES controller, and it feels natural and familiar. The sticks can click, and feel comparable to the 360 controller's sticks.
The triggers are massive and feel a tad cheap. The bumpers have the same microswitch design, but the actual plastic piece that makes up the button feels large and thin. The large analog trigger reminds me sort of the Gamecube's triggers because of how much throw and how enormous it is. It's an actual trigger, like the 360 pad, so no worries there.
The controllers themselves feel bulbous initially. They don't seem as form factor as the Wii Nunchuck of the Playstation Move Subcontroller. But, they're not uncomfortable, and you quickly forget about the size.
The true test of these controllers it their 3D tracking. Unlike the Wii Nunchuck and PS Move SubCon, which only rely on accelerometers to approximate positioning, these things offer motion tracking superior to the Wiimote with the Motion+. Inside each controller is the requisite accelerometers, but there are also gyros to allow for frame of reference in relative positioning and accounts for absolute positioning. Even cooler is the magnetic field the base puts out. The base creates a large, specialized magnetic field that surrounds several feet in your room. The controllers measure the strength of this field and the resistance to figure precisely where they are in the room. This gives them far superior absolute positioning than the move or wiimote+. Each controller has this fidelity, and since it's all wired (it's not wireless) there is minimal latency. These things can track very well. This is why they're popular for Oculus Rift development, because they can track hands in 3D space for each hand.
Finally, if any of the positioning ever gets off, specifically for the accelerometers, and you need to reset the controllers orientation, there is a button on each controller that's reachable to do that. This ensures that the motion controller always works as you intend it to.
I'm holding off on trying any of the more impressive demos like Tuscany for when I get the rift, but I tried Portal 2. It was pretty cool, felt like what you'd expect a Wii version of Portal 2 to feel like, except pretty refined.
Oh, and I also ordered a silver mannequin bust. I figured I needed a place to store my rift and I want something that looks as cheesy/awesome as the Hydra, so resting the headset on this silver bust should look neat.
I should have mentioned in my above post how few things officially support it right now. More are assumed to be coming, but outside of some OR stuff, portal 2 is the only thing that really supports it straight out of the box. And to get Portal 2 to support the Hydra, you have to send an email to DAN@sixense.com with your Hydra Serial Number, and he'll email you back a code to download the Portal 2 Sixsense DLC. You can't download the DLC any other way.
Kinda wonky and seems a little hodgepodge, but it's the nature of early VR right now.
UPDATE 9/12/13: Sixense's successor to the Razer Hydra, the STEM, has gone up on kickstarter. It was funded in about an hour. Here's a quick lowdown:
-modular tracking STEM tracking system - tracking is done by these small pods which do positional, absolute, and orientation tracking. They slide into 2 handle-looking controller shells to give them tracking, and the shells have 2 analog sticks, 4 buttons + start, and 2 triggers each. You can also wear the STEMs to provide tracking on body parts or other controller shells by 3rd party companies.
-Wireless, which is a big perk when you're dealing with VR
-Working in tandem with Virtuix Omni, board members of one company are board members of the other. They're attempting to provide a unified, cohesive VR solution with Oculus.
All early bird bundles are gone
So, talking to people, most assume this will be the standard setup for a 5 STEM system-
1 STEM per arm (likely in the controller shells for analog stick support and buttons)
1 STEM for headtracking (this will likely become redundant once the consumer rift launches, in which case this will shift to body tracking)
2 STEMs for foot tracking to be used in conjunction with the Virtuix Omni
the leg tracking is obviously optional and dependent on you owning an Omni. So the 3 tracker solution will likely be the most popular. With a proper 5 tracker solution, and a virtuix omni, you will have:
*Full Arm tracking on both arms, both positional tracking and orientation. Not only track where your hands and arms are, but which way they're facing, what height they're at, etc. This gives you true 1:1 tracking, making the elusive light-saber game everybody wants actually possible.
*Traditional 2 analog control, 8 button, 4 trigger support. This mimicks every conventional controller out there, so there's no excuse for loss of functionality. this can do everything a normal Xbox 360 controller can do, without compromise, plus the added benefit of extremely accurate positional and orientation motion control. No kinect 0-button laggy mouse bullshit. No wiimote waggle bullshit. Real game controls, on top of the best tracking available
*Full positional tracking. Right now, it looks like it'll be used for head tracking, allowing you to lean over in the rift and peak around. Once the consumer model rift hits, with head tracking embedded, this shifts to body tracking. That gives you the ability to actually duck for cover behind stuff, or peer out of a window and look around. Not just pitch, yaw, rot anymore, now full X, Y, Z tracking. The computer knows precisely where your head and body are in the VR world.
*With Virtuix Omni, full leg tracking on both legs. This gives you positional and orientation tracking, the software knows exactly where your legs are even if you're facing the other way, for true 1:1 walking mapping. Virtuix's board is full of people from Sixense's board, and they've begun demonstrating their products in tandem. Add in kinect support, and not only will this be able to very accurately track your walking, with the lowest latency possible, but it'll also be able to figure out skeletal position to do things like shifting of body weight. Imagine standing in mud and shifting your weight, and having you sink into the mud accurately depending on body weight.
This is by far the coolest tracking solution on the market.
Sterica on
+27
Posts
Also, for supported games you mentioned the (admittedly cool looking) little EVR demo thing that CCP guys did, but not the full-featured, incredible Star Citizen space sim which is in development?
I think it's also worth mentioning that modders are working on drivers to support old games on the Rift (e.g. Skyrim, Mirror's Edge, Half Life 2, Crysis), albeit not in an ideal state yet.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
I wasn't aware that Star Citizen existed. That looks amazing! There's also Doom 3, but I can't really find impressions from people on that game.
As for the drivers you're talking about - they're already out. Vireio Perception Drivers allow OR support in a number of games, although, as you noted, it's supposedly less than ideal. It seems like most of what it does is maps mouse look to OR itself, rather than adding the controller tweaks that exist in TF2 VR. I watched a long playthrough of Mirror's Edge using Vireio Perception drivers and OR and the guy said the experience was amazing.
Or something like Dystopia: You play the normal shooty bits in regular screen and KBM, and then when you deck you pop on your OR and do some VR hacking, like in that HUD demo
Despite the Rift being known as "John Carmack's Rift"* in the press for a while, Doom 3 support seems to have been pulled at the last minute and nobody is saying why...
*Though that was an error Carmack warned the real inventor that the press would make.
It seems like a great investment though since I can imagine it making your back catalog seem completely new. I can think of a bunch of games I'd at least partially replay through for the added depth.
Out of curiousity, can they be used for things like 3D Blu Ray movies too?
Some sort of virtual boy
I've been pouring through the SDK manual since I've ordered the dev kit, and I plan on trying to make at least a small game with the thing. I was speaking to an old Atari developer last night on IRC, this guy worked on Missile Command 3D for the Jaguar, the only commercially released Virtual Reality game ever (even though the VR headset was never released). He's given me his blessing, and I'm going to try and remake Missile Command 3D for the rift, except actually in VR this time.
Speaking of which, one of the early demos up for the rift is a virtual boy you-know-what. That makes me laugh.
Not without work, it seems. Oculus rift uses curved lenses to stretch the image around your eyes, so that the screen extends to the very limits of your peripheral vision, even when your eyeball is turned. The screens, to compensate for this, have a higher pixel density in the center of the screen (because that's where your eyes will naturally focus, leaving your peripheral vision blurred) and the rendering software in the SDK automatically corrects the distorted perspective by distorting it in the opposite way.
Which means, if you displayed a movie on the screens, it'd look bizarre. It'd extend to the limits of your view and it'd be distorted and out of shape.
What some are assuming, however, is that you can create a virtual theater to pull of stuff like that. Basically, instead of just projecting a movie into your eyes, use the Rift to simulate you being in a movie theater, looking at a screen in front of you. That's how they do the virtual boy Rift demo.
Also, the screens are low resolution. Blu Ray movies wouldn't be at their native resolution, meaning you'd lose any benefits of the high definition. 3D should be doable, of course.
steam | xbox live: IGNORANT HARLOT | psn: MadRoll | nintendo network: spinach
3ds: 1504-5717-8252
Alternatively, just stick to driving games:
"Wii" sounds silly at worst. "Oculus Rift" sounds fucking scary. :P
Actually, wii sounded pornographic at worst. Oculus Rift sounds like nerd speak for stereoscopic virtual reality, IMO, which is perfect.
EDIT: The point being, of course, that the general public probably doesn't give a shit about the name. If it blows minds, it'll catch on.
You're taking this really seriously.
You sure you're not?
I came in here to make a joke and you're ardently arguing with me about how well this thing could sell. I don't know and I really don't care, so I'm out. :P
Edit: One "serious" comment - if you want to get uninitiated people hyped about this thing, I'd suggest not using the term "virtual reality." That term reeks of the 90's like Fresh Prince and plaid flannel grunge shirts. People have had so much lame shit thrown at them branded as "VR" that I think it's the kiss of death.
protip: you're reading my posts in the wrong tone
Ideas being thrown around, such as lazer tag with everyone wearing these devices, building mapped out and location aware within the building, are just so exciting. Not sure where you would fit all the hardware but it's a step in the right direction.
Some people reported bit of disorientation connected with the fact that when you try to look at yourself you're not there, or when you wave your hand in front of your eyes, you cannot see that. Phantom limb sort of a feeling. Having a camera pointed at you, detecting your movement ala Kinect, allowing you to see your body more or less in the right location when you look down would add to immersion.
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
Incidentally I will buy an Oculus Rift the instant the retail versions are out.
Also using a Kinect style camera to pick up on your body position would be amazing, it'd also freak me out.
::edit:: Oculus Rift + Kinect: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/04/oculus-rift-and-kinect.html
::edit 2:: Here's a video of that treadmill thingy. http://www.vg247.com/2013/04/21/virtuix-omni-treadmill-demod-with-oculus-rift-kinect/ I can't wait to play Amnesia on a set up like this. My wife will come downstairs to find me quivering in a ball on the treadmill.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
That's actually how the omni works. Your feet aren't turning a trackball, but rather a stationary kinect like device watches your legs. That lets them map your head bounce accurately and correctly adjust distance traveled with stride. Apparently if you run with omni, you run in game.
There is another hand tracking device in the works, called leap motion that works like kinect, except smaller and located under your hand.
I saw a couple of examples of virtual porn being discussed too. Apparently sinful robots is the first virtual reality porn game, working with this $200 mechanical vagina that you, um, wear. The mechanical vagina can stimulate various motions to make it feel like someone is actually rocking your jock.
Another idea I've seen posted is a remote sex device. The idea is they'd make two forms of underwear - one for women and one for men. You could meet up with someone in vr and do your thing, with the underwear matching up your motions to each other remotely.
Neat, but creepy.
....excitement cancelled. THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS, HUMANITY.
Good old humanity, following the classic cycle.
1) Develop something neat.
2) Make it do something kickass.
3) Figure out how to make it screw somebody. Or yourself. Or a bunch of people.
HURRY IT UP, SKYNET, APPARENTLY THESE SILLY HUMANS WON'T DO THE JOB THEMSELVES AFTER ALL.
I don't mean it in a "it's a trap" sort of way. Rather, this could be cool for sexual growth and mental health.
:P
I see the parts that are important.
On the topic of omni-directional treadmills, I am a bit skeptical about the Virtuix Omni. On the other hand maybe it is a convincing approximation once you get used to it. It does have the advantage of not having a load of moving parts. I think with some clever engineering (and $$$) it should be possible to build a moving surface under your feet though and remove the need for a guard-rail thing.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
A side thought in the back of my throughout all of this is that if it takes off, this, far moreso than a new console generation, has the potential of really driving PC hardware sales.
Because seriously, it'll need DRASTICALLY increased system requirements for it to work well. Not just double the images, but you'll almost certainly want it running at least a solid 60 FPS at all times, with extremely low latency. Things that aren't really being tackled right now with the way the current generation's been going for a while now. They simply haven't needed to be, PC hardware's been good enough to run basically most-all console ports at 60 FPS by default for a while now. The big generational leap for next gen consoles is likely to be improved visual effects, but not as much as before because they'll be targeting 1080p and possibly 60FPS.
I expect that when the consumer version hits, the headset alone isn't going to be the only cost for most of us looking to get into it. I imagine that upgrades are going to be a serious thing all round.
You just made my day.
Pretty sure he just made everybody's day.
This is worth it for Mirror's Edge alone.
I haven't felt this excited about technology in a long time. The last time video games and graphics really, really blew me away - like not just impressed the shit out of me but made me think I was entering a new era - was the dreamcast. Oculus rift looks to be as big of a step forward as the first polygon games I played were.
It's not just gaming. There are so many awesome potential uses for this. Imagine being able to hang out with your friends, face to face, in the same room, only thousands of miles apart. Imagine how this will combat homesickness. Imagine a whole new medium - live recreations of historical events. Like war reenactments, only not by old men and hyper accurate. Imagine being able to be on the titanic while it sinks. Not a game, just being able to live the experience.
It's all so awesome to think about.
If I'm playing Mirror's Edge it really won't matter that I'm still using WASD to move around.
To be honest the use of it for RPGs and such feels distinctly secondary to the uses I see in games where the player's in a cockpit.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Amnesia. Or Penumbra.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Jesus, imagine this paired with freaking Google maps street level (though I'd imagine something like that would be a bit of a ways off, but not impossible).
This thing isn't just super awesome for the gaming scene, but for a whole host of other industries and I am willing to bet that people will take it and run with it in ways we cannot imagine. Even within the first year or so of its commercial release I will not be surprise if someone does something with it that makes everyone else go "Goddamn, I never would've thought of that!".
edit- Though as far as games, I'd love to see some sort of straight up Labyrinth (complete with a single Minotaur).
I waited in line for for about four hours back in the 90's to experience a ten-minute VR demo before "VR" was stolen and abused by everything not VR. This is an even better version of that. Instead of just head tracking in 2D, it's in 3D. And it looks a thousand times better than that demo did, since it was barely better than Starfox in terms of quality.
How long until we get gloves that will work like the Hydra? That would certainly be interesting.
As to the gloves, I think that'd be the easy part. :P
On another note, if some Devs really run with it they could make some point-and-click adventure games fucking badass. Imagine a game like Myst designed for the Rift!