VR in Gaming

[AlexM]

edit: I mean to make the title "VR in Gaming : Will it work this time? " but forgot to update the title.

 

With the advent of 4 companies that I know of working on VR devices I thought it might be good for us to have a discussion on VR in it's present form and the near future. 

 

So far I believe there are VR devices being worked on by Valve, MS, Sony and Occulus. So there's certainly a lot of money behind making VR work this time. Do you guys think it will work this time? 

 

We certainly have much better technology but there's still a few issues I'm worried about:

 

1) Resolution, everyone seems to agree that you need a higher-than-hd resolution for VR. 

 

2) Glasses. I haven't tried one of the new VR sets but I have a concern. I wear glasses when playing video games, how do I do that with a VR headset.

 

3) Motion sickness

 

4) If you don't own one, it's hard to explain via video.

 

5) It's a item that actively discourages real world human interaction. It could be the victim of vilification, 

 

I guess a question we need to ask ourselves is why did VR fail so many times before? Lack of resources? Lack of technology? Too much of a gimmick? Motion sickness? 

 

So do you think this time VR will be integrated into society much like the smart phone? do you think it will have a niche audience? Do you think it will suffer the same fate as Gunpei Yokois Virtual Boy?

Edited March 20, 2014 by AlexM

[JamesL]

1) Resolution, everyone seems to agree that you need a higher-than-hd resolution for VR. 

Not necessarily, though it does help. But of course the higher the res the more horsepower you need to drive it and the higher the cost of that tech.

 

2) Glasses. I haven't tried one of the new VR sets but I have a concern. I wear glasses when playing video games, how do I do that with a VR headset.

Morpheus has a sliding optic block; its fine to use with glasses.

 

3) Motion sickness

4) If you don't own one, it's hard to explain via video.

You're confusing motion sickness (physical cues of motion in the absence of visual ones) with simulator sickness (visual cues for motion in the absence of physical ones) but I get what you mean.

There are strategies to mitigate this; high framerates, reducing lag on turning, acclimatization into simulation (amongst many others) but its highly likely the case that a small percentage of people will always become sick in a simulation.

Edited March 21, 2014 by JamesL

[AlexM]

Thanks for addressing that stuff James.

 

Do you think it's able to be mitigated enough so we dont have entire nations who don't really play the games due to those issues? (AKa Japan and FPS'es) or will it be prettu much the same. 

 

Also is there a general idea of a good resolution where the density is enough to compare with a TV experience. Are we talking 4K or much higher? 

 

 

edit: glad to hear about the consideration for people who use glasses. I wont use contacts.

Edited March 21, 2014 by AlexM

[Steppenwolf]

I'm really looking forward to it. I'm positive that it will be success this time around because the tech is so much better then in the last era of VR hype (early 90's) and will continue to get better over the next couple years.

 

 

It's a item that actively discourages real world human interaction.

 

That's the strenght and weakness of it. I think it could become like a drug for people who want to escape from the real world, so a whole lot of people.

 

 

So do you think this time VR will be integrated into society much like the smart phone? do you think it will have a niche audience? Do you think it will suffer the same fate as Gunpei Yokois Virtual Boy?

 

Probably gonna be more niche then smartphones but lot of people will own a VR device and if it's only to watch porn.

 

Don't think it can be compared with Virtualboy because ther's so much software and media already in development for it and it's not even out yet.

Edited March 21, 2014 by Steppenwolf

[Sprony]

I'm expecting great things from this. Gonna buy the Occulus as soon as it comes out. Unless the others convince me that they are better. Regardless, I'm all in on VR. 

[AlexM]

I was really thinking of buy one of the Occulus SDK kits but all the sudden there's 4 vr helmets coming to market we know of. Now I'm not sure what to do. 

 

I'm going to this game developer thing Tuesday. I'm hoping they'll be demoing something there so I can get a firsthand look.

[Sprony]

I was really thinking of buy one of the Occulus SDK kits but all the sudden there's 4 vr helmets coming to market we know of. Now I'm not sure what to do. 

 

I'm going to this game developer thing Tuesday. I'm hoping they'll be demoing something there so I can get a firsthand look.

 

Will you let us know how it was?

[Warby]

tried a occulus test kit at work 2 weeks ago

 

1) yes MUST have higher than hd (retina) resolution what I saw was a scanline pixelated vignetted depth of field mess. i was also dissappointed that i could still see a black border from my periphery.  

 

and doing that for 2 eyes/images ... FILLRATE killer ... better optimize your shaders and transparency in your scenes ^^ 

 

2) i don't have glasses but i read in many places that these devices are glasses compatible even if you cant push your glass between your eyes and the device those transparent spheres that occulus comes with probably can get swapped out based on your prescription. 

 

3) i got motion sick within 5 minutes  but i think a) devs will quickly learn what to do and not to do b) people will get used to it ... so shit will meet in the middle and be no problem

 

4) yeah we had big trouble setting up the machine on most computers luckily it worked pretty much out of the box on mine. Its borderline impossible to setup without having 2 people: one manning windows and the other one none-stop looking into the occulus shouting ... nothing, nothing, just black, WAIT now it says: "no signal" on the right eyes ... now its black again. a tiny low res display on the front that shows a preview of the two eyes would already remedy this.

 

5) I am with steppenwolf depending on who you ask this could totally be its appeal! I like to make RL fuck off every once in a while.

 

 

I am predicting this is gonna be a niche product. Mostly based on how much people hate wearing 3D glasses and the discomfort of that is multiplied factor 100 with vr headsets.

 

and the real game changer will be transmitting images directly to your visual cortex without going through your retinas/optical nerves first.

[AlexM]

 

I was really thinking of buy one of the Occulus SDK kits but all the sudden there's 4 vr helmets coming to market we know of. Now I'm not sure what to do. 

 

I'm going to this game developer thing Tuesday. I'm hoping they'll be demoing something there so I can get a firsthand look.

 

Will you let us know how it was?

 

 

If can get to use one definitely. 

 

 

tried a occulus test kit at work 2 weeks ago

 

1) yes MUST have higher than hd (retina) resolution what I saw was a scanline pixelated vignetted depth of field mess. i was also dissappointed that i could still see a black border from my periphery.  

 

and doing that for 2 eyes/images ... FILLRATE killer ... better optimize your shaders and transparency in your scenes ^^ 

 

2) i don't have glasses but i read in many places that these devices are glasses compatible even if you cant push your glass between your eyes and the device those transparent spheres that occulus comes with probably can get swapped out based on your prescription. 

 

3) i got motion sick within 5 minutes  but i think a) devs will quickly learn what to do and not to do b) people will get used to it ... so shit will meet in the middle and be no problem

 

4) yeah we had big trouble setting up the machine on most computers luckily it worked pretty much out of the box on mine. Its borderline impossible to setup without having 2 people: one manning windows and the other one none-stop looking into the occulus shouting ... nothing, nothing, just black, WAIT now it says: "no signal" on the right eyes ... now its black again. a tiny low res display on the front that shows a preview of the two eyes would already remedy this.

 

5) I am with steppenwolf depending on who you ask this could totally be its appeal! I like to make RL fuck off every once in a while.

 

 

I am predicting this is gonna be a niche product. Mostly based on how much people hate wearing 3D glasses and the discomfort of that is multiplied factor 100 with vr headsets.

 

and the real game changer will be transmitting images directly to your visual cortex without going through your retinas/optical nerves first.

 

Direct links to optical nerves. 

scurry o_0

Edited March 25, 2014 by AlexM