Oculus Rift/HTC Vive / VR in general?

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

That's because VR is so far removed from what people expect when they think of video games!

It's no longer a question of controlling a character on screen, or watching things happen there, but of actually being that character, and being literally in the middle of it.

Just like GoPro's pushed point of view experiences to the forefront, I expect we'll end up seeing a ton of great content to experience in 360, like their surfing video for example, which to me is also very very cool.

It also creates a whole new dimension in movie-making, imagine LOTR, Star Wars, or Harry Potter, shot in 180, or 360? Imagine the possibility of in the future having an environment that is photo-realistic, and interactive! We're approaching that now with traditional games - with tweaks and high end video cards, digitally rendered characters and spaces are becoming ridiculously good. It's shocking to go back to an older game, one that you remember with fond memory, and realize just how awful those graphics used to be. Only a matter of time until we see that progression with VR, but probably, much much faster.

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Especially with good noise cancelling/isolating headset on, even with the gear's crappy resolution it's possible to forget you're in a room, and to react somewhat to surroundings. I'm now trying to find some way to try out both systems as soon as possible.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

:bumpit:

So the pricing is out;

HTC Vive will be $799
Oculus Rift, $599

The Vive will come with controllers, and generally looks like the more advanced option from a hardware standpoint.

The Oculus Rift... well they had much more time to polish the VR experience, and tons of input from the GearVR, far outside the scope of controlled demo environments.

Many other companies will be coming out with competing products in short order too, Sony, Microsoft, and Apple are the most notable BIG players, but there are others... Meta 2, and Magic Leap.

So anyone make a pre-order or have a preference?

Personally for the moment I'm still leaning toward the Oculus Rift.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

I pre-orderd the Vive at launch. Now I am poor, but I can have virtual moneys now. I'll post my impression of it here when it arrives (I'm guessing mid-April).

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Awesome, looking forward to your impressions.

I'm leaning toward the Rift, due to software, but I'm not entirely decided... the fact that the HTC will come with controllers is a very big plus.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Knowing that Valve is behind it and it is well integrated with Steam, I have no concerns about soon coming content.

Edit: Though Valve are total bros, and are supporting Oculus in SteamVR as well. Can't say the same about Oculus Store.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

A different reservation I have, is that I simply don't have the room to make use of the Vive. My PC is in my bedroom, where unfortunately I really don't have all that much room to do much more than comfortably split around in a chair, let alone actually have room to get up and walk. To move it to my living room each time would be impractical to say the least.

The Oculus is geared more toward sitting use. Pretty much, you're in a chair, and that's that.

The Vive, well, you can bet they want to make use of the sensors more, and will need people to get up for some titles. Which is great, so long as you have the room for it, and can manage to keep yourself from tangling in wires.

This is actually one of the biggest issues facing VR, from a logistics standpoint... that people WILL get tangled up in wires. I suspect that this problem will be resolved in later iterations... most modern routers have no trouble handling the streaming of 4k content.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Watching others using it seems to show that the wire is not a big issue. It's something that you get used to. Having the space is of course very important, but it does not have to be huge. The minimum recommended area for room-scale is 1.5x2 meters. If you make some effort, then you'll very likely find the space for it, and it will be well worth it for escaping reality. This technology is amazing, why piss it away for not wanting to give up some space?

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

It's not just space, it's a logistics issue too for me. In my bedroom, I definitely 100% don't have that amount of space to free up, no matter how I go about it. Only alternative would be to move my main PC to livingroom. Doable, maybe, but a lot of hassle.

I have to admit, I haven't tried it, but to me it seems like space exploration like that, requiring some movement, not work very well without a more dedicated platform.

Edit: About wires, idk, I'm most definitely a klutz... I've managed to get the wire trailing from my phone to earphones snagged

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Then it might be best to wait for the next generation. It will likely be cheaper, and be hugely better. 4K, wireless, foveated rendering, + things that I can't even imagine myself yet. It will make the current tech look so basic.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Not to mention, whereas there are really currently only two players on the field, within 1-2 years max we're likely to see at least 9...

Oculus Rift
HTC Vive
Microsoft Holo Lens
Apple VR
Google Glass V 3.0
Sony/Playstation VR
Meta 2
Magic Leap
Nintendo VR

These are just the ones I'm aware of at the moment. Would not surprise me to see many more small entries to the field.

I expect 2-3 designs to eventually dominate the hardware portion of the market, and 3-5 OS'ses to run them.

While VR is at this point, to me, at least, a foregone conclusion, the next big brainteaser is Augmented Reality paired with ways to directly stimulate sensation... there are already headsets being developed to trigger dopamine release for example. Why even bother with trying to mimic tactile sensation when it can be bypassed entirely in favor of direct neural stimulation? 10-20 years from now drugs like coke, ecstasy, and heroin may seem downright stupid.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

that would be bad though.... then some one hack the VR head set... make the thing to over stimulate the brains..... and then brain fried.....cyber murder will be a new crazed... sound paranoid but i ain't letting a piece of metal junk messing with my mind lol....

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Brain-interface is where we are going for sure. But as EI said it wont be for a long time until the theology has matured, due to the obvious risks and unknowns.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

I didn't read through everything but I did read the part where someone was talking about 3d tv. I have watched a bunch of 3d blu-ray movies in 3d on one of my tvs that is quite good at it but ONLY after watching them in 2D first. When I go to the movies I always watch the 2D versions. The reason is you lose a huge amount of detail as you focus in on any 3d things and really miss the whole picture. You lose all the details that really bring everything together especially when there is motion. The loss of detail when there's fast motion is really bad and the faster it is the worse it gets.
Obviously people still desire it in an actual theater on a 4k screen even though overall the real world resolution drops as the screen gets bigger as so many films keep being offered in 3d. Don't see it going away anytime soon. When a new hot movie comes out and a local theater offers it in multiple rooms there's always more 3d showings than 2d.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

I've seen three movies in 3D at cinema, and a never got a good experience. My eyes get fatigued and out of focus, double vision, and the subtitles are at a different depth from everything else. And the image looks too dark. I spite 3D movies, but VR is different. It is 1:1, everything appears as it does in real life in terms of depth and scale. I cannot convince anyone how it feels. I insist that anyone that hasn't tried it to go to their local Best Buy or Media Markt -whatever and try a demo.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Yup, that's what sets VR apart from 3D. Things aren't just popping out, instead it's as if you're actually there, and the sense of depth perception is completely natural.

This is actually what puzzles me about both Oculus Rift and HTC... the fact that to date there have been very few options for people to try either. At least now with the Samsung GearVR, people will get some idea of what it's like.

As far as neural stimulation, there are so many issues to overcome... but, I would not be altogether surprised if some crude form of a headset came out within ~5 years, that could create pleasure through directed sonic waves.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

I have a note 4 and I know stuff exists for it but things have been upgraded to note 5+ now and Im not getting a new note until they bring back the removable battery and microsd card. I have 128mb right now for my card and it's full because I have so many movies on it.
Is it worth getting that Google cardboard thing to just see what is up? I mean is there free stuff I could do with it?