VR Gaming

Get off the damn computer, and play with your TV, it misses you!

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Re: VR Gaming

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From a thread discussing 3D on the Oculus Rift:
to a certain extent it will be better than normal vision, at least for some of us. Ok, in effect, all of us.

But moreso for those with imperfect eyesight.

The infinity focal point of the HMD system will allow for 3d effects for very close objects, which cannot be supported by normal human eyesight, which has to shift and move about in normal 'real world' life.

We can, and will also experience a weird effect that does not exist in our real world, which is perfect focus at all depths in a single given scene. This is seen in 3d games and the like, but will be more pronounced in HMD use.

The other odd thing to understand is that this infinity focus point of eyerest, perfect depth of field and infinitely perfect focus is an INTERNAL aspect of the dreamstate, the hypnotic state of the human brain/mind. The duality of mind conscious-unconscious program/recall/integration point.

This means incredibly potent, ie, very real entrainment on the subliminal level is the key point of what will happen.
cool stuff.

I wonder if after a period of getting your "VR Legs", using the a VR headset might actually be more relaxing for your eyes since you don't have to focus. Your eyes are locked in infinity mode, similar to daydreaming, while everything remains in focus.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Here's a good ~14 minute hands on with Sony's Morpheus and their thoughts afterwards. It starts off with a light tech overview (the Sony rep doesn't know or go into much detail)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Q4Vf-HwEU&hd=1

My hopes for the Morpheus are for movies. (hopefully can find a way to stream from my PC to PS4) It will be weaker than the Oculus Rift simply because it's limited to the power of the PS4 but I think it will be great for movie watching and things like that. Oculus will have a polished VR Cinema app though so it all depends on what Sony can dream up.

Sony has time to fine tune persistence and some motion blur issues and still have it ready for Xmas 2015. I picked up a PS4 camera day one so won't have to get that when the times comes.

I'll be getting any Oculus and Morpheus products released day one so it's not really a competition for me. I want them both to be as good as possible. Really glad I pre ordered the DK2. It looks like at least a solid year before anything else comes out after the DK2. Original DK1 kits are selling for $800 on eBay with high developer demand and no way to buy the DK2 for another 2.5 months.
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Re: VR Gaming

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There is a new Oculus inside a secret room in Irvine

An Oculus Rift virtual reality headset for consumers could go on sale next year, a company representative told Business Insider at Facebook’s F8 developer conference today.

Management at Oculus VR, the Irvine, California company that Facebook bought for $US2 billion earlier this year, will be “disappointed” if it doesn’t have a headset available at retail for ordinary people by 2016, according to Jim Redner, an Oculus spokesperson.

A consumer Oculus product in 2015 will be exciting for a couple of reasons:

- Almost everyone who tries the device is completely blown away by the experience. It’s completely different from any other audio-visual gadget you’ve ever tried — the worlds inside the headsets feel real and deep, because the company has gotten rid of the screen time “lag” that occurs when users move their heads.

On top of that, the environment moves naturally as you move. In the game I tried today, I peered out into a lava-filled hellscape full of demons guarding battlements. If I leaned forward, I could see into the rivers of molten rock that flowed between them. Attendees at the conference lined up 20 deep to get 5 minutes with the device.

- Oculus will completely turn the console game economy on its head. Once you’ve played a game inside Oculus, going back to playing on a TV just feels lame.


Currently, Oculus is only selling development kits to game creators. The Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 is currently on sale for $US350, and units will start shipping to developers only in July of this year. After that, Oculus VR must wait while those developers create an ecosystem of cool games — there is no point in selling the headsets to consumers if there are no games or other content for them to see.

There is no word on a price tag for consumers. The company is in the process of building a team to work on marketing and branding the product.

Game creation takes time, but Redner says the current thinking is that there should be enough titles to justify consumer usage by 2016.

More tantalising still is what Oculus is hiding inside the secret “Valve Room” within its Irvine headquarters near Los Angeles. (Valve is the company that originally used the room for developing games; Oculus has taken it over.)

We first heard about this from Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon, an investor in Oculus VR, who says that the version of Oculus Rift inside the “special room” is more powerful and impressive than even the existing Crystal Cove and DK2 versions that outsiders have been allowed to play with.

“Crystal Cove is 50% of what they are running in LA,” he says.

Oculus Rift Crystal Cove is impressive, but it’s still obvious that you’re inside an animated game environment. It doesn’t yet closely approximate reality. However, “what they have in LA does,” Dixon tells us.

“You go into a room. It’s a special room. Fancier headset. … In user testing it gets to a level of realism where almost all people feel that it’s realistic.”

He gestured to the San Francisco street where we were drinking coffee. “Imagine everything you can see now, but it’s a little bit pixelated. Eventually that [pixelation] will go away.”

He believes Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg bought the company after being ushered into the Valve Room. (He obviously tried the other versions as well.)

Redner wasn’t quite as hyperbolic when asked about the “mythic” room. But he did tell us that the demo version inside the Valve room does feature a photorealistic experience that is so real even people who are very sensitive to motion sickness don’t “feel” it.

The test unit has an entire room to itself because it requires a massive amount of processing power to run. It’s a headset tethered to a giant server, basically.

Oculus expects, eventually, to be able to crunch that down into units that can be sold commercially.

Games will only be the start of it. Once it is commercially available, “There will be a million in the U.S. military, police, and fire services,” Dixon says.

“Anything to do with training” that is dangerous will utilise an Oculus experience instead, he believes.

We can’t wait.
The article is from Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/oculu ... ers-2014-4

The version inside the "secret Valve room" sounds pretty amazing. I'm glad I ordered the DK2 as it looks like it will be the end of 2015 at best for the consumer product release. The good news is it will be a nice improvement over the developer models.

People are already blown away but the low res DK1. DK2 will be better. CR1 will be even better but the "secret Valve" version sounds like it will be mind boggling awesome.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck from BSG) is voicing EVE-Valkyrie, seems impressed with her Rift experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6mAu1IqibA

"I should have said frak"


Project Cars announces Oculus Rift and Morpheus support:

http://www.roadtovr.com/project-cars-so ... pport-ps4/


Black Desert to Support Oculus Rift

If you haven't seen Black Desert, It's a very ambitious MMORPG. Here's someone's preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EljAdiTXpk&=hd1

There's lot of game play videos out there as well but the world and avatars are impressive. Should make for an interesting VR experience.

Nice to see some big games supporting Rift already!
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Re: VR Gaming

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Google Glass’ Lead Electrical Engineer Adrian Wong Defects To Oculus

Wong’s LinkedIn lists him as the former hardware engineering manager on systems, camera, and RF for the consumer edition of Glass, and the Senior Hardware Engineer on the Explorer edition, where he handled end-to-end rapid prototyping, display subsystem design and HDI PCB layout. On AngelList he characterized his time at Sandia as being a “former spy gadget maker for US gov’t”.

Wong hold at least 10 patents, many that relate to Glass-style smart eyewear, including “Wearable Computer with Nearby Object Response”, “Wearable Computer with Superimposed Controls and Instructions for External Device”, “Method to Autofocus on Near-Eye Display”, and “Unlocking a screen using eye tracking information. He also has bachelors and masters degrees in computer and electrical engineering from Cornell. Considering Wong’s expertise, accomplishments, and position, he’s a big loss for Google.

Wong’s skills could help Oculus make its Rift VR headset more capable of rendering virtual worlds without making people sick. He could also help shrink the headset into a more graceful consumer product.

The ability to poach high-profile employees like Wong is surely one benefit of Oculus shifting from Kickstarted startup to being backed by one of the biggest companies in the world. Why Facebook has pledged to let Oculus operate independently, it’s known to help its acquisitions behind the scenes with things like recruiting. Google is known for its generous counter-offers, so Oculus may have needed Facebook’s piggy bank behind it to make the steal.

While there was plenty of developer rabble-rousing when Facebook bought by Oculus, its CEO Brendan Iribe told me last week that the acquisition actually convinced some big dev houses to start building for Oculus because its longevity was assured. The potential to not just make an indie gaming device but to potentially turn the Rift’s virtual reality into the next big computing platform may have lured Wong to Oculus as well.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/15/adrian-wong-oculus/


Not that I'm a big fan of Google Glass, but Oculus continues to amass an impressive bunch of people to work on Oculus Rift.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Second Life supports Oculus Rift now. It's in beta but looks interesting. I'll have to check it out in July.

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Feat ... -p/2728824

There needs to be a Second Life II because the original is too much of a mess.


More interesting is this video that demonstrates two kinects and an oculus rift, placing the actual person into a VR room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgbycqb92c

The resolution for the body is extremely low (looks better when he stands up). It's an impressive proof of concept video. With higher res kinect type devices, you'll have a full high res version of your body inside a virtual world, and with wireless, will be able to move all over the place.

Worth checking out, jump to second half to see full body. Need to imagine it with high res scanned person and then imagine being in something more interesting than a meeting room and with strange creatures. Will be very cool, sooner than later.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Samsung is making a VR headset for its phones and tablets

Samsung is known for its ubiquitous Galaxy smartphones and tablets, popular smart televisions and, most recently, smartwatches. The Korean consumer electronics giant is about to enter another major new category: virtual reality headsets. We're told by sources close to Samsung that a virtual reality headset is not only in the works at the company's mobile division, but it's set to be announced this year. The urgency is said to be a measure of beating Facebook's Oculus Rift and Sony's Project Morpheus to market. Some developers already have early versions of the headset, which -- at least in the development stages -- is powered by flagship Galaxy devices (think: Note 3, Galaxy S5). The consumer model, however, is said to require the power of next-gen, unannounced Galaxy phones and tablets.

First things first, what are we talking about here specifically? A peripheral. We're talking about a virtual reality headset -- along the lines of Oculus Rift, but more akin to the Android-powered GameFace Labs prototype (seen below) -- created by Samsung, powered by Samsung products. This is not the rumored "Galaxy Glass" project.

We're told it has an OLED screen, as good or better than in the second Rift dev kit; it's not clear how the headset connects to your phone/tablet, but we're guessing it's a wired connection rather than wireless. Given VR's reliance on immediacy, a wired setup is a requirement (any lag introduced breaks the immersion, and often makes people sick). It's also not clear how, or if, Samsung's VR headset tracks head movement depth-wise. In the case of both Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift, separate cameras face the player and track depth by reading sensors on the respective headsets.

Beyond beating the competition to market, Samsung's said to be targeting a lower price tier with its headset. Don't expect anything too low -- we're still talking about a VR headset -- but the idea again is to undercut Oculus and Sony. Unlike Galaxy Gear smartwatches, we're told that Samsung's in-house OS, Tizen, doesn't play a part in the VR headset.

This is a device meant for use with games. What type of games? Android games! Sure, but which ones? That's certainly the question. Great games make the platform, and VR games are especially tough to crack given the newness of the medium. One thing's for sure: most major games won't work on VR as direct ports. Something like Minecraft VR makes sense on paper, but does it actually play well?

That question, and many more surrounding Samsung's VR headset, remain a mystery. For now! Perhaps you know more? We'd love for you to get in touch! We'll have more on Samsung's virtual reality plans as we hear more; for now, the official line from Korea is, "Samsung doesn't comment on rumor and speculation."
Jesus, VR is set to explode onto the scene. According to the bolded parts above, they're racing to beat Oculus/Morpheus to market so it's not a back-burner project. Unlike Sony, Samsung has assloads of money and awesome OLED/Bendable Screen tech that works great with VR. Negatives for Samsung and Sony are that they are limited to portable (Samsung) and PS4 (Sony) processing power while Oculus can take advantage of the monster graphics power in PCs. Eventually though, technology will catch up and all VR will be portable/wireless.

The more the merrier. I can't wait for my DK2. Ordered it day 1 in March and now I'm only a month or so away from getting it in July! I think if you order it now, estimated time is around September for delivery. I plan to get the first consumer version of Oculus Rift as well as the Morpheus so far but maybe also Samsung's VR depending on how it turns out. Not a big fan of Android but Samsung is the company Oculus is getting their DK2 screens from and Samsung also makes bendable screens which would be awesome if used in a VR device, wrapping around your vision so less intense lenses would be needed.

IMO Samsung (and maybe Sony) producing mobile VR would be much better than something like the Vita or 3DS for moble gamers...or at least older gamers like me. I can't fucking see those little screens up close anymore. I want something small and portable but with a humongous screen with some sort of adjustable opacity.

-------

On a positive note for Oculus, I posted on reddit about the benefits of having a outward facing camera on the Rift awhile back. My thoughts were that besides it having some uses for Augmented Reality, it would be nice just to be able to toggle on/off the camera, allowing you to see your keyboard, take a drink, etc. without having to constantly flip up your headset. It also might benefit those needing to get their "VR Legs" where you could have an opacity setting so you could fade the outside world in and out as you adjusted to VR. It appears Carmack is working on integrating an outward facing camera into the Oculus Rift. Maybe it will make it into the first consumer version.

I suppose Apple/Microsoft are next or be left in the dust. Maybe they'll be more focused on AR (Augmented Reality) than VR.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Please welcome Jason Holtman, Oculus’ new Head of Platform!

A driving force behind Steam since its earliest days, Jason brings incredible experience building entertainment platforms for both users and developers. At Valve, Jason was a pioneer in the digital distribution revolution that’s taken place over the last decade.

Jason will be spearheading the business development and partnership side of the Oculus platform working closely with Marshall, head of platform engineering, and David, head of worldwide publishing, with a focus on building the world’s best developer and player VR ecosystem. We’re thrilled to welcome him to the team.
Here's a list of notable hires since March for the Oculus team:
Neil Konzen, former engineer at Valve and one of the original Microsoft employees
Brian Hook, former engineer at RAD (Telemetry) and the original author of 3Dfx Glide
Adrian Wong, former lead systems engineer at Google[x] (Glass)
Ian Field, former engineer at ARM and co-inventor of Cortex-M
Raul Corella, former head of supply chain at JawBone, Monster, and Leap Motion
Laura Fryer, former GM of Epic Seattle and WB Seattle
Paul Pedriana, former lead engineer at EA
David Moore, former engineer at RAD (Granny)
Kenneth Scott, former art director at 343 Studios (Halo 4)
Seneca Menard, former technical artist at id Software
Paul Pepera, former environment artist at Valve and 343 Studios
Brian Sharp, former engineer at Bungie
Aaron Nicholls, former engineer at Valve, 343 Studios, and Microsoft
Matt Alderman, former engineer at Valve and ArenaNet
Cass Everitt, former GPU architect and engineer at Nvidia
Ross O’Dwyer, former at head of development support at Havok
Douglas Lanman, former research scientist at Nvidia Research and MIT Media Lab
Oculus is a place where tech nerds want to work. They're getting the best people, not outcasts. Hope they put all the talant to good use.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Here's a very well written Wired Magazine article covering the origins of Oculus, its rapid rise, and it's future.

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/oculus-rift-4/
“I’ve seen five or six demos that made me think the world was about to change: Apple II, Netscape, Google, iPhone … then Oculus.”

That’s because Oculus has found a way to make a headset that does more than just hang a big screen in front of your face. By combining stereoscopic 3-D, 360-degree visuals, and a wide field of view—along with a supersize dose of engineering and software magic—it hacks your visual cortex. As far as your brain is concerned, there’s no difference between experiencing something on the Rift and experiencing it in the real world. “This is the first time that we’ve succeeded in stimulating parts of the human visual system directly,” says Abrash, the Valve engineer. “I don’t get vertigo when I watch a video of the Grand Canyon on TV, but I do when I stand on a ledge in VR.”

Now Oculus is hard at work on its long-awaited headset for consumers, which the company predicts will be released later this year, or more likely early next year, or perhaps even not so early next year. Whenever it comes, we’ll finally have something that has eluded us for more than 30 years: immersive, affordable virtual reality. And we’ll all know what Brendan Iribe knew standing in that room outside of Seattle.

This is going to be bigger than we ever expected.
Facebook’s money also means that Oculus doesn’t need to worry about turning an immediate profit—and that will come in handy as it builds its first consumer product. “Let’s say we’re trying to pack in everything we can for $300,” Mitchell says. If the device needs to be profitable, then the company couldn’t spend much more than $100 on the hardware itself. But now that it doesn’t need to preserve its profit margin, Mitchell says, “you can take all of that margin money, apply it to components, and still keep the price exactly the same.” In fact, according to Luckey, the consumer version will be “higher-quality in every aspect” than the proto­type that Valve showed Iribe last year. While Oculus’ internal units have used twin AMOLED 1080p displays from Samsung Galaxy S4s, the company no longer has to depend on the mobile phone ecosystem; it now has the money and the backing to ask a manufacturer to create custom displays specifically for VR applications.
It's a lengthy article and will at least give you a good idea of what's going on so you're prepared for next year!

One of the most interesting things about Oculus Rift is that John Carmack asked to borrow one of only two prototypes in existence from Palmer Luckey in April 2012. Luckey let him borrow it with no NDA's
Intrigued, Carmack private-­messaged him. Would Palmer consider sending him a loaner unit? Palmer, who idolized Carmack, shipped it off to Texas immediately—“no NDAs, no signing anything,” Carmack says. “It was one of two proto­types that he had.”
Within two months of tinkering with it, he asked Luckey if he could show it to "some people":
Luckey was ecstatic to learn of Carmack’s work—but then Carmack upped the ante. He asked Luckey if he could “show it to some people at E3 in Los Angeles.”

“Show it to whoever you want,” Luckey told him.

A few weeks later, Luckey was in Boston, attending a trade show about display technology; a friend texted him, asking if he’d seen the article about him. It turned out that what Carmack had meant by “show it to some people” was “take a bunch of meetings with the press to promote virtual reality, the Rift, and Luckey himself.”

The reception that the Rift got was rapturous. “The level of immersion was unlike any other gaming experience I’ve ever had,” one site wrote. “It transforms the experience of playing a first-person videogame,” another wrote. “When we look at that now,” Carmack says, “it was clearly the inflection point.” Overnight, the Oculus Rift became the most hotly anticipated gaming device.
Created two months earlier in a 19 year old's house, it won best of show at 2012 E3.

Pretty amazing story even two years later, things are still moving very fast for Oculus. Less than a month away!


-----

If you never seen it, here's one of John Carmack's interviews at 2012 E3.

Check out the Oculus Rift when he shows it. lol. It's a ducked tape mess with some ski mask strap. Looks like complete crap and yet it won best of show. This is even before they figured out how to improve persistence, had the higher res AMOLED displayes, side to side motion tracking,etc etc. Carmack goes into detail about the crappy parts and res, etc in the unit...and it still won best of show. The tech has to be for real.

Anyway, give monster credit to John Carmack for pimping this thing at 2012 E3 to get the ball rolling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw-DlWwlXHo&hd=1

the interviewer's first words after putting it on were "oh my god". Doom 3, a strobe light, first person shooter is one of the worst things you can demo for VR due to motion sickness...and it still won.

John Carmack is a freaking genius. He deserves all the accolades he's received in the gaming industry. Worth a view. Interesting how the interviewer seems almost sleepy before demo'ing the rift and then looks much more motivated after experiencing it.
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Re: VR Gaming

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http://kotaku.com/watch-someone-freak-o ... 1587287001

The link above is a kotaku story about a Virtual Opera.

Watch the opera first (about 13 mins) because it's really cool by itself (second video on page)

Then watch the first video where the guy wearing a Oculus Rift tries out the demo. He freaks out quite a bit but you get the idea. Seems so hard to imagine what he's seeing even when you see the image he's watching.

From what I'm gathering, faces, etc that appear up close, look REALLY up close when in VR.

Cool stuff and cool opera video by itself. Can't wait to be immersed!

edit: if you enjoyed the actual opera video (not the VR part that really can't be appreciated without a VR headset), here's the link to the company that made it:

http://senzapeso.com/
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Re: VR Gaming

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Oculus nabs co-founder of 'Uncharted' developer

More than a few people (including one absurdly rich 30 year old (Mark Zuckerberg)) think that the Oculus Rift is going to change the world. As it turns out, that list just got a little longer today: former THQ president and Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin is joining the Oculus mothership as its head of worldwide studios. What exactly does that involve? Rubin painted us a picture (with broad strokes, alas) in a post on the official Oculus blog:
"I'm excited to bring together a new division dedicated to building high-quality VR content that helps define the platform and inspire others to do the same."
It's a interesting move on Oculus' part, but maybe not a surprising one. Take a look at some of Oculus VR's other big-name hires -- John Carmack (who was accused of stealing VR tech from his former employer) is the Facebook subsidiary's chief technology officer, while ex-Valvie Michael Abrash now serves as Oculus' chief scientist. That's a considerable amount of brainpower dedicated to fleshing out what the Rift (and its eventual descendants) are capable of, but what about the content? What about the games, the worlds, the universes that this new attainable age of virtual reality could bring to the masses? Rubin -- who's had a hand in creating Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter to name a few -- is an experienced hand that should help steer this new generation of media in the right direction, though his tenure at THQ was marked by asset sales and liquidations. Hey, maybe he'll tap some of those young VR wizards to help out.
Pretty amazing string of hires for Oculus.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Here's a pretty casual 80 second reaction to experiencing the Oculus Rift...he still says it blew his mind at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEDdOFTN6P4

This is the kind of stuff I like to see Palmer Luckey say at E3:

http://www.stuff.tv/oculus/oculus-found ... price/news

Still shaking from the pant-ruining terror of playing Alien Isolation on the Oculus Rift, we sat down with Oculus founder, Palmer Luckey, to discuss what's next for the field-leading VR company. And while Luckey remained tight-lipped on a release date for Oculus as a finished consumer gadget, he did reveal that Oculus doesn't plan to make any money from selling it.

"Whatever it costs us to make, that is what we’re going to sell it for"

"The next six months is going to be crazy," says Oculus's 21-year-old founder. "We’ve got a lot of stuff going on." Read what you like into that, speculation fans, but Luckey and his team are definitely working flat-out to create the consumer version of their already revolutionary virtual reality headset. "The first consumer version will be a lot better than DK2 [the current developer kit] - a lot better. There’s a lot of unannounced things we can’t talk about, but it’s going to be a lot smaller, a lot lighter, cheaper, wider field of view, higher resolution and higher framerate. DK2 wasn’t designed to be the thinnest or lightest thing we could make, or the cheapest for that matter: it was meant to be something we could get out quickly, that did all the functions we needed it to, very reliably. But it is a developer tool. We reused a lot of the same parts for DK2 that we used for DK2, because that allowed us to move a lot faster. But for the consumer version we’re making every piece from the ground up. There isn’t a single piece from DK1 or DK2 that will go into it, so we’re able to design it from the beginning to be a perfectly integrated, minimal piece of hardware."

This sounds expensive - we must be looking at a rather low margin on this thing. "We’re going to be selling it at cost," Luckey tells us. "Whatever it costs us to make, that is what we’re going to sell it for. That’s one of the things the Facebook deal has allowed us to do: because we already have these resources behind us, we don’t have to worry about making money from our customers right away. If we were running purely on our own and trying to make money just from hardware, we would need to make enough profit from each unit to pay for running the company for several years, until we launched the next one."
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Re: VR Gaming

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If anyone's not convinced yet that there is lots of interest in VR, check out the line at E3 to get a brief chance to experience it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Qn6gJTmqI

That's a long wait for a couple minutes of testing!
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Re: VR Gaming

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Rumors are starting to circulate that Microsoft is in talks with Oculus (Facebook) to have a consumer version of Oculus Rift ready for the Xbox One for holiday 2015.

Still very much rumor but it makes some sense. Microsoft has ties to Facebook and they haven't announced anything regarding VR. Oculus would work with the Xbox One so it would be one way to have something available that's a high quality product in time to compete with Morpheus. They already have Kinect for the motion tracking.
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Re: VR Gaming

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That sounds like something Microsoft would do. Why innovate when you can just write a check.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Aslanna wrote:That sounds like something Microsoft would do. Why innovate when you can just write a check.
It's OK with me. Microsoft has shown a ton of virtual research. i even posted a link into what they are doing.

If that won't work for their VR headset needs, why not partner with Oculus/Facebook? No need to re-invent what's already been created. Microsoft makes assloads of money off patents other companies use. They could throw a billion/year at Oculus and it just break even with the royalties they make off of Android devices alone. It's been mentioned before, but Microsoft isn't hurting for money.
Last edited by Winnow on June 19, 2014, 1:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Winnowlogue (Win·Know·Log): A lengthy monologue that's periodically interrupted by concerned bystanders.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Funkmasterr wrote:Winnowlogue (Win·Know·Log): A lengthy monologue that's periodically interrupted by concerned bystanders.
Still not expecting much else beside me in this thread until six or so months from now around CES 2015 when things start hopping for consumer versions.

You'll get plenty of posts from me here as I'm extremely pumped up about VR. I have been for years..like 20 years but I'll finally get to experience it soon! I'm sure there will be random flames in the thread. There always are, but I'm fired up about any VR. As for a Microsoft and Oculus possible team-up, they'd be hampered by the same thing Sony is in their console. Way to weak of a GPU for serious VR. Most current high end PC cards can't even handle the planned specs for the Consumer Release of Oculus Rift. HDMI 1.4 spec maxes at 1440p @90hz. That will barely be enough to support the first CR of the rift.

I have a feeling the PS4/Xbox One console lifespans will be shorter then the normal console lifespans. They both simply can't handle 1080p/60fps comfortably and that really should have been the minimum for this gen. If VR takes off, PCs will rule the gaming world again as the next round of cards from Nvidia and AMD should handle high end gaming resolutions at 1440p+, 90hz, 90fps.

Morpheus (and whatever Xbox One comes up with) will have very basic, low res VR. 1080p is laughable in VR as it has to stretch around your entire field of view. That's my only concern with Morpheus being used in virtual theater mode. That 1080p monster screen you view in the headset is just a small portion of the display being used. You'll need a 4K display to see a 1080p movie in it's native resolution...but it will be awesome.

Image

So take that little rectangle (your current monitor at it's current resolution) and stretch it out to fill the field of view for Oculus. That's why very high res screens are needed.

Latest Oculus hire:
Transistor Developer Heads to Oculus

Indie developer Supergiant Games recently celebrated the release of its second ever title, Transistor. The PlayStation 4 and PC action videogame was met with praise from both critics and fans alike when it launched in May 2014. Now that it’s finished, one of the team’s key members, senior programmer Chirs Jurney, has decided to move on from the developer and head to Oculus VR, the company behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset.

“I’m joining Oculus at the end of the month to help make VR awesome,” Jurney revealed on his Twitter account this week. When later asked what he would be working on, Jurney revealed that, for now, all he could say was that he was working with a ‘small prototyping team’ along with Oculus VR engineer Brian Sharp, ex-Double Fine tech artist Lydia Choy and Maxis’ former lead gameplay engineer, Dan Moskowitz.

He later revealed that he will be based in San Francisco. Speaking to Polygon about the appointment, Jurney revealed that he had always wanted to work in VR and had started speaking to Oculus VR at the 2014 Game Developers Conference in March. It’s not clear what the team will be prototyping at this stage, though given their collective history as developers, it could be that this is a software-focused group. The company is currently preparing to ship its second development kit (DK2) next month.

It would seem, then, that Oculus VR isn’t slowing down its recruitment drive, despite announcing a long list of hires before E3 2014. Those appointments included Naughty Dog founder Jason Rubin, who joins the company as its head of worldwide studios, suggesting that Oculus VR will have its own first-party videogame developers in the future. Could Jurney and co lay the foundations for one of those developers? VRFocus will continue to follow Oculus VR’s progress, bringing you all the latest.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Oculus VR acquires design team that helped make the Xbox 360 controller and Kinect

Oculus VR has acquired Carbon Design Group, a design firm that helped Microsoft create the Xbox 360 gamepad and its first Kinect camera. "The team will officially become a key component of the product engineering group at Oculus," the company announced today. Not much is changing for Carbon's employees; they'll continue to work from their current office near Seattle. Oculus is sharing news of the acquisition today for the first time, but the two teams have already been collaborating for nearly a year. They're working together on "multiple unannounced projects," but Oculus isn't getting any more specific than that at this stage.

"Carbon approaches products with a design-driven methodology rooted in quality engineering, ergonomics, deep user insights, and rapid iteration," Oculus said in a statement. "All of this adds up to an incredible skill set to deliver ground-breaking new virtual reality products." Carbon's team seems equally excited about the opportunity to shape how virtual reality will look and feel in Oculus' consumer hardware. "This is an entirely open product category," Carbon Design Group said in a statement. "We're incredibly excited to be part of the team and we're looking forward to helping design the future." We've been blown away by Oculus' technology once strapped in, but the company may need a bit of help making the Rift's exterior resemble the sleek renders and mockups it showed off long ago.
Nice! 360 = best controller evah!1!

These guys should help a lot with any controllers Oculus designs for the Rift.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Women wearing Oculus Rift = Hot!

I know some of you like platformers. Here's a good article about someone's experience with Lucky's Tale which is a platformer designed for the Oculus Rift. It demonstrates the potential for greatly enhanced gaming experiences in more than just first person:

http://nzgamer.com/features/1347/a-look ... t-2-0.html

excerpt:
A Look at the Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2.0

By: Reagan Morris
Published: Tuesday 24 Jun 2014 8:00 AM

...I hit start on the wireless 360 controller I’ve been handed and the game begins. It’s a bright, cartoony, 3D world and standing on a platform in front of me is a small squirrel, he’s looking right at me, smiling. I look around and notice I have no 3D embodiment. Interesting. I haven’t been told what kind of game I’m trying out, so I try and piece it together. I look off to the side and push forward on the controller only for nothing to happen, I look back at the squirrel and he has moved slightly.

I’m playing a 3D platformer.

A huge smile crosses my face. Not only have I not experienced anything outside of a first person experience on the Rift, but I wasn’t sure a 3rd person experience could be done well. Forgetting completely that DK2 has solved positional tracking, the natural inclination to lean in and check out the environment kicks in. I lean closer to the cute squirrel character and my mind is blown for what feels like the hundredth time since I first experienced the Rift. For the first time instead of being reminded that I’m not there in that cartoony world, my view leans with me. I start looking around the rest of the world pushing my face closer to objects, having them feel like they’re centimeters from my face.

It’s a new experience, and I can’t stop smiling. I shake my head in disbelief. I didn’t expect to be wowed as much as I did when I first used my DK1, but here I am. I snap myself back to reality and start maneuvering Lucky through his stylised little world; jumping from platform to platform with ease. It’s a stripped back platformer, but it works and plays well, and I’ve since learned that it was a demo for what will get a final release.

Instead of the usual behind character view most gamers would be used to by now, the camera floats along a specific path through the world, ensuring you always get the best view of Lucky’s current situation. The only difference between this and a platformer on any other platform is that you’re in the world with Lucky. With a turn of your head you can scope out what’s ahead, and you can get in close to take a better look at what he (maybe she? I didn’t ask) is currently dealing with.

By the end of the demo I’ve shaken my head numerous times in disbelief and the muscles in my face are starting to hurt from the smile that’s determined to reach each ear. Not only has this one tech demo proven that without a doubt there is more to VR than first person experiences, but the numerous demos on the show floor seem to be wowing everyone and proving that people really are ready for Virtual Reality.

I was so caught up in the experience that I completely forgot to look out for screen blur (which I mentioned above). While it’s quite prominent with the DK1, the fact that it never entered my thoughts while wearing the DK2 showed that they’re well and truly on top of it. This is thanks to the low persistence OLED screen that now sits within the hardware...

Another good article on Lucky's Tale:

http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/25/584174 ... us-rift-vr

excerpt
It’s hard to describe the sensation, but imagine playing with and around an intricate model train set. You can lean over the hills covered in fake grass to see the tiny people, or move your head closer to the little buildings to inspect the fine details. It doesn't feel like a game, it feels like playing with miniature versions of real objects.

The ability to move your head in any direction, including closer and farther from the action, fools your brain into thinking what you're seeing is real. That you're surrounded by an actual environment built out of real materials. It's a strange feeling in such a cartoony world, but it works. The sense of place and presence is unlike anything else in modern gaming.

Lucky's Tale is going to be a launch game for the consumer version of the Oculus Rift, and the game is being published by Oculus itself. It's being developed by Playful Inc., a new developer headed by Words with Friends co-creator Paul Bettner.

This is another company making a large bet that virtual reality will turn into a mainstream product, or at least that the Rift will sell enough to make a virtual reality platformer an economically viable product. Being inside a game of this kind is very hard to describe if you've never used the hardware, as the game sometimes feels like you're playing with physical toys way more than playing with a game. The sense of exploration and play is joyful, and the game changes the control scheme as you move your head to aim thrown bombs during one section.

Watching the lead character hop around in front or you, with the ability to examine him from any angle while controlling his motions, gives you the illusion of playing with a remote-controlled animated character. The tone of the game is changed completely due to being in virtual reality, and the result is intoxicating.
"Virtual reality — I mean truly accurate, comfortable virtual reality — is the most important thing to happen to interactive entertainment in decades," Bettner said. "I know it sounds like exaggeration, but it’s impossible to explain what this is like to someone who hasn’t experienced it for themselves. Your brain is convinced that you are somewhere else, that you are in another world. I have worked my entire career to get to this moment, to create something like this."
Here's another very promising development for VR:
BBC Completes Virtual Reality Experiment for Oculus Rift

The BBC newsroom was filmed using a 360-degree camera set-up.

The BBC is experimenting with the potential of virtual reality for Oculus Rift and other such VR goggles, completing a test in its news room.

“We have started to test out its potential and working with a small production team in London called Visualise, have done a few basic pilots,” Cyrus Saihan, head of business development for BBC Future Media, wrote on a BBC blog post. “Using a 360 degree camera set-up, we filmed our newsroom, live editing gallery and [BBC TV presenter] Fiona Bruce in the studio – we then ‘stitched’ together the various images to create a virtual reality experience that could be viewed on an Oculus Rift device.”

Hollywood studios such as Fox, game developers and other businesses are also experimenting with VR for Oculus Rift and other such goggles.
I'd really like to see an Oculus Rift channel. Imagine watching a talk show and sitting at the same table as the host and guest. (what you really have to imagine is actually feeling like you are right up close to the people and surroundings. The biggest imagination leap you have to make without experiencing it is getting away from thinking in terms of looking at a rectangular screen and instead being fully inside the scene you are experiencing, everywhere you look, in 3D.

Imagine a news helicopter filming a live event with a 360 degree camera on the bottom of the helicopter allowing you a 360 degree view of what's happening.

So many cool things are possible.

Been waiting 3.5 months since I pre-ordered my DK2. Hopefully will have it in a week or two! From what I can tell, the consumer VR devices are still a year away but there is an unbelievable amount of developer interest and activity with VR. No way I'd be able to wait another year, but for those who do, there will be a bunch of various content available for a new product. In the meantime, there are assloads of demos and developer projects available to have fun with on the DK2.

Of course, on the more mundane side of things. Oculus Rift is THE way to watch 3D movies as you have no bullshit glasses, darkened screen, flicker, etc. You watch 3D content exactly as it's intended to be viewed. Last hurdle is resolution which will be solved entirely by the consumer release.
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Re: VR Gaming

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The first batch of official DK2s have left the manufacturing facility and are making their way to our distribution centers now. We expect to ship roughly 10,000 DK2s from the factory in July, with just over half of the units through distribution centers and on their way to doorsteps before the end of the month. The very first units are expected to reach developers the week of July 14th. Tracking numbers for all DK2s will be generated as soon as the shipment has been processed by a distribution center.

Please take a moment to confirm that your shipping address is up to date via the Oculus Sales page (https://www.oculusvr.com/sales/). We'll ship to the address on file, and if the information is incorrect, it may cause delivery delays. In the event that your payment information is no longer valid, you'll receive an email prior to shipment with instructions on how to complete your payment.

We're now over 45,000 DK2 pre-orders, which is incredibly exciting. That said, we're slightly behind in manufacturing and there's currently a high chance that some developers with estimated shipping in July may not have their DK2s shipped until August. We have a team in China working on continued ramp of production at our factory, and we'll work our way through the queue as fast as we can.

Once your Development Kit 2 is ready for shipment, you'll receive an email with a tracking number which can be used to see an estimated delivery date. Please do not contact Oculus support asking for a shipping estimate, as we do not know the status of your package until a tracking number has been generated.

We'll continue to post status updates, so everyone can stay current on what's going on behind the scenes. Thanks again for your continued support, and we hope everyone is excited to be begin working with DK2!
Looks like only 5,000 DK2s will be delivered in July. That's probably only the first 3 or so hours of pre orders on the first day. I'm more like in the first 10K since I pre ordered about 12 hours after it started on March 19th so I'm looking at early August. Probably late September before you get one if you order now. More waiting but at least they gave an update!

I also was honest and checked "not a developer" so that may push me down a little in the pecking order.

Here's a nice 3D model site. This is a 3D mock up of The Last of Us:

https://sketchfab.com/models/4d0c2c1441 ... 3fdb499a1c


This is how you would view a scene through Oculus Rift:

https://sketchfab.com/models/b819181e3c ... d?oculus=2

I can imagine a VR platformer game level being designed like that.
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Re: VR Gaming

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This cracks me up.

For those that like the 3rd person perspective (camera behind you) in MMOs, you can now experience that IRL:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/03/thir ... o-project/

Why be forced to use first person in real life!?
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Re: VR Gaming

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Some examples or 360 videos:

http://totalcinema360.com/showreel.html

Here's example of something as simple as playing a 360 camera on a coffee table. Without Oculus it's interesting panning around the screen, but fully immersed, I'm betting it's really cool:

http://totalcinema360.com/demo.html

you'll also notice a little Oculus icon in the video player. It's as easy as hitting that button to send it into VR mode. Whatever viewer they're using is nice. You can pan around the scene whether paused or while the video is playing.

When it comes to actual movies, this 360 VR mode might make users more prone to replay a video several times getting more entertainment value as you can't possibly see the entire scenes while viewing in 360. I'm an optimist that this will be put to good use.

I know James Cameron is taking a real interest in VR. Imagine something like in Avatar, during the big attack on the Tree, you could choose to watch what the humans are doing or look the other way and see the destruction and chaos being caused to the blue people. In a sense, you are you're own director, choosing how to view a scene. Of course, there would always be the "directors cut" where you watch exactly as it was intended.

I also still feel that being slightly able to shift position during a movie to see a slightly different angle would make for much higher immersion. It doesn't have to be 360. A little 2-3 foot range head movement window would allow for even more of a feeling of presence on top of your vision being completely covered by the scene, including panning up/down left right.

First batch of DK2's are finally scheduled to ship next week! I think I might be in the 2nd batch of 5,000 shipped out in a another week or so. Hoping for mid August.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Bah

They started shipping the first batch of Oculus Rift DKs but if you didn't get your order in with 10 seconds you won't be getting it in the first batch....well not quite that fast but your order had to be in the first hour on March 19th. I ordered mine about 12 hours after orders opened so have my doubts about being in the second batch since barely the first hour was filled with the initial 5K units. only 12K total were ordered in the first 36 hours so hopefully that frenzied order pace will have slowed a bit after the first hour. Maybe only 10K in first 12 hours.

Anyway:

There's a new X-Men Oculus demo where you are Professor Charles Xavier using Cerebro to locate mutants being demo'd at Comic-Con. Sounds cool!
If you've every wanted to try X-Men-style telepathic brainwave amplification, Cerebro isn't real (yet) -- but the Oculus Rift is a damn good surrogate. 20th Century Fox will let you step into Charles Xavier's mind and don the futuristic headgear (the Rift, that is) at Comic-Con in San Diego, starting tonight. Each participant will be immersed in a three minute, panoramic VR presentation on a quest to find nudest of all mutants, Mystique, with the best reactions recorded on a GoPro for Facebook posterity. On top of the VR experience, Fox is offering a limited-edition, thousand-run of X-Men: The Cerebro Collection in a replica Cerebro helmet on pre-order for $80, or $90 with X-Men: Days of Future Past. The latter will also be up for pre-order at $23 alone and both will arrive October 14th, with the Digital HD version set to come on September 23rd.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Fox brought Oculus Rift to the Petco Interactive Zone right outside the main convention center, and allowed people to meet Ichabod Crane as a promotion for its series Sleepy Hollow. If all went well, the user's head was chopped off during the experience, and they were sent home in real life with a nice CGI photo of their head lying on the ground.

Warner Brothers used Oculus Rift to promote its upcoming movie, Into the Storm. In its scenario, the wearer was stuck in a storm drain during severe weather as debris flew at them and vehicles exploded nearby. Fans and vibrating seats helped make the experience even more convincing.

Pacific Rim's Oculus Rift experience let people pilot a jaeger, a 250-story fighting robot that has to be powered using the neural powers of two human pilots. (Don't ask: It makes sense in the Guillermo del Toro movie.) Brave users then had to fight a kaiju, a destructive reptilian creature that emerges from the center of the earth. (Again, don't ask.)
Very promising outlook for Oculus and VR with multiple media companies offering Oculus Rift experiences at Comic-Con (also the X-men demo in previous post)
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Re: VR Gaming

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I believe there was some research done to see if we could determine if our universe was simply a simulation by a more advanced civilisation by checking if our universe had some coordinate system as it would have a smallest denomination which would give it away as not being "real". You'll have to do some Google fu to find the papers.

If it's a perfect simulation and all sentient beings inside of it have no way of detecting that it's a simulation then by definition the beings that created the simulation would be gods.
It's entirely possible although not probable that we already live in a simulation. I've always thought that religion was kept alive by the fear of death and the unknown. The above quote gives new meaning to the quote by Arthur C. Clark, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

In this case, if we can't detect the simulation, we are simply completely oblivious to it.
To your brain, there is no difference. The only 'real' difference is in the description of each subjective reality.
The above is a remark regarding real world vs virtual world perception.
Once a certain level of presence is achieved VR will engage the autonomic nervous system, the centers that regulate our survival mechanisms. To these centers in our brain and bodies, virtual stimuli will be indistinguishable from the 'real' thing.

There may be a form of cognitive dissonance present in that the subconscious mind will believe its in danger, yet consciously you'll know you're safe in your home. But one could also say that that is present in the daily world in that everything we experience day to day could be a simulation of sorts. Our true selves or souls could be rooted in heaven, controlling these avatar physical bodies here on this earthly plane.

If that's so, Oculus and VR has a long way to go before they can emulate that level of immersion... So to be more specific.. What's the difference between RL and VR once you can't tell the difference ? Entirely subjective. However generally speaking I think we will find that for some people VR is even MORE 'REAL' than RL. I say that because I imagine for those people VR will be able to invoke certain emotions, feelings, hopes, and dreams that for whatever reason, they can't access in daily life.

I think what's really interesting is to think of VR like a mirror. And it really is. These virtual worlds are direct reflections of our minds, and of ourselves. The world as we know it isn't really 'out there' its assimilated on a consensual basis in our brains and bodies. I think the same will be true for VR. In 5 years maybe less people will have VR hang outs that far exceed real places in terms of enrichment of experience, learning and social interaction. How is any of that not real? We get so hung up on language all the time on the meaning of words but I think the reality is we can create our own meaning.
Bring it on.
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Re: VR Gaming

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These are some comments from new owners of the DK-2 having just tried Elite: Dangerous. Pretty amazing stuff that I doubt people would fake.
DK2 Impressions by Zimtok5 Warning: Spoilers across several older games below. Also, long post!

I'm an avid gamer with a passion for games over all other art forms and consider myself a critic with exacting standards. I have toyed with Unity and count myself as an enthusiast and on that basis bought a DK2 just 2 hours after sales opened in March. Yesterday, my Rift made it to me in Scotland. Up to that point, I had my hopes set on the DK1 with a bit better resolution. I nearly hugged the driver in anticipation but, boy, was I wrong. It was a far more fundamental jump than I had expected.

After a bit of setup and jumping through various Rift demos, the Elite: Dangerous servers came back online after receiving a major update; opening their doors to the world (and me) as part of the Standard Beta. Just moments into the multiplayer game, I realised it. E:D in the Oculus Rift DK2 is simply the single best gaming experience I have had to date in my 29 year life. I sat on this statement this morning, comparing memories which may have been better in both indie and triple A titles, but E:D plus DK2 beat them all by comparisons, hands down. So, what floored me and evoked surprise and emotions I never thought would surface while gaming? Initially, it was the sight of a rotating space station with a planet far below and trails of smoke from recent passers by which made the entire scene electric to me. I just sat there and soaked it in as the small beeps and sounds of my ship ticking over reminded me that I, too, was alive and part of it all. As I took a flyby of a floating city and docking station, something about the detail level and ethereal combination of elements caused an involuntary tear to roll down my right check in front of more Twitch viewers than I thought I would ever have. I have never felt that in a game. I know others will feel this with me, in time. I realised am no longer waiting for change, in fact. The world -has- changed. It has changed forever.

To compare, my experience last night:

Was more impressive than the renowned Half Life [PC] moment where a huge tentacle from Xen pins a scientist to the wall, smashing through a pane glass window; one of the biggest shocks of my early PC gaming life. Seeing a planet floating yet suspended in the most subtle of motions at full scale is one for the bucket list.

Pulled on heart strings harder than failing to resurrect Chrono in Chrono Trigger [SNES]. When you bond with a character so closely, losing them and then losing them again can really jerk you around.

Gave me a purer sense of freedom than releasing Epona in The Ocarina of Time and taking a mane-whipping ride across the plains of Hyrule. I nearly shouted 'FREEEEDOM!' In the vein of my Scottish countrymen. Breaking free of the dock and boosting my engines felt like graduating from some interstellar university. I wished I had a hat to throw in the air and cheer.

More satisfying than after more than 30 attempts defeating the end boss in Unreal Tournament named Xan, yet finally breaking through and securing the victory (and a new skin for muliplayer to show off proudly). Getting pulled out of warp and drawn into a gun battle which I only won thanks to some helpful players was simply epic. I thought I was a dead man... but lived.

Was a more lucid experience than tunnelling to the core in Minecraft and feeling solitary, confined, and entombed by the glow of lava on the cave walls, wondering if I would ever find home again.

Had me feeling truly lost in space and more in over my head than wandering the shores of the Chernarussian coast in DayZ mod for the first time with flares lighting up despondent zombie faces as they meandered ominously through the fog.

Made me dream of the future more than walking through a custom built house in the DK1 and for the first time truly seeing the future of gaming and recognising the unbridled potential of this amazing new hardware at the hands of thousands of craftsmen and women (Rift devs!).

TL:DR Dude... dude... I wept over a game. What!? Yes. It happened.

In summary:

If you have disposable income to spend, the combination of an Oculus Rift DK2 plus Elite: Dangerous is perhaps the best available use of your funds right now. This is a jaw-dropping, tear-jerking experience and I give the developers at Frontier major kudos for getting so ahead of the pack and at an astounding level of quality on their delivery to date. I felt like I was back in the store in San Francisco on launch day for the iPhone. Frontier are months (if not years) ahead of their competition and deserving of your hard earned credits. :P (Seriously, though!)

I am SO happy to have taken the gut shot at ordering my DK2 on the basis of my original experineces. If you can, just do it. This is an absolutely incredible and groundbreaking experience.
I just got my Dk2 and played Elite WITH a Subpac and full hotas setup and I swear I have seen the face of god. It's mind blowing how amazing it plays. Elite is truly a masterpiece. The sounds and visuals are just perfect. There is nothing even remotely close to this experience right now. The future is now.

Edit: Holy f... when I loaded the galaxy map. I felt I was in Star Trek.
I echo these sentiments fully. DK2 + Elite Dangerous + Flight Stick is my favorite VR experience, and quickly becoming my favorite gaming experience of all time. I played against a bot on the live stream on Monday, and 5 minutes in pretty much forgot the stream was there. I had to keep reminding myself I was being watched.

Its crazy to say this at such an early stage, but E:D is at "Killer App" status. Even in beta, its good enough to motivate people to purchase hardware (myself included). Between this and E:V, the space combat genre may define VR for the first year of its consumer release.
As I sat on the floor of my sitting room as a teenager playing Frontier the feeling of scale and freedom was incredible, as I lay in bed at night I imagined the experiences the future might hold.

The combination of an Oculus Rift, Elite: Dangerous DK2 & Saitek X52 is the future I imagined made real, a fundamental advancement of immersion that has altered my expectations permanently.

I cannot express how amazing this is, I showed my wife, she tried to reach for one of the keyboards in game and knocked over stuff on my desk, I keep reaching for the controls as they are positioned in-game instead of where they are on my desk.

The experience is that ... real.

I don't care about the fighting, I don't care about trading, all I want to do is explore. A ship and a direction, I'll see you in out there, you might spot me at some point, that blinding light is solar, bouncing off my grin.
I stepped in to E:D last night with the DK2 and nothing can compare to the experience. I ceased to be a gamer and became a spacer.

It was my Contact moment - "No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should've sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea."

My first dogfight scenario left me speechless, the gorgeous cockpit lives and breathes around you, your head snaps upwards to track the target while lasers pulse illuminating everything, shields light up as they absorb the impact - and you're there, right in the middle of it all and its simply incredible.

If you have a DK2 or will get one - This, you MUST know this feeling
Playing Elite on my Commodore 64 was one of the "big moments" in my early gaming history in the 80s. Of course that was like 10 vector lines on the screen and everythign else crammed into 64kb.

It looks like they did the original Elite game justice by providing another ground breaking experience with VR Elite: Dangerous.
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Re: VR Gaming

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I received my Oculus Rift Friday.

I posted my initial thoughts about it over on the Computer Forum since it's more of an all purpose device and not just for gaming:

http://www.veeshanvault.org/forums/view ... 25&t=26386
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Re: VR Gaming

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Pixar Technical Director Chris Horne leaves company for Oculus
Amazing how many quality hires Oculus has been getting. I hope it results in both good hardware and software.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Here's the reveal for the Samsung GearVR Oculus VR headset:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6T4M4VMuk


Presentation is horrible (as is to be expected at Samsung events) but John Carmack saves the day later in the video with some serious tech talk behind the product.

GearVR will only use a Notebook 4 phone which has a 5.7" quad HD display (2560 x 1440)

The magic behind running this VR headset completely mobile is in what Carmack has been able to do with the software side of things. He's a genius.

They also announced it would release with VR Cinema, VR Home and VR 360 movies/picture apps from Oculus. I'm very tempted to get a Note 4. I'm going to have to compare the 5.5" Iphone 6 with the Galaxy Note 4 closely. I might get both and just use the Note as a Wifi device if Gear VR is impressive enough. This is something that I could watch movies in bed, on flights, etc and be totally immersed. Amazingly, the Note will be powerful enough to do some gaming on.
Oculus Home is a simple interface for connecting to the Oculus Store, where you can discover, download, and launch VR content.

Oculus Cinema is a virtual movie theater, where you can playback your favorite 2D and 3D movies in a variety of theater environments.

Oculus 360 Videos and Oculus 360 Photos are experiences that allow you to playback panoramic content in VR.
Gear VR will be good enough to watch movies, etc so will be perfect to have your own massive 2D/3D/360 movie/picture experience and escape the plane ride you're on or just to have an IMAX experience while lying in bed, or phone capable games (which are getting better all the time).

Oculus Rift will be for the serious gamers

Verge has a good write up and video so you can see it a little more close up:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/3/609874 ... t-hands-on
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Re: VR Gaming

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Direct link if image too big for your puny res screen!:

http://i.imgur.com/aboNIRl.jpg
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Re: VR Gaming

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Image

Actually that was pretty obnoxiously big. Here's a cropped pick.

I guess you could get a custom faceplate with a picture of your own face on it. That would be a little freaky to others in the room.
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Re: VR Gaming

Post by Boogahz »

I can't decide if that is really cool or just creepy
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Re: VR Gaming

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Japanese are all prepared for VR with their Japanese Schoolgirl simulation:
The character was so close it made me nervous. Maybe the room is too small?
It's amazingly real!4
I really want them to make a full product out of this.5
I was surprised at how detailed the room was.
When she got close, my heart skipped a beat.
I think I'm in love.
I never thought a game character would make me this nervous.
I wanted to move around the room.
It was like she was really in front of me. I felt really bashful.
I kept smiling.
It was a very new experience for me. The possibilities seem endless.6
The character was cute. I felt a natural charm about her.
The character presence was amazing!
She was a lot closer than I thought she'd be.
I still want to play it.
I was nervous the whole time. I felt the sound design was very important. The character felt closer than I expected.
I wouldn't want anyone watching me while I played.78
The closeness of the character is amazing. They should make a simulation game where you try to get into Tokyo University together!9
It was like she was right next to me. I want to live in that world.10
It was amazingly stable. It's a shame you have to experience it to understand it.
It would have been even more immersive if they had voice interaction. It feels like she's really there.
Having the Oculus, I know what they're seeing. It's still something that has to be experienced first hand.

http://kotaku.com/peoples-impressions-o ... 1669698032

After viewing, 98% said they wanted a Morpheus.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Oculus is buying a company that brings hands into virtual reality

For those playing along at home, Oculus now owns a company that designed some of gaming's greatest controllers (Carbon Design), has some of the smartest VR folks (from John Carmack to Michael Abrash to founder Palmer Luckey), and is bringing in-house the ability to track and re-create the world around you while in VR (with Nimble VR). Presumably that consumer-grade VR headset is coming sooner than later, right?
Nice. Hand/arm tracking is a big piece getting closer to full immersion.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Image

What people look like using Samsung Gear VR when the Phone hasn't been placed in it. lol too funny.

Link if red-x

http://imgur.com/jcB1Zyh
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Re: VR Gaming

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The Xbox One is definitely one of the most important products in Microsoft’s lineup, but the company might also be interested in offering gamers a different kind of gameplay experience in the near future.

Digitimes reports that it has heard from sources familiar with Microsoft’s supply chain that the company is working on a head-worn virtual reality gaming device that could be unveiled next year at the E3 video game conference in June.

Development of the unnamed project is apparently handled by the same hardware team that’s behind the company’s Surface tablets, although more details about it are not available at this time.

Even if it’s going to be unveiled at E3 in 2015, it’s not clear when such a device will be released. It’s also not known how this potential virtual reality headset will interact with Microsoft’s existing consoles, and specifically the Xbox One.
Looking forward to see what Microsoft's entry into VR will be.

Oculus/Samsung
Microsoft
Sony

Add to them

Magic Leap
Google

Magic Leap is the "mysterious" company that everyone that has demo'd their tech is floored by. It's more augmented reality than full VR. My guess is that Microsoft, Google or Apple will buy them for assloads of money at some point.

I'd expect Apple to get involved as well in the Augmented Reality field at some point with the best product after everyone else released theirs as usual.

I'll be rooting Oculus on as they are/were the catalyst for getting the VR ball rolling but the mega buck (other than Sony) companies are now diving in. After selling 500,000 cardboard VR box's meant to be more for fun than anything, Google has also started to take VR seriously. Microsoft isn't late to the party. They've been researching VR for years.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Magic Leap looks like it has the potential to be very cool.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/magic-lea ... z3OygjeavA

Augmented reality but not just a HUD overlay, it maps your surroundings and integrates graphics.

Some image examples below from their patent filings: (see linked article if they red-x)

Image

Image

Hospital room mapped on the fly and beach setting created around the room but you can still see bed/tables etc.

Image

3D floating images to assist with surgery, travel,e tc.

Image

Image

interactive apps.


This stuff looks cool. People who have used Magic Leap say it's the real deal. looking forward to this as well as full blown VR!
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Re: VR Gaming

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Image

Image

Here's just the Microsoft HoloLens part of the Windows 10 presentation today:

http://youtu.be/kCMxBw-utEY

Magic Leap and HoloLens will exist separately from full VR. I'll own both AR and VR type devices. AR is more about integrating CGI into your existing environment like the picture at the top of this post.

Nice thing about this is that the HoloLens is a wireless standalone device. It doesn't even need a phone.
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Re: VR Gaming

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So the Holo thing is basically just Google Glass (Google Goggle?) but larger? Pass!
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Re: VR Gaming

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Image

Image

Image
Aslanna wrote:So the Holo thing is basically just Google Glass (Google Goggle?) but larger? Pass!
No. Google Glass sucked. That was just a little data (mostly text)in a HUD. HoloLens is full blown graphics integrated into your surrounding environment. Magic Leap will be more like HoloLens.

The above image is a better representation of what it can do. People that demo'd it said you could dig a tunnel through your table, etc. Much more advanced than Google Glass.

Image

Image

You'll also be able to work on projects, etc in 3D as opposed to on a flat screen. I imagine 3D movies etc will look extremely good as well on this down the road.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Near future developments for VR/AR just get better and better.

Sony's Morpheus project, while probably the weakest of them all, continues to improve and should end up being a solid device for it's resolutions.

SteamVR (Vive) that will be made by HTC may be even more compelling than Oculus Rift's first consumer version and be released before it this Xmas.

This 28 minute video from the Tested People gives a great overview of what it's about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leg2gS6ShZw

Motion tracking is key and Valve seems to be farther along than Oculus (at least until we see what Oculus comes up with for their controllers using the team that made the 360 (best ever) controller).

Valve's solution maps your entire room and fades in objects/walls etc when you get close to them. It also allows you to connect multiple rooms...for example, you could map your entire house, slap on Vive and retexture your entire house and walk around in it in VR.

So adding Steam to the mix:

Oculus/Facebook/Samsung (Rift and GearVR)
Google (Magic Leap)
Microsoft (HoloLens)
Sony (Morpheus)
Steam/HTC (Vive)

There are others but those are the biggest ones. I'll probably buy all five of those products.

Competition is good for the consumer. If Oculus doesn't come through, there's plenty of other players pumping big bucks into making sure VR/AR has a chance.

While Sony PS4 fanbois are lame, I really am a fan of recent Sony developments. They have decided to focus on sensors (make cameras for the iphone, etc). Sony is making the green lasers for Microvision and also licensing MVIS Picop technology. 10 years late, my MVIS money train is on the move thanks to Sony. If those douchebags produce a Picop accessory for Vita or PS4 and somehow manage to embed Picop into an Apple product, I may even say something nice about them because of the assloads of $$ they make me. Then again, it's rumored that Microsoft's Hololens uses MVIS Picop tech so I can't go overboard with the Sony love as both companies may be using MVIS tech.

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Re: VR Gaming

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Winnow wrote:Sony's Morpheus project, while probably the weakest of them all.
lol. Where do you even come up with stuff?
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Re: VR Gaming

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Aslanna wrote:
Winnow wrote:Sony's Morpheus project, while probably the weakest of them all.
lol. Where do you even come up with stuff?

The Specs. it will have the lowest resolution by far compared to the other pure VR solutions. Lower than even the currently available GearVR that uses Samsung's Note display.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Prove it!
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Re: VR Gaming

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Aslanna wrote:Prove it!
Gear VR: 2560 x 1440

Morpheus: 1920x1080

Vive: two (one for each eye) 1200 x 1080 at 90 fps

Current DK2 Rift I have uses 1920x1080 and it's not even close to being enough resolution to watch movies, etc.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Not seeing any proof!
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Re: VR Gaming

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What Magic Leap is "supposed" to be like. Haven't seen anything real yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPMHcan ... ture=share
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Re: VR Gaming

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Oculus revealed the final version of its Rift virtual reality headset today, but Microsoft managed to steal the show. The company surprised the world today by announcing a partnership with Oculus to bundle an Xbox One controller with every Oculus Rift and the ability to stream Xbox One games to the VR headset. While Microsoft is working on its HoloLens augmented reality headset, the software maker hasn’t been as heavily involved in the full-immersion world of virtual reality until now. Backing the Oculus Rift might seem bizarre given its HoloLens efforts, but Microsoft wants to be everywhere these days and it just bought a ticket straight into the exciting world of virtual reality.

The virtual reality world has some big players, and chief among them is Microsoft’s main games console competitor: Sony. We’re still waiting to hear when Valve / HTC’s VR headset will be available, but Sony’s Project Morpheus VR headset will launch early next year and looks set to go head to head with the Oculus Rift (which is set for release in the first quarter of 2016). In a sense, Microsoft is both sitting on the sidelines and covering its bases at the same time. Rather than develop its own VR solution for the Xbox, it can simply use Oculus’. You can stream Xbox One games to Windows 10 and that’s how the Oculus integration will happen. While Sony is betting on VR as the future, Microsoft appears to be strategically placing Windows 10 at the center of its gaming efforts.
Phil Spencer of Microsoft was part of the Oculus presentation today. Oculus decided to include a wireless Xbox One controller with every Oculus Rift sold...because...it's the best console controller on the market! (can you imagine how fast your virtual reality immersion would be broken if you felt the sharp thumb pain while using dualshock? ouch!)

On top of that, Phil stated that all Microsoft Games will work with Oculus and there will be a Game Cinema app included in order to play PC games in rift.

Also, just barely hinted at but huge news, was they were working with using Oculus with the Xbox One console. It looks like Oculus Rift will be a great choice for PC/Xbox One users with better quality/graphics than Morpheus as well as being able to be used for both PC and Console gaming.

Image

Game cinema will be similar to Movie Cinema apps, allowing you to play non VR games in any environment you want. Oculus CV1 will have two OLED dislays making it much better visually than DK2 but isn't going to be 4K good yet so will have to see how this looks. Gotta try it to appreciate virtual cinemas. While resting on your couch or being stuck in a crappy hotel room, you can play your games in any cool environment you want to be in. Glad to see Oculus having a strong partnership with Microsoft for this stuff.

Besides the Xbox One controller, Palmer lucky also introduced a new input device code named half moon for more immersive VR gaming.

With Phil Spencer actually presenting at the Oculus revealing today, I'm guessing at E3 they'll announce Rift suppport for X-Box one. This doesn't interfere with their own Hololens since that is more for Augmented Reality instead of full VR.

Nice work Oculus!

Here's the new input device when not using Xbox One controller:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ7B7Sk-Y98

Palmer Lucky cracks me up. He's a bad at presentations but is always fired up.
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Re: VR Gaming

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Winnow wrote:Oculus decided to include a wireless Xbox One controller with every Oculus Rift sold...because...it's the best console controller on the market! (can you imagine how fast your virtual reality immersion would be broken if you felt the sharp thumb pain while using dualshock? ouch!)

It looks like Oculus Rift will be a great choice for PC/Xbox One users with better quality/graphics than Morpheus as well as being able to be used for both PC and Console gaming.
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