Oculus Rift

Generic Dreadhead

Falthyron wrote: »

Apparently there are 100 'games' in development and due to be released this year for the Oculus Rift. When I say 'games' I mean tech demos. If there were really 100 notable games being developed, names, titles, franchises, brands would have been mentioned... :rolleyes:

Undoubtedly, some existing games will be updated to support VR, but much like a post-film 3D version it won't be a genuine experience because it wasn't created with VR in mind.

A very high-price point which eliminates a lot of the general gaming audience, an absence of software with a big name attached, and the need for a high-end gaming PC makes the Oculus Rift look like a huge risk set up to fail. I hope Valve and HTC undercut them hugely and announce big titles at launch exclusive on Vive; this would be the point where Valve announce Half-Life 3.

I genuinely did a "hmmm yes" type neck-stroking thingy at the validity of this post here

Falthyron

Cormac... wrote: »

I genuinely did a "hmmm yes" type neck-stroking thingy at the validity of this post here

Which part? :P

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/oculus-rift-to-get-more-than-100-games-this-year/1100-6433582/

Generic Dreadhead

Falthyron wrote: »

Which part? :P

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/oculus-rift-to-get-more-than-100-games-this-year/1100-6433582/

There were so many hyperlinks in that "article", I refused to proceed with giving it my time of day, never go full hyper-link!

Dyr

Valve have said repeatedly they aren't announcing HL3 or any of their titles as exclusive to anything (bar PC I guess)

Not their bag man

But then oculus said their facecrab would be 350 bucks so...

If Valve announces Half-Life 3 and makes it exclusive for their devices, I wonder whether that would have much impact on the likes of PlayStation VR/Oculus Rift. Outside of the memes and internet adulation HL3 receives online/Reddit, how much of the wider gaming community would care?

Falthyron

Deleted User wrote: »

If Valve announces Half-Life 3 and makes it exclusive for their devices, I wonder whether that would have much impact on the likes of PlayStation VR/Oculus Rift. Outside of the memes and internet adulation HL3 receives online/Reddit, how much of the wider gaming community would care?

Name me one other game that has been confirmed it is being developed for VR, belongs to a franchise that has sold millions and millions of copies, is well known, and would actually grab the interest of the most casual gamer. There are none. There isn't a big game being developed as a VR product that would sell millions, Battlefield, COD, AssCreed, GTA, Tomb Raider, etc. etc. As generic as these games are, they sell to the casuals and they attract the casuals in millions. Software sells hardware, not the other way round. Half-life is the only name that gamers on all sides are aware of that could be announced as a VR game and would sell enough to attract people to buy the hardware. As someone quite rightly mentioned, Valve said they wouldn't ship it as a VR exclusive, but stranger reversals have happened.

I fear the lack of good, big name software, will be the downfall of VR as an industry wide game changer. At least the PS Move and Kinect were a lot cheaper, but they failed because of the fact that very few 'games' were developed, and any that were, were terrible.

Generic Dreadhead

Deleted User wrote: »

If Valve announces Half-Life 3 and makes it exclusive for their devices, I wonder whether that would have much impact on the likes of PlayStation VR/Oculus Rift. Outside of the memes and internet adulation HL3 receives online/Reddit, how much of the wider gaming community would care?

F**k all people tbh.

The 10% of "Gamers" who care and obsess about HL3 will be 90% let down anyway no matter what Valve put out

The 20% of other "Gamers" who are aware of the HL3 hype but don't really care (like say myself) won't care regardless, will wait for it all to be available on sale a year later

The other 70% are playing Fifa, CoD, Starcraft etc and CNBF with Half Life 3.

The internet wants you to believe 100% of gamers would LOSE THEIR S**T if HL3 was ever announced and it would be a Virtual Reality shifter and break the internet etc etc...... in reality no, only the loudest 10% would care (and guess what, even a third of that group would probably try pirate the game).

And even at that, those who were there, at the ground level for HL1 or HL2 are now in a lot of cases 25-45 and maybe have the kinds of financial commitments that cannot allow for frivolous €600+ purchases

Half Life is a disaster and it doesn't even exist (yet.... maybe).

The reality is more "Gamers" (you know, the ones who don't argue/debate online) are probably more interested in Uncharted 4, Mass Effect 4 or a new Professor Layton game

Sorry to be a negative nelly but i'm being the "standing outside - looking in" realist when it comes to Half Life 3.

Generic Dreadhead

It's a sad day that I'm now putting "Gamers" in inverted commas by default cause of "Gamergate".... FFS

I wonder how long after the Rift is released will we receive reports of the first VR related injuries? :pac:

Maximus Alexander

Falthyron wrote: »

I fear the lack of good, big name software, will be the downfall of VR as an industry wide game changer. At least the PS Move and Kinect were a lot cheaper, but they failed because of the fact that very few 'games' were developed, and any that were, were terrible.

To be honest I think its greatest downfall is going to be something as simple as after the initial novelty wears off, people won't be bothered putting on head gear to play games. It can imagine a Wii-like boom and bust with thousands upon thousands of them gathering dust on living room shelves after a few months.

ScumLord

Falthyron wrote: »

Name me one other game that has been confirmed it is being developed for VR, belongs to a franchise that has sold millions and millions of copies, is well known, and would actually grab the interest of the most casual gamer.

Well clearly at this stage the rift isn't for the casual gamer. But I don't think PC users will need AAA titles to justify buying a VR headset. The fact is many of us already have plans for VR that include what we're already playing. I keep coming back to sims, but they're ready for VR, and compared to the 3 screen set up that was the only alternative up till now, the rift is still the cheaper option. All those people that wanted a 3 screen set up but couldn't afford it will jump on the rift instantly.

It could very well be an existing game that promotes the rift in a big way, look how mods like DayZ brought aging games back to the fore front. If just about any of the GTAs got modded for the rift we'd probably see an upsurge in GTA being sold. HL2 is already being modded for VR and looking well.

The PC simply doesn't need AAA titles to make the rift worth buying.

Generic Dreadhead

Deleted User wrote: »

I wonder how long after the Rift is released will we receive reports of the first VR related injuries? :pac:

Or Safety Peripherals.

Full Sponge head covers

I sometimes wish I had a big load of money, just so I could make something like that for the laugh and see how many eejits would buy it

ScumLord wrote: »

I keep coming back to sims, but they're ready for VR, and compared to the 3 screen set up that was the only alternative up till now, the rift is still the cheaper option. All those people that wanted a 3 screen set up but couldn't afford it will jump on the rift instantly.

For a moment, I thought you meant The Sims, as opposed to sims...... I had sooooooo many questions

Thargor

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

To be honest I think its greatest downfall is going to be something as simple as after the initial novelty wears off, people won't be bothered putting on head gear to play games. It can imagine a Wii-like boom and bust with thousands upon thousands of them gathering dust on living room shelves after a few months.

My thoughts exactly, thats when those of us who just want to play space sims will take them off their hands

Dyr

Deleted User wrote: »

I wonder how long after the Rift is released will we receive reports of the first VR related injuries? :pac:

we had a bbc journo who puked her ring already

I'm just waiting for the PTSD panic
"I saw my co-pilot take a 50 cal round in the face man, I had fly that crate home with my buddy's brains all over cockpit"

Or the potential for a VR experience to be hacked or modded with malicious intent

Zillah

I'm going to be so pissed if it turns out I just dropped that much money on an instant nausea machine.

Dyr

Bambi wrote: »

Or the potential for a VR experience to be hacked or modded with malicious intent

The vive camera apparently shows you an outline of the real world when you need it...imagine if a horror game switched to camera mode suddenly and you saw the outline of the monster behind you when you turned your head

lots of potential for creative blaggarding I;d say

Generic Dreadhead

Bambi wrote: »

The vive camera apparently shows you an outline of the real world when you need it...imagine if a horror game switched to camera mode suddenly and you saw the outline of the monster behind you when you turned your head

lots of potential for creative blaggarding I;d say

Kojima!!!!! :eek:

Falthyron

ScumLord wrote: »

Well clearly at this stage the rift isn't for the casual gamer. But I don't think PC users will need AAA titles to justify buying a VR headset. The fact is many of us already have plans for VR that include what we're already playing. I keep coming back to sims, but they're ready for VR, and compared to the 3 screen set up that was the only alternative up till now, the rift is still the cheaper option. All those people that wanted a 3 screen set up but couldn't afford it will jump on the rift instantly.

It could very well be an existing game that promotes the rift in a big way, look how mods like DayZ brought aging games back to the fore front. If just about any of the GTAs got modded for the rift we'd probably see an upsurge in GTA being sold. HL2 is already being modded for VR and looking well.

The PC simply doesn't need AAA titles to make the rift worth buying.

I accept your point and for the most part, I agree with you. But, the real money and commercial success for games these days is not on the PC platform. I would love to play incredibly atmospheric games like Alan Wake or SOMA in VR, but these aren't huge games. One game I think would be terrifyingly brilliant would be Dying Light. The sensation of falling would probably scare the **** out of me, but an incredibly immersive world to move around in. The same would be for Mirror's Edge, but... nothing has been said about these games coming to VR. I think they would suit VR really, really well.

Success breathes success. If one or two big developers announced their next big title (say Battlefield 5) will be best experienced with a VR device you would see a lot more people buying into it. Whereas Dear Esther 2 or Gone Home (Again) does not receive attention needed to make a product viable :P This, in turn, would spur other developers to consider making their next big game with VR as 'the way its meant to be played'. I don't think Facebook and Oculus can rely on the kind of sales figures the Kinect and Move had. They need to sell big especially as they are minimizing profit already*







*horse****!

ScumLord

Falthyron wrote: »

I accept your point and for the most part, I agree with you. But, the real money and commercial success for games these days is not on the PC platform. I would love to play incredibly atmospheric games like Alan Wake or SOMA in VR, but these aren't huge games. One game I think would be terrifyingly brilliant would be Dying Light. The sensation of falling would probably scare the **** out of me, but an incredibly immersive world to move around in. The same would be for Mirror's Edge, but... nothing has been said about these games coming to VR. I think they would suit VR really, really well.

I don't see why all PC games going forward wouldn't be rift compatible. It's just another setting in the graphics menu. Companies don't need to make games specifically for VR.

Maximus Alexander

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't see why all PC games going forward wouldn't be rift compatible. It's just another setting in the graphics menu. Companies don't need to make games specifically for VR.

I can't see VR succeeding long term though, unless someone can come up with something compelling that requires a headset and can't be accomplished on a traditional monitor / tv / projector / cinema screen. I think to succeed it needs to go beyond just an option in the settings screen and provide something that's actually new.

Right now I can't imagine what that would be (or else, being a software developer I'd be doing it myself!), but I suppose that doesn't mean nobody else will. :pac:

Falthyron

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't see why all PC games going forward wouldn't be rift compatible. It's just another setting in the graphics menu. Companies don't need to make games specifically for VR.

I don't think it will be that simple. Maybe someone will be able to correct me on this, but I would imagine the VR design of a game would depend on the headset that was used to test it/create it. Vive has features not available to Oculus. So, in effect, you would need to design the game to run on both headsets (or just the one if some sort of an exclusivity deal was done). Then we get into the idea of 'ports'. For example: let us say Mirror's Edge 3 (the one after the one due this year) is PS4 exclusive and developed with the PS4 headset (Morpheus). That exclusivity deal ends one year later (like how Microsoft got Rise of the Tomb Raider for a year) and then it gets ported to Xbox and/or PC. Xbox doesn't use Morpheus or Vive... it might use Oculus though. Suddenly, we could have the same issues we PC gamers face with console ports, except with a new dimension added: VR ports.

As I said, I am not 100% on how the tech works developer side. Do they write a general VR experience in to the game and each headset interprets that code and emulates it according to the limitations and capabilities of that headset, or does it have to be written with a specific device in mind.

ScumLord

Falthyron wrote: »

As I said, I am not 100% on how the tech works developer side. Do they write a general VR experience in to the game and each headset interprets that code and emulates it according to the limitations and capabilities of that headset, or does it have to be written with a specific device in mind.

I know there were problem when people first started trying out older games in VR, the likes of FPS games where the character is basically a floating gun with some hands attached to it wasn't to any sort of a natural scale, it looked fine on a monitor but plain weird in VR.

But as long as you're aware of VRs intricacies when you're designing all they should need to do is implement the rift and vive API. With any luck it will all be standardised in the years to come and one format wins out.

It's hard to port a game that didn't know about VR, but new games can just take VR into account when designing and I'm guessing it's not going to add much extra work.

I think VR is here to stay, it's being used outside of gaming already and has found a place for itself in industries like CAD and architecture.

It could very well be a slow burner. It could very well develop into something completely different from what we have today once AR enters the mix with microsofts support and processing power increases.

Zillah

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

I can't see VR succeeding long term though, unless someone can come up with something compelling that requires a headset and can't be accomplished on a traditional monitor / tv / projector / cinema screen.

I'm not sure that's reasonable. You could have said the same thing about dozens of developments over the years. HD isn't anyway fundamentally different to SD, it's just an incremental improvement. Flatscreens do the exact same thing as CRT monitors, just in a more convenient shape. The entire history of computer gaming is one long chain of incremental improvements.

To be honest I can't think of anything in the last decade or two that has been as big a jump or as fundamentally distinctive as modern VR. It's immersive in that you can't see anything other than the game content, unlike monitors. It follows your head movement rather than mouse. It's stereoscopic which provides a real sensation of 3D rather than a flat rendition of a 3D environment.

If it needs to be able to do things that a normal monitor can't to be successful I don't see how you could argue it hasn't managed that yet.

The Randy Riverbeast

Its looking like oculus decided to go for the premium market and leave mainstream to mobiles which is good news for vive.

salamanca22 wrote: »

On sandybridge here (2500k) which has served me well for many many years. Think it's time for an upgrade.

I do get 10k in Firestrike though (non demo version) pre overclock and 12k with a moderate overclock using xfire 7950's. I would love to have a rift just to see if my rig could handle it. Think I will wait for a few more players to enter the game though before dropping this kind of money on upgrades and the vr device itself.

10k? That extra 7950 offers a lot. We have similar set ups minus the xfire (i5 3570 and R9 280) for the 6k.

Leaves my only options as the k version of mine or LGA1150/1. Looking at €1700 for PC and OR before getting the controllers. Planning on waiting as well, at least until they include the controllers. From the AMA I got the impression they are planning on reducing the price of the entire package rather than he headset itself.

Maximus Alexander

Your point above is fair Zillah, there are plenty of incremental improvements which catch on without changing the landscape, but I would argue that that'd because they are just straight improvements without any drawbacks.

It might seem like a little thing, but VR requires you to put on a headset, which is something of an inconvenience and often that's all it takes to put people off once the novelty is gone. I'd put it in the same place as the Kinect and the 3D tv, rather than flatscreens and HDTVs - unless someone can use it to legitimately change the game in a non-gimmicky way. But of course it's just a matter of opinion - I can't see the future

Skerries

would this be viable for watching films on a regular basis yet?

Tar.Aldarion

Is there some test for your system to check your componants vs recommended specs?

Sonics2k

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Is there some test for your system to check your componants vs recommended specs?

https://www.oculus.com/en-us/

If you click on Pre-Order there's an option to test your system. Takes about 5 seconds.

jumbobreakfast

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Is there some test for your system to check your componants vs recommended specs?

Yes on the order page there is a tool you can download:

https://shop.oculus.com/

Oculus are going to have demos in "select retail partners" so hopefully Gamestop or large shopping centres in Ireland will have a demo unit that you can try. One thing to keep in mind is that games like battlefield etc will not work in VR so totally new gameplay is being invented by developers to take advantage of the immersion. That's still a problem for the big developers since they can't just bolt on VR support to a standard console game. However, in a game like BF you could have dedicated vehicle pilots or even commanders that solely use VR.

The nausea that the BBC woman experienced was more than likely down to a misconfiguration of the controller that she was using.

Zillah

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Is there some test for your system to check your componants vs recommended specs?

Yes but it lies. LIIIEESSSS

(Which is actually a big ethical issue given that they're selling Rift-ready PCs to people)