Virtual Reality

[PokerPacker]

Something is amiss. Not with the Oculus Rift sitting on my face like a high-tech pair of ski goggles for the blind. No, something is amiss with my brain.

I'm looking around the ruins of a virtual castle and as I turn my head, the world moves around me. I look up and see thousands of snowflakes delicately falling to the ground. Instinctively, I reach out to catch one, but something is amiss. They are not real.

It's hard to believe that seconds after putting on the Oculus Rift HD prototype at PAX Australia, my brain would forget it's looking at a small 1080p screen just centimetres from my face.

Well, perhaps forget is the wrong word - I know that I'm looking at a screen, but the effect is so uncanny that my brain anticipates the other senses to acknowledge the view.

 

http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/the-oculus-rift-is-going-to-change-gaming-one-headset-at-a-time-1167496

 

 

I know we've got some tech junkies on here, so I'm sure this will tickle some people in the right place.

 

A friend of mine started a company about a year ago called Oculus VR.  His purpose was to create a Virtual Reality Head Mounted Display that surpassed what was already on the market and at a much lower price point.  Virtual Reality's been the holy grail of computer simulation, and every so many years, people have tried push out a product in hopes of attaining VR, but it ultimately disappoints and doesn't catch on.  The problem is that the technology hasn't been there to support the experience we require for immersion, and the cost was astronomical.  Things are different now, though.  With mobile devices becoming ever more popular, small-sized high-pixel-density screens have been developed that are ideal for these displays.  Add in our powerful graphics cards, and we've got the technology that just wasn't there for the previous attempts.  

 

It started to become apparent that the Oculus Rift was up to the task of finally making Virtual Reality possible after John Carmack (Doom/Quake/Wolfenstein...) got his hands on the prototype, loved it, and showed it off at E3.  After that, word got out and developers have been all over it.

 

I hope it's okay that I'm posting this, as I think it's pretty awesome tech regardless of my personal connections.

[nyskinsfan56]

Saw this a while ago.  LIke most new tech these days I'll way until probably the third revision of it comes out with plenty of games to use it with.  I know a lot of people that are thinking the same thing.

[RansomthePasserby]

I've wanted to play games in VR since I was 8 or 9, so I can't wait until this is available for purchase. I'm looking forward to immersing myself in the worlds of Half Life etc. There 's a thread here about the space sim Star Citizen, can you imagine a game like that in VR? Amazing.

[PokerPacker]

Saw this a while ago.  LIke most new tech these days I'll way until probably the third revision of it comes out with plenty of games to use it with.  I know a lot of people that are thinking the same thing.

The initial prototype and devkits were around 720p and had a bit of a "screen door effect" where it it seemed like you were looking at the world through, well, a screen door.  There's a new prototype now, though, using a 1080p screen that I was told eliminates that problem.  When they do come out with a retail version, I'm pretty confident it will be ready for consumer use.  Palmer isn't in it to milk consumers, but rather is someone who's really passionate about VR and wants to make the best product he can at a price that can actually get it into people's homes.

 

I've wanted to play games in VR since I was 8 or 9, so I can't wait until this is available for purchase. I'm looking forward to immersing myself in the worlds of Half Life etc. There 's a thread here about the space sim Star Citizen, can you imagine a game like that in VR? Amazing.

There are a lot of games I'd like to see with VR.  I think it was at the most recent CES that the developers of EVE showed off a dogfighting sim using their Oculus devkit.  There are people working on the Dolphin Emulator (Gamecube/Wii) that are hacking in Oculus support for some games.  I know they're working on F-Zero, and I'm hoping to see Rogue Squadron support, as that's a game that could really benefit while you're in the ****pit view.

[Zazzaro703]

I'm 100% on board with the Oculus Rift. I also want the omni treadmill that is being designed to go with it. I'm the one who posted the Star Citizen thread and have hopes to use oculus rift with it as well. Sadly one of the lead Devs one night a few months back went out for a walk and freaking got hit and killed by gang members fleeing the police in a car. Unreal.

[PokerPacker]

I'm 100% on board with the Oculus Rift. I also want the omni treadmill that is being designed to go with it. I'm the one who posted the Star Citizen thread and have hopes to use oculus rift with it as well. Sadly one of the lead Devs one night a few months back went out for a walk and freaking got hit and killed by gang members fleeing the police in a car. Unreal.

Yeah, that hit them really hard.  I've heard nothing but great things about Andrew as a person and as a coder.  He was working on adding in Unreal Engine 4 before he died.  The people over at Unreal picked up where he left off, finishing in his stead, and added in a plaque memorializing him into their demo.

 

As for the Omni, I'm still hesitant on it.  It looks interesting, but it'll take up a lot of room and I'm not sure on just how well it will actually work and how immersive it will be versus how much it will trick you into thinking it's immersive.  For example, walking will make you move forward, but will it handle running if you want to run?  Just how analog the movement will be can be pretty important.  Regardless, I'll be keeping my eye on it to see how well it's received when it does come out.  Personally, though, I'm more intrigued by the Leap Motion and it's ability to perfectly track your hand/fingers.  Or maybe even Kinect 2.0.  Things are getting quite interesting in the world of human interface devices.