The Gallery: Oculus Rift Adventure Game KICKSTARTER LIVE!

[2EyeGuy]

Is this supposed to be ancient Greek? I notice Atlas holding up the sky.

[rhinosix]

The music sounds a bit Cliff Martinez-ish. Very immersive!

[zeroxygen]

Aside from the dev kit itself the anticipation for this one is going to kill me too.

[cerulianbaloo]

That's good to hear thanks for the reply! Although obviously based on early classical styles and subterranean temples, catacombs etc, I couldn't help but be reminded of Damanhur, an underground temple/complex built by a group of new age types in Italy. Your Atlas statues certainly reminded me of this one section of Damanhur.

[GeraldT]

that looks like a place worth visiting ... in VR or RL!!

[cerulianbaloo]

Thought I'd also share their virtual tour http://www.thetemples.org/tour/

Some excellent panoramas in there.

[Bishop51]

Its funny you mention Damanhur, that place has always fascinated me! The effort, the artistry, the secrecy...I mean what's not to love?! I would love to take a tour some day. I guess we can experience a taste of that in VR until then

[geekmaster]

The temples and corridors of the nine underground levels in the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow Poland would be an awesome virtual tour in VR too:

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PhHUaky0xg[/youtube-hd]

The statuary are carved into the salt, and even the chandeliers are carved from rock salt crystals. If these were captured (or modelled) with 3D mapping, we could vary the lighting for best effect while in VR.

It would be great to preserve this experience digitally before it accumulates much more decay due to the infiltration of moisture and air pollutants.

[jeremyc9]

This is definitely the kind of VR game I'm looking forward to. Are you doing any kind of Kickstarter or taking donations?

[GeraldT]

Cerulian that place looks more like a videogame than a real place ... have to check it out in both

[Bishop51]

This is definitely the kind of VR game I'm looking forward to. Are you doing any kind of Kickstarter or taking donations?

Hey Jeremy! We plan on making our full plans known by the end of this month. We've been pulling various pieces of the puzzle together for a good long while now and its finally getting to a place where we can say with confidence where things are going. In all scenarios we plan on supporting a robust Oculus community of beta testers and fellow developers. In terms of direct support we'll make that information clear in the reveal announcement by no later than the end of February.

[brantlew]

Very cool Bishop51! I definitely have high expectations for this since I know you are sensitive to all of the issues involved with making VR content. So are you testing as you go with lower FOV HMD's or just guessing what to expect?

PS. Palmer and I still love your old logo, and I have it blazin' as my desktop background on my 30" monitor at Oculus (to the confusion of some of the non-MTBS oriented employees)

[LNQ]

This does seem pretty intriguing. I'm a long time adventure gamer, enthusiasm revitalized by the Walking Dead series. With Oculus, this game could be something very amazing Hope to be able to help out somehow, and best of luck to the whole project.

Just walking around in a very atmospheric environment and solving puzzles / exploring could very well be extremely rewarding. I think it's easier to achieve a higher level of immersion in this kind of a game than in an FPS.

Now if only we could also feel temperature differences via OR ..

[BOLL]

In all scenarios we plan on supporting a robust Oculus community of beta testers and fellow developers.

Beta testing was one thing I planned to participate in as to motivate me getting a devkit xD hopefully I can get into some prototyping as well but totally looking forward to be a testing-slave!

Also, exploration is one of my favorite pastimes in videogames From what I've read it sure appears to be an even greater activity in VR!

[Bishop51]

PS. Palmer and I still love your old logo, and I have it blazin' as my desktop background on my 30" monitor at Oculus (to the confusion of some of the non-MTBS oriented employees)

Hey Brantlew! You know, I didn't even realize you had been picked up by Palmer until I saw a tweet of your telepresence bot at the Oculus office. I'm so happy and excited for you! Congrats! I give a lot of kudos to Palmer for pulling in some very smart, passionate enthusiasts and researchers from this forum. The future of Oculus is in very good hands

Very cool Bishop51! I definitely have high expectations for this since I know you are sensitive to all of the issues involved with making VR content. So are you testing as you go with lower FOV HMD's or just guessing what to expect?

For much of what we've done it just comes down to knowing the limitations of the format and capitalizing on its strengths. Funny enough, some flash in the pan testing was done on my end using a Fresnel lens stack (I have a number of very high resolution fresnel's from past projects). Very DIY kinda stuff and ultimately only relevant to a certain slice of issues. That being said, I've been a VR enthusiast for many years (my first experience was with the Virtuality system), had some brief time with the VFX 3D, bought (and sent back) some other more recent low-end attempts. NONE Of them perform to a level that would help us navigate potential issues relevant to this project.

Long story short, I'm very much a believer in the notion that you have to make a game designed from the ground up to utilize VR's strengths and to work around its weaknesses. Probably goes without saying that we're dying to get our hands on the hardware so that we can test what we've done and see whether we're making the right choices

Good luck at Oculus! I know you'll do great work.

[geekmaster]

... Funny enough, some flash in the pan testing was done on my end using a Fresnel lens stack (I have a number of very high resolution fresnel's from past projects). Very DIY kinda stuff and ultimately only relevant to a certain slice of issues. ...

Regarding the lack of quality in fresnel lens stacks as you suggested, when compared to solid acrylic aspheric lenses, I posted to my "fresnel lens stack" thread a new idea for a custom hybrid lens with solid acrylic inner zone and fresnel outer zone, giving both high optical quality where it is needed most, and much larger peripheral FoV where the pixel density is lowest and warp-distortion swamps fresnel distortion:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... 290#p99290

I still like the idea of testing software such as your "exploration game" with a quick and simple Fov2go-style DIY accessory for a 7-inch tablet computer like my Nexus 7, while waiting for my Rift from (hopefully) the SECOND BATCH (delayed by Chinese New Year and factory restart delays).

[Dycus]

Very cool Bishop51! I definitely have high expectations for this since I know you are sensitive to all of the issues involved with making VR content. So are you testing as you go with lower FOV HMD's or just guessing what to expect?

PS. Palmer and I still love your old logo, and I have it blazin' as my desktop background on my 30" monitor at Oculus (to the confusion of some of the non-MTBS oriented employees)

Bishop made that? I didn't know!

I liked it enough that I made a large vector of it, because the only version I've ever seen floating around the internet is like 400x320.

[Mystify]

Is there a way to be added to an email list to get notifications about the game, most notably when it get released? I really am interested in the game, and don't want it to fall off my radar before it gets released.

[Bishop51]

I still like the idea of testing software such as your "exploration game" with a quick and simple Fov2go-style DIY accessory for a 7-inch tablet computer like my Nexus 7, while waiting for my Rift from (hopefully) the SECOND BATCH (delayed by Chinese New Year and factory restart delays).

When it comes, you'll quickly put all this waiting behind you

Is there a way to be added to an email list to get notifications about the game, most notably when it get released? I really am interested in the game, and don't want it to fall off my radar before it gets released.

Currently our Facebook page is the best way to stay in the loop. That will change as we near the end of February however after we activate the proper homepage with RSS feeds and newsletter.

Should have some additional teasers out to you at some point today!

[Bishop51]

As promised, here's a couple more teaser shots. A lot of focus is being placed on body persistence, gear interaction and related details. We hope to include a female hero as well so that everyone is represented and can feel more comfortable in their virtual skin We'll be sure to get some incidental video to you guys as well in the very near future

[mahler]

Oculamp!

[Bishop51]

We thought someone would appreciate that There's a top strap and everything...lol

[Mystify]

The head mounted lamp does seem like a natural way to integrate lighting with your looking. I approve.

[cerulianbaloo]

Are you saying what I think you're saying? That we can look down and see breasts? Lets roll out the gender confusion carpet boys, we have no more need for these "women" with the Rift anymore. I'll just see myself out...

[Diorama]

I agree that the Oculamp is a fantastic idea.

Ooh now I want a Star Trek game where I can be assimilated by the Borg and see a red laser beam tracking my head movements.

[TheMisanthrope]

Wow that looks a lot better in motion than I expected. Out of curiosity Denny what spec computer is your team thinking would be ideal for running this on a Rift?

Love the swaying cobwebs btw, keep up the good work!

I have to defer that one to our lead programmer Christopher Roe. I mean generally because you're pumping out 60fps @ 640×800 per eye in stereo, there's still some good overhead to play with at this level of fidelity. Mid-level systems would have no problem at all with what we've been doing so far. I know Chris wants it optimized for some fairly lightweight systems as well but its just too early to recommend anything definitively right now I think.

Hi guys! I'm the Unity developer Denny brought onboard to work with him on this project.

I'm trying at every step to ensure that the game will be playable on mid-range consumer hardware while maintaining as much of the visual quality as possible. In particular, systems with Intel video tend to struggle with anything that pushes the 3D envelope too far outside their comfort zone, and I'm paying particular attention to them. I have 2 specimens of low-to-middle range notebooks to use as benchmarks--a Dell Inspiron 15 and a Dell XPS 15 from the same timeframe. I'd like the game to play nicely on both while looking as good as possible.

Once I get my hands on a Rift so I can see exactly what we'd be dealing with in terms of resolution, response latency, and where we could stand to optimize things a bit further, I'll know more. In the meantime, we're aiming for an "elegant failback" approach with the graphical assets and visual effects where even the lowest quality settings won't look too dire. That way, turning up the quality amounts to an extra ladleful of gravy on top of an already good user experience.

I'm also very interested in supporting the Razer Hydra. I'll need to get my hands on one to be sure it'd play nice with Unity, but I suspect that this sort of control scheme would really add quite a lot to immersion and user experience when using a HMD like the Rift.

[s0uL]

Haha holy poop the Oculamp, that's awesome.

Every tidbit of information you guys have leaked has me more and more interested in the project. Can't wait to see how it pans out, keep up the good work.

[brantlew]

Very cool Bishop51! I definitely have high expectations for this since I know you are sensitive to all of the issues involved with making VR content. So are you testing as you go with lower FOV HMD's or just guessing what to expect?

PS. Palmer and I still love your old logo, and I have it blazin' as my desktop background on my 30" monitor at Oculus (to the confusion of some of the non-MTBS oriented employees)

Bishop made that? I didn't know!

I liked it enough that I made a large vector of it, because the only version I've ever seen floating around the internet is like 400x320.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. I had a crummy low res one, but Dycus fixed me up with a shiny new one. Thank god there are people out there that know how to use Illustrator and Photoshop. (I still struggle with MSPaint)

[TheHolyChicken]

We hope to include a female hero as well so that everyone is represented and can feel more comfortable in their virtual skin

If you could make her approx ~5'2 that would be helpful for my lady

Actually.... adjustable height? Any thoughts?

[Leahy]

I'm happy to hear you hope to include a female character, that'll help when I finally have my Rift and can actually show my wife why I've been obsessed about this. She never plays video games at all so The Gallery sounds like a great introduction for non-gamers as opposed to just dropping them into DOOM or Half Life.

[LNQ]

I was thinking about the height thing too, in general with Oculus. It's going to be interesting if it would feel unnatural to play with a character that's slightly different height than you. Considering that in real life you can notice small differences in your height pretty easily, it might be weird to be much shorter / taller in VR.

It's an additional challenge to develop a game to play well with different heights though.

[GeraldT]

Welcome TheMisanthrope - do you really plan to support Intel for Graphics? Do you think getting 1080p at constant 60fps will be an option on those?

[Bishop51]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. I had a crummy low res one, but Dycus fixed me up with a shiny new one. Thank god there are people out there that know how to use Illustrator and Photoshop. (I still struggle with MSPaint)

Man, I didn't even have a large Vector of that. Just a quick and dirty PS mockup

We hope to include a female hero as well so that everyone is represented and can feel more comfortable in their virtual skin

If you could make her approx ~5'2 that would be helpful for my lady

Actually.... adjustable height? Any thoughts?

&

I was thinking about the height thing too, in general with Oculus. It's going to be interesting if it would feel unnatural to play with a character that's slightly different height than you. Considering that in real life you can notice small differences in your height pretty easily, it might be weird to be much shorter / taller in VR.

It's an additional challenge to develop a game to play well with different heights though.

Without being too cryptic (its still very early) we have some novel ideas on dealing with height and other individualistic player specific traits in our game. Believe me when I say though that this is an issue that won't be overlooked.

I'm happy to hear you hope to include a female character, that'll help when I finally have my Rift and can actually show my wife why I've been obsessed about this. She never plays video games at all so The Gallery sounds like a great introduction for non-gamers as opposed to just dropping them into DOOM or Half Life.

Having equal representation is important because this type of technology has a lot of potential to transcend gender barriers. Not because females don't like videogames but because thus far the market has been dominated by "twitch kill", Redbull fueled, macho-man, chaotic noise. I don't doubt that some devs will still put their focus there (and nothing against that if handled right) but I think the most enjoyable experiences in VR will be VERY sensitive to pacing. That pacing forces you to make certain design choices which create new experiences. Experiences that a much broader segment of the population can enjoy.

Welcome TheMisanthrope - do you really plan to support Intel for Graphics? Do you think getting 1080p at constant 60fps will be an option on those?

I'll let Chris take that one but generally I think it comes down to having strong optimizations just as "best practices" during production. Obviously you'll have a much richer experience on mid and higher end hardware but we're going to do what we can for weaker machines as well. That also has to do with the fact that The Gallery is technically playable without VR hardware but its not the same experience obviously.

[Kirito]

i love the oculamp idea :p

[GeraldT]

ohhh ... I missed the Oculamp post! Those are nice and will sure fit well into a VR world - how do you plan to organize the inventory. I see a bit on the characters, but how about the inside of the pack?

[TheMisanthrope]

Welcome TheMisanthrope - do you really plan to support Intel for Graphics? Do you think getting 1080p at constant 60fps will be an option on those?

It's been my experience that setting difficult goals makes developers try harder.

In practice, the people willing to spend money on something like the Oculus Rift are much more likely to also have discrete graphics that are up to the job, but as Denny said, we want this to be playable on as broad a range of machines as possible, and we're going to do what we can for lower end machines as well.

[Bishop51]

Hey gang. Just thought you'd appreciate another small look at what's coming your way. Getting much closer to our full reveal (coming along very nicely!) and we can't wait to share with everyone here!

[geekmaster]

Welcome TheMisanthrope - do you really plan to support Intel for Graphics? Do you think getting 1080p at constant 60fps will be an option on those?

It's been my experience that setting difficult goals makes developers try harder.

In practice, the people willing to spend money on something like the Oculus Rift are much more likely to also have discrete graphics that are up to the job, but as Denny said, we want this to be playable on as broad a range of machines as possible, and we're going to do what we can for lower end machines as well.

Unless the allowable purchasing power mandates discrete graphics OR an Oculus Rift... Then again, sometimes you have to spend half the "toy money" on the spouse too, to keep peace in the family. Supporting discrete graphics will be a step toward being laptop friendly too. But not if it detracts TOO MUCH from the "wow factor".

[Linkage1992]

Every update gets me way more excited. Can't wait

[virror]

Yay, a new image! Looks great as always : )