Meant to be Seen

Wow.. Valve and Engadget's 3rd post on Oculus today..

Playing an actual game with Oculus Rift: hands-on with Valve's Team Fortress 2 'VR Mode'
http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/18/valv ... n-vr-mode/

Valve's Joe Ludwig.. thats just hilarious

Good to hear that the feeling of being teleported into the game world is still a jarring experience!

In 2 days we lost doom and gained TF2.

The result was kind of expected, faced paced fps gameplay is not optimal for the Rift.
But still exciting!

Another interesting one: http://www.pcgamesn.com/tf2/team-fortre ... culus-rift

One thing I find interesting - it seems like they have been using the devkits on these, but in that one, he mentions the screen-door effect:

" However, a couple drawbacks are also apparent. First, it’s very low-res. Without much concentration, I can spot the individual square pixels that make up the image, and trace the pitch-black street grid between them. "

I know that effect is lessened from the 5.6 screen. I'm obviously not worried - it's one of those givens that further versions will have a higher resolution, etc. It's just interesting that it is still commented on.

Edit: It's nice to see the googley eyes. That was on the list of things I was thinking about doing to the front as well Is that orange thing a giant kinect behind him?

What is that other thing taped to the desk on the main picture of the item?

portal, left4dead, and half-life 2 ported in 3....2......

virror wrote:The result was kind of expected, faced paced fps gameplay is not optimal for the Rift.
But still exciting!

Agreed. A common reaction of gamers that haven't tried the Rift is something like "I can't wait to play <insert arena-style or military-style combat FPS>". But the design of those games invites old habits and don't necessarily play to the unique strengths of the Rift. I would be disappointed if game designs continue to encourage players to stare forward and use their hands while eschewing the best feature of the device - intuitive body motion control. I can't wait for developers to get their hands on the kit because the really interesting content and control schemes are yet to come.

Tesla > Edison

joakizmo wrote:Tesla > Edison

Palmer Luckey > Tesla
just kidding

i would think slowing down the characters movement speed would probably help a lot in making it feel less "twitchy" and more natural. game characters tend to move at superhuman speeds

Sartor wrote:

joakizmo wrote:Tesla > Edison

Palmer Luckey > Tesla
just kidding

My Little Pony > Palmer Luckey > Tesla

Parallaxis wrote:
My Little Pony > Palmer Luckey > Tesla

Insert ANYTHING here > My Little Pony

The most worrying thing from the review is this quote:
"Valve’s early tests involved just nine people, and seven of them wanted to stop after just 20 minutes of play"

I sometimes get sick in a car or a boat on the few occasions I use them, so I'm a bit scaried, but maybe it's for the best: by slighty increasing my rift time over the weeks, I might be able to reduce the chances of being motion sick elsewhere

So much blasphemy in here.

ON TOPIC:

Drewbdoo wrote:(...)it seems like they have been using the devkits on these, but in that one, he mentions the screen-door effect:

" However, a couple drawbacks are also apparent. First, it’s very low-res. Without much concentration, I can spot the individual square pixels that make up the image, and trace the pitch-black street grid between them. "

I know that effect is lessened from the 5.6 screen. I'm obviously not worried - it's one of those givens that further versions will have a higher resolution, etc. It's just interesting that it is still commented on.

(...)

In the picture he's clearly using the 5.6 inch prototype, not the dev kit.

RABID wrote:i would think slowing down the characters movement speed would probably help a lot in making it feel less "twitchy" and more natural. game characters tend to move at superhuman speeds

Very true - but then level designs have to scale down to accommodate the slower speed or else you're going to spend a great amount of time just traveling from one place to another. So the scope of your level might be just to clear one small building instead of an entire multi-city-block area.

brantlew wrote:So the scope of your level might be just to clear one small building instead of an entire multi-city-block area.

My virtual player character wants a virtual Segway!

crespo80 wrote:The most worrying thing from the review is this quote:
"Valve’s early tests involved just nine people, and seven of them wanted to stop after just 20 minutes of play"

I sometimes get sick in a car or a boat on the few occasions I use them, so I'm a bit scaried, but maybe it's for the best: by slighty increasing my rift time over the weeks, I might be able to reduce the chances of being motion sick elsewhere

7/10 gets sick first time drinking alcohol too. But that doesn't stop them from doing it again.

crespo80 wrote:The most worrying thing from the review is this quote:
"Valve’s early tests involved just nine people, and seven of them wanted to stop after just 20 minutes of play"

I sometimes get sick in a car or a boat on the few occasions I use them, so I'm a bit scaried, but maybe it's for the best: by slighty increasing my rift time over the weeks, I might be able to reduce the chances of being motion sick elsewhere

If you can't buy Oculus stock - there might be connected alternatives



I think this is one of the biggest issues with the Rift and I guess I will have some pills in stock just in case (as well as a bucket in reach for the first sessions). But we will get used to it over time I guess, and we might be able to lessen the suffering with demos aimed at "VR training". You know - stuff that is not running around at 35mph in a FPS.

Omarzuqo wrote:So much blasphemy in here.

ON TOPIC:

Drewbdoo wrote:(...)it seems like they have been using the devkits on these, but in that one, he mentions the screen-door effect:

" However, a couple drawbacks are also apparent. First, it’s very low-res. Without much concentration, I can spot the individual square pixels that make up the image, and trace the pitch-black street grid between them. "

I know that effect is lessened from the 5.6 screen. I'm obviously not worried - it's one of those givens that further versions will have a higher resolution, etc. It's just interesting that it is still commented on.

(...)

In the picture he's clearly using the 5.6 inch prototype, not the dev kit.

Bottom right in the picture at the top of this thread looks like a dev kit to me.

Regarding FPS "shooters", simulations like Arma or spinoffs of those, building upon similar game mechanics like DayZ, will probably work better than those fast "Rambo style" oder "fun shooter" ones. We will see this in racing games too probably, those with high fidelity regarding scale and physics will be a much better fit initially. The challenge will be to keep this realism and translate it into fantasy worlds.

Drewbdoo wrote: Is that orange thing a giant kinect behind him?

Same principle but it looks like a highend 3D motion tracker/Scanner to me.

Something like this http://www.steinbichler.com/products/su ... plications

Diorama wrote:Good to hear that the feeling of being teleported into the game world is still a jarring experience!

In 2 days we lost doom and gained TF2.

Doom3 is a single player horror game with detailed surroundings, and Tf2 a multiplayer fast paced FPS.

Can't really say I care much for TF2...

Sartor wrote:

Anyone care to take a stab at what that little device is at the bottom of the picture, sitting on the table near the Rift, pointing at where the player sits?
It's taped down with the same blue tape that the Rift, mouse, and keyboard are taped down with, for that demo station.

Could this be a secret positional tracker? You can see it throughout the video too, in various shots.. It even seems to use the same wire as the Rift, and seemingly the same plastic!

NikoKun wrote:Could this be a secret positional tracker? It even seems to use the same wire as the Rift, and seemingly the same plastic!

Interesting!

In this image the device is clearly pointed straight at the Rift.

my money would be on webcam - either for positional tracking or to record player reactions and behavior

My initial guess would be a camera of some sort to log the behavior of people trying it for the first time. That whole table was set up for the visiting journalists.

Doesn't look like a webcam though. In the video you can see it clearly from the side at the 2:11 mark

BillRoeske wrote:My initial guess would be a camera of some sort to log the behavior of people trying it for the first time. That whole table was set up for the visiting journalists.

Wouldn't you just use a normal camera on a tripod to record peoples reactions (I just really want it to be a unannounced positional tracker that will be included with the Dev Kits!)

for some reason i think these are suddenly going to be very popular

looks like a creative 3D camera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R8s_kUyxnk

looks like a logitech c910 webcam

This thread is starting to resemble a CSI episode )

cert wrote:looks like a logitech c910 webcam

It does look a lot like that. I wonder what they are using it for?

Valve is totally into the whole "biofeedback" thing. So it's a given they are recording an outside tester's first experience. They likely have a demo recorded of his time too, and they can run both side by side. See what works and what doesn't work.

Look up some of valve's presentations online. They use eye tracking, heart rate monitoring, sweat monitoring, breath rate monitoring, etc.


I highly doubt it's for positional tracking.

Edit: accidental duplicate post

Simple answer - recording user sessions for feedback

Less simple answer - positional tracking

zalo wrote:Valve is totally into the whole "biofeedback" thing. So it's a given they are recording an outside tester's first experience. They likely have a demo recorded of his time too, and they can run both side by side. See what works and what doesn't work.

Look up some of valve's presentations online. They use eye tracking, heart rate monitoring, sweat monitoring, breath rate monitoring, etc.


I highly doubt it's for positional tracking.

Stop you are making me sad!

They may use the camera for their AR research.