Meant to be Seen

I just played this.

I spent a good few minutes just knocking on the walls and tables because of the weird sensations I was getting in my knuckles. I also felt proud of myself for lifting one of those large potted plants over the balcony. The y-axis translation for crouching was very cool. This demo actually made me a little sick. Best demo so far.

One thing I think should be added to the physics system in this demo is the ability to pick up heavier things while using both hands. I was able to knock over and set back up the bigger planter, but I felt like I should've been able to bear hug it and move it around. Anyway, I'm still having a blast with this.

Even tough i ordered a Rift on the first day of the kickstarter i'm still on the fence of getting the hydra. Its not about the price, it seems reasonable with around € 50. But i fear that it just has not enough software support for now - especially things that also support the Rift (~ or are planed to support the Rift). I mean that thing came out a few years ago and i just fear that it could be another plastic peripheral that is laying around the house and doesnt get used...

So for all the people that use it now with Tuscany or used it the years before - is it worth it?

PS.: i'm also a Gallery Supporter and that of course could sweeten the deal

I'm on the fence, too. Not sure why. I guess I'd like to see how people do playing extended sessions with them. Are most users going to find them not worth the effort?

I bought a steering wheel for racing games a long, long time ago. It is a FANTASTIC way to play racing games.

But a year or so later I realized I had stopped setting it up and was playing with the keyboard/mouse.

I've certainly been wrong before. But I'm playing wait-and-see on this one.

The truth is that there is nothing like Hydra out there. So there is only Hydra to choose from. You cannot use your mouse/keyboard/gamepad to interact 1:1 in the VR space. Period.

But I can understand that you wan't to wait for Hydra 2 or another similar device made for VR only.

If you're on the fence about it, I'd actually wait a month or two and see if they announce a Hydra2. If you have the money though, the hydra is a lot of fun to play with, especially as a developer.

If you are a developer, then the Hydra is 100% worth getting. If you are just a gamer, maybe it's not as useful.

In games that don't support it, can the Hydra still be used at a bare minimum, like a Xbox360 controller ? By that I mean, programe it's buttons as keyboard keys, use one of it's sticks for movement (W-A-S-D) and the other stick for look ?

Yes.

Parallaxis wrote:The truth is that there is nothing like Hydra out there. So there is only Hydra to choose from. You cannot use your mouse/keyboard/gamepad to interact 1:1 in the VR space. Period.

But I can understand that you wan't to wait for Hydra 2 or another similar device made for VR only.

This.

The Hyrda is amazing for gaming, takes a few minutes of getting used to but I would personally never use a mouse and keyboard again.

Lookforyourhands wrote:

Parallaxis wrote:The truth is that there is nothing like Hydra out there. So there is only Hydra to choose from. You cannot use your mouse/keyboard/gamepad to interact 1:1 in the VR space. Period.

But I can understand that you wan't to wait for Hydra 2 or another similar device made for VR only.

This.

The Hyrda is amazing for gaming, takes a few minutes of getting used to but I would personally never use a mouse and keyboard again.

It's not much by itself in my opinion, but the Hyrda combined with the Rfit will be gaming bliss!

I have always been fine with mouse and keyboard, however I did order a Hydra. Mainly for the RIFT + Hydra combo. I'm really excited to try it out with the RIFT.

Finally tried this demo with my Hydra and 3d projector setup with 3dVision. It was a lot of fun, even though calibrating the hands seemed to be a pain, I'm sure that will get better in the future. I stood fairly close to a 100" projector and being able to pull books right next to my face was a lot of fun.

Does seem like it would be a lot better with headtracking though, using the joystick to look around was kind of a pain. Can't wait for my Rift in June (maybe May if I'm lucky).

Yeah it seems like they designed the demo for really tall people, because unless I hold the hydra almost above my head when
calibrating, I can't pick up anything from the ground ! (Hand wont reach)

I escaped using the plank to get over the wall and went searching for easter eggs but Sixence didnt leave me any

Hahahaa congratulations!

Glad to see that plank being made use of.

"I escaped using the plank to get over the wall and went searching for easter eggs but Sixence didnt leave me any "

LOL

Awesome screenshot!

HahAHa!!! You win!!!

I showed my brother the Tuscany demo with my hydra then went out for bout an hour then came back and this was my desktop wallpaper.

Hey mattyeatsmatts, I'm a single guy, thats not how I trash a house, thats how I clean a house..Well I'm not an animal, I would have put a rug over it...

He should have pulled a log from the fire......and got that pile going.

I mean, if you are going to make a big pile... and a fire is right near by..then the next step does indeed present itself.

I don't know if this was mentioned, but the sure fire technique to launching big objects great distances is to hurl them upward and backward over your shoulder.

I often turn around to see my barrels sailing clear over the house and into the wild blue yonder!

mattyeatsmatts wrote:I showed my brother the Tuscany demo with my hydra then went out for bout an hour then came back and this was my desktop wallpaper.

Watch this...

[Esc]

Done.

@mattyeatsmatts

Great pictures.
The demo seems like lots of fun.

Now can someone stack up a very high tower outside of the house with all the stuff please ?

For some reason my tuscany demo goes into windows desktop sometimes if I hit both the trigger/grab buttons at the same time.
Really disturbing for peoples eyes. Running win8 currently and the motioncreator 2.0 drivers.

That happens to me only when I'm running Razer's drivers in addition to Sixense's. Do you see the weird black circle with green squiggles inside on your task bar? Right click on that and close it.

There's a way to tell if the old Razer drivers are still loaded by looking for a specific process in the task manager but I forgot which one it is.

That's the part where you hit the reply button and tell us which one it is. Yes, you!

Namielus wrote:For some reason my tuscany demo goes into windows desktop sometimes ...
Really disturbing for peoples eyes.

Do it like Cymatic Bruce in his videos: Create a riftview desktop background so people don't get too shocked.

My roommate is a VR pyro lol. http://youtu.be/xFtB6QKLVSI

^ lol.

I stepped into the demo tonight again after a few days away from it and I immediately noticed how much more natural it felt.
Like my brain was relearning it while I was away.
The hydra is truly an extension of your arm in the virtual space, for a moment my brain couldn't figure out why I couldn't feel the
sensation of dribbling the basketball. The visual system is entirely fooled by the information it's processing and the brain can't
distinguish it from reality. It's that good. For me those are the moments that I love about this technology. I really wish I was a
programmer because I'm constantly coming up with ideas that and games/applications that one could implement with this.
It's just too cool. Can't stress enough how amazing this tech demo is and I haven't even tried it with a Rift yet ! Just my Sony HMD.

Looks like the German Razer Store is sold out on Hydras...

My Hydra (from the German store) arrived yesterday

Does anyone have this version left? They updated the site and deleted it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20151102153 ... uscanydemo