Being comfortable is the last thing you'll be stuck inside a virtual reality machine...

Maybe we need to put the user and the VR machine inside a sensory deprivation chamber.

Personally, I don't find VR to be interesting at all, and expect it to be a large flop. Like, as bad as Virtua boy size. I can't think of anything appealing about it.

Personally, I don't find VR to be interesting at all, and expect it to be a large flop. Like, as bad as Virtua boy size. I can't think of anything appealing about it.

Have you experienced virtual "presence" yet?

So the arcade/installation I talked about earlier - it was a 5m x 20m room in an old textiles factory.
In the VR world, this space was marked in white lines on the floor, so you know not to step into a physical wall. Larger virtual spaces were created by fading to black between sections.

In this small, bare warehouse room, I have genuine memories of exploring hundreds of meters of rooms in a monster infected industrial complex. My brain genuinely remembers being present in a place that never existed. I remember poking my gun around corners and spraying wildly to avoid stepping through a doorway, or being afraid for my ankles when walking past desks, so choosing to crawl. When rushed by a horde, I dropped to a knee so my partner wouldn't shoot me, but before I knew it, I was sitting on my arse, legs flailing out in front to push me away from the claws swinging at my face.

No other video game has ever given me memories like that. Real memories, from my own perspective, from my own body - memories in the category of "things that actually happened to me".

The closest other experience I've had was a LARP type event, with actors playing drill sergents and spec ops, and 100 playing zombies, in full film-grade make up. We were suited up with vests, helmets, a radio, RFID passes and a replica M4, and sent through a derelict factory that a film set and lighting crew had dressed as an overrun medical facility. It was liie actually being in a zombie apocalypse film, fighting, fleeing, saving or killing other survivors (NPCs), hiding in vents, fumbling for RFIDs to get through doors, decyphering clues and fighting giant mutated bosses... All for real. Now THAT was the greatest gaming experience I've had... But it was so awesomely over the top that it bankrupted the overly ambitious production company and I don't expect anyone to ever attempt such a stupid business model again (there are pale imitators if you're really keen to shoot some zombies, but honestly they're not even playing the same sport, let alone being in the same ball park).

VR has let 3 indies in an empty warehouse match that mark for me already.

Being comfortable is the last thing you'll be stuck inside a virtual reality machine...

Maybe we need to put the user and the VR machine inside a sensory deprivation chamber.

Uh yeah. We've seen this somewhere before...

Be afraid people, be very afraid!!! :D

I think this has a better chance of happening

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or

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I personally don't think that OVR is the next big thing. Its certainly a cool toy to play around for a while, but its unimaginable for me how it is useful. I Can't see how it helps with gaming, I've played with it and as I said it was cool, but I wont play a game wearing it, And for development I really don't know how it could help anyone.

A guy from work is already pretty hard in to VR but he was at SVVR and said the Valve Vive completely destroys the current Occulus. I'm sure VR will won't be super wide spread because of having to wear a headset and needing a fairly beefy system. But I have a hard time thinking that Valve and Sony will just let VR fail. Samsung has some very high level executives involved with GearVR. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be wasting their time if they didn't see at least some profit in it. It would not surprise me if Half Life 3 came to the Vive first.

Personally I think AR has more of a chance of being super widespread then VR.

Being comfortable is the last thing you'll be stuck inside a virtual reality machine...

Maybe we need to put the user and the VR machine inside a sensory deprivation chamber.

Uh yeah. We've seen this somewhere before...



Be afraid people, be very afraid!!! :D

The machines would have probably had a better shot of keeping us complacent if they made the game SP instead of an MMO.

Will VR at some point in the future be more than just "the next big thing" and vaporware? Yes sure...

Are we closer to that point with the current iteration than we were ever before? Yes, but anything else would be sad considering VR was dormant for almost 20 years now, no big commercial product at least in the gaming space since the failed virtual boy in the 90's.

Will the current crop of VR devices really take off? Well, wait and see... I am cautiosly optimistic that the Rift and the Steam VR device will not go the way of the Virtual Boy (and Dodo)

Will VR games replace normal games in the near future? Well, there is always the chance of a freak event, but chances are about as high as a meteor strike completly wiping out humanity in the near future

Will VR completly change everything we know or is that all just big hype? Time will tell, but the Hype is strong with that one!

VR has been with us since the 80's, and it newer really took off. That might have been because of the deficiencies of the devices, the ugliness of the graphics, the weight and size of the data gloves and VR Headsets.

But looking at todays crop, we are still not there yet. Sure, the graphics are quite good today, 3D is possible, but the Headsets and interaction devices are still heavy and clumsy, there is still the issue with the limited FoVs, with nausea and all. The current generation is still only convincing for "sitting activities", best if they don't involve hands at all. Most senses are still out of the equation (no touch, no smell, ...).

Lets compare it to 3D TV. 3D TVs from the last few years are actually quite good. Some minor niggles aside, get a good active model with deep contrast and little crosstalk issues, make sure lighting in the room is not distracting, and a good blueray with convincing 3D depth, and its the next best thing to watching a 3D movie in the cinema.

Yet still people are not convinced. The 3D glasses are in the way, to heavy, on active systems the shutters are making any lights in the room a huge distraction and lead to crosstalk (which is actually pretty minor often, but gets hyped up a lot), you loose contrast (which again is a minor problem on todays TV sets with extremly contrast rich VA or even OLED panels).... on passive systems people moan about the loss of vertical resolution.

Then the 3D movies on blueray are few and expensive, and apart from the Marvel movies and a few other that manage to pull off a convincing 3D effect with every Movie I have bought, most of the Bluerays have a very shallow 3D effect that might as well just not be there.

Long story short: To make 3D TVs a success, the effect must be perfect without glasses or compromises, 3D movies need to be almost the same price as non-3D ones, and the studios should stop cheaping out on creating 3D movies from 2D originals and start shooting ALL movies with a good 3D camera(s)

Same with VR: As soon as the expierience is seamless and perfect, and almost as cheap as non-VR gaming (or whatever else VR is used for), AND the content producers are not cheaping out on producing quality content, VR will take off.

The current crop of VR devices, at least until now, are anything but seamless... price has to be seen. Content on the other hand.... call me skeptical on that.

In my experience (especially with the DK2 over the DK1) sickness issues is more the fault of the game then the technology itself. The DK2 has a fast enough refresh rate and good enough tracking to kind of get most people used to it. If the game is your typical "30fps is fine" explosion fest, however, it's vomit city. You absolutely need 75-90fps or more, and most game devs these days have no interest in degrading their game to meet said framerate.

Ok but the DK2 maxes out at a 75 hz refresh rate. So obviously running 90 fps serves no purpose on that device.