A player with VR will not perform better than one without, more likely he will perform much worse(am I wrong?)

You clearly haven't played Team Fortress 2 with the Oculus Rift

They have a mode where you move/steer with a controller, but aim with the rift itself (i.e. crosshairs in the centre of the rift). It's pretty much like enabling god mode - not only do you have way more peripheral vision than most players, but you can do crazy things like run away from an opponent while shooting over your shoulder, and you also just plain aim a lot quicker/better than someone playing with a keyboard and mouse.

That is, for the 20 minutes until you become horribly nauseous, because this game clearly wasn't designed for VR...

I tried that (love me some TF2).

It didn't make me sick, but it really didn't help me play better either. If anything I was worse. Maybe I just needed to give it more time.

Not sure about games like FPS, those games are competitive. A player with VR will not perform better than one without, more likely he will perform much worse(am I wrong?). So cut the multiplayer public from it.

I tried playing the very hardcore FPS "Intruder" with the DK1, and it gave some advantages (FOV, look + aim directions separated)... but the low resolution (effective res was much lower than 720p) meant that I couldn't resolve enemies in the distance, meaning I was absolutely useless except in close-quarters.

I already play Arma 3 with an IR head tracking unit, which is very close to VR (except for the head-mounted part), and IMHO this gives me a huge advantage over regular players.

That is, for the 20 minutes until you become horribly nauseous, because this game clearly wasn't designed for VR...

Hahahah yeah. When I first got the DK1, I played TF2 for an hour straight, attempting to push through the sickness and will it away... Yeah, that doesn't work. You can't push through motion sickness. I had nausea and dizziness for 11 hours afterwards.
Thankfully I've not had any sickness at all with the DK2 yet, which is an indication that the improvement in hardware hopefully will increase the accessibility to VR to a wider audience.

Hahahah yeah. When I first got the DK1, I played TF2 for an hour straight, attempting to push through the sickness and will it away... Yeah, that doesn't work. You can't push through motion sickness. I had nausea and dizziness for 11 hours afterwards.
Thankfully I've not had any sickness at all with the DK2 yet, which is an indication that the improvement in hardware hopefully will increase the accessibility to VR to a wider audience.

Once your brain figures out you've been lying to it about reality it takes a while to earn its trust back

Mind you, I have not used a headset yet, but I'm disappointed in the current hardware. I mean, you could do so much with hardware attached to your head. More specifically, I'm imagining a system whereby you could measure stress multifactorially (pulse, blink rate, galvanic skin response, gaze, etc.) to enhance the experience. Why, if you could find a reliable way to measure blood pressure, you could reliably measure arousal. Imagine a love interest in a game that evolves his/her looks based on how turned on you are.

More specifically, I'm imagining a system whereby you could measure stress multifactorially (pulse, blink rate, galvanic skin response, gaze, etc.) to enhance the experience. Why, if you could find a reliable way to measure blood pressure, you could reliably measure arousal. Imagine a love interest in a game that evolves his/her looks based on how turned on you are

How about we let them solve the first problem (immersive vision), before we demand the rest of the universe?

Being disappointed that the first generation of a technology doesn't have every bell and whistle you've ever dreamed of, is a little crazy.

Being disappointed that the first generation of a technology doesn't have every bell and whistle you've ever dreamed of, is a little crazy.

Of course, it would be naive to expect everything, but it would be unfortunate to see something crippled on launch. It's like a smartphone launching without a front and rear camera. This stuff would at least be a differentiator for somebody.

I mentioned those specific factors above because they have already been applied in gaming and/or they appearing in shipping consumer products. For example, Fove is a VR headset that uses eye tracking. Pulse-affected gaming is something that was demonstrated by Nintendo at E3. (While their method is finger-based, facial methods have been demonstrated by other groups.) Blank rate, attention, and relaxation are measured by NeuroSky's EEG headset. (Games for this device can be found on their own store.)

I'm imagining a system whereby you could measure stress multifactorially (pulse, blink rate, galvanic skin response, gaze, etc.) to enhance the experience.

People are working on those things - you just don't want to force one team to deal with every problem at once, in one product. That overcomplicates development. Break up the pieces, solve them in isolation, shrink them small enough to fit in a headset, then get a good designer to design the appearance of the end-product.

Why, if you could find a reliable way to measure blood pressure...

Valve wants to put blood pressure sensors in game controllers, and also sense how sweaty your hands are getting.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/valve-biofeedback-studies-include-tracking-player-sweat-levels/1100-6408023/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/09/gabe-opens-up-about-valves-own-biometric-steam-box/

Apparently, even the patent trolls are getting ready. The first hit on Google was: Blood pressure sensors BUT in regular objects!!!! [including, but not limited to videomajiggy controllers]

That patent application is funny:

"It will now be understood that the present invention provides a novel, convenient way of measuring and tracking health-based parameters by utilizing a modified known apparatus that facilitates obtaining such parameters"

"You will grant me my patent application. It will now be understood that I am not a patent troll. This "invention" is novel and legitimate. These are not the droids you are looking for."

MS are already looking into this stuffs with their Hololens tech; the idea being to try to measure stress levels and assist the user when they are having problems without them having to ask for it.

As for VR headsets; Elite is basically the only game right now I can see myself buying one for... or would if I hadn't recently got a 21:9 34" display... but, yeah, I was surprised I could use a headset due to how my vision is setup (both eyes work, visual feed is dominate on right eye, left is just depth assist, peripheral vision and a blurry mess ) but a few seconds of thought to kick my visual processing centres let me use a DK2 and experience the effect.. although after only maybe 5 mins in the demo app it did take a good 15mins before my vision reset again afterwards for the real world.

Of course, the biggest issue is you can't see the real world... so while I've got 95% of my Elite keys mapped across my joystick setup sometimes I need the keyboard for things.. also I tend to have a drink on the desk...

shuma-gorath, on 22 May 2015 - 1:22 PM, said:

I'm imagining a system whereby you could measure stress multifactorially (pulse, blink rate, galvanic skin response, gaze, etc.) to enhance the experience.

People are working on those things - you just don't want to force one team to deal with every problem at once, in one product. That overcomplicates development. Break up the pieces, solve them in isolation, shrink them small enough to fit in a headset, then get a good designer to design the appearance of the end-product.

Much like Kinect and RealSense, which use multiple types of sensors, you need some sort of redundancy. For example, Valve's method that you referenced can be thrown off by humidity, temperature, and medications.

Since I'm not a hardware guy, I'll be conservative on how I address the scaling aspect, however, I remember reading about a VR headset that required you to insert a smartphone into it. Because smartphones (sometimes with dongles) are capable of measuring some of those biometric factors I mentioned, I don't think scaling is a big of a problem as you're making it out to be I can see cost being a barrier, though.

Valve wants to put blood pressure sensors in game controllers, and also sense how sweaty your hands are getting.


http://www.gamespot.com/articles/valve-biofeedback-studies-include-tracking-player-sweat-levels/1100-6408023/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/09/gabe-opens-up-about-valves-own-biometric-steam-box/



Apparently, even the patent trolls are getting ready. The first hit on Google was: Blood pressure sensors BUT in regular objects!!!! [including, but not limited to videomajiggy controllers]

It's good to see progress being made on the blood-pressure front.

Of course, the biggest issue is you can't see the real world... so while I've got 95% of my Elite keys mapped across my joystick setup sometimes I need the keyboard for things.. also I tend to have a drink on the desk...

If they could figure out some way to have several front mounted cameras project an overlay of the outside world I think it would go a long way in VR acceptance. The constant having to take the headset on and off is a pain for the user and really sucks for developers.