HTC RE Vive - SteamVR headset

crusty_juggler said:
So you have a 15'x15' area clear of furniture in your home in which to set up laser sensors and run around in, completely blind, with goggles strapped to your face? And a PC capable of driving a VR quality display at a locked 90 HZ? Be careful not to trip on the dog and go crashing into your expensive rig.

Every time I make the above argument, people respond with "But VR is sooooo cool and Valve is awesome!". The coolness of VR and the perceived awesomeness of the Valve corporation has no impact on viability of VR in the home. I'm not saying VR isn't fun, I'm saying it's too costly and cumbersome to ever break through to the mainstream.

If people weren't open to wearing a pair of cheap glasses to achieve 3D TV immersion, then there's no way consumers are going to wear expensive headsets attached to even more expensive PC gaming rigs (and I'm not the only one making the comparison between the failure of 3D TV and the future of VR).

Combine the unwillingness to wear things on one's face with the high GPU requirements for VR and the need for a room filled with frickin' laser sensors, and it's obvious that the Vive (or any VR tech) will never gain traction. VR is and will remain, a Silicon Valley flavor of the month technology, whose only audience is elite, childless nerds with money to burn.
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Show us on the doll where VR touched you.

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Youn said:
You don't need 15'x15' and there will be plenty of gpu-friendly apps to enjoy... or so they say
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I would rather play Dying Light or GTA V than enjoy a "gpu-friendly app", whatever that means. Who's going to plunk down $500+ on a headset, plus the money for a custom PC in order to - in the words of HTC's Peter Chou - "relive history"? I thought VR was The Future of Gaming, not the future of watching PBS.

I cannot find any article that says the laser tracking system is not required. Valve describes their headset as a "360° room-scale VR experience" and says it's "built with movement in mind". Given that Valve touts that system as an exclusive and industry leading solution to the motion sickness problem, it would seem that a room filled with laser sensors is pretty important to the functionality of the Vive.

We haven't even begun to touch upon the input devices for Steam VR. Which are, you guessed it, trackpads. This all seems so silly and pointless - wearing a headset and running around blind, attached to an expensive gaming rig while dual-wielding trackpads.
 
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Yes, people will buy this when it comes out. Yes, lasers are required. No, the controllers are not just trackpads. Yes, it seems silly to some people. No, you don't have to buy VR.

Any other questions?
 
crusty_juggler said:
I would rather play Dying Light or GTA V than enjoy a "gpu-friendly app", whatever that means. Who's going to plunk down $500+ on a headset, plus the money for a custom PC in order to - in the words of HTC's Peter Chou - "relive history"? I thought VR was The Future of Gaming, not the future of watching PBS.

I cannot find any article that says the laser tracking system is not required. Valve describes their headset as a "360° room-scale VR experience" and says it's "built with movement in mind". Given that Valve touts that system as an exclusive and industry leading solution to the motion sickness problem, it would seem that a room filled with laser sensors is pretty important to the functionality of the Vive.

We haven't even begun to touch upon the input devices for Steam VR. Which are, you guessed it, trackpads. This all seems so silly and pointless - wearing a headset and running around blind, attached to an expensive gaming rig while dual-wielding trackpads.
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But, unless I've missed something, you don't speak from experience with VR tech, so your sweeping statements about the tech, the industry, and the market don't really have any weight. Plus neither of the major devices have even been released yet.
 
Aix. said:
But, unless I've missed something, you don't speak from experience with VR tech, so your sweeping statements about the tech, the industry, and the market don't really have any weight. Plus neither of the major devices have even been released yet.
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Eh, I mean, I was really, really skeptical, but quietly hopeful about the new breed of VR equipment. Who wouldn't want this stuff to work? I'm just excited that after trying it, that I was wrong thinking it would suck.

I just don't understand why people crap all over it without trying it first. Saying people won't buy a "$500 headset" (ignoring the fact that Oculus DK2 is $350 and available now to anyone) is about as stupid as saying people won't buy a $400 PS4, or a $500 iPad, or a $350 video card, etc etc. If it works, people will buy it, as long as it isn't ridiculously priced.
 
Provided that I'm as blown away as you were, I'd definitely pick one up. I have no delusions about it fitting every scenario. There will be things that it will work great for, and there will be things where it just doesn't apply. I'm definitely not someone that will want to try running around the room with one of these on my head. :D However, I am someone that will be happy enough using it as a middle step (so to speak). Kinda like an enhance monitor for gaming. I'll probably still sit at my desk, use a mouse and keyboard or maybe head-track and either KB or gamepad or the like. It'll just be a new way for me to VIEW some games. If it works great on 25% of the game I play, then it will be a worthwhile toy to have on-hand. It really doesn't have to be black and white as some people are making it seem. It doesn't have to suck, and it doesn't have to be the solution to all of life's problems. For me, it just has to be fun in enough situations to justify its price-tag, and I don't see that being all that much of a challenge for the people developing them.

I'm already disconnected from what's cool, or acceptable to the average person just sitting at a desktop PC in the first place playing games. What do I care if I also have a headset on? :D If it's fun, I'll be there. If it's not, I'll wait another decade.
 
Cool. Hopefully these stay on schedule, and have a general release this year.
 
The key is that, like any peripheral, no one is saying you must use it for all games, all the time. Don't want to use it for some third-person shooter? Fine, don't. Who gives a damn about running around a 15' space, that's irrelevant to driving games, or space combat games (ignoring FPS modules, should they ever appear). Just because someone has a $500 joystick doesn't mean they feel obliged to use it to play GTA5.
 
polonyc2 said:
do people really think wearing something like that will be the next big thing in home theater or gaming?...no chance...looks cool in Star Trek or Blade Runner but not for practical use in our near future...wouldn't mind wearing that in a movie theater for 2 hours to see the next Avatar or Mad Max movie but hard core gamers play for long periods of time and that device will be annoying...plus even when you're gaming you're not always looking at the screen...with VR it seems like you always have to be 'in' the game
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I don't know. My girlfriend already thinks I'm goofy sitting in front of my 30" playing HotS, so strapping this on my face, will stick look goofy and not gaf.

This one though, needing all that space to move around...not going to work in a city apartment. :( Still wish it well though, looks pretty impressive. Someday...
 
Ok, read one of the comments and this sounds fucking amazing:

It occurs to me that this could be used for something akin to laser tag. I don’t doubt that it has been discussed before but imagine standing in a large area with structures and low walls made of a soft-ish material (for safety) and then you slide on your VR helmet and suddenly you’re in some war torn level straight out of Battlefield. The real world area would be a 1:1 representation of that level.

There are some technical and financial challenges for sure but, as a consumer, I can’t help but feel giddy at the prospect. I would imagine there would be a low cost for entry relative to paintball, for example, which is great. Additionally, I would love to get as much exercise as my Battlefield character does.
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TwistedAegis said:
needing all that space to move around...not going to work in a city apartment. :(
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The space required is dependent on the software, not the hardware. Devs realize not everyone will have much space and will create content with sitting and standing options.
 
Why is every single VR maker sticking with some kind of controller for their own custom control solutions?

With Oculus rift's "touch" and now with Valve showing off their custom solution, it's yet another controller you hold in your hand.

Don't get me wrong, it looks fine, but with VR the inherit nature is that you want people to be able to use their actual hands, to mimic what they'd actually "do" in a game with their hands.

When you make it into something they hold, this GREATLY restricts that by nature.

It's like Nintendo had the right idea 20+ years ago and everyone is scared to even mention a "glove" but really, a glove is the absolute best solution for VR and it's fully capable of working with today's technology.

Even having sensors that can provide feedback so you realize you're "touching" an object and they could easily implement a joystick or trackpad on the side of your index finger where you could use your thumb to easily "move" in game by pressing it in the direction you want to do while still giving your hands complete freedom of movement and not forcing you to hold anything in them, thus you give people the ability to naturally interact within the game how they would in real life.
 
Maybe because gloves are expensive, uncomfortable, and lack the fast response time and accuracy of simpler designs?
 
Youn said:
Maybe because gloves are expensive, uncomfortable, and lack the fast response time and accuracy of simpler designs?
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If you are living in 1989 maybe...

These days they have such gloves and they aren't gigantic or uncomfortable or have terrible response times.

These use them mainly in motion capture work for movies and animation

IE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NVCwRZ7XTE

Also I found a youtube video where someone actually has made such things work in Oculus with the Tuscany demo, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPszKhewSec&feature=youtu.be

It seems Control VR (which had a kickstarter) is exactly what is needed for consumer level versions, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZhcINr8bw4


So now, this isn't impossible and the technology is there.

If Oculus or Valve partnered they could have brought the cost down and helped produce such things, make it even more affordable and bundle it (since optional things tend to mean developers don't develop that much for it).
 
So, here we are mid-November and the Vive is supposed to have a "late-2015 launch." You'd think they would have announced something already as far as a more specific date.
 
J3RK said:
Provided that I'm as blown away as you were, I'd definitely pick one up. I have no delusions about it fitting every scenario. There will be things that it will work great for, and there will be things where it just doesn't apply. I'm definitely not someone that will want to try running around the room with one of these on my head. :D However, I am someone that will be happy enough using it as a middle step (so to speak). Kinda like an enhance monitor for gaming. I'll probably still sit at my desk, use a mouse and keyboard or maybe head-track and either KB or gamepad or the like. It'll just be a new way for me to VIEW some games. If it works great on 25% of the game I play, then it will be a worthwhile toy to have on-hand. It really doesn't have to be black and white as some people are making it seem. It doesn't have to suck, and it doesn't have to be the solution to all of life's problems. For me, it just has to be fun in enough situations to justify its price-tag, and I don't see that being all that much of a challenge for the people developing them.

I'm already disconnected from what's cool, or acceptable to the average person just sitting at a desktop PC in the first place playing games. What do I care if I also have a headset on? :D If it's fun, I'll be there. If it's not, I'll wait another decade.
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This is exactly how I feel. I feel the same about this as I do different control methods. It just needs to work and be fun for the applications that I care about. That's it.
 
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