I'm Too Out Of Shape For Virtual Reality

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Maybe virtual reality games will help people get in shape while having a little fun at the same time. As long as no one tries to market it as a way to get in shape, people will just do it. :cool:

In virtual reality, you just move. If it's an action game, you instinctively dodge a barrage of deadly lasers. You kneel down to hide behind a crate, only to leap up in a squat-jump to shoot at an enemy behind cover. You're not thinking about it, you're just doing what you have to in order to win. Twenty minutes later, and you've put yourself through an intense cardio workout.
 
The thing is, you can get up and move if you want. If you don't want to, the systems gracefully fall back to just being a HMD that you can use sitting down.

There are plenty of productivity based reasons to us VR. Games are not the only reason some of us are interested in the platform.
 
Maybe virtual reality games will help people get in shape while having a little fun at the same time. As long as no one tries to market it as a way to get in shape, people will just do it. :cool:

In virtual reality, you just move. If it's an action game, you instinctively dodge a barrage of deadly lasers. You kneel down to hide behind a crate, only to leap up in a squat-jump to shoot at an enemy behind cover. You're not thinking about it, you're just doing what you have to in order to win. Twenty minutes later, and you've put yourself through an intense cardio workout.

Only if you have an extra empty room in your house or you like replacing furniture and lamps on a regular basis. And I'm not even talking about the innocent pet that crosses your path if you ever play a martial art game...
 
Anyone else get the feeling that VR is going to be very gimmicky, like the Wii? At least for the first generation or two until someone finds an actual good way to use it?
 
I don't know about you guys, but as I sit in my comfy leather office chair, relaxing with an adult beverage and a slice of pizza, all while playing multiplayer games on my IPS monitor with my buddies in Mumble, I often think to myself; "Wouldn't this be better if I was instead wandering around completely blind while waving motion controllers about in a room devoid of all furniture and constantly tripping over a 15' cable?".
Anyone else get the feeling that VR is going to be very gimmicky, like the Wii?
Yes.
The thing is, you can get up and move if you want. If you don't want to, the systems gracefully fall back to just being a HMD that you can use sitting down.
I keep hearing this, but I have yet to see it. Show me a user playing a game on Vive or Oculus transitioning "gracefully" from room-scale to sitting VR. Rudimentary tech demos don't count.
 
I often think to myself; "Wouldn't this be better if I was instead wandering around completely blind while waving motion controllers about in a room devoid of all furniture and constantly tripping over a 15' cable?".

If you're willing to remove all the furniture from a room (and presumably pad the walls), why not dangle the cable on a self-winding spool on the ceiling? Then you don't need to trip over it :)
 
Only if you have an extra empty room in your house or you like replacing furniture and lamps on a regular basis. And I'm not even talking about the innocent pet that crosses your path if you ever play a martial art game...

Wasn't this with a Hololens with BF4 commercial where they smashed furniture because it was so "real"? It seems to have been used as a selling point.

Anyone else get the feeling that VR is going to be very gimmicky, like the Wii? At least for the first generation or two until someone finds an actual good way to use it?

Exactly what I was thinking. Almost everyone I know has one way or another to sit and play it. Removes the point of it but we all get to stay lazy and that's what matters :/
 
Yes.I keep hearing this, but I have yet to see it. Show me a user playing a game on Vive or Oculus transitioning "gracefully" from room-scale to sitting VR. Rudimentary tech demos don't count.

My guess is that it's marketing right now. It's hard to sell the value prop that you can do what you do now, but you could spend $1000 on a hardware investment (gphx card +hmd) to do the exact same thing with a heavy baseball hat on. So the coverage is stressing what you can do that you can't do on your existing setup.

At 38 mins in this stream today, they actually talk about typical WASD+Mouse usage.
 
Anyone else get the feeling that VR is going to be very gimmicky, like the Wii?

My kids quickly leaned how to play the Wii games while sitting on the couch.
You just need to learn how to wave the controller, and you can go bowling, running, snow boarding, etc. without leaving the comfort of the recliner :)
 
Maybe virtual reality games will help people get in shape while having a little fun at the same time. As long as no one tries to market it as a way to get in shape, people will just do it. :cool:

In virtual reality, you just move. If it's an action game, you instinctively dodge a barrage of deadly lasers. You kneel down to hide behind a crate, only to leap up in a squat-jump to shoot at an enemy behind cover. You're not thinking about it, you're just doing what you have to in order to win. Twenty minutes later, and you've put yourself through an intense cardio workout.

In virtual reality, you just use a controller. Otherwise you just look like those idiots who threw their wiimotes into their TV's. Hopefully someone is filming you so the rest of us can laugh on youtube.

FIXED
 
There are different levels of virtual reality is the thing. Being able to be in a full 3D world, but still use a mouse and keyboard or gamepad is definitely an option and will still do a whole hell of a lot to make the experience way more immersive.

VR where people are literally moving around the room I think is going to have much more limited use, there are just too many obstacles, from floor space, wires, additional software support, etc.

So I think VR in general still has a whole lot of potential, but ones that require you to move around your room will be much more limited.
 
Only if you have an extra empty room in your house or you like replacing furniture and lamps on a regular basis. And I'm not even talking about the innocent pet that crosses your path if you ever play a martial art game...

Mechwarrior style. Never leave your chair.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci3xnzuDudg

How much room
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NixHENChoQ4

Game knows where you and your hands are, and can set warning boundaries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4zr5Eq_F5g

That carpet is their game area while developing
 
Maybe virtual reality games will help people get in shape while having a little fun at the same time. As long as no one tries to market it as a way to get in shape, people will just do it. :cool:

In virtual reality, you just move. If it's an action game, you instinctively dodge a barrage of deadly lasers. You kneel down to hide behind a crate, only to leap up in a squat-jump to shoot at an enemy behind cover. You're not thinking about it, you're just doing what you have to in order to win. Twenty minutes later, and you've put yourself through an intense cardio workout.

This makes no sense at all. You don't have to do anything more with a vr set on your head, than without. You still use the same kb/mouse/controller as without it. You'd need an input device that actually detects your movements and uses those to control the game for this to make sense.
 
Anyone else get the feeling that VR is going to be very gimmicky, like the Wii? At least for the first generation or two until someone finds an actual good way to use it?

For the most part I agree it will be very gimmicky. I do see a few places where it could be very cool if they implemented it well. Driving games are one place where I can see this really taking off. It would be a lot more imersive if you can actually turn your head to check your blind spot rather then just hitting a button.
 
Your eyes will be sticking out like a fish on the beach that was stepped on.
 
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