Virtual Reality - Thoughts?

[Henry Spencer]

Well, it seems like everywhere else is talking about it now that the first one is out in March - Oculus Rift. Will it take off? Is it a fad? Will it have any application outside of games (like watching movies, TV shows, educational purposes etc). Should this be in General Discussion rather than General Gaming if that's the case?

What do people think? This is something that technology industry has come back to time and time again, but is this the time when it will actually take off? Will we be living in the cyberpunk nightmare in the future? You had enough questions yet?

I personally see it as yet another excuse for the human race to be unsocial anyway. I've personally not tried it yet so can't really give any proper analysis.

[johnvivant]

this is huge opportunity for sony if they can get the price right and also provide a decent experience - maybe not as good oculus but something approaching it.

sweet spot imo is around £199.99
it would work straight out of the box, some games would obviously be specifically engineered for VR but it could also be used as a regular head mounted display for all other games to be played in 1080p.

if all this was the case then i would buy it right away. otherwise, i'll probably wait until it reduces in price or until they develop the elusive 'VR killer app'.

i would be extremely tempted if Shenmue 3 announced some kind of VR functionality, but even then, if its too expensive then i'd have to wait. £500 or more is just insane, at least for me.

[Mr357]

After using my friend's dev version of the Rift, I can assure you that the technology is amazing, but I don't know if there's enough of a market for it. It's retailing at $600 USD, which may be what they need to make any kind of a profit, but that just shows that it's still early to try to go consumer with it. I would love to see VR take off, but it seems to me like these companies (mostly the ones that aren't Oculus) are cashing in on what they think is going to be easy money. In my eyes, that is when it becomes a fad.

[Riku Rose]

I've never tried the tech and the only VR I tried was in some weird arcade around 2005 which is nothing like this stuff. I won't say the tech will suck as quite honestly I expect quite the opposite but have a hard time believing it will catch on.

Even if Playstation's VR turns out to be as low as $200 (which I can't see) that's still $200 on top of the price of a console which is a lot of money. The reason the Wii worked so well was because you could go in any supermarket, buy one thing and be bowling by dinner time. Telling your cousin who doesn't play many games that he needs to spend almost $600-700 to play something will make him not want it quite quickly.

The hardcore may be looking forward to VR but the hardcore don't make up enough of the market to make something a success. The majority of people who buy games are people who don't go on IGN or NeoGaf everyday and just buy games they see on the shelf or ads on TV. Even games like Witcher 3 and Bloodborne which have been big hits which you wouldn't consider mainstream games have had ad's everywhere you look. The problem with getting those people on board is that VR is very fucking hard to advertise. Nintendo was able to stick a Wiimote in Katy Perry's hand and tell her too pretend she's playing tennis for an ad but sticking a visor on Taylor Swift will end up with an ad where she looks stupid.

The only add on that had any success with a console was Kinect and that died soon after launch as people stopped making games for it. The original Kinect sold about 20 million but the 360 install base was 80 million people strong. If I was the head of any major publisher and a team wanted to make a game as an exclusive for a 1/4 of the audience of a console I'd have a lot of questions since at the end of the day a company has to make money.

I expect with Playstation VR headset we will see a mad rush of games in the first month or two and then it will die off slowly. Ubisoft always do the tactic at every console launch of throwing a few cheap to make games at a system as they know people won't have much to pick from and there is more chance of their game getting picked up since people want stuff to play on their new tech.

The only way I could see this tech picking up is if you didn't need a PC or console and could just put the headset on and it works but we're many many years away from that being possible.

[Kintor]

I've already had a VR headset for a few months now, in the form of the Gear VR: Innovator Edition for my Galaxy Note 4. It's essentially a pair of googles with special lenses, using the HD screen and the processing power of the Note 4 to create a compelling VR experience. Granted, since the Note 4 is an expensive phone this does make the Gear VR a tricky proposition by itself. With that said, I really needed a new phone anyway; so, the VR capabilities of the Note 4 are what really sealed the deal for me, in comparison to other phones on the market at the time. In this respect I treat the Gear VR as an inexpensive add-on (the headset only costs about a $100-150) to an essential piece of technology I was going to buy anyway.

As for using the Gear VR itself - I absolutely love it! I've been wanting to experience VR since the early 90s, ever since Sega announced the Sega VR as an add-on for the Mega Drive. That dream never came to pass but today we have a whole new generation of VR devices that might at last bring VR into the mainstream. Initially there wasn't much to do on the Gear VR but a steady stream of updates had made it a highly versatile device. One of the most interesting apps is one that came with the device, Oculus Video; which allows you to upload 2D and 3D videos on your phone and watch them a virtual cinema. A Netflix app was also recently added, where you can watch any video available on Netflix in a VR mountaintop chateau.

It was surreal the first time I used the Netflix app. I was sitting at home on an office chair/sitting on a couch in a mountain chateau - watching The Matrix in VR through Netflix!

There are also a few games on the Gear VR that are worth mentioning if anyone is thinking about getting headset. Anshar War 2 is an amazing space shooter, if a little pricey. Darknet is a cool sci-fi hacking simulator, in a Tron-inspired universe where all the data of the internet is arranged in an interactive 3D space. There's also the beta version of Oculus Arcade; where Sega, Bandai Namco and Midway offer a selection of their classic games on virtual arcade cabinets. The Sega games are all Mega Drive emulations but there's a nice variety nonetheless. I should note that all the arcade games are on 2D screen; this might be a bit hard to understand if you haven't seen it yourself but basically you can see 3D depth around the arcade cabinets but the games are displayed on a virtual 2D CRT screen.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on my experiences with VR. I can elaborate further if anyone has any questions. For what it's worth I think that VR represents a paradigm shift in the way people will communicate and experience the world. That with time no aspect of our society will remain untouched by VR technology. It's not a question of if but when VR headsets become common place.

[AnimeGamer183]

I want to feel as if im literally taken out of the real world, and can feel the virtual world (the temperature, my feet on the earth/terrain etc). Maybe what I want is the Matrix or holodeck? Its a very long ways off, I know, if it ever gets there, the virtual reality that is of today is visual and audio only (which is a good start) BUT there could be so much mooorrreeee.

[shredingskin]

I use glasses, so I don't think it'll work for me.

[Amir]

I was sold once I saw Rez Infinite.

When I'll actually buy one is another question, though. Probably not until Xmas 2017.

[MiTT3NZ]

It'll have it's market, no doubt, but mainstream success? Nah, not at all. It's more of a "for gamers and enthusiasts" type thing. Far too impractical for non-solitary use and best deployed at events/conventions.

Not that I'm against VR, I just reckon the best way to go would be more akin to Hololens or Google Glass. I wanna be able to switch between VR and... R in an instant, as would most consumers. Give us that and you'll have a guaranteed success on your hands.

Side note: How awesome would it be to have Jensen-esque glasses somewhere down the line?

[Mr357]

I use glasses, so I don't think it'll work for me.

Hadn't thought about that before. It must suck to be far-sighted.

[Sonikku]

I badly want to try it out and everyone I talk to has some friend or a buddy or family member that's hooked them up with it. Myself? Not so much. Though I think it will be much more than a fad. Right now you need a cutting end gaming PC to do it. But how about a decade from now? Your smart phone will be able to operate the damn thing. That $600 price tag could just as easily be $200 by that time frame. And if that doesn't make it mainstream, certainly the Pron will MAKE it mainstream. It happened before with VHS.

Never underestimate the power of titties.

[Peter]

In terms of gaming, once it's understood how to be done right, this will be a huge part of the future of gaming.

But it's being way overthought, with games being developed that have no substance etc. It's not being thought out right. Keep it simple! For example, the Morpheus seems to be eliminating the use of the PS controller and being developed with the move. Why??

The way I see it being a success is as if you can sit as you do playing a game with a controller in your hands but instead of playing the game on a tv, you have the headset on and headphones. For the latest GTA V first person it would be perfect. Imagine being in San Andreas and having full 360 viewing and sound. Looking left and right to see if it's ok to drive your car across a junction. Looking up to the sky and seeing the sunshine. Or having a full view of a claustrophobic view of a narrow corridor in resident evil. A scary game taken to even more scary heights because you are in the game! I swear it would scare people shitless!

phpBB [video]

It will be a long time, if ever that it does become mainstream, but it has slow potential. Anyone who hasn't tried it, it's very hard to realise what it actually feels like. But take 2 of your 5 senses and completely disorientate them, and you will then realise how immersive it is. It does fuck you up. You will feel all over the place after. But there's a new gaming experience to be had, and I dont mind that. I sure as shit ain't playing a horror game on it because I actually would die.

[MiTT3NZ]

^I must be really out of touch coz I thought that's exactly what they were doin with it...

[Monkei]

^ It is exactly what they're doing with it.

PlayStation VR can be played by using either a DualShock 4 controller or PlayStation Move.

And for those of you wearing glasses, it's not a problem. The headset can be used while wearing them.

[Riku Rose]

The problem with it being a product with a slow uptake will be that developers stop making games for it. Just look at anything in gaming like the WiiU, Vita or Playstation Move and you'll see that as soon as sales weren't great any kind of support will dry up instantly. Unless someone like Sony has a plan to release a big game for the VR every month for two years to keep support strong it will soon die off quickly. Even if Sony continued to support it what's to say the sales will be there to make people like EA or Ubisoft continue making games? Sure in 5 years you may be able to pick up a VR kit for $200 but who's going to have been making games for it in those 5 years when no one was buying it?

Even when the price for a VR headset drops to a low price the person buying it still has to buy a high end PC or PS4 and that's money on top of $200 price tag. It's just a tough sell to your average consumer.