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[thomasmahler]

I still dont think the tech is ready for VR

I'd agree. I thoroughly enjoyed my DK1 and DK2 and love to test all these demos that are popping up, but the screendoor effect, nausea and the lack of games that actually use VR could very easily make this a stillborn product.

The tech right now is just not really ready for the consumer market yet. A lot of tech geeks will buy it and that might just be a sustainable business in and off itself, but it'll take a good 5-6 years before VR is really ready for the mass-market.

They need to up the resolution of the display, kill the screendoor effect, make partnerships that will bring Oculus Rift into as many households as possible (partner with Microsoft to ship it on Xbox One and the Next Gen Xbox) and make the damn thing wireless -> All of that will take some time.

 

[Solid Samus]

You might attack anybody that doesn't agree with you but the reality is this forum is insignificant in any meaningful way.

but in several threads RE: VR you've been exceptionally hostile toward skeptics.

He might be super enthusiastic about VR but he's usually up in these threads with a level head. Don't see how he's been any more hostile or aggressive than those who share his attitude with a dismissive bent.

 

[metareferential]

For what I've seen, Krejlooc is extremely hostile towards ignorance.

And rightly so, since he's one of the few users here that really knows what he's talking about (together with Durante).

 

[Jolkien]

This is deeply profound.

So is your post.
Two friend of mine tried the Occulus at Pax prime, they loved it. One of them thinks this is the future, the other one think it's just a fad. Can't wait to try it for myself. I'm not gonna fork all that cash before trying it. Hopefuly there will be some way to test it before you buy it. It would help spread the tech.

 

[Betta Lines]

They need to up the resolution of the display, kill the screendoor effect, make partnerships that will bring Oculus Rift into as many households as possible (partner with Microsoft to ship it on Xbox One and the Next Gen Xbox) and make the damn thing wireless -> All of that will take some time.

They've all but eliminated the screendoor, according to everyone who has tried Crescent Bay. They're making many partnerships. The Xbox One isn't powerful enough (to run what Oculus are aiming for), and Microsoft are working on their own solution anyway. Wireless isn't low-enough latency yet - but eventually it won't be a problem as it will be rendered within the device like Gear VR.

 

[evilromero]

A few smart people have predicted that 2015 is the year VR hype meets reality... and fizzles. Either way, he's probably right: it will be a big story.

I don't know. There's a reason VR reemerging now. Back in the late 80s/early 90s there was a lot of hype surrounding VR hardware, but unfortunately the technology just wasn't up to par for a seamless experience.

One thing working against VR today though is going to be that it's a very isolated experience. Others in the room won't be able to share the same experience. So I imagine it could have a limited application to the more hardcore userbase.

 

[Koren]

It is a technological leap perhaps bigger than the advent of color television and cinema. By having a separate image for each eye, we're simulating another facet of our vision as it appears to us, which would be depth perception. Is it perhaps this fundamental difference that you're missing?

Technically, Vectrex or Master System had googles that allow separate images for each eye.

I'd say that the main "new" things for customers is the fact that it's linked to head tracking (but the tech isn't actually new, at least in labs...)


But you're wrong if you think that depth perception is mostly stereoscopy. Stereoscopy is a part of depth perception, but it's only a *part* of it. The scale and the focus distance are two other key factors (and in fact, if scale and stereoscopy gives different clues to the brain, the brain usually opt for the scale... if you're showing a ball that gets closer (according to stereo vision) to a user wearing a headseat and whose size is decreasing, the user brain will usually decide that the ball is going away, and not closer).

Fortunately, scale is a part of VR, but the focus distance is always at infinity in a headset (at least for now, but that's probably for a lot of time), and that's most probably one of the reasons that some people find stereo vision unpleasing: they receive conflincting clues about distance of objects. That's the exact same mechanism as vertigo.

(I'm happy that I'm immune to this effect, though, based on some experience of VR headsets in the past)


I'm still not sure that it's a mainstream tech, though (yes, I know... but we'll see... Google glass was also the second coming in many websites, and now wearers are called Glassholes...)

 

[GeoGonzo]

For what I've seen, Krejlooc is extremely hostile towards ignorance.

And rightly so, since he's one of the few users here that really knows what he's talking about (together with Durante).

Its actually pretty amazing how they still bother to push back against the tide of bad posts. I know that if I had been in Krejlooc's place I'd have thought "fuck this whole thread" after just page 1.

 

[SniperHunter]

dont see this taking off

good tech though

 

[Mihos]

They've all but eliminated the screendoor, according to everyone who has tried Crescent Bay. They're making many partnerships. The Xbox One isn't powerful enough (to run what Oculus are aiming for), and Microsoft are working on their own solution anyway. Wireless isn't low-enough latency yet - but eventually it won't be a problem as it will be rendered within the device like Gear VR.

I can say first hand that the screen door on the Gear VR is all but gone. You can still see it if you concentrate on focusing on the pixels themselves, but since the focus of your view is always behind it, you have to force yourself to see it. For presence type VR, like the Milk Streaming channel that sets you in the scene, it works fine streaming on wifi. One of the reasons I am hoping they hurry up with streaming from the world cup, superbowl, etc.

I am wanting them to release the cameras they use also. What a cool way of getting nostalgic of actually being 'in' the space as it was 20 years ago.

 

[mrklaw]

One thing working against VR today though is going to be that it's a very isolated experience. Others in the room won't be able to share the same experience. So I imagine it could have a limited application to the more hardcore userbase.

It'll just transition to a different kind of experience. You're in VR enjoying your presence, and the people around you are enjoying watching your slack jaw and looking at the ceiling.

 

[Raticus79]

But you're wrong if you think that depth perception is mostly stereoscopy. Stereoscopy is a part of depth perception, but it's only a *part* of it. The scale and the focus distance are two other key factors (and in fact, if scale and stereoscopy gives different clues to the brain, the brain usually opt for the scale... if you're showing a ball that gets closer (according to stereo vision) to a user wearing a headseat and whose size is decreasing, the user brain will usually decide that the ball is going away, and not closer).

Another big factor is parallax, which is why head (edit: translation) tracking is so important.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_perception
One of the people on my soccer team only had vision in one eye and they did fine, so I was curious and looked up what they might have been using instead of stereo vision to get by.

Its actually pretty amazing how they still bother to push back against the tide of bad posts. I know that if I had been in Krejlooc's place I'd have thought "fuck this whole thread" after just page 1.

At least the DK2 thread is there as a refuge of people who have actually tried it (or are at least interested).

This thread is specifically about "will VR be the biggest story of 2015" (besides the implied release date), so it's fair for people to offer opposing opinions. Rift threads in general are pretty bad for people shooting things down without much explanation though.

 

[Durante]

I can say first hand that the screen door on the Gear VR is all but gone. You can still see it if you concentrate on focusing on the pixels themselves, but since the focus of your view is always behind it, you have to force yourself to see it. For presence type VR, like the Milk Streaming channel that sets you in the scene, it works fine streaming on wifi. One of the reasons I am hoping they hurry up with streaming from the world cup, superbowl, etc.

I am wanting them to release the cameras they use also. What a cool way of getting nostalgic of actually being 'in' the space as it was 20 years ago.

And the thing is, from all reports it sounds like Crescent Bay is another huge step over Gear VR in that regard. I don't think screendoor is a significant problem for CV1. (Not saying that resolution doesn't benefit from further improvement of course)

Another big factor is parallax, which is why head tracking is so important.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_perception

Specifically, positional head tracking.

 

[Raticus79]

Specifically, positional head tracking.

Yup, I just edited that to clarify.

 

[Betta Lines]

It'll just transition to a different kind of experience. You're in VR enjoying your presence, and the people around you are enjoying watching your slack jaw and looking at the ceiling.

And hopefully, seeing what they're seeing mirrored on a separate display. Not for all applications (sometimes you'll want each person to experience it at first hand and avoid spoilers) but having the ability to mirror the feed will be an important part of the social acceptance, at least at the start. Eventually, I can imagine a social gathering where everyone can wear their own headset and experience VR together.

And the thing is, from all reports it sounds like Crescent Bay is another huge step over Gear VR in that regard.

Apart from Engadget, who are saying it is noticeably lower res than Gear VR, which is odd.

 

[Krejlooc]

It'll just transition to a different kind of experience. You're in VR enjoying your presence, and the people around you are enjoying watching your slack jaw and looking at the ceiling.

With direct to rift mode, gear VR's screen mirroring mode, and Morpheus' breakout box mirroring a non-distorted display onto the conventional TV, it's obvious that, going forward, what you see in VR will be available for others to see on the conventional screen. They lose all the benefits of VR, but it's not like they can't see what you're seeing.

here is my friend using gear VR with the wireless screen mirroring enabled. He's playing Asnar.

Further, developers can actually leverage the television specifically for player 2. I'm working on a 2 player VR demo that only requires 1 headset and uses positional tracking of player 2 to treat the flat, conventional TV screen as a window into VR.

 

[RCSI]

2 headsets (DK1, DK2), hinting at a 3rd...3...Half-Life 3 confirmed!

Or maybe, consumer version release in the 3rd month of the 3rd quarter of 20[3*5].

Either way, this will be an exciting year.

 

[thomasmahler]

The other issue is that this is completely new tech and it needs some kind of 'system seller'.

Now, granted, I think the VR effect in itself is a 'Holy shit, THIS is next-gen!' thing by itself, but I think to truly capture the mass market, it will need something amazing that just shows people exactly WHY this thing is the bomb and worth paying hundreds of dollars for it.

Are the demos out there enough? I doubt it. If Nintendo never created Mario 64, maybe the Analog Stick wouldn't have become a big deal for a long time... Most people got the Wii back then simply because 'Playing Tennis in front of your TV is so cool!'.

I haven't really seen that one demo yet that would deliver that experience. Yes, the rollercoaster stuff is cool, but not 'I'll pay 300 dollars for this!' cool - at least not for the mass market.

Having said all that, it makes you wonder what Facebooks bigger plans for this thing are. It could be cool if Facebook would create some kind of social hub where people can connect in ways they can't through a browser and I bet that's part of the reason why Zuckerberg and friends bought the thing in the first place... but will that be ready anytime soon?

I finally had a really good idea for VR that we're pitching around right now - it's something that hasn't really been done yet with VR and could connect people in really meaningful ways, but obviously it'll take us some time to build it and it might very well be that publishers won't be willing yet to pour lots of money into a market with an install base of 100.000 people.

Anyway, I'm fully on board with the VR future and I absolutely love the tech, but I'm just worried about launching this too soon and VR disappointing the mass market at first, which could hurt the whole 'VR movement' right out of the gate.

 

[TxdoHawk]

I'd agree. I thoroughly enjoyed my DK1 and DK2 and love to test all these demos that are popping up, but the screendoor effect, nausea and the lack of games that actually use VR could very easily make this a stillborn product.

The tech right now is just not really ready for the consumer market yet. A lot of tech geeks will buy it and that might just be a sustainable business in and off itself, but it'll take a good 5-6 years before VR is really ready for the mass-market.

They need to up the resolution of the display, kill the screendoor effect, make partnerships that will bring Oculus Rift into as many households as possible (partner with Microsoft to ship it on Xbox One and the Next Gen Xbox) and make the damn thing wireless -> All of that will take some time.

You forgot the big one: Latency. It's the chief cause of VR motion sickness, and that's why John Carmack is obsessed with it, and rightfully so. VR will remain confined to a niche until the majority of the population can use one for at least a few hours without nausea.

 

[Mihos]

here is my friend using gear VR with the wireless screen mirroring enabled. He's playing Asnar.

Man, how did I miss screen mirroring. This solves a big issue for me when showing this to kids and my elderly parents, where they would get lost in the interface. My mother in law has ALS and can look around fine, but has issues with trying to navigate the menus, so this would let me do that for her. She is in love with it and it is the first thing she wants to do when we visit. She wishes she could use this instead of the tablet eye thing they gave here to send e-mails since the tracking is so much more accurate.

The other issue is that this is completely new tech and it needs some kind of 'system seller'.

I still say the system seller won't be games. It will be sports and virtual presence

Spoiler

and secretly 3DSBS Porn

 

[Krejlooc]

The other issue is that this is completely new tech and it needs some kind of 'system seller'.

Now, granted, I think the VR effect in itself is a 'Holy shit, THIS is next-gen!' thing by itself, but I think to truly capture the mass market, it will need something amazing that just shows people exactly WHY this thing is the bomb and worth paying hundreds of dollars for it.

Are the demos out there enough? I doubt it. If Nintendo never created Mario 64, maybe the Analog Stick wouldn't have become a big deal for a long time... Most people got the Wii back then simply because 'Playing Tennis in front of your TV is so cool!'.

I haven't really seen that one demo yet that would deliver that experience. Yes, the rollercoaster stuff is cool, but not 'I'll pay 300 dollars for this!' cool - at least not for the mass market.

Having said all that, it makes you wonder what Facebooks bigger plans for this thing are. It could be cool if Facebook would create some kind of social hub where people can connect in ways they can't through a browser and I bet that's part of the reason why Zuckerberg and friends bought the thing in the first place... but will that be ready anytime soon?

I finally had a really good idea for VR that we're pitching around right now - it's something that hasn't really been done yet with VR and could connect people in really meaningful ways, but obviously it'll take us some time to build it and it might very well be that publishers won't be willing yet to pour lots of money into a market with an install base of 100.000 people.

Anyway, I'm fully on board with the VR future and I absolutely love the tech, but I'm just worried about launching this too soon and VR disappointing the mass market at first, which could hurt the whole 'VR movement' right out of the gate.

 

[Betta Lines]

You forgot the big one: Latency. It's the chief cause of VR motion sickness, and that's why John Carmack is obsessed with it, and rightfully so. VR will remain confined to a niche until the majority of the population can use one for at least a few hours without nausea.

They have already solved the latency problem with Crescent Bay - they consider 90Hz (and all the efficient rendering tricks to go with it) to be good enough, and CV1 could be even higher refresh. Nausea is now primarily caused by the content, inadequate controls, and misuse.

 

[hwateber]

Time to sell my dk2!

 

[border]

There are plenty of people that could give two shits about jeering rivals, tailgaiting, talking to other fans. It's not going to be a perfect stadium experience for sure, but you really don't think there will be 3d audio options that help put you in the experience?

I don't think any home theatre setup is really going to be able to replicate 60,000 people around you screaming and cheering.

VR sports events may have their merits, but the suggestion that it's equal to physical attendance seems like a pretty big stretch. There's a reason people pay $120 to go to a Rolling Stones concert, rather than buy a $15 DVD of a Rolling Stones concert.

 

[thomasmahler]

They have already solved the latency problem with Crescent Bay - they consider 90Hz (and all the efficient rendering tricks to go with it) to be good enough, and CV1 could be even higher refresh. Nausea is now primarily caused by the content, inadequate controls, and misuse.

That's another thing though - I've tried the Rift now with probably around 80-90 people and 90% of those people got sick when they tried one of the demos where the right analog stick makes the camera rotate around.

There's just a weird thing going on where your head is rotating inside the game, but it's not in real life and you get all woozy. I'm guessing it's the same thing that happens during sea-sickness. You move around all the time, but your body / head isn't and it fucks with your brain... some people get sea-sick, others don't, but you can't bank on a device that'll make a hell of a lot of people vomit their brains out.

I've seen some clever things that got around the issue, but it doesn't apply to first person shooter movement... Instead of using the right analog stick to rotate the camera, you could obviously just use the head rotation, but that still doesn't help you if you want the player to turn around 180 degrees - you'd literally need to turn around while sitting on your couch or on your desk and that's not really an option.

So really, with the OR, we'd completely need to change the way you play these games. Simliar to how Halo made FPS games slower, so it's more playable with a controller (Quake 3 / Unreal Tournament style games all died out when consoles became more popular, cause you couldn't ever play these games properly with analog sticks) and we'd need to figure out something similar for OR games and that's a BIG change... and I think that's something that most people are glossing over. Someone would need to come up with a FPS style game that's completely designed for and around VR and I haven't really properly seen that happening yet.

 

[Krejlooc]

That's another thing though - I've tried the Rift now with probably around 80-90 people and 90% of those people got sick when they tried one of the demos where the right analog stick makes the camera rotate around.

There's just a weird thing going on where your head is rotating inside the game, but it's not in real life and you get all woozy. I'm guessing it's the same thing that happens during sea-sickness. You move around all the time, but your body / head isn't and it fucks with your brain... some people get sea-sick, others don't, but you can't bank on a device that'll make a hell of a lot of people vomit their brains out.

I've seen some clever things that got around the issue, but it doesn't apply to first person shooter movement... Instead of using the right analog stick to rotate the camera, you could obviously just use the head rotation, but that still doesn't help you if you want the player to turn around 180 degrees - you'd literally need to turn around while sitting on your couch or on your desk and that's not really an option.

So really, with the OR, we'd completely need to change the way you play these games. Simliar to how Halo made FPS games slower, so it's more playable with a controller (Quake 3 / Unreal Tournament style games all died out when consoles became more popular, cause you couldn't ever play these games properly with analog sticks) and we'd need to figure out something similar for OR games and that's a BIG change... and I think that's something that most people are glossing over. Someone would need to come up with a FPS style game that's completely designed for and around VR and I haven't really properly seen that happening yet.

Most games in Gear VR are built with the expectation you'll be sitting in a swivel chair. When you begin them, they almost always begin with a big graphic that says "Swivel chair recommended" or, in some cases, "Swivel chair required."

That is the solution going forward.

 

[Graphics Horse]

I've seen some clever things that got around the issue, but it doesn't apply to first person shooter movement... Instead of using the right analog stick to rotate the camera, you could obviously just use the head rotation, but that still doesn't help you if you want the player to turn around 180 degrees - you'd literally need to turn around while sitting on your couch or on your desk and that's not really an option.

So really, with the OR, we'd completely need to change the way you play these games. Simliar to how Halo made FPS games slower, so it's more playable with a controller (Quake 3 / Unreal Tournament style games all died out when consoles became more popular, cause you couldn't ever play these games properly with analog sticks) and we'd need to figure out something similar for OR games and that's a BIG change... and I think that's something that most people are glossing over. Someone would need to come up with a FPS style game that's completely designed for and around VR and I haven't really properly seen that happening yet.

Wasn't this already solved last gen and has PC equivalents? Motion based controller for aiming(but not turning). The solution to the sickness I've read about is snapping the camera rotations with button presses every ~20 degrees or something instead of using analogue turning, which shouldn't get in the way of gameplay if you can move your head and arm freely.

 

[Neuromancer]

I might need both depending on price, and what exclusives Sony comes up with. I assume most PC experiences will end up on morpheus, but performance will be better on my PC for games - video or other experiences may work equally as well on both

Oh I plan on getting both too. The tricky part will be justifying it to my wife.

 

[SavoyPrime]

For those that care about Oculus Rift and/or get a paycheck from it, I'm sure it will be very big news. I don't care about Oculus Rift at all. So I don't fall into that camp.

 

[Mihos]

That's another thing though - I've tried the Rift now with probably around 80-90 people and 90% of those people got sick when they tried one of the demos where the right analog stick makes the camera rotate around.

There's just a weird thing going on where your head is rotating inside the game, but it's not in real life and you get all woozy. I'm guessing it's the same thing that happens during sea-sickness. You move around all the time, but your body / head isn't and it fucks with your brain... some people get sea-sick, others don't, but you can't bank on a device that'll make a hell of a lot of people vomit their brains out.

I've seen some clever things that got around the issue, but it doesn't apply to first person shooter movement... Instead of using the right analog stick to rotate the camera, you could obviously just use the head rotation, but that still doesn't help you if you want the player to turn around 180 degrees - you'd literally need to turn around while sitting on your couch or on your desk and that's not really an option.

So really, with the OR, we'd completely need to change the way you play these games. Simliar to how Halo made FPS games slower, so it's more playable with a controller (Quake 3 / Unreal Tournament style games all died out when consoles became more popular, cause you couldn't ever play these games properly with analog sticks) and we'd need to figure out something similar for OR games and that's a BIG change... and I think that's something that most people are glossing over. Someone would need to come up with a FPS style game that's completely designed for and around VR and I haven't really properly seen that happening yet.

The controls in DreadHall make me sick, it is a first person dungeon crawler type where you move physically with a joypad and look around with your head. So far my favorite control scheme is looking down on the character and controlling him like you would an RC car (Herobound style) I could actually see playing a MOBA like this. Like most new tech, I am sure a logical standard control set will emerge and certain genres will make more sense then others.

For everything else, a swivel chair and having a fan on, and I can sit there all day. I also ripped a 3D movie and watched in in the big theatre. It was awesome. The biggest downside is there is no way to charge the phone while it is in the headset, so after it was over, my battery was around 15%. I could see watching that on a trans Atlantic flight.

 

[Elandyll]

One of the big stories in gaming of 2015? Sure. Possibly.

THE biggest one? No. Probably not by a long shot even, unless it happens to sell massive amounts (or totally flops and is liquidated by Facebook) from the outset.

In 2014, we had athe first commercial launch of VR by Samsung (on a smartphone), and even that was far from being -the- biggest story of the year, even if we talk specifically about gaming, and in spite of its relative good sales it felt more like yet another story of a cool gadget by tech sites.

I am actually very excited about the VR tech (wether I will invest in Occulus or Morpheus I have still to decide), but I have little hope that VR will take the markets by storm and become a massive phenomenon tbh.

 

[Klyka]

The biggest story of 2015 will be Destiny's Comet DLC releasing and everyone bitchin gabout it.

 

[DeathoftheEndless]

I think it'll have some uses, I think it'll be very cool for gaming but I don't think it's going to have this revolutionary impact many people are saying it will. It's basically just another way to look at a screen...

I'm with you on this.

I think it will be cool for some games/movies/etc., but I don't think VR will ever be an everyday thing.

 

[mrklaw]

Most games in Gear VR are built with the expectation you'll be sitting in a swivel chair. When you begin them, they almost always begin with a big graphic that says "Swivel chair recommended" or, in some cases, "Swivel chair required."

That is the solution going forward.

how will that worth with Oculus rift being tethered? Is wireless video transmission feasible without adding too much latency?

CV1 does sound like it is good enough to solve the primary display driven causes of nausea.

Nausea driven by bad game design (eg moving your head with the right stick but your actual head doesn't move) is something that will take a lot of work to get around. Swivel chairs and games that require you to be in a seat is ok for now, but people will want to walk/run around virtual environments and that needs a solution

 

[marc^o^]

It's basically just another way to look at a screen...

No, it's not like that. There is no screen anymore. As in, there is no spoon. It just can't be compared.

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

I've seen some clever things that got around the issue, but it doesn't apply to first person shooter movement... Instead of using the right analog stick to rotate the camera, you could obviously just use the head rotation, but that still doesn't help you if you want the player to turn around 180 degrees - you'd literally need to turn around while sitting on your couch or on your desk and that's not really an option.

Oculus games like Windlands let you turn 45 degrees left and right using the bumpers. This allows you to use head rotation, but make more major turns such as a 180 using button presses. In my experience, anyone experiencing nausea with analog controls is fine with this method.

 

[Froli]

Can't wait for the day that a lot of you naysayers will eat crow.

 

[Ensirius]

To think I haven't gotten a chance to try this out. Goddamn.

 

[njean777]

Most games in Gear VR are built with the expectation you'll be sitting in a swivel chair. When you begin them, they almost always begin with a big graphic that says "Swivel chair recommended" or, in some cases, "Swivel chair required."

That is the solution going forward.

That's a terrible solution to be honest.

 

[Krejlooc]

That's a terrible solution to be honest.

Have you tried it?

 

[Foggy]

I don't think any home theatre setup is really going to be able to replicate 60,000 people around you screaming and cheering.

VR sports events may have their merits, but the suggestion that it's equal to physical attendance seems like a pretty big stretch. There's a reason people pay $120 to go to a Rolling Stones concert, rather than buy a $15 DVD of a Rolling Stones concert.

If I gave off the impression that I thought they were equivalent experiences then I apologize. I certainly don't think that's the case, but I do think it would offer something significantly better than normal broadcasts. Like I said, I think it's another avenue to deliver the content and the reasons to embrace it are self-evident. Also, did you check the link in the part you quoted? It's not a home theatre setup, it's the 3d positional audio that Oculus themselves have already integrated at this point with the Crescent Bay prototype.

 

[nampad]

Wow, didn't know Jason Rubin is head of the Oculus Games Studio and that a Oculus Games Studio even existed.

 

[Ziffles]

how will that worth with Oculus rift being tethered? Is wireless video transmission feasible without adding too much latency?

I dunno, 1080p@60hz (124.4MP/sec) is already a tall order for a non-latent wireless transmission, and that's when it's running off AC power. 1440p@90hz is almost three times the bandwidth (331.7 MP/sec).

 

[Barack Lesnar]

I hope he's right. I haven't tried VR yet but the impressions I've read are so enthusiastic it's impossible to ignore. I can't wait to try it.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Have you tried it?

Isn't the Rift still wired? Rotating 360 degrees around with a wired device doesn't sound ideal to me.

 

[hohoXD123]

One of the big stories in gaming of 2015? Sure. Possibly.

THE biggest one? No. Probably not by a long shot even, unless it happens to sell massive amounts (or totally flops and is liquidated by Facebook) from the outset.

In 2014, we had athe first commercial launch of VR by Samsung (on a smartphone), and even that was far from being -the- biggest story of the year, even if we talk specifically about gaming, and in spite of its relative good sales it felt more like yet another story of a cool gadget by tech sites.

I am actually very excited about the VR tech (wether I will invest in Occulus or Morpheus I have still to decide), but I have little hope that VR will take the markets by storm and become a massive phenomenon tbh.

That's because Samsung hardly advertised the thing, it was released in only one region in a very supply constrained manner for a single smartphone and it was targeted at enthusiasts rather than your average consumer, yet you still had many major publications picking it up. It's not hard to imagine that the situation will be different should you have a retail product aimed at the mass market releasing worldwide with a significant advertisement campaign by a company like facebook. Although this is going to be the same year that Apple enters the smartwatch space, I think it certainly has the potential to be the biggest story of the year.

 

[Betta Lines]

Isn't the Rift still wired? Rotating 360 degrees around with a wired device doesn't sound ideal to me.

Krejlooc was referring to Gear VR, which is wire-free.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Krejlooc was referring to Gear VR, which is wire-free.

Ya but in response to how to address the problem for the Oculus which is still not wireless.

 

[Zabojnik]

For pale gamer shut-ins, twitch broadcasters without a face or tits for a camera, college drop outs or 15 year olds failing high school it will be HUGE, no doubt about it.

Right, 'cause life is either being a model family dad with or one of the above. Jesus Christ.

 

[King Gilga]

I still dont think the tech is ready for VR

Yeah, I tried the oculus at a convention, it wasn't as much as I expected.

I'd like VR to take off, but I don't see it happening, oculus will probably be a pretty niche thing. I'd like to be wrong, but I doubt I am.

It's too clunky and not very cheap, and nowhere near as versatile or convenient as something like smart phones or w/e people are comparing it to.

It'll probably be like 3D, where there was some hub bub for a while but in the end besides some niche people only cinemas or w/e will still use it but most people at home don't bother.