So, I went back today and asked my rep former fitness instructor now working for Mosaic; friendly and outgoing, but not technical
if they told her anything about how far the chair should be from the camera, and she was quite clear that the recommended distance was 4-5 feet, which is
awfully close. I showed her my diagram and explained how we'd likely stop getting the tracking errors if we moved the chair such that the seatback was ~8 feet from the camera and she seemed to understand, but she wouldn't go for it. Apparently the stores want the entire display contained in a 10x10 area, and while we maybe could've at least improved things while saying in that footprint, she reiterated how it was currently set up exactly how they wanted it, and how her training was almost entirely about the booth layout, down to the prescribed gap between the banner and the poles that support it, etc. "Yeah, they didn't even tell us about the games. They said you guys were gamers and would figure all that stuff out, and here you are!! lol I
really appreciate it too; I'd be
totally lost without you guys
" Anyway, yeah, I paced off about six feet between the seatback and the camera, so I think tracking especially of the controllers would be a lot more solid if we were a couple feet further back.
Forgot I wanted to respond to these
This actually breaks my heart.
GAF perspectives are largely comments from people coming from an enthusiast board that are already more knowledgeable than most, which is what the target market for an Oculus or Vive is anyway. The reception the other store's team has had so far is tremendously positive. People are really excited by the idea of something like this directly accessible with only a PS4. The reps themselves not being technically trained is probably due to the wide scale idea of what they're trying to do with it, get it to be an approachable technology that people are willing to try, rather than the deeper tech stuff.
It's surely not 'demoing very poorly".
I'm absolutely sure that even with a few critical testers (who probably already know about the whole thing in the first place) the overwhelming majority of them will go away from this very, very impressed. Same with the walk-by audience who just sees this thing at a glance.
Yeah, I don't want to give the impression that my rep is doing a bad job. On the contrary, she's doing a fine job. It's merely that I'm disappointed she's not doing the
excellent job that someone more knowledgeable would do. I'd like to see VR succeed, so I want people to have the best demo experience they can. It may seem nitpicky, but something as simple as the placement of the headset can have a huge effect on the quality of the experience, and it's kind of a shame the rep had no idea. In fact, I'm reasonably sure that she's actually never used it herself.
So yeah, she was basically just plopping the headset on people's heads and saying, "How's that??" Invariably, the response was, "Umm, fine, I guess
," because what do they know? So I explained to her about the importance of getting the lenses directly in front of your eyes, and how users can look at text to ensure the headset is seated properly. I think it's helping; I've had several users give an, "Oh!
That's better!"
I didn't mention it because I suspect the reps are instructed to "assist" users with donning the headset, but I really think the experience would be improved overall if instead they explained to users how to put it on, and gave them an eye chart to look at while they were doing their adjustments.
All that being said, Abdiel and Bufbaf are right, and I'm mostly being overly critical simply because I'm overly knowledgeable. lol While I lament my rep's inexperience, she was still a lot more knowledgeable than 95% of the people who came through her line, and didn't have any trouble answering their questions about the headset itself. She was even ready for questions about Neo, and indeed I saw a few people asking about it while eyeing the PS4 suspiciously. lol
The Shark Dive demon is Much better at selling the Concept of VR then Eve or even Battle zone(which was extremely fun BTW) I've see the Deep video on line dozens of times, but it's nothing compared to actually putting on the Headset and going through it yourself. Battle Zone, and Eve are much better "games" but the sense of presence I got from The Deep demo was off the charts.
Yes, I totally agree. Ocean Descent probably gives the strongest sense of presence. I think the diving cage helps a lot there. It's close enough to you that it gives a good sense of parallax as you lean side to side, which makes it seem very real and solid. At the same time, it obstructs your view enough that it actively
encourages you to shift around and get a better look at the fish, triggering that parallax. Finally, because it's a completely passive experience, it gives you time to sit back and actually soak in the experience itself, without the distraction of trying to succeed at a game. I would say that normally The Heist would probably invoke an even stronger sense of presence with the addition of the Move wands and excellent use of positional audio, but once the shooting starts, it's understandably difficult to concentrate on anything but.
So yeah, everyone should do Ocean Descent in VR Worlds. Do it first.
Also, if it becomes misaligned to your head again, just hold the options button to center it.
That works in Valkyrie too (in addition to Battlezone)? Does it work in all PSVR games?
Damn it, no luck finding a demo unit in SF, and I made it back too late in Burbank to get to the Best Buy there. Was this the only weekend they were doing it? What about at Gamestop?
Check the link in the OP. My rep said they'd be going at least through January, FWIW.
