-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
HTC Vive Launch Thread -- Computer, activate holodeck
- Thread starter taco543
- Start date
- Status
Guardian Monkey
Member
Email HTC.
How do you mean?
GuitarAtomik
Member
What exactly do you guys do in BigScreen? If I understand correctly it's basically a social version of Virtual Desktop, but I don't really see the appeal of a social version of Virtual Desktop.
Lol. Was going to look that up today.
While the resolution isnt the highest, make sure to properly adjust your IPD. It made a world of difference for me.
what should you set it to? blurriness isnt much of a problem for me, but if theres a way to improve the clarity of the display Im all ears.
It's very much up to your eyes what you set it to.
Follow these instructions:
http://doc-ok.org/?p=898
Should be accurate to a millimeter or so if you do it right.
both oculus and HTC seemed very behind on preorders (I don't even think Oculus has left the first hour of preorders yet), so ordering and getting delivery within a week is very fast.
Mine is still on pending fulfillment but my card was charged so hopefully I get it this week. 5/16 order here.
IPD is going to be individual specific. I just happen to have my glasses prescription, even though I just wear contacts, to set mine. Lots of places online for measuring aleternatives.. Headset position is also important. took me about a week of fiddling with the straps to find my sweet spot and now can just slip it on and off like a ball cap and have pretty good clarity.
Teknopathetic
Member
"both oculus and HTC seemed very behind on preorders (I don't even think Oculus has left the first hour of preorders yet), so ordering and getting delivery within a week is very fast."
Oculus is behind on preorders because of component supply problems. And they had way more orders in general. HTC had some week 1 credit card processing fuck ups, but otherwise they've been moving through orders pretty quickly.
Oculus is behind on preorders because of component supply problems. And they had way more orders in general. HTC had some week 1 credit card processing fuck ups, but otherwise they've been moving through orders pretty quickly.
Zepp Twofist
Member
It's also a free version of virtual desktop. You don't need to be in multiplayer. I use it to watch tv shows mostly.
Do we have any actual numbers yet? Would be interesting to know how many actual headsets have shipped so far, from each side.
SmiteOfHand
Member
The Lab has 126k owners according to SteamSpy. Which isn't a perfect indication of how many are out there but gives an idea.
And since The Lab is free did a quick look over some of the paid games. Based on this 15 second survey I'd wager it is safe to say there are at least 50k headsets out there. But it is impossible to know stuff like how many of the 40k Audioshield owners also own SPT.
Audioshield $19.99 - 40k
Space Pirate Trainer $14.99 - 40k
Hover Junkers $34.99 - 17k
Vanishing Realms $19.99 - 19k
The Lab is free and available to anyone. It doesn't show you anything. You're better looking at the install base of the bundled games.
qa_engineer
Member
Whoa.
Obviously the amount of developers and Rift users w/hydra contollers would drive that up, but that has to be a small percentage of the total assuming that figure is accurate. Maybe a lot of future Vive owners are pre-loading the software in anticipation?
Yes its free, but how many people out there without VR headsets or the Vive would be downloading this? Can't be that many assuming they know how to read, unless you're stating that 50K + people are downloading this on steam just because its free knowing full well its for VR only? I mean you can't even launch the game without going into steamvr.
SmiteOfHand
Member
Yep. Updated my post with some more data.
I've tried and it doesn't do too much for me.
qa_engineer
Member
Wow. Each of those games have raked in over a half million each. Not sure what the developments costs were, probably no where near that, but they must be happy at the performance thus far.
I think the "This game requires VR" message wasn't added to game store pages until a week or two after release.
I guarantee a lot of people were browsing steam, saw price "free" and developer "valve" and clicked download. This happened even with paid games before the notice was added.
qa_engineer
Member
SmiteOfHand
Member
Developers give out a ton of free copies to the press so can't read too hard into the data in terms of revenue. It is just useful to get a rough idea of how things are going.
qa_engineer
Member
A more interesting set of metrics on steamspy.com for the lab is this:
Players in the last 2 weeks: 38,989 ± 5,068 (30.87%)
Players total: 68,490 ± 6,717 (54.23%)
Unlike owners who can be any average joe who downloaded not knowing it was for VR only, the players total accounts for the number of unique accounts who have played the game. At least I'm assuming thats what it means since you can't launch the game without having steamvr and a headset
Right. But even then thats not a bad day at the office. I mean Space Pirate Trainer probably cost very little to make.
Players in the last 2 weeks: 38,989 ± 5,068 (30.87%)
Players total: 68,490 ± 6,717 (54.23%)
Unlike owners who can be any average joe who downloaded not knowing it was for VR only, the players total accounts for the number of unique accounts who have played the game. At least I'm assuming thats what it means since you can't launch the game without having steamvr and a headset
Right. But even then thats not a bad day at the office. I mean Space Pirate Trainer probably cost very little to make.
Compsiox
Banned
Wasn't there a work around to play open it without a VR headset?
So posssibly anywhere between 60-70k headsets if we're going off unique 'The Lab' players. I'm gonna guess there's a number who may have installed and ran it but can't actually do anything, so i'd bet on the 60k.
Pretty good numbers!
Audio Shield and Space Pirate Trainer were given for free to all Vive developers, so it looks like under half of those are actual sales when compared to the Hover Junkers and Vanishing Realms numbers.
qa_engineer
Member
No clue.
Is the version of Irrational Exuberance available on weVR different from this?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/343730/
qa_engineer
Member
It should be the same, the transport version was definitely available before it was on SteamVR.
Either way prepare for your mind to be blown.
Before I got my vive I tried it at a friend who was raving about it, my mind was not blown, perhaps it was a matter of too high expectations, or it should be experienced in solitary.
My mind was also not blown when watching Apollo 11, I mean it was great experience, but I did not well up or anything. In both cases I read very positive opinions and expected pure genius.
In retrospect, I think it's best to experience those things with little or no foreknowledge or expectations. If you hear multiple times that something is "absolutely amazing" an it will "literally blow your mind" (I know that's not how you use "literally") then in your expectations are getting built up to unsurpassable levels, which leads to disappointment.
My mind was also not blown when watching Apollo 11, I mean it was great experience, but I did not well up or anything. In both cases I read very positive opinions and expected pure genius.
In retrospect, I think it's best to experience those things with little or no foreknowledge or expectations. If you hear multiple times that something is "absolutely amazing" an it will "literally blow your mind" (I know that's not how you use "literally") then in your expectations are getting built up to unsurpassable levels, which leads to disappointment.
qa_engineer
Member
Well then prepare for a meh experience. Its like strapping two cell phones to your face and watching the floating trashbag scene from American Beauty. Overrated.
As first entrants, all these have the potential to become long term franchises.
Yup, it's why I was so open to listening to any and all negative impressions of peoples experiences with the headset before I got mine. Because of that my expectations were extremely tempered, especially because the first VR experience I had was from a GearVR knockoff that felt like a screen was strapped to my face. After taking it all in I knew what to expect and didnt have unrealistic expectations.(In fact I was sorta skeptical)
I've been completely blown away so far. Then again, I never tried those titles since my GPU is extremely underspec.(I havent heard good things about Apollo 11 though) It took Big Room Beta, Minecraft-vive, and most especially AltSpace for me to be blown away.
My friend gushed over his when he first got it, and couldn't wait for me to try it.
However, my previous experiences with 3D and VR were extremely poor. I've always hated 3D movies, because of the "billboarding" that I experience. Maybe newer 3D movies are better, but I've always seen it as just 4 or 5 "layers" of depth, and real life doesn't look like that. My first VR experience was with Oculus (probably the DK1, as it's been a few years). I tried Elite Dangerous and while it was kinda cool, it still felt really gimmicky sitting there with an XBox controller. Tried GearVR at work and felt the same "billboarding" effect when watching something in there, although that may not be indicative of the real experience, as this was just a student project.
Well, when I got to my friend's house to try it out, I was floored. Even though he said it was awesome, I guess I was somewhat skeptical. Having the 1:1 mapping and the motion controllers totally put me in another level of immersion. I did have problems with the "sweet spot" and that text at the edge of my vision was blurry, but I overcame that pretty quickly. I ordered my own just a few days later. Everyone I've shown it to has been amazed with it, although most of the people I hang with in real life are not hardcore gamers.
However, my previous experiences with 3D and VR were extremely poor. I've always hated 3D movies, because of the "billboarding" that I experience. Maybe newer 3D movies are better, but I've always seen it as just 4 or 5 "layers" of depth, and real life doesn't look like that. My first VR experience was with Oculus (probably the DK1, as it's been a few years). I tried Elite Dangerous and while it was kinda cool, it still felt really gimmicky sitting there with an XBox controller. Tried GearVR at work and felt the same "billboarding" effect when watching something in there, although that may not be indicative of the real experience, as this was just a student project.
Well, when I got to my friend's house to try it out, I was floored. Even though he said it was awesome, I guess I was somewhat skeptical. Having the 1:1 mapping and the motion controllers totally put me in another level of immersion. I did have problems with the "sweet spot" and that text at the edge of my vision was blurry, but I overcame that pretty quickly. I ordered my own just a few days later. Everyone I've shown it to has been amazed with it, although most of the people I hang with in real life are not hardcore gamers.
Zepp Twofist
Member
The Apollo 11 thing I can see not being very impressed by if you expect a lot. In my opinion it is a fine experience if you know what you are in for, but they also do some things that are "wrong" in terms of what I have understood and experienced to be good VR conventions.
That being said, my experience with the Vive has been that it is more or less exactly what I expected, but I have been following it very close.
Zalusithix
Member
The best thing about that experience is getting to feel the scale of the rocket and its modules. Everything else from the parts where it rips you out of first person to random space shots to the less than impressive modeling and rendering points to it being a low budget first test for the medium. It's a nice look at the potential for VR to be used as an educational tool, but it's not going to blow minds.
Take the same concept and throw a lot more money and time into it, and you'd have something magical.
bloodydrake
Cool Smoke Luke
oh this is interesting.
I'd think the pack in code games would be the best choice to evaluate total numbers since no one without a vive is buying Job Simulator for 40bucks.
Job Simulator
Owners: 46,235 ± 5,519
Players in the last 2 weeks: 21,910 ± 3,799 (47.39%)
Players total: 38,817 ± 5,057 (83.96%)
Tilt Brush
Owners: 64,695 ± 6,528
Players in the last 2 weeks: 27,430 ± 4,251 (42.4%)
Players total: 40,887 ± 5,190 (63.2%)
Fantastic Contraption
Players in the last 2 weeks: 18,287 ± 3,471 (29.69%)
Players total: 35,711 ± 4,850 (57.98%)
I think a very interesting comparison is Vanishing Realms and Call of the Starseed.
Both seem to be about 3hrs of content, both are rated as two of the best Vive experiances but CotS is 10 dollars more and will be charging for future episodes.
Starseed stats@29.99 US
Players in the last 2 weeks: 4,658 ± 1,751 (44.26%)
Players total: 9,316 ± 2,477 (88.52%)
Vanishing Realms@19.99 US
Players in the last 2 weeks: 12,594 ± 2,880 (65.18%)
Players total: 18,460 ± 3,487 (95.54%)
I'll be curious to see if being less affordable pays off by next year or if the trend of continues with about 50% as many sales
Another aspect to keep in mind:
All Vive Pre developers received Contraption and Tiltbrush for free in their libraries, but they did not get the full version of Job Simulator.
And yeah, not too surprised about the Starseed/Vanishing numbers. I've been telling people they really need to think of long-tail with their pricing structures now... and hopefully can sustain the company on that model. You lose consumer goodwill and worse yet exposure when you price yourself high to try to profit off a tiny install base.
Luckily, I'm pretty sure Cloudhead can get external funding to keep afloat. They have a lot of support and admiration from Valve (and also made an amazing product). They will hopefully consider pricing themselves down to gain exposure if they are able to secure themselves through other means.
The Gallery looks really interesting, but I refuse to pay $40 for a game that only has an hour worth of content with no replayability. And it doenst come bundled with all the episodes, but instead I have to buy each one individually for (presumably) $40? FOH.
Vanashing realms is only 22 bucks though,(Still too expensive, but whatever) with more content planned since it's EA, so I had no problem picking that up
Vanashing realms is only 22 bucks though,(Still too expensive, but whatever) with more content planned since it's EA, so I had no problem picking that up
The Gallery is actually $30. I seem to remember them releasing it initially at $40, but I could be wrong...
qa_engineer
Member
I would get Vanishing Realms but I don't have the 2x2 space to play it. 1.5x2 FTL.
Oh and there are now thinner foam gaskets for sale.
http://vrfoam.com/
I played it in 1.5x2, and it was fine.
It uses the teleport movement paradigm, so you aren't limited by room space.
SmiteOfHand
Member
Speaking of buying VR games.....
I just got a $50 steam card. What should I get?
Wishlist
Cyberpong VR
Holoball
Hover Junkers
Pool Nation VR (Soon enough)
Subnautica < No Vive support
Vanishing Realms
(Other suggestions welcome, though I'm probably not gonna mess with Oculus/Revive junk atm, even though there are a few things I'd like to try)
Own
Audioshield
Gallery - Episode 1: Call of the Starseed
Space Pirate Trainer
Vive Bundle (Obviously)
I just got a $50 steam card. What should I get?
Wishlist
Cyberpong VR
Holoball
Hover Junkers
Pool Nation VR (Soon enough)
Vanishing Realms
(Other suggestions welcome, though I'm probably not gonna mess with Oculus/Revive junk atm, even though there are a few things I'd like to try)
Own
Audioshield
Gallery - Episode 1: Call of the Starseed
Space Pirate Trainer
Vive Bundle (Obviously)
You don't really need that much space actually.
- Status