But there is no casual market right now. The only market currently is the enthusiast market(not counting GearVR) making them 100% of the pie.
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HTC Vive Launch Thread -- Computer, activate holodeck
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But there is no casual market right now. The only market currently is the enthusiast market(not counting GearVR) making them 100% of the pie.
Aren't Fallout 4, Serious Sam, and the Star Trek game new Vive games from E3?
Zalusithix
Member
Right now, sure. These moves in general make no sense in the here and now. They make a ton of sense when viewed in the long term playbook. If Facebook/Oculus thinks they can weather the storm of bad PR from the enthusiasts in the short term - and make no mistake, they have the cash reserves to do so - then everything they're doing makes sense. The evangelizing has been done. The mass media (more than tech sites) has covered them, and won't bother to cover "minor" stuff like buying exclusives or hardware lockouts. They just need to maintain the illusion they currently enjoy.
Money can certainly change people, but I'm betting he's wondering how far he could have taken the company himself without FB.
Besides, during the first few rounds of investing he'd already made a TON of cash, but still supported a fully open VR ecosystem.
Heck, even after he sold the company to FB he still seemed to really believe that they wouldn't be a "walled garden" or be buying exclusives.
Most of all I think the fact that he's stopped talking to the "masses" is the biggest sign he's no longer in control.
Oh well, just goes to show you shouldn't expect to sign with the devil and get a good deal.
bloodydrake
Cool Smoke Luke
ya i can't agree with this at all since the only ones buying rifts and vives are the gaming enthusists..sure their long term goal might be the casual..but they can't bank on them yet
Croatoan
They/Them A-10 Warthog
Fallout 4 is an old game and serious sam vr was already known to exist. Star Trek was demoed with oculus hardware and not a mention of the Vive (AFAIK).
Valve didn't announce any software at the PC show for the Vive and we learned a handful of games have dropped vive support after selling out to facebook.
Shit is looking bleak.
bloodydrake
Cool Smoke Luke
except I know zero casuals who would ever invest if people like me recommend against it due to the high barrier to entry.
I think a more likely scenario that evolves is casuals will see consoles as the place for full game experiences and mobile for casual experiences and the fragmentation of the whole pc platform due to all this shitty behaviour leaves it as the experimental indie platform ..left to die
MrCompletely
Member
Take a step back, we're only talking about a small handful of games right now. Occulus is coming off of some bad press with their launch and shipment issues that they are clearly trying to bury with news of exclusive titles.
Croatoan
They/Them A-10 Warthog
Sadly, I think you might be right. Valve has no real interest in pushing non DOTA2 software anymore so the Vive is just going to get what few experimental indie games don't get bought by Facebook and a few random bones like Fallout 4.
Which will work, and the new narrative will be "The Vive has no games".
I think I am more pissed at Valve for launching a VR platform with zero intention of supporting it with software other than their free demo.
Zalusithix
Member
He might be wondering, but that sort of wondering stings a lot less when you have lots of money regardless.
As for the not being in control, that much is certain and has been for some time. He's not even the CEO. The lack of his talking could be a result of him being disillusioned with everything. Of course, it's just as likely - if not more, that it's a result of the company putting a PR leash on him so he doesn't say anything else that's high on ideals. Something they'd have to walk back on. Preemptive damage control.
High barrier to entry now. This gen doesn't matter on that timescale. If they can keep their current user base complacent with exclusives and then use Facebook muscle to push a more mainstream friendly set later on... Mission accomplished.
Also, gaming is just one subset of the VR market. Arguably one of the smaller potential ones. Particularly from the Facebook perspective. They don't need to be the best at gaming. Just the best overall to the general public.
The silence from the two most outspoken people in the VR scene; Luckey and Carmack, is saying a lot isn't it..
Holy shit over at reddit.com/r/vive right now, people aren't happy, lol
Zepp Twofist
Member
Valve is doing the same thing they always do. Making a platform and hoping that content will magically appear. Fortunately it seems like HTC is a bit more dedicated to getting content made, but they are not really an E3 player.
Croatoan
They/Them A-10 Warthog
I have completely lost respect for Carmack over this. Dude used to be a legend in my eyes. After that bs on stage with Microsoft...not so much.
edit: Holy shit, the sellout devs are getting fucking hammered on steam. Superhots rating will be mostly negative soon I imagine.
bloodydrake
Cool Smoke Luke
i think everyone's overreacting on /r
its frustrating but I don't' see this changing momentum way from the Vive that's been building non stop.
it makes Oculus look bad
I just think the fragmentation is bad in general whole lotta FUD
its frustrating but I don't' see this changing momentum way from the Vive that's been building non stop.
it makes Oculus look bad
I just think the fragmentation is bad in general whole lotta FUD
I'm a little surprised by this, as the 'youtube VR impressions' has been hugely vive-biased for several months now. I wonder if people just see VR and assume its an OR because of the brand awareness?
I had a meeting with a business hoping to get into making VR tours, and they had no idea what the Vive even was. It was bizarre!
Yep, it's understandable. People shouldn't shit on the devs or the people who buy Rifts.
Oculus themselves should be the target.
Carmack's body language seemed to scream "get me out of here" in his most recent conference appearance.
As much as I hate that reviews get politicized and have no bearing on the quality of the game, exclusivity and timed bullshit needs to die a horrible death.
Zalusithix
Member
It's hard to outright blame the smaller devs for falling to the temptation. While some are lashing out at the devs on Steam / Reddit, I feel that is largely misdirected anger. Kudos should be given to those that don't take the handouts, but smaller devs shouldn't be crucified. They're likely just trying to make ends meet. It's Oculus/Facebook that's doing the harm. Doing this in tandem with the hardware locks.
I mean, it's perfectly reasonable to decide to not not buy from a dev that takes the handout. They should be prepared for at least that sort of reaction when taking the money. Getting the pitchforks out though is a bit much.
Granted the Giant Cop case is kind of unique in that they were actually explicitly selling it to Vive owners before doing the gotcha. I can understand the revolt against them at least.
Wrestlemania
Banned
I knew people didn't like the idea of exclusives to VR headsets, but holy shit the reaction has been over the top. And all over a few indie titles which might just being exclusive for a couple of months! Such a weird lack of perspective.
I really feel for the Superhot team getting slated for this. This isn't a massive publisher like Activision taking money from Sony to take some already developed content and delaying it's release on other platofrms - it's a small developer taking some money to help develop content for a tiny userbase, at the cost of only being able to release on one platform for a whille. Which might work for them, because maybe once that's done they can then do the work to make it work on the other one.
I really feel for the Superhot team getting slated for this. This isn't a massive publisher like Activision taking money from Sony to take some already developed content and delaying it's release on other platofrms - it's a small developer taking some money to help develop content for a tiny userbase, at the cost of only being able to release on one platform for a whille. Which might work for them, because maybe once that's done they can then do the work to make it work on the other one.
Hari Seldon
Member
I wouldn't want to be one of these sellout devs atm, the pitchforks are out.
GuitarAtomik
Member
I'm not. Oculus was the first to get their name out there when this wave of VR started. Oculus was the one showing up on The Tonight Show. They're the ones having press conferences and getting their name out there attached to games at others. It's not surprising that outside of enthusiast press/audience (and I'd argue that any YouTube channel doing VR content and the people that watch it would be included in that), Oculus has an extreme advantage for brand awareness and mindshare.
Interestingly enough, that fits perfectly with what people on the Valve VR team were telling us a few months back. (That the first thing post-Facebook Oculus did was try and buy them all out)
Hari Seldon
Member
Yeah Valve is typically not doing any PR or anything lol. They need to get their ass in gear if they don't want to lose all VR content to the oculus store.
Zalusithix
Member
While Facebook is playing for the long run with their actions, Valve is playing the even longer game. They're betting on an open system and organic growth will prevail over the walled garden approach. Basically banking on Oculus not being able to completely corner the market. If Oculus can't completely shut out the market, then the plethora of other hardware options that'll pop up will do the work for Valve. Then Valve will have "won" by virtue of being the bigger VR store, while having made money off Oculus customers at the same time.
Frankly HTC has more at risk here than Valve.
Melon Husk
Member
So the latest batch of firmware updates disabled the steam overlay. sigh. I got that working after the very first weekend.
Have I mentioned lately how incredible Project Cars is on a GTX 1080. Settings turned all the way up, racing through the rain and still buttery smooth.
I didn't expect to love this game so much, I'm not normally into racing games, but cockpit view in VR is such a game changer.
I didn't expect to love this game so much, I'm not normally into racing games, but cockpit view in VR is such a game changer.
Unless you really want the phone integration, I think most people recommend forgetting about the Vive software and just using Steam without it.
Oh really? Well, okay then.
An issue cropped up when I started playing Holopoint on the later stages. In the worst possible moments the IPD "regulator" HUD pops up by itself, I am not touching the headset at all. This is distracting in the middle of intense holopoint game, to put it mildly. Is this "normal", i.e. happens to other people when playing holopoint? It happened more than once and only in Holopoint, where I move a lot.
Zalusithix
Member
Shouldn't happen. Sounds like inertia is pulling the lenses apart because there isn't enough friction keeping the assembly from moving. This would cause sensor to report the change in IPD. Restraining the IPD knob from rotating should probably do the trick. Try some tape?
SteamVR beta fixes "stuck" green pixels
Not sure what they did, but the ~6 hot green pixels on my headset are gone now
Not sure what they did, but the ~6 hot green pixels on my headset are gone now
Zalusithix
Member
Can confirm. I can only just barely make out one of the ~5 pixels in the worst case basis (the dark grey screen where you can see the lighthouses) when I'm actively searching for it with my opposing eye closed. In every actual game, they're gone. This might just be the best update yet!
So what level of AA you running? DS9?
Wrestlemania
Banned
I had one for a while that just disappeared on it's own after a while. Pretty weird.
Zepp Twofist
Member
It seems to have been an artifact of some response time reducing technique they use that keeps displays at low power instead of off. At least this was the speculation for a long time. There was a short period where everyone on reddit were hunting for green pixels on black backgrounds and doing RMAs over it, but I don't think I ever saw anyone posting a picture of an actual stuck/dead pixel in the traditional sense.
| Praxis |
Banned
Apparently it's down to around a week, two at most.
Depends on where you are. In the UK at least, they're in stock at retailers (next day delivery) and can be bought and dispatched in 2-3 days from HTC themselves.
Check the site. https://www.htcvive.com/preorder/
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