[Rushy]

I thought I'd make a thread dedicated to the new gadgets coming in a few weeks. The HTC Vive is supposed to release here in about two weeks, with Facebook's Oculus Rift being released Q1 2016. I'm going to be preordering a Vive, assuming I'm able to before stock runs out.

For anyone that doesn't know, the new virtual reality headsets are meant to not be entirely immersive, but offer a new kind of gaming experience for the wearer. The Oculus Rift, based on statements by the developers, will be centered on a "seated experience" with accurate head tracking similar to TrackIR. I'm not going to buy the Oculus because Facebook is just a social platform, not a gaming or consumer company. Whatever they have planned for the device, I don't want any part of it.

The HTC Vive is a headset made in partnership with Valve. HTC is a fairly popular mobile device company, while Valve is a top (if not the top) PC gaming and social platform company. Valve is the company that originally helped created the Oculus Rift, but stopped doing so when Facebook acquired Oculus. The Vive is supposed to be a standing/room experience. It will come with motion controllers and a base station that detects the position of the headset, apparently very accurately.

It's impossible to actually show a video of what virtual reality is without someone experiencing it. I haven't tried any of the headsets, so I can't say exactly how good they are, but I hear a lot of good things.


Here's a quick video of the Vive's controller seen inside the game world. It gives you an answer to "why would I even want this?"


 

[beardo]

I want the Vive, but I will probably not afford it for a long time.

[Ghost Spaghetti]

Have we not been here before?

[Rushy]

Have we not been here before?

We have not.

[Fortuna]

It would be pretty sweet if Star Citizen ended up having support for VR. That would actually be super baller.

[garygreen]

I'll end up buying the first headset with a baseball simulator.

[Rushy]

The Vive was delayed until April 2016 and the Oculus is still Q1 2016. My hype has been thoroughly deflated.

[juner]

Vaporware...

[Rushy]

Vaporware...

That would be true if there weren't already working developer kits that were given to thousands of people.

[Fortuna]

Vaporware...

It's definitely not vaporware, but I don't think it's the next big thing either.

[Rushy]

Virtual reality really is going to be the next big thing, though. These headsets represent a stepping stone. They aren't the penultimate ideal of virtual reality, but they are a proof of concept. They are proof that you can in fact trick the human mind into thinking it isn't where it actually is with just a few simple wearable devices. This is why when people say "lol virtual boy" they obviously have no idea what these new headsets even do.

We won't see extreme virtual reality until we have 16k screens with omni-treadmills and real haptics as controllers. Of course, this isn't entirely necessary, several studies (which I have tried to look up again, dammit) noted that people displayed immersion in VR regardless of graphical fidelity. They found it very interesting that the mind can apparently accept a world as real without necessitating that the world have the same visual structure as the real world. As long as the presence is persistent and the world around you can be modified by the user, immersion surfaces and the line between what is real and what isn't won't be readily apparent to the user.

[Saddam Hussein]

In before Facebook somehow manages to secure the rights to all forms of virtual reality.

[Rushy]

In before Facebook somehow manages to secure the rights to all forms of virtual reality.

They can't lock the hardware down since so many kinds already exist (PSVR, Vive, GearVR, Cardboard, etc.) but they are trying to software lock the ecosystem. Facebook wants to be the EA of virtual reality. They've already announced their "Oculus Store" bullshit.

[Ghost Spaghetti]

I'm not convinced that any hardware which requires people to wear so many gimmicky gadgets will take off as anything but a fringe interest or fad regardless of the level of immersion or price. People aren't even prepared to accept wearing what look like sunglasses to get 3D TVs, is it likely that many people are going to be happy with a big treadmill platform with a goofy headset dominating the living room?

I predict that, like 3D TVs, there is going to be a marketing saturation bomb dropped on people when the technology is finally ready, there'll be a massive initial take-up and they'll be gently rusting in sheds by the following Christmas.

[Rushy]

HTC Vive controller consumer version image (might be horizontally squished)





Developer kit second edition image

[Rushy]

Oculus revealed their new headset and the preorders at a whopping $599. They're also charging about $50 for shipping ($140 for international) meaning the base cost of this headset is about $650.

I'm betting the Vive will be ~$700. I'll wait and see what happens. I'm not preordering anything yet.

[Vindictus]

($140 for international)

Motherfucking what?

[Rushy]

($140 for international)

Motherfucking what?

That's before taxes, too. A lot of Euros, Canucks and Aussies are very not happy with the whole deal.

[beardo]

$$$

[Vindictus]

($140 for international)

Motherfucking what?

That's before taxes, too. A lot of Euros, Canucks and Aussies are very not happy with the whole deal.

Some were reporting total costs over $1,000 AUD upon checkout lolololol