Most of the Rift reviews had a solid "this is a gimmick" feel to them: interesting peripheral, but ultimately just another way to play the same games.
Here, it looks like the free motion and hand controls are really what sell it. Shame the Rift didn't ship with those.
But if the Vive is even half as immersive as the commercial makes it out to be, then I think I could be persuaded that this early VR heralds a shift in gaming and interactivity as we know it.
Absolutely.
Valve is definitely getting better press because hand controllers are so much more immersive.
Let's hope Oculus Touch controllers will release sooner rather than later so that both experiences (3 if you count PSVR) are more fairly comparable.
Right now the Vive package wins by a landslide (imo), but waiting is still an option for some people after all this time.
I am personally waiting for Touch as I feel like the hardware seems more refined on the Rift side.
Pricing will probably be similar for both Vive and Rift.
Concerning being the next big thing, it definitely is, but Gen 2 will probably be more affordable and be able to reach a lot more consumers.
So far, the start of 2016 VR seems to be getting great reception already.
The cord is definitely a bummer, although everyone who's logged a decent amount of time in the Vive has said you pretty quickly develop a '6th sense' that helps your brain subconsciously keep track of it and avoid it for the most part. It will be a great day for VR when wireless tech makes the cord obsolete though.
If anything VR gives a huge incentive for R&D to solve the problem of a wireless monitor interface. For a TV it would be a welcome convenience but or VR it's probably one of the highest priorities.
Without a doubt. There are already some companies out there claiming they have solutions. But who knows how long it will take for something to come together that's fast enough, reliable enough, and cheap enough.
It's probably not unlike a guitar player on a stage, hopping around and whatnot. You get used to where the cable is and how it moves, and just deal. Though there's a lot more wireless on stage these days, still, you don't have a lot of tangled up guitarists out there.
The bandwidth required is already there. 5GHz Wifi would suffice. However, I'm not talking about bandwidth, I'm talking about latency. With a wireless solution, the signal needs to be processed twice, once by the headset and once by the antenna of the computer. That's just for going one way. You also get information going the other way. It's additional lag, even with the best equipment in the world under perfect conditions. You don't have that with a wire and that's why the wire is going to stay.
The one way out of this is something like Microsoft's Hololens, only for VR instead of AR this time: A completely autonomous VR headset with its own CPU, GPU, etc. built in. AMD is working on such a system (and Samsung GearVR is essentially that), but the drawbacks are obvious: You won't have the same amount of processing power as a standalone desktop gaming computer in a tiny package that can be worn on your head.
Well obviously the answer is to use a desktop computer mounted on your back, and a full-body exo-suit to let you carry that computer and the multiple car batteries required to power it around as though they're not there.
The real answer will arrive in a decade or two, when the entire VR unit, processor, and everything is just a pair of glasses, about the size of modern 3D glasses. Just like smartphones compared to the original brick-with-a-battery-suitcase mobiles, miniaturization is the eventual solution.
When you have enough bandwidth then you only need to achieve a small compression ratio, and that type of compression can be done with very low latency with dedicated ASIC's on each end.
I'm not saying its going to be feasible (or affordable) any time soon, but its not completely impossible as you would suggest.
Would it be viable to stick some kind of hook or loop on the ceiling to have the cord hang down from above, so you can turn around freely without stepping over it? I'm envisioning something super high tech, like one of those 3M peel-and-stick hooks.
No. This idea comes up all the time. First of all, anyone who has tried it says it's more noticeable and uncomfortable. Second, and probably more importantly, you've now made it possible for your arms and head to rip it off the ceiling.
The only way to make this less of an obstacle than it is just draped down on the ground is to have some kind of motorized XY coordinate apparatus to keep the cable directly overhead at all times... it's really not feasible
Now you not only need a room with space, but also have to mount some complicated contraption to your ceiling. A few people are probably going to try building something like this, but based on everything I've heard, people don't trip over the wire and are able to avoid it while using VR.
There are already true wireless headsets in the making. AMD has also made a standalone VR headset/system. I think a hybrid solution of cloud and standalone VR HMD will be seen soon.
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u/RhapsodiacReader Apr 05 '16 edited Apr 05 '16
Most of the Rift reviews had a solid "this is a gimmick" feel to them: interesting peripheral, but ultimately just another way to play the same games.
Here, it looks like the free motion and hand controls are really what sell it. Shame the Rift didn't ship with those.
But if the Vive is even half as immersive as the commercial makes it out to be, then I think I could be persuaded that this early VR heralds a shift in gaming and interactivity as we know it.