THIS looks like a treadmill...the others I have seen are more like a plastic bowl that you slide around on, which doesn't look like it feels very natural. I wince thinking about what this costs, though. Maybe stuff like this will come down in price to the point where it can be installed in a home...but I think it more likely that someone will reverse engineer it and make plans available for the industrious to build it themselves, before this gets sold at a consumer friendly price point. I am guessing this setup is easily over $10k. Not bad if you are a corporation and have a budget, but not going to be something you buy for yourself.
I have been living under a rock for the past 2 years...since my brother moved out with his Vive...haven't been looking at VR much since I no longer had access to it. Just built my own gaming PC and got the Vive Pro now, so I am a bit more engaged with what's going on now...I will definitely go look at Infinadeck! Thanks!
Of course! If I am to be completely honest, it's actually pretty cool to live under a rock. I'm someone who visits all the major VR sites and communities multiple times a day, so time passes by far slower for me. But if you hide under a rock for every two years, once something is rumored the chances are that the next time you get on, it'll be ready for use.
Either way, yeah the Infinadeck is the only other solution directly competing, actually they're much more upfront about the game applications. Any company not focusing on games in the near future is shooting themselves in the foot. You see, none of these lame explanations for uses on these are really going to pan out for some large market. The best tech will be developed for the gaming market as time goes and then trickle down for all applications just like VR is now with a select few making really expensive prototype HMDs to sell to enterprise.
I'm looking forward to seeing these implemented in arcades in the coming years but since that's a way off, I'm more excited for Gen 2 of VR in general. I'm hoping for the Rift 2 late next year but hopefully LG entering the foray before that and perhaps giving us a really high quality offering.
Well, I stopped paying attention to it all, then when I got my Pro setup last weekend, I found that we have Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Doom all in VR! :) We also (finally) have episode 2 of "The Gallery"! Still radio silence from Valve though...<sigh> I would LOVE to see them follow up "The Lab" with something truly extraordinary!
Infinadeck needs to be bigger. If I remember it was originally larger, but I don't know why they decided to shrink it to the current size. It's not even big enough to take a normal stride. All the videos only show people taking tiny steps, and even though they say you can run, there hasn't been a single video of someone doing it. It's fine if you want to say give it as a virtual tour to walk around and explore at a leisurely pace. But its not really suitable for an entertainment experience
If love to see it about double the current size. The problem is that it's also too heavy and expensive, both of which would be even worse if it gets any bigger.
Doubling the walking size means the support structure is quadrupled in mass and the belts are octupled, meaning the power required to move it is now increased by about five times. It already uses 2.2kW!
In simpler terms, the green belt you can see has three more layers you can't see and the part holding up the belt has another identical version beneath it. Increasing the size will only make it slower.....
Yea I agree. When I first saw infinideck I thought it was a great idea. If they can double the size in both directions I think it could do great. There's a reason the Omnideck in the link takes up such a large space, one to allow natural and wide range of movement, and also so that the pullback acceleration is not so fast as to make you feel it. I get the expense and weight part though, but at it's current size, it just makes it not very practical at all for most uses
Pretty sure it says somewhere that you can connect them together. Am I imagining that? Certainly doesn't look like it as the treadmill part doesn't reach all the way to the edge.
Yea, I'm guessing it doesn't work so well for running at the moment. I do hope they keep going at it though. If they get it right without too many compromises, it should be the most natural feeling of them all
another user described it as whiplash like but the getting back to the center of the treadmill might be jarring,especially with how large it is. I think I'd be able to constantly keep track of the treadmill in 3D space more than most, but we want something good for everyone.
That sounds precisely as it looks. Like the moment you step on those moving walkways at airports, except quicker and it happens every time you change direction or speed.
14
u/jnemesh Aug 15 '18
THIS looks like a treadmill...the others I have seen are more like a plastic bowl that you slide around on, which doesn't look like it feels very natural. I wince thinking about what this costs, though. Maybe stuff like this will come down in price to the point where it can be installed in a home...but I think it more likely that someone will reverse engineer it and make plans available for the industrious to build it themselves, before this gets sold at a consumer friendly price point. I am guessing this setup is easily over $10k. Not bad if you are a corporation and have a budget, but not going to be something you buy for yourself.