Are Virtual Reality Headsets Going to be Successful?

@wild...But you have enough time to come on and tell us all how far we are behind in the news.....back on topic, I don't care who makes it; MS, Sony, Nintendo, and now Facebook, just not interested in all that crap strapped to my head for hours of gaming....

 

Quote from ENEN

"@Hairy I don't have a problem with VR, but I just can't see how its going to work, for a VR headset to work for gaming certainly FPS, not so much car games, I need to be able to turn 360 degress, which means a massive change
to how I game. The kinect simply sits on my TV stand and doesn't change anything.

3D as a concept IMO is a treat at the flicks, i don't need it at home, VR is the same, it would be a treat to go to a VR arcade (maybe), but not sure I can see it working into my home in the near future, maybe in 10 years when
there is a more VR experience beyond the headset."

Exactly the words of quite a few people that purchased an Xbox One with Kinect. There are exactly how many Kinetic specific games out for the Xbox One. Sorry that's 2 games since launch, for something they are trying to make work. Great i can control my
console from my camera. But i could do that with my mic.

3D is a concept?. OK. SO now that every film that comes out in the cinema in 3D and 2D also has the equivalent Blu-Ray version in 3D. And 3D TV's are so much cheaper. Matman Arkham City was a joy to play in 3D on my PS3.

The 2 largest console makers are creating a VR headset, and Facebook is buying Oculus for $2 billion. That is 3 serious people on the market. Unlike just Microsoft when they were trying to push the HD-DVD, although it was considered a better media. Or again
MS, with the Kinect, which a lot of people do not like. Or many other companies, that try to introduce something alone. It flops.

But with 3 big multi-national companies, and probably plenty of backers, i cannot see it being a gimmick for very long.

 

VR works for almost any game, in as much as it creates a more immersive gaming world. True VR would require alot more than just a headset, but that does not mean that a headset alone playing a game seated is not a VR experience.

I have had the Oculus DK1 for quite some time, tried alot of content, some created specifically with VR in mind and some not. Whilst it's true that some experiences are more suited, I actually find it's not necessarily the type of experience but the methods
used to create the experience that adds the most to it.

With FBs recent aquisition of Oculus VR , as you can guess the forums reflect the skepticism of many developers and enthusiasts about the future of VR.

I think they will be sucessful, probably not something for current gen of consoles though, especially knowing the requirements to run more modern games at a decent resolution. Maybe in 3-4 years they will become less niche and ready for mass market. Until
then I will be enjoying Oculus, already pre-ordered DK2.

 

@WILD its a kick in the teeth to anyone willing to oay $350 for the dev kit. microsoft have already said they have been building a VR for quite sometime so we will prob see something at E3 or after. for me IMO i ant bothered if ms bring out VR or not

 

They won't be successful IMO, it's been shown time and time again that people just DO NOT LIKE wearable tech - no matter how good it is. That's why Google Glass, VR headests, Smart Watches etc. will all fail... now what we should really be talking about
and trying to push for is 'Augmented Reality' - why have a visor to see 3D graphics when you can see them with lasers for real.

 

@Hairy, IMO the number of films being produced in 3d is dropping, COD use to have a 3D option, and no games offer 3D, not all new TVs are 3D or have a 3D option, but like VR 3D lends itself to certain types of visual entertainment, I mean do we really need
to watch a rom com in 3D?

Kinect is still new, it will take time for developers to learn to use it, and find ways to integrate it, IMO when there is a PC version of kinect, thats when kinect will really start, at the moment developers have to produce kinect only for one platform,
if it was the biggest platform then that would be different but its certainly not at the moment.

I have no doubt VR headsets will come to market, but as with kinect 1 I think the first wave will be bought and not excel, but maybe wave two will be much better, the question then is, as with the kinect will people look back and think V2, isn't any good
because the V! didn't live upto the hype.

I guess with both the Kinect and VR headsets is they need the games to show them off, after that it will be easy to see the potential. But until then they are great concept under performing.

 

You know, when I first read the subject line of this thread, I was like, "headsets (the audio kind)? In virtual reality? That doesn't make any sense!"

Started reading and was like, "oh..."

 

I know you mention the Kinect 1. But the Kinect V2 is essentially the same thing, just a little more sophisticated at it. And about how the successors are normally always better, is not always true.

But 2 specific Kinect games in 4 months, for something they are pushing so hard. That is not the backing you want for such a piece of kit, that microsoft are selling with their newest product.

I have had both Kinects and can tell you, i did not like the first, and after about 3 weeks of using the new one, removed it. As it offered me nothing i felt i needed to make my games console complete. For gaming.

Everyone makes it sound like this is a new toy. It is not, VR in the form of headsets have been around for decades, since the late 80's. Only now, have the computers/consoles, resolution, price caught up to make VR a competitive medium for gaming and other
activities. If over 35 years of R&D of VR is not a great back catalogue to launch such a system into the market, then i don't know what is.

That is a lot of time to perfect and make it right. And if no-one ever takes the leap, in all things, like Kinect, Motion Control, VR, etc, and no-one ever purchased these items. Then we would have nothing. Because everyone would steer clear of everything
new

 

@Hairy, however if people aren't programming for the kinect, what makes you think they will program for the VR headsets?

The Kinect isn't new tech, its basically an amalgamation of older tech put together to offer something new.

And if no-one ever takes the leap, in all things, like Kinect, Motion Control, VR, etc, and no-one ever purchased these items. Then we would have nothing. Because everyone would steer clear of everything new

Totally agree

 

I can see it facing the same challenges as 3D. At CES a few years ago, 3D was touted as the next big thing, except consumer demand for it was low and it flopped.

Just like 3D, you cannot show off VR in advertisements or YouTube videos or whatever. Also, just like 3D, there will be plenty of people who don't want to wear the headset, and there'll be plenty of people who find it makes them nauseous - and we'll get
stories in the mainstream media about that, just like we did with 3D.

Then there's the issue of both cost and dev support. A peripheral that costs £300+ is an extremely tough sell, but without mainstream adoption, why would devs target it? If you're making a VR game for the PS4, not only are you only targeting PS4 users, you're
only targeting PS4 users that have shelled out for the required peripherals (including the PS4 camera) to be able to play it. Why do that when you can make a game aimed at a wider audience? The Move peripheral was barely supported by devs (including Sony themselves)
and that was far cheaper and more accessible to the end user than a VR headset.

So as much as I love it as a tech geek and I'd really like to try it, I think it's going to fizzle out and fail to crack the market. As far as Sony is concerned, I think it's a stupid risk, given that they are still posting huge losses and downsizing.

 

@SigmaTheDJ

As SuperDeluxo said the VR tech works with about any game so it doesn't need developer support.

I have a co-worker with the OR dev kit and I spent several hours playing games that weren't developed for VR. My experience in Skyrim makes the OR a day one purchase for me. I run triple screens on my gaming rig and I assume any game that supports those
resolutions will work with the OR.

Biggest hurdle for the consoles will be the lack of horsepower to run games at those higher resolutions. I think the OR will be successful in the PC market and if the PS4 can handle the resolutions/framerates I don't see why it wouldn't be successful there
too.

 

[quote user="Galactic Geek"]You know, when I first read the subject line of this thread, I was like, "headsets (the audio kind)? In virtual reality? That doesn't make any sense!"

Started reading and was like, "oh..." [/quote]

Sorry

 

@Hairy,

only 2 Kinect games? Excuse me? From my own Xbox One gaming library, I have: Peggle 2, Battlefield 4, Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3, and Ryse: Son of Rome - all of which use the Kinect and can therefore be considered Kinect games. That's at least 5 by
my count, not 2. A game doesn't have to ONLY use Kinect to be considered a Kinect game, so don't fool yourself.

 

"As SuperDeluxo said the VR tech works with about any game so it doesn't need developer support."

It doesn't work with "about any game" though. Everything from aiming reticules to UI elements has to be designed to work specifically with VR, otherwise it's not an optimal experience. There are various issues when running Skyrim with Oculus Rift, for instance:
-

"Due to the way Skyrim renders shadows we have to turn them off. They are not rendered stereotypically so they look bad. We are still looking for a fix for that. The menus are mostly off-screen and this makes managing inventory un-doable from the rift. We
added a mod to help but again it’s still mostly off-screen. Until we can figure out how to scale the menuing system for Skyrim, the menus are the bane of the game."

riftmod.com/how-to-skyrim-and-oculus-rift-with-a-fixed-hud

Console gamers can't apply third party patches to games in the same way that PC gamers can, so games will need to be designed with VR in mind.

 

They aren't having to design the game specifically for the VR, its just a matter of supporting the resolutions at launch.

The patches (actually it's just editing files) that I need to apply when I'm running a game on my PC triples are for games that didn't support the resolutions at launch. The biggest issue is with UI's. You're basically stretching the screen and if doing
so wasn't planned for at launch you'll have parts of the UI across the entire area rather than in the center which makes viewing easier.

If the community is able to add widescreen support for games after release then the developers won't have a problem doing it prior to release. The console will only need to support two resolutions, the PC already does it for a dozen or more.