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Oculus Rift
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Price has been leaked early $799 -
http://uploadvr.com/htc-vive-is-799/
Funny how oculus outraged everyone with their price reveal but this will seem fairly reasonable now
I'd say they've trumped oculus by a margin0 -
More details, looks like Ireland will be among the first launch countries
Bit dubious about that recommend spec: hover junkers developers are listing a GtX 970 as the MINIMUM to play it with a 980ti as the recommended spec
Looks like it does'nt require a bazillionty USB 3.0 ports like the octopus rift does either
http://gizmodo.com/htc-vive-will-cost-799-and-hit-shelves-in-april-1760405698
Update: The Vive will launch in April in these countries: US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Taiwan, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand.
Update: Here are the recommended PC specs for using Vive:
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970, AMD Radeon™ R9 290 equivalent or better
CPU: Intel® i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350 equivalent or better
RAM: 4 GB or more
Video Output: HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 or newer
USB Port: 1x USB 2.0 or better port
Operating System: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or later, Windows 100 -
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If history has taught us anything it is that software drives hardware, not the other way round. You can not make people buy hardware unless there is a viable and deep library of software to support it. Who in their right mind is going to pay $600 or $800 to play Job Simulator?
The Kinect/PSMove/PSEye/Wii/3D gaming and even PhysX for PC have shown that without big names, big brands, and well-received franchises, failure was written in stone. I had hoped the big game to be released with VR support would be the new DOOM, as it really lends itself to that type of experience, but nothing has happened there. The mainstream gamer is where money is to be made, but if you have no mainstream games, then how can you expect people to fork out so much?
Maybe this will change at E3 2016 if major developers announce VR support for their main franchises. What I find very interesting is the Oculus scenario. Valve can build VIVEs and sell them at a loss because it has Steam to keep revenue coming in, and if things got really desperate they have IPs they can pull out of the cupboard to bolster their finances. Sony's Morpheus-thing is of a similar nature. Should VR fail for them, they still have the Playstation and a number of in-house developers to compensate. But, Oculus doesn't really have anything. Sure there is Facebook, but how long can you rely on ad revenue as your only source of income should Oculus fail to tap into the mainstream?
I reckon VR is here to stay, but it won't be a game changer for the general public and gamers. VR will relocate itself to themeparks and large events where you can pay €2-3 for a brief 20 minute experience and then walk away. In fact, I can see VR leading to a resurgence in the gaming arcade; somewhere to go to try out VR for a shortwhile without having to invest in a €1000+ PC and €700 device, when ultimately the novelty on one title will wear off after a few hours anyway.
Having said all that, if Battlefield 5 was to be announced as a VR-required title, or the next COD, or Dying Light 2, etc., and if it actually works (personally, I don't think a VR headset can compete with the movement of a mouse for competitive play), it might have a longer lasting appeal and in itself drive other developers to jump on the hype train. Also, I compare VR to 3D in movies - there are movies filmed in 3D and it is generally accepted that they are much better 3D experiences than the post-3D tagged-on-effect. VR is the same for me. Games built from the ground up with VR being the foundation are the types of games that need to be developed by AAA developers and announced now if VR is to 'wake people up'. The mainstream don't have the time (or probably the knowledge, at least on PC anyway) to mess around with mods and configs to enable a 3rd party or poorly ported VR effect - it has to work straight out of the box.
Next, this leads me to the diversification and lines that will further separate the platforms. I am threading into the hypothetical here, but I think this is something that has to be considered. Lets take Titanfall 2, for example. Titanfall 2 is coming out possibly Xmas 2016, but most likely, 2017 and it is a game that would really do well in a VR environment; the parkour running, the fast paced combat, the internals of a Titan would lead to a great experience in a VR headset. The game is also coming to all 3 platforms - PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Which VR headset will be used as the marker for development? The VIVE for PC? Or the Oculus for PC? Morpheus for PS4? Or all three? And what if the 'port' is affected by the differences in headsets? One would hope that all three headsets would be consulted and developed during this process, but if the last two generations of games is anything to go by, cross-platform titles invariably have issues ranging from mild (COD) to the extreme (Dark Souls).
Scenario 2: a game developed on PC that is later ported to consoles. One example would be The Talos Principle - another brilliant game that would be stunning in VR. Talos came to Steam first, so if Valve decide to enforce that all future Steam releases must at least support the VIVE if they have a VR element, that might create problems for Oculus users. Talos was then later brought to PS4. Will the transition from VIVE support to Oculus or Morpheus be smooth and seamless or will there be hiccups?
Additionally on console, each multi-platform release goes through a rigourous compare and contrast analysis. It is broken down into resolution/features/frame-rate/image quality and a definitive conclusion is given to suggest which console the game performs better on. This is more complex on PC with various features being exclusive based on which graphics card developer you go with (HBAO+/PhysX for Nvidia, Mantle API for AMD, for example), what happens when you have developers doing such exclusive deals with the manufacturers, as is common practice today? Valve throws money at Activision-Blizzard to make the next COD 'a greater experience' with VIVE? Or Facebook gets behind some new big title being developed by UbiSoft and they do a deal where 'best played on Oculus' is the main message? Where does that leave those who chose Morpheus on PS4 or VIVE on PC, but the Ubi game comes out on all three platforms?
Scenario 3 - A game on console with PS4 Morpheus comes to PC/Xbox. Very few games have translated from console to PC very well. GTAV and Alan Wake come to mind, but then you have disasters like (most) Ubi games, or Dark Souls, or Gears of War (Win Vista edition). The VR element could be another spanner in the mix. You can see where this is going...
Divide and conquer seems to be the main message here. Already, gamers are primed to engage in brand-defence with a console, but that can now be sub-divided again. Oculus on PC, VIVE on PC, (Morpheus on PC, possibly?), etc. In the meantime, the big developers are sitting on their hands waiting for someone to give the okay or some sort of indication that its safe to invest millions into a game on a VR headset. I really thought DOOM would be the first, but it seems that in a time of uncertainty in the industry, fear of failure is the prevailing sentiment. This can be further demonstrated by the stark difference with a new generation of console launch. Every big developer announced major titles for the launch of the new consoles even though the bulk of their sales would come from the previous generation. The same can be said of VR. Most of the developers today could 'tag-on' some VR effect to their new titles, even though most of their sales would be from customers who don't own a headset, and yet nobody has done so? Why is that?
I see no reason to jump on-board with any VR product right now. No games beyond simulators or one hour experiences, extremely high price point, and no indication of big developers getting behind any of the VR devices. On top of that, there is the more pressing concern - impact on the consumers and the possible further division of the gaming community. We simply do not know how the big developers (if they ever do get involved in VR) will treat multiple devices or if they will pick one and leave the rest of their consumers looking for user-mods to make their device compatible with the game they want to play.
Themeparks and arcades, lads - that's where we will be going for the best VR experiences in a couple of years. 0 -
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Same, I'm just sad that most of my regular gaming buddies won't be getting it just yet. I know I should wait too and I'm prepared for the types of games that will be available (ie nothing like the sort of games I play on a standard monitor) but I can't help myselfpaulmurphyvec wrote: »I've waited for this kind of gaming experience for so long. Can't wait.
What I do know is that I've played hours and hours of elite dangerous on the crappy resolution of the DK2 and loved it ( I still get gobsmacked when flying near a star). I've tried the Vive which was really impressive and it got me off my seat for a change. The ninja trainer game in particular had me working up a sweat in no time (think immersive fruit ninja)
Oh, mashable posted the vive UK price, converts to around €900 so a bit better than I expected0 -
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Doom would be an awful game for VR. There seems to be two camps around this stuff, people who don't think it will catch on and people who've actually tried VR
The big concern for people buying a vive/oculus is the speed at which things are developing may make their expensive headset obsolete fairly fast.0 -
Doom would be an awful game for VR. There seems to be two camps around this stuff, people who don't think it will catch on and people who've actually tried VR
The big concern for people buying a vive/oculus is the speed at which things are developing may make their expensive headset obsolete fairly fast.
I have tried the Oculus DK1. And why would DOOM be an awful game in VR? DOOM has always been about atmosphere, tension, scares, action, etc. VR seeks to immerse you in a game, and anything that has a good atmosphere makes it even more immersive...
In fact, Carmack was working on a VR version of Doom 3 before he left iD...
http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/5/5682818/zenimax-oculus-vr-claim-response0 -
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I have tried the Oculus DK1. And why would DOOM be an awful game in VR? DOOM has always been about atmosphere, tension, scares, action, etc. VR seeks to immerse you in a game, and anything that has a good atmosphere makes it even more immersive... In fact, Carmack was working on a VR version of Doom 3 before he left iD...
http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/5/5682818/zenimax-oculus-vr-claim-response
First person shooters do not work in VR*. Too much discomfort and travel sickness to play it for extended periods. Titan fall might work if you are in a mech because you have the cockpit as reference.
EDIT: I'm referring to the standard fast paced shooters that we are used to on a screen. There are VR shooter games like hover Junkers where you move using a ship but you aim and shoot while standing on the spot0 -
I have tried the Oculus DK1. And why would DOOM be an awful game in VR? DOOM has always been about atmosphere, tension, scares, action, etc. VR seeks to immerse you in a game, and anything that has a good atmosphere makes it even more immersive... In fact, Carmack was working on a VR version of Doom 3 before he left iD...
http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/5/5682818/zenimax-oculus-vr-claim-response
DOOM is the classic run n gun FPS model and it won't work as is in VR, you need to change the experience.
This is a paradigm shift, a lot of the models we grew up on will not make the jump0 -
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