What's the deal with VR headsets? Why is it that no matter where I look, the only VR headsets I can find are simply head-worn mounts for smartphones? Are these the only types available or am I just not looking hard enough? Also do these types work?
Oculus, Vive and the console ones come out late 2016 I think, now you can only get those smartphone knockoffs. They are not just a screen trapped to your face, they have a pair of lenses and head tracking too.
>>51955578
Oh and I guess you can get the development kits now but they have smaller resolutions than release
How did you get that picture if you couldn't find it?
>>51956372
Maybe it found him
I wonder what HTCs "big breakthrough" announcement is going to be.
I have a feeling they are going to get slaughtered if oculus CV1 ships early january with a 3 month lead.
>>51956975
Isn't OR already DOA thanks to some retarded closed environment policy?
>>51957447
No. You're thinking of bait rumors/speculation which places like 4chan have spun up.
>>51957447
I am leaning towards oculus because they seem to know what they are doing. that said I am still iffy about the whole facebook aquisition and oculus home exclusives.
But they have been on ball lately releasing minimum recommended specs, and providing constant updates on their status. I know what to expect of their consumer version and the hardware required to run it.
HTC seems to be in a troubling situation financially compared to oculus which has a solid backing from facebook.
Their PR has been woeful lately which is rubbing me in the wrong direction.
I was excited to preorder HTC vive Q1, but I like the oculus touch controllers far more even after seeing the supposedly "leaked" images of Vive CV1.
The camera and touchpad are a nice addition to the vive which the oculus rift lacks, but it is nothing worth waiting an additional 3 months and paying a premium on top of that for.
I have a feeling the oculus rift will be better bang for buck if their statement that they will be selling hardware at cost are to be believed.
>>51957699
I think you might be right on that. Probably the breakthrough thing they're talking about has to do with the camera and being able to scan in your room, but in the end that's not an essential you need to have in VR, and if it means adding in EVEN an extra $100 over the Rift, a lot of people will just get the Rift, because there's not much else the Vive does better that is worthwhile.
Plus, HTC pushing for exclusives and introducing their own store separate from Steam is shady as fuck. Hell, if you go to their developer website, the first thing you'll see is a download for their DRM SDK. I mean seriously.
>>51957843
some people have been saying it might be for other content besides games.
But the signup for devkits for game devs does have that option, and DRM SDK doesn't sound particularly appealing either.
Well looks like VR is going to shit before we even see the consumer launch. I hope razer's OSVR kicks off so we can see VR turn into a peripheral instead of a locked platform.
I don't like razer products myself but it opens up more opportunities for competitors to enter the market.
>>51958694
I don't think it really matters that much in terms of what headset you buy. OSVR and OpenVR both support the Vive and Rift by default. If you want to support openness but still get the best hardware experience, get either the Rift or Vive, and run software bought from freedom respecting places that are not Steam, not the Oculus store, and not Viveport.
In actuality, none of these are locked platforms per se. None of them actually force you to use their store. It is only a fraction of developers agreeing to publish their games only on one storefront, and for a limited time. That storefront might be limited to certain devices, but that does not seem to be an artificial limitation rather than a practical one, for now. For example, the Oculus store supports both the Rift and Gear VR, and your library is the same across both devices. Once standards (APIs) are made and easily implemented without limiting innovation, it will become profitable for Oculus to have a build of their store and software running on that API in question, which means that any device using that standard will be compatible. The same may or may not be true for HTC, since we don't know how much they are really relying on the profits they'll make from the hardware rather than the software. At least we know that Oculus is directly trying to compete with Steam in terms of the same kind of storefront, except specialized only in VR.
>>51956975
eye tracking/foveated rendering could be a game changer.
>>51955578
Oculus is slated for q1 2016, and, supposedly, a preorder to happen before years end (2015). Vive has, indeed, been delayed.
Its also confirmed to be launching with Eve: Valkyrie
>>51960172
Eve valkyrie isn't particularly exciting, well nothing is at the moment.
Would've been better if it bundles with elite dangerous horizons but then again that game is also mediocre despite having more content.
I just want spehss engineers equivalent in VR with planets, better have a bucket or two nearby and 911 on speed dial.
Is it going to support movies, Netflix, and general online browsing?
Will there ever be a feature where you get these gloves that basically allow you to move shit and type? If so, the future is truly here, friends.
>>51960735
I already do some of that.
Not the gloves though, you'll find that waving your hands in the air is tiring, and simulating a keyboard in the air or on some table without physical keys feels terrible. Keyboards or at least touch pad keyboard interfaces, will always be necessary, but eye tracking can replace mice very nicely.
>>51960784
he could use leapfrog motion, or that commercial glove with oculus touch/steam controllers, forgot its name, it was being demoed on HTC vive. I'll grab a link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABHl77XR8UA
>>51960899
>leapfrog motion
I meant leap motion, none of the finger tracking solutions are bundled with the HMDs they are 3rd party peripherals.
Don't know how much support they would receive. FoV on leap motion sucks apparently, it uses stereo cameras to track your hands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diRqpWdhjH0
>>51960924
>>51960899
I got a Leap for kicks $10 on eBay to play with on my DK2
It works like shit half the time, tracking is wonky, and the field of view needs to be larger.
>>51960899
>>51960924
Like I said, for UI/UX, hand and finger trackers don't really help much. For dense abstract information input, a keyboard will always be better and more comfortable than an interface that uses hand gestures. VR developers have already learned this. Light abstract information input might be better, but is ultimately solved better with gaze tracking.
Technically, I am a VR developer.
>>51960957
>>51960899
Oh and Perception Neuron is the name of the glove in the HTC demo, they do full body as well. Works really well but it's a glove you have to wear and it's kinda expensive.
