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VIRTUAL REALITY: I'M STILL NOT CONVINCED by Mr Biffo

5/1/2016

24 Comments

 
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It's actually happening.

Virtual reality - proper virtual reality, rather than that thing you used to see in straight-to-VHS movies called things like "Grid Warrior" and "Cyber Maxx" - will soon become a thing that we can all own... providing we don't have more important things to spend hundreds of pounds on.

If you've been following the early coverage of this year's Consumer Electronics Show - kicking off imminently in the desert Gomorrah that is Las Vegas - you'll know all this already, already:
​
  • Pre-orders for the Oculus Rift are due to start this week.
  • The HTC Vive will feature "nose gaskets".
  • Other things.

The jury remains out when it comes to VR, and if you've read any of my other rants about the technology (scroll down to the bottom for those), you'll know I'm more than a little sceptical.

In short: I think the cost is going to be prohibitive, and the obscuring nature of the hardware is going to hold it back. Basically, I can't see people wanting to spend hundreds and hundreds of monies to thrash around in their living rooms or boudoirs, not knowing if a prowler has broken in through the conservatory, and is currently rifling through their knicker drawer. 

Or whether they're about to tumble knee-over-face; unfortunately, most of us have stuff like walls and furniture in our homes, and don't live in empty aircraft hangers, or drained swimming pools, like millionaires do.

VIVE ALIVE
A new version of the HTC Vive hardware has been unveiled ahead of CES, which includes a more comfortable headset, a sharper display, refined controllers (with an optimistic four hour battery life - as if anyone's eyes would stand up to four continuous hours of VR...), and a front-facing camera.

The latter feature may prove to be the closest the Vive gets to a winning X-factor, and makes it the only one of the upcoming VR headsets to address the sensory deprivation which I have so many reservations about. By pressing a button on the controller, the world around you will "ghost" into the virtual world, so you can see if you're about to trip over a coffee table.


Will it be enough? I dunno. I mean, I really don't know.

My gut is screaming at me that there won't be sufficient numbers of people who will want one of these devices. And then my head tells me that there are some major, major players investing billions in their development, and they wouldn't be doing that if they didn't think there was a reasonable chance of VR taking off.

Out of all the contenders, I think the PlayStation VR has the upper hand... though I accept that I might feel this way because I already have a PlayStation 4, and currently don't have anything on which to play the Oculus Rift and Vive. To be able to use one of those, I'd have to fork out at least a grand-and-a-half for a PC. 
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NO QUESTION
There's no question that VR is an incredibly cool thing, but - and I accept that I might be being short-sighted here - I can't see beyond its faddish qualities.

Yes, being able to play shoot 'em ups and flight sims while feeling you're actually there is a very, very neat thing to be able to do.

But is that really going to replace traditional gaming, with ordinary screens and joypads and keyboards? And, unfortunately, given the cost of the hardware, given all that has been invested into it, I think VR is going to need to replace traditional gaming - at least to a degree - in order for it to be considered a success.

Talk of the format being used for films and documentaries is all well and good, but it turns sitting and watching a film, however immersive, into a solitary experience. To those around you, you are for all intents sitting on the sofa, or in bed, with a bucket on your head.


A forward-facing camera goes some way to solving the problem of external awareness, but it still feels like only half a fix.

​So I dunno. I feel slightly more won over than I was, but then I cycle back round to all the arguments against it. Who is going to be able to afford the gear? Who is going to be able to use it enough to justify the expense?

​VR needs to be a mass market proposition, something which regular people use regularly, and I fear - on a deep, intrinsic level - that it isn't anything of the sort.

In conclusion: INCONCLUSIVE.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
VIRTUAL REALITY GAMING: DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE?
​
VIRTUAL REALITY BITES by Mr Biffo
​
IMMERSE VIRTUAL REALITY HEADSET REVIEW
24 Comments
Darren link
5/1/2016 05:37:36 pm

Like all new tech, VR saturation will be driven by how it is applied to the world of pornography. Somehow, I don't think the world is ready to have some porn star's dripping donkey dong wobbling virtually in front of your nose.

So yes, VR is doomed as a fad.

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PeskyFletch
5/1/2016 07:40:05 pm

Speak for yourself

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Admiral Spiney O'Sullivan
5/1/2016 05:47:11 pm

I tried a VR headset not long ago. It was amazing. You put the thing on, and immediately you're put into a state where you feel like you want to fall over and throw up at the same time. The initial cost is high, but over a lifetime it's bound to turn out cheaper than developing a crippling alcohol problem to get the same effects.

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dan de la peche
5/1/2016 05:55:17 pm

I've just decked about £300 on a new version of Rock Band and all the extra guff I could find for it, so there clearly is a market amongst 30-something men with no kids to waste money on. Which is, now I've written it down, fairly niche sounding. Like you though, I don't get why all the tech guys with money are getting behind it so eagerly - there must be something I'm missing?

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Floyd
5/1/2016 06:22:53 pm

Yep, the problems of practicality are definitely worth mulling over but another more abstract one is the fact that it's basically a given that anything in gaming with even a hint of complexity these days is prone to simply not working straight out the gate despite asking us to throw a lot of money at it up front.

Whether it's hardware or software, I'd put money on the biggest reasons for owning these things (in terms of games) just not working the way they're supposed to for a long time after launch.

So there needs to be some form of assurance from a quality point of view as well as a commercial one. Looking at today's unreliable landscape, it just seems like there's too much to try and get right in this instance. Frame rates, motion controls, turning 180 degrees without vomiting, decent resolutions, blah blah blah. Every early adopter is essentially a guinea pig but it'll be difficult to gauge proper, legit opinions on the experience, as there will be thousands who swear by it in order to justify how much they paid for it.

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Hamptonoid
5/1/2016 07:08:06 pm

It'll never work for me - I'll never be able to sustain the illusion that I can pay attention and listen to the wife whilst gaming with one of those strapped to my face.

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Picston Shottle
5/1/2016 08:09:10 pm

DVD players were prohibitively expensive when then were first released, just like VHS, before them, and BluRay after them. But the cost comes down pretty quickly once the early adopters have spunked their loads of cash up the wall on the first versions.

But...even if when VR does, inevitably, become affordable, will anybody really care? Look at 3D (TV more than movies, even though the 3D movies are pretty ropey too - other than Gravity, has there been another 3D movie that used 3D immersively, rather than just as an afterthought to justify the "investment" the cinema chains has to make to show 3D films?) - it's dead on its arse; all the big players (TV manufacturers and broadcasters) tried to get it to take off but nobody wanted to sit watching the telly whilst wearing a pair of twatful glasses. And those 3D glasses are infinitely less twatful than a VR headset.

I predict this: doomed.

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Dr Kank
5/1/2016 09:17:01 pm

I think the prowler issue could be solved by drawing a pair of really angry eyes on the outside of the VR headset, thus fooling the prowler into believing you're some kind of flailing maniac wearing prescription glasses.

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Voodoo76
7/1/2016 01:18:07 pm

But what if the prowler is blind?

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Richard Wager
5/1/2016 09:42:45 pm

Wasn't there a VR fad in the 90's that went nowhere?

Not for me thank you...

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Nin
6/1/2016 07:29:33 pm

In the arcades, yes, but the technology was nowhere near what was required.

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Dirty Barry
9/1/2016 07:35:06 pm

Yes it was.

Trying it out at Thorpe Park was one of the most disappointing things ever. With my kid imagination expecting something along the lines of that Red Dwarf episode, the disappointment of the sub Atari 2600 style flight sim was overwhelming.

VR is going to be toilet imho. I have a mate who raves about it, but I also recall him telling me Star Wars episode one was "so good" he had been to see it "four times".

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Damon link
5/1/2016 10:08:39 pm

I have an eye condition where my eye nerves are different heights - in order to see properly I MUST wear glasses with a Prism in them-- My eye doctor did suggest hard contacts with them may exist, though.

At any rate I don't think it will be viable until it is accessible to people with imperfect vision, not to mention being cost prohibitive at a time when the economy has sucked all the 'spending money' out of most households. It is the perfect storm for failure

UNLESS it can carve a niche market and have a commercial use. Perhaps in medicine or what's left of arcades could perhaps make good use of the tech. If it can survive as a niche and commercial product it can be re-introduced when it is more refined, can be made more cheaply and hopefully households have more spending money.

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Euphemia
5/1/2016 10:31:11 pm

You know why the billionaires are investing? Because as soon as some bright spark figures out how to hook it up to porn, it will become a golden goose. What shits out spunk-money. Beyond that it's the same as 3D TV, another fad that no one seemed to give much of a toss over.

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Stay
5/1/2016 11:58:32 pm

I am just waiting for all the Youtube puking videos to start appearing...

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DeathHamster1
6/1/2016 12:13:23 am

VR is this depressing obsession that surfaces once every decade or so, only to sink without trace when people remember that the best way to play a game is to look at a screen while twiddling away with buttons and joysticks or keyboards.

Second person always beats first person - it's the one constant in gaming.

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Hussss
6/1/2016 01:24:38 am

Why would you not just use a joypad or keyboard with a VR headset? Surely by this stage you wouldn't need to see the controller in your hands to know where all the buttons are, I'd never bother with motion controls. Lack of game compatibility and other content should be people's main gripe at the moment.

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CdrJameson
6/1/2016 11:24:55 am

Good luck with the keyboard if you can't touch-type.

I've had an Oculus dev kit for a while, purely to play Elite: Dangerous because that's what I wanted when I was tiny and Elite came out, and I had this magazine: https://ia600706.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/32/items/your64-magazine-10/Your64_Issue_10_1985_Jun_jp2.zip&file=Your64_Issue_10_1985_Jun_jp2/Your64_Issue_10_1985_Jun_0000.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0 and stuff and everything.

And it's great! I have to squint at the tiny menus (which must be fun for people watching me). I'm there! In the asteroids!

But... I've still only played on it maybe once a month? It does what I wanted, but really it is such a lot of faff.

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Toaster
6/1/2016 07:00:15 pm

There's no future for VR until we get the Star Trek holodeck. Strapping something to your face and smashing into furniture and walls will never be worthwhile, however realistic it might seem.

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Admiral Spiney O'Sullivan
6/1/2016 07:22:31 pm

Someone's never played Blind Man's Buff.

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Toaster
7/1/2016 12:33:53 am

You might be right! Not too surprising though, I wasn't born in the eighteenth century.

Nin
6/1/2016 07:35:44 pm

I'm part of a reasonably large gaming community and I've been surprised by the support that exists for this, despite the price.
How successful it is will depend on how supported it is by developers. If it's as simple as syncing controls to pre-existing first person games, such as GTA V, then maybe it could work.

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VRDev
9/1/2016 10:43:08 pm

There are several things to keep in mind if trying to "adapt" an existing game for VR:

1) Stereoscopy - instead of one image being rendered by the graphics engine, two will have to be created from slightly different points of view for the "3d" effect.

2) framerate - for games to really "sell" the VR effect, there has to be a framerate of 120 Hz, or 120 frames per second. This means if graphics programmers struggled to get 60 frames per second on the hardware running the game, they will have to work overtime and tone down graphical effects etc.

3) Latency - latency/delay in responding to head movement will be absolutely critical in selling the VR effect and not making users sick. Couple this with the graphics requirement above and programmers have their work cut out for them to make sure everything happens "when it's supposed to".

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GhettoFabulous
9/1/2016 10:35:47 pm

Until very recently I didn't really have an opinion on VR, I was really quite indifferent to it. However, very luckily I have had to start using it in relation to work. The demos I've tried have been great experiences, although the barrier to entry after the Oculus price tag announcement (as well as the PC rig requirements) has me wondering if it will be relegated to the realm of niche.

Once the PSVR price tag is announced there may be a higher chance of mainstream adoption. There may equally be a chance of it becoming "another kinect". One big concern of mine (based on actual scientific fact rather than the ridiculous scaremongering regarding being unaware of someone breaking into your house/a fire breaking out etc - how paranoid could you be?) is the "plasticity" of the human brain: meaning that the brain can adjust to things quite easily, but the re-adjusting after takes a little while. Heavy users might have a period of queasiness when exiting the virtual world rather than when they enter it. The discomfort felt when in actual reality may cause them to "jack in", to steal a term from The Matrix, as much as possible.

Another concern is that of sales and commercial legs in the long run - the experiences are fun and great but are they worth the price of entry? One possible solution to this would be "VR parlours" where a proprietor may buy, say, 10 PS4s and PSVR headsets, and create booths for each user, and have a menu of games. When new games/experiences are released these are advertised in the window. This way hardware vendors can sell so much kit and in the long term if business expands then sell more hardware, and sell software when it's released. I'm not sure of the numbers the companies are projecting to sell so I'm not sure if such a business would be helpful to them to "sell" VR to the masses in the long term whilst selling a modest number of units in the short term.

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