That second one sounds really kickass.Nobody knows what the specs are going to be on the consumer version but remember for you to see true 1080p in the Rift, you need 1080p per eye, because each eye is seeing it's own separate slightly different picture. They also want it to run at 60hz or higher and 60fps minimum, I think. All reasonable but I was talking more once you get into the realm of 4k displays and higher, or ideally 4k per eye. I would imagine running two 4k displays at 60hz or higher 60fps would take a lot of GPU horsepower.
Last night I tried two demos I hadn't run before. Alone in the Rift is a very simplistic horror game, you are running through the woods with a flashlight, you get to a decrepit log cabin and there is a bloody child inside. There are reaction videos of people trying it and screaming, freaking out, all kinds of stuff. It didn't do much for me but some of the sound effects were pretty creepy.
The second is called Titans of Space and was fairly mind blowing. It is a purely education astronomy lesson set to classical music. You are sitting in a pod on autopilot through our solar system, getting a view of the planets and moons, as well as a lesson in their scale when compared to our sun, as well as larger suns from other solar systems. It was the best thing I have seen yet.
How much time have you put into one game? Motion sickness doesn't effect me either but after playing any FPS in the rift for over 30 minutes or so, nausea sets in, and it keeps getting worse the longer you play. If you have put in a few hour plus gaming sessions with the Rift and HL2 and haven't felt sick, that is amazing.Motion Sickness doesnt effect me, but I can see how that can be a huge issue with people.
Really glad to hear someone I know is a progamer give a good review on it. I'm pretty excited about the rift but I'm afraid that after playing it it will get too cumbersome and not worth it for typical play sessions.Had a chance to try this out for a couple hours the other day, mind = blown. It was fantastic. I couldn't believe it, but when you put it on you literally are "in" the space. The dev unit had some limitations (low res), but it was shit that would obviously improve on release. The head tracking was flawless which made the experience totally immersive. I tried a lot of different demos, the most memorable of which was walking around these super high resolution 3D scans of naked people:
The experience is really hard to convey, but the feeling when you get up really close to one of the models in that demo is the most eerie feeling. Its like you have your face 3 inches from someone else in real life, you totally feel like you are invading their personal space, you really have to try it yourself to know what I mean. I couldn't believe this tech could evoke such a visceral response.
I also tried several games, the most optimized of which was HL2. Again its hard to describe, but the control scheme was a hybrid version of key board + mouse + head tracking. For the first 5 seconds it weirded me out, but after playing for 5mins I realized it was pretty amazing. I'm a pretty good FPS player but this system made me fucking amazing. All I had to do was look at people and it was insta headshot all over the place.
Anyway the videos/descriptions online don't do the experience justice, its really worth going out of your way to try it yourself if you have the chance. Like other tech popping up that sort of blends the physical and digital world I think in the long term gaming will be one of the most trivial applications, but in the short term I think its a great way to get new tech like this off the ground.
Only downside is the motion sickness issue. Out of 5 people I know who used it, 4 got pretty bad motion sickness (surprisingly I didn't have that problem, although walking in real life felt weird for a few minutes after a prolonged session with the headset). I'm not sure if the motion sickness thing is a technical problem that can be overcome, but I'm sure that's likely the primary limitations they are working on now as it was the only real deterrent to an otherwise amazing experience.
I've never gotten air/car/sea sick in my life, but for some reason shaky cam gets me every time. I got sick in both Cloverfield and the Blair Witch Project and occasionally playing games like Half Life.How much time have you put into one game? Motion sickness doesn't effect me either but after playing any FPS in the rift for over 30 minutes or so, nausea sets in, and it keeps getting worse the longer you play. If you have put in a few hour plus gaming sessions with the Rift and HL2 and haven't felt sick, that is amazing.
I bought one after it was demoed for us.How much time have you put into one game? Motion sickness doesn't effect me either but after playing any FPS in the rift for over 30 minutes or so, nausea sets in, and it keeps getting worse the longer you play. If you have put in a few hour plus gaming sessions with the Rift and HL2 and haven't felt sick, that is amazing.
It's not really cumbersome at all. It's about annoying as wearing 3D glasses in a movie if you are not used to wearing glasses.Really glad to hear someone I know is a progamer give a good review on it. I'm pretty excited about the rift but I'm afraid that after playing it it will get too cumbersome and not worth it for typical play sessions.