But the illusion breaks whenever you see the sides where your peripheral vision is, or when you see pixels on the screens or low resolution etc. The whole point of VR is full immersion so this helmet box effect thing seems hinky to me.
Well, you better put yourself in cryo-sleep for a while then, because full immersion is still a long way off.
Finally got back home and messed with the rift some more. There is this U4 demo that puts you in this slow motion action scene that slowly moves you toward a giant mech. It's AMAZING!!! When we can play a game that looks and feels like that then VR will have arrived.
In my effort to find strange VR experiences I found this bad Star Wars battle of endor game, it has simple graphics and simple gameplay but man tracking ties with your eyes feels so awesome! Sense of scale is incredible too, flying above a super star destroyer is crazy. But man it's all so slow, that was the most slow escape from the Death Star ever.
Some videos are super cool like the intro to VR one, Lebron James dunked on me! I saw some shark video, got a bit nervous. Did a horror room video, couldn't finish, ring like monsters freak me out, I don't need that popping up in front of my face. I went to a virtual art museum, it's as boring as it sounds, still the potential is huge. I'm still looking for a good free roller coaster.
Nothing has made me sick yet, even stuff where I move around in game. So knock on wood it seems I am good to go with FPSs. I'll probably get Vorpx to try out my steam games.
gamingeek said:But the illusion breaks whenever you see the sides where your peripheral vision is, or when you see pixels on the screens or low resolution etc. The whole point of VR is full immersion so this helmet box effect thing seems hinky to me.
There is a ton of stuff that breaks the illusion, the cord, the controller, the fact that you aren't actually moving. Resolution and pixels I feel is the least of it, it just looks ugly. You want to enter a beautiful world that looks like ours not something with jaggies.thats only on the poorly optimized games.
gamingeek said:I dont get it, if there isn't peripheral vision, isn't the view like being in a cinema theatre where the screen is huge and prominent but you can see the side walls of the theater if you look too far in one direction?
No it doesn't, there is a clear difference between the giant IMAX screen look and the true VR experience. I can do both, with virtual desktop it creates the you are looking at a big screen effect. Lack of head tracking and sometimes 3D hurts it. Also it misses that full 360 view. Even static 360 pics don't feel like VR because of lack of head tracking in and out. When in true VR it surrounds you in every way, when you see ahead you are looking into the distance.
Dolphin VR is awesome!!!! I am inside Zelda Wind Waker!!!! It has it's weird quirks and cutscenes suck on it but for the most part it runs great and looks super cool. I guess it could be nauseating for some but I've been fine. Going to try metroid prime next.
So yesterday I started to mess with high motion games. First I tried this demo of incell, a terrible game where you go inside the body to eliminate the virus. Then whole game is you on this 360 track and you always move forward, you lean your head to turn around the track and try to hit boost pads and grab proteins on the track while avoiding these red barriers that rotate. It's super simple, the VR adds the ability to look up and see the future part of the track looping ahead so you can see where on the track you need to be for proteins. I never felt any motion sensation.
I tried some 360 videos, one was Dirk Nowitzki giving a tour of the Mavericks locker room, now that is awesome. Watching him practice around you is really impressive. 360 videos are great when done well, sad that the resolution isn't great.
Then I booted up dolphin VR with Wind Waker, took some tinkering but I got it to run well enough. It's pretty crazy how they managed to get a GC game in VR, you can look all around, draw distance is more limited but still it's crazy to be in that world. I still had to use the camera controls a ton as looking doesn't set a new direction for the camera, so I didn't feel like I was something looking at a virtual world like say chronos or luckys tale, instead I felt like it was a super impressive 360 video that I am in full control over. Once again never felt sick even though I was quickly twisting and turning that camera in every direction. The models look so good up close, man WW is so beautiful. Cutscenes are a mess as it switches views so fast and things load a little slow, other than that it runs well.
Then I tried the most intense VR game you can try, Doom VR. This is old doom, super fast doom. Again the models and the way the world looks in VR is super impressive, because these are simple graphics the resolution works great enough so it is the most clear game I played. So you play with a controller, the gun floats close to your face but there is a cursor that floats in front of that which you control with your eyes. Instead of just point in the general direction of enemies now you look at them but aim with that cursor, it works great.
The manual said play standing up but screw that, that messed with my head. Going backwards almost made me fall down, I got this crazy disorienting feeling like I was about to fall. So I sat down and then most of that feeling was gone. I managed to play three levels and didn't feel sick exactly but I felt some form of fatigue, it's a bit much but manageable in small bursts.
None of these adapted VR experiences give me presence like the true VR experiences. It's hard to describe the differences, I guess games designed around knowing you can look around the game world using your head and feeling like you are in the world rather than you taking the place of the in game camera where you are basically the TV set make the difference. So while really cool to experience an old game that way at least those two games I don't feel like playing the whole thing in a helmet is worth it.
I forgot to mention one of the best VR experiences I tried a few days ago, it's called mythos of something, I forget. It's a small interactive demo where you are this giant monster in chains in a dungeon and this wizard enters the dungeon. You control the wizard while looking through the eyes of the giant. This feels like VR, when the little wizard comes down on an elevator into the dungeon and you can circle the elevator with your head and see that little character from all angles, it feels like I am in that world. And when controlling the wizard he went behind a wall and I couldn't see, well hello I can just lean in and look over the all down on him, it was this aha VR moment. Oh and with the press of a button you can switch to the wizard point of view so now everything that looked tiny is huge, in a full game this mechanic would be fantastic. There is almost nothing to do in the demo but activate some switches, it's like 5-10 minutes but that felt like true VR.
Do you have to pay for any of these demos? And technically isn't Doom VR and Dolphin VR illegal?
gamingeek said:Do you have to pay for any of these demos? And technically isn't Doom VR and Dolphin VR illegal?
No, emulators are not illegal and I own all these games already so roms are fine. Dolphin also plays Wii games so I got to play some of those in VR too.
I look forward to your VR impressions of a 6 by 8 prison cell with you rattling your cup along the bars. Filthy pirate scum. 
Archangel3371 said:I look forward to your VR impressions of a 6 by 8 prison cell with you rattling your cup along the bars. Filthy pirate scum.
Lol.
Last night I got to try out Dark Souls 3 and Metroid Prime in VR. Dark Souls 3 took me a long time to get working and when I did get it to work with the first person mod it looked terrible. Frame rate was bad even on low settings. You can't see the hid because your FOV is so tight to simulate VR. And not being able to see your character makes it hard to fight.
All that said seeing enemies come up to you and battle you is so freaking awesome. I fought some black Knights, they rush at you which is so crazy in VR. It sort of feels like a different game when you fight them like a first person sword game. My favorite thing was fighting priests that throw fireballs, it's so easy to dodge the fire in VR by just moving your head. No way I can play the game like this but it's neat.
metroid prime was also a pain in the ass to load up but when I did it was worth it. The game looks great, runs great and feels like it's made for VR. These dolphin games are so impressive. The problem is MP1 didn't have FPS controls and that sucks majorly in VR, not being able to aim where you want. This game is super intense as well because of all the view point changes so prepare for major motion. If the Wii trilogy version works I would play the game like this.
Later I decided to just play luckys tale, in all my demoing I forgot to sit and play a game. It's a super simple platformer, would have never given it a second look without VR but man that VR makes it interesting to play.
I seem to be immune to motion sickness so I am lucky. Nothing has made me feel sick yet even the crazy movement ones and even games with horrible frame rate don't faze me.
gamingeek said:All the Speedy Sonic games have trained your brain well.
Oh! Must try sonic adventure 2 battle!
So are you going to get an XB1 Scorpio if it supports Occulus in a big way?
But then all XB games are going to be on Windows 10 from now on anyway, so you wont have to?
So how do you feel about graphics with VR?
When I first heard about VR and the holodeck, what first popped into my head was that graphics aren't good enough for VR (even modern consoles) if the aim is to get some holodeck reality shit going on. You seem to be able to play Gamecube games and still be fully immersed?
gamingeek said:So how do you feel about graphics with VR?
When I first heard about VR and the holodeck, what first popped into my head was that graphics aren't good enough for VR (even modern consoles) if the aim is to get some holodeck reality shit going on. You seem to be able to play Gamecube games and still be fully immersed?
The immersed thing is interesting. This whole idea that your body is tricked into being in a differnt world I have almost never felt. Maybe it's just me, but I am always aware that I am still in my room playing a video game, that might be why I don't get sick at all. When I am on my chair with a controller it's something I have been doing all my life and just cause the game now fits around my field of view doesn't mean it's different, it's just a really neat effect and who would want to have the game all around them.
This is why motion control is necessary, also standing and walking. That totally removes the familiarity with playing a game with a new perspective into now interacting with a game in ways you never did, that's true immersion.
As for graphics it doesn't need to be realistic to feel like a different world. It just needs to run well. The GC games look really nice because everything is crisp and clean, frame rate is great.
Speaking of which, Sonic adventure 2 VR!!! This doesn't work as it should, the hud is missing and it's not optimized. When I started the game I appeared under the slopped street in the San Fran level, I had to raise my head to go through the street and there was sonic right in front of me! Eventually I found the camera settings and set it so I am floating above and not below. This game! Sonic levels work so well, since levels are basically giant tunnels of fast running you feel it. The other levels though, omg total shit. I need a code to unlock all levels so I just play sonic/shadow levels. This was one of my favorite things on the rift.
Luigis mansion doesn't work in VR and neither does rogue squadron. I tried to get new Doom to run but I get a small FOV and I am not sure how to fix it. I spend most of my time figuring out how to run games rather than playing them.
I'd wager it's perfectly possible to have a smaller FOV and still have a sense of presence GG. It might not be perfect, but enough to create an illusion.