What can we expect in terms of headsets, GPUs, middleware and other VR-related hardware and software for their next generation?
About when can we expect those to become available?
I’m not sure but I sure wish somebody would make a Sword Art Online type game.
Well, without the dying if you die in game parts of course.
Does anyone think that VR is the next big thing and we won’t be able to play video games on our TV’s any more?
I don’t see why VR being the next big thing would make us unable to play games on a TV.
I don’t think VR is the next big thing. VR comes and goes. I think it still isn’t quite immersive enough. The graphics are ok in VR games (and yes this matters). The type of game play is currently very limited. Controls still feel odd in VR games, almost surreal, and this is the biggest issue I think. I find VR controls feel gamey, and that’s not good for the kind of experience they’re trying to sell. But maybe that’s all software issues. Time will tell.
I think VR will happily coexist with traditional gaming for a long while.
Next gen is likely to feature things like foveated rendering, which will dynamically change the resolution of a point in a frame based on where you are focusing your eyes.
This will allow much higher quality images to be rendered, without requiring ridiculous GPU hardware.
I know Steam is been talking about major improvements to their tracking technology which will mean the next Vive will be lighter, sleeker and cost less to manufacture.
I don’t think we’ll see wireless headsets for the high end of VR for a while yet though. Latency is a big issue as is bandwidth. That would be cool though.
what headsets have you tried? I’ve heard this being said of the Sony PSVR, and other similar headsets, but not at all of the Vive.
Of the current generation, the Oculus Rift is the only one I’ve tried. I’ve not tried the Vive yet.
I should explain a bit more clearly though. Have you ever played a video game and the UI just melts away? There is no UI, everything you want to do you just do. A recent example of that for me is Shadow of Mordor. When playing that game I never felt I had to fight the UI. The Ranger was a virtual extension of me.
I find when I play VR games, there’s never quite that total level of immersion which is the whole drawing point. I think the current generation is better than older generations. And I think some of it might just be that the UI/HCI designers for VR just don’t have the skill set yet. I.e. it could be a software issue and not a hardware issue.
What kind of things do VR games do/fail to do that would create a fully immersive experience? How would someone go about making the UI melt away in VR, especially for FPS games?
That’s a great question and I’ve been thinking about it all night. I don’t have a definite answer, but I wonder if maybe there is an uncanny valley-like effect. For those unaware, uncanny valley is a feeling that humans get when they see a robot or CGI image of a very realistic human face. It will be so real but not quite real that it ends up feeling unsettling and quite obviously fake. Which is really fascinating. If you add more and more and more realism, it feels more and more real but eventually you reach a point where it feels unreal. Presumably there is a point on the other side of this valley where it would start to feel real again hence the term uncanny valley. So maybe what is happening in VR is that it is so real that it feels unreal because it is not quite real enough, i.e. it isn’t on the other side of the valley. It could be that for a game like Shadow of Mordor there is enough unreal separation between my action and the avatar’s response that it ends up just feeling right. So, if my hypothesis is correct, then I guess the answer is to either find that point just in front of the valley, or try to push the realism to the point where you get to the other side. Again, to be clear, I’m not stating this as fact. I’m not a human-computer interaction expert although I know a thing or two about it.
That makes sense.
In VR, the players sees as if he were the protagonist but the player has much finer control over his own body/actions than over that of the protagonist. The difference between the 3D visual perception and the lacking control is jarring.
Perhaps controlling a robot/vehicle or some kind of critter/monster would be less jarring. In the same way that the uncanny valley happens when something is presented as familiar but doesn’t quite look like it; It sends the brain into a suspicious loop of “This kinda feels like the real thing - but it isn’t…”
If the player were controlling something which is not expected to move like a human, the brain wouldn’t go: “This kinda feels like the real thing - but it isn’t…”
In other words, apply the Pixar method to controls.
That’s a great way to put it. 
I was watching a video for a VR game called “Action Hero VR”. I think one thing might be is missing from VR games is the avatar. In particular arms and hands. We orient things to our bodies, this is who we naturally understand how to manipulate something. I wonder if the include of hands would help with the (possible) UI issue? I wonder if the ghostly disembodied guns (in the case of Action Hero VR) creates a disconnect that is hard to overcome?
The games I’ve played do model either the hands or the controllers in-game to give an indication of where you are in the game-world, but they may have been removed from the video because from outside it would look even more unnatural since you don’t always hold the controller straight, so you might get a disembodied hand coming in from the right or wherever.
Jeebus on a pogo stick, did anyone else watch the Giant Bomb stream of PSVR?
(Available on their youtube channel: Giant Bomb - YouTube
What a shit show. Gerstman can’t take it after an hour and almost pukes. Lots of issues with tracking and jitteriness on the headset and controllers.
Several other outlets reporting similar issues including Kotaku and Vice. Others don’t report issues as severe as Giant Bomb was showing on stream.
I’m actually really concerned the PSVR is going to do q lot of damage to the VR movement. VR is at a stage where we need a lot of horsepower to provide a good experience - you simply cannot tolerate input lag and a low frame rate. It’s physically uncomfortable. It’s in the developmental stages where hardware is going to be a bit esoteric and expensive, not the stage where it’s ready for cheap mass production.
And so the PSVR is way too soon. Way too underpowered and cheap. And it’s going to be the main VR experience for more people than the rift or the vive. That backlash will end up being backlash against VR in general and it will take years to recover from. And since VR really needs to take off to get people willing to risk makings software for it, this will end up stunting it in multiple ways.
They should’ve let this be a pc thing until the next console generation but they wanted to get a leg up on Xbox and now they’re just going to kill VR in general.
If a developer has an already working game, say an FPS, how much bother is it to make it a VR game?
I’m thinking that VR might be a + feature of some games. It would certainly be nice if developers made a game that’s enjoyable to play even in non-VR mode instead of using VR as the sole appealing feature.
Some games are more suitable for it than others. FPS games have very little chance of an easy adaptation. Games where you’re acting like an individual that’s supposed to be running around don’t work for a seated player - the body expects to be moving and the disconnect can have negative effects. Some VR games have you teleport around or pull yourself by a grappling hook or something to get past that. But you definitely couldn’t just give a VR option to the next call of duty game.
Games here you’re seated or immobile from within the game like racing games or piloting a plane or spaceship are a much more natural conversion.
As for how technically difficult it is to add the actual VR support for your game I don’t really know. Oculus and Valve try to create software to simplify the process but I’m sure it’s not just adding a feature and flipping a switch.
Valve is hosting a Steam Developer Conference today and tomorrow.
Some of the highlights includes a new model of tracking station, and their plans to make the tech an open standard, like wifi.
Also a new controller with grip tracking. you can open your hand (the controller is designed so it clings to your open hand) and close it around the grip to simulate grabbing and dropping objects. It’s also smaller.
They are investing in several VR related companies, including one that is touting wireless 60hz video streaming.
New Samsung TV’s will also come with Steam link built into them, so you can stream your PC games to the Tv without the link.
They are working on a ton of VR games, which will be announced next year too. Finally (so far) they are opening up the Steam to support other gamepads transparently.
Nvidia has a prototype headset with a resolution of 4k per eye. That’s where we are heading, once graphics cards that can render it are available at a reasonable price.
The next gen may also have eye tracking, which will allow foveated rendering and eye motion input in games. Imagine just looking at at NPC and have him look back and say, ‘what are you staring at?’