Didn't see that coming...

[Vigormortis]

It seems we've come to learn Valve's plans for VR a full day earlier than expected.

HTC, partnered with Valve, announced today at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona that they are stepping into the domestic VR market with their new device, Vive. The Vive features a 90hz refresh rate, a 1200x1080 resolution screen per eye, and full 360 degree motion tracking through the use of gyrosensors, accelerometers, and laser positioning sensors.

Coupled with a pair of SteamVR 'base stations' and either a wireless controller or hand-tracking devices, HTC claims the Vive will, "track your physical location in spaces up to 15 feet by 15 feet" and will allow a user to, "get up and walk around inside the virtual world."

They've also announced partnerships with Google, HBO, Lionsgate, and several game development studios (Valve included) to begin producing content in preparation for the device's release later this year. Early dev-kits will be available soon.




Source: HTC [http://www.htcvr.com/]

So what say you, fellow Escapists? Does this have you intrigued? Excited? Indifferent? How do you feel this will compare to Sony's Morpheus or Oculus' Rift? Shout out your thoughts in the comments below.

 

[Barbas]

VR news like this always excites me. It's just something nice to think about, even if the possibilities aren't realistic or affordable or feasible. It just seems to flick all the right "Ooh!" switches in my brain. So ooh and I am rather excited.

 

[rgrekejin]

My comments don't really deal with the Vive specifically, but rather with my skepticism about head-mounted VR devices in general. I just don't see how anyone seriously regards VR as something that's ever even going to get off the ground. There's just too many intrinsic issues that haven't been resolved.

First and foremost, there's the motion sickness issue, which either has or hasn't been dealt with, depending on which sources you choose to believe.

Secondly, the ability to "walk around in a virtual world" is just highly problematic. Seriously, who has access to an empty, padded 15 by 15 room they can use for this sort of thing? Otherwise, this idea goes all pear-shaped the third time you trip over the coffee table.

Finally, there's the question of whether or not this sort of thing even really counts as "VR". I mean, the ability to walk around the room aside, how are you going to be controlling anything while wearing this? Almost certainly a controller. And if you're controlling something with a controller, rather than, say, your own body motions, I'm hesitant to call it "VR". Essentially all you're doing here is sitting really, really, really close to the screen.

A screen, might I add, which you're wearing by strapping it to your head. My ears start to hurt after wearing headphones for an hour. I can't imagine what sitting with this thing awkwardly hanging off the front of your head for an extended period of time is going to do to your neck muscles.

So... yeah. The picture may be a lot nicer, but I'm not sure that anything has fundamentally changed since the Virtual Boy.

 

[Vigormortis]

snip

I think you may have glossed over a few details from the reveal. Namely the "wireless hand and body tracking devices".

 

[Maximum Bert]

I keep hearing about all these amazing VR devices that are coming out and yet not one affordable and highly supported one for gaming is out yet.

It could be great it could be garbage at the moment it gets nothing more than a casual almost passing interest from me show me games with it running in an ordinary environment and I will be more interested and no tech demos dont count I dont care about showing how it could work I want to see how it does work and whether its actually worth it. Also have yet to see how it will work for non first person view games (i.e the vast majority).

 

[Saetha]

Well, it gave me a delightful mental image. One of people sticking screens on their heads and tripping over shit in their living room.

Seriously, what? I mean, I know being able to "move" in the VR is a neat idea, and will probably be useful for certain applications of the device, but for the average gamer? It's a recipe for disaster, concussions, and broken coffee tables.

 

[rgrekejin]

snip

I think you may have glossed over a few details from the reveal. Namely the "wireless hand and body tracking devices".

By this I assume you're referring to the base stations (which I've already expressed my reservations about the utility of above) and what they're describing as "wireless controllers for manipulating objects and shooting weapons through hand tracking". If you think that's going to be sufficient for any form of actual gameplay, well... I admire your optimism, I guess? I mean, anything that *doesn't* use some sort of controller mechanism is either going to have to be specifically designed just for this device (unlikely, given the low early-adopter rate it's sure to have) or involve some sort of quantum leap in gesture recognition technology.

 

[Vigormortis]

snip

They were talking about hand-held devices, not the base stations.

 

[rgrekejin]

snip

They were talking about hand-held devices, not the base stations.

Right, the hand positioning/gesture control would be dealt with through some handheld, possibly glove-like device, and the actual body positioning data comes from the base stations. That's what my understanding is, at least.

Based off these articles:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/1/8127445/htc-vive-valve-vr-headset

http://gizmodo.com/htc-vive-this-is-valves-virtual-reality-headset-1688756062

 

[laggyteabag]

Hey, the more VR options, the better.

I really hope that VR is the next big thing for gaming, because unlike motion controls, this is something that I am really excited for.

 

[RicoADF]

I find the idea of VR, atleast the curent form we're looking at, as impractical and more trouble than it's worth. The issues I can see are:
1 - Space: The obvious one, either we need a whole room with padding so we don't run into walls or we need a large sphere that we can walk in indefinitely (which would be a large contraption in it's own right to fit the person in)
2 - Injuries: Linked with the first, regardless of how you set the room up I can see people getting hurt and even without that the idea of walking around 'blind' wont appeal to alot of people.
3 - Motion sickness: Need I say more, some people will be effected no matter how good they make it.
4 - Eye strain: This is one I don't see mentioned, just how ear buds can damage the ears easier than speakers can I suspect VR goggles will cause eye strain and damage much more than a standard monitor. This is the biggest reason I don't like the idea of a screen being right up to my face with all the heat and radiation focused on my eyes. It's bad enough with smartphones sometimes and their further away, bugga putting them right up to your face.

 

[Vigormortis]

Right, the hand positioning/gesture control would be dealt with through some handheld, possibly glove-like device, and the actual body positioning data comes from the base stations. That's what my understanding is, at least.

Based off these articles:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/1/8127445/htc-vive-valve-vr-headset

http://gizmodo.com/htc-vive-this-is-valves-virtual-reality-headset-1688756062

Well yeah, that's what I was talking about. But from what you'd said prior it made it sound as though you saying the base stations were tracking user movements in a similar vein as the Kinect.

Seems we both had a misunderstanding.

 

[Foehunter82]

I think Augmented Reality would be more of a thing if it involved moving through a real 3D space. At least then you could see the real world at the same time. VR, in my opinion, would only work if you were staying stationary at a console or computer, and controlling it as you would a normal game.