Notch Considers Bringing Virtual Reality to Minecraft

[Alterego-X]

Oh, I see how it works now. Can you turn it off? Like, what if I want it to stop looking where I'm looking, and just stay centred on my crosshairs for instance? I suppose this would be up to the game in question to implement.

I still actually find the notion of playing a game with this thing strapped to my face incredibly unappealing.

Why would you want to turn it off? The whole point of VR is that you are not just looking at a screen, but being "inside the game". With a 110° field view, this thing is coming close to it.

Turning off the head tracking would turn it into exacly what you find unappealing in it, a TV screen strapped to your face. John carmack specifically talked about how much Sony's previous VR display that lacked head tracking sucked, because whenever you wanted to move your face a little bit, the whole game world was moving around with you, and that felt nauseating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt-iVFxgFWk&feature=player_detailpage#t=3585s

But with head tracking, if you hear a sudden noise from the left, you can quickly look there, then follow with your body with the controller, and still feel like you are looking around in a fixed environment that is around yourself, and not at a screen strapped to your head.

 

[Alterego-X]

I would be very, very skeptical in investing money in this.
Remember this thing? http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/05/30/what-happens-when-kickstarter-projects-fail-after-funding/

People need to know that a kickstarter can fail, they have failed and, honestly, when they do you are basically up shits creek for getting your money back.

It can fail at mass production, marketing, or public reception, but they already created the prototype that works. Carmack, CliffyB, (not sure about Notch), and various press members already tried this thing, and they were all amazed with the result.

Besides, it is already backed by real corporate money, the kickstarter was for distributing prototype versions to interested developers. There isn't even a commercial version of the thing that you COULD pledge for, so there is nothing to "lose" for you.

 

[Cpu46]

Amnesia would reach a whole new level of pants shitting with this, FPS games would be a lot easier for me (I like looking around but that normally means pointing my gun there too), and minecraft would be EPIC with this.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

What I really would like to see would be huge monitors that are curved to give a 180 degree (or close to it) viewpoint, just like in real life, then there would be less corner blindness in games like COD and Skyrim, where you have a stupidly small viewpoint, and no peripheral vision.

 

[Alterego-X]

What I really would like to see would be huge monitors that are curved to give a 180 degree (or close to it) viewpoint, just like in real life, then there would be less corner blindness in games like COD and Skyrim, where you have a stupidly small viewpoint, and no peripheral vision.

Well, that thing already does 110°, that's most of your useful field of view, I'm not even sure if you can see it's edge.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

What I really would like to see would be huge monitors that are curved to give a 180 degree (or close to it) viewpoint, just like in real life, then there would be less corner blindness in games like COD and Skyrim, where you have a stupidly small viewpoint, and no peripheral vision.

Well, that thing already does 110°, that's most of your useful field of view, I'm not even sure if you can see it's edge.

Oh, so it actually straps over your eyes like binocular cameras? I thought, for some silly reason, that you wore it like a bandana, and it tracked your head movements like a Kinect, but you still used your regular screen to play. This way makes a whole lot more sense. Cool.

 

[Baldr]

Why are people so invested in this when it going to fail like all VR goggles. There have been studies in Optometry journals to show that having screens a couple inches in front of your eyes causes eyestrain within 20-30 minutes no matter the resolution/brightness.

That is primarily why the military abandoned it other types of simulations and why it never reached the mainstream market.

 

[Alterego-X]

What I really would like to see would be huge monitors that are curved to give a 180 degree (or close to it) viewpoint, just like in real life, then there would be less corner blindness in games like COD and Skyrim, where you have a stupidly small viewpoint, and no peripheral vision.

Well, that thing already does 110°, that's most of your useful field of view, I'm not even sure if you can see it's edge.

Oh, so it actually straps over your eyes like binocular cameras? I thought, for some silly reason, that you wore it like a bandana, and it tracked your head movements like a Kinect, but you still used your regular screen to play. This way makes a whole lot more sense. Cool.

It's basically Virtual Boy, but without the massive size and with proper LCD screens instead of monochromes.

 

[Alterego-X]

Why are people so invested in this when it going to fail like all VR goggles. There have been studies in Optometry journals to show that having screens a couple inches in front of your eyes causes eyestrain within 20-30 minutes no matter the resolution/brightness.

That is primarily why the military abandoned it other types of simulations and why it never reached the mainstream market.

I'm wondering how did they prove that, given that so far we DIDN'T have a VR helmet with decent resolution, field of view, 3D effect, and latency?

"all VR goggles" failed because they were ridiculously unready to do their supposed job. Many of them were made in the 90's with 263x240 screens, often monochrome. They weren't even remotely similar to the sci-fis, that, at the same time, portrayed VR helmets as Matrix/Holodeck gates.

And even the recent ones had around 30° FoV, looking like a tiny mobile screen hanged half a meter from your eyes, that also had to distort their view when turning, since obviously if it doesn't cover your FoV, it can't have 1:1 headtracking.

I'm not saying that this particular one will succeed, but with all the high def lightweight screens nowadays, the time is about right for another try.

 

[Baldr]

Why are people so invested in this when it going to fail like all VR goggles. There have been studies in Optometry journals to show that having screens a couple inches in front of your eyes causes eyestrain within 20-30 minutes no matter the resolution/brightness.

That is primarily why the military abandoned it other types of simulations and why it never reached the mainstream market.

I'm wondering how did they prove that, given that so far we DIDN'T have a VR helmet with decent resolution, field of view, 3D effect, and latency?

"all VR goggles" failed because they were ridiculously unready to do their supposed job. Many of them were made in the 90's with 263x240 screens, often monochrome. They weren't even remotely similar to the sci-fis, that, at the same time, portrayed VR helmets as Matrix/Holodeck gates.

And even the recent ones had around 30° FoV, looking like a tiny mobile screen hanged half a meter from your eyes, that also had to distort their view when turning, since obviously if it doesn't cover your FoV, it can't have 1:1 headtracking.

I'm not saying that this particular one will succeed, but with all the high def lightweight screens nowadays, the time is about right for another try.

I think you misunderstood. It has nothing to do with anything but screens being to close to the eyes that causes eyestrain.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

They claim that it has some support for glasses and that they'll try their hardest to let consumers use glasses with the product, so I'm gonna get myself a set of Gunnars so I don't burn my fucking retina off after a few hours playing. Other than that, fuck you Cliff Bleszkinski you shit stain, and I will be keeping tabs on this as it develops.

 

[Alterego-X]

I think you misunderstood. It has nothing to do with anything but screens being to close to the eyes that causes eyestrain.

It HAS TO do with anything, because eyestrain doesn't just magically happen from proximity to certain objects, some physical phenomena actually has to cause it, otherwise we would all have eyestrains from our eyeglasses, contact lenses, hair bangs, baseball caps, and noses.

It might be a bad frequency, or bad 3D that makes your eyes crossed instead of focused in the 3D distance, or even something that LCD specifically emits, (in that case the first working VR will need to se other screen types), but phrasing it as "proximiy to screens causes headache" sounds about as unscientific as "proximity to rats causes bubonic plague", or "proximity to american soil causes fatness".

 

[Smiles]

this thing would be awful for me... I get terrible headaches whenever I turn my head... this thing would cause me great and unnecessary pain.

other than that it sounds like a cool idea.

 

[Strazdas]

I will support VR only then I can control everything with my brain and not with my body. Anything in between would be bad because you see the virtual world, but move in the real world.

Basically this.

But if there was a game good for VR minecraft is the one. Imagine the posibilities.

 

[surg3n]

VR in the home just won't work in the way we'd want. I have a VR headset (VR920), and it's really not a case of turning 360 degrees, because that's not practical. I think that driving games, and flight games are the best use of this technology. If your sitting, then you could be sitting in a virtual cockpit and it's a more natural perspective I guess you'd say. My headset works best with flight simulators, in fact the most effective head tracking I've seen is in a little demo that I made, just flying through a sea of rotating cubes. For a first person shooter, or any game where you'd need to rotate in full circles - well the technology is not quite there yet.

The headset does look a lot more comfortable, and less like something the Borg would weld to your face than the VR920 though. I guess we'll see the bad implimentations and gimmocky titles for this thing first, but there will be some awesome games I'm sure. I think the new Mechwarrior game would really be a great title for this... get one of those headsets, and one of the special joystick controllers, and you'd be in mech warfare heaven.

 

[Alterego-X]

Gamers if the mouse would be invented today:

- "I have bad eye-hand coordination, I bet it will give me a headache."

- "What about people who don't have hands? I know a guy who doesn't have hands, I think they are missing out a huge segment of the market with this."

- "That's just clumsy, if I want to select the 8th row in a list, I will press button 8, I don't need to waggle around on a virtual version of my monitor on my desk."

- "Will it be 1:1? If yes, then I don't have space for it on my desk, and if no, I don't think it can really feel like you are simulating the monitor's surface just with a few millimeters of motion. "

- " I refuse to support direct monitor interaction, until they make it feel like I'm actually touching the letters on my screen! No alternatives!"

- "Meh. I saw better in Minority Report."

- "How will I control a game character's movement and vision with it at the same time? Or do they expect me to multitask using a keyboard AND this thing together???"

VR in the home just won't work in the way we'd want. I have a VR headset (VR920), and it's really not a case of turning 360 degrees, because that's not practical.

For a first person shooter, or any game where you'd need to rotate in full circles - well the technology is not quite there yet.

That's why you should turn around with your controller, not with a head tracker. The head tracker is for looking around with your eyes, as if they wouldn't be nailed to your chest.

I'm pretty sure that you do have to rotate in full circles in a racing game, or a flight simulator, unless your path is a straight line, your car/airplane needs to move around. But if you wouldn't expect an airplane to turn left as soon as you moye your head left, why would you expect your legs to do it?

Of course equivalating head tracking with body movement wouldn't work, especially not on 1:1. You would turn 90° left to turn at a corner, and then what? Keep your head there until you want to turn right 90°, and hope real hard that there won't be another left turn first?

 

[bluegate]

It HAS TO do with anything, because eyestrain doesn't just magically happen from proximity to certain objects, some physical phenomena actually has to cause it, otherwise we would all have eyestrains from our eyeglasses, contact lenses, hair bangs, baseball caps, and noses.

Focusing on something for extended periods of time will put strain on your eyes. Focusing on close by objects is more straining than focusing on objects that are farther away.

Strain caused by focusing on an object a certain distance from your eyes is a common phenomenon, usually this strain is relieved by looking at something closer or farther away. If you are wearing closed goggles only an inch or so away from your eyes, you are removing this stress release valve.

Just over the course of the day, try and keep track of how many times you refocus your eyes by looking away from your computer screen ( assuming you use your computer for extended periods of time ). Or just play on a handheld console, keeping it in front of your eyes for extended periods of time, you will find yourself putting the handheld down and refocusing your eyes by looking at stuff farther away.