When will we see VR Games go beyond the gimmick phase?

[ZeD [taken 0]]

SNIP

That it has a trigger does not make it a gun.

Of course I don't speak for everyone, that is something that shouldn't have to be said. I am of course speaking just simply for myself.

Can I reach out in a game and feel the texture of the wall that I'm walking next to? Can I pick that mug up off the table and tell whether it is china or tin? No I can't. They can tell me I'm holding or touching something but can't tell me what it is by my sense of touch.

Smell as well. I should be able to smell if food is burnt or perfectly cooked. And yes, I should be able to taste that as well.

Sorry but I really don't feel part of those worlds at the moment. The Flying Spaghetti Monster itself could come and tell me that it does, and that still wouldn't change the fact that I do not. Every time I notice something like that I am reminded that I'm not actually there.

Sounds like you have a crippling lack of imagination, dude. My condolences.

And whenever someone says "it's like I'm there" it's not like they literally believe they're there.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

I think that improvements in technology will be the driving force. Not just with headsets and graphics cards that can actually support VR getting cheaper, but with miniature 4k resolution screens becoming a common thing as well. Also, I think smartphones will have an impact, maybe as soon as two years from now. Imagine when smartphones get high bandwidth USB type C connections and also have 4k resolution 6 inch screens... There are already apps you can download to play PC games in VR in google cardboard (complete with head tracking glory) so the potential is already there, albeit in its infancy.

The only problem, really, is the quality of the experience we have right now. My biggest gripe is that there are few headsets with which to slide your phone into that provide an adequate field of view (this is improving, however, as the new bobo vr z4 has a fantastic 120 degree fov and offers loads of adjustability) and the pixels per inch ratio of smartphones are too low and give a screen door effect.

With the natural evolution of technology (better resolutions, more bandwidth, better graphics cards, etc) VR on a mobile device will one day suddenly be an easy, cheap and convenient option. Google is even working on an improved android VR project called Daydream, which is so high quality that no current smartphone in existence meets their standards to run it. But in the future, many phone companies (most of them have already signed up as partners) will start bringing out phones that have it as a feature just like what happened with the waves of phones with cameras, touch screens, gps and now fingerprint scanners.

By then, of course, many other traditional VR headsets will have been released. The technology will have been fine tuned and hopefully less expensive. More games will be able to support it natively and for those that don't, there are programs and apps to simply force them to.

 

[Souplex]

Around the same time we see motion controls and CD add-ons go past the gimmick phase.
Gimmicks do not go beyond the gimmick phase.

 

[mad825]

But because it all feels so real, it also causes you to really react like it's real. One game I haven't tried yet is The Brookhaven Experiment, you should see the reactions people have while playing. Poor girl goes hysterical (you can even see the gun shaking) and even the guy who's played it before still gets shaky and sweaty (skip to 15:15 for footage from his first time, it's great)

It's called the Fight or Flight response. There are many games in which you can experience this response. First of all, you must like the game that you are playing, then play it on a large monitor in a dark room with no interruptions. If you are in a nervous disposition (like standing) then fore mentioned effects will be greatly exaggerated.

The girl that's screeching? Real mature. I highly doubt she'll be featuring on Feminism Today. Not trying to disrespect but it's not the best of examples.

 

[meiam]

It's been out for like a month or two now? Think back a month or two after the wii or even the Kinect came out, how pretty much every day most major video game site ran one or two "look at the cool things the wii/kinect does" yet they both ended up failing and being relegated to forgotten gimmick land. Now look at the vive/occlus, I see maybe one story about them every week. There's a new game for them every day on steam, but none ever get talked about.

This iteration of VR already failed. Heck, calling it VR makes about as much sense as calling the board with wheel (This [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-balancing_scooter] )"hoverboard". There trying to sell you the dream before it's actually possible to make by swapping the real things for somethings that's not even really that close.

VR is just way to limited in what it can do, it's pretty much just simulator (car, spaceship and walking), it brings nothing to the table for every other type of game. Some people will love it but it'll never see wide adoption, and because of that there's never going to be any game that takes full advantage of it (especially since a game that take full advantage of it would be either unplayable or extremely boring on a regular monitor, so if you commit to VR your going after an extremely small user base).

 

[Yoshi178]

i don't mind VR at all. i actually like the idea. but it's not the game changer that people make it out to be.

all you're doing is just gluing a tv to your face pretty much.

You really haven't tried VR like the Vive, have you?

It's really not just "gluing a TV to your face".

i haven't tried the vive no. in fact i hadn't even heard of it until today while i was volunteering at Oz Comic Con.

i have tried this matrix type game on Oculous Rift though and that was literally just gluing a tv to my face. it was fun sure. but i was still FULLY aware i was holding an xbox one controller while i played it.

 

[Vigormortis]

i haven't tried the vive no. in fact i hadn't even heard of it until today while i was volunteering at Oz Comic Con.

i have tried this matrix type game on Oculous Rift though and that was literally just gluing a tv to my face. it was fun sure. but i was still FULLY aware i was holding an xbox one controller while i played it.

That's the difference between the Rift and the Vive.

With the Rift, you're seated in a chair with limited tracking and control input limited to standard control methods, like the Xbox controller.

With the Vive, you're seated, standing, or walking around with superbly precise tracking and utilizing a control input method that directly mimics where you're hands and arms are.

It all comes down to the concept of presence[footnote]Which is a fascinating topic. I recommend looking it up on Google. There have been some interesting studies and keynote speeches on the matter recently.[/footnote]. With room-scale VR, your mind instinctively resorts to the feeling of actually being there, in the VR space. You consciously know you're just standing in your room with the device on your head, but you feel like you're moving through the VR space. The disconnect between what your body is feeling and what your eyes are seeing (and hands are feeling) is lost when the visual perfectly syncs up with your physical movements. You can see the abyss just beyond that cliff, and you consciously know it's not really there, but your subconscious kicks in and it tells you, "Yeah, but maybe stand back, just in case." I've already experienced a tingling in my legs, caused by a small bout of acrophobia, when I stood too close to a deep hole in a VR game.

Honestly, I could sit here for hours trying to type out an explanation on how it feels to use the Vive, but I won't ever do it justice. From the outside it doesn't look like how it feels. The only real option is to find a way to try it for yourself. It's not unlike trying to explain to someone how it feels to, say, go sky-diving, or to float in zero-G in orbit. You can go into as many details as you want, using as many descriptors as you please, but you can never really convey what it's really like. It's the sort of thing you have to experience first hand.

I wasn't entirely sold on VR as anything too innovative or profound when the Rift was first demonstrated. I was impressed by the tech, but wasn't thrilled or left in awe. But, after trying the Vive, I did a complete 180. So much so that I've actually devoted a large portion of my time to trying to develop software for it.