Marion Cobretti
Member
Got to try Morpheus once, and Oculus 3 times, here are some fairly detailed impressions.
Im sure you guys have already read about these demos, so I wanted to talk about the things that really stood out to me.
Ok, so Morpheus
I tried out the Castle demo. Of all the VR stuff I tried out, this was by far the best. Although thats really due to the nature of the demo, it wasnt necessarily better than anything else on a technical level, but it gave me by far the most immersive experience.
Just a quick note, you have a move controller in each hand, and the triggers make your hands in the demo clench up and make a fist.
Initially, when the put the headset on, you notice theres some tunnel vision going on, but after about 20 seconds, your eyes kinda just lock in, and it just CLICKS so hard. Suddenly, it feels natural. Factor in some quality headphones, and there really is a strong sense of How do I put this I guess presence. You really do feel as if youre inhabiting this courtyard environment youre in, even if the graphics are pretty meh.
Honestly, the moment it all clicks, it really feels whimsical and incredible. Its just quite a memorable first time experience to say the least. I say this as a 30 year old.
Ok, so, I start looking around, and low and behold, this shit totally checks out. I look to my right, I look above me, I look in front of me again, and kinda just take it all in. Its so nuts. Then I very quickly do a 180 to see if theres anything behind me, and boom, there is. Mind blown. The level of immersion if just bonkers.
I then turn back around, and look to my left, and theres a sword rack just chilling there. I reach over, and just to see if it works, I slowly twist my wrist so that my thumb is essentially pointing down, and I grab the sword, and slowly twist my wrist back to point the sword right side up.
At this point Im thinking this is pretty insane. Im slowly moving the sword around, not really swinging it, but kinda just swinging it around elegantly like a wand, or a maestro.
I then decide to see if its possible to hand the sword over to my left hand. I try it, and it works. Suddenly, I feel something that I genuinely havent felt since I was 12 and played Mario 64 for the first time. Everything about this moment felt absolutely revolutionary.
I then start to beat on this dummy in front of me, and all the motions Im trying for the most part are working pretty well. Jabbing motions, hooks, you name it, it works. Within a few seconds, I lost interest in beating on this thing, and wanna just get back to the experience of controlling myself within this environment.
So I take a step forward, and viola, Im taking a step forward. Side step, step back, walk in tiny circles while moving my head around, it all works, and feels pretty damn natural. At this point I could care less about fighting, and am too entranced but the ability to just exist in this virtual environment. I look around, I duck, I turn around and just start walking away, at which point I crashed into a real life wall, but it didnt matter, all of it was just so damn immersive. I crashed into the wall a couple more times just because the sensation of walking felt SO INCREDIBLE. I cant imagine how insane its gonna feel to actually run. Holy shit. Such an exciting thought.
Any ways, suddenly, Im holding a mace, and Im just swinging it around, everything again, just feeling pretty natural when all is said and done. Then Im magically holding a crossbow and just shooting around without any trouble. Having perfect aim like in RE4 Wii.
Then the massive dragon drops, which wouldve been awesome if it looked cool and the graphics didnt suck, but the scale was still great, and just gave a good idea of what it would feel like to stand next to some giant creature.
Demo then ends. A really special experience to say the least.
I then rush over to Oculus cause at that point, nothing stops this train.
The Oculus demos, while still very much awesome, are nowhere near as immersive due to fact that youre sitting, and using an xbox controller.
Valkyrie
So I get to check out the Valkyrie demo, and its pretty holy shit. Youre just flying around in a space ship, and I guess youre supposed to hunt someone down and shoot at them, but I was just having more fun flying around in space.
So I basically just put myself on a trajectory that would have me going in circles around earth, while upside down. So because the cockpit was all glass, while I was flying in circles, I could look straight up, and see the earth in all its glory directly above me, and when Id look straight, I would just see a bunch of asteroids and just ultimate outer space. The 3D and sense of scale was really fantastic. I then realized that like skydiving, I was really only looking up the whole time, so then I realize I should look down, holy shit, my body is in all out spacesuit and theres full force instruments all around me, it was sooo cool. I then look to my left, my right, and again, the magical whats behind me, and again, it all checks out. VERY VERY immersive. I screamed out Shit! so many times the Oculus people had to tell me to stop.
Super Hot
Afterwords, I got to check out Super Hot. This one was neat for all kinds of reasons that showed so much potential. This demo is essentially all about bullet time. Youre walking down a hallway while 3 men shoot at you. When you stop walking, the bullet time essentially starts. While in bullet time, its so rad, cause youre able to see in every direction, and see the trajectory of the bullets that are coming at your, or have already passed by you. Basically, it does a fantastic job at giving you that sense of being in the Matrix, or the Quicksilver scene in DOFP. Lots of fun to experience.
Also, while I was in this demo, there was a statue on display, that made the idea of Virtual Museums such a blatant no brainer.
Alien
Man, ok, basically, this one was a little too rad. Imagine youre basically inside a very well lit Ridley Scott movie, but with crappier art design. Still really moody and just has awesome atmosphere. I cant imagine how exhilarating a game like Doom could be in VR. Wandering around trying to avoid the Alien, all while being in this super creepy ass space ship. was just soooo much fun.
In conclusion, I really feel that VR is the most impressive tech weve gotten since the internet. Feels like its gonna have even more impact on the world than smartphones. Just my hunch. But the sheer amount of potential is just mind shattering staggering.
On another note, and I hope I dont come off as a fanboy when saying this, but it kinda saddens me that it isnt Mario ushering in all this amazing VR goodness. We desperately need some Rez, OutRun 2, and some MGS VR Missions.
In any case, Im very excited for the future. Thanks for reading.
Im sure you guys have already read about these demos, so I wanted to talk about the things that really stood out to me.
Ok, so Morpheus
I tried out the Castle demo. Of all the VR stuff I tried out, this was by far the best. Although thats really due to the nature of the demo, it wasnt necessarily better than anything else on a technical level, but it gave me by far the most immersive experience.
Just a quick note, you have a move controller in each hand, and the triggers make your hands in the demo clench up and make a fist.
Initially, when the put the headset on, you notice theres some tunnel vision going on, but after about 20 seconds, your eyes kinda just lock in, and it just CLICKS so hard. Suddenly, it feels natural. Factor in some quality headphones, and there really is a strong sense of How do I put this I guess presence. You really do feel as if youre inhabiting this courtyard environment youre in, even if the graphics are pretty meh.
Honestly, the moment it all clicks, it really feels whimsical and incredible. Its just quite a memorable first time experience to say the least. I say this as a 30 year old.
Ok, so, I start looking around, and low and behold, this shit totally checks out. I look to my right, I look above me, I look in front of me again, and kinda just take it all in. Its so nuts. Then I very quickly do a 180 to see if theres anything behind me, and boom, there is. Mind blown. The level of immersion if just bonkers.
I then turn back around, and look to my left, and theres a sword rack just chilling there. I reach over, and just to see if it works, I slowly twist my wrist so that my thumb is essentially pointing down, and I grab the sword, and slowly twist my wrist back to point the sword right side up.
At this point Im thinking this is pretty insane. Im slowly moving the sword around, not really swinging it, but kinda just swinging it around elegantly like a wand, or a maestro.
I then decide to see if its possible to hand the sword over to my left hand. I try it, and it works. Suddenly, I feel something that I genuinely havent felt since I was 12 and played Mario 64 for the first time. Everything about this moment felt absolutely revolutionary.
I then start to beat on this dummy in front of me, and all the motions Im trying for the most part are working pretty well. Jabbing motions, hooks, you name it, it works. Within a few seconds, I lost interest in beating on this thing, and wanna just get back to the experience of controlling myself within this environment.
So I take a step forward, and viola, Im taking a step forward. Side step, step back, walk in tiny circles while moving my head around, it all works, and feels pretty damn natural. At this point I could care less about fighting, and am too entranced but the ability to just exist in this virtual environment. I look around, I duck, I turn around and just start walking away, at which point I crashed into a real life wall, but it didnt matter, all of it was just so damn immersive. I crashed into the wall a couple more times just because the sensation of walking felt SO INCREDIBLE. I cant imagine how insane its gonna feel to actually run. Holy shit. Such an exciting thought.
Any ways, suddenly, Im holding a mace, and Im just swinging it around, everything again, just feeling pretty natural when all is said and done. Then Im magically holding a crossbow and just shooting around without any trouble. Having perfect aim like in RE4 Wii.
Then the massive dragon drops, which wouldve been awesome if it looked cool and the graphics didnt suck, but the scale was still great, and just gave a good idea of what it would feel like to stand next to some giant creature.
Demo then ends. A really special experience to say the least.
I then rush over to Oculus cause at that point, nothing stops this train.
The Oculus demos, while still very much awesome, are nowhere near as immersive due to fact that youre sitting, and using an xbox controller.
Valkyrie
So I get to check out the Valkyrie demo, and its pretty holy shit. Youre just flying around in a space ship, and I guess youre supposed to hunt someone down and shoot at them, but I was just having more fun flying around in space.
So I basically just put myself on a trajectory that would have me going in circles around earth, while upside down. So because the cockpit was all glass, while I was flying in circles, I could look straight up, and see the earth in all its glory directly above me, and when Id look straight, I would just see a bunch of asteroids and just ultimate outer space. The 3D and sense of scale was really fantastic. I then realized that like skydiving, I was really only looking up the whole time, so then I realize I should look down, holy shit, my body is in all out spacesuit and theres full force instruments all around me, it was sooo cool. I then look to my left, my right, and again, the magical whats behind me, and again, it all checks out. VERY VERY immersive. I screamed out Shit! so many times the Oculus people had to tell me to stop.
Super Hot
Afterwords, I got to check out Super Hot. This one was neat for all kinds of reasons that showed so much potential. This demo is essentially all about bullet time. Youre walking down a hallway while 3 men shoot at you. When you stop walking, the bullet time essentially starts. While in bullet time, its so rad, cause youre able to see in every direction, and see the trajectory of the bullets that are coming at your, or have already passed by you. Basically, it does a fantastic job at giving you that sense of being in the Matrix, or the Quicksilver scene in DOFP. Lots of fun to experience.
Also, while I was in this demo, there was a statue on display, that made the idea of Virtual Museums such a blatant no brainer.
Alien
Man, ok, basically, this one was a little too rad. Imagine youre basically inside a very well lit Ridley Scott movie, but with crappier art design. Still really moody and just has awesome atmosphere. I cant imagine how exhilarating a game like Doom could be in VR. Wandering around trying to avoid the Alien, all while being in this super creepy ass space ship. was just soooo much fun.
In conclusion, I really feel that VR is the most impressive tech weve gotten since the internet. Feels like its gonna have even more impact on the world than smartphones. Just my hunch. But the sheer amount of potential is just mind shattering staggering.
On another note, and I hope I dont come off as a fanboy when saying this, but it kinda saddens me that it isnt Mario ushering in all this amazing VR goodness. We desperately need some Rez, OutRun 2, and some MGS VR Missions.
In any case, Im very excited for the future. Thanks for reading.
