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HTC Vive and SteamVR hands-on impressions
- Thread starter ashecitism
- Start date
You have no idea how much I want this. Will buy day one most likely. Probably will be stuck with my old GTX 590 so I won't be able to play the best stuff at max settings but it should be enough for at least some smaller stuff. A good start anyways. Not enough money to upgrade my GPU at this time.
What API and GPU hardware are you talking about?
And yet everyone seems thrilled
Valve outlined the VR functionality of Vulkan, the next generation of OpenGL, of which they are on the board of. And most of AMD's VR solutions for Liquid VR came from Valve's recommendations.
ashecitism
Member
First time I'm hearing about this. Source?
Oppo
Member
this was my read of it as well.
Personally I wouldn't have expected it last week but Oculus now ranks #3 on my desired VR HMD list after Morpheus and Vive.
Oculus doesn't have a standard controller. The only thing it might be dominant within is a slightly higher res screen at this point compared to competition.
Though Oculus are the only ones doing proper Mobile VR at this point.
Can mods please tag you as the vr dude or something.
Good to hear. I'm almost positive, at this point, that i'll be going the valve route, when it's feasible to do so. Doubt i'll be an early adopter, but they have their stuff together.
If Valve really pushes this product and service via Steam (which they will), I can totally see them gaining a much larger marketshare then Oculus. Especially if they release their product before Oculus gets a product released. Even MORE so if Valve pulls out Half-Life 3 or some other big ticket game to market the product with.
Valve is in the position to "win" here in my opinion but it's still a bit to early to call it. I'm definitely excited and competition should help the market with better quality products.
Valve is in the position to "win" here in my opinion but it's still a bit to early to call it. I'm definitely excited and competition should help the market with better quality products.
You mean Oculus?
Carmack needs to go to valve asap.
It's not VR for one. It's early, early, early AR.
Among gamers, I think this is most likely. When people say 'competition is good', I'm getting the vibe that what they really mean is 'I want Valve to win'. That company just has way too much of a following among PC gamers to be overcome.
But whatever. As long as we get good VR.
Bomber Bob
Banned
yup
But Valve winning is more or less PC as a platform growing using VR as means to that end. Does it really matter in the end if it is Oculus, HTC or someone else drawing the longest straw? I recall Valve sharing tech with Oculus in the past too and whatever Lighthouse exactly is will probably help Oculus too. Any following Valve has is well deserved.
Because then gamers can root for a guy they like without rooting for a Facebook-owned company. It doesn't have anything to do with rationality, I think.
I'm saying that I don't think people are being entirely honest when they say 'competition is good'. What they mean is 'I'm glad this company I like is coming in and I'm gonna root for them'. Its like in sports, people say they want good competition and good games, but nobody ever complains if their favourite team dominates.
The reason I've always been high on valve is because they enable me to be competitive. I wouldn't have a career in VR if it wasn't for valve, in all honesty.
I like valve because, more than any other company, they seem intent on empowering me. And for good reason - their monetization is predicated on my own success.
Well said and I completely agree. In terms of VR competition will definitely be good to bring down the costs of these headsets. What excites me personally about Valve's headset over oculus' is that it comes with some way to interact with objects with each hand. Oculus can definitely develop something similar if it takes off with Valve's headset and that's a good thing. I've said it in other threads and I'm sure it's not cost effective but eventually I want to have gloves that breath enough to not give you sweaty hands, but made of a material that would allow a full range of movement but made so that the material could tense up when holding something like a bat in a virtual environment, to give the illusion of touch.
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
He's knee deep in the mire of mobile VR atm, he's not going anywhere. I bet FB pays better too (not that he's in it for that).
RadarScope1
Member
This sounds cumbersome and prohibitive for someone like me. I'm not a PC gamer so the kit alone is a cost barrier. And I won't be able to hang two black boxes up in my living room. Won't fly with the wife, and sounds like some work. Add the headset and two controllers and I'm looking at a couple grand, right?
I have a PS4, so while Morpheus might not be as cutting edge, it's a more appealing entry point - especially for something we aren't really sure will actually become a "thing." I have a lot of faith in Valve, though, and their presence in this space can only be a huge plus.
I have a PS4, so while Morpheus might not be as cutting edge, it's a more appealing entry point - especially for something we aren't really sure will actually become a "thing." I have a lot of faith in Valve, though, and their presence in this space can only be a huge plus.
Marty Chinn
Member
I might be missing something, but how do you walk around and not walk into something in your room? I assume most people aren't going to have an empty room dedicated to this.
Your walls show up in the demo/game as a grid if you get too close.
Marty Chinn
Member
What about tables, desks, chairs, and other things in your room?
The positional stuff is optional. But yeah, just clean up your shit, move over a table or whatever. the HMD will display the bounds of the area via in game wire frame mesh that appears when you come close to the outside bounds. So in no time, you get used to the space thats available. Just dont have any pet kittens running around. (in other words, clean up your shit before jumping in VR, or dont use the lighthouse towers.)
Here's another from an android enthusiast site Phandroid
http://phandroid.com/2015/03/04/htc-vive-review/
http://phandroid.com/2015/03/04/htc-vive-review/
We don't know. The demo is set up in a pretty empty room.
I am pretty sure you are encouraged to have an empty 15 x 15 ft of space. obviously you cant have tables and chairs within that space.
RadarScope1
Member
That's the other part that's not feasible for me. I don't have a whole room I can dedicate to it, assuming that's what you'll need to do.
Marty Chinn
Member
Is that realistic though for the average person? People had enough trouble trying to find enough space for Kinect.
15x15 is the upper limit. If you want to walk around with the headset on, it is the maximum area that the sensors can cover. It doesn't necessarily have to be there, unless the application actually uses all that space as input. The issue people had with kinect was that it required a certain minimum distance to work. I believe even that was drastically reduced with the xbox one.
ashecitism
Member
Objectively Bad Opinion
Member
What GPU did Valve use to demo stuffs?
These titles seem sort of clickbaity. Nobody knows what the current prototype of the Oculus Rift is, except for those inside Oculus.
I'm personally waiting for reviews of launch hardware before making any judgments.
They are comparing oculus' last demoed prototype to valves last demoed prototype. Oculus showed their latest proto at ces.
If your point is that oculus has unseen technology, i guarantee you valve has other, more experimental protos unseen as well.
Razorback
Member
I didn't realize that you needed to place a bunch of trackers all over your room for this to work.
I think that just made me lean a bit more towards the Oculus right now. That has just the one camera, and if I want to pick it up at take it somewhere it's not such a hassle.
It's pretty obvious they are talking about the most recent publicly testable version, just as the HTC Vive isn't a final product but just the current testable version.
The author hasn't tried Crescent Bay (at least that's what I gather from him mentioning every other prototype except Crescent Bay).