Digital Sportspage

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

Well finally, pre-orders have been announced. They open Wednesday at 11am EST. Still no price or release date other than "Q1." Maybe those will be announced on Wednesday? $400+ and shipping in a month or two??

I will be definitely be ordering.

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

Continuing my one-man conversation, my pre-ordered is placed, but my wallet is $600 lighter.

Shipping in March.

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

I saw initial KickStarter donators are getting theirs for free. Pretty nice deal by the Rift people. Let us know how the final unit is once it arrives.

_________________
XBLive Gamertag - Diablo25
PSN Name - EPDiablo25

What was the minimum KS donation? Kind of trippy if you tossed $100 into the kitty on the first day Kickstarter accepted donations and received a free unit as a gift.

_________________
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles

XBL Gamertag: pk4425

It's only for backers who donated enough to get the initial KS headset. I think that was $300 or more. Still a pretty sweet reward.

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

Guess I'll skip it for now. $600 for that and waiting to see what additional games get supported is like playing the stock market.

I always said when they opened preorders, I'd buy one that day.

Then they open preorders when I really can't spend any extra money.

Damn them!

The Forte VFX1(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFX1_Headgear) virtual reality headset was released 20 years ago and sold for a retail price around $600. I remember trying one at Comdex with the PC games Flight Unlimited and Magic Carpet, and I almost bought one on the spot for like $800. It seemed like it was going to be the future, especially for games like flight sims. Then nothing really like it for years. It is interesting that there are so many sites and forums complaining about the $600 price tag of the consumer Rift, when realistically that is a great price if you consider what it is delivering in comparison to 20 years ago along with inflation, I don't see it as that big of an issue. I definitely want to get one for racing sims, but I am going to have to upgrade my PC first. By the way, if you click on the link below you can download and run the Rift compatibility tool to find out if your PC is Rift ready.

https://shop.oculus.com/en-us/cart/

Also, the site now says Expected Ship Date: May 2016. Damn....

I think the Oculus Rift will be twice as successful as The Forte VFX1.

_________________
XBL Gamertag: JayhawkerStL

I can't buy one of these without trying it, last thing I want to do is drop $600 and find out it make me puke every time I use it.

_________________
Follow Me on:
YouTube - www.youtube.com/maxpixelation/
Twitch - twitch.tv/maximumpixelation
Twitter - twitter.com/maxpixelation

Are the different HMDs going to be interoperable with the same content?

Curious what the goal of the product is. More immersive experience with high performance (PC or console) games?

Then you're relegating it to a niche within a niche.

Even if there's a lot of non gaming content which would have broader appeal (say something like a holodeck experience for people who want to do virtual visits of places or even real estate), the price needs to come way down and the headset needs to be way less obtrusive.

Maybe Samsung will get some traction, since people won't have to buy rendering hardware since it will work with phones. But what kind of content?

If VR becomes relegated to "gamer" gear, they can kiss broader ambitions goodbye.

Presumably FB envisions far more than gaming to have invested in OR. Or maybe they had some more money to burn after wasting $19 billion on WhatsApp.

I think I once saw someone from FB on CNBC crowing about virtual shopping or some such nonsense.

Tacked on VR headset support to games to most games will always be pretty lousy, no matter what the hardware, so I wouldn't wait on that. You really want things specifically designed for it, or things that have a constant frames of reference like a cockpit. Otherwise it's inevitably disorienting. Racing and flying games could be really awesome with just a little tweaking, FPS games are much much harder. I've seen comments that people playing Dirt Rally with a Rift get much better times because they have a much better feel for the space of the track and the attitude of the car without even realizing it, even if the effective resolution and high level visual clarity would be less than a fancy triple-monitor setup that hardcore PC racers use.

Of course none of this even mentions the 3d hand tracking controllers that makes everything even more VR specific.

One of the games bundled with the Rift is a 3d platformer like Mario 64, which people say works amazingly well, and that's basically just a traditional video game. So while you want ground level VR consideration, it can also be video-gamey content that's not a simulator that'll feel more immersive

Another thing are the third-party "VR injectors", which work without anything from the game developers. People have very mixed responses to how that fares in different games. Otherwise there's also virtual cinema modes that will instantly work with everything, which can be very very cool and actually hope to use quite a bit even for XB1 games.

Beyond games, John Carmack recently tweeted that he predicts less than half of time people spend in the headset will be used for gaming. I personally think the potential for virtual presence is pretty amazing, ie feeling like you are at a sporting even, or landmark, whatever. There are a bunch of companies already with products on this, and the NBA already did one such live broadcast of courtside seats. I also tried a virtual desktop on my PC with the DK2, and that was pretty amazing seeing my computer desktop appear as a huge, translucent wrap-around screen like a sci-fi movie. The DK2 resolution wasn't quite up to the task when you're dealing with a lot of numbers and text, so we'll see about the consumer product.

It's a high price tag for early adopter stuff, but I just think it's really really cool. If I had a new Samsung smart phone, buying the GearVR headset for $100 would be a no brainer for all the VR video stuff.

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

I guess you can play around with Google cardboard for the non gaming content. Though it's funny that one of the companies making Cardboard viewers is the old Viewmaster which used to have those discs with stereoscopic pictures.

It'll be surprising if VR or augmented reality HMDs like Hololens becomes widespread. Most people will be happy to look at a few short videos or play simple games on their phones to kill some free time during their day.

Sure gamers will find time at home to boot up the console or their gaming rig and put on an HMD but presumably, FB hopes for more than gamer customers for this.

Well the Oculus Rift is here. MY Oculus Rift is still "1-3 weeks" away, but I pre-ordered in the opening minutes so it should be quick.

There are lots of reviews out there today, and most seem pretty positive. The headset is supposed to be great, but the hand tracking controllers are still a few months away and the VR-specific software is definitely a mixed bag.

I can't wait for mine. I have a new 970 graphics card to install, and I'm really looking forward to some VR games, but also others like Dirt Rally should be sick.

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

Been waiting for your impressions. That sucks that you didn't get it today. I just watched the review over at TheVerge.com and they love it.

_________________
XBLive Gamertag - Diablo25
PSN Name - EPDiablo25

Did you get yours yet Naples???

_________________
XBLive Gamertag - Diablo25
PSN Name - EPDiablo25

I'm still waiting. There was some shipping/component snafu last week resulting in a good old fashioned feces frenzy last week among Rift buyers.

I preordered about 5-6 minutes after the store page went live (that was the best I could do with furious refreshing LOL). Embarrassingly, Oculus seems to have only shipped preorders to about the +2 minute mark even though it "launched" last week.

My fingers are crossed that mine will ship in the next few days, but I would expect it to ship next week at worst.

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

I forget which company made the game but they made a VR game that plays on your fears and one of them is walking out on a ledge of a skyscraper to save a cat. I would be all over this tech if they made a VR version of Bloodborne or Dark Souls III.

The only issue with experiences like that is many people won't have big spaces to play in their home, and having to constantly stop and turn around because you are hitting a real life wall breaks immersion and you probably won't to play that software for long stretches.

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

Damn, I need some impressions!

_________________
XBLive Gamertag - Diablo25
PSN Name - EPDiablo25

Rift shipping continues to be a shitshow. They just updated everyone's order status, and my new estimated ship date is early May.

Mind you I preordered ASAP, getting my order in 6 minutes after the official launch time. I was originally quoted a March ship date.

Very disappointing.

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

Bummer, Naples. Sorry about that.

Here's a video of a dude playing Assetto Corsa with an Oculus Rift. Pretty wild.

_________________
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles

XBL Gamertag: pk4425

Those mixed reality videos are pretty badass, although when that guy plays he's not seeing his real hands. He's taking gameplay footage and splicing it with recorded footage of his IRL steering wheel.

Either way, I can't wait to play Project Cars and Dirt on my Rift. Assetto Corsa is pretty tough, although I have that one too. The visual clarity down the track still won't be as good as a sharp, large monitor, but it'll be solid and the feeling of being in the car more than makes up for it.

This guy likes it for sim racing. http://www.riftracer.co.uk/reviews/ocul ... rspective/

_________________
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;