So... Invited to Valve, & got a job offer from crytek :D

[Krejlooc]

Been a while since I last posted here, IIRC. I've been working with a few people on a VR mod for Half Life 2 that uses various technologies to provide positional tracking of all your limbs. We were covered on sites like Eurogamer recently. A video of some random dude trying our mod on youtube.

We released a version compatible with the Oculus Rift DK2 a few weeks back, which is partially what caused a bunch of sites to cover our mod, which wound up being a pretty big opportunity for us. A day after Eurogamer ran a story calling us "the future of first person shooters" we were hit up by Cevat Yerli of Crytek asking for us to send in our CVs as they were interested in hiring us for employment. Naturally, we freaked the fuck out. We were pretty confident that Crytek would be the best thing to happen to us, until, a day later, Joe Ludwig from Valve hit us up and asked us to come to Seattle to interview with their VR team.

Which leads us to now - after arranging things with Paul Kirschbaum we've got it all set and are intending to fly up to seattle by the end of the month.

We're just a little 3-person team, trying to support as much VR stuff as possible. We've already got positional tracking of two hands with the Razer Hydras, but the final version will have positional tracking of 5 points (2 hands, chest, plus feet) with Sixense STEM plus Omnidirectional Treadmill support (Virtuix Omni and Cyberith Virtualizer), along with PrioVR support and Steam Controller support. We've been in contact with all these companies working our tech into the mod.

Extremely exciting stuff. Just felt like dropping a line to say, no, I'm not dead, and yes, I'm still working with this VR stuff.

[Violent By Design]

good luck mane.

[Fragems]

Congratulations . Good luck with the job interview and keep us posted.

[Krejlooc]

Thanks! We're all extremely excited. Our original plan was to eventually sell the mod with Valve's blessing ala Black Mesa, and that might still be in the cards. We're not sure exactly what will happen. Another venue open is working with the military - Virtuix just got a rather large military contract and we're one of the few teams in the world that has experience working with omnidirectional treadmills, which would make for natural employment.

There are a ton of job opportunities in VR right now. Example: I got a job offer at Steam Dev Days at Condition One, who is doing a bunch of VR film stuff with omnidirectional cameras. This stuff is ripe for people looking to make a career change.

EDIT: Bonus perk of working at valve would be getting to move to Seattle. My trip there in January left a huge impression on me, beautiful part of the country and very nice folks there. Plus one of my best friends lives in seattle.

[Erik_Twice]

Congraturations!

[Exhuminator]

Do any of the current VR headsets support eye tracking yet? As in, when you look to the left with your eyes only-the camera pans in that direction? All demos I've seen so far only moved the camera when the person swiveled their neck and physically moved the headset.

[fastbilly1]

Awesome opportunity man.

In your professional opinion, which is the best headset on the market?

[TSTR]

Congrats! At least at Valve, you know you'll get paid...

[Krejlooc]

Do any of the current VR headsets support eye tracking yet? As in, when you look to the left with your eyes only-the camera pans in that direction? All demos I've seen so far only moved the camera when the person swiveled their neck and physically moved the headset.

No, and despite work and research being done, we're still, realistically, 5+ years away from foveated rendering being viable for vr headsets.

Awesome opportunity man.

In your professional opinion, which is the best headset on the market?

Lol, oculus rift dk2 of course.

[fastbilly1]

Easy enough.

I actually referenced your holodeck concept a few months back for a business venture one of my coworkers. He found a police training simulator (www.virtra.com/v-range/) that he wanted to setup and I suggested your holodeck for a sideroom of the property. He, and his buddies, were blown away with the VR setup and are currently looking at investing into either the cyberwalk or omni treadmill for a business version of their product.