Oculus Rift

[jinx]

I've been keeping my eye on this (and any other VR device that comes along).
It's good to see that VR is still chugging along, and I'm looking forward to the days of being fully immersed in a .hack// style dungeon crawler. Hopefully we won't encounter the same issues with massive amounts of people falling into comas...

[dunpeal2064]

. Hopefully we won't encounter the same issues with massive amounts of people falling into comas...

If you look at what World of Warcraft has done to some people... yeah, its prety much guaranteed to happen, just for far less interesting reasons.

[jinx]

. Hopefully we won't encounter the same issues with massive amounts of people falling into comas...

If you look at what World of Warcraft has done to some people... yeah, its prety much guaranteed to happen, just for far less interesting reasons.

Point taken.
If this is a success, then we may need those chairs used in Wall-E as well.

[Krejlooc]

I've been keeping my eye on this (and any other VR device that comes along).
It's good to see that VR is still chugging along, and I'm looking forward to the days of being fully immersed in a .hack// style dungeon crawler. Hopefully we won't encounter the same issues with massive amounts of people falling into comas...

I hope it takes off. I mean, I know they already have 10,000 developers and big backers like Valve and Id are already on board, but really this has the potential to change computing. Reading the developer board it's easy to let your imagination run wild. I dunno if people can see the dev board or not without a developers kit, but people are running wild over there with creativity. Just lots and lots of excellent ideas.

All beyond gaming, BTW. This has far reaching implications. There's a discussion, for example, about potential computer UIs. Here's a conceptual virtual reality computer UI:



I have a OR dev kit pre-ordered and picked up some Razer Hydra motion controllers to go along with it. I can't wait to try out HAWKEN and Mirror's edge.

[Krejlooc]

I've been talking with friends and we have a pretty good idea of what we want to create for our first Rift application, since we're going to have about a year to build something between the time we get our Dev Kits and the time the thing actually launches.

We're considering teledildonics - remote sex. The logistics have been worked out amongst us - which I won't share for fear of having trade secrets stolen - but the idea is that you could meet someone in virtual reality and have sex with them, with both real-life people feeling the sex, despite being thousands of miles apart.

I'm being tasked with developing the client-side application. I.e. the actual virtual reality environment you'd meet your mate in. I have a buddy in dallas who is handling the backend networking stuff. And we have another buddy in austin who is trying to build us some hardware prototypes to go along with our pitch.

We figure that, should we get this out by launch, it could have the potential to make a lot of money.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I've never heard of this until now, but it honestly doesn't look like something I'd be into.

Also, "Oculus Rift" sounds like the name of an old Amiga game.

[Krejlooc]

I've never heard of this until now, but it honestly doesn't look like something I'd be into.

You, uh, wouldn't be into virtual reality?

Like, I'm not trying to sound insulting or anything, I just want to make sure you comprehend what this is. It's an enormous step towards virtual reality. This has so much potential beyond video games, this sounds like it could revolutionize computing.

Just making sure you're wrapping your mind around the potential here - this replaces the world around you. You can theoretically do ANYTHING. I've been reading the dev boards and the ideas people have are incredible. There is this one guy who talked about a historical event simulator. The idea is they could recreate stuff and let people experience them. For example, how would you like to be on the titanic while it sinks?

I think this sounds like the biggest advancement in computing in... well, just about my entire lifetime. As in, "as big as the internet is" huge.

Can I ask you to expand upon your disinterest? You don't have to defend your position, I just want to try and understand the mindset.

[MrPopo]

I've never heard of this until now, but it honestly doesn't look like something I'd be into.

You, uh, wouldn't be into virtual reality?

Like, I'm not trying to sound insulting or anything, I just want to make sure you comprehend what this is. It's an enormous step towards virtual reality. This has so much potential beyond video games, this sounds like it could revolutionize computing.

Just making sure you're wrapping your mind around the potential here - this replaces the world around you. You can theoretically do ANYTHING. I've been reading the dev boards and the ideas people have are incredible. There is this one guy who talked about a historical event simulator. The idea is they could recreate stuff and let people experience them. For example, how would you like to be on the titanic while it sinks?

I think this sounds like the biggest advancement in computing in... well, just about my entire lifetime. As in, "as big as the internet is" huge.

Can I ask you to expand upon your disinterest? You don't have to defend your position, I just want to try and understand the mindset.

There is a huge difference between a 3D display that's way too close to your face and virtual reality as you're describing. The Star Trek holodeck is virtual reality, and seems cool and has a lot of crazy possibilities. The Oculus Rift does not qualify. Real virtual reality requires a bunch of other stuff:

• Input for the other senses: balance, smell, touch, taste, kinesthetic, temperature
• Whole body as manipulation device. No point in walking the fields of Gettysburg if I can't actually walk them
• Corollary to the above: how to deal with the fact that I'm trying to walk in a 12'x12' but am being presented with acres of land

Personally I think a more fruitful area of study would be direct neural interfaces. Not only does that let you directly access the brain's inputs and allow you to simulate anything, it also opens up possibilities for people with severe spinal injuries and the terrifying possibility of being able to talk to someone with your mind and REALLY understand them, rather than dealing with the barrier of verbalization and language.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Wouldn't be surprising if you linked with someone Ghost in the Shell style and realized everyone else's thoughts are completely incomprehensible to you?

Despite my interest in info tech, I don't see brain interfaces as the next step.

Despite my interest in video games...this thing will probably just hurt my eyes. If playing too much GBA made me nearsighted, this will make me blind.

[Krejlooc]

I've never heard of this until now, but it honestly doesn't look like something I'd be into.

You, uh, wouldn't be into virtual reality?

Like, I'm not trying to sound insulting or anything, I just want to make sure you comprehend what this is. It's an enormous step towards virtual reality. This has so much potential beyond video games, this sounds like it could revolutionize computing.

Just making sure you're wrapping your mind around the potential here - this replaces the world around you. You can theoretically do ANYTHING. I've been reading the dev boards and the ideas people have are incredible. There is this one guy who talked about a historical event simulator. The idea is they could recreate stuff and let people experience them. For example, how would you like to be on the titanic while it sinks?

I think this sounds like the biggest advancement in computing in... well, just about my entire lifetime. As in, "as big as the internet is" huge.

Can I ask you to expand upon your disinterest? You don't have to defend your position, I just want to try and understand the mindset.

There is a huge difference between a 3D display that's way too close to your face and virtual reality as you're describing. The Star Trek holodeck is virtual reality, and seems cool and has a lot of crazy possibilities. The Oculus Rift does not qualify. Real virtual reality requires a bunch of other stuff:

• Input for the other senses: balance, smell, touch, taste, kinesthetic, temperature
• Whole body as manipulation device. No point in walking the fields of Gettysburg if I can't actually walk them
• Corollary to the above: how to deal with the fact that I'm trying to walk in a 12'x12' but am being presented with acres of land

Personally I think a more fruitful area of study would be direct neural interfaces. Not only does that let you directly access the brain's inputs and allow you to simulate anything, it also opens up possibilities for people with severe spinal injuries and the terrifying possibility of being able to talk to someone with your mind and REALLY understand them, rather than dealing with the barrier of verbalization and language.

I specifically said that OR was an enormous step forward, not that OR was the moment when we finally reached Virtual Reality. Other technologies are emerging to solve the problems you put forth. Jackets and gloves capable of depressing on skin to simulate touch, improved motion controls like the Razer Hydra and leap motion, and 2D treadmill solutions like the oculus backed Omni to accomplish the ability to walk around. There are a number of solutions available to simulate virtual reality as you describe it, it's just that it's not all packaged into a single product. Yet.

But arguably, the most important factor in virtual reality is the visual input. We've already seen approximation in motion and touch, and while there is enormous room for improvement, we have seen virtually nothing out of the visual component. This not only looks to be a promising step forward, but it seems like it provides an impressive enough step forward to motivate others into solving the problems you described.

In essence, I think that VR is a thing again, and that from here on out we're going to see active development to strive for VR again. We haven't really done that since around 1994-1995. This is the moment it comes home, when consumers finally get to play with the technology. The birth of an industry, in essence.

To me, it's very exciting. On my part, I have a bevvy of input devices like flight sticks, a steel battalion mech stick, racing wheels, and I've ordered a Razer Hydra. From the developers forum, it seems the Razer Hydra is quickly becoming the input method of choice, although there is a lot of interest for the leap motion when it launches in may.

There is video out there of a person playing team fortress 2 with a pointer-style gun on the Omni 2D treadmill with oculus rift on that is pretty impressive. There's another where a guy uses a matrix of kinects to read his absolute positioning in a room and enables 1:1 movement in an environment. He also takes the video from the kinect and puts his actual body into the program so that, when he moves his arms in front of his face, he actually sees his real hand in the 3D world.

I guess maybe if you're not a developer this stuff seems less exciting. For me, I can't wait to play with it and try out some neat shit. Did anybody ever play with Lego Technics when they were in middle school? The programmable Lego kit? I used to build all sorts of crazy shit with that.