*CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORY TIME* It could also pave the way for the reinstatement of the draft. Imagine an entire generation of kids where 50% of training them to be a soldier is just taking off their VR helmet, handing them a rifle, and saying "Okay, now just keep doing what you were doing before".
lol of course.
But in all seriousness, I've played some actual battle simulations (i.e. not casual stuff like CoD or BF) that were honestly more realistic than what I did in basic training. Add in the VR and the rig the guy in the video was using, and you've got yourself a really easy way to train people for war.
If you've never tried the oculus rift forget everything you think you know about VR. It's nothing like those old clunky machines of the 90's or virtual boy. This is the next revolution in gaming. There's a reason why most people gamers and non-gamers immediately want to throw their money at oculus when they try this thing. It is that amazing.
Why the hype?
http://www.screwattack.com/news/wick...ulus-rift-game
Who doesn't want a strange odd dirty game with glasses on so you can only see the game. With glasses on that track movement, so you can actually look arround by moving your head, so you can stare at whatever you like most!
I mean ofcourse this is a hardware seller!!!
On a serious note,
It generates an extremely immersive effect, when you turn your head, ingame you turn your head aswell. There is no light from outside, so all you see is your game. Also people that tried it say the screen is crystal clear, like superb. Everything for great immersion right?
And it is the a great step closer to proper VR. And I am sure we all dream of the day that we really fly on a dragon through azeroth, we really stand as a tiny being infront of ragnaross in the firelands and see his massive hammer coming to our face, we really get to wear the epic gear and feel empowered by shooting massivly hard hiting fireballs from our hands.
The oculus rift seems brings that idea a step closer (reviews make it look like a leap more than a step), I can understand the hype.
okay, so they got the sight, sound and movement working, now just get the other senses into this thing and i can leave this horrible world!
I like my coffe like my mages.
Never understood the hype either. It seems like a pretty cool gimmick for a horror game(see: upcoming PC exclusive game "Routine"), but for regular games I'm pretty sure you're just gimping yourself. I haven't tried it but I get the feeling your eyes would start to hurt and you would just get sick of it after 2 hours of playing any game, so I'm definitely not paying for that thing just so I could get "immersed" in a game.
This is a video of the Oculus Rift being played with the Omni Treadmill.
http://youtu.be/qpHWJMytx5I
The applications and games are endless. Sure if all you're after in a FPS is to get the higher score than your mouse+keyboard can't be beat but if you actually want to feel like you're in the game then this is the next step there. As for eye strain this actually is less straining than a monitor 2 feet in front of your face. The rift uses lenses that make it so your eyes converge at a distance (normal viewing) so you don't get eyestrain. The one thing you can be susceptible to is motion sickness since it has no positional tracking...yet. The rift has head tracking (allowing you to see 360 degrees around you) but no positional tracking (leaning forward,backward,crouching) however, this is one of the problems oculus plans to solve for the consumer release.
The "hype", if there is any, is because of the price point and resolution they are providing. It is FAR better and cheaper then any other offerings so far.
However, it does have some issues, not the least of which is that the game has to be built to support it since it requires spacial distortion in the 3D rendering to accommodate the lenses of the device (see the distortion in the videos that have been posted here). That means you can not just use any of the existing 3D standards. You can not for example, plug it into a blu-ray players and watch a 3D movie. So how well it does depends on how much support they get from 3D party developers.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning.
-Kujako-
Support for the rift is growing quickly and with their sdk it makes it far easier to add support.
The main issues with the rift right now actually is the resolution. (the other being positional tracking) The display they use is a 1280x800 monitor split into 2 so each eye is seeing half that rez. For most the immersion is enough that it's easily forgotten but it's still present and noticeable when trying to view objects that are very far. This will be corrected in the consumer release as they said that the consumer version will ship with a minimum of 1080p (possibly higher if costs come down)
That's the developer early access version, they say they are aiming for higher resolution on the finished product. However, by comparison, it is still better then other offerings out there. Virtual IO glasses for example, which are still sold today at a higher price point, have only 180,000 pixels per eye compared to 512,000 with the Rift.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning.
-Kujako-
That's true and it's tremendous FOV is their other big selling point over any other VR goggles. Unlike other VR goggles which still makes it look like your staring at a small screen the rift gives you a huge FOV virtually elminating that effect.
When I first heard about the rift I was also ho-hum about it. Big deal...another VR attempt? another 3d gimmick? Why do I need this?...Then I actually tried it for the first time at a small gaming get together and my first reaction was HOLY SHIT! A lot of people there never saw or even heard of the rift and their jaws literally dropped when they tried it.
Omg, why haven't I heard of this before? This actually sounds really useful and fun unlike most of the novelty inventions and gadgets they come up with. Only one small problem.. I could understand if the user is watching a movie or playing some kind of simulator or fps game with a controller. But how would it work while playing RPGs or something that usually has more than a few buttons that need pushing.
We'll have to redesign how you interface with RPGs. Imagine this: You're walking around in the world with your own feet, and your party is trailing behind you. Suddenly, an enemy appears! Your perspective moves from first-person to high above the battle, and a Minority Report-esque interface appears before you. Using your hands, you scroll through menus and select attacks, assigning them to each ally through pointing. Enemies are targeted in much the same way. The battle ends, and you are quickly transported back inside the body of your protagonist.
I think those are problems that developers will need to solve along with creating vr compatible gui's and interfaces.
As for watching a movie on this. There are a few applications that create a virtual cinema for you. I tried one of these and it literally feels like your in your own giant cinema! You can move around, pick the worst seat in the room or the best seat and it looks like your there staring at a giant screen with the correct perspective. You turn your head around and you can see the flicker from the projector. It's really incredible. Once they beef up the resolution on this thing I can't see a better way to watch a movie than this.