Yep, but the vast majority of my interest in VR is for PC games, and IIRC the S beats the Quest in this regards. The one thing that might attract me to the Quest is if it has a Disney+ app that lets me watch all their 3D movies in a virtual theater. One of my favorite uses of PSVR back in the day was watching my 3D movie collection on a giant virtual screen.
FD's lack of faith in developing VR for new headsets is disturbing.
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Is this a rumour your starting or does it have credibility? I would hate for ED to end VR support, like many here, this is the VR game I return to again and again.
I think WMR is still the way to go. Microsoft are pushing hard in this space now and standards are beginning to appear, if not yet formal. WMR plays beautifully with ED for me personally. The big corporate vendors like HP and Samsung are aggressively evolving headsets - at the end of the day, no-one can compete with their R&D resources and WMR, which is getting better and better by the month ( glitches notwithstanding which everyone else suffers from too ) is going to become the standard for PC. Top banana to Pimax, Oculus, HTC etc for opening the doors. Now the big boys are turning up and I'll take a cash bet with anyone that in a few years they will take over the market... as usual. In hindset, not a bad thing to have the big guns grow the market even if they were slow to start with.
Join the queue.
David Braben has never really been a great fan of VR, for various reasons, including the high bar it puts on hardware, so I'd not be surprised if they quietly drop support. (And I play exclusively in VR, wouldn't bother at all without it now.)
So I guess we'll have to wait and see...
From a 2018 interview you can see here.
Braben has seen the evolution of computing and gaming technologies over nearly four decades in the industry. He’s still not a big believer in VR or what many see as the future in cloud gaming.
“I have never believed [VR] would take off. Right from day one, I said it would be niche,” he noted. “And it's a great niche, but it's still quite niche. We were, I think, the first people to support [VR] with a AAA game, with Elite: Dangerous in December 2013. It's a wonderful experience, it is really wonderful. But it puts quite a high bar on the hardware, so my personal view is you can't run any slower than about 90 frames a second, and the resolution you really want to be 4K per eye. [Currently] it is a bit blurry, it's quite hard on the eyes for a long time. And the other problem is, trying to use it in a family environment, it's really divisive. Because no one can see or hear what you're seeing.”
Braben has seen the evolution of computing and gaming technologies over nearly four decades in the industry. He’s still not a big believer in VR or what many see as the future in cloud gaming.
“I have never believed [VR] would take off. Right from day one, I said it would be niche,” he noted. “And it's a great niche, but it's still quite niche. We were, I think, the first people to support [VR] with a AAA game, with Elite: Dangerous in December 2013. It's a wonderful experience, it is really wonderful. But it puts quite a high bar on the hardware, so my personal view is you can't run any slower than about 90 frames a second, and the resolution you really want to be 4K per eye. [Currently] it is a bit blurry, it's quite hard on the eyes for a long time. And the other problem is, trying to use it in a family environment, it's really divisive. Because no one can see or hear what you're seeing.”
Over the years since bought BBC Elite, I've occasionally reflected on this and perceived DB not to be the brightest spark in understanding technology trends and what to pitch for. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a one hit wonder but he didn't make much of the Archimedes other than 'Zarch', he wrote Elite 2 Frontier for 68000 and ported it to 80286 when Pentiums were becoming the norm and Amigas and Ataris were fast dying out. ED seems to be the first example since 1984 to be positioned for contemporary hardware but... this is all nothing more than my perception over time.
If VR goes from ED - I'm gone. Without it ED has nothing on X4's fleets, stations, graphics, factions stories, economics, AI etc. Lucky for Frontier that Egosoft demonstrates a lack of interest in VR.
Pity this table doesn't show the 2016 figures because it's immediately apparent that the growth rate is not only positive but it's accelerating as well. Drop VR sure, that's looking ahead
As for ED
So, either sales are not great or the churn rate is bad; neither scenario lending credibility to a case for dropping support for an accelerating growth market. I think they'll keep it.
If VR goes from ED - I'm gone. Without it ED has nothing on X4's fleets, stations, graphics, factions stories, economics, AI etc. Lucky for Frontier that Egosoft demonstrates a lack of interest in VR.
Pity this table doesn't show the 2016 figures because it's immediately apparent that the growth rate is not only positive but it's accelerating as well. Drop VR sure, that's looking ahead
As for ED
So, either sales are not great or the churn rate is bad; neither scenario lending credibility to a case for dropping support for an accelerating growth market. I think they'll keep it.
There's no compelling reason to suppose it's likely yet, but when you consider David's comments (mentioned above) and the fact that it was formally promoted as a core feature on the website and now longer is (is there any reference to it at all?), not to mention the difficulties that it might pose for future directions of the game, it's a valid fear I think. It just that though... a vague fear.
you will be burned for blasphemy but i'd say there is some truth to that (zarch was awesome and groundbreaking, though, much underrated nowadays).
nowaday's braben is a ceo, that's a different game. he might very well see the projection of vr, but he may also realize that the goldmine is still some years apart. the expected lifetime of elite was roughly 10 years? producing a smash hit right now might be a bit too early. he did use the hype factor well 5 years ago, though.
Over the years since bought BBC Elite, I've occasionally reflected on this and perceived DB not to be the brightest spark in understanding technology trends and what to pitch for. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a one hit wonder but he didn't make much of the Archimedes other than 'Zarch', he wrote Elite 2 Frontier for 68000 and ported it to 80286 when Pentiums were becoming the norm and Amigas and Ataris were fast dying out. ED seems to be the first example since 1984 to be positioned for contemporary hardware but... this is all nothing more than my perception over time.
If VR goes from ED - I'm gone. Without it ED has nothing on X4's fleets, stations, graphics, factions stories, economics, AI etc. Lucky for Frontier that Egosoft demonstrates a lack of interest in VR.
Pity this table doesn't show the 2016 figures because it's immediately apparent that the growth rate is not only positive but it's accelerating as well. Drop VR sure, that's looking ahead
View attachment 152763
As for ED
View attachment 152768
So, either sales are not great or the churn rate is bad; neither scenario lending credibility to a case for dropping support for an accelerating growth market. I think they'll keep it.
As I said above, I'm hoping that a VR exclusive Half Life game will give the medium a jolt and break the vicious cycle (no compelling AAA titles = slow uptake. Small user base = little incentive for AAA developers).
Well it's been said before but if ED drops VR support then I'm out to.
I couldn’t help but get a little wound up by all you VR types telling us non VR types just how great the game was in VR and how you couldn’t possibly play ED without it. I’d shuffle around in my chair and mumble and grumble about how a head tracker brings the game to life as well. Then, this time last year, I got my first VR setup.
Now I find myself coming onto the forum and saying if Frontier drop VR I’ll be playing IL-Sturmovik and Assetto Corsa instead. Don’t do it FDev. Look to the future.
Now I find myself coming onto the forum and saying if Frontier drop VR I’ll be playing IL-Sturmovik and Assetto Corsa instead. Don’t do it FDev. Look to the future.
The Pimax fans will hate me for saying this ( and I wanted an 8K X - until I read this thread ) but I think it's time for Pimax to wake up and smell the coffee on standards and get behind WMR certification like the big OEM vendors ( or did Pimax already do so? WMR didn't exist when I had my Pimax 4k so I wouldn't know but I'm assuming not ). They're not going to out compete Oculus or Valve, the companies are too well positioned already, nor do these two have any reason to license their standards to Pimax. However WMR is already native to Windows, plays well with SteamVR and MS will happily certify OEMs and it's strategic security of revenue for Pimax, having the best and broadest headset range in the market. Otherwise I'm certain they will be the next Blackberry.
![[VR] Mad Life Crisis](https://d2aefvhu2f0gi9.cloudfront.net/data/avatars/m/232/232989.jpg?1592151565){kind=avatar}
He seemed pretty keen to show it off pre-release (01:50): Discusses other (than Oculus) HMD's at 23:04
Source: https://youtu.be/s6tahRbkaq8
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Amen. VR killed 2D gaming for me. I occasionally play ED in 2D when I'm doing something ridiculously tedious like grinding for G5s. Then I can watch TV with half an eye on the game but without VR it's like trying to play a game by looking at my monitor from across the room. It's impossible to feel engaged.
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VR's still an extremely niche thing, so wanting dedicated support for a particular headset is probably unrealistic unless it becomes one of the market leaders.
The headset manufacturers need to start making their stuff more compatible and user friendly or they'll just go the way of betamax.
The headset manufacturers need to start making their stuff more compatible and user friendly or they'll just go the way of betamax.
OpenXR should address this once [if] software developers adopt it. (I mentioned it in post #18: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...w-headsets-is-disturbing.530612/#post-8160777 )
Stick the headset on and I am commander He$$eetant of the AspX, freelance explorer / miner of the known Galaxy. Without, I am just me, in my study, staring at a monitor.
Now, now you understand. And you also know why FD hasn't done more with VR.
Even their more recent zoo and park games would look incredible in VR. But I guess DB doesn't have faith in VR.
Actually, Pimax's headset is based on Valve's design. Valve opened up its technology to increase adaptation. But it doesn't seem like they're well integrated into SteamVR. I dislike that you have to open up a separate tool (PiTool) to tweak Pimax's headset. It should be integrated into SteamVR and managed from there.
The problem with Pimax isn't the technology. It's the management. Customer support and interaction is horrible. The supply chain is terrible. And their RMA support is horrendous. How it was described to me is that they're a bunch of engineers, but not a lot of business types, so their infrastructure and their ability to deal with multiple cultures need to be expanded. They have a lot of maturing to do to become an established company.
GPU's need to catch up for HMD's to become cheaper.
The problem with HMD's is that they're so expensive because not a lot of people buy them. The reason for that is that the GPU's to run VR needs to be high end, and high-end GPU's are very expensive. Once low eng GPUs are powerful enough to drive 4k X 2 headsets more HMD's will sell, thus driving innovation and bring down prices. We're really just waiting on nVidia and AMD (and eventually Intel) to start the ball rolling.