The State of VR Today

shadragon · Oct 9, 2015

PC World article about the state of VR today. It just came out a few hours ago.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2988...-vive-gear-vr-and-others-stand-right-now.html

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE · Oct 9, 2015

Thanks for posting, good read.

CATPAIN KIRK · Oct 12, 2015

Nice read indeed - thanks for sharing.

This point puzzles me however:

By default, the Rift ships with an Xbox One controller. This enables developers to aim for a standard. Or, as Oculus’s Nate Mitchell put it, “Everyone has an Xbox controller. There’s zero input fragmentation there. That’s why we bundled the Xbox controller.”

Everyone owns one - true - even I own a couple, although I don't like them. So if "everyone has an Xbox controller", why force another unneeded one on possible customers?

FB and their business practice...

+1 to logic.

D0OMGUY · Oct 13, 2015

When they say "everyone has an Xbox controller" they mean everyone who buys an Oculus. The logic there is that everyone will be using the same controls, and devs can at least account for everyone being able to use the same controller. He literally explained their very sound logic in the quote you quoted. It is very logical indeed.

Khaldur · Oct 13, 2015

Why do so many people complain about the bundle with the XBOX controller? It's not like it's driving up the price significantly.
Oculus will probably get them for <10$ each so it will be negligible compared to the production cost of the CV1.
If you don't need it just sell it.

Tony Spaniels · Oct 13, 2015

I think it's a sensible and clever move by oculus to make sure there is a standard controller given with every unit sold. Makes total sense. That gives developers a solid foundation to code their games to in the early and tentative stages, they know where they stand with it, and also complete new comers to vr will also be familiar with the controls and will intuitively use it when they take their first tentative steps in vr. With oculus touch coming shortly after and hopefully riding the waves from the success of cv1s release, we will then get the new outside the box games and demos that we are all hoping for too. Everyone's a winner

CATPAIN KIRK · Oct 13, 2015

D0OMGUY said:
When they say "everyone has an Xbox controller" they mean everyone who buys an Oculus. The logic there is that everyone will be using the same controls, and devs can at least account for everyone being able to use the same controller. He literally explained their very sound logic in the quote you quoted. It is very logical indeed.

In that case he should have said "we bundled it to ensure everyone has one", not "everyone has one, so we bundled it."

Anyway - not all that important. The reason it bothers me is not the price - I already have 5 controllers, so one more or less doesn't matter.
I'm more worried about games being designed with the limitations of console controllers in mind and their gameplay catering to those limitations.

They're great for games like fifa (that's why I have mine), but for anything I'd play in VR besides racing and flight games, for which I'd use a wheel/hotas, I'd prefer M/KB.

Unfortunately many games designed for console controllers implement the latter quite poorly.

I'll get a Vive anyway, but the xbox controller decision means less playable games for me.

Yololo69 · Oct 13, 2015

That don't mean all VR games will only handle the XBox controller !

It's a base, and up to game studios to manage more than that, like wheel if it's a racing game, stick if it's space game, keyboard if it's an FPS, etc. If the game studio decide to only handle the XBox pad and it's a pure simulation VR racing game, errgg, just avoid games from this studio, like nowadays.

jabokai · Oct 13, 2015

CATPAIN KIRK said:
In that case he should have said "we bundled it to ensure everyone has one", not "everyone has one, so we bundled it."

That is what he said - he just put his sentences in the wrong order.

CATPAIN KIRK · Oct 13, 2015

jabokai said:
That is what he said - he just put his sentences in the wrong order.

The latter is what he said and the former is what he presumably tried to say. He might have been quoted out of context, but he inadvertently told the truth.

Virtually everyone slightly interested in games already owns a console controller - as I said I have five mostly unused console controllers scattered about and I hate them except for fifa and beat 'em ups with friends - games I can't see myself playing in VR.

It's the lowest common denominator, but a denominator so low it comes close to dividing by zero.

Welcome to VR.

Tony Spaniels · Oct 14, 2015

CATPAIN KIRK said:
The latter is what he said and the former is what he presumably tried to say. He might have been quoted out of context, but he inadvertently told the truth.

Virtually everyone slightly interested in games already owns a console controller - as I said I have five mostly unused console controllers scattered about and I hate them except for fifa and beat 'em ups with friends - games I can't see myself playing in VR.

It's the lowest common denominator, but a denominator so low it comes close to dividing by zero.

Welcome to VR.

Actually you know what I reckon fifa might work well in vr man. 3rd person pov definitely works ..blaze rush stands out to my mind as a good example of this.
Being able to view the whole pitch and the two teams would surely work with the spacial awareness benefit that you get.