Oculus Rift - Cape Town Devs?
Ok so my Rift finally arrived and its awesome. Is there anyone else out there with one? Id like to discuss ideas around it. Some things are awesome with it, while others not so much. Movement really makes me motion sick, but the potential is massive. Everyone who has had a go has commented its cool, and amazing and just wow! From games, to training, to virtual travel, to Architecture etc. its huge.
If anyone is interested in helping me develop for it , give me a shout too. After sorting through my ideas pre rift, i will compose a new list of post rif ideas :) The dungeon master one is feasible, but its just too big of a project right now to tackle. Small impressive demos/games are what is needed now.
There are a limited number of demos out there, and while some are impressive, there is room for improvement. I think it would be great to get in early, before the rush, and it will also open up a number of opportunities for 3d Artists like myself. As well as programmers , musicians etc :)
If anyway is interested in helping towards a small demo/game even if you have an idea, give me a shout. You get to test the demo/game in the Rift as well :)
If anyone has any questions you can ask me as well about the Rift.
Comments
Some Wow moments: (Horror game is ultra creepy, and made me jump) Awesome scale with planets. Dungeon feel really claustrophobic. Roller coaster is a rush. Deep sea dive was scary when i went too deep and was eaten by a shark.
BAD: (everything should be fixed by consumer version though) Low Res, Motion sickness
Motion sickness - how are they fixing that??
Sounds really awesome, I'm of course still skeptical about the consumer potential of the Rift, in the same way Ouya I'm skeptical of Ouya compared to the big consoles, but of course if they manage to pull it off it'll be amazing... The question is how? It's good that niche adoption rates are typically higher than broad market (eg 3D tv isn't really doing all that well, but is being pushed, while OUYA and co are getting relatively good support probably because its not a mass appeal item), but it's gotta have support... 3rd party support, like how the big 3 secures games for their platform.
Motion sickness - better head tracking and other tricks they are learning now i guess. Also people just have to get use to it, im reading everywhere you need to get your VR legs! :P
Good points, but i see the Rift as a stepping stone, even if its not the be all and end all of VR, its going to push in new directions. The tech is here to stay this time i feel. And also thats why they have released the dev kits so the community is coming up with awesome stuff....This is the first time that VR has become available at a reasonable cost.
When you put the headset on for the first time, and have been involved in game design, you will see the potential. Even just walking around is amazing. There is a oppurtunity for a whole new bunch of genres to be developed as opposed to the Ouya which is just another console.
I have to admit i dont want to play the Rift the entire time, it will be just as it is now, you feel like a casual game on your ipod, or a FPS gaming session with your friends , or a nice dose of RTS with SC2 on your PC, or Dance central on your Xbox.
If they keep it at under 300 dollars or so, i dont see why someone wouldnt want to get it. It probably does need that one killer app/game that everyone will want to buy the Rift for though.
And thanks for the offer of help/advice... once I join the Oculus club I may take you up on that : )
Speaking of which, how much is it to get into the dev kit?
Is there a club? Looks like only me so far! :)
I've seen those funny screenshots for the rift - how does dev work for the Rift? Are there specific language/s that you need to use to dev for it? (unity? something else? Does, for example, Unity need to release specific support packages before being able to dev for the Rift?) Does it take 3D info and split it into what it needs to display 3D? Or is that done "manually" by development?
Such exciting possibilities :)
One of my ideas for a prototype was to make a 3D game for iPad... that involves outputting magic-eye-like images and playing the game squinting past the screen for the lolz :P
Guess that's not as needed now :P haha
It will support OR from the get go. Seeing that it is a space sim, I think it is one of those games that will just naturally go with the Rift.
Take a look, the game seems to be next level **** and they are making a few interesting choices in-terms of visual and game play wise.
The next batch of arrivals starts in September... We're pretty keen to get our 7DFPS entry working on Oculus.
@iceblademushiceblademush I'm super stoked that Towards the Light 2 might go to Oculus! If you and Funtastic team up I hope it is an epically fortuitous collaboration.
and yes i want to meet Funtastic, Hopefully next week soon!
Got my Rift and have been eagerly demoing it to folks :) The time for the next pre-alpha release is soon :3
@iceblademush I am excited to see how things progress with your projects and I'm excited to see where the SA indie community goes with this device !
Btw Sixense is going to be doing a kickstarter this month for their STEM system , essentially a wireless version of the Razer Hydra with support for up to 5 tracking units and with much improved range and accuracy.Getting that absolute positional tracking down is going to be as key to getting VR to the next step as a higher pd display is :)
- Horror games are going to be a truly awful and terrifying experience. Jump scares take on new meaning when it's strapped to your face and you can't get away...
- Several new genres of game are going to emerge to suit the control surface, much like touch spawned several things like endless runners. In particular I enjoyed the extreme sport simulators. An exciting space to be in as a designer
- Motion sickness: I don't know what they are talking about, I'm absolutely totall-HOLY BATMAN THERE IT IS!
Yeah, understanding the challenges in this control space are going to be absolutely critical. Unlike touch where bad controls simply feel awkward, bad controls in rift will make you physically sick. If there are enough games that get this wrong i think it's the biggest threat to rift's future and could sink the platform entirely.
- hardware is still very much alpha level. The potential is clearly there, but consumer viable is still a very long way off. All the technical challenges Carmack talks about like high frame rate need to be sorted. Puts a burden on developers and on your pc to run at 120 fps. Think it's going to be many years before we see a mainstream AAA game develop on the true potential of VR. Much like where only now seeing the AAA industry take touch seriously. I think it will take just as many generations with the rift. I do however have faith the right people are working on it and the hardware will get there sooner or later
- oculus porn. It's going to be a thing. It's going to be huge. It has the power to send the oculus mainstream in a very big way, much the same as it did for VHS.
So yeah, looking forward to getting toward the light integrated a seeing what happens. Not sure if its actually going to be a perfect match. Razor hydras start looking like some extra critical accessories for certain kinds of games. Interesting times...
And yeah, pretty much anything that has visuals (or not visuals lol) has pron :) Apparently Blu-ray is also hitting it big in that arena... In Japan. And 3D tv. It's gonna be... unreal.
On the topic of motion sickness :
The first day it took all of 5 minutes to feel a bit dizzy , this dissipated in a couple hours and I gave it another go.
The second day I overdid it in my excitement to demo the unit to my mother , I downloaded the whole list of Oculus Demos and spent a couple hours testing demos. This left me feeling a little dizzy for a day or two but nothing horrible , now I don't get motion sick at all no matter how much I try and how bad the demo :)
The hydra is a must have and it really does make a world of difference , demos using kinematic full body awareness like Crashland are really quite intense :D I'd give it another generation or two , if they can nail down positional tracking using visual odometry then I think we'll be ready for some crazy experiences :D
And of course scale of real objects as well. For example i had a barrel in my scene as well, now i found out it was a little too small. Definitely has potential to change the way 3d artists can work as well.