Valve VR or Oculus - The Great VR Wars are comin...
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Valve's is definitely going to be more expensive. It's using two separate screens (which Oculus originally chose not to do for exactly the reason of cost), and their tracking system sounds expensive too (as it's using a laser-based system). And it also sounds a little conflicted to me. It's designed for 15x15' of free, unobstructed space (which personally I just don't have), but it's also wired, as wireless display technology adds too much latency. Valve did announce it as a platform and not just a single product though, so we'll see. I could see the system that they've announced so far easily reaching $600 though.
Oculus seems (but we don't know for sure as they haven't made any announcements) to be concentrating solely on the headset itself for the first release, and I'd expect that one to be closer to $300.
I just hope the games are cross compatible. I'm sure Facebook/Oculus wants you locked into their platform, just like Steam does. Though to be honest, the latter is far more attractive to me (as I'm already locked into Steam for 99.999999% percent of the PC gaming that I do).
Either way, as someone without a horse in the race, it seems pretty exciting. Some people on this site are far more enthusiastic about this stuff than me ('it's going to replace everything ever!' type sentiments), but I think it'll be a fun addition to have to the gaming I already do.
Oculus seems (but we don't know for sure as they haven't made any announcements) to be concentrating solely on the headset itself for the first release, and I'd expect that one to be closer to $300.
I just hope the games are cross compatible. I'm sure Facebook/Oculus wants you locked into their platform, just like Steam does. Though to be honest, the latter is far more attractive to me (as I'm already locked into Steam for 99.999999% percent of the PC gaming that I do).
Either way, as someone without a horse in the race, it seems pretty exciting. Some people on this site are far more enthusiastic about this stuff than me ('it's going to replace everything ever!' type sentiments), but I think it'll be a fun addition to have to the gaming I already do.
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6,710 Posts
You know what's the most interesting thing about all of this ?
[slight rant]
I was talking to a buddy of mine, talking about how the modern gaming landscape was so boring, with just the 3 big companies, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony.
I was telling him back in the early 1990's there were so many more competitors on the scene. There was Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Neo-Geo, Turbografx, Sega CD, Atari Jaguar, Panasonic 3DO, Philips CD-I, etc, etc all competing at the exact same time. All of them going after the same market, and dividing up the pie like 8 or 9 different ways. Obviously the Genesis and Super Nintendo dominated the market, but there were all these other players that had a chance to claim the top prize. (or at least they thought they had a chance). It was like the wild, wild west back then. Anybody and everybody could make a console, and you really didn't know for sure who was going to come out on top.
Modern gaming is so boring with just Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.
Where is the modern day version of the Atari Jaguar or Neo-Geo ?
[/ end rant]
So, that was my old take on Modern Gaming. Super boring. No excitement.
Man, there goes that theory. Plenty of excitement on the way now with all these huge companies throwing their hat into the VR ring.
Excitement is back in gaming for the first time, in a long time. Actual possibilities of seeing something knock your socks off, so to speak. Does anybody remember the first time they saw Doom running, and their mind was blown ? The first time you saw Unreal in 1998 ? The first time you played Half-Life ?
Remember those earth shattering moments in gaming ?
It's been an awful long time since I've seen anything that amazing that I actually was so excited about it, that I would even want to talk to non gaming friends about it. Like the first time I saw Super Mario 64. The first time I played Tomb Raider on a 3dfx enhanced PC.
[slight rant]
I was talking to a buddy of mine, talking about how the modern gaming landscape was so boring, with just the 3 big companies, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony.
I was telling him back in the early 1990's there were so many more competitors on the scene. There was Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Neo-Geo, Turbografx, Sega CD, Atari Jaguar, Panasonic 3DO, Philips CD-I, etc, etc all competing at the exact same time. All of them going after the same market, and dividing up the pie like 8 or 9 different ways. Obviously the Genesis and Super Nintendo dominated the market, but there were all these other players that had a chance to claim the top prize. (or at least they thought they had a chance). It was like the wild, wild west back then. Anybody and everybody could make a console, and you really didn't know for sure who was going to come out on top.
Modern gaming is so boring with just Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.
Where is the modern day version of the Atari Jaguar or Neo-Geo ?
[/ end rant]
So, that was my old take on Modern Gaming. Super boring. No excitement.
Man, there goes that theory. Plenty of excitement on the way now with all these huge companies throwing their hat into the VR ring.
Excitement is back in gaming for the first time, in a long time. Actual possibilities of seeing something knock your socks off, so to speak. Does anybody remember the first time they saw Doom running, and their mind was blown ? The first time you saw Unreal in 1998 ? The first time you played Half-Life ?
Remember those earth shattering moments in gaming ?
It's been an awful long time since I've seen anything that amazing that I actually was so excited about it, that I would even want to talk to non gaming friends about it. Like the first time I saw Super Mario 64. The first time I played Tomb Raider on a 3dfx enhanced PC.
Joined
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2,528 Posts
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...d-into-virtual-worlds/vi-BBij9Ch?ocid=U218DHP
They're already here (the wars). And not a single product has even hit retail yet! I picked this pony a while back. And now backed by billions of dollars worth of R&D investment along with off the charts consumer and general business curiosity it is fast becoming a how do you screw this one up phenomenon IMO. I am biased toward Oculus Rift. But that can change depending on which VR system gives me the most versatility from a gaming and movie/media standpoint. I think they will all be cross platform & format devices. I expect even Nintendo to enter this space fairly aggressively. It could literally give them license to earn up on all of their classics again...with modernized makeovers. IMO a locked system (even Morpheus) would spell early doom for that company. I always figured Valve's slow motion dev cycle on HL3 was tied into something big. Like a shift to VR on PC. I hope they redo all versions of HL to feed this format. Along with Portal and Team Fortress too.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/virtual-reality-won%e2%80%99t-just-amuse%e2%80%94it-will-heal-millions/ar-BBigouO?ocid=U218DHP
They're already here (the wars). And not a single product has even hit retail yet! I picked this pony a while back. And now backed by billions of dollars worth of R&D investment along with off the charts consumer and general business curiosity it is fast becoming a how do you screw this one up phenomenon IMO. I am biased toward Oculus Rift. But that can change depending on which VR system gives me the most versatility from a gaming and movie/media standpoint. I think they will all be cross platform & format devices. I expect even Nintendo to enter this space fairly aggressively. It could literally give them license to earn up on all of their classics again...with modernized makeovers. IMO a locked system (even Morpheus) would spell early doom for that company. I always figured Valve's slow motion dev cycle on HL3 was tied into something big. Like a shift to VR on PC. I hope they redo all versions of HL to feed this format. Along with Portal and Team Fortress too.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/virtual-reality-won%e2%80%99t-just-amuse%e2%80%94it-will-heal-millions/ar-BBigouO?ocid=U218DHP
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11 Posts
I'm looking forward to the Oculus :
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