Virtual reality

[Spoonsky]

Has anyone tried this? Today I tried one of the cardboard-with-smartphone versions that the New York Times mailed to its subscribers, and I'm still sort of in shock... this shit is going to change the world, I have no doubt. To be so completely immersed in a New York sidewalk while really standing in the middle of a classroom, and to have that on the cheapest, least fancy version possible, it was a pretty indescribable feeling.

Usually I'm a pretty technology-skeptic person, so it almost terrified me to like it that much. Within five, ten years it will be everywhere, I'd guess. Video games certainly will never be the same but it will go a lot further than that: news stories live in the place they're reporting from (NYT already did this in Syria), interactive TV shows, movies like Birdman but where you can see in every direction.

The only thing I can really compare it to would be drugs, so the people who are addicted as it is to petty shit like Snapchat are DOOMED when this becomes popular.

[Lewis]

Has anybody even bothered with 3D telly?

[Pepe]

The novelty will wear off. Should work for some videogames and porn.


Has anybody even bothered with 3D telly?

I don't think anyone did.

[Pepe]

I have no idea what a cardboard with smartphone version is though, a link would be nice.

[Spoonsky]

The novelty will wear off.

I thought the same until today. I don't think it will.

[CJay]

My dad's looking to get into the area. He has a Samsung whatever-you-call-it. I played Temple Run 2 on it and it was actually kinda cool. You could turn around and see the monkeys chasing you and you got a good sense of your surroundings. I was also 'in' some 3D pictures, including a stadium at the 2014 World Cup, which was kinda cool. I did feel a bit queasy after a while, however, and they aren't the easiest things to control.

[Pepe]

Don't get me wrong, I definitely think it will be 'a thing' but I don't think it will revolutionize everything. Main issue is that you still can't interact with stuff, you just watch around. You can't avoid the feeling detached and while being able to look around is fun, I don't think it has much holding value except for maybe on some types of videogames (space shooters :drool:).

[Jimmy Floyd]

We should herd paedophiles into some sort of hospital, rig up some sort of paedo sex fantasy on virtual reality (no children were harmed etc etc) and let them at it to quench their urges and so save (some of) the actual kiddies.

There's your moral dilemma of the day. The Mail would have me put to death for such a thought I imagine.

[leedsrevolution]

The future scares me. I'm 26 and can't even keep up with social media let alone anything else.

[Spoonsky]

Don't get me wrong, I definitely think it will be 'a thing' but I don't think it will revolutionize everything. Main issue is that you still can't interact with stuff, you just watch around. You can't avoid the feeling detached and while being able to look around is fun, I don't think it has much holding value except for maybe on some types of videogames (space shooters :drool:).

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/59002/20150609/smart-gloves-by-gloveone-will-let-you-feel-virtual-reality.htm

It'll come, it'll come. To use a phone analogy, the thing I tried was basically the 2005-era Nokia, in ten years who know what the smartphone-equivalent will be?

[Pepe]

Guess it will come at some point, yes. We will all be sitting there wearing our silly goggles having an eBeer in TTH's virtuapub while Magic tells us about his wife's clunge smell. :drool:

[Ian]

Sadly I'm otherwise engaged whatever night that's going to happen.

[Magic]

Shit's about to get real. :drool:

Literally.

[Lewis]

'The Stench Trench' will be the best sub-forum going.

[Magic]

Sub-pub, you mean. Next to the Ladyboy Lounge and Prolapse Parlour.

[phonics]

This brings us a generation or two away from Minority Report-esque paper or glasses that then read said item as digital newspaper like AR things can these days. This generation of Oculus, Vive and Playstation will penetrate the fringe but I can't see a Wii-esque conversion rate. When they turn it to a translucent, plyable system (think of a heavy pair of glasses rather than a helmet) is when it reaches it's true potential.

What I'm trying to say is, I'm hyped.

edit: I wasn't particularly convinced until the tight rope between the WTC movie VR game that popped up last E3. I read several people saying that they couldn't tell their body to step off the tightrope without feeling bad. There is clearly a level of technology there that wasn't there previously

[Raoul Duke]

I think the thing that'll make it interesting is the Facebook/Oculus thing. If they can get some kind of social/messaging/picture thing to take off it could be amazing.

The Microsoft Hololens looks cool as well. The Minecraft demo they did at E3 or something was bonkers.

[Spoonsky]

It was a bizarre feeling to walk forward without your virtual body moving. Really bizarre. Same with looking down and not seeing your own legs.

[Henry]

Wow. I think I want one.

[Disco]

In terms of it breaking out of tech demo / novelty territory there's one big stumbling block. That being it won't be embraced until it's as easy as current tech, for instance big full face VR headsets aren't going to replace screens in any meaningful way because very few people want to sit around with it on rather than use a screen and be able to drink/eat/look at the cat/check their phone/talk to someone else in the room/get up and walk about. Plus there's the issue of being able to see the room around you or look at the keyboard or remote control without taking the big hat off.

VR stuff is undoubtedly cool (the hololens minecraft thing was awesome) but it's got a long way to go before it replaces anything on any kind of scale.

[phonics]

Oculus Rift will set you back $599 and you'll need a $400 Graphics Card and an i7 processor. These things are DEAD. A 'normal' PC won't be able to even run the most basic shit this can run for 5-6 years.

[Pepe]

I thought they were supposed to be much cheaper, that is steep.

[phonics]

The preferred way to control won't be out for a few months after and will be another 200 apparently. From scratch you're looking at a 1900-2100 investment. How the PlayStation VR thing is going to work I have zero idea.

[Bernanke]

Surely the PS4 Morpheus won't be 600 dollars though?

[phonics]

Surely the PS4 Morpheus won't be 600 dollars though?

When you consider that the PS4 has a worse graphics card than mine I can imagine it'll have to be more or shit.

[Gray Fox]

Friend of mine at Uni has just used his bursary to buy an Oculus Rift.

£530 of his pounds to buy the thing. Mental.

[SvN]

I've ordered a Google Cardboard thing for about £13 as I'm eager to try this out.

[Spoonsky]

$600 doesn't seem that unreasonable given that it's arguably the biggest leap in video games since their invention (more than the Wii I'd say).

[Raoul Duke]

New, unproven technology in being expensive: shocker. It's probably the cheapest they can make it right now and still keep it at a level where it'll deliver a good experience.

It'd be worse if they got their first shot out the door and it was shit; people would just think 'oh, VR is still bollocks'.

I'm trying to get work to get us one :drool:

[Samadini]

http://m.gearbest.com/home-gadgets/pp_202874.html?utm_campaign=5835937&utm_source=cj&utm_medium=affiliate&from=affiliate_cj

87p and free delivery :eyemouth:

I bought this one a few months ago, as it fits the G3 - http://m.gearbest.com/home-gadgets/pp_169233.html?currency=GBP&gclid=Cj0KEQiAtri0BRDLoaCF95e7o_sBEiQA_pgRQ-fuhEjnaYP-JrgJEjZhvyqEvBsvtGYgpVOxorx6jssaAt8F8P8HAQ

Went round New York for a bit, had a hop around space and walked through a properly shit haunted house, haven't bothered with it since.

[phonics]

$600 doesn't seem that unreasonable given that it's arguably the biggest leap in video games since their invention (more than the Wii I'd say).

And the PC to run it?

[Samadini]

Yeah that's the biggest fucker, since I wasn't planning on upgrading my GPU for another couple of years, so I'm way off the rift unless I win the lottery.

[randomlegend]

As if they actually called it 'google cardboard'.

[Boydy]

I wouldn't mind one of those Google Cardboard type things since they're so cheap but what apps can you actually use with it?

[Boydy]

Shit, this sounds cool (the top reply) - https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidVR/comments/3xmm02/which_cardboard_solution_is_the_best_in_your/

[Disco]

Did we learn nothing from Cyber Zone?

[Mazuuurk]

Don't get me wrong, I definitely think it will be 'a thing' but I don't think it will revolutionize everything. Main issue is that you still can't interact with stuff, you just watch around. You can't avoid the feeling detached and while being able to look around is fun, I don't think it has much holding value except for maybe on some types of videogames (space shooters :drool:).

They'll figure out ways of doing that too, I'm sure.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3seTlvQtIgc

[Bernanke]

VR saves baby (http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/07/health/google-cardboard-baby-saved/index.html)




CNN - A toy-like cardboard contraption that sells for less than $20 online has helped save the life of a baby who was so sick that doctors told her parents to take her home to die.

Doctors at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami used the device to map out an operation they say they couldn't have envisioned otherwise.

On Wednesday, four weeks after her surgery, baby Teegan was taken off a ventilator and is breathing on her own. Doctors expect her to go home within the next two weeks and make a full recovery.


The future. :drool:

[Boydy]

NotCulus Rift: How I Hacked Together My Own Serious VR Headset (http://gizmodo.com/notculus-rift-how-i-hacked-together-my-own-serious-vr-1688354373)

I'm gonna buy a cheap one of these and try this.

[Raoul Duke]

PS VR launches next week:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/10/playstation-vr-provides-a-lot-of-bang-for-your-virtual-reality-buck

Facebook did a demo the other day which was pretty swish:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCpNKLXovtE

[Ian]

At Alton Towers they have a ride called Galactica. It used to be called Air but now they changed it and you get a VR thing so it looks like you're going through meteor showers and over fire planets and whatever else it might be.

Certainly for that it was a bit of a waste because while it was quite cool to be able to look about and see the spaceyness it actually made the ride less exhilirating.

Not tried it with games or anything but I did have a brief look at one of the smartphone ones because my brother-in-law got it with his new one.

[Giggles]

The Gear VR is absolutely horrendous (I don't even know where mine is any more) and I didn't think a lot of the HTC Vive when I had a brief go, but definitely better being stand alone rather than using a phone.
I'd back Sony to do it a whole lot better.

[Disco]

Can I use it to punch Zuckerberg in his gonk face yet?

Until it all gets less lumpy and clunky (ie properly wireless) I can't see the retail side of VR being much more than a novelty.

[John]

At Alton Towers they have a ride called Galactica. It used to be called Air but now they changed it and you get a VR thing so it looks like you're going through meteor showers and over fire planets and whatever else it might be.

Certainly for that it was a bit of a waste because while it was quite cool to be able to look about and see the spaceyness it actually made the ride less exhilirating.

Not tried it with games or anything but I did have a brief look at one of the smartphone ones because my brother-in-law got it with his new one.

That just sounds like a needlessly mega expensive version of those little capsules with six seats and a screen at the front.

[Shindig]

I dunno. At least Sony's effort is priced enough for a few units to shift. I'm hopeful Facebook, Valve / HTC and Sony keep their hand in it long enough for some decent games to catch on.