Virtual Reality

[andrewwerdna]

I'm quite excited about this new phenomenon. I bought a DK1 when it came out, and it blew my mind. I made some rudimentary Quake maps just so that I could explore a world of my imagination as if I were there. I bought a DK2, and it was great, but also kind of bummed me out because my rig wasn't quite up to snuff. And unfortunately I haven't been able to afford to participate in the current generation. When/if I get enough money I'm going to buy a new computer and an HTC Vive. In my opinion VR changes everything. I'll admit it's coming along slower than I expected, but before long the world isn't going to be the same at all imo.

[thekeeper]

I surprisingly haven't gotten into this stuff (maybe because I feel that it'd be bad for my eyes, haven't looked into that). But yes, it's definitely going to change a lot. We're quickly blurring cyber with physical, who knows when the two will be indiscernible. I think augmented reality will be much more commonplace in daily life before VR is all that commonplace. AR seems more practical in terms of daily usage.

I've heard the Oculus isn't that great, but really the only others I know of are the PS VR set and the Galaxy. I'd be interested in tying them out.

You can play VR Quake?! I was just playing Quake I yesterday (and then Blood once I got too frustrated with Quake). That'd be quite an experience.

[andrewwerdna]

I can't really speak for the new consumer headset Oculus has put out, as I haven't tried it yet, but with the DK1 and DK2 they really revolutionized VR. I don't at all like that they were acquired by Facebook though, so I'm very glad that Valve is being such a strong competitor. From all I've heard the Vive sounds superior even if you don't factor in the fact that they're not owned by creepy Facebook.

I don't know if Quake works with the newer headsets yet, but I clocked a lot of hours into it in VR. I've actually never played it before playing it in VR, so I don't really have a good point of comparison. But I loved experimenting with building my own rudimentary maps with a new, very intuitive Quake mapping program called Trenchbroom. Building a quick map, throwing on some textures, and then being able to jump in and wander around in there, words can't do it justice, it's a truly incredible experience. Minecraft is also great for the same reason. It makes me really wish I had the artistic chops to pursue a career in video game environment design.

While the main campaign of Quake in VR is pretty cool, I got to say, the original Doom is fucking amazing in VR. You wouldn't think so, because the environments are primitive and the enemies are flat sprites, but the effect of that is so otherworldly and atmospheric it's easy to get lost and just marvel at the weirdness of the immersion. I've played Doom many times before VR, and so I can say definitively it's a totally new experience to actually walk down those hellish polygonal corridors.

[thekeeper]

I should consider getting one, the otherworldliness intrigues me. I finished a run of Quake today. Excellent cyber-gothic-medieval atmosphere. I've never made any maps of my own, though. Horror games are going to get ridiculous with VR. I remember when Oculus was first getting going, there was a developer who made a guillotine simulator called Disunison. I don't if it still holds up with what they're making now though.

[andrewwerdna]

Yeah, I played Disunison. I thought it was pretty lame even as far as quick demos go, even at the time that it came out. Even the Tuscany demo that came with the DK1 was far more interesting. I think what actually happens to you in VR is not nearly as interesting as where you are. For instance, Dear Esther was one of my favorite VR experiences for sure, and there is no gameplay other than walking through the environment. I think when stripped down to just that bare immersion is where we see the real value of VR. There wasn't much immersion in that Disunison demo.

Horror games are a very different experience from a 2d monitor, as I'm sure you could imagine. It's too overwhelming to the point that I started to avoid horror demos. I played all through Half-Life 2 in VR, including the episodes, and I got to say Ravenholm was quite terrifying. Even in non-horror games like Doom and Minecraft I found myself jumping at unexpected monsters frequently.

I think when an open-world rpg like Elder Scrolls or Fallout get proper VR support is when we're really going to see another surge of interest. There were ways to make them work, but it was too cumbersome to really get comfortably immersed. But I think what VR is especially well-suited for is just endless exploration of a virtual world, and there really isn't anything that seems to accessibly provide that yet. That's why I also think when a dedicated VR Metaverse platform kicks into gear we'll start seeing an even larger fascination with VR as a real cyberpunk landscape emerges, something like Project Sansar or High Fidelity which are both currently in development. Eventually we can have live performances of dungeon synth in VR, and we'll all feel as if we're there rather than staring at a screen. All of us on the board could hang out at a virtual medieval tavern as we discuss synthesizers over tankards of ale.

[dungeonsnake]

that would rule.

[Ananoriel]

VR has downsides and upsides for me. I dislike the oversaturation of crappy halffinished VR games in the Steamstore for example. And at the moment there isn't much interesting available, yet. But that will be different in the future, I am pretty sure of it. I prefer to wait a bit until they get more further in developing the options, and the mechanics behind it.

I like the idea of horrorgames, or indeed as mentioned before, Quake and Doom and other classics on the VR. If I get the chance I am sure that I would play that on VR, so I can relive some childhood memories, and to get sucked into the game again. My biggest 'dream' would be to have more big and pretty exploration games of RPGS. So you can explore different landscapes, caves, space, the ocean, you name it.

Until that time I enjoy it a lot more to watch people who play VR games. I found out that that is very entertaining as well..

[wayfarer]

I have a little bit of experience with VR/AR through my work in civil engineering, and so far have used the GearVR, Oculus Rift DK1, CV1 (with Oculus Touch), Vive and Hololens. In our work it becomes increasingly important to let people 'experience' a design. Ofcourse it's also a big hype but you simply can't ignore it anymore so practically every company that works in the design industry is jumping on the VR/AR bandwagon right now. But for us it really helps for example in the design process because designers, contractors and stakeholders don't need to discuss certain stuff for hours and hours in a dusty meeting room anymore, looking at 2D drawings or even 3D models on a monitor. Now you can just stand on a bridge or in a tunnel yourself and see how certain details will look from a realistic first-person perspective. It's great. Unfortunately I haven't really played any games with it yet, apart from a couple of simple demo's, but I definitely will in the near future.

When it comes to horror games I can imagine it being way to overwhelming , i mean even just looking at a Resident Evil 7 VR video on youtube is pretty scary. It reminds me of found-footage horror movies, only even more intense.

Google Earth VR also looks impressive I have to say.

[thekeeper]

This would be an actual possibility for creating a connected VR dungeon world: decentraland.org/

Apparently there a few other online interactive sites/services like this at the moment and in the works. Hard to keep up with everything.

[andrewwerdna]

Yeah, there's a number of Metaverse kinds of things in development, but nothing's really caught on yet. And I guess one of the big ones that was actually active, AltspaceVR, got shut down recently. Project Sansar and High Fidelity look interesting, seems like they're trying to both be the next Second Life. I don't pay much attention to VR stuff at the moment though because I'm poor and can't afford to upgrade my computer and buy a Vive. But for a while when I was messing with the Oculus DK1 I was actually thinking of creating some sort of virtual dungeon synth hangout space in Second Life. It might be cool even on 2d monitors and there could be "live" concerts and dj sets and stuff, but it would be a lot of work to setup and I don't think many people would participate. And Second Life is just kind of bad in a lot of ways.

[pacificthrenodies]

I run an Oculus Rift rig at my work, and have played around with it outside of the prescribed vision treatment regimens we got it for. My opinion - it's fairly underwhelming. The next generation needs a much higher resolution (which in turn, will require much more powerful GPU's) and a wider field of view for each eye to really attain immersion.

That being said, can you imagine something like The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall in VR? I'd take that over the shoddy VR treatment Skyrim got any day.

[andrewwerdna]

May 2, 2018 17:55:26 GMT -5 pacificthrenodies said:

That being said, can you imagine something like The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall in VR? I'd take that over the shoddy VR treatment Skyrim got any day.

I think it's been mostly converted to the Unity engine so that might already be doable, and I know they got Morrowind working for it, but I haven't gotten a chance to try it yet.

2.5d kind of graphics are actually really cool in vr, like the flat sprite entities and stuff, like the original Doom. But I think all the reading in Daggerfall would make it not such a good experience, at least until they get the resolution up high enough that reading is as comfortable as a regular monitor.