Too amazing. Those things are tiny. Where do haptic feedback and power components go?
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Arstechnica hands-on Vive VR [3D controllers standard, no market fragmentation]
- Thread starter Man
- Start date
Too amazing. Those things are tiny. Where do haptic feedback and power components go?
TimeEffect
Member
How does it track without camera? Completely gyro?
Why doesnt Sony do that? I hope the camera/sensor thing is an inexpensive thing.
Why doesnt Sony do that? I hope the camera/sensor thing is an inexpensive thing.
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
Yeah its a no go for me if there's no force feedback, I'm almost positive Vive wands have that. Anybody wanna chime in?
Small, cheap photon detectors spaced across the VR headset and controllers. Waves of lasers (from lighthouse emitters) scan the room rapidly and they calculate from the time it hits each individual sensor to determine where the laser is coming from. Voila: You have 3D position.
The lighthouse emitters are totally passive as well and only needs to be hooked up to power (or be battery driven). You don't need to interpret images from a video-stream ala Oculus or Morpheus.
It was a breakthrough invention unveiled by Valve in March.
They are opening up the standard for everyone to use (like USB etc). The PS5 and maybe even Oculus 2nd gen could use this.
jediyoshi
Member
Tracked the same way the headset is. The sensors are on the head of the controller, picks up lasers from the base stations. It's the reverse of the Oculus (webcam = sensor, picks up ir lights on the headset), and much more scalable and less prone to occulsion as a result.
But the Rift camera stand is invisible. It just disappears so you can't talk about it as though it was there.
I don't think the price difference will be that significant. Specs of the headsets are almost identical but Oculus forces you to also purchase headphones and a controller that is the same as what everyone who owns a PC already has. Even with the included controllers I think the cost of manufacturing each will be about the same.
I agree that HTC will want to make more profit but I doubt the actual pricing will be more than $50-100 different and I think it is extremely likely that a Vive setup will be less than buying an Oculus CV1 and Touch.
Train of Midnight
Banned
I'm basically foaming at the mouth over here reading this.
Between this and the Oculus presentation yesterday, I don't see how I would be able to choose Oculus over Valve.
Just gotta get final package deets. I wanna see the receipts.
Between this and the Oculus presentation yesterday, I don't see how I would be able to choose Oculus over Valve.
Just gotta get final package deets. I wanna see the receipts.
Princess Carl
Member
Vive it is then.
FunkyMunkey
Banned
vive it is. am i misreading or it's definitely possible to just use the headset and a kb/m for certain potential programs? or their controllers only?
While not explicitly discussing price, they have pretty much telegraphed the message that "Yes, we are going to be the most expensive option on the market".
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/reality-check-htc-on-whether-vr-is-going-to-change-the-world/0146901
“We want to deliver the most premium VR experience the world has seen. That’s not marketing speak, but more about where Vive is positioned in the market. This is at the high end,” Gattis says.
“Starting with the premium experience, even if it has a slightly higher price point, is the right thing to do from a strategic point of view. The price can always come down as the market grows. We know there is some pent up demand there, so there’s not so much price sensitivity early on. But to get the broader consumer adoption we’re all hoping for, the industry will have to drive price down to make it more accessible.”
And that will be the problem of Oculus, not Vive's, as every PC gamer has traditional controllers, so if the game requires it (being developed with Oculus in mind) it's not an issue. While the games developed with Vive in mind will be optimized for motion controllers that come packed in with Vive.
It's possible to use anything, the controllers come packed standard is all.
The beauty of it is that if they manage to launch in November they will be the first on the market and have the whole market for them for about 3 months so the price won't be such an issue (if the gap is not huge). The early adopter are enthusiasts anyhow. If the launch goes well I guess they could even afford to reduce the price once Oculus comes into play.
Backfoggen
Banned
Please be somewhat affordable.
I'm guessing about $400.
Train of Midnight
Banned
Really hoping for a $400 package, but realistically it's probably gonna be $500. Please not $600 :c
Have you played a lot of VR games? You can do that if you want but IMO is usually a horrible experience because first of all you can't see the keyboard at all and it's easy to get disoriented and secondly (for me at least in most games) it causes VR sickness because the world is moving around you while you remain stationary.
Dreamwriter
Member
While one may think PC gamers already have traditional controllers...boy you should see the complaints when you release a Steam game that requires one. People bitch and moan that they have to buy a $50 controller to play your $10 game.
Morpheus will also have motion controllers from the get go so Oculus will be the odd man out
I doubt that they will be able to produce headsets in such volume that they can really lower prices quickly. While VR in and of itself has pretty great appeal, the number of early adopters with a monster PC and a willingness to drop $400-$500 on a headset is probably really tiny.
Though if you want to read that quote somewhat cynically maybe the plan is to just gouge early adopters since they will pay any price, then scale down the expense once competition arrives.
Hale-XF11
Member
Between lighthouse and the packaged controllers, the only reason left for me to get a Rift over a Vive is exclusive software. However, Vive sounds like a more future proof experience because of lighthouse's room tracking ability and I doubt there will be a shortage of awesome software to experience with Vive in the next year. I'm definitely leaning towards Vive. Now it just comes down to cost of entry.
Turin Turambar
Member
The lighthouse is bigger than the camera...
I don't think the number of games that will not be playable with the kb/m will increase too much because of VR. Developers are aware about the fact that this still the default control method for PCs.
But this has no impact on the market fragmentation.
But it is wireless.
Don't think so, it has to have a power source
Of course (wall plug or batteries) but in relation to PC or user. [talking Lighthouse]
the controller? it's wireless
Backfoggen
Banned
$500 is my max.
Oh yeah, sorry, thought the conversation was about Lighthouse
Ah I get what you mean
The lighthouse need power but doesn't need a connection to a PC.
And there have been examples of lighthouse being shown powered with batteries but I have no idea if that will be a thing for the final version or just dev tinkering.
Lighthouse can be run by battery.
The Elite
BOSS
Yeah, that did concern me.
I want to be able to use a standard Xbox/Steam gamepad for operation that doesn't require specialized controls.
There are plenty of games that are going to be VR enabled that will probably only really work with a standard controller.
Train of Midnight
Banned
Dudes, I'm telling you. There's no way they'll be able to totally enforce device-specific games. There's just no way for them to keep us from getting around it.
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Have they released the recommended specs for the Vive? I know for sure I will need a CPU/Motherboard and RAM upgrade. I'm more curious about my current GPU.
They have said they need to have a broad market first-and-foremost and won't require insane PC's. They have been more conservative on hardware requirements than Oculus it seems.
ashecitism
Member
GDC demos were running on single 980s, but they said they're aiming to bring that down.
It can be battery powered.
Edit: beaten. It also has very flexible placement as the lighthouse basestations just produce light and require no communication. In theory you can also expand the room size just by adding more stations (interview with the lighthouse architect):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrsUMEbLtOs
For anybody who is uncertain as to how it works, that video is highly recommended.
Turin Turambar
Member
It was about the Lighthouse.
In fact, I didn't know the LIghthouse didn't have a cable to the pc! How does it pass the info, then?