Earlier this week, the Oculus Rift 1080p prototype was shown at E3. Oculus says that they can’t reveal the name of the panel manufacturer, but we think we may have tracked it down to a 5.5-inch LG display.
Today at E3, the massive annual gaming convention, a new Oculus Rift 1080p prototype is being shown running with Unreal Engine 4. Here’s all the info we gathered so far.
Two weeks prior to their now-successful Kickstarter, Virtuix brought the Omni VR treadmill to LA to show to a room full of VR enthusiasts. The full session has been posted online. In addition to seeing the Omni in action, you’ll see Virtuix CEO Jan Goetgeluk and the venerable Simon Solotko answer questions about the omnidirectional treadmill and philosophize about VR.
Above you can see a summary video of the event. Below you can find the full event (1 hour and 23 minutes). I actually watched the whole thing — well worth it for the interesting Q&A.
Those following along in the VR space will recognize James Iliff and Nathan Burba, Producer and Director, respectively, of Project Holodeck. They stopped by the Virtuix Omni Live event to see it in person. I asked Iliff what he thought.
“The Omni is pretty cool! We are on the other side of the camp regarding the VR locomotion problem, but as far as omni-directional treadmills are concerned I think its a breakthrough solution. We built Project Holodeck based around the idea that two or more players can intimately share a space together and physically / virtually interact with each other’s avatars. Locomotion devices are inevitably isolating – which is why we haven’t favored it on our own game development. But if you want to walk / run long distances in VR by yourself, the Omni is great for that,” Iliff told me.
He told me that the Omni is a breakthrough for omnidirectional treadmills, even outside of gaming.
“Outside games or entertainment, the Omni is an a big step forward in terms of omni-directional treadmills themselves – this is something scientists and engineers have been trying to work out for decades, and this new passive inexpensive solution should work great for many researchers as well.”
Project Holodeck was originally going to use a multi-Kinect system (four, to be exact) to track player movement in their platform, but found that the Kinect wasn’t suitable for their purpose; it works well for the Omni’s purpose though.
“The use of the Kinect (or an IR camera) with the Omni is a great example for what the Kinect is good for – being a gestural interface. The Kinect isn’t animating the players’ avatar in real time, that would require much more precise tracking. The Kinect is reading broad leg gestures and translating them into keyboard strokes, which is more like what the Kinect is designed to do.”
Titans of Space is a must-try Oculus Rift demo. I just got back from a trek that I didn’t expect to be able to take in the year 2013. I visited every planet in the solar system, and then some. Titans of Space provides a sense of scale that instills wonder.
ARAIG (which stands for As Real As It Gets) is a gaming impact vest designed to immerse you in games with haptic feedback. The unit, which recently took to Kickstarter for funding, could be an excellent addition to any virtual reality setup.
Fireball Jam is a new Oculus Rift and Razer Hydra demo by Dave Buchhofer, developer of the Oculus Rift VR Playground. In this simple demo, you can toss fireballs from your hands like Mario after eating a Fire Flower.
I’ve got two Oculus Rift demos to share with you today; both funny in their own regard. First is City Quest, a 2D point-and-click adventure which may embody the most pointless use of virtual reality yet. Then there’s TATS, better known as Totally Accurate Toilet Simulator, which could benefit from a scent simulator — for immersion, if not pleasure.
A few weeks ago we showed you a mesmerizing program called Boxplorer2; a fractal exploration program which recently gained Oculus Rift support. The developer has just shared with us six fractal scenes, ready for viewing with the Oculus Rift.
New Virtuix Omni gameplay videos have popped up, but first, a big congratulations to Virtuix who’s Omni Kickstarter blasted out of the gate yesterday morning and crushed its goal shortly thereafter. Now the only question left is: how high will it go?
The Virtuix Omni Kickstarter is now live. The Omni is an omnidirectional treadmill for virtual reality which promises to let you walk, run, and jump inside of your favorite games. Prices start at $249 for a DIY kit and go up from there — quite a bit cheaper than we had previously expected.
Back at the end of April, word got out that Second Life would be getting Oculus Rift support. In a new interview, Linden Labs (developer of Second Life) CEO, Rod Humble says that the company is working on making Second Life Oculus Rift support a “triple A experience…”
Hey VR Heads! I am back with more VR gameplay analysis, this time using the highly anticipated VorpX software to explore various titles. Let’s dig right in!
Using VorpX was awesomely simple. Double click on the shortcut, the program quietly runs in the background, boot up your game. That’s it! I am sure that the final program will have some config options, but so far things are delightfully easy.
One of the most impressive features of VorpX is the sheer number of games it works with. I opened Bastion (2011) with VorpX active on a whim, and to my great surprise, it worked — no 3D of course — but still very cool! That led me to trying almost every game in my Steam library just to see if they would work, and how well VorpX would handle it. Over half of the games I have ended up working to some degree on the Oculus Rift with VorpX, including Tera, AKA The Exiled Realm of Arborea (2011), XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012), and Tomb Raider (2013). Awesome!
As with Vireio, pitch and yaw headtracking gets tied to the mouse. Roll seemed to be a little bit sluggish, but overall the head tracking experience was smooth and spot on. Even in racing games like Dirt 2 (2009) and Grid(2008), VorpX provided headtracking without using TrackIR!
Although the two circles on screen look rather small, my vision was completely filled. However, I normally use C lens cups, so I switched to A lenses for a quick check. I was pleased to see my vision still filled. I was able to see a tiny bit of the black edge on the bottom, but I am sure that is something that could be easily corrected with a setting change.
I was also really happy with the way the mouse cursor was handled by VorpX. In all titles that were listed as compatible, the program provided a mouse cursor that worked properly in stereoscopic vision.
VorpX apparently uses some interesting algorithms to get a stereoscopic 3D effect from games that were never intended to provide it. The sense of depth was not as pronounced as the games made from the ground up for VR, but it was still there. As I have stated before, depth isn’t everything for 3D; parallax, perspective, and overlap also contribute to fooling your brain. In games like Skyrim (2011) and BioShock Infinite (2013), I still felt a sense of scale and wonder as I explored the beautiful environments of each game. I certainly felt immersed and comfortable — no eye strain. I could easily play for hours using VorpX.
This program makes me incredibly excited! Even at this early stage of development, a respectable number of games are compatible and playable. It is easy to use, easy on the eyes, and led to hours of fun! There are some things out of VorpX’s control: computer controlled cut-scenes and UI/HUD elements that are positioned too far out prevent some games from being 100% enjoyable [see note on VorpX’s ‘Edge Peek’ feature below]. However, these titles are just a few mods away from being VR-ready. While we wait for the first “Killer App” designed specifically for VR, we will be able to dive into the worlds of old favorites!
Editor’s Note: At the time, Bruce was unaware of VorpX’s ‘Edge Peek’ mode. Pressing the middle-mouse button when playing a VorpX enhanced title will ‘unlock’ your viewpoint to allow you to glance around the entire game’s screen area. So, any hidden UI elements or menus are easily located. Pressing the middle-mouse button once again snaps your view back to center and you can carry on playing.
Until the Next VR Experiment,
As we reportedly recently, the Virtuix Omni VR treadmill is heading to Kickstarter on June 4th. Building up to the Kickstarter the company starts the Virtuix Omni contest to give away three Omni’s — don’t miss your chance to enter!
Outerra is the stunning, in-development, world rendering engine that we’ve had our eyes on lately. After teasing Oculus Rift Outerra support with a few videos, the developers have released the first build to enable Rift functionality.
Take a flight in a wing suit, ride in a formula one car, or go on a daring course in a stunt prop plane — all from the comfort of your home. Making View has adapted their 360 degree video experiences for the Oculus Rift.
