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30 Minutes Inside Valve's Prototype Virtual Reality Headset

Posted by timothy on from the inside-your-head dept.

muterobert writes "Owlchemy Labs, the developers behind the excellent Oculus Rift ready game, Aaaaaaaculus!, share their impressions of their time at Steam Dev Days and detail their experiences using Valve's secretive virtual reality HMD prototype. An excerpt: 'I was told to walk off of the cube and it was physically difficult to step forward into the space where there was no solid footing, even though I knew that there would be a solid floor with a rug right there for me. It's amazing how the mind can trick you.'"

9 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Good, looks good by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I got a rift dev kit, and this sounds like a good leap forward on its design. Hopefully the consumer rift and this are both compatible with some sort of core software principals. The last thing the emergent VR economy needs is splintering.

  2. Hmm.. by dohnut · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm coming out with an application called "Solitary Confinement".

    Required hardware will be a VR headset, noise-cancelling headphones, and a typical closet or shower (shower/tubs will not work). You can play single player but it's much more realistic if a friend or family member takes on the role of the warden. I'm integrating it with the steam API and am currently ironing out the achievements.

    --
    Stupider like a fox! - H.S.
  3. Re:So basically... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Funny

    Patch notes:
    *To improve immersion, the headset turns into a headcrab and turns you into a zombie when your heath reaches zero

  4. Familiarity counts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    An excerpt: 'I was told to walk off of the cube and it was physically difficult to step forward into the space where there was no solid footing, even though I knew that there would be a solid floor with a rug right there for me. It's amazing how the mind can trick you.'

    Given the game in question is just an Oculus Rift version of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAA!!!!!, clearly the person testing it is not experienced in the game. As any veteran of it knows, the whole point of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAA!!!!! is to happily take running leaps off of cubes.

    Though this does make me wonder if people who are used to the game already would have the same apprehension over jumping off the (to them) familiar-looking buildings they've jumped off hundreds of times before...

    1. Re:Familiarity counts? by Baloroth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      An excerpt: 'I was told to walk off of the cube and it was physically difficult to step forward into the space where there was no solid footing, even though I knew that there would be a solid floor with a rug right there for me. It's amazing how the mind can trick you.'

      Given the game in question is just an Oculus Rift version of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAA!!!!!, clearly the person testing it is not experienced in the game. As any veteran of it knows, the whole point of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAA!!!!! is to happily take running leaps off of cubes.

      Though this does make me wonder if people who are used to the game already would have the same apprehension over jumping off the (to them) familiar-looking buildings they've jumped off hundreds of times before...

      The point in AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAA!!!!! is to walk off the cube in the game, i.e. using the game controls. The difficulty the user here had was stepping forward in real life while wearing the headset that made it look like he would be physically stepping off a cube (even though he knew he wouldn't).

      It actually brings up an interesting point about VR/AR: mixing the real world (where there is a physical floor ahead of you) with the virtual one (where it appears there isn't), and overcoming the self-preservation instinct by stepping forwards anyways could potentially lead to the self-preservation instinct being dangerously suppressed over time. With current video games, it's easy to know the difference between the real and virtual world. But with VR, specially VR that replicates physical actions into the game world (so that stepping forward in the game involves stepping forward in real life, not just pressing a key), that line may well become significantly blurred to the point where video games might actually have harmful effects (in this case, suppressing the instinct to not step off buildings).

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
  5. Re:So basically... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Known issues:
    *headcrab functionality does not seem to wait for low health

  6. Shut up and take my money by xtal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Someone needs to get these on the market; it's been two decades since the promise was there; now we have photo realistic rendering and very high DPI screens, and dirt cheap high accuracy sensing.

    I'm not sure exactly what the holdup is - but someone, be it Valve, or Occulus - release one of these already?

    --
    ..don't panic
  7. You can get a taste of it with Kinect + Oculus by EnglishTim · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've been experimenting with using the Kinect for body positioning - allowing you to walk around a virtual room by walking around a real one. There are two big problems: First, the fidelity of the Kinect isn't great, so positioning is a bit inaccurate and gets jumpy with distance. Second, I had to make a cord bundle extension to give me room to walk about and you're always worried about tripping over it.

  8. Re:Buy stock in anti nausea drugs by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 2

    Someone gave me the first dev kit version of the Rift. It made me motion sick immediately. They're not going to release a consumer version until that stops happening.