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Valve's "Room Scale VR Survey" Finds a Lot of People Play In Their Bedrooms (itworld.com)
itwbennett writes: Earlier this week Valve published the results of a "Room Scale VR Survey" completed by 2008 members of its VR Community. The findings: 860 (~43%) of respondents said their gaming PC was in their bedroom and 1,393 (~69%) said they were not willing to move their PC to accommodate a VR experience. The average space respondents feel they can devote to VR is about 8.5'x 9'. Why does this matter? Well, last March, Valve and HTC debuted the HTV Vive virtual reality system consisting of a VR visor, a couple of custom controllers and a tracking system the allows the user to wander around a 15'x15' area. 'While the Vive system certainly sounds impressive I've had questions about how practical it'll be,' writes Peter Smith. 'How many people have a 15'x15' clear area in front of their PC? Turns out, not many.' 'According to this survey at least, using all of the 15'x15' space the system can track is going to leave most users frustrated,' adds Smith.
When you live in your parents' basement, your gaming room is also your bedroom. And it's hard to get enough space for VR with that damn washer and dryer in the way.
vr is not going to smash into hardcore gaming.
why? you're going to fail around like an idiot for 8 hours+? you might just as well go out and play some real football or enlist in the army.
keyboard + mouse is a FINE control combo for vr headset gaming - you only change your monitor to be the display and you need LESS SPACE to play while enjoying the benefits of having a (potentially)360 degree display.
basically, I gave up giving Valve credit as the premier company in 'getting it' when it comes to vr headset gameplay when they released the vr patch for TF2 and it had WORSE control scheme than the unofficial half life 2 patch. basically the unofficial hl2(and other games) hack just tied the head controls to mouselook and added stereoscopic 3d and that was much much better to play with than any of the tf2 modes, which all separated aiming from the view for some reason and that makes you less effective fps player and frankly sucks, because in fps games you quite often need to look up and down and if you always need to do that by tilting your head up and down you will get bored and get a sore neck - and if in order to shoot UP you need to both move the aim to UP and look physically UP then that sucks big time!
so in essence, just use the display for display and KEEP THE FRIGGING MOUSELOOK on mouse!
or a ps4/xbox controller.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
PC sales are not dead. You'd have to pry it from the dead nerds hands in his/her bedroom.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
...Tell me this isn't an afterthought. How can you get this deep into product development and suddenly realize so few people will be able to use it? It's been of my assumption that for the physical VR experience, you'd have to go to a wealthy friends' house.
I know I know metric but hey I can't think in ft....
But anyway roughly 3m x 3m of clear space is still a big space. Especially in a bedroom that will contain a bed, a book case a desk and quite often a wardrobe (Which TFA comments on). My gaming PC is in a dedicated room and I don't have that amount of space behind me.
So honestly I question their results as I don't believe that people really have that amount of space they could dedicate to VR. A more realistic figure would be 1.5m deep by 2m wide.
Can't they build the PC into the goggles? And you might find a 15x15 space.... outside
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I'm very much looking forward to VR gaming, but have no intention of getting out of my seat. I want VR for the immersion, not flailing and jumping around in my livingroom. I wish Valve and the Rift people would stop focusing on this walking around VR they think everyone wants. If anything is going to kill VR before it can really take off, it's this. It's probably why everything is taking so long.
...I wonder what size living room the Kinect was designed for.
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For whatever it's worth, I'm remodeling a guest bedroom with this exact purpose in mind. I'll get a folding wall bed, so it can still function as a (spartan) guest bedroom, but with the bed folded up there'll be just about 12X12 feet of open space.
I'm thinking of the comment I read somewhere from somebody at Valve. . . I don't remember who, or the exact quote, but basically: "People already routinely set aside space in their houses for a home theater. If VR is compelling enough, they'll make room for it."
..Or by children and adults in a larger home where neither they nor their spouse want the common areas cluttered up with piles of gear.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
..Or by children and adults in a larger home where neither they nor their spouse want the common areas cluttered up with piles of gear.
Bingo!
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
What took so long?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Kinect? What about the Wii before it?
If you don't have a relative that smashed the hell out of some light fitting, TV, someone's head, etc. then I'll be shocked.
And the US has some of the biggest living spaces I've ever seen because they have no shortage of land. Come to Europe or the UK where if you're lucky you might have a square of 4-5 feet of usable space between your sofa and the TV.
There are inherent physical problems with any kind of VR or interactive games and hardware and this is just one. And have we really progressed from the 80's in this respect, where VR consisted of putting on a funny hat and then being confined inside a ring of plastic rails to keep you save and detect whether you wanted to "move forward".
If you want VR to take out, do a deal with paintball and laser-quest companies and borrow their facilities. Overlay the well-controlled, well-defined static layout there with gadgets enough that people with headsets can run around safely in it, seeing a virtual world overlaid on the top of plain white boxes and steps, and they can run up the steps that actually exist in front of them.
Think of it - VR CounterStrike with your friends laid over the top of a physical, but empty, replica of de_dust. You aren't actually shooting anyone, you don't need to paint the set, and you can blanket the place in sensors to make sure the locations are accurate. And when you're "dead", you take off the VR and walk to the exit (yes, griefers, I know, but you're with friends).
If you go 5 minutes without damaging yourself your room is officially "VR ready". Congratulations! Level 2 certification involves repeating this test with other humans, animals, ajar doors, hot beverages, and obstacles within the same area.
Problem solved...
(Although having a harness hanging from the ceiling in the bedroom might be an issue...)
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
I pay $2000 per month in rent and with a lot of sacrifice I could do 0.5'x1', maybe 0.7'x1'...
Think of it - VR CounterStrike with your friends laid over the top of a physical, but empty, replica of de_dust.
How about a map with less predictable choke points :p
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I only care about the VR 2 feet in front of my face.
Let me sit down and give me helicopter foot pedals to spin the view around me.
Install your VR setup up in your garage, plenty of space when the car isn't in it. Apartment dwellers: yeah, you're probably screwed.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.