Sony rumoured to be developing VR headset for PS4 *spawn

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The real beauty of VR is the gameplay enhancement. In an RPG, you can look around as fast as you can in real life, and you can stop and hear the audio exactly where you are standing (it needs binaural audio!). The end result is true immersion. In a shooter, you can check behind you every now and then with a quick turn of the head, unlike the slow rotations of a DS interface. You can peak around a corner with just one eye. In a plane game you can look around in the midst of a dogfight. The experience will be fundamentally different, unlike every other variation such as 3D TV, which just adds a layer of depth and not immersion.

It's something I'd certainly like to try. It could be a game changer, which is why people are raving about Oculus Rift - it is an intrinsically different experience, putting you in the game as opposed to outside looking in through a window.

I think VR sells itself quite easily, and it's an experience that pretty much anyone would want to try. As you mentioned, immersion will be unparalleled. The only issue is making it easy to setup, convenient for a variety of spaces (wireless) and comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. From what I understand, people who have played long gaming sessions with the Occulus Rift say it is uncomfortable and dizzying after about an hour.
 
It might be VR is only good for an hour or so, and that can't be helped without major new technology (haptic feedback or brain beaming). But it's not ideal for every game, and longer gaming sessions might be the reserve of different style. VR will do nothing for Diablo type games, or any third-person. COD fans may have to limit themselves to one-hour sessions, which might actually be good for humanity as a whole. :p
 
... COD fans may have to limit themselves to one-hour sessions, which might actually be good for humanity as a whole. :p

Agreed. My friend and I were joking that playing VR would be like gambling in a casino, where you have no idea what time of day it is outside. I can see huge problems with people playing with VR and suddenly realizing they've missed meals, missed sleep before work etc. People have gaming addictions already. This just spells trouble for those people. If it is inherently uncomfortable for extended play sessions, I think that could be a blessing in disguise. They should put a warning pop-ups in your view every once in a while to remind you how long you've been playing and what time it is. Maybe put your calendar reminders in your view as well, since you won't be able to see/hear your phone.
 
It might be VR is only good for an hour or so, and that can't be helped without major new technology (haptic feedback or brain beaming). But it's not ideal for every game, and longer gaming sessions might be the reserve of different style. VR will do nothing for Diablo type games, or any third-person. COD fans may have to limit themselves to one-hour sessions, which might actually be good for humanity as a whole. :p

Many reported that if you pace yourself in the beginning [smaller sessions, slow introduction to the high paced genres], you can adapt yourself to the Oculus Rift and use it for hours at the time without any problems.

Oculus VR likes to promote their tech in public with Hawken and EveVR, but those demos are not perfect for VR novices.
 
The longest I have played with the HMZ-T2 on, whithout any pause, was 4 hours and something. I was playing Mass Effect. I have never experienced any dizziness.
The reason Oculus Rift is creating problems with some people is - in my opinion - the fact that it has too much lag. After a while the lag gets to you, you feel like in a carousel, the image/eyes are always behind the perceived position of the head.
 
Mass Effect is third person though, so you have one item (the character) as a constant point of reference on screen.

Most other games demoed with Oculus Rift don't have that. Speed can also cause problems, like in games like DOOM 3 they used to demo also I think.

Dizziness of this type results from mismatch of visual input with vestibular input from the inner ear. It is similar in pathogenesis to car sickness or sea sickness.

OR has proposed a few solutions to this problem I think, trying to get some constant point of reference for players.

Personally, I doubt that everyone can adapt well to the vertigo sensation. I'm sure people can gain tolerance for it, but they shouldn't depend on people "just getting used to it." They should find better ways to make the VR system comfortable for as many users as possibly as fast as possible during use.

I have personally not heard any lag complaints from Oculus Rift tech demos, but I admit I haven't been following it terribly closely.

If there is lag in Oculus I suspect it's mostly software interface problems, rather than hardware. And if it is hardware I expect OR would be able to rapidly correct the issue in new iterations.
 
The longest I have played with the HMZ-T2 on, whithout any pause, was 4 hours and something. I was playing Mass Effect. I have never experienced any dizziness.
It'll be different for different folk. I've a friend who suffers motion sickness playing some first person games, moreso on 3D. And another felt strained watching 3D (passive). But I don't suffer motion sickness at all, nor any response to wild motions such that theme park rides don't work on me, and had no problem with 3D. I expect I'd accommodate a VR headset very comfortably (physical comfort not withstanding), but for a product to prove successful it has to be suitably popular. If user response is negative it won't take off. Sony et al will have to understand the requirements and manage them. A training period to acclimatise people isn't going to work for the masses.
 
But I was shocked by how quickly "PS4 VR" was overshadowed out of the news cycle by "150 mhz Xbox CPU clock bump" (a relatively minor thing if you think about it).

Maybe because VR was already championed and naturally dismissed with Fortaleza revelations a while back.

I dont know what that says, but it makes me wonder about the fundamental appeal of head mounted VR.

It's definitely appealing but doesn't Move require not infrequent calibration dancing? That part doesn't sound appealing with a HMD. Maybe it's solved with PS4.
 
Maybe because VR was already championed and naturally dismissed with Fortaleza revelations a while back.

VR is fine, and has no problem generating hype... but we've been promised VR for 'decades' and "I'll believe it when I see it" is apt.

If Sony have a 'sensibly priced', working VR system that looks decent, I can guarantee that it will generate hype.

But until it's a product, we're just taking random stabs at what it is/isn't.

It's definitely appealing but doesn't Move require not infrequent calibration dancing? That part doesn't sound appealing with a HMD. Maybe it's solved with PS4.

AFAIR the "annoying" calibration was due to working out how tall the player was (so that it could work out where your hand was relative to your shoulder/belt). I think later move games reduced it a bit.

Although - if the PS4 does face detection (as recently claimed), then logically it may not need to do that 'often'?
 
I still have a pair of glasstrons so I am giddy over all this vr talk. These have lots of development time over the years so I hope old issues are fully gone. My glasstrons while small always hurt some part of my face after a few minutes. I like the OR goggle style to be honest more so than the newer Sony setups. Comfort is going to be key, along with people wearing glasses.
 
Move calibration will depend on the games. I doubt people wearing VR goggles want to jump around (even with PSEye absolute position tracking). The gears may come loose.

Some Move games require calibration when you change player, some require recalibration at the beginning of every round. Some will drift a little over time, some will auto-correct their drift.

I still have a pair of glasstrons so I am giddy over all this vr talk. These have lots of development time over the years so I hope old issues are fully gone. My glasstrons while small always hurt some part of my face after a few minutes. I like the OR goggle style to be honest more so than the newer Sony setups. Comfort is going to be key, along with people wearing glasses.

Sony's PUD-J5A seems a better fit than the HMZ series. The latter tends to rest too much on your nose if you don't wear it properly. HMZ looks sleeker though. :)
 
I have an inner ear issue that can't be fixed, I will never end up where I started once you take away my visual balancing cues. Should make for some good YouTube videos when I get hands on. Lol

Sitting I will be fine, standing I am guessing in my case it will never work. Not a complaint, my issue is really quite rare.

Edit at Patsu - those look close to my pair, and where they get me is on the nose and ears.
 
Yap, if you wore HMZ correctly, then the entire unit should hover above your nose without touching it at all.

The PUD-J5A looks lighter. Hopefully a newer refresh will also hover above the nose. The "ideal" experience should be like wearing an over-the-ear headphone.
 
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:LOL:
 
What did the "Nathan-has-been-drugged" seen feel like in UC3? Made me feel slightly queasy just playing it on a normal TV.

This is the thing, I get motion sickness in games since Doom. My head was spinning trying to play Zelda OOT on N64. Games where the camera rotates a lot like FPS or third person games like Zelda would give me motion sickness. I tried all the motion sickness remedies and none work. For some reason using stereo 3D, I don't suffered from motion sickness.

I was able to play through OOT on 3DS without motion sickness. I played Uncharted 3 in 3D with HMZ without getting motion sick, where I suffered with Uncharted 2. So yeah that scene was distorted and all but I didn't get queasy. Another example is Wipeout, I can't play that game since PS1 era without motion sickness. The PS3 version was the same, until the 3D patch, the game is awesome. Love it.
 
The longest I have played with the HMZ-T2 on, whithout any pause, was 4 hours and something. I was playing Mass Effect. I have never experienced any dizziness.
The reason Oculus Rift is creating problems with some people is - in my opinion - the fact that it has too much lag. After a while the lag gets to you, you feel like in a carousel, the image/eyes are always behind the perceived position of the head.

I played FFXIV Beta with HMZ-T2, for 12-13 hours, night till morning sort of session. 2-3 movies marathon with it is pretty often too. My HMZ is kinda worn out from used. I'm surely going to get HMZ-T3. Haven't decided on wired or wireless model yet. Probably wired, since the battery solution dangling like that isn't that much different to the wired model.

In regard to Rift, I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but AFAIK the lenses are different compare to HMZ. It's a fisheye sort of lense. And I know I can get dizzy looking through those sort of lenses. That's my only worry with Rift solution to VR.

Sony could have used a wider OLED screen and curved them for each eye, and instead of 16:9 ratio maybe 12:3, which is about triple screens gaming and adjust the lenses to accomodate. (Heck if they have a technology to make OLED into a hemisphere do that, it would be awesome for immersion.) That would put the HMD in Rift territory in regard to fov.

I really like Rift HMD form factor design. The light blockers in Rift looks like it actually work. I had to use HMZ in complete darkness. The light blockers that comes with HMZ is a joke. The lenses seems to be bigger too in Rift so I assume the sweetspot is bigger. HMZ lenses are small and square, I hope T3 had bigger lenses.
 
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