The non-standard game interfaces discussion thread (move, voice, vitality, etc.)

[Arwin]

I'm with onQ on this one. It's a very important part. Imagine VR without it. And think how important it has been to get the lag down. Besides, a screen can be considered a game interface by itself, and certainly in the context of a 3D HMD like this one.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

How many VR experiences do you think won't have a controller or hand tracking and will rely solely on the head movement?

 

[onQ]

How many VR experiences do you think won't have a controller or hand tracking and will rely solely on the head movement?

Why would it have to rely solely on head movements for the head tracking to be to be considered a interface?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If you're not controlling the game with the head motion, just the camera so the VR works, it's not really a game interface is it? Yes, technically it's an IO device, but having talk of HMDs here makes little sense when there are threads for HMDs as displays. Only if an HMD comes with a novle interface like hand tracking does it make sense to talk about it in this thread.

 

[eastmen]

I just figured with controllers you have what , wii balance board , Kinect , Kinect 2 , ps eye , move , wii controller , wii u controller .

Why add in all the vr head sets . There are going to be 5 head sets pretty soon from some big companies then throw in the hololens and this thread gets really crowded.

 

[onQ]

I just figured with controllers you have what , wii balance board , Kinect , Kinect 2 , ps eye , move , wii controller , wii u controller .

Why add in all the vr head sets . There are going to be 5 head sets pretty soon from some big companies then throw in the hololens and this thread gets really crowded.

If this thread being crowded is a problem why was my thread about Touch & Motion being just as standard as Dual Analog sticks in gaming now moved into this thread?

Head tracking belongs here Touch & IMU don't.

Look at the thread title.



Think about it.

You feel that KB/M is a standard because it's used for PC gaming.

You feel that Dual Analog is a standard because of PS2,Xbox , PS3 , Xbox 360 , PS4 , Xbox One , Wii U , Vita .

But don't feel that IMU is a standard even though it's being used for Tablets/Smartphones , PS3,PS4 , Wii, Wii U , Vita , 3DS?

 

[eastmen]

well we will see how it works as more vr info comes out.

 

[Arwin]

Head tracking either takes over one of the two analog sticks, or it adds a third, basically. It hardly gets more controller than that.

 

[Davros]

Head tracking does more than a single analog stick.
X, Y, Pitch, Yaw, Zoom In, Zoom Out (6 axis)

 

[onQ]

Head tracking does more than a single analog stick.
X, Y, Pitch, Yaw, Zoom In, Zoom Out (6 axis)

Was about to say the same thing It would also be able to use your head shakes as input

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Was about to say the same thing It would also be able to use your head shakes as input

Yes. You could do some pretty awesome stuff with convincing audio and things jumping onto your head that you have to shake off. But we're talking VR here rather than general game input. There are threads for discussing VR. Still, if you guys want to include HMD input here as well, go for it.

 

[onQ]

Yes. You could do some pretty awesome stuff with convincing audio and things jumping onto your head that you have to shake off. But we're talking VR here rather than general game input. There are threads for discussing VR. Still, if you guys want to include HMD input here as well, go for it.

Summer Lesson will use head tracking for yes & no gesture recognition.

 

[eastmen]

valve and htc team up for the vive http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/01/htc-vive-vr-headset-with-valve/

I haven't seen specs yet. but its supposed to be high end , so its most likely going to enter the market higher priced than the oculus and will be in stores holiday 2015 with the dev kit out in spring


Okay specs are up on the website
http://www.htcvr.com/

The Visuals: A 1,200 by 1,080 pixel screen in front of each eye, with refresh rates of a blistering 90 frames per second, displays photorealistic imagery that fills your field of vision in all directions, eliminating the jitter common to previous VR technologies and transporting you to another world.

The Audio:
Plug your favorite set of headphones into a jack located on the side of the Developer Edition headset.

Tracking and Room Scale:
A gyrosensor, accelerometer, and laser position sensor combine to precisely track the rotation of your head on both axes to an accuracy of 1/10th of a degree, allowing you to look around the virtual environment naturally. Couple the headset with a pair of Steam VR base stations to track your physical location (in spaces up to 15 feet by 15 feet) – get up and walk around inisde the virtual world!

Custom and Game Controller:
Ergonomic VR game controllers in each hand allow you to use virtual objects and interact with the virtual world. The position of each controller is tracked in space, allowing developers to simulate a wide range of activities and interactions.


So it looks like its 2 1200x1080 screens ? the 90fps is really nice. I guess the two screens will give greater fov

apparently the site that leaked this the other day says valve is targeting $300 for it. But there is also mention from the htc release steam base stations needed to track. So speculation is the head set will be $300 but your going to pay more if you want the better movement tracking and it makes it sound like the amount of units to process tracking you buy the better it will be.

I guess more info on that will hit this week when valve demos it at gdc

 

[onQ]

valve and htc team up for the vive http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/01/htc-vive-vr-headset-with-valve/

I haven't seen specs yet. but its supposed to be high end , so its most likely going to enter the market higher priced than the oculus and will be in stores holiday 2015 with the dev kit out in spring


Okay specs are up on the website
http://www.htcvr.com/

The Visuals: A 1,200 by 1,080 pixel screen in front of each eye, with refresh rates of a blistering 90 frames per second, displays photorealistic imagery that fills your field of vision in all directions, eliminating the jitter common to previous VR technologies and transporting you to another world.

The Audio:
Plug your favorite set of headphones into a jack located on the side of the Developer Edition headset.

Tracking and Room Scale:
A gyrosensor, accelerometer, and laser position sensor combine to precisely track the rotation of your head on both axes to an accuracy of 1/10th of a degree, allowing you to look around the virtual environment naturally. Couple the headset with a pair of Steam VR base stations to track your physical location (in spaces up to 15 feet by 15 feet) – get up and walk around inisde the virtual world!

Custom and Game Controller:
Ergonomic VR game controllers in each hand allow you to use virtual objects and interact with the virtual world. The position of each controller is tracked in space, allowing developers to simulate a wide range of activities and interactions.


So it looks like its 2 1200x1080 screens ? the 90fps is really nice. I guess the two screens will give greater fov

I'm liking everything I'm seeing about this one as far as VR go. mostly the fact that it's 9 degrees of freedom & will track your movements all around the room as you actually walk around.

 

[eastmen]

well remember crystal cove was also demoed standing up with people walking around using it and that was a year ago

 

[Sonic]

These comments are funny to me because I'm pretty sure you know that these games would not be as fun with a dpad lol.

Subway Surfer had over 100 million downloads within a year of release with over 25 million people playing it everyday how can you say console-owning audience don't want to play this sort of game? You probably would have said the same thing about Minecraft before it was released on consoles & sold millions.


Edit:
A sequel to the original game was released on January 17, 2013 for iOS,and on January 24 for Android. As of June 2014, Temple Run and its sequel have been downloaded over 1 billion times.

Y'all still feel like your dpad & analog is the standard for gaming?

Look dude it's great that these mobile titles have reached such a large penetration. The simplicity of the game allows it to do so and that's not a bad thing. But it doesn't negate the fact that the gameplay can also be done on a controller. These types of games do happen to be fun on a touch interface I agree with you, and touch interface is the standard when it comes to mobile games on phones and tablets.

 

[onQ]

Look dude it's great that these mobile titles have reached such a large penetration. The simplicity of the game allows it to do so and that's not a bad thing. But it doesn't negate the fact that the gameplay can also be done on a controller. These types of games do happen to be fun on a touch interface I agree with you, and touch interface is the standard when it comes to mobile games on phones and tablets.

I was talking about some games being better using a touch or motion & you stepped in to say.

Yeah, it would probably play better on a controller. Press a button to jump and use the dpad or left analog to move left and right. There's nothing in that video that would be inherently difficult to implement on a controller.

You're lying to yourself if you think that people would rather use a dpad to play these type of games & it's not just these type of games it's so many other situations where a touch interface or IMU will work better than a dpad that's made up of 4 buttons with preset actions.

The point of the thread I made was that Touch & Motion is basically standard in gaming now & that console devs shouldn't limit gameplay to the limitations of dual analog & dpads.

 

[Sonic]

It probably would play better on a controller. There'd be less lag and it would be more responsive. Do you think it might be a possibility that even if the game would play better on a controller that still might not be the preferred method of play given that the game is being played on a screen with touch interface being held in one's hand? I don't understand the difficulty here.

I'm not against touch interface. It still has a ways to go. I much prefer Sony's method of incorporating a touchpad on the controller so I can still look at the screen. It is a nice addition and glad they put it in there, typing with it is particularly decent once gotten used to. But to say this pad or a screen alone can replace a controller for gameplay is absolutely asinine. Buttons will be needed until we have a true touch interface.

Motion controls I feel are awesome at times and cumbersome at others. There are times I'm all for it and don't mind it, then others where I just want to be lazy and sit my ass on the couch and game away. I'm sure it's the same for many others. I feel the interface for motion controls isn't exactly there yet, as in there will be a better use case for it once VR becomes prominent or Hololens takes off. Motion controls with a competent VR experience will be when motion controls start to encroach more on standard controller play.

 

[onQ]

It probably would play better on a controller. There'd be less lag and it would be more responsive. Do you think it might be a possibility that even if the game would play better on a controller that still might not be the preferred method of play given that the game is being played on a screen with touch interface being held in one's hand? I don't understand the difficulty here.

I'm not against touch interface. It still has a ways to go. I much prefer Sony's method of incorporating a touchpad on the controller so I can still look at the screen. It is a nice addition and glad they put it in there, typing with it is particularly decent once gotten used to. But to say this pad or a screen alone can replace a controller for gameplay is absolutely asinine. Buttons will be needed until we have a true touch interface.

Motion controls I feel are awesome at times and cumbersome at others. There are times I'm all for it and don't mind it, then others where I just want to be lazy and sit my ass on the couch and game away. I'm sure it's the same for many others. I feel the interface for motion controls isn't exactly there yet, as in there will be a better use case for it once VR becomes prominent or Hololens takes off. Motion controls with a competent VR experience will be when motion controls start to encroach more on standard controller play.

Who said this? not me.

I'm not talking about touch controls replacing a controller the touchpad is a part of the controller & there is things that it does better than a dpad & analog stick so devs should also make games that are built around the interface.


Also you say that a dpad would have less lag but you ignore the fact that the dpad has to be pressed down to make a input & that input is 1 action. what if I'm on the left side & want to move all the way to the right then duck and move to the middle and jump?

 

[onQ]

Final design of the Steam Controller.