Valve News Network Podcast

[OscarTheTitan]

Getting a high refresh rate/high resolution monitor will set you back around that amount too.

Yet I can get 3 1080p monitors with 144Hz refresh for less than $600...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100160979%20600338123%20600417886%20600255030%204814%204017&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=90

 

Or a 2k (QHD, 1440p, 2560x1440, or whatever moniker best suits your fancy) monitor with 144Hz refresh with FreeSync for under $500...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009769

 

The price of a phone with similar resolutions isn't even that bad, you'd actually have to buy 2 cell phones with 2k displays to get to that price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100161551%204814%20600536970

 

The price of the Oculus is designed to rip you off.

None of those are IPS panels except for the phones, and I don't know what the refresh rates and response times are on those. Maybe getting a custom one in mobile space to operate at 90hz drives up the cost more. I can see there being some additional overhead. Also I could be mistaken, but I think the Rift is using OLED panels which might cost more. I can see it actually taking $600, I just question the argument that they're not making money off of it, what exactly is the business model then? Console manufacturers can sell below cost (though they haven't in a long time) because they make up the revenue off of licensing fees on games. OR doesn't seem to be doing that either.

 

I believe it's been said that they're going to profit of of software sales in the "oculus store". At least, that's what they've said I think.

[Presence]

I don't think I've seen even one first person 3d gameworld that is beautiful enough that I'd pay extra for deeper immersion.

[Ross Scott]

I don't think I've seen even one first person 3d gameworld that is beautiful enough that I'd pay extra for deeper immersion.

 

 

 

 

Me, I'd love it even with Quake-level graphics, it's just a totally different experience, but that could be a personality thing.

[danielsangeo]

I don't know how the release version of the Oculus or the Vive are going to handle it, but something else that sprung to mind, seeing Ross's screenshots here (especially those trees on Endor), is another issue I have with the DK2:

 

Lack of antialiasing.

 

This is one thing that can also break immersion. On the DK2, the jaggy lines frequently break immersion for me. I know AA is more computationally expensive, and to do that with two huge-res screens is even moreso, but I hope that they're going to address AA in VR.

[Binky The Rabbit]

Another devblog from Stress Level Zero:

 

OyXuLSW4-JY

 

It's a sound idea, adding motion effects like that, but I found two worthwhile comments:

Why is there a lag time for the clicking sound?

Probably the PC has to take some time to do the math to figure out what movement has been made and and with that info do some more math to know how to play the sounds and stuff

Early VR games will have to deal with a lot of lag

I didn't measure it, but it sounds like ~200ms lag - which is HORRIBLE. It's like you've shooten someone and the "woosh" hasn't even started.

 

"I think this feature should be optional as I could easily see this getting annoying after a while of having it on, seeing as there appears to be quite a bit of input delay, and it seems to be pretty loud, or maybe even just a volume slider for these extra effects. But still it's cool that there are features like this being thought about."

[Presence]

I don't think I've seen even one first person 3d gameworld that is beautiful enough that I'd pay extra for deeper immersion.

 

Me, I'd love it even with Quake-level graphics, it's just a totally different experience, but that could be a personality thing.

 

You're absolutely right about Carter, I'd forgotten there was a niche market of "walkabout" games. Them I'd like to get into more deeply. I almost said that my only interest in VR would be for when I'm on the treadmill, but I figured that'd come across as trolling.

 

Shooters in VR sound like a shaky idea to me. I get you're coming from, game looks good, scenery looks good, wouldn't it be nice to look around naturally? Then I think how fundamentally ugly the gameplay tends to be. I'm not talking about violence, I'm talking about the pacing of games published by douchebags for twelve year olds. Something with the pacing of Unreal might be alright.

[Ross Scott]

I don't think I've seen even one first person 3d gameworld that is beautiful enough that I'd pay extra for deeper immersion.

 

Me, I'd love it even with Quake-level graphics, it's just a totally different experience, but that could be a personality thing.

 

You're absolutely right about Carter, I'd forgotten there was a niche market of "walkabout" games. Them I'd like to get into more deeply. I almost said that my only interest in VR would be for when I'm on the treadmill, but I figured that'd come across as trolling.

 

Shooters in VR sound like a shaky idea to me. I get you're coming from, game looks good, scenery looks good, wouldn't it be nice to look around naturally? Then I think how fundamentally ugly the gameplay tends to be. I'm not talking about violence, I'm talking about the pacing of games published by douchebags for twelve year olds. Something with the pacing of Unreal might be alright.

I could be mistaken, but my hope is a lot of games will still be viable in VR on easiest difficulties, or with cheats. Afterall, Crysis is a game you can take at your own pace most of the time.

 

I don't know how the release version of the Oculus or the Vive are going to handle it, but something else that sprung to mind, seeing Ross's screenshots here (especially those trees on Endor), is another issue I have with the DK2:

 

Lack of antialiasing.

 

This is one thing that can also break immersion. On the DK2, the jaggy lines frequently break immersion for me. I know AA is more computationally expensive, and to do that with two huge-res screens is even moreso, but I hope that they're going to address AA in VR.

This is a genuine problem for newer games. This is one of the reasons I'm excited to get old games working in VR when it's out, my system should be able to handle them. With more modern ones, it's entirely possible the only solution will be to have downsampling (so even if you're looking at a 1200 screen, it's rendering at 4k+, etc.) which only the most monstrous of systems can handle currently. Even then, I've read Crossfire and SLI don't work well with VR (though I think that's being addressed), so it might be literally impossible to have quality AA in VR on some games at the moment, may just have to wait for hardware to get more powerful.