General VR discussion thread

[Aikouka]

Not worth it. You're better off getting a new laptop with external GPU support. That's the future of laptop gaming.

Your solution works if you want a laptop that you can use at home (while stationary) for gaming. Your solution is not that effective for on-the-go gaming or VR. The latter may seem okay, but if the idea is putting the laptop on your back, you'd end up having a cable going from the laptop to the dock, and then from the dock to the headset plus the power cable to the laptop.

 

[Subyman]

To me, the omni treadmills like the Virtuix makes more sense. But there's so much development going on, we're just going to have to see what sticks over time. My VR exercise bike shows up in a couple of months & I'm excited to do fitness in VR, because I think it will distract me from the actual work of doing cardio haha.

I'm not so sure yet. Strapping into VR is one thing, but having an omni-treadmill next to your PC seems a step too far. That stuff is looking more and more like a "laser tag" type thing where people are interested for about 3-5 years and then support wanes. I see an alternate control scheme where you do not have to physically walk around being the most popular. The bike is a neat side innovation in the stationary bike world, but I don't see it overlapping much with gaming or the general public.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I'm not so sure yet. Strapping into VR is one thing, but having an omni-treadmill next to your PC seems a step too far. That stuff is looking more and more like a "laser tag" type thing where people are interested for about 3-5 years and then support wanes. I see an alternate control scheme where you do not have to physically walk around being the most popular. The bike is a neat side innovation in the stationary bike world, but I don't see it overlapping much with gaming or the general public.

That's my thought. Once you get beyond arm and head tracking (such as WiiFit type games or stationary/on rails shooters) the interest will be much more niche. Not everyone has the space to 'move around' and a treadmill while may sound like a cool idea will take up quite a bit of space.

I think there will be some interesting things come out of both of them, but overall support or use won't be enough to justify tons of support from devs. It will be like one off games that come with their own controller. The majority of applications will be stationary with head and hand tracking and thats about it.

 

[Sabrewings]

Finally got around to the VR benchmark for SteamVR. Results below, machine used in sig:

 

[Sabrewings]

Complete my preorder today. Pretty stoked.

 

[Aikouka]

It seemed to take them some time to get the pre-order page up. I had the countdown going and it was still at 00:00:00 after 5 minutes. Once the pre-orders came up, I was a bit flummoxed as I kept getting an empty cart problem, but it turns out, my work computer (as per usual) was messing things up. So, I had to remote into my desktop at home just to pre-order. The only bummer is that there's no indication when you'll get your product. I was only about 14 minutes after the scheduled release and 10 minutes after I saw them go up, so I should be good.

Now, the only downside is how am I going to use it? I was originally hoping to put it in one of my spare rooms and use my laptop. However, my laptop, which is pretty powerful for a gaming laptop (Haswell i7 + 980M), scored pretty poorly (3.6).

 

[Sabrewings]

It seemed to take them some time to get the pre-order page up. I had the countdown going and it was still at 00:00:00 after 5 minutes. At first, I was a bit flummoxed as I kept getting an empty cart problem, but it turns out, my work computer (as per usual) was messing things up. So, I had to remote into my desktop at home just to pre-order.

When it hit zero and nothing happened, I loaded up Steam's program on my desktop. It was right on the main page of the store and went through flawlessly.

 

[Aikouka]

When it hit zero and nothing happened, I loaded up Steam's program on my desktop. It was right on the main page of the store and went through flawlessly.

Ah, yeah... I checked Steam on my phone, and there was a link there. It eventually took me through the whole process, so that would have worked too, and it probably would've been easier than having to do it through a remote desktop session.

I also thought it was kind of interesting that I had to pay tax on it. Interestingly enough, it was only about 4%, which is the state portion of my sales tax, rather than the full 9% (4% state + 4% county + 1% municipal).

 

[Sabrewings]

Ah, yeah... I checked Steam on my phone, and there was a link there. It eventually took me through the whole process, so that would have worked too, and it probably would've been easier than having to do it through a remote desktop session.

I also thought it was kind of interesting that I had to pay tax on it. Interestingly enough, it was only about 4%, which is the state portion of my sales tax, rather than the full 9% (4% state + 4% county + 1% municipal).

Yeah, I paid tax too, about the same amount. It added to the sticker shock a bit, but no big deal. Still, for $800 we can't throw in free shipping? Just let Amazon be your domestic distributor.

 

[sxr7171]

Your solution works if you want a laptop that you can use at home (while stationary) for gaming. Your solution is not that effective for on-the-go gaming or VR. The latter may seem okay, but if the idea is putting the laptop on your back, you'd end up having a cable going from the laptop to the dock, and then from the dock to the headset plus the power cable to the laptop.

Power cable to the GPU also. I don't think we're ready for untethered PC driven VR yet. But maybe everything could be put into a backpack but power and venting is still an issue.

 

[sxr7171]

Complete my preorder today. Pretty stoked.

Me too. I hope this is good.

 

[Sabrewings]

Power cable to the GPU also. I don't think we're ready for untethered PC driven VR yet. But maybe everything could be put into a backpack but power and venting is still an issue.

A good size li-ion battery would work in a backpack. I had one in my last car as the main battery and it only weighed five pounds, but it had more capacity than your average car battery. If the GearVR can run off a phone battery, this would be more than enough. All they would need is to figured out wireless throughput and latency (I know, "all they would need" D.

 

[Subyman]

When is the ship date for you guys? I should be getting my Oculus in April.

 

[SexyK]

Have an Oculus pre-order in place for April but am tempted to get in line for a Vive also. Seems to me that the initial software offering on the Rift is much stronger which is a critical element of the launch (what's the point of the thing if there's no good content?), but I guess time will tell. Decisions, decisions.

 

[Sabrewings]

When is the ship date for you guys? I should be getting my Oculus in April.

Nothing exact. Just say "April 2016" right now.

 

[Aikouka]

When is the ship date for you guys? I should be getting my Oculus in April.

Same for me.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I landed March. We shall see.

I too thought about getting in line for Vive..but then thought eh...by the time it comes I should know if I am into this or not.

 

[Aikouka]

To note, Anandtech's article on the Vive states that shipments begin on April 5.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Wow.
Hololens dev-kit pre-orders $3000

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/02/29/hololens-pre-orders-open-for-3000-shipping-march-30/

 

[jdoggg12]

Wow.
Hololens dev-kit pre-orders $3000

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/02/29/hololens-pre-orders-open-for-3000-shipping-march-30/

So is that like Google Glass 2.0?

 

[Sabrewings]

So is that like Google Glass 2.0?

In a sense, kinda but not really. I don't know how much AR Google Glass tried to do for you, but I suspect it couldn't do much.

 

[Sabrewings]

To note, Anandtech's article on the Vive states that shipments begin on April 5.

I hadn't heard yet that they added Tiltbrush. Sweet, the wife was really into that one when she saw it. She's also eager to go sightseeing in E.

 

[Kaido]

Got my Vive pre-order in! I was stuck in meetings all day, so mine isn't coming until May (same time as my Oculus). RIP tax return

My only concern now is building a system, or more specifically, when Pascal is coming out. I'm willing to wait a month for a 16gb card. This article has some interesting rumors:

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read...-and-launched-in-june-at-computex-2016/037972

Nvidia Pascal to be unveiled at GPU Technology Conference and launched in June at Computex 2016?

According to multiple reports, Nvidia will be unveiling its new Pascal GPU at the 2016 GPU Technology Conference on April 4th – 7th. The graphics card is also rumoured to officially launch at Computex in June.

The firm’s CEO and co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang is believed to be hosting a keynote on the second day of the event, where he is expected to reveal Nvidia’s plans for its Pascal GPUs.

Rather than bring a prototype, Huang is allegedly showcasing a working unit, which means that more specific details about the performance of the Nvidia Pascal GPU will be revealed during the affair, reported Christian Today.

The Pascal GPUs will be the successor to the Maxwell GPUs and come with three key design features – 3D memory, unified memory and NVLink.

3D Memory: Stacks DRAM chips into dense modules with wide interfaces, and brings them inside the same package as the GPU. This lets GPUs get data from memory more quickly – boosting throughput and efficiency – allowing us to build more compact GPUs that put more power into smaller devices. The result: several times greater bandwidth, more than twice the memory capacity and quadrupled energy efficiency.

Unified Memory: This will make building applications that take advantage of what both GPUs and CPUs can do quicker and easier by allowing the CPU to access the GPU’s memory, and the GPU to access the CPU’s memory, so developers don’t have to allocate resources between the two.

NVLink: Today’s computers are constrained by the speed at which data can move between the CPU and GPU. NVLink puts a fatter pipe between the CPU and GPU, allowing data to flow at more than 80GB per second, compared to the 16GB per second available now.

According to a report published by SweClockers, the Pascal GPUs will become available during the Computex 2016 show, which takes place in from May 31st to June 4th in Taipei, Taiwan.

So I'll look forward to getting more information a month from now at the GPU tech conference, and then hopefully picking up a monster card in June.

 

[Kaido]

Wow.
Hololens dev-kit pre-orders $3000

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/02/29/hololens-pre-orders-open-for-3000-shipping-march-30/

Expensive, but if they can do true visual holography using AR with a quality image detection engine, it's gonna be HUGE. Everyone in manufacturing & production will be buying these things up left & right. Imagine working on your car with Ironman-style process graphics. Or assembling a sandwich at McDonalds. Or building an airplane. Doing origami. Walking through a recipe when cooking at home. Playing laser tag in your house! So many awesome possibilities.

 

[jdoggg12]

Expensive, but if they can do true visual holography using AR with a quality image detection engine, it's gonna be HUGE. Everyone in manufacturing & production will be buying these things up left & right. Imagine working on your car with Ironman-style process graphics. Or assembling a sandwich at McDonalds. Or building an airplane. Doing origami. Walking through a recipe when cooking at home. Playing laser tag in your house! So many awesome possibilities.

Some day, in the not very near future.... maybe. The problem is that that kind of intelligent overlay will require a damn-near AI level processing engine. Think about it... everything that it works with would need to have a 3D reference design to call from in order to accurately select the object(s). Then it would need to understand our 3D manipulation of that 3D object in real time and display the overlay accordingly.

Not very hard for a given object, true, but for it to work while free-roaming around the home/business/public would be a massive library and processing feat.