Quote from Bose321 :

You'll eventually hit a wall or obstacle in your room, as I see it.

How do you walk in games btw without actually moving?

I don't think you fully understand the concept...

You use a controller to move just like you would normally, it's just the rift is essentially an advanced monitoring system where shit looks 3d and pretty realistic and has track ir like headmovements but obviously better than.

Quote from Bose321 :

How do you walk in games btw without actually moving?

Quote from Maelstrom :

Anyway, due to the cables' lenght limit I will use it sitted exclusively.

Quote from BlueFlame :

You use a controller to move just like you would normally

And how do you see your normal controller, whether that's keyboard/mouse/joystick/wheel/yoke? Maybe I'm retarded, but I find I have to look at these things periodically - to hit the right button, find the right key.

Not being able to see them does seem to limit it's potential.

How do you look behind you? I don't think it would be good if the sensitivity was high so that you turn your head 90 degrees for 180 degrees in the game. And if it IS like that, what happens when you want to turn a bit more? Do you have to spin round the other way?

Or maybe I'm just used to FORWARD being the direction I'm looking in games like Skyrim or Half Life.

If the view is constrained (like in a plane or a race car) then it's not so much of a problem of course.

Quote from tristancliffe :

And how do you see your normal controller, whether that's keyboard/mouse/joystick/wheel/yoke? Maybe I'm retarded, but I find I have to look at these things periodically - to hit the right button, find the right key.

Not being able to see them does seem to limit it's potential.

How do you look behind you? I don't think it would be good if the sensitivity was high so that you turn your head 90 degrees for 180 degrees in the game. And if it IS like that, what happens when you want to turn a bit more? Do you have to spin round the other way?

Or maybe I'm just used to FORWARD being the direction I'm looking in games like Skyrim or Half Life.

If the view is constrained (like in a plane or a race car) then it's not so much of a problem of course.

These are valid questions, for me personally I think I could manage just fine until a keyboard was involved. Maybe there will be a sort of opacity tweak or something similar. Or maybe what they should develop is an open slit somewhere under the monitors on the inside of the headset so you can just look down and see a bit of what your doing.

Quote from tristancliffe :

And how do you see your normal controller, whether that's keyboard/mouse/joystick/wheel/yoke? Maybe I'm retarded, but I find I have to look at these things periodically - to hit the right button, find the right key.

Not being able to see them does seem to limit it's potential.

How do you look behind you? I don't think it would be good if the sensitivity was high so that you turn your head 90 degrees for 180 degrees in the game. And if it IS like that, what happens when you want to turn a bit more? Do you have to spin round the other way?

Or maybe I'm just used to FORWARD being the direction I'm looking in games like Skyrim or Half Life.

If the view is constrained (like in a plane or a race car) then it's not so much of a problem of course.

At first the controls will have to remain fairly simple so that you don't have to move your hands from the buttons/keys. It is probably the reason why theyused a joypad in the demos they have shown. I'm sure it will be ok with a wheel set up. Everyhting is pretty close. It will be disorientating at first though.

I'm sure they will work out more some ambitious contraptions in the future. It could be a virtual keyboard using a hand movement recognition device or something.

The silly answer to the look behind you question would be turn your head behind your shoulder. The ratio between head movement and image movement is suppose to be 1:1. We would all get sick otherwise.

So if I'm playing Skyrim, and happily running toward a city. I then decide I want to run the other way I have to turn round? How will my keyboard and mouse cope? At least they're wireless, otherwise we could be garotted by a few moments indecision.......

Don't get me wrong - I love the tech. But there are major OTHER flaws to 'virtual reality' that need to be addressed at the same time to make it work in a lot of games.

Quote from tristancliffe :

So if I'm playing Skyrim, and happily running toward a city. I then decide I want to run the other way I have to turn round? How will my keyboard and mouse cope? At least they're wireless, otherwise we could be garotted by a few moments indecision.......

You effectively, 'line up' your line of sight with the controller again (lets say you turned around to the left, you'd move the right analogue stick to the left whilst bringing your head back to centre), so you'll be able to slowly move your head back to centre.


Sorry for the poor explanation, maybe someone can give a better one.

Hmmmm. I'd never play that sort of game with a gamepad. Mouse and keyboard for me. Maybe mouse controls heading of player body, and Rift controls angle of view relative to angle of body...

I can see if making a lot of people I'll though!!

Quote from tristancliffe :

Maybe mouse controls heading of player body, and Rift controls angle of view relative to angle of body...

That's the way I was trying to explain it. So when you're turned around, you just neutralize it by moving the mouse in the direction your head is faced and then move your head back to neutral, as your body is now facing in the direction you first turned around to look at.

Oh, now I get it. I indeed was not known with the concept.

Quote from tristancliffe :

So if I'm playing Skyrim, and happily running toward a city. I then decide I want to run the other way I have to turn round? How will my keyboard and mouse cope? At least they're wireless, otherwise we could be garotted by a few moments indecision.......

Don't get me wrong - I love the tech. But there are major OTHER flaws to 'virtual reality' that need to be addressed at the same time to make it work in a lot of games.

With a keyboard set up your head take the place of the mouse. You turn around by turning your head. Not very convenient indeed.

With a joypad with 2 analog sticks you can have something a bit more evolved with your head mouvement independant of your body movement.

But joypads are so slow. There hasn't been an enjoyable first person game done with a joypad. Third person (where the camera pivot around a character On the screen) are okay, but of course shit for VR (unless simating an out of body experience)

Looks like a great piece of kit... perfect for sim racing

as far as FPS controls, maybe what would work (after getting used to it) would be using keyboard for forward back, rotate left & right, and strafing, mouse for aiming cross-hair and VR headset for aiming camera relative to body position....

The cross-hair would be positioned by the mouse relative to the direction the body is facing, not the head. You could have a key/button that immediately (with customizable smoothing like 'look' buttons in LFS) aligns the body position and cross-hair with the VR aim, so that you can lock onto things quickly...

I think something along these lines would become intuitive very quickly.

Quote from tristancliffe :

But joypads are so slow. There hasn't been an enjoyable first person game done with a joypad. Third person (where the camera pivot around a character On the screen) are okay, but of course shit for VR (unless simating an out of body experience)

It is more like one stick is used to move up/down/right/left, one stick is used to turn around the axis that goes from your head to your feet and the headset is used to control the head mouvement (the aim of your gun).

It will be interesting when you will hold in your hand a gun or machinegun with its counterpart in the virtual environement. I don't know how they'll do it. I would put some stick or cross on the gun intself to be used by both thumb for the mouvement.

How about adding some pooition sensors on the player's arms and figures so they can be rendered in the game? We can go one step forward and render a keyboard in the game which's position is synced to the physical keyboard. You just move your virtual hands over a floating keyboard in the sim world and start typing on the real thing!

This is for constrained body position (sim racing, flying, etc.) only though. For FPS we'll need something more flexible. Another problem is the player's body shape/height could be different from the virtual character.