SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
What's Popular in Virtual Reality's 3-D World? Netflix and TV.
Companies such as Samsung and Facebook's Oculus promote their virtual-reality headsets by highlighting awe-inspiring 3-D experiences for gaming and virtual travel. But one of the most popular activities among early adopters of the technology is less novel: watching 2-D movies and TV.
"It's been a surprise on the VR circuit because much of the work is driven by people coming from the gaming world, who are fairly dogmatic about what VR means," says Anjney Midha, founder of the San Francisco venture capital fund KPCB Edge. Figuring out what people want to do with headsets is crucial if companies such as Facebook are to make the devices widely popular.
Midha says consumer interest in a new way to view 2-D content shouldn't be surprising given the popularity of watching movies and TV on mobile devices with small screens. A 2-D video viewed using a VR headset can fill your visual field as if you were watching on a giant home cinema screen, even if you're in fact in a cramped dorm room or the middle seat on a budget flight. Virtual-reality apps from Netflix and Hulu even surround their 2-D content with a virtual theater, room, or beach scene to enhance the experience. Flat content is less likely to make you uncomfortable or nauseous, as 3-D content can.
People use the headsets in 3D reality to enter a 3D virtual reality where they can experience a 2D representation of 3D reality.
VR Arrives at Tokyo Game Show, Counted On to Revive Industry
Virtual reality has arrived for real at the Tokyo Game Show, one of the world's biggest exhibitions for the latest in fun and games.
That's evident everywhere. Players at the booths are donning chunky headgear covering their eyes and ears, immersed in their own worlds, shooting imaginary monsters or dancing with virtual partners, at Makuhari Messe hall in the Tokyo suburb of Chiba.
The show, which gave a preview to reporters Thursday ahead of its opening to the public over the weekend, features 614 companies demonstrating more than 1,500 game software titles.
It's still anyone's guess how VR will play out as a business in years ahead. But most everyone agrees that's the way of the future. And Yasuo Takahashi, director at Sony Interactive Entertainment, the game division of Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Corp., believes 2016 will mark VR's debut year, helping revive an industry that has languished with the advent of smart phones.
Is the video game industry in need of reviving?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by archfeld on Saturday September 17 2016, @02:13PM
Only from the retards like those in Hollywood who can't see beyond remakes and reboots. The gaming world has gotten stale and clogged with generation after generation of the same FPS shooter in new skins and Madden generation whatever, which is essentially the same game in a new skin every season. The publishing companies spend so much money advertising that they put out fewer games and refuse to try anything that hasn't worked out before. Even MMORPG's have reached a point that the progression paths are so pre-determined to each psychological ladder that they lack any originality, just get new wave of the same equipment, a new round of achievements or badges, or a new season of arena crap. There needs to be a way for indie games to see the light of day so that the next killer game idea can be found.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by jmoschner on Saturday September 17 2016, @03:51PM
It isn't the studios (film or game) that are to blame for the sequels, it is the customers. If the people spending their money actually avoided sequels and sent money on other titles, then more of those types of things would get made and promoted. Even then, over 500 films are released each year. The majority of which are not sequels. People are not going to see them. This is also true of the 500 or so video games released each year (excluding mobile).
In gaming, new ideas do get the spotlight. It is just that in many cases they under-perform or disappoint (such as No Man's Sky). Often when games do try new things, people complain and go back to the same old things. People even complain when a sequel veers too far from its predecessors or tries to do something new with the franchise.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Saturday September 17 2016, @04:06PM
I can't see movies that aren't showing. Here in Yuma there a exactly 2 theatres. One shows all the new releases as they come out, with an IMAX big screen and several other smaller screens but they still only show the 'big' money movies, the other is 2 weeks behind the first one and $3.00 cheaper. To see an independent film that is not backed by a big house I have to either watch it on Netflix or travel 3 hours to Phoenix. Gaming is a little better, there is always Steam and GOG. I used to be an avid gamer, 2 or 3 titles a month, and hours upon hours in EQ, and WoW, and many, many other MMORPG's but I have gotten so bored, or jaded that I don't even have a new game on any of my machines these days.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday September 17 2016, @04:42PM
I get where you guys are coming from, but I like sequels because you don't usually have to spend time relearning the controls. Also, a well-constructed universe is rich and extensible, and becomes a framework for more story-telling. Think the GTA series or Mass Effect.
There is a lot of room for stories whose characters aren't the Star Trek version of "aliens," namely, humans with different wrinkles on their faces, but things that have their own frame of reference that can take you into a different, non-human universe. Even within the human milieu there's a lot of room for times and cultures that haven't been covered to death by the modern game industry, but are equally dramatic. That is, there are 10 million takes on WWII, but there are no big-name games that span Ashoka's conquest of India, say, or a sailing game based on Polynesian exploration of the South Pacific. They each have their own unique dynamics, pantheons, and cultural tropes. It would be interesting as a person of European heritage to immerse in something like that, instead of another take on the Roman Empire. With a little creative license you could even do something with less-well documented histories like the Khmer.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Sunday September 18 2016, @03:26AM
Never before have indie games been so easy to see and buy. More indie games run on linux than big titles too. RimWorld [steampowered.com] has been my latest favorite.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Sunday September 18 2016, @04:41AM
Cool I'll check it out, thanks for the info.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge