SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
posted by
martyb
on Wednesday October 18 2017, @06:12PM
from the did-you-see-what-they-did-there? dept.
from the did-you-see-what-they-did-there? dept.
You can't escape virtual reality.
VR headsets from Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung are getting ready to hit the market. Their goal: to give you an easy-to-use virtual reality experience with your PC at a lower price than competing headsets from the likes of Sony, Facebook and HTC.
That's the promise of VR powered by Microsoft Windows, the software that runs hundreds of millions of PCs and tablets around the world. When Microsoft begins sending out a free update to Windows 10 on Tuesday, it'll power VR headsets as well. It's called "Windows Mixed Reality."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Microsoft Wants to Reimagine Virtual Reality
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 41 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Two is not equal to three, even for large values of two.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday October 18 2017, @07:01PM (13 children)
You can..... you can......
Wait, what is it that I'm supposed to do with VR again? Once they get the porn app running I'm sure it will take off. Until then, the few VR headsets I've previewed are all awesome and none of them ships with anything but interesting view videos that have no real purpose to interacting with them.
Virtual Minecraft! Then I can be just like Rick and Morty!
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @07:08PM
There are already quite a few good games, experiences, and tools. VR is not vaporware, just get over it already. That is partly in reply to the other AC who says dumbfucks can die in traffic. Real charmer that one.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @07:16PM (1 child)
What small imagination you have. You can do lots of really cool stuff, like taking a virtual tour of a disaster area where you get to walk around shattered and broken people with your cute, smiling avatar while you make pithy statements.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @09:36PM
"Computer Chronicles" was a TV show (1983 - 2002).
Going back around 3 decades, I remember a segment where they demo'd software for realtors where they could take customers on a virtual tour of homes without ever leaving the office.
So, yeah. Really established notions here.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @07:21PM (1 child)
If you're clever, you can use it to develop an intuitive feel for higher dimensional maths [youtube.com].
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 18 2017, @07:26PM
If you are Weinstein, Trump or Cosby you could develop an intuitive virtual feel for . . . uh, nevermind.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday October 18 2017, @07:28PM (3 children)
No Virtual Minecraft.
How about Virtual blue collar jobs.
Virtual coal mining. Virtual truck driving.
What if you thought it was virtual, but it really wasn't.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by DECbot on Wednesday October 18 2017, @07:40PM (1 child)
Do you mean getting paid to virtually drive a truck, or creating a virtual truck driving game that wasn't really a game? Paying people to drive will work. Taking user input from a game and piping that to a truck will require you to aggregate many users together to control one truck to prevent assholes from deliberately crashing your fleet. Good chance asshole memes will still happen to emerge and ruin your virtual-truck-driving-game --> drives-real-trucks-business.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday October 19 2017, @01:03AM
Whoa, I just had a vision of rows of low wage VR truck drivers in a farm like arrangement. They handle the "last mile" maneuvering of self driving semi trucks. They sit in a virtual cab with maybe even some force feedback and real-time video from a special 3d camera on the truck. Any maneuvering that the trucks computer cant handle, the VR wage slaves handle. You could probably fire 90% or more of your drivers, keep a few to work in these VR farms and they just jump from job site to job site.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday October 18 2017, @08:32PM
Surprise! Already done and with robots, VR and drivers are no longer needed.
Perhaps only if you like to virtually mine virtual coal... buy a game then.
2015 - The company [Rio Tinto] is now operating 69 driverless trucks across its mines at Yandicoogina, Nammuldi and Hope Downs 4. [abc.net.au]
2017 - Mining giant Rio Tinto has been busy exploring these possibilities in the Australian Outback and has now completed the nation's first autonomous heavy haul rail journey [soylentnews.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Wednesday October 18 2017, @07:42PM (3 children)
You're more than a little full of shit though. Have you tried one? I said most of the same things with all my cynical incredulity, but that melted away...
I tried a HTC Vive with Steam a few months back. Tons of software, and as for porn, I see Occulus porn all over the private porn trackers. It's everywhere if you want POV fucking to actually look like POV fucking. Your porn world has arrived while you were sneering. Back to the Vive, you have a virtual reality living room. Screens on the walls (big ones) with all the different games and environments you can play in. I've only tried the Vive, but I imagine it's the difference between a tricycle and a shuttlecraft compared to the smartphone poor-mans-VR being sold for $20. All I can say is, that it was very good quality. Surprised the hell of out of me. We're not talking 640x480 screens here, or the wearable TV headsets you could take on the plane. When you put on a Vive, it's a complete lockout of the real world. There's no gaps or anything in the headset, and you aren't exactly looking at a screen. It looks like two coke-bottle glasses that are angled for your eyes with adjustments for the width between them. After calibrating them, the display is amazing. You can use it with glasses from what I'm told, and get aftermarket addons for the Vive to meet your prescription.
Once inside, it completely takes you away. I cannot even tell where the screens are no matter how hard I try to look at them. Complete immersion. In particular, they've redone Galaga in 3D. You literally hold the ship in your hand, move it around in space, aim it, and then fire at the enemy. Why is that important? I could easily tell by the lasers and the way it worked, that you could use it for SketchUp like applications to create stuff in 3D with your hands. The Vive also has a mod that puts trackers on all your fingertips. So not two big balled up fists trying to work with VR, but the dexterity of your fingertips. <sarcasm>Yeah, that's not going to have ANY effect on the CAD/Maker world whatsoever.</sarcasm>
Then you have the beginnings of a virtual reality desktop. By that, I mean however many monitors you want. Remember Cerebro from X-Men? Now imagine sitting it with your terminals, browsers, apps, whatever on the walls and floating around in front of you. Granted, it's Microsoft Fucking 10, but that desktop is working in VR. I was using a computer on a virtual TV in virtual reality in my virtual living room. That room was Cerebro with galaxies and nebulae swirling around me while I surfed SoylentNews on some tabs drifting in space.
Then to top it off, the Vive has a camera on front. It's possible to use that camera to see the real world in the virtual one. Not only that, but create wireframes of the physical objects in your room and project them into the virtual world. That way you can see the outline of your couch in the virtual living room and not trip over it.
In all seriousness, if I had a hundred million dollars of venture capital available I would be developing software on the Vive right the fuck now. Not games either, but new windowing managers for Linux/BSD, and integrating SketchUp with the "finger puppets". I've seen the future, and believe me, it will be VR.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Thursday October 19 2017, @02:07AM (1 child)
Now, THAT would be cool: multi-monitors, multiple ways of controlling manipulation (mouse, hand, finger, head, body).
Sit in my small computer room but have as large an environment as I want. Browsing web, look at this monitor.
Guake? Swipe down to activate, swipe up to send away.
Game, look at this screen and drive your race car by grabbing virtual steering wheel, shifter and stepping on pedals that aren't there.
Learn to assemble and disassemble an AK-47 without having to own one (assemble an atom bomb from virtual parts!). Learn Japanese from a patient, sexy lady sitting with me: learn to order dinner at a virtual restaurant. Learn conversation by using in a virtual group of 'friends'. Learn items in your house by walking around picking them up.
Learn to converse with a girl by practicing over and over, with her guiding you with prompts.
Yeah: I could disappear there.
My wife would leave me, though, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 19 2017, @02:28AM
That would practically be a prerequisite to putting those newly acquired skills to good use.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by rob_on_earth on Thursday October 19 2017, @07:51AM
For the initial experience with the Vive I agree with you, total immersion. But after a couple of days and having completed most of the games/demos you start to see the low resolution state of the screens.
Some experiences mask this better than others. One of the free ones("Wake up") had an extremely limited colour palette and huge play areas, this showed up the resolution in a very negative way. On the other hand the included "Star Seed episode one" was lots of small play areas with lots of complex/varied textures that "hid" the low resolution nature of the screens.
But for me the best HTC Vive experience was Googles Tilt Brush, drawing in 3D with lines, paper, electricity, fire, smoke, led bulbs and it had a "guess what I am drawing" game that had the family falling about with laughter.
The "Galaga" game the poster mentioned (I presume) is in the "The Lab" collection of demos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2cqitgi1ko [youtube.com]
The experience is quite something and some people find it very hard to comprehend. Your physical body and hand has to "dance" and turn to avoid being hit and aim the ship to fire at enemies. Not very varied and I completed it after a few plays.
Bottom line the stuff that comes with the Vive and small number of titles are very good. Unfortunately the Steam store is pack full of games/experiences that have been knocked together in a few hours using tool kits and are charging $10.
I created this for instance, http://www.jumpstation.co.uk/flog/Dec2016.html [jumpstation.co.uk] (not for sale)
Need better quality from trusted names and double the resolution screens.