General Gaming Article |
- Asus ROG Updates Ambidextrous Sica Mouse with Superior Switches
- Nvidia Ends Years with a Bang, Notes Record Revenue and Thriving GPU Sales
- Square Enix Lifts Nvidia Shield with Tomb Raider, More Games to Come
- Game Developers Weigh in on VR Input
| Asus ROG Updates Ambidextrous Sica Mouse with Superior Switches Posted: 18 Feb 2016 11:03 AM PST New color, more durable switches If you're looking for a budget mouse like Asus ROG's Sica but need something to compliment the look of your white themed PC, you're in luck—there's a new version of the Sica available, one with a Glacier White color finish. In addition to a new color option, Asus also upgraded the mouse's swappable Omron switches. They're good for 20-million clicks, though if you don't like the feel (or manage to wear them out), the swappable switch sockets allow you to install different ones. Asus says its rodent supports Omron D2F Series switches (D2F, D2F-F, D2F-01, D2F-01F), and Omron D2FC Series switches (D2FC-3M, D2FC-F-7N, D2FC-F-7N [10 million click lifespan], D2FC-F-7N [20-million click lifespan]). Interestingly, it's only the Glacier White model that gets the upgraded switches. The Sica isn't a complex mouse, though Asus claims it was built with input from pro gamers. It sports an ambidextrous design with two independent buttons, a clickable scroll wheel, 5,000 DPI optical sensor, 30g tracking acceleration, tracking speed of 130 inches per second, 1,000Hz polling rate, and and a 2-meter long rubber cable with a gold-plated cable. Asus didn't say how much the Glacier White edition of its Sica mouse will cost or when it will be available, though as a point of reference, the black model is currently marked down to $40 (from $60) at Asus' online store. |
| Nvidia Ends Years with a Bang, Notes Record Revenue and Thriving GPU Sales Posted: 18 Feb 2016 10:31 AM PST Firing on all cylinders Life is good at Nvidia, which capped off a record year with $1.40 million in revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter ended January 31, 2016. That's a jump of 12 percent from $1.25 billion a year earlier, and a 7 percent spike from $1.30 billion in the previous quarter. The strong finish pushed Nvidia's full-year revenue to $5.01 billion, up 7 percent from $4.68 billion the year before. After paying the bills, Nvidia was left with a profit of $929 million for the year (non-GAAP)—not too shabby. "We had another record quarter, capping a record year," said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer, Nvidia. "Our strategy is to create specialized accelerated computing platforms for large growth markets that demand the 10x boost in performance we offer. Each platform leverages our focused investment in building the world's most advanced GPU technology." PC gamers are buying a lot of Nvidia hardware these days. All tallied, PC graphics card revenue rose a staggering 25.4 percent year-over-year to $810 million in the fourth quarter. The future bodes well for Nvidia, which is in position to benefit from the virtual reality push that's about to take place. Both Oculus and HTC are close to shipping their respective VR headsets, which require a certain level of graphics performance. It's a sector Nvidia is very much plugged into with its GameWorks VR and GeForce GTX VR Ready program. Investors reacted positively to Nvidia's earnings report—the company's shot up more than 12 percent earlier and is now up around 9 percent from the opening bell. |
| Square Enix Lifts Nvidia Shield with Tomb Raider, More Games to Come Posted: 18 Feb 2016 10:00 AM PST Giving Lara Croft a Shield Lara Croft has been to many places over the years, some dark and dank, others bright but just as dangerous. Now she's headed over to the Nvidia's Shield platform. Square Enix announced today that it's releasing a handful of games to Shield, starting with the Tomb Raider reboot (not to be confused with the more recently released Rise of the Tomb Raider). It's now available to GeForce Now members to stream for free. Sometime in the not-too-distant future, Square Enix will also release Sleeping Dogs, Lara Croft and the Guardians of Light, Quantum Conundrum, and Murdered: Soul Suspect to Shield—five games in all (including Tomb Raider). "Square Enix is delighted to join the Nvidia Shield platform and enable instant access for gamers to stream our award-winning franchises like Tomb Raider with GeForce Now," said Janet Swallow, vice president-licensing worldwide, Eidos label at Square Enix. The catalog of games for Shield is growing—it now includes more than 80 titles that GeForce Now members can play instantly. You can see a full list of available titles here. After the first three months, which are free, a GeForce Now membership runs a penny shy of $8 per month. It supports streaming games at up to 1080p at 60 frames per second. |
| Game Developers Weigh in on VR Input Posted: 18 Feb 2016 12:00 AM PST Game developers weigh in on VR inputI recently had the chance to attend Valve's Steam VR Developer Showcase and had a great time trying out a dozen VR demos (you can read about the games here). It was the first developer-focused event that I've attended that showed a wide assortment of games that used Valve/HTC's room-scale technology (i.e., the ability to walk around) coupled with tracked VR controllers. While I think that the Xbox controller has its place in VR experiences, I have to admit that it was hard for me to go back to using a controller after playing around with the Vive's setup. It got me thinking a lot about the current state of VR input and where it's headed. As you can imagine, trying to figure out how to get your hands and body into virtual reality is no easy task. With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to use all the business cards I gathered at the event to reach out to the developers who were also there, to get their input on a wide range of VR input-related questions.  I sent out a list of questions to the developers I'd met at the event. Each of the people who answered my questions did so independently of each other, and only took on questions that they felt they were equipped to answer. In the Q&A below, you'll get to read their thoughts on both the Vive and Oculus Touch motion controllers, how they feel about Oculus shipping initially with an Xbox controller, their ideas regarding the best VR input, and more. Maximum PC: What do you guys think of the Vive controllers? What are the pros and cons of the input? If you could change the controller in any way, what ways would it be?Alex Knoll (Stress Level Zero, Hover Junkers): The Vive controllers present a fantastic approach to input for the new medium. Very simple and very versatile, they can be used in really interesting ways, design-wise. Hover Junkers is a multiplayer-focused VR FPS. Dylan Fitterer (Audioshield): The Vive controllers are amazingly precise and shaped to fit many game styles. They've made a whole new class of games possible. I haven't put much thought into changing them, though. I tend to look at hardware as an unchangeable baseline to work with creatively; a constraint.  Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): We like the way the Vive controllers feel in hand; input and control layout work well. A docking station for recharging would be nice to have. Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): They're good! The touchpad is hard to explain, and the grip is tricky to explain, but I think those things will come in time once people get used to them. Otherwise, the general feel of them is great. Tracking is great. The trigger is great. I think the one thing I would like is an additional button above the touchpad, since there are very few buttons that the user won't press by accident during gameplay. Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): First of all, I'd just like to say that as a studio we feel incredibly lucky to have any sort of motion control at all, especially solutions so deeply supported by key headset makers. For a long time, it was unclear as to whether or not any of the major players would support any kind of motion control solution. Having designed our game for a motion control experience since early 2013, this is really a dream come true for us. The Vive controllers are sturdy as hell. They feel like they can take a serious beating and keep on chugging along. The forward weighting is actually really interesting as it makes many interactions feel much more tangible, less like you are holding nothing. The trackpad is super extensible and devs will use it in really creative, blended ways with gestural input. In many ways, the biggest strength of the Vive controllers (aside from rock-solid tracking in 360) is their simplicity. We're finding that the less buttons you use in VR, the better the experience is and the less the user fumbles. The form factor could be improved in future iterations to provide a more natural resting point for the thumb. The grip button is great but could use some iteration on the most natural placement and sense of travel.  Justin Liebregts (Co-founder of Futuretown, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Jeeboman): I really like the controllers personally. They've come a long way since the previous iterations. Getting used to designing a game with so few input buttons was a big challenge. I'm very happy that the controller is so simple, but from a developer perspective, it's been pretty interesting having to go back to the drawing board to rethink some of the methods of input. When your game is forced to only have 3-4 buttons, it really makes you think about the purpose you're using each button for, and to make every button on the controller count. In some games it's a nonissue. But for more complex interactions, it becomes an interesting challenge. I've been having a lot of trouble figuring out great ways to integrate the touchpad into our game as a touch device (not as a button press). We found that pulling up a radial menu in front of the user, instead of using the touchpad as a radial menu directly, felt better for our purposes (check out the Weapon select wheel on Jeeboman). There's also interesting issues with people pressing buttons by accident because they are clutching the controller if they are swinging it. If I could change the controller, I might move the grip button to a button underneath the trigger. It's hard to tell without prototyping a new controller though.  Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): The Vive controllers are pretty great, but it's hard to make comparisons or criticize them - other than the Oculus Touch controllers, there's no alternative that hits the same points. They've got incredibly accurate 1:1 tracking in the space, they've got no occlusion problems, and I can do anything I want with them shy of sticking it up my shirt. I do want to make a point here - about Availability Bias. Our knee-jerk reaction to a new technology like room-scale VR is going to be, "Let's take all the hits from last year, and port them to VR!" - we already see this a lot from fans, begging for a Call of Duty, Battlefield, or even Mirror's Edge port. Now, I'm a huge Mirror's Edge fan, but it may be the worst game to port to room-scale VR. Fantastic Contraptions has you building with your hands and is sort of Poly Bridge meets a Rube Goldberg machine. As fans call for these demands, they expect to see things like thumbsticks, and A/B buttons on each controller. No. Bad. Shush. Remember when iPhones first came out? Virtual D-Pad games were all you could find. Why? Not because it's the best possible solution for the mobile interface, that's for sure. It's because developers and gamers just set down their controllers and picked up their phone and wanted something familiar. I'm not at all interested in providing something familiar; I want to jump to the end, and help produce something that will be the de facto standard for all VR games to come. For that purpose, the VR controller, as it is, is pretty perfect. Of course, I can nitpick a bit, but it's totally unfair - the current batch of controllers are nowhere near final. The system but could be moved to prevent accidental presses; people don't realize there are grip buttons; etc... But I'm confident they'll be pretty solid controllers by launch. Maximum PC: What do you guys think of the Oculus Touch controllers? What are the pros and cons of the input? If you could change the controller in any way, what ways would it be?Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): The Touch controllers have a great sense of balance. The Carbon teams' experience with Xbox controller design really shows here. They have a natural resting point that feels great and it's easy to forget they are in your hands. The grip button has a really nice sense of travel, and the trigger has just the right amount of tackiness to make it feel anchored. The finger gestures are neat and hopefully devs find interesting uses for them. There is a sense of fragility and lightness which may or may not help with the perceived tangibility of interactions. The button and stick design feels a bit like a bridging mechanism to bring old-school games into the VR ecosystem, which makes sense on paper, but feels a bit weird in some VR experiences. Like all VR input at this early stage, some of the design choices feel like a half step to something better. Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): We've yet to use them, so I can't really give a balanced opinion! They seem to aim for a more ergonomic approach, where each controller is made for either the left or the right hand, which is pretty cool. The touch interactions are interesting too, especially for the social aspects of VR and its games.  Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): The Touch controllers are great, using hand gestures in VR feels natural, and the analog stick is familiar. Docking station would again be a great addition to the controller. Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): I've had a chance to try the Oculus Touch controllers and I have to say they're pretty technically comparable to the Vive controllers. They've added some neat features that I really want to try developing for. I have two main thoughts on the Oculus controllers that make me worry, but maybe for the wrong reasons. They're a bit philosophical. First, they have the thumbsticks and A/B buttons. On one hand, this is not optimal for a room-scale VR experience - and in encourages porting of games that would otherwise be a poor fit. However, Oculus is not particularly aiming for a room-scale audience, and having a larger back-catalog of games available at launch may indeed be better for the ecosystem as a whole. I'm not sure what to make of that. They've got some smart people over there, and I'm sure this was a hard decision for them. Secondly, the controllers are shaped almost exactly like pistol grips. This is GREAT news for most games and gamers out there, and again is probably a very smart move to capture a good audience. However, at Radial Games, we're trying to make games that don't have guns specifically. I wonder how many games may subconsciously be developed to have guns because "that feels the best" when you hold the Touch controllers, or if Oculus will just have more "gun games" in general because it feels better than, say, the Vive. Again, I'm sure the folks at Oculus ran the numbers and figured this was the better path. I think I just lean in a different direction, philosophically. I don't have a team of market analysts at my disposal and I could totally be wrong on both these points though. One of the most exciting things about the last few years, and the year ahead, is that we're figuring all this stuff out for the first time. I'm super excited to see where we go from here! Maximum PC: What do you guys think of Oculus shipping with an Xbox One controller as the baseline controller for their VR system instead of their Touch controllers? Are you worried about input fragmentation at all?Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): It's a strange decision, but it somewhat makes sense for their focus on seated experiences. There is a worry that it will promote using locomotion systems, causing nausea, which is not a good thing for VR as a whole. And yes, we're worried about input fragmentation, but we're just guessing at this point. Hopefully it won't be an issue!  Justin Liebregts (Co-founder of Futuretown, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Jeeboman): I think it was probably a pretty tough business decision from their side. I can understand why they have chosen to move forward first with the Xbox One controller and I feel their top priority is probably going to be getting those Touch controllers out as quickly as possible, so I'm not too worried about it. We will be supporting Touch controllers and we believe that users will find the tracked controller experience so compelling that they will opt in for the Touch controllers when they're released. Yes, we were a bit worried originally about input fragmentation, but I think the Touch controller is so much better tech than the Kinect (as an example of a failed input device), so I'm not too worried. Cloudlands VR Minigold really feels like you're playing minigolf with one of the Vive's controllers. Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): Since early 2013, we've been designing for motion control, and we've fought hard to keep that paradigm at the core of the experience. So we're a bit biased on this topic. Can you play VR games with a gamepad? Yes. Should you? After experiencing rock-solid motion control, it's really hard to go back to a gamepad. Done properly, motion control adds an entirely new level of immersion and interaction within the VR experience. It feels like "the way to do things in VR" in a very visceral way. Is there room for a standard gamepad in VR? Sure, but I can see that paradigm quickly shifting to motion control once the public understands how much better the potential experience is. Any fragmentation will be short lived once the public drives that dialog. Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): We think that most Oculus users will migrate to the Touch controllers because of its more natural and intuitive feel. While there will always be games and players that prefer an Xbox style controller, the quality of experiences possible with Touch will pull most players and developers away from gamepads for the Rift. Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): There's a certain magic you feel when you have tracked controllers in a VR space, and I'm personally not so interested in games that use standard controllers in VR anymore. I'm very excited about the Touch launch, and hopefully that coincides with the timing of mass-market appeal of VR devices (initial launch will be a slow ramp up of early adopters, so if you're EVER going to ship with non-tracked controllers, that's the time to do it). I like to design games that you can play, I can play, grandma can play, and kids can play. Teaching grandma how to press R3 is a terrifying ordeal. :) Maximum PC: Do you guys plan on shipping any VR games with the Xbox controller in mind? Why or why not?Dylan Fitterer (Audioshield): Audiosurf 2 will support VR with a free update and it'll be playable with a gamepad, mouse, keyboard, or motion controls. Sitting or standing. Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): Yes, we have some games that we plan to make playable for Gear VR, and PSVR requires the ability to play games with a gamepad. This will require us to release with gamepads in mind. More broadly, our preference is for motion controllers, as they significantly increase the sense of presence and open up new types of gameplay mechanics that we find more immersive, which is key for VR. Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): Not at the moment. Being able to see your controller in VR is very important for new players, especially those who aren't used to playing games. Budget Cuts is one part stealth game and one part Portal. Alex Knoll (Stress Level Zero, Hover Junkers): We find VR with tracked controllers the most interesting to design for and also the most fun to play, we do not currently have plans to create any VR experience without tracked controllers. Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): No. There are simply too many incredible, exciting, revolutionary, paradigm-shattering, and novel ways to use motion control in VR. We're just excited to experiment with the possibilities. Justin Liebregts (Co-founder of Futuretown, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Jeeboman): No plans at this point in time. Our studio is focusing on tracked controller input experiences as we want to go all-in with what we feel is the most rich VR experience on the market. The leap between a normal PC/Console game to a VR headset with a traditional controller is small compared to the leap between PC/Console gaming and tracked controller gameplay. Games that can exist on one input device, cannot exist on another. And the best games for the Vive and Oculus Touch will be those that don't sacrifice themselves to support both play styles. I believe none of the games at the Vive Developer Showcase would be as amazing as they are without tracked controllers. Dirk Van Welden (Founder of I-Illusions, Space Pirate Trainer): In VR, immersion gets stronger as more senses are used. I can totally see how an Xbox controller can be useful for seated experiences where you would otherwise need a steering wheel or joystick (Flight/racing simulators/controlling devices) or non-first person experiences (but those could be less immersive). The problem is that with most of those, you get motion sickness as you are not introducing all the movement by yourself. When I tried the first DK1, I immediately knew that this would be a huge deal breaker for a lot of people. Once you get motion sick, you really don't want to put the headset on again. Space Pirate Trainer has you blasting droids like Boba Fett. For non-seated first-person experiences in VR, which are more immersive, VR controllers have a huge advantage over gamepads. I can't see a lot of the Steam VR Developer Showcase demo's [playable at Valve's event] working without them... Doing actual physical interaction with the world is much more immersive. It's unexplainable, but once you hold the VR controllers, it just feels so right. Once you play a VR game that is built around this controller, you immediately understand the fun and importance of it. It's all about interaction, so why wouldn't we use the best way to interact with the VR world? Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): We are working on a few prototypes and exploring new technologies as they present themselves. One that is promising does indeed use a standard controller, but not used by the player within VR (think two players, one in VR, one out, same room). I'm cool with that, but I don't think we'll ever ship a game that uses a standard controller within VR itself. The video above outlines the changes to the Vive Pre since its first developer kit. It's great for people that know the tech - if you're an avid XBox or PS4 player, it'll be no problem and comfortable. It's just that our studio in particular is focused on more accessible games. Maximum PC: Should the Rift ship with the Touch controllers, even if it meant a price hike and a delay for the HMD?Justin Liebregts (Co-founder of Futuretown, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Jeeboman): This is primarily a business decision. I trust the guys over at Facebook/Oculus to do what's right for VR. They are clearly in it for the long haul, and overall, I have huge respect for their company. Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): I can't speak to what would make the most sense for Oculus in this situation as it obviously involves some trade-offs between release window, price, and functionality. They have to make those decisions with their own business strategy in mind. Ultimately, the delay in releasing the Touch controllers should not have a material impact in the long-term health of VR or Oculus. Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): As a game developer, I would say yes. Being able to target a platform and know that all users have tracked controllers is a huge advantage. We don't want to target a niche (Touch) of a niche (Rift) of a niche (VR) of a niche (High-end PCs). That being said, Oculus is pushing non-interactive media quite a lot as well, it might make sense for them to release just the HMD first. Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): There are some great experiences designed for gamepad, which are a terrific introduction to the format. We know many developers who have invested their heart and soul into polishing those experiences and it makes perfect sense to hinge launch content there. The progression to Touch should happen organically and I think Oculus is doing the right thing there. From a developer perspective, motion control requires time to understand and the more time the broader development community has to master it the better. The Gallery is an episodic series that is heavily inspired by sci-fi/fantasy films from the 80s. Dirk Van Welden (Founder of I-Illusions, Space Pirate Trainer): In an ideal world, all VR kits should come with VR controllers, just to bring fresh new gameplay. One thing I noticed is how some people find it weird that most [VR] titles come from independent studios, without major budgets. I want to say two things about this. First of all, it's a risk. We don't know how many VR-kits will be sold this year so we also don't have a clue about our potential amount of customers. Also, it's a very good thing that independent studios are writing on these blank pages when it comes down to gameplay. It's a new platform, we want fresh gameplay, and these studios can take more risks when it comes down to fresh new approaches in VR. Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): I personally think they should, but I have no idea if that's the "right choice" to ensure the market stays afloat, long term. I hope the Oculus, the Vive, PSVR, and all other platforms have healthy long tails and we don't have yet-another-VR-collapse. If someone has an answer as to what the "right move" is here, I'd love to hear it! Right now my uninformed gut says "ship with Touch!" but I have no idea how accurate that is. Maximum PC: As a developer, how important is room-scale and the ability to walk around (however small the space is) to you, your games, and the future of VR?Justin Liebregts (Co-founder of Futuretown, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Jeeboman): Being able to have a proper standing experience while turning around with 360 degrees of movement, while having tracked controllers to me is the future of VR, and anything less is going to fade into the background. It really needs those tracked controllers though. Room-scale VR without tracked controllers isn't much of a leap. I think all the hardware manufacturers know this and are moving in this direction so I'm excited to see what's coming in the future.  Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): Even a small amount of movement can dramatically increase presence and the immersion of the experience. This dramatically increases the quality of the experience for a user. That said, you have to be sensitive in your design so it can fit other control schemes. Some of the design choices we have made in Arizona Sunshine, for instance, do not push the full boundaries of movement in room scale, as the experience needs to work on multiple VR devices. Dylan Fitterer (Audioshield): Room scale is here to stay. As a gamer, I love it - and I know many other players are going to want it. Even just standing makes VR feel better. Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): It ultimately depends on the game, but, for me, VR didn't click until I tried tracked controllers in room-scale. It just felt so much more compelling, and I've never had the same amount of presence in a game before. It's the most compelling experience, but there are plenty of people worried about the practicality of it. Dirk Van Welden (Founder of I-Illusions, Space Pirate Trainer): About moving: I'll be short about this, creativity flourishes with new possibilities within constraints. Let's try to create games that use the current amount of space in an optimal way first. I really think there are a lot of interesting ideas coming! Walking forward in games is usually boring (I say usually, because games like Mirror's edge are an exception). Alex Knoll (Stress Level Zero, Hover Junkers): Roomscale is incredibly compelling, even in small spaces. For the VR user experience, it is important for players to maintain a sense of immersion, room scale provides a confidence in a tracked playspace volume. Designing for room scale is extremely exciting to us and we can't wait for consumers to experience it as well. Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): I look at features like these as broadening experiences. There are games that are possible in room-scale that simply aren't in a smaller (standing/seated/outside VR) play space. The same goes with tracked hands - there are more games possible with that as a lifted constraint. There's nothing saying you need to use up your entire room, or that you need two hands always tracked forever, but your options as a designer get bigger and better the less restrictions you have. The games we are currently working on all require tracked hands as a minimum requirement. You can play each of our games in a seated mode, technically speaking, but the experience is much better standing - and even better than that if you can take a step or two in each direction. If you don't have to worry about stubbing your toe on a sofa (and have a bit more space to use), believe me when I say developers will take advantage of your comfort and range of motion. :) I worry more for the future of the coffee-table industry than the VR industry at this point. :) Alex Schwartz (Owlchemy Labs, Job Simulator: the 2050 Archives): Owlchemy Labs has decided to never build another non-VR game again. We're now building *EXCLUSIVELY* standing-only, fully-hand-tracked VR games. We believe that having properly tracked hands in VR is what makes VR compelling and brings out your inner child, evoking curiosity and a child-like wonder for players. With that, we're only focusing on room-scale VR titles moving forward, and only on platforms that support tracked hands. Job Simulator has you flailing your arms about as you cook up recipes in the kitchen. Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): Room-scale can help resolve many issues related to vection and vestibular disconnect because the user's physical actions are driving the experience. The ability to physically rotate in a 360 space, sit, stand, crawl, laydown, walk, and look at objects spatially from all angles, these are all key internal cues that ground the user in the experience and prevent discomfort. This is the source of some debate out there in the gaming community, and on the surface it seems easy to understand why it feels gimmicky. However once you try an experience crafted specifically for the format, it's extremely hard to deny. You'll rethink what gaming is at a fundamental level. You'll stop equating gaming to the confines of a seated experience and start equating it to the world's first generation Holodeck. It's that good, and it has that potential. People will make space for roomscale VR because it is so compelling, so engaging, so deeply immersive that every prior form of media pales in comparison. That's not to say gamers won't still enjoy their favorite game on the couch or at their computer, but room-scale done right is like going to an event, an event you will be incredibly excited to attend. Maximum PC: Are you guys at all concerned about the wire that dangles on the ground for the Vive? If so, are you guys trying to design around that?Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): We put a lot of thought into how fast players should turn and spin in our game. However, we find that most of our play testers are comfortable with managing the cable and their movements by themselves, without a spotter. Arizona Sunshing has you dual-wielding guns against zombies. Alex Knoll (Stress Level Zero, Hover Junkers): We have found people who try VR are quickly able to subconsciously manage the cable and haven't found it to be a problem. Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): We call this "Cordgate" at the studio. Not to diminish the importance of getting rid of the cord (hopefully we're only a few short years away from that) but after a couple games you develop "cordsense," and pretty swiftly forget it's there. Your brain does a freakishly amazing job at managing unnatural extensions to the point where you just simply stop thinking about it. In hundreds of demos we have yet to see a single person trip on the cord and we make a point of NOT managing the cord for players. Will it happen? Could it happen? Sure, but its over-hyped. Justin Liebregts (Co-founder of Futuretown, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Jeeboman): I've discussed this with many of the other devs and most people think it's a moot point. People seem to think it's an issue, but really, it's not. I've given hundreds of demos without cable-jockeying and no one has ever had a problem with it. After a few minutes you get used to having it dangling on your back. Yes, VR will be better without it, but that's coming, and having to deal with a wire in the mean time isn't as big a deal as many people who haven't tried it are making it out to be. Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): We're only worried about it when the player is wearing shoes, otherwise, it's not an issue. Almost everyone has gotten used to it, even if they've never used it before. You feel the cable easily, and managing it becomes second nature. Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): The cable is a necessary nuisance at this point, but we quickly adapt to it. "Is it annoying having to wear a belt across your lap when you drive?" "Is it annoying to wear a helmet when on your motorbike?" I mean, everyone will answer yes to this. Until it becomes the norm and people just say, "Whatever. I don't think about it." For me, it took a few hours to get rid of the cord from my conscious thought. It's now just a thing, a part of my body. One developer remarked that it's like their tail, and they'll miss it when it's gone! Everyone agrees that the cable should disappear if possible, but so should seat belts in cars and helmets on motorbikes. Once the technology is there to support the experience, we'll be good. Dylan Fitterer (Audioshield): The wire looks like a concern from the outside, but it isn't. I don't worry about it when in VR and it's never been a problem. I did trip out the cable at a recent press demo, but I wasn't the one wearing the Vive! :) Maximum PC: What do you guys think of additional treadmill-like devices (see Virtuix Omni and others) for VR?Alex Knoll (Stress Level Zero, Hover Junkers): We haven't had the chance to play with any of the treadmill systems so we have yet to see.  Justin Liebregts (Co-founder of Futuretown, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Jeeboman): I personally haven't tried it. Tough to comment, although any additional input devices that can add to presence, I welcome into the VR ecosystem. It's all about tricking your mind into believing you're there, and every little bit helps. Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): They certainly add to the potential for greater immersion. They also open up more game design flexibility for player movement. Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): They're interesting and I haven't tried any of them yet. I worry about market penetration rates on these devices, and as an indie developer, it's difficult for me to consider them a serious avenue of revenue. If any one of them wanted to give us loaner hardware, we'll whip up a few games because we love designing around new toys! But we can't stake our mortgages on it at this time. Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): I don't think any of us have used them, but it seems very odd. While you get the foot motion correct, you still won't feel the acceleration you should feel when walking. From all the testing we've done with motion sickness, it seems like that's another case where it will happen for many users. But, again, we haven't tried it yet! Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): Treadmills are great in theory (and I still want one!) but they suffer from vection issues related to velocity. You may feel your legs walking, but your inner ear is not experiencing that forward/backward accelerations/velocities, which can result in some some discomfort. They do, however, handily take care of rotational velocities (the biggest offender in VR) and they have an incredible form factor. Maximum PC: Instead of holding physical Wii-mote like controllers, what do you guys think about using camera tracking on the HMD to simply track your hands (Ala a more accurate Leap Motion or similar device)?Justin Liebregts (Co-founder of Futuretown, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Jeeboman): I like what Leap Motion is doing, but I'm a bit concerned about button pressing without actual [physical] buttons. Controllers with actual buttons and weighted analog inputs are still amazing for fine tuning and detail work. It's sort of like how touch screens are great for certain tasks, but you can't beat a keyboard and mouse/stylus for other productivity tasks. If hand tracking can get as good as touch screen input, I think it would be huge, but there's a long way to go for that, and again, it will be for certain types of VR interactions. The Leap Motion has the potential to track your hands. Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): Seeing your own hands in VR is amazing, but for most games you physically want to interact and to pick up stuff, and holding a controller during these interactions helps with the illusion, instead of grasping into the empty void. Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): I don't think that's ever going to work well, unless you design all content to fit those constraints. Our game, Budget Cuts, wouldn't work at all. You often use the controllers while you can't see them, holding objects, interacting with things. If they aren't tracked outside your field of view, you'll lose that entire range of interactions. Dylan Fitterer (Audioshield): It sounds very cool, and is probably awesome for some uses, but what about when you can't see your hands? VR allows natural interaction, even where you can't see. In Audioshield, you often need to block beats while looking the other way. Dirk Van Welden (Founder of I-Illusions, Space Pirate Trainer): Camera tracking on the HMD... mmm, I don't think that's a good solution. I've watched many people playing Space Pirate Trainer, and you'll see that only a few people actually are looking at their hands. The hands/controllers should always be tracking. Gloves using the same technology that the controllers use, would be a better solution. That said, the feeling of having something "real" in your hand, adds to the immersion. That's why we modeled the handle of the lasers pistols just like the controllers for our demo. Alex Knoll (Stress Level Zero, Hover Junkers): For social applications, we can see such systems being interesting to play with, however from a UX perspective, we feel it will be difficult for anything to compete with a physical tracked controller. Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): Camera-based tracking will surely come in the future, but currently it's up against some significant issues with latency and reliable pose recognition. The advantage of a controller is rock solid 1:1 tracking and you get the added benefit of haptics. Being able to feel objects and interactions in VR is a significant boost to immersion. That's not to say camera-based hand tracking won't eventually usurp physical controllers, but its hard to imagine VR without haptics. I would imagine we'll see visual hand tracking on mobile platforms first, where tracking fidelity takes a back seat to an intuitive interfacing. Maximum PC: If you were to design the ultimate VR controller/input for your needs moving forward, what would it look like?Richard Stitselaar (Vertigo Games, Arizona Sunshine): Having a controller that has full haptic feedback would be awesome. Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): Not sure. Foot/knee/hip/chest/elbow tracking would be great though, to make full-body characters replicate poses. I'm pretty sure the lighthouse technology currently used in the Vive could pretty easily support it if you had the hardware skills to do it. Dylan Fitterer (Audioshield): It feels like anything I suggest would end up being stupid and/or problematic once tried. This is all new ground! Like game design, the brainstormed ideas never work out, but they can lead to good ideas with iteration. Dirk Van Welden (Founder of I-Illusions, Space Pirate Trainer): It would be great if we were able to track the whole body. Add some haptic feedback on your body and I think we're set... And in the distant future: brainwaves or another sort of direct injection would probably generate the best experience. Alex Knoll (Stress Level Zero, Hover Junkers): We are happy with the controllers currently available and we are able to comfortably design interesting content around them. The development community has only just scratched the surface of what can be accomplished with these input devices, so there is still a lot of room for experimentation. Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): Probably some kind of glove that can give haptic- and force-feedback, with such sub-millimeter precision and scale in the actuators that you can feel texture as you press your hands onto objects in the virtual world. What do you figure for that... 10 years away? $10K per hand? haha. We can dream, though. Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): I would love to see a controller that embeds resistance and gross haptics into the design. There are prototype designs for exoskeletons which give you shape resistance on held objects and push-back haptics. So squeezing rubber balls or grasping hard metal all give you back what you'd expect from the interaction. Having that level of morphing, tangible interaction with objects would add another level to the experience. Maximum PC: Five years out, what do you think VR input will look like?Joachim Holmér (Neat Corporation, Budget Cuts): It's very hard to tell. We'll see! Dylan Fitterer (Audioshield): I want foot tracking! Hopefully much more than that, too (five years is a long time).  Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games, The Gallery): I think we'll see a shift in wearables geared towards VR. At some point in the near future it will not be unusual to invest money into haptic suits and or densely interactive wands and/or gloves. These will probably be augmented by visual tracking of the players hands and full body. The future is about to get really weird and everyone is underestimating how quickly it's coming. Alex Knoll (Stress Level Zero, Hover Junkers): VR input in the future will depend on what design questions developers run into over the next couple years. The truth of it is we don't know what aspects of the user experience will catch on, what patterns we'll see in game mechanics, or what new methods of control that developers will implement into their content. Andy Moore (Radial Games, Fantastic Contraptions): No f***ing idea. 12 months ago, we had no idea Valve/HTC were even in the running for a VR product; 5 years from now is so comically far out I have no idea what's in store for us. It's such an exciting time to be alive. |
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