Games and porn in virtual reality: what you need to know on the eve of the launch of Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive
In the coming months, several virtual reality devices will go on sale at once:
- Oculus Rift (March 28, 2016)
- HTC Vive (April 2016)
- PlayStation VR (first half of 2016)
- Microsoft Hololens (devkits in the first quarter of 2016)
It's time to summarize everything that is known about these devices, and decide whether to take them now, what to choose, as well as what device is the most promising to develop games.
')
Virtual reality technology gives a completely different level of immersion. When you are wearing a helmet, in the field of view there is only a game, and the review is carried out not with a mouse or stick, but with movements of the head. Image quality is still worse than monitors and TVs, but even with this in mind, virtual reality is strong. The ride on the roller coaster swayes, and the most common horror game scares as in childhood.
The appearance of helmets does not mean that the displays are a thing of the past. Virtual reality technologies are still far from perfect, and in some games their use is irrational (many strategies, two-dimensional games).
Yes, there really have been attempts before. The first commercial helmet of virtual reality (Virtuality) appeared in the 1990s. But then there was still no technology that would allow a massive affordable product that could be successful with customers. For example, Oculus Rift displays an image with a resolution of 2160x1200 (1080x1200 per eye) at a sweep frequency of 90 Hz. This requires a computer 2-3 times more powerful than playing in 1080p.
In favor of the fact that the current boom is not a false start, indicate the prevalence of Oculus Rift even at the prototype stage for developers and the great interest of people.
While difficult to say. According to the characteristics of all three helmets are similar. A new wave of VR launched Oculus Rift, and it still attracts the most attention. Oculus Rift began as a project on Kickstarter, which collected several million dollars, and was later bought by Facebook. The head of the company, Palmer Lucky, has been interested in VR since childhood; he has one of the largest US collections of virtual reality helmets. The technical director at Oculus VR, John Carmack, is known as the creator of id Software (Doom, Quake) game engines, i.e. man in the gaming industry is not the last.
Nevertheless, the company has no experience in creating and popularizing gaming devices. Oculus Rift can be difficult to configure for an inexperienced user, and besides, it is designed for the PC platform (so far only Windows, support for OS X and Linux will appear in the future), the market of which is several times smaller than the console games market.
As for the characteristics, in the Oculus Rift two screens, each gives a resolution of 1080x1200 with a frequency of 90 Hz. Will be sold complete with a gamepad from the Xbox One, as well as EVE games: Valkyrie and Lucky Tale. The list of supported games already includes hundreds of titles . In the future, it is planned to release a specialized Oculus Touch controller, which will allow to be controlled in games not only with buttons and sticks, but also with hand movements.
Sony already has experience working on such devices - in 1997, she released the Glasstron helmet, which was supported by MechWarrior 2. PlayStation VR, his successor. The company has been working on it since 2011.
The Sony helmet is designed to work with the PlayStation 4 and can produce a 960 Ă— 1080 picture at every eye with a frequency of 120 Hz. The list of supported games in the tens , among them 20 exclusives, including Ace Combat 7 and Gran Turismo Sport. You can play with the help of a gamepad or two PlayStation Move. In the future, the release of a new generation of Move is planned (perhaps they will be called differently), sharpened for VR.
Valve entered the VR race after all: the first prototypes were shown in 2014. The helmet is being developed in conjunction with HTC. Features like the Oculus Rift: 1080x1200 per eye, 90 Hz. Included are specialized controllers, just like the PS VR and Oculus Rift. Vive support is claimed in 37 games .
Despite the authority of Valve, a large perspective from the helmet is not yet visible. Experience in the "iron" business at Valve is small, and a bad start Steam Machines shows it to the fullest. At HTC things are also not the best way: the business press describes the situation in the company with the words “collapse”, “corkscrew” and “stock quotes lower than the asset value”.
There is a curious Google Cardboard project: you can cut out a helmet using cardboard, insert lenses, a magnet and a smartphone as a screen into it. You should not expect a big effect from it. Surprisingly, there is a Russian equivalent .
There are also a lot of helmets, which are made similar to Google Cardboard (smartphone instead of screen), but factory-made: Samsung Gear VR (works in conjunction with Samsung Galaxy Note 4), Homido VR, 3D VR, 3D VR Box, VR BAOFENG3, VR Shinecon, Magic Glass, Carl Zeiss VR One, Vortex VR One, Fibrum Pro, Durovis Dive, Merge VR, Freefly VR. All of them are already on sale, but none of the big hype caused.
In addition, there are second tier analogs of the Oculus Rift, i.e. full-fledged helmets with their own screens: NVR (Russian development, on sale), OSVR from Razer (on sale), Total Vision VR2 (pre-order for 2016), Omimo Uranus One (on sale), ANTVR (on sale), VRVANA Totem (on selling).
The most interesting alternative called HoloLens is offered by Microsoft. This is not a helmet, but glasses for creating augmented reality that show three-dimensional holograms in the real world next to the user. Unlike helmets, this is a stand-alone stand-alone device (like Google Glass) and its application goes far beyond the limits of games. Most likely even this way: outside of the Hololens games there are much more options for use than in games.
The Hololens release was announced for the current quarter at a price of $ 3000.
Minecraft and tank games are the most popular in Russia. In Minecraft, support for the Oculus Rift will appear this spring, and, in addition, there will be support for Hololens. War Thunder already supports Oculus Rift and will support PlayStation VR. Armata can be made friends with Oculus with VorPX. For World of Tanks there is a mod under the Oculus Rift.
As for exclusives, that is, games designed specifically for helmets, EVE is the most interesting: Valkyrie (space simulator in the universe of EVE Online), The Climb (climber simulator from Crytek), Private Eye (noir-thriller), The London Heist ( crime action), The Deep (diver simulator), Edge of Nowhere (something like Insomniac Games Ridges of Madness), the future game from the authors of the Until Dawn horror. In general, the strongest lineup at the moment from Sony.
Sure. While the most convenient way to control is the usual gamepad - it is not by chance that the developers of Oculus Rift include it as standard. But in the long term, the best impressions will most likely be delivered by specialized controllers that look like a gamepad split in two and are able to track hand movements. All three manufacturers (Oculus VR, Sony, Valve / HTC) are working in this direction.
In addition, another periphery is being developed: a vest that mimics bullets, a full-body suit with backward recoil (most likely, it will not collect the required amount, but this is hardly the last such project), a Virtuix Omni treadmill, a recoil weapon , and for tracking pupils, helping to aim, a bird flight simulator and even a controller for squeezing the female breast (naturally, the Japanese came up with).
Such devices are unlikely to get wide distribution: they require additional expenses, a lot of space (especially Omni) and support from developers. Doubts remain even in the success of specialized controllers like the Oculus Touch, which will be bundled with helmets. In words, the control of the movements of the hands sounds great, but in practice it takes up space, and it is simply tiring. Standard gamepad so far no one could beat, although there were many attempts.
- Video review 360 degrees. Already filmed films under the Oculus Rift.
- Social services. Linden Lab (creators of Second Life) last year announced that they are working on a new virtual world Project Sansar for Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR.
- Design. Several architectural firms have expressed interest in Oculus Rift.
- Sports broadcasts. LiveLike promises them in VR.
- Cars sale. Audi has been using Oculus at dealerships since last year to select cars and virtual test drives.
- Army. Helmets are convenient for training pilots and drivers of armored vehicles. And even in battle, they will come in handy: tank crews get much better visibility. The Norwegian army has already experimented with Oculus in this direction.
There are a lot of use cases, and most of them have not even been invented.
This is generally the most important thing. The porn industry has taken Oculus Rift into service since the first days of its existence ( NSFW ). Separate sections with VR have not yet appeared on porn sites, but specialized sites already exist .
Reviews tried virtual porn mixed. Some say that the effect of presence is so strong that you can reflexively retract or “feel” the smell of your partner. Others complain that VR-porn, contrary to expectations, is not so interesting: a helmet on your head disconnects you from reality and does not allow you to focus on your body, besides your organs of hearing and vision are isolated, because of which there is a fear that someone Something will enter the room and find you like this.
Surely, we can say that VR will breathe new life into that kind of adult when a girl chatting for money does what they ask of her. The effect of the presence in such videos will obviously grow; you can almost touch the girls.
As for the games on the adult theme, Summer Lesson has received the most attention so far. This is a Japanese dating simulator for the PlayStation 4.
No porn there, of course, will not, just flirt.
On the PC, VR games will be much more frank, but, as usual, of little interest (those who tried to play Sexy Beach know that you will die of boredom there before you see at least bare breasts). About Summer Lesson, eyewitnesses, however, also say that it is stupid and boring.
The consumer version of the Oculus Rift will cost $ 600 + $ 1000 per computer. Recommended system requirements: Intel i5-4590 CPU or higher, NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 graphics card or higher, 8 GB + RAM, Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or higher.
The price for the HTC Vive is not announced, but according to rumors it will be in the range of $ 600 to $ 1500.
The cheapest of all PlayStation VR: a prefix for 25 000 rubles. and about the same for the helmet.
You can carefully assume that the best choice in terms of price / quality ratio will be the PlayStation VR: the price of the helmet will be comparable to the Oculus, but the console will cost less than a gaming computer. In addition, PS VR may be easier to handle due to the orientation of less technical-savvy audiences and Sony’s wide experience in creating gaming devices.
Before buying, be sure to test the helmet for a long time - at least half an hour. It may turn out that you are wearing discomfort for physiological reasons.
It is interesting to be a pioneer, but, as always, you have to pay your price for it. Consumer versions of helmets will be better than devits, but they are unlikely to completely solve the problems of rapid eye fatigue, headache, motion sickness. Certainly there will be technical problems. Yes, and the money will have to pay a lot.
In the other hand, to be among early adopters can be priceless.
Bonus track: a collection of bookmarks to sites about VR
- Oculus Rift (March 28, 2016)
- HTC Vive (April 2016)
- PlayStation VR (first half of 2016)
- Microsoft Hololens (devkits in the first quarter of 2016)
It's time to summarize everything that is known about these devices, and decide whether to take them now, what to choose, as well as what device is the most promising to develop games.
')
Why do we need a helmet and will it replace monitors and televisions?
Virtual reality technology gives a completely different level of immersion. When you are wearing a helmet, in the field of view there is only a game, and the review is carried out not with a mouse or stick, but with movements of the head. Image quality is still worse than monitors and TVs, but even with this in mind, virtual reality is strong. The ride on the roller coaster swayes, and the most common horror game scares as in childhood.
The appearance of helmets does not mean that the displays are a thing of the past. Virtual reality technologies are still far from perfect, and in some games their use is irrational (many strategies, two-dimensional games).
What are the chances of success? Virtual reality helmets tried to be released before, but they did not get any spread.
Yes, there really have been attempts before. The first commercial helmet of virtual reality (Virtuality) appeared in the 1990s. But then there was still no technology that would allow a massive affordable product that could be successful with customers. For example, Oculus Rift displays an image with a resolution of 2160x1200 (1080x1200 per eye) at a sweep frequency of 90 Hz. This requires a computer 2-3 times more powerful than playing in 1080p.
In favor of the fact that the current boom is not a false start, indicate the prevalence of Oculus Rift even at the prototype stage for developers and the great interest of people.
Which of the three helmets to choose? Oculus rift?
While difficult to say. According to the characteristics of all three helmets are similar. A new wave of VR launched Oculus Rift, and it still attracts the most attention. Oculus Rift began as a project on Kickstarter, which collected several million dollars, and was later bought by Facebook. The head of the company, Palmer Lucky, has been interested in VR since childhood; he has one of the largest US collections of virtual reality helmets. The technical director at Oculus VR, John Carmack, is known as the creator of id Software (Doom, Quake) game engines, i.e. man in the gaming industry is not the last.
Nevertheless, the company has no experience in creating and popularizing gaming devices. Oculus Rift can be difficult to configure for an inexperienced user, and besides, it is designed for the PC platform (so far only Windows, support for OS X and Linux will appear in the future), the market of which is several times smaller than the console games market.
As for the characteristics, in the Oculus Rift two screens, each gives a resolution of 1080x1200 with a frequency of 90 Hz. Will be sold complete with a gamepad from the Xbox One, as well as EVE games: Valkyrie and Lucky Tale. The list of supported games already includes hundreds of titles . In the future, it is planned to release a specialized Oculus Touch controller, which will allow to be controlled in games not only with buttons and sticks, but also with hand movements.
What is known about the PlayStation VR?
Sony already has experience working on such devices - in 1997, she released the Glasstron helmet, which was supported by MechWarrior 2. PlayStation VR, his successor. The company has been working on it since 2011.
The Sony helmet is designed to work with the PlayStation 4 and can produce a 960 Ă— 1080 picture at every eye with a frequency of 120 Hz. The list of supported games in the tens , among them 20 exclusives, including Ace Combat 7 and Gran Turismo Sport. You can play with the help of a gamepad or two PlayStation Move. In the future, the release of a new generation of Move is planned (perhaps they will be called differently), sharpened for VR.
What are the chances of the HTC Vive from Valve?
Valve entered the VR race after all: the first prototypes were shown in 2014. The helmet is being developed in conjunction with HTC. Features like the Oculus Rift: 1080x1200 per eye, 90 Hz. Included are specialized controllers, just like the PS VR and Oculus Rift. Vive support is claimed in 37 games .
Despite the authority of Valve, a large perspective from the helmet is not yet visible. Experience in the "iron" business at Valve is small, and a bad start Steam Machines shows it to the fullest. At HTC things are also not the best way: the business press describes the situation in the company with the words “collapse”, “corkscrew” and “stock quotes lower than the asset value”.
What other helmets are there?
There is a curious Google Cardboard project: you can cut out a helmet using cardboard, insert lenses, a magnet and a smartphone as a screen into it. You should not expect a big effect from it. Surprisingly, there is a Russian equivalent .
There are also a lot of helmets, which are made similar to Google Cardboard (smartphone instead of screen), but factory-made: Samsung Gear VR (works in conjunction with Samsung Galaxy Note 4), Homido VR, 3D VR, 3D VR Box, VR BAOFENG3, VR Shinecon, Magic Glass, Carl Zeiss VR One, Vortex VR One, Fibrum Pro, Durovis Dive, Merge VR, Freefly VR. All of them are already on sale, but none of the big hype caused.
In addition, there are second tier analogs of the Oculus Rift, i.e. full-fledged helmets with their own screens: NVR (Russian development, on sale), OSVR from Razer (on sale), Total Vision VR2 (pre-order for 2016), Omimo Uranus One (on sale), ANTVR (on sale), VRVANA Totem (on selling).
The most interesting alternative called HoloLens is offered by Microsoft. This is not a helmet, but glasses for creating augmented reality that show three-dimensional holograms in the real world next to the user. Unlike helmets, this is a stand-alone stand-alone device (like Google Glass) and its application goes far beyond the limits of games. Most likely even this way: outside of the Hololens games there are much more options for use than in games.
The Hololens release was announced for the current quarter at a price of $ 3000.
The most interesting games for VR?
Minecraft and tank games are the most popular in Russia. In Minecraft, support for the Oculus Rift will appear this spring, and, in addition, there will be support for Hololens. War Thunder already supports Oculus Rift and will support PlayStation VR. Armata can be made friends with Oculus with VorPX. For World of Tanks there is a mod under the Oculus Rift.
As for exclusives, that is, games designed specifically for helmets, EVE is the most interesting: Valkyrie (space simulator in the universe of EVE Online), The Climb (climber simulator from Crytek), Private Eye (noir-thriller), The London Heist ( crime action), The Deep (diver simulator), Edge of Nowhere (something like Insomniac Games Ridges of Madness), the future game from the authors of the Until Dawn horror. In general, the strongest lineup at the moment from Sony.
Will game management change with the advent of helmets?
Sure. While the most convenient way to control is the usual gamepad - it is not by chance that the developers of Oculus Rift include it as standard. But in the long term, the best impressions will most likely be delivered by specialized controllers that look like a gamepad split in two and are able to track hand movements. All three manufacturers (Oculus VR, Sony, Valve / HTC) are working in this direction.
In addition, another periphery is being developed: a vest that mimics bullets, a full-body suit with backward recoil (most likely, it will not collect the required amount, but this is hardly the last such project), a Virtuix Omni treadmill, a recoil weapon , and for tracking pupils, helping to aim, a bird flight simulator and even a controller for squeezing the female breast (naturally, the Japanese came up with).
Such devices are unlikely to get wide distribution: they require additional expenses, a lot of space (especially Omni) and support from developers. Doubts remain even in the success of specialized controllers like the Oculus Touch, which will be bundled with helmets. In words, the control of the movements of the hands sounds great, but in practice it takes up space, and it is simply tiring. Standard gamepad so far no one could beat, although there were many attempts.
Where else, besides games, can virtual reality devices be involved?
- Video review 360 degrees. Already filmed films under the Oculus Rift.
- Social services. Linden Lab (creators of Second Life) last year announced that they are working on a new virtual world Project Sansar for Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR.
- Design. Several architectural firms have expressed interest in Oculus Rift.
- Sports broadcasts. LiveLike promises them in VR.
- Cars sale. Audi has been using Oculus at dealerships since last year to select cars and virtual test drives.
- Army. Helmets are convenient for training pilots and drivers of armored vehicles. And even in battle, they will come in handy: tank crews get much better visibility. The Norwegian army has already experimented with Oculus in this direction.
There are a lot of use cases, and most of them have not even been invented.
What about porn?
This is generally the most important thing. The porn industry has taken Oculus Rift into service since the first days of its existence ( NSFW ). Separate sections with VR have not yet appeared on porn sites, but specialized sites already exist .
Reviews tried virtual porn mixed. Some say that the effect of presence is so strong that you can reflexively retract or “feel” the smell of your partner. Others complain that VR-porn, contrary to expectations, is not so interesting: a helmet on your head disconnects you from reality and does not allow you to focus on your body, besides your organs of hearing and vision are isolated, because of which there is a fear that someone Something will enter the room and find you like this.
Surely, we can say that VR will breathe new life into that kind of adult when a girl chatting for money does what they ask of her. The effect of the presence in such videos will obviously grow; you can almost touch the girls.
As for the games on the adult theme, Summer Lesson has received the most attention so far. This is a Japanese dating simulator for the PlayStation 4.
No porn there, of course, will not, just flirt.
On the PC, VR games will be much more frank, but, as usual, of little interest (those who tried to play Sexy Beach know that you will die of boredom there before you see at least bare breasts). About Summer Lesson, eyewitnesses, however, also say that it is stupid and boring.
How much will you have to pay for VR?
The consumer version of the Oculus Rift will cost $ 600 + $ 1000 per computer. Recommended system requirements: Intel i5-4590 CPU or higher, NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 graphics card or higher, 8 GB + RAM, Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or higher.
The price for the HTC Vive is not announced, but according to rumors it will be in the range of $ 600 to $ 1500.
The cheapest of all PlayStation VR: a prefix for 25 000 rubles. and about the same for the helmet.
So which helmet is best to choose?
You can carefully assume that the best choice in terms of price / quality ratio will be the PlayStation VR: the price of the helmet will be comparable to the Oculus, but the console will cost less than a gaming computer. In addition, PS VR may be easier to handle due to the orientation of less technical-savvy audiences and Sony’s wide experience in creating gaming devices.
Before buying, be sure to test the helmet for a long time - at least half an hour. It may turn out that you are wearing discomfort for physiological reasons.
Should I take VR now?
It is interesting to be a pioneer, but, as always, you have to pay your price for it. Consumer versions of helmets will be better than devits, but they are unlikely to completely solve the problems of rapid eye fatigue, headache, motion sickness. Certainly there will be technical problems. Yes, and the money will have to pay a lot.
In the other hand, to be among early adopters can be priceless.
Bonus track: a collection of bookmarks to sites about VR
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/275877/
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