I Gave My Family A Taste Of VR For Christmas

[kcarbotte]

I brought a Gear VR with me during my Christmas dinner family tour. Everyone in my family got a taste of VR for Christmas, and every one of them was impressed by what they saw.

I Gave My Family A Taste Of VR For Christmas : Read more

 

[Braingeyser]

That's a great story. I might have to give this VR thing another look

 

[kcarbotte]

That's a great story. I might have to give this VR thing another look

Thanks, and you should!
Next year when the premium headsets are out people's perspectiives will change.

 

[moogleslam]

Did anyone feel sick?

 

[kcarbotte]

Did anyone feel sick?

Actually, no.
But I only showed TheBlu to most of my family. The gamers tried Gunjack as well, but no one got dizzy at all.

Most of the games on Gear VR are good for pretty much everyone. There's a rating in the store that tells you if it is comfortable for most, some, or few. TheBlu is comfortable for most.

 

[Michael_153]

the graphics suck wait till the playstation one comes out

 

[englandr753]

I've been cued in by a buddy of mine on VR and he says my 5930k rig with the 295x2 should work well with it. I guess when this 2016 release happens I will have to check it out.

 

[TX_Tech]

To be honest, 3D TVs were pretty cool the first time I saw one of those as well.

I own a very nice 70" Sony 3D 1080p TV, along with multiple 3D movies. I've watched maybe 5 of them, but now I no longer bother.

It was amazing the first time, the novel factor was huge. Then the problems start to show up.

VR will have its place, but there are issues with it that "better tech" won't solve. Eye strain, a close focal distance, weight on the head, and just downright looking silly.

You say it is a "social experience". Sure, when you're bringing a new toy over and everyone tries it the first time, it is. But it won't be the 5th time, or 10th.

Imagine playing Madden on the couch with a friend, but both of you have VR on. That isn't social, you might as well not be in the same room.

 

[AMD27]

A great story .. How much did SAMSUNG pay for the Ad ? Joking

I am thinking to buy the Gear VR this month..does it work with Galaxy Note 5 ?

 

[cats_Paw]

A great story .. How much did SAMSUNG pay for the Ad ? Joking

I am thinking to buy the Gear VR this month..does it work with Galaxy Note 5 ?

It does look like an ad ( guerrilla type ad to be more precise ), but its nothing new on toms ... since the major overhaul it had some years back.

 

[computerguy72]

the graphics suck wait till the playstation one comes out

You are going to be in for a big disappointment. When the reviews come out for many of the PS4 titles coming out for PSVR it will show what the developers have to do to the average title to get it to work in VR. PC will be the platform for this until Sony and MS develop more powerful hardware.

 

[bloodroses75]

The bad thing is that it is Samsung only with that device (and not all Samsung phones I found out the hard way...). Luckily they have devices like this out there for cheap until more standardized units come out.

View-Master Virtual Reality Starter Pack
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011EG5HJ2/

 

[omnimodis78]

To be honest, 3D TVs were pretty cool the first time I saw one of those as well. ... Imagine playing Madden on the couch with a friend, but both of you have VR on. That isn't social, you might as well not be in the same room.

I'm with you on this one, but I'm torn as hell. 3D TV was a fad, a "feature", most sensible people knew that it was not redefining entertainment in the long run, nor would it stick effectively. VR tech I think is different. I don't doubt that it's going to be clunky and mediocre (in retrospect) until a few generations down the line. One thing for sure though, VR won't be for entertainment only! Imagine browsing to the IKEA site with your VR on and it overlays that coffee table you're thinking of buying, in your actual living room, in real time, real 3D. It will be the standard way of shopping on-line, and for that alone people will own one. I would. You would too. Then there are virtual vacations. Education. I mean I can't stop imagining the floodgate of potential, and it's just around the corner. The article alone proves that this isn't something which will be a niche market. VR will be a standard home appliance.

 

[jaber2]

To be honest, 3D TVs were pretty cool the first time I saw one of those as well. ... Imagine playing Madden on the couch with a friend, but both of you have VR on. That isn't social, you might as well not be in the same room.

I'm with you on this one, but I'm torn as hell. 3D TV was a fad, a "feature", most sensible people knew that it was not redefining entertainment in the long run, nor would it stick effectively. VR tech I think is different. I don't doubt that it's going to be clunky and mediocre (in retrospect) until a few generations down the line. One thing for sure though, VR won't be for entertainment only! Imagine browsing to the IKEA site with your VR on and it overlays that coffee table you're thinking of buying, in your actual living room, in real time, real 3D. It will be the standard way of shopping on-line, and for that alone people will own one. I would. You would too. Then there are virtual vacations. Education. I mean I can't stop imagining the floodgate of potential, and it's just around the corner. The article alone proves that this isn't something which will be a niche market. VR will be a standard home appliance.

The only thing that can and will expand VR is porn, deal with it

 

[stargazer73]

To be honest, 3D TVs were pretty cool the first time I saw one of those as well.

I own a very nice 70" Sony 3D 1080p TV, along with multiple 3D movies. I've watched maybe 5 of them, but now I no longer bother.

It was amazing the first time, the novel factor was huge. Then the problems start to show up.

VR will have its place, but there are issues with it that "better tech" won't solve. Eye strain, a close focal distance, weight on the head, and just downright looking silly.

You say it is a "social experience". Sure, when you're bringing a new toy over and everyone tries it the first time, it is. But it won't be the 5th time, or 10th.

Imagine playing Madden on the couch with a friend, but both of you have VR on. That isn't social, you might as well not be in the same room.

I'll address some of your concerns. Regarding eye strain and close focal distance, these are non-issues. The optics are implemented in a way so that you are looking out into infinity and not up close. You'll get more eyestrain staring at your monitor than you will wearing one of these VR goggles. If you've tried the latest incarnation of the oculus rift it's akin to wearing a baseball cap. It's comfortable and weight distribution is perfect. You'll forget all about it after a minute or so. As for looking downright silly, when you experience it for the first time you won't care one bit what you look like. And comparing it to 3D tv isn't the same thing. 3DTV was a feature VR is basically an entirely new platform.

What you describe are not the difficult problems to solve for VR. The difficult problems to solve are things like VR locomotion, haptic feedback, smell, wireless...etc

 

[hoofhearted]

The problem with this is stupid Samsung took away removable battery and SD card from their Note 5. So I staying on the Note 4 until they realize the error of their ways or I will become an LG or Asus fanboy. So try for the Gear VR for Note 4 (I think they call it innovator edition) which I saw a couple of months ago for $99. Well, that blew to crap. Jackasses are pricegouging it for $300ish on Amazon, ebay and such. Better off waiting for real Oculus or Vive is my thinking.

 

[DrakeFS]

The only thing that can and will expand VR is porn, deal with it

Gaming, by far, will be the largest adopter of VR for the foreseeable future. Which is partially why VR will have a slow adoption rate. The Holy Grail of VR will be limited to high end PCs for years to come. Hell, full 1080p @ < 30fps (all the effects turned to "ultra") gaming for entry level gaming PCs just became possible this year alone (anything around the power of 950). The next step is for iGPUs to be able to handle full 1080p gaming, to enable the casuals the bare minimum to use VR.

GPU venders need a reason (a push, if you will) to deliver more than single digit % improvements over the previous generation. PC builders need a reason to buy such hardware. VR will provide that.

Of course, I could be wrong about gaming being the major push for VR. Content consumption (movies, shows, shorts) may end up be being the big push in VR. If that happens then low power VR becomes norm while Gaming on VR becomes a niche market. As the PC gaming market has shown, not really a bad deal to be in the gaming niche in the PC market.

 

[none12345]

VR is not a fad per se. However, a flood of devices on the market that have low refresh rate, high latency, low pixel density, and low field of view, will probably push it back another 10 years. And that's probably exactly what will happen soon.

With a low frame rate, and/or high latency, you are going to get nausea. With a low field of view, you are going to have tunnel vision.

At minimum you need a 4k screen(2 screens at 2k*2k pixels per eye would be better then one 4k*2k screen) @ 90 hz(with a head tracking sensor that can read at 90hz, and a computer that can render at 90hz as well). And you need a field of view of ~160x130 degrees per eye. Really 4k is not enough that close to your eyes, you really want 8k or ideally 16k worth of screens, but we arent there yet...

Not all of that needs to be rendered at full resolution. With proper VR rendering, you only need to render about half of that at full quality, all the peripheral vision area can be rendered at a much lower quality. Tho if they skimp too much they need eye tracking to change where high quality areas are rendered when your eye moves around.

To my knowledge, none of the VR goggles coming out are anywhere near those specs. And none of the game engines are rendering specifically for VR. They are rendering for a monitor then post processing the image by warping it for VR goggles.

Sure, it will be enough for people to rave about it at first, but its going to give the technology a bad name. It would have been better had they waited at least 2 years before trying to push VR.

 

[cptnjarhead]

My wife got me a VR goggle set for Christmas, and its very cool. Its not a GVR but it works with just about any smart phone. My LG G2 does works well. I have only played with it for a little bit, everyone that has tried it thought it was very cool. The google cardboard demo, intro video has been the best, the jungle scene scared the heck out of me when i turned and looked at the gorilla right next to me!.. My wife screamed and almost fell out of the chair. I'm excited to see more apps and games, and watch some movies, until the Rift come out, then i will have some decisions to make. Up grade my pc for VR, or get a stand alone unit and new phone.

 

[N0Spin]

Great Article...
To the naysayers (finding problems with the concept or likening VR to 3D TV adoption), I cannot disagree more and here is why, briefly:

I am thoroughly of the opinion that this is a case of when (and not if) this technology will take off. Once it does, I believe you will have a rather difficult time finding many areas in life which will remain completely untouched by it. Just think about how TVs, cellphones and consumer computing devices have changed our lives. As Howard Rheingold said in the book (Virtual Reality, 1991), I thoroughly believe ‘VR Will Eat TV Alive!’

In the higher end entertainment realm, it all really comes down to 2 words - Being Immersed.

There are limitless potential applications for this type of technology, many of which are outside the realms of consumer entertainment, and that's a good thing, because they will continue to be some of the biggest drivers for this technology. But it is precisely the fact that the enabling technologies are finally becoming realistic and accessible, which will drive more and more researchers, entrepreneurs, companies and eventually even individuals as consumers to invest in these technologies.

In the end, I am still convinced that the experience of true immersion will sell itself, just as the author noted with his relatives, it's just a question of when.

As far as the social aspect TX_Tech noted: ...Imagine playing Madden on the couch with a friend...
- If you think that it wouldn't be much fun (or much of a social experience) because you presume that wearing an HMD means you WILL NOT be able to talk to one another, then you must have missed that headsets with microphones are a huge item even for console gamers. I personally have gamed with people in other states regularly in guilds and clans (for over 10 years) and we generally always used a voice chat app while gaming. This in that scenario, unless you chose not to communicate, would be little different.

 

[Warsaw]

I have to agree with the writer in that it is just a matter of time before this takes off and it WILL be mainstream given enough time. All it takes it for people to actually experience it to be completely blown away. I have only had the Samsung VR for a few weeks and every single person I have shown it to has been completely blown away. Some of my friends and girlfriend were asking me question after question about it and as I talked more about it they became excited.

The potential and want is there, it's all going to be about the proper hardware and making sure it works correctly for the average person. At first of course it'll be more enthusiast based, but given awhile when more people have access to it (I especially think the Sony variant will give it enough exposure for VR to really take off) we'll really see it spoken about and I can bet a flood of people will be buying it up.

I am very very excited towards the future with VR, I have been looking forward to VR for years and years when it was science fiction. Look at how technology progresses and any of the people in disbelief at first are almost always proved wrong.

 

[scolaner]

A great story .. How much did SAMSUNG pay for the Ad ? Joking

I am thinking to buy the Gear VR this month..does it work with Galaxy Note 5 ?

It does look like an ad ( guerrilla type ad to be more precise ), but its nothing new on toms ... since the major overhaul it had some years back.

What?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I expect to get more than uncomfortable when playing in VR the 1st few times. When we fist jumped into 3D (Batman) I got nauseous after about 10 minutes.... next time, I made 30 and almost gave up but the 3rd time I was fine. It was a real kick and it still is a kick ... and this is from a person who has never enjoyed a 3D movie.

I don't see it as a "entry level technology" for 950 owners however, ... many reviews by those who have reported on significant play time using VR, speak to the goal of having fps about twice what they are otherwise comfy with on screen and that's gonna require some HP. Most gamers that come by asking about a new build today simply aren't interested if they can't maintain 60 fps

 

[bloodroses75]

The problem with this is stupid Samsung took away removable battery and SD card from their Note 5. So I staying on the Note 4 until they realize the error of their ways or I will become an LG or Asus fanboy. So try for the Gear VR for Note 4 (I think they call it innovator edition) which I saw a couple of months ago for $99. Well, that blew to crap. Jackasses are pricegouging it for $300ish on Amazon, ebay and such. Better off waiting for real Oculus or Vive is my thinking.

Be glad you aren't one of the Note Edge users that got no support from Samsung. My next phone will most definitely not be a Samsung device; the SD card and battery removed on their newer devices was the icing on the cake....

 

[zodiacfml]

VR, to succeed, needs great content no matter how simple. I think, VR will be as successful, if not more successful than 4k resolution.