Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Zenith, Kickstarted Cyberpunk VR MMO, Shares Pre-Alpha Footage, Update on Alpha
System
Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
Zenith, Kickstarted Cyberpunk VR MMO, Shares Pre-Alpha Footage, Update on Alpha
Remember Zenith? It's that Kickstarted cyberpunk VR MMO in development. They've just issued a new dev blog, in addition to sharing some pre-alpha footage.
Comments
Considering the success of existing games being turned into VR games, I think it's very possible to see an existing MMO made to work in VR.
Why?
Half-Life:Alyx sold over one million copies within the first month of release.
Despite not going on sale until the 3rd quarter of 2019, Valve sold all of the 149,000 Index HMDs initially made (a $999 HMD) and have been on back order since December of 2019. Since then, they have sold over 50,000 more in the first quarter of 2020.
The Oculus Quest, released May 21, 2019, sold 705,000 units in the last seven months of last year and pulled in over $100 million in content sales. The Oculus Rift S is the most used PCVR HMD on the market.
PlayStation sold 338,000 VR HMDs in the fourth quarter of 2019 alone.
Clearly there's a monetary draw for developers to turn an MMO into something that can be used in VR. One can only hope it happens soon. At least this proves that VR isn't dead and, despite the claims of some here, is very much ready for whatever is thrown its way.
There have been a couple of companies trying MMORPG's in VR right now. A Township Tale is another one, and it was quite fun when I tried it. Buggy, and not fully open world, more instanced areas but it was still a majority of the features of an MMORPG in the VR space which is cool.
I agree, Wake me up when the Holodeck is invented
Yeah... it's interesting how computer gaming on a flat monitor doesn't have to advance to holodeck levels for them to invest money in and enjoy gaming, but for some strange reason, VR has to. They will simply not accept any advancement in gaming visuals until the year 2364 when the holodeck was invented.
And saying VR is 20-30 years behind where it should be or that you can’t stand wearing one of those stupid headsets for 5 mins shows you really haven't tried proper VR. The Rift S weighs 1.1 lbs and uses a halo strap so it doesn't remotely rest on your face.
But hey, live in ignorance and speak of things you know nothing about. It's your loss. I am curious why you would even click on this article and post here if you think we are between 30 and 300 years away from proper VR?
Yeah, A Township Tale and Orbus Reborn are MMO-ish but utilize Wii style graphics which I'm not a huge fan of. Elite Dangerous is insane in VR and MMO-ish as well, but is more of an Eve Online game that fantasy MMO. Skyrim VR shows a hint of what a fantasy MMO would be like. There are some multiplayer games that show how a VR MMO can be as well... The Forest, No Mans Sky, Stormland, etc. It's a few years out, especially since VR just exploded towards the middle of last year.
The controls for even the best VR game right now are garbage and barely intuitive. People are only in awe of the visuals, while the actual gameplay sits at the back of the bus.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
The Basic Oculus controllers give full hand and wrist articulation and have touch sensitive buttons that give full articulation for your middle finger (which controls the ring finger and pinky as well), the pointer finger and thumb.
The Index controllers have full hand and wrist articulation and have touch sensitive buttons for articulation in all 5 fingers.
Agreed. I hope they take their time with it and do it right. It has potential.
You are simply being dishonest if you can even begin to compare current clunky and imprecise VR controls to a mouse and keyboard. A MMORPG with our current technology will not work... The genre requires limitless hours of gameplay.
It's hard to compare the gameplay of a VR game to that of a flat screen because gameplay in VR is so different. It's like half way between playing Madden 10 Football on the Xbox and playing actual football in a stadium. The two are very different. Putting yourself half way between the two is very different.
I played Elder Scrolls V on the PC and I've played it in VR. It's much better in VR because it's so different physically blocking and swinging a sword or aiming your bow or magic attack.
The Forrest is pretty good in VR, but I don't know if I would be interested in it on a flat screen. I have 100 hours in a game that I wouldn't normally play.
No Mans Sky is ok on the flat screen but much better in VR.
I've never even heard of Elite Dangerous before I bought it for VR but it's pretty insane in VR.
Other people are glued to GTA V for VR, (not my bag) or Fallout 4 for VR. Project Cars (1-2), Iracing, Assetto Corsa, Dirt...pretty much any driving or flying sim, all much... much better in VR.
As far as purpose made VR games... yes, there are a few that are great and a lot that are more experiences or just mediocre. Some wave killers like Gorn or Blade and Sorcery are cheesy but fun. Some swear by team shooters like Pavlov or Contractor$.
I thought Stormland was fantastic and that usually isn't my kind of game. I hear Asgards Wrath is very good but I haven't tried it yet due to being glued to Half Life: Alyx which is very, very good. The Walking Dead is very good. Robo Recall has aged extremely well and is still very fun. Lone Echo is a great game and coming out with a sequel this year.
I think part of what makes VR cool for me is it reminds me of when MMOs started becoming popular. When MMOs where new, there was so much to see and so much to do in huge worlds that were shared by hundreds or thousands of other people. I don't get the same feeling for the new MMOs anymore. That may be due to the new MMOs just not being that good. Maybe it's the new MMO community. Maybe it's me having moved on to something else that is new and exciting that shows me a completely new world to explore in virtual reality. I still occasionally log in to AAU or DAoC but only for an hour or so. It kind of bums me out. I just hope the genre moves to VR so I can be excited about it again.
I know you mentioned you were a power gamer. You can't really power game in VR because you have to physically go through the motions of every step. There are still some people that finish a 10-12 hour game in 10 hours, but most take twice as long, if not more, because playing in VR is so different. It just may be something you can't get into due to how you like to game. Maybe you'll look at it again and change your mind in a year or two.
Part of what I like about VR is that I'm doing things with my hands other than moving with a keyboard and aiming with a mouse. I get to physically look down sights and physically pull a trigger, physically extend my arm to shoot a fireball, physically swing a sword, physically pick up at item and put it in my backpack, physically chop down a tree.
I'm not sitting in my chair rapidly clicking a mouse button. To me, keyboard and mouse gaming is far more clunky.
On the flip side, I'd say you're being dishonest if you claim you've actually tried a proper VR HMD in the last year based on your reply. Sounds like you maybe used a VR HMD when they gave you an Xbox controller and touch pad, or maybe an HTC or PSVR with their wand things, which are somewhat clunky.
There's no way you would be saying this had you tried a Oculus with a Touch controller or Index with their hand straps.
I think he's saying VR is a gimick either way.
If the game is just as good with VR as it is without, then VR isn't needed for it to be good making VR a gimmick.
If the game is good in VR and not good without VR, then the game isn't really good to begin with therefore VR is a gimmick.
He isn't taking in to account that a game can be good in a different way in VR than it is on a flat screen. Or that a game that isn't that great on a flat screen can be very immersive in VR based on how gameplay shifts when in VR.
As far as a "killer must-have" VR game... I suppose that's subjective. Many thought that was HL:A. Over a million copies sold in a month. Many think that the amount of overall experiences available is worth it.
I get not wanting to have the world cut off while gaming. It's a hard thing to get used to. We have a room dedicated to it so it makes it a little easier. It probably doesn't help to say it's something you get used to after a few days, but you get used to it and even look forward to it. It also something that bothers you again if you stop playing for an extended period of time, which is a little odd.
That said, the original Rift had a small gap by the nose that let you see out if you wanted. The Rift S does not but it does have piped in sound so you can hear your surroundings better and also has cameras that you can turn on if you need to see without taking the HMD off.
I agree, price is usually a factor of how much you can upgrade, but upgrades are still made and the price isn't generally cheap. A PC gamer suddenly claiming a $400 VR HMD is just too much to spend is a bit silly.
I know they're working on tricks like selective resolution (or whatever the accepted term is) where image is only rendered at high resolution where your eyes are focusing. But I suppose it's not ready yet. And we will still need much higher resolution screens, though if I'm not mistaking that's not the issue, the technology is there already maybe.
I really want VR to work, it's been my dream since I was a kid but VR isn't worth it when your games looks like it's build 20 years ago. It does work for some games but imo not for MMO's with today's technology.
For real? When is the last time you looked into VR games that you haven't seen a VR game with the the complex sceneries and details that we're used to seeing in regular MMO's?
There are tons of games with much more complexity than you see in an MMO.
I played Alyx and before that probably I don't know, Elite?
I have about 10-15 VR games in my library I'm not sure which one was the last I played.
But in VR games look like you're playing in 480p on a normal screen so whatever detail the game pushes on your screen you won't be able to see everything cause of how close you are to the screen and how little pixels you have. So there's already that. To even come close to 1080p like quality we probably need 8k per eye or something, if not more. When was the last time you could see pixels on your monitor screen at normal distance?
What VR HMD are you using?... and what computer are you using to power it?
Depending on what I'm doing, I can see pixeling on my monitor. That's what anti aliasing is for. I suppose the difference with a flat screen is you are 2 feet away starting at an inanimate object (your screen). In VR, you are staring at a world with depth so pixeling isn't as noticeable unless you're trying to read fine print on something like a screen in Elite Dangerous.
It suffers from the same fundamental problem all headsets have. A low amount of dpi for the distance between our eyes and the screen.
Maybe if we have 16k per eye we would have a similar experience as 1080p on flat screens but imagine pushing out 16k x2 of details to the headset screens. By the time we can do that we would have reached something 8 times (or whatever) better on flat screens. That's why it will always lag behind on regular gaming until they find a way to let us experience the same high quality of details while not having to render everything all the time.
Not so sure if that makes such a difference for projectors? It's in principle the same as just regular flat screen gaming.