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Quoting: TheRiddickThey have a driver and software for their headset, that is doing the thing for them. You actually need to look deeper and I won't be holding your hand, if you don't believe me then fine whatever I don't care.

I don't need you to hold my hand. But if you want others to take your science defeating statement more serious, you should have a better source than some random electronics company selling their products with bullshit bingo marketing.

"Blue Laser Harm Protection" ...?

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Quoting: muntdefemsIMO the best deal on GOG right now is Renowned Explorers: International Society, 75% off (plus, the expansion More to Explore is also on sale at 33% off).

Yeah, but it is a bit odd that the Bundle is not on sale. https://www.gog.com/game/renowned_explorers_bundle

I picked it up last week at a sale on Steam, but it had issues with the screen resolution & windowed mode. So I requested a refund. Has the version on GOG similiar problems?

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They have a driver and software for their headset, that is doing the thing for them. You actually need to look deeper and I won't be holding your hand, if you don't believe me then fine whatever I don't care.

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Quoting: Faalagorn@Liam - If you have occasion to go to any gaming convention near your region, it may be the best way to try them out - hell, with you being an owner of a probably most well-known Linux gaming site, you could talk with developers about supporting Linux and write up a few articles from it - I'd be looking forward to it ;).

I don't know where you're living, Liam, but maybe you could visit a game developer to give it a try?

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Quoting: Doc Angelo

Quoting: TheRiddickHere is a link to the headset, you can investigate it yourself if interested.

The headset has not much to do with how 2 pictures are rendered. Every headset is "just" a display (or two). The computer renders the images, and to have stereoscopic vision you need 2 images. If you render only one view, you don't have any 3D effect.

I see why you put "just" in quotes but to be even more fair a VR HMD has a few other boxes it needs to tick besides being "just" a display.

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Quoting: TheRiddickYou can get a 4k VR headset from Pimax I think its called, they also intend to release a bigger product in a next few months that has two 4k screens in it and FULL tracking setup. It will take time before there drivers get good but 4k with full tracking might be enough to convince me to get one.

BTW the 4k Pimax one is like $400usd so not bad. However only directional tracking :(

I still laugh at people with this concept that computers can't do 4k VR, its like listening to OLD people comment about tech...

From what I hear Pimax only does 30 FPS at the full 4k resolution due to limitations of HDMI 1.4 making it pretty much unusable at that resolution so I don't think it's a great example to cite as proof for 4k VR being possible...

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I had occasion to try out both HTC Vive, Oculus and Gear VR (I only didn't try PS VR, not being a console gamer) in PGA (Poznań Game Arena), plus I also used Google Cardboard :). Experience is similar, the quality is vastly different though. However I did not get to see a significant different between HTC Vive, Oculus and even Samsung's Gear VR. So far had the best fun with SUPERHOT VR being presented there.

@Liam - If you have occasion to go to any gaming convention near your region, it may be the best way to try them out - hell, with you being an owner of a probably most well-known Linux gaming site, you could talk with developers about supporting Linux and write up a few articles from it - I'd be looking forward to it ;).

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Quoting: Eike

Quoting: meggermanWhich bit ? The children requring assisance but you cannot percieve them or the potencial intruder ? Id agree the second one is unlikely, hence why i say god forbid. But everyone's situation is different, again not a popular sentiment just some food for thought. I quite like being aware of my surroundings, turning the lights off is enough imersion for me :D

The intruder when someone's at home part. I don't want to adapt my life to very unlikely events. I even walk over streets at times. ;)

When children are awake or may wake up, somebody should be aware of his surroundings, of course. Or the children should be able to get you out from your virtual place at least (depending on age). (VR systems might need some baby phone feature...)

Agree.

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Quoting: Eike

Quoting: badberI hate this stupid meme of something not being "real VR" because there is no feature X. We had super low framerate systems with insanely low resolution and absolutely terrible tracking and well still called it VR in the 90s. Motion controls weren't a part of the Oculus Rift for many years. Stop trying to make yourself feel better about your super expensive purchase and accept that there are varying versions of VR.

I feel though that head turn tracking is absolutely necessary for VR.
It's even more important than stereoscopy.
You cannot feel inside if you cannot look around (in a natural way).

Well, sure. That's an important feature and I'm not saying you shouldn't be aware of the differences in implementation and what they can mean. Pretty much everything has included rotational head tracking for a long time although the level of tracking can still vary, cardboard for example is pretty limited and once you're used to better head tracking you don't really like it. But I still won't start going around shouting about how cardboard "isn't VR", I think even with it's limitations it's a great way to get a taste of the potential VR has without needing to spend almost any money at all.

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Quoting: meggermanWhich bit ? The children requring assisance but you cannot percieve them or the potencial intruder ? Id agree the second one is unlikely, hence why i say god forbid. But everyone's situation is different, again not a popular sentiment just some food for thought. I quite like being aware of my surroundings, turning the lights off is enough imersion for me :D

The intruder when someone's at home part. I don't want to adapt my life to very unlikely events. I even walk over streets at times. ;)

When children are awake or may wake up, somebody should be aware of his surroundings, of course. Or the children should be able to get you out from your virtual place at least (depending on age). (VR systems might need some baby phone feature...)

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Quoting: EikeI don't know about your part of the world of course, but this is an unrealistic fear where I live.

Which bit ? The children requring assisance but you cannot percieve them or the potencial intruder ? Id agree the second one is unlikely, hence why i say god forbid. But everyone's situation is different, again not a popular sentiment just some food for thought. I quite like being aware of my surroundings, turning the lights off is enough imersion for me :D

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*faints*

... Open eyes, sees headline and
*faints again*

Dare we hope for a full-fledged VR experience before summer? I think we do! Time to start saving some SERIOUS cash!

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Quoting: TheRiddickHere is a link to the headset, you can investigate it yourself if interested.

The headset has not much to do with how 2 pictures are rendered. Every headset is "just" a display (or two). The computer renders the images, and to have stereoscopic vision you need 2 images. If you render only one view, you don't have any 3D effect.

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Quoting: meggermanSomething to think about when you have children ( if they are young ).Wearing a full ski mask and headphones doesnt really encourage a parent to be aware of what's going on in the home, or even worse god forbid a potencial intruder / theif. The first one can be mitigated by only using VR when the kids are asleep but the second one requires you to be comfortable with a reduced sense of external awareness for a period of time.

Sorry that wasnt the glamourous notion of VR people like to hear, then again not everyone is a parent.

I don't know about your part of the world of course, but this is an unrealistic fear where I live.

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Quoting: badberI hate this stupid meme of something not being "real VR" because there is no feature X. We had super low framerate systems with insanely low resolution and absolutely terrible tracking and well still called it VR in the 90s. Motion controls weren't a part of the Oculus Rift for many years. Stop trying to make yourself feel better about your super expensive purchase and accept that there are varying versions of VR.

I feel though that head turn tracking is absolutely necessary for VR.
It's even more important than stereoscopy.
You cannot feel inside if you cannot look around (in a natural way).

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Quoting: liamdaweIt's not the fact that it's VR, but having something like that strapped to your face for a long time and the games themselves, that's what I'm keen to put some time and thoughts into.

Something to think about when you have children ( if they are young ).Wearing a full ski mask and headphones doesnt really encourage a parent to be aware of what's going on in the home, or even worse god forbid a potencial intruder / theif. The first one can be mitigated by only using VR when the kids are asleep but the second one requires you to be comfortable with a reduced sense of external awareness for a period of time.

Sorry that wasnt the glamourous notion of VR people like to hear, then again not everyone is a parent.




Exicted for VR but i will probably be one of those people rocking a large curved 4k/5k 120hz screen way before VR has matured. I think Microsofts augmented reality is a nicer concept for gaming, there is much potencial here and it keeps you still aware of your surroundings,less face sweat. Not only that smaller eye glass versions could allow for local co-op play games on a table top together in AR. Like a beer & chips night in whilst still having virtual players sat in your spare seats :D

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Quoting: bubexelit's ok, yes, but the missing tracking mess all inmersion, it's just a toy comparing with real VR. What make VR inmersive is the full tracking and motion controllers.

Mobile VR has decent tracking if you're talking about GearVR. It's not positional and there are no motion controllers but it's still very good head tracking. You can also have great VR experiences with it and even non-stereoscopic 360 video can be very cool (even though if the quality is otherwise the exact same it's definitely very reasonable to prefer stereoscopic).

I hate this stupid meme of something not being "real VR" because there is no feature X. We had super low framerate systems with insanely low resolution and absolutely terrible tracking and well still called it VR in the 90s. Motion controls weren't a part of the Oculus Rift for many years. Stop trying to make yourself feel better about your super expensive purchase and accept that there are varying versions of VR. Sure, things like positional tracking and motion controllers can add a lot to VR and so does quality software but trying to label everything but the solution that has the most features/whatever not-VR and pretending that nothing else has any value at all is just not OK.

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I don't mind VR - it's just not made for me. (;

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I'm very happy with my Gazelle Pro 9 laptop; and as attested by everyone else, the Linux support, regardless of distro, is flawless. I actually have a somewhat funny story about System76 support -- when I first got the laptop, I wanted to run FreeBSD on it (FreeBSD 9; can't remember what revision). I already knew that FreeBSD didn't support the wifi card, or Haswell integrated graphics; but it didn't even boot on this machine. I went through some hoops, and finally tricked the machine into booting FreeBSD, but then other problems came up. I wrote to the support page on System76, and they did try to help me, though it didn't resolve my problem; finally the support person reminded me that they don't support FreeBSD, and I didn't insist any further. They could have told me to buzz off, or ignored me right from the start.

The gazp9 has an amazing display, and great internals (my only complaint is the lack of discrete graphics). The chassis on the other hand needs a bit of improvement, I believe. I haven't seen the newest iteration of the Gazelle Pro, maybe they've already made some changes. But even some of the lower end Lenovos feel sturdier, and frankly look a little bit better, compared to it.

A desktop I always prefer to build myself, but the next time I need a laptop, I'll look at System76 first.

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What about OSVR support?

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Here is a link to the headset, you can investigate it yourself if interested.

http://www.gearbest.com/pc-headset/pp_436489.html

I probably would have bought one of those if it had positional tracking...

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Quoting: GuppyAccording to the source CSMT means 'command stream multithreading'

It might have been good to put that in the the article as I'm sure that's far from common knowledge ;)

Agreed, done.

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According to the source CSMT means 'command stream multithreading'

It might have been good to put that in the the article as I'm sure that's far from common knowledge ;)

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Good on you Liam for giving this game even *half* a chance. I would've turned around and run away as soon as I saw the game's "features:"

Features:
- Explore dungeons
- Fight enemies
- Scavenge equipment
- Loot valuable items
- Build Your character
- Manage inventory

This game has "features" the way Westerns feature horses, not as a unique quality but as a genre defining norm. Pfft, pass.

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Quoting: TheRiddickTraditionally to achieve stereoscopic you needed the video card to process 2 renders per frame, one for each eye, that is no longer required as proven by NVIDIA and a some VR helmet makers.

Do you have a link for that? No matter what, you need to have 2 pictures/views/renders for stereoscopic vision, and of course have to be different from each other. It doesn't work any other way. Maybe you mean that the engines have made improvements in sharing as much processing and ressources as possible for those 2 pictures/views/renders?

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I backed this on Kickstarter ages ago and started playing it last night - only had time for about an hour, but I'm not disappointed.

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I think this has been on my wishlist since I first *joined* Steam. The look of the thing has always intrigued me but failed to "hook" me, and so it continues to sit, collecting virtual dust in my wishlist.

Developers who seek to improve their game after release are always worth taking a closer look at. It's pretty clear that it's no longer a question of *if* I purchase *Black Ice,* it's merely a question of *when.*

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Traditionally to achieve stereoscopic you needed the video card to process 2 renders per frame, one for each eye, that is no longer required as proven by NVIDIA and a some VR helmet makers. (yes I don't think its nvidia exclusive anymore, and I heard of Pimax doing some sort of frame-buffer trick but I don't know much more their helmet then what I have read).

Makes 4k rather easier to achieve, plus remember allot of VR games are optimized towards framerate much stricter then traditional games, so a traditional game like Deus Ex might only give you 40fps, if it was made for VR they would and could easily double that with optimizations and reductions where possible.

If your VR game runs crap and you have decent hardware, then chances are its the game to blame for it.

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Quoting: SchattenspiegelGuess I will have to reward the port by buying TWWarhammer if Feral does a Shogun 2 port. Already have later from from my Windows days, I fear.

@Feral:
Concerning interest: I would like to suggest looking into the IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad/Moscow/xxx series of games - well technically it's one game, I guess. Admittedly not that many potential players/buyers but it would be the only current game of it's kind on Linux and it has a lot of desirable dlc options and will probably get more (buyable) content for quite a while yet.

Seconded. I enjoyed the first 4 IL2 games, but didn't get the Cliffs of Dover/Battle for Staligrad because I stopped buying Windows games. I would certainly buy Linux versions.

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Well, the only one time i tried phone vr it was in a festival, samsung occulus glasses, and it was 5 minutes 360º video with giant pixels. It was pathetic, altleast for me that i have vive on my home. I tought was that showing it as "VR experience" was totally wrong idea. People get really wrong idea what VR is.

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