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Latest Comments by Cheeseness
Linden Lab makers of Second Life buys out Desura
11 Jul 2013 at 6:42 am UTC

Scott's said elsewhere that IndieDB, ModDB and SlideDB will remain under the DBolical banner, so that answers that part at least ^_^

Linden Lab makers of Second Life buys out Desura
10 Jul 2013 at 6:37 pm UTC

Wow, that's super surprising.

Oculus Rift First Impressions and Official Linux Support
10 Jul 2013 at 8:13 am UTC

Quoting: OZSeafordI hope that they update Google maps streetview with this.
It seems that you're not the only one [External Link].

Crytek need a Linux programmer for CryENGINE Linux!
9 Jul 2013 at 8:39 am UTC

Quoting: Speedsterhttp://games.slashdot.org/story/12/11/04/1820209/will-the-star-citizen-project-fund-linux-and-mac-ports-for-cryengine-3

Hmmmmmm...
And then there's this from 10 days ago (I'd make a news post about it, but "There might benews coming!" isn't news in itself to me):
http://www.twitch.tv/roberts_space_ind_ch_1/b/423248451?t=286m48s [External Link]

The job advertisement is super exciting though! :D

Oculus Rift First Impressions and Official Linux Support
9 Jul 2013 at 3:35 am UTC

Quoting: Fredz
Quoting: CheesenessIt's also possible that headphones could interfere with the (currently unused) magnetometers.
Actually the magnetometer is used in the official SDK, not sure for OpenHMD though.
That must be new then. I spotted a bunch of people talking about how they weren't used in the official SDK prior to 0.2.3's release.

Quoting: Anonymous
Quoting: CheesenessAs I mentioned in the video, there are shorter eyepieces which are made to allow extra space behind glasses.
Actually the other eyepieces are not intended to be used with glasses, much the contrary in fact, they are intended to be used _without_ glasses for people with poor eyesight (moderately or very nearsighted).
Happy to sit corrected there - looks like I'd misread the documentation.

At any rate, Mim was able to use the default deep lenses with her glasses, which she tells me are -3 and -3.5 diptres left and right respectively. She's also got significant astigmatism (so I imagine that using the Rift without glasses would not be an option for her).

Oculus Rift First Impressions and Official Linux Support
8 Jul 2013 at 6:46 pm UTC

Quoting: edgleyAny chance you could go in to more details about how you got it running properly? (Whether it was just plug and play or if you had to do more than just install the openhmd stack) I can't seem to get mine to do more than duplicate the main screen (and it's doing that badly).

Struggling to find many other sources of running the Rift on Linux.
Plugging it in was enough.

There are a couple of issues to be aware of. First up, since it's 1920x1080, you're better off mapping the Rift as its own monitor and positioning it over the top of one of your existing screens if you want to also see it (rather than cloning a higher res display and letting the device downsample). That'll give you a clearer picture. You can see from the vid that I've got the Rift mapped to the top left of my rightmost monitor.

Second is that when you plug it in, the hidraw device created in /dev belongs to the root user and isn't accessible. This is why the official SDK  comes with that udev rule that gives owner, group and world read and write access (you could also chmod 666 it if you were so inclined). If you don't do this, only the root user is able to read headtracking information.

So far as actually installing stuff goes, I haven't. All the demos and examples I showed off in the video are able to work out which /dev/hidraw* device to read from. Window positioning is something I've been doing manually, but that's not too hard to figure out either if you want to automate it in something.

If you're running stuff using OpenHMD, libovr_nsb and the official SDK, you'll notice that sometimes the headtracking hidraw device becomes inaccessible. Just unplugging and plugging in the USB cable is enough to sort that out.I haven't really had time to chase up why that's happening though.

If you need a hand, drop me a line and if I'm around, I'd be happy to help out (or maybe next time I'll do a code walkthrough of one or two demos and do a step-by-step for setting them up).

Oculus Rift First Impressions and Official Linux Support
7 Jul 2013 at 12:06 am UTC

Quoting: DrMcCoyBut how well does the surround sound setup work with you moving your head around?
A good point :D
Edit: Though the game knows the orientation of the player - it wouldn't be an insurmountable hurdle.

Quoting: DrMcCoyAlso: How does the Oculus Rift feel/work for people with glasses? Do you have a gap somewhere in your vision when you put the Rift one? Does it press the glasses tightly (painfully?) against your face? Do you have to fear your lenses getting scratched?
As I mentioned in the video, there are shorter eyepieces which are made to allow extra space behind glasses. Mim has tried mine with glasses. She said she didn't feel like it squished her head at all, and there was enough space for her lenses.

That's definitely something you need to be conscious of when putting it on though - as I mention in the video, even without glasses, if you're not paying attention, you can poke yourself in the eye with lenses.

Oculus Rift First Impressions and Official Linux Support
6 Jul 2013 at 10:43 am UTC

Quoting: Bumadarnice review, It really seems to lock you into agame / removes the outside world so to speak, I could not imagine playing something like Amnesia with it on.   A logical next step would be a headset for sound and your all plugged in :)
Yeah, I wouldn't touch Amnesia with it :D

I can wear that big orange SteelSeries Siberia v2 headset whilst also wearing the Rift, but it becomes a bit of a tangle when you want to take stuff off. It's also possible that headphones could interfere with the (currently unused) magnetometers. It's not something I've looked into at all, but I did spot some people in the #OpenHMD IRC channel discussing it.

I'd imagine that a decent proper surround sound setup would probably be more immersive than headphones.

Natural Selection 2 developers tease more Linux info!
6 Jul 2013 at 10:37 am UTC

Getting exciting! (would prefer to see a DRM free version than have it only on Steam, but I'll probably grab it regardless)

Introducing The Humble Bundle with Android 6!
21 Jun 2013 at 10:54 pm UTC

Quoting: SpeedsterHahaha! Just watch me debate this categorization for Botanicula:

"Botanicula is point'n'click exploration game created by Jára Plachý and Amanita Design."

http://amanita-design.net/games/botanicula.html [External Link]

That's what the DEVELOPERS of Botanicula call it, so I'm not just making this up. The emphasis is on solving puzzles while exploring unique surroundings and finding all the unique bug types, not on solving puzzles while enjoying a detailed plot like Monkey Island or Broken Sword.

I'm sure you can think of puzzle games that were also given a plot without generally being considered an adventure game, e.g. Corey Cole's Dr. Brain games, but those "puzzle games" did not feature this aspect of exploring a world full of non-puzzle-essential details -- "exploration game" seems a great fit to me.
I know I said I didn't want to derail the discussion further, but I wanted to make sure that my earlier comments weren't being misrepresented. I certainly won't deny that Botanicula is defined by its ambient and exploration qualities - in fact, when we did Botanicula for Game Club last year, I described it in the intro as a "point and click exploration game". I'd still group it with those other titles though (under whatever arbitrary category label you want to assign - perhaps "point-and-click adventure" isn't the right one, but it fits well enough for me) without including Myst or Trauma.

Perhaps we should make a separate forum thread for this very worthwhile topic where I can say that playing Botanicula most definitely felt like having an adventure to me? :D