85 replies to this topic

[Bhael Fire]

Dear MWO Dev Team:

Please look into getting an Oculus Rift Dev Kit. It's cheap and it will help pave the way for the future of PC gaming; Virtual Reality Gaming.

I think Mechwarrior Online would be perfect for this and it wouldn't be too hard to implement.

Seriously, I had the opportunity to test one of these units at work (a co-worker backed their kickstarter) and it is beyond words. The level of immersion is incredible. With the Oculus Rift VR unit, players would be able to look around the cockpit and actually feel like they were sitting in an actual battlemech.

Check it out: http://www.oculusvr.com/

[Inconspicuous]

The market share is going to be tiny for a while, perhaps they could fix some bugs first (and then add TiR support) before going for the rare hardware crowd...

[Bhael Fire]

Trust me, this device is going to be HUGE once it's on the market and people actually get to experience it. For a price that is not much more than what gamers pay for a collectors edition of a typical AAA release, the retail version of this device is going to revolutionize gaming. I can guarantee that this device won't be a "rare" niche device at all.

They will really be shooting themselves in the foot if they don't at least look into supporting this device. Without exaggeration, this is where the future of gaming is heading.

[Inconspicuous]

Bhael Fire, on 11 May 2013 - 03:56 PM, said:

They will really be shooting themselves in the foot if they don't at least look into supporting this device. Without exaggeration, this is where the future of gaming is heading.

It may be, but without a retail price point or a release date it will probably not reach market saturation any time soon. I suspect the life-span for this game is about 3-4 years (hope it's longer).

No offense to PGI, but they have yet to do proper joystick support (see IL2:1946 and Rise of Flight for examples) so I wonder how easy it would be for them to make the Oculus work properly...

[MasterErrant]

this'll be about the fifth or sixth try at this all the way back to the eighties. the military has it already.

I'll probably never be able to use it. (Bad eyes) and anyone with heavy glasses should beware.

[Felicitatem Parco]

http://mwomercs.com/...513-gdc-update/

Check out the Devs' own experiences with the Oculus Rift at GDC 2013!

Spoiler

Matthew Craig, on 01 April 2013 - 04:42 PM, said:

Just returned from GDC and wanted to share my experience with the MechWarrior community. Firstly Wow what an amazing GDC and an amazing time to be part of the gaming industry.

This was the year that VR stole the show, many of you are probably already aware of the Oculus Rift if not take a moment to Google it and come back… ok, this was without doubt one of the most popular booths this year, as many people stood in line for hours for their first glimpse at this new VR experience.

The two key questions most people had were “Is it any good”? And “Is it a breakthrough or a gimmick”? I’d like to share with you my impressions as I was lucky enough to get to try the Oculus out for a few brief minutes. In answer to the first question is it any good, the simple answer is yes it’s by far the best consumer VR device I’ve ever experienced which isn’t to say that it’s perfect but most importantly (IMHO) it crosses the line of viability that all previous devices have so far failed to cross.

Nate Mitchell and Michael Abrash both gave excellent talks outlining the challenges of VR but also just as importantly conveying why VR is not just a gimmick. This summarized down to the fact that games have always been about immersion and VR represents a significant leap forward in this respect. This leap as Nate Mitchell described opens up new ‘experiences’ that we can provide players and fundamentally changes the way that games can engage the player.

To offer just one simple example imagine going on Google Earth and navigating data on the Coliseum in Rome, not particularly interesting. Now consider navigating that same data in VR and feeling like you’re actually walking around the Coliseum with your friends, the data is the same but changing your level of immersion with that data fundamentally changes the way you experience it.

More importantly once you've had those experiences you don’t want to go back to a lower level of immersion, after all why would you; it would be like going back to having only 2D games. I personally agree that this is the fundamental reason why VR is not a gimmick.

There’s also understandably a lot of skepticism whether it will truly happen this time, sitting in the VR talks this year all I can say is that, the talks were incredibly popular and sitting amongst the sheer wealth of talent that the game industry has to offer and sensing how excited the development community as a whole is to rise to and surpass the challenges of VR. I could only get the sense that Palmer Luckey has succeeded in cracking open the door to VR with a platform that, now viable, the entire gaming industry can descend on and rapidly work to unlock its full potential.

What initially drew me into the games industry was playing games like MechWarrior during the early days of 3D and seeing a window into these virtual worlds and getting excited to create more like them. I feel extremely fortunate to be doing exactly that working on MechWarrior Online.

I and I’m sure many others are also extremely grateful to Palmer Lucky for creating a platform that now affords the possibility of really entering those worlds and sharing that same experience with a wider audience. As Michael Abrash discussed the challenges remaining on the path to truly exceptional VR are legion, but at the same time the industries passion and talent to surmount those challenges is equally formidable.

As if to illustrate this point Joe Ludwig from Valve spoke next about their work porting TF2 to the Oculus and demonstrated exactly Michael Abrash’ point, that in a very short period of time a talented member of the industry had run with the device and graciously shared with the larger community how to do the same.

Looking at the breadth of talent in the room it only further illustrated that VR now lies in the hands of the game development community and the talent now able to bear down on the challenges Michael Abrash outlined is immense just as were the problems presented.

Here you can see me getting a chance to try out the Oculus




And thanks again to Nate Mitchell and Palmer Luckey for the time they were able to spare us during what was a very busy conference for them.


Omid Kiarostami and I with Palmer Luckey (Oculus Inventor) just after the talks by Michael Abrash and Joe Ludwig




We also had a very busy and successful GDC and during the career fair talked to over 500 applicants and again seeing the amount of talent the industry has to offer and the passion for MechWarrior was just fantastic.

Russ and Bryan were also swamped by media, so look forward to lots of updates on all things Mech in the weeks ahead. As last year we return invigorated by seeing how much love there is for MechWarrior and we look forward to delivering more and more content with every patch.
It truly is a fantastic time to be a part of the gaming community, speaking of which as mentioned we are hiring so head over to our spiffy new website (thanks Kyle) to add to our applicant list if you think you have what it takes.

So will MechWarrior have Oculus support? you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out.

See you on the Battlefield

[Bhael Fire]

MasterErrant, on 11 May 2013 - 04:31 PM, said:

this'll be about the fifth or sixth try at this all the way back to the eighties. the military has it already.

I'll probably never be able to use it. (Bad eyes) and anyone with heavy glasses should beware.

I've tried MANY of the attempts at VR throughout the years and this is the first time I've ever truly been blown away by a VR device. The headset is amazingly lightweight and comfortable and the field of view is so immersive you can't even tell you're wearing it (the whole image reaches from your periphery to your central focus, so you can't see the headset or the edge of the screen at all).

A lot of the guys at work wear glasses and they were able to use the device without too much problem. Furthermore, the devs at Oculus have mentioned that they plan on supporting glasses with the consumer release.

It truly is a marvel of technology.

[Aegic]

The Oculus is the start of a new mainstream type of gaming.

[Balsover]

Mine's coming in a month (I hope)! Minecraft is already running pretty well on it, and if there's one thing that will push adoption of Oculus Rift, its Minecraft.

[Bhael Fire]

Balsover, on 11 May 2013 - 06:25 PM, said:

Mine's coming in a month (I hope)! Minecraft is already running pretty well on it, and if there's one thing that will push adoption of Oculus Rift, its Minecraft.

That's awesome. I'm seriously thinking of picking up an Oculus dev kit myself. I know the consumer version is going to iron-out some of the kinks, but even the prototype I tested out was so — for lack of a better word — "Magical"

Haven't really felt that level of excitement in a very long time when it comes to new tech.

(EDIT: Also, after seeing the promos for the Xbox IllumiRoom...I can only feel slightly sorry for it. The Oculus really and truly blows it out of the water as far as altered reality and gaming immersion go...and for pretty much the same price.)

Edited by Bhael Fire, 11 May 2013 - 07:11 PM.

[Bhael Fire]

Honestly, I think a "NeuroHelmet" MWO version of the Oculus (complete with speakers, microphone and the VR visor) is the way to go with this game.

The Razor Artemis seemed kinda cool at first (because Steel Battalion was awesome)...but this is really where Jordan Weisman wanted to take the franchise back in the early 90's.

In other words, THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

Thanks.

[Bhael Fire]

Bump...If only to put this bleeding edge piece of tech on the radar for gamers that may not have their ear to the ground.

I'm glad to hear that the devs are at least aware of it and have seemed to taken time to consider if MWO has a future beyond the mundane 2D world.

[Alistair Winter]

I will not rest untill I have an Occulus Rift Neurohelmet.

Get to work.

Edited by Alistair Winter, 13 May 2013 - 07:46 PM.

[Colddawg]

to get that more full immersion going they will probably partner with some kind of audio company and merge the Rift with a full working headset.

[Farox]

Colddawg, on 14 May 2013 - 07:10 AM, said:

to get that more full immersion going they will probably partner with some kind of audio company and merge the Rift with a full working headset.

I am always a bit weary about that. I really really like my headphones and find it hard to get some that I am happy with.

[Farox]

Balsover, on 11 May 2013 - 06:25 PM, said:

Mine's coming in a month (I hope)! Minecraft is already running pretty well on it, and if there's one thing that will push adoption of Oculus Rift, its Minecraft.

Well that, but right now the money is on a game that was build from the ground up for it. If I check the logs over on http://www.theriftlist.com I can see that there is quiet a lot of interest Adult content too

But yeah, a lot of people right now are interested in the classics. I hope the new indie stuff really gets a chance as well. There are some cool projects in the pipeline already that are build for the Rift

[WookieeFart]

Oculus shipping... the wait is killing me.

[Thomas Covenant]

[Gif]

I'm in total agreement with Original Post! This thing has sold in the thousands and is in Beta, and Development Support only. Technically Speaking.

This game is perfect for it. I havnt played in months and am drooling at the prospect.

[BillHones]

they need to implement an upper body harness to move arms independently on mechs with this. then i would buy it. my hat switch does this currently.