HTC says it has sold more than 140,000 Vive headsets

Is VR actually still alive?

>"(...)“of course it’s higher than 140,000,” when asked about the sales number that circulated widely last week.(...)"


mobilesyrup.com/2016/11/23/htc-says-it-has-sold-more-than-140000-vive-headsets/

wow its almost like it actually works and blows peoples minds when they try it

who'd a thunk it

i still believe it's a good technology that makes vidya better and has a lot of potential

unless it's gonna crash and burn, and it's gonna slowly get better and cheaper i'm 100% i will buy it at some point

so hang in there vr

Everyone with any sense recognizes VR is real. It is literally only Sup Forums with any notions to the contrary, because memes.

What most people don't realize is just how big VR is really going to be, how appealing HMDs are going to be versus traditional monitors. Once you have an HMD that can adequately replace a single monitor, that same HMD can also project an indefinite number of virtual monitors all around you. These virtual monitors will all be completely private the to user, as desired. They will all go wherever the user does, and always be available. The user will be able to move seamlessly into fully immersive VR experiences and back out to this virtual-monitor system.

Vive is great hardware. First time I've been actually impressed by VR.

Really needs some games though, outside of the indie library and the steam lab.

VR is a cult

It is fun in the same way that the wii was fun.

Blew your mind for 2 weeks max. then you realised it was all just a gimmick that required more physical effort on your part.

I will probably still wait for a few years before getting a headset.
First of all, it's really fucking expensive right now. Second, I have tried Oculus and Gear VR before, and it makes me nauseous, so until they manage to address this issue, it's still no-go for me. And then most games that are available right now are either stationary or use teleportation gimmick due to the nausea issue. I don't want shooting galleries, I want proper games, and that's not going to happen without a treadmill or some sort of breakthrough that allows people to play without puking.
I guess they will start marketing dramamine to people who want to get into VR or something.

>it makes me nauseous, so until they manage to address this issue, it's still no-go for me
It's not going to happen. The problem is that you see movement, but you don't feel it, and your brain doesn't like that shit.
The only way to circumvent that is in a theme park. That's where the future of VR lies, not as a gaming gimmick.

>higher than 140,000
So 140,001 then?

Name a single game that is addicting enough, with enough content, and is a fully fleshed out experience, to justify spending a thousand maple bucks to play.

I'll wait.

>actually works and blows peoples minds when they try it
Only in the first weeks of owning one, when you get past the honeymoon phase you get over it quick since there are no meaty games out there you'd want to replay.

Anticipating vertigo and budget cuts, hopefully valve announces something interesting in 2017, it is cool tech but severely lacking in quality games that leave a long lasting impression.

The hardware is decent, tracking is amazing but resolution can use some improvement. Really the only 2 big flaws for me are the elastic headband and the tactile grip buttons on the wands that are easy to misclick.

Thankfully there are new controllers coming out that just slide into your hand so it feels like an extension of your hand and more natural since it does away with the grip buttons and uses capacitve sensors instead to detect if your grip is closed/halfclosed/or open.

it's not a technical problem, it's purely a game design one. games that don't make you move unnaturally don't cause motion sickness.

Reminder that when Wolfenstein 3D came out people said first person shooters were a gimmick that would die off because it made people nauseous.

The game of porn

>We've sold more than 140,000

This is a ridiculously tiny number in the grand scheme of things, and the fact they just said "we sold more than that" is really suspicious too.

They're probably struggling with shit sales, that seems like such a shareholder appeasing "god I hope our stock doesn't drop" kind of bullshit beat around the bush statement.

>140,000
>alive

I have a question:

Why are we back to thinking that motion controls are worth using?
We tried them ten years ago and they were awful.
They died.
Now they're back just because VR?
Why?

140000 is fucking nothing.

>o-of course it’s higher than 140,000

Looking back at wii/kinect/PSMove the fundamental flaw was that your frame of reference was the screen which does not feel natural and tracking was not accurate nor responsive enough so it was frustrating.

In VR with good tracking solution like the Vive it feels more natural since the frame of reference is your head and you can figure out the depth in 6DoF similar to how you would interact with objects in real life.

The flaw here however is that there is no force feedback mechanism to block your movements and give objects you carry a sense of heft.

It is miles better than the previous generation of motion controls though but not a replacement for traditional gaming.

Looking back at wii/kinect/PSMove the fundamental flaw was that buttons are much easier and more precise and nobody wants to be waving their arms about like a wackey tube man after the 15 minute novelty wears off.

Because they work well in vr.
Just look are games like Job Simulator and RecRoom and imagine how god dam awful they would be with controllers.

>Job Simulator and RecRoom
Wow, now those sound like absolute classic games.

They are the 2 best vr game out so far...

>sound
But I guess you wouldn't know.

Buttons are faster and more practical but VR is a different medium. If you are talking about traditional gaming on a monitor or TV then of course controllers and M+KB are superior in that regard.

In VR the aim is to simulate you being present in the environment. 6DoF motion controls and head tracking feels more natural than carrying a gamepad when interacting with the environment.

If you are manipulating objects in 3D space in X,Y,Z both translation and rotation then motion controls are superior.

>They are the 2 best vr game out so far
This is sad

Two technical differences from past attempts;
1) They're finally real 1:1 tracked objects, without any kind of gestural fudging necessary.
2) Being used specifically with immersive VR HMDs obviates any 'screen sync' issues (something that has been an issue even with previous near-1:1 tracking eg. PSMove/Kinect).

They're not 'gamepads with motion tracking', they're very much 'tracked objects with some utility buttons'. They way they're best used is to have a tool or weapon graphic overlaid onto them, in which case it feels completely natural. They just become that tool or weapon, in the virtual space.

Like much else to do with the current VR craze, it doesn't make sense unless you understand how significant the perfection of the tracking really is. Which can be difficult for most people to get without just trying it.

God, that's sad. I don't want to play a game called fucking Job Simulator, thanks.

>60ish million
>In an industry with over 4 billion invested in it
This is why bubbles happen, and this is why people call you VRfags idiots.

No, they literally never did because 3D games existed before Wolf3D you fucking underage moron

It was cool for the first ~two-three days but ultimately it's just a TV on your face.

>tfw sold mine for more than I bought it for

are you stupid enough to think shit like playstation move has any similarity to the motion controls used in VR?

Are you stupid enough to think there's no similarity?

Rez

are you stupid enough to think there is any similarity? once again?

don't answer a question with a question kiddo. if you can't evaluate the differences in the technology and how it affects the user experience, you are not smart enough to ever make enough money to afford this stuff.

>2 surgeon simulator tier games are the best VR games around

1:1 tracked objects in VR is incomparable to gestural waggle on a screen

> pls ignore returns

I don't think you know what incomparable means.

WRONG

They are both at best prototype tech that are interesting in concept but completely useless in context of video games. Especially the issue of movement has to be resolved first for the 1:1 tracking motion controls to be remotely interesting for video games. It's why at this point the VR motion controls are the same as the waggle controls, gimmicky input devices inferior to the existing standard controllers. Now go spend another 1000$ for a threadmill controller to make your already wasteful investment in VR an even bigger failure.

It's literally the same thing. See these wands? They work the same way. Even have the same button placement.

It's too expensive and the games suck.
Hype/10

Onward is the only game worth playing. I would of kept my vive just to play that game.

Everything else is shovelware, some of it 'fun' shovelware but nothing that'll keep you occupied longer than 15 minutes

The thing about VR is that it works when used in arcade environments. 80s-90s USA proved that if you wandered into any major video arcade.

It's just so gimmicky that people generally don't want to own these things. They're cool for only a few minutes at a time.

You you basically didn't even bother to see a video of how it works and are just spouting retard bait bullshit.

That's all I ever wanted. A monitor strapped to my face with head tracking and if possible eye tracking. Why would it be a bad thing?

this nigga clearly owns a vive and doesn't want anybody comparing it to the PS VR because he wants to justify spending so much money on a gimmick

It's still waggling, what part of that don't you get?

Anyone has the webm of the VR anime girl looking at herself in the mirror and making cute hand waves at the end?
That is a instabuy for me.

It's not waggling, most games it's used as your virtual hands.
Want to pick up the item? Walk towards it and move the controller to it. It is used for interactions that would be clunky as hell, or even impossible with any other controller.

>retards actually buying into VR this early
you're paying hundreds of dollars to be a beta tester, that's it. It'll be 3 years before we even have a small handful of decent titles. All that's available right now are poorly priced "test" games.

Seriously though, I just can't believe they're charging 25 bucks for little minigames and tech demos that show off hardware capability. You'd have to be a complete moron to actually buy into this right now

Well it's kinda weighty and the resolution isn't great. The tracking is kinda wobbly and there's not enough practical application for it in games to warrant ever owning one. It's a gimmick taken too far without much planning as to what it should be used for.

I understand why people are still making these things - some people just live to engineer and I get that. Thankfully these people also have the money to waste because, for like the 6th generation in a row, VR flopped hard. And if it flops hard, you'll see almost no software development for it. If there's no software, there's no point in the hardware existing. Starting to see the issues?

>It is used for interactions that would be clunky as hell, or even impossible with any other controller.

>Picking up objects has been impossible in vidya until now.

God you're a retard.

This one?

VR will be worthwhile if they solve the locomotion problem. I don't see how you can without an expensive treadmill or massive warehouse though. Also wireless would help which the Vive can apparently do now.

>tfw too scared to use vr headsets because they are bad for your eyes.

same problem as 4k u got no media for it. Only fools pay so much money for something that does not have anything special about it.

Literally a cult, no joke.

Jonestown before death
>Yeah, well, have you tried it? It's really cool. I bet you haven't even tried it
VR users now
>Yeah, well, have you even tried it?

>same problem as 4k u got no media for it
>4k
>no media

huh?

Like I said, I'm more in for the display on my head and not the gimmicky vr "games". If games support some kind of tracking or 3d mode (like Euro Truck or Elite) that would be a plus.

VR being marketed for consumer usage is the big flaw here. This tech can do wonder for so many industries and jobs, especially designers and salespeople. Outside a novelty device, it doesn't have mass appeal because it simply isn't convenient nor an essential part of the living room like a TV or a stereo. At best they are optional peripherals for dedicated gamers for specialized use in limited games like flightsticks, racing wheels, and arcade sticks.

go w/ those 200 dollar headsets that work w/ your phone if all your looking for is the display for movies and shit

Picking props and dumb shit has not been done in most games. Games that allow you do do it, like Skyrim makes unintuitive and clunky.
Motion Controls make interacting with an enviroment feel just like real life. You can pick up objects from tables and under beds just by moving your hand to the place and pressing a button.

Oh. Well HMDs are a thing and they've been around for a long while. You could always just grab one of those.

Where is a single person who actually owns it though? Or sales number means dumped to stores and owned by scalpers?

>inferior to the existing standard controllers
Yeah, for playing traditional standard games on, absolutely. VR makes different demands.

>They work the same way.
They really don't.

>They're cool for only a few minutes at a time.
This is a legitimate issue, it's not 'a few minutes' but definitely in the 40-90 minute range. It's a combination of a whole lot of factors, ergonomics, user fitness, screen fatigue, having to actually put the damn thing on every time. Thankfully of these, except user fitness, are fairly easily solved. And user fitness will be something that will hopefully solve itself, if the software is actually there.

A you guys rusing me? We're are talking games and head tracking. Why would I want to watch movies or strap a phone to my face and watch Youtube?

Guess I lost the game.

No, it means a 140.000 industry people, tech reporters, and programmers own one and are desperately trying to figure out what to do with it for a dead market.

This so much

It needs a killer app that doesnt feel like a mario party mini-game

> I'm more in for the display on my head and not the gimmicky vr "games"
> I'm more in for the display on my head and not the gimmicky vr "games"
> I'm more in for the display on my head and not the gimmicky vr "games"
> I'm more in for the display on my head and not the gimmicky vr "games"
> I'm more in for the display on my head and not the gimmicky vr "games"
> I'm more in for the display on my head and not the gimmicky vr "games"

BUT Sup Forums SAYS IT'S SHIT REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>Like I said, I'm more in for the display on my head and not the gimmicky vr "games"

the hardware is cool, anybody who denies that hasn't used it yet. It works and it's cool, only retards are denying that. But that doesn't make it a justifiable purchase because there are only 25 dollar tech demos and no actual vidya yet

Newfags

Nigger, you are high as shit. I think it's nap time for you.

>new system comes out
>shit/no software
>no one buys it

is this industry unable to learn from its mistakes?

H3VR made pretty cool use of the motion controllers to simulate mechanically accurate guns.

I have a hotas myself but would rather make use of the motion controllers so I can manually play around with switches and levers.

Probably won't work out well for grabbing a joystick in flightsims since you lack haptic feedback of the stick but I can see it working for mech games like steel battalion.

I would kill for a first person locked ww2 game that allowed you to fiddle around with mechanically accurate crewed weapons like AT guns, artillery pieces, and vehicles.

Physically opening up the hatch, looking through slits and operating a piece of machinery with your bare hands sounds a lot more engaging than moving your mouse around and clicking.

>System

Monitors. New monitors come out.

you can't launch a new technology like this WITHOUT launching it directly to end-consumers. that's the only way to get the sell-through needed to drive economies of scale for mass production and thus get the cost manageable.

>it doesn't have mass appeal because it simply isn't convenient
this is the one real issue with VR at the moment. what's needed is sound ergonomics and wireless (both already happening), and ideally just a bit higher resolution, enough to make virtual monitor usage viable.

>VR users now
>>Yeah, well, have you even tried it?

Well, have you? You have to admit that a majority of the critics either haven't or played shitty demos on a bad setup.

Yeah no 4k content... I'm laughing in 4k right now

isnt sony selling their VR with the wands?

Saying that VR as a whole it's still not ready yet it's way different than parroting like a retard that it's going to ba a failure and a fad, like Sup Forums brainless monkeys do.

Probably not in the gaming sense

These headsets have better uses outside of video games

>You have to admit

No, I don't have to admit. Because the critics I've seen using it have actually sperged out over the people dismissing their issues as just being "lol you suck at setting shit up". And yes, I have used it. High end monitors > VR headsets. Crisp resolutions and high FPS blow my mind. Track IR but covering my entire face, doesn't.

For all the people saying to wait for games to come out.

Is there any hope for games that arent first person? I mean, that is the whole appeal of VR, and if i dont like first person games, then whats the point?

/thread

> buying an entire piece of hardware for one game

lol

Shit dude, Climbey, SPT, Zenblade and Google EarthVR are worth it.

Also it's not a game but Unity3d gets way cooler when you're building VR stuff instead of flat world stuff. It's the killer app for me.

Oh you mean on console or TV.

Everything is in 4k on PC. Even porn, these days. It's literally just a matter of changing your resolution. For consoles, I forget that the """content"""" has to be specifically created to use it. Consoles are such stupid investments.

>watching shitty mainstream porn

That's an opinion. I would say that high fov, true 3D and being able to look around trumps a super hi-res display on a relatively tiny frame.

>"lol you suck at setting shit up".
A valid and often proven point. If you don't have the eye distance set correctly it doesn't feel like you're there and objects are physically in front of you. Same if demos don't let things get close enough for it to work.

>That's an opinion
>Therefore let me express my opinion to dismiss your opinion

Get fucked VR fag.

In a perfect world, there would be no need for porn.

But it was just an example. I've never actually seen it. I have, however, played certain games at 4k despite not actually owning a 4k monitor. That's how 'nothing' 4k is. It's just a change of resolution on PC that you need no additional hardware to use.

Nice victim complex.

>In a perfect world, there would be no need for porn.

I have said it over and over again user.

I will buy into VR when the second generation of vastly superior and better supported headsets comes out and not a second before.

I'll let the people who are happy to waste their money to beta test a new technology do so.

... Because even you would be having sex.

Yeah, Lucky's Tale is third person. It's pretty good. What VR gives you is depth perception and immersion, not necessarily 1st person