Oculus Rift VR headset

[concretec0w 1]

Leap Motion does look quite impressive, especially for a $70 device. But I don't really see the advantage in an Arma3 like game. Is there really anyone who wishes to get rid of keyboard+mouse controls? There's nothing wrong with them, unless you compare them to a super expensive virtual reality projector setup where you aim with an actual rifle in your hands or something crazy like that.

Besides, 8 cubic feet is not enough to sense your legs. How do you suggest you move forward, make the walk with your index and middle finger on the mouse pad? :P

I see where you're coming from ;)

I would suggest that because oculus and leap are still in their prerelease stages that we will have to wait to see what implementations will prove to be successful. Laterally thinking I can see use cases for leap operating controls in vehicles or otherwise. Maybe even a 3 dimensional gesture standard will be developed by oculus, who knows. However, in terms of coordinating movement through the world, another handheld device would be needed - One that would free you from being locked in front of a desk keyboard and mouse. One that allows you the head and body movement that would add to the immersion of being there in a military simulation. Imagine blind firing at someone from behind cover by literally moving your arm and hands to do it. Maybe something like the razor hyrda, even thou it has its limitations, could be used for movement and to represent the gun... I have a feeling that we will start to see marketing and promotion of new movement related gadgets leading up to the release of dev-kit oculus, in march. I don't think we'll see many releases, however until oculus outs the consumer version

I think Arma3 is the perfect platform to be championing this sort of immersion related gadgetry, if anything, because the devs spend so much time making things more realistic for us

Here's a link for anyone who's not seen leap yet:

[Tonci87 163]

About touchscreens:

Yeah, they are super easy to use, very accessible and whatnot, but they are also crap when it comes to gaming complexity.

Just look at the games that you can buy in the Appstores. 75% of them can be controled with a single finger by tapping on the screen or by draging something. That gives us a truckload of temple run style games, angry birds, and some other things that can be controlled by one fingertap. I had more complex games on my old stone age nokia then on my samsung smartphone. Go and try to play some old gameboy games through a emulator and see how "effective" touch controls are. More simple controls are not always a good thing. Usually they lead to games with less features (console controllers and lean in the FPS genre.)

[ScorpyX 1]

I'm just shocked by amount of spam and not meaningful messages in this thread and forum

I had to convince myself that "writing a message here still makes sense".. any way

brief result: If some of players Really want play arma 3 in Oculus Rift -

he easily do this in the middle of 2013 with good pc (not super expensive - just good)

and please sorry for my harsh - just try understand (btw i love arma community)

facts:

- - - Oculus Rift required -

"3d stereo" + (necessarily) "VSync" + and 30-60fps after all

(otherwise lose the effect of solid image between the left and right eye)

if you will can setting ArmA3 for solid 120+fps - Boom! then your computer easily pull Oculus Rift

- - - some guy in internets already make driver -

for switch on Oculus Rift in any DirectX soft (yeah.. all good old games)

and do not ask me "who" "where" "how" - just use google or drop it (this is not necessary to know for now)

- - - shall be (standart for stereo 3d) issue with "UI" "HUD" interface -

because by default it does not have the depth and would be too close to the eyes

(I think it's pretty easy to fix by small mod)

- - - and shall be very not standart probleme -

in Oculus Rift people have very strong sense of size proportion game world..

This means that all objects with unnatural not realistic proportions will looks stupid (but this is not fatal)

- - - people who still can not deal with keyboard -

shortcuts key in ArmA 2

just do not try hard enough to do it - or do not try at all

ArmA 2 has excellent capabilities for shortcuts

(like double tap button.. try find something like this in other soft - not just games)

I have ALL important functions under left hand - and left hand doesn't move at all on the right side of keyboard

and I do not throw sight at keyboard during the game - it is simply not required

someone mentioned bots command..

all stuff for this can be in "scroll menu" \ "map" \ and some support "ui" WITHOUT KEYBOARD KEYS

- - - and finaly - there is another problem - for an enjoyable game in Oculus Rift -

require completely new type of in-game interface

interface can use old pictures but it will require orientation in 3d space - like "

"

(i think something like pie-menu in Crysis will be nice for basic functions)

- - - (bonus) Sony VR Headset just useless -

trash with "Screen-door effect" - you feel like see on small monitor in black box

and Oculus Rift is Really good (on dev-kit 720p it have small screen-door effect BUT Warp function with lens is AWESOME)

ps. Currently discussing Oculus Rift pointless - but in the future it will not be a big problem

just calm down guys and wait until mid-2013 - after this all will be obvious and at hand

Don't sell the skin till you have caught the bear

Edited January 25, 2013 by ScorpyX

[Kinexz 1]

the Armaholic website is still online to prove you're very smart.

Points of the discussion: Oculus and Visor make you blind, i will not use it.

First of all, the level of immersion you will obtain, is like going to war. Yeah i was a military and ofc it's not like the real thing, but have you ever tried a visor? You are in the game. You are in the matrix.

the problem

To solve the tedious problem, about the obscuring of the eyefield by the visor, that doesn't let you watch the keyboard, surrounding, as i wrote in AMVI forums(most important italian aircraft simulation they often go mount simming device to the real aeronautics), SIM HQ forums, i have the solution.

Two are the current solution for obtaing said see-thro, that often is necessary, so instead of toggleing yoor visor for activities like like sipping your coffè,the need to pickup the phone, and last but not least watch the keyboard and the keys, and sorrounding.

The actual solutions

1. Not mine, you make the visor trasparent like 30%, so you actually see the game and your sorround. But it's a boner killer imho.

2. My solution: you mount a webcam/small cam on the center of the visor looking to external world. With the press of a "designated key easy to reach like eject key panic room key" you press it and you activate the webcam/cam on the oculus and start trasmitting inside the oculus monitor. Actually you will see the real world thro the eye of the webcam without leaving the oculus.

Practical uses. 1. Press the key-tap once=activate cam =tap again =deactivate. 2. Continue pressure=activate cam briefly, release=deactivate. 3. Press: activate for X amount of time, 5 sec, 3 sec, 2 sec, 10 sec. Press again=deactivate instantly.

So you need to really sip that huge ultracaffeinated extra long coffè you drink to aim better and keep concetrante. But you have the visor. So you would ask where is my cup of coffè? Press the panic/eject button with 1 of the fucntion above et voilà-->you see your sorrounding thro the cam, you sip your coffè like a boss, and go back in to the game, with the oculus still mounted on the head.

2. Your mum say it's ready to eat. You press the button watch your mum thro this terminator like cam, and smile and say " i will come in 5'". And so go on.

so what we should concentrate, and I know there are really smart people between us, despite theyr study level, to mod the oculus this way.

Technical solution WIP

Webcam mountedn on oculus with felcro. Webcam output into pc. Give primary task priority to webcam sofware. You press the button give priority to webcam sofware, you call the webcam it takes priority on Arma 3 software and you see the overlay. Some software magic could even apply a trasparence to the overlay like 60% so you don't lose the situational awareness.

my 2 cents.

I give them to you for my horrific english.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Kinexz

[rekrul 7]

Most of you seem to forget that the kickstarter-project is a dev. kit. The planned production/commercialization part of the project is 2015 at the earliest (although it might be pushed because of its success). Although I agree in its awesomeness, this kit is meant for game developers to add Oculus support in their games, and it isn't shipping until March. Then there will be a whole lot of feedback to Oculus which has to redesign their product and then start production development, get deals and financial support, etc before it goes into production. We might be waiting for Arma4 by then.

[.Taffy 10]

A man called Nathan Andrews has made some very impressive developments using Oculus Rift, especially considering he did this independently. In Half Life 2, he is using a model gun to control aiming and Oculus Rift to control head movements seperately. To my mind this makes it all the more exciting to think of how it may be used in Arma.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/11/half-life-2/

[Heradon 1]

Hi, i was just wondering if you guys at BIstudio could make Oculus Rift headset compatible with Arma 3. We already have TrackIR but this kind of VR headset would take this to a new level. 3D, 110 degree FOV, with headtracking. It would be real awesome if this could be done, I can't imagine how realistic the game would be with this VR-headset. This could make the gaming experience complete and perfect. I really hope you guys will support this technology.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Heradon

[Harzach 2517]

Discussed ad nauseum here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?144694-Oculus-Rift-VR-headset&highlight=Oculus

And replace TrackIR? No.

[Heradon 1]

Discussed ad nauseum here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?144694-Oculus-Rift-VR-headset&highlight=Oculus

And replace TrackIR? No.

Why wouldn't it replace the TrackIR?

[mr_centipede 31]

Why wouldn't it replace the TrackIR?

Because some people with TIR might not want to use Oculus? Rather than replace it, more like add-in into the engine. Just like TIR doesnt replace Freetrack

[Harzach 2517]

Why wouldn't it replace the TrackIR?

Because not everyone wants to wear a facehugging video display.

[Fuse 1]

Why wouldn't it replace the TrackIR?

Not everyone wants to or can wear the Oculus Rift, especially for extended sessions. It will probably be unsafe for use by children under 7 (maybe not a lot of them playing Arma, but flight and racing sims is a different story). It will also cost about twice as much.

[dmarkwick 261]

TrackIR won't be replaced by Occulus, but it may be an additional option one day. But not for a good long while if ever I think, it depends on the actual product that is released. TerackIR is simple & easy, and also I like to be able to see my keyboard & other controllers.

[jumpinghubert 49]

Because not everyone wants to wear a facehugging video display.

ok, every one knows that you´re not interested in head mounted displays in games. The disadvantages are obvious but the advantage is that its like putting your head into a holodeck.

not everyone wants a oculus rift. not everyone wants to play arma3. not everyone wants icetea.

Edited March 15, 2013 by JumpingHubert

[EDcase 87]

I love the idea of the Occulus and playing in 3d but there are a couple of things that are going to be a problem and they have been mentioned...

1) It will be VERY hard to play without ANY view of keyboard or other controls. (Anyone who claims to never look at the keyboard is lying or hasn't really tried)

Simple solution would be to have a small gap at the bottom so see a bit of your desk.

2) Since 3d stereo requires rendering two different viewpoints it does put about double the load on the GPU and an extra load on the CPU too.

We'll have to wait for the final product to see if this will be practical without a Titan....

One day it will be possible and I'm looking forward to it.

[MaxiM_PL 1]

Don't know if anybody mentioned this (because I'm lazy and haven't read the whole thread), but Rift's creator stated that it needs a stable 60fps with vsync to work as intended. Let's get get the stable 60fps first, even without vsync in ArmA III... yeah, one can dream, right?

Also, there would be absolutely no need to "replace" TrackIR with Occulus in the game engine. The game works fine with multiple head-tracking devices and controllers. OR could and should be just another option.

[chrisb 196]

There would be some drawbacks to using this, mainly I won’t be able to see my mug of tea.

But there again there could be some plus points, my wife makes lousy tea..

I will look at it for sure when it becomes available, the Rift, not the tea..

[sqb-sma 66]

I would definitely be getting this. I may wait a month or two after release, but I think it's a huge step forwards when it comes to immersion. My only fear is... I jump high enough when a tracer hits my camera now, seeing that in 3D may be too much!

[mr_centipede 31]

Here is the latest video that I could find. A nice honest interview I think.

[Vilos Cohaagen 1]

I would love to get the Oculus Rift for Arma3 were it supported. The Arma series are the only games in a long time that have made me want to buy additional hardware to further add to the already incredible experience. Combining the complete free vision with Arma's awesome new array of stances would add a level of immersion to the tactical gameplay that *might* even improve upon TrackIR - though TrackIR is also amazing and potentially could be combined with the Rift in some exciting and innovative ways.

[Athrins 1]

I'm expecting my Rift devkit sometime in april. I am incredibly stoked. I just hope Arma 3 will officially support it, because I can't think of a more fitting game/experience for the Rift. There is nothing that compares, it's the next level of immersion. Playing games with TrackIR compared to Oculus Rift is like watching a movie on your phone compared to watching it in the cinemas.

[WalkerDown 1]

pr0n?

[Psychomorph 1]

This gets me extremely excited. I call myself an immersion gamer, which is part of why I am a 1st person + Mouse fanatic (PC gamer), because moving the mouse to move your view is one of the closest accurate representations of looking around as you do look around in real life. TrackIR surely does a big step forward with this, but unfortunately I did not try it yet. The Rift, however, is like a whole new dimension.

A 1st person perspective on a monitor has limitations though, either you have a wide FOV or can see far, never both at the same time, which why ArmA is big with zoom. I hope the Rift gives you a very true to life image and FOV, so that zoom should be entirely removed from ArmA when using the Rift. This is like a revolution. Look around, move the gun with your hand/s (mouse or gun controller).

Can't wait. gonna spend a fortune to get this if necessary.

[andersson 285]

The best would be that BIS makes A3 3D-compatible, and later on figure out a solution for the "blind" Rift players.

If A3 would be truly 3D compatible (smoke, shadows, UI, sight alignment) then we could use shutter glasses or whatever tech we have. For Oculus Rift users the interface (not visible keyboard) will be a potential challenge, and I'm sure good solutions will come.

So please BIS, regardless of Rift or not, make A3 truly 3D compatible.

Personally I will buy a Rift asap if A3 can be played in 3D without any artifacts or problems. Even if I have to learn braille....

[Harry_Flashman 1]

Do want. But am concerned that I won't be able to see my keyboard.