Bjossi on 3/4/2007 at 15:01
We don't know what the future has to offer, maybe we'll see devices where our brains can be given direct connection (and control) by a computer. Sounds "exciting" doesn't it? ;)
cosmicnut on 4/4/2007 at 07:52
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Yah, in retrospect it's amusingly ironic that the big virtual reality fad hit at a time when rendering hardware wasn't even close to being up to the task. VR is now forever saddled with the stereotype of chunky frame rates, blurry low-res images, sloppy head tracking, and massive neck-killing headsets.
It has got better. I did get myself a pair of Olympus Eyetrek "glasses".
I hooked these into a portable DVD player, this was in the days that a decent size LCD screen cost a fortune (these days LCD players are almost given away!)
Basically they have 2 small LCD screens mounted in a glasses style headset, with 2 in ear headphones attached.
Now these weren't exactly stereoscopic but it did give you a good picture. The quality was pretty good and they were a lot lighter than the old VR stuff. I recon with the right mods they could work like old VR.
Even these lighter better quality ones started giving me a headache after 10 minutes.
Heres an experiment.
Put your finger 10cm away from your nose (further than the screens are). Focus on your finger for a couple of minutes. After even a short while you'll find your eyes either hurting or trying like mad to re-focus.
We really need to wait,
The next step in the tech is to project the image directly onto the retina, while the machine adjusts the image by the way the eye is focusing. That way you could see "normally" in game and loose the headaches associated with current VR
icemann on 4/4/2007 at 08:20
I`m with Zylon on this one. Alot of peoples perceptions of VR have been forever scarred by the VR craze of many years ago.
The sad part is that VR would do a hell of alot better these days, now that graphics and technology in games has improved quite significantly.
ZylonBane on 4/4/2007 at 13:34
In fairness though, some real problems with using VR headsets did come to light in the mid-90s. There are issues with eyestrain from focusing so close, and various problems with functioning normally after extended headset use.
Headcleaner on 4/4/2007 at 14:24
Quote Posted by icemann
I`m with Zylon on this one. Alot of peoples perceptions of VR have been forever scarred by the VR craze of many years ago.
The sad part is that VR would do a hell of alot better these days, now that graphics and technology in games has improved quite significantly.
I think if there was a VR revival now we'd be saying the exact same things 10 years later.
Kolya on 7/5/2007 at 01:02
I just had a look at Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri which came out 2 years after SS1 and is similar in many ways. The readme mentions unofficial support for headtracking devices.
Quote:
First, you must have the headset turned on before
you start up Terra Nova.
VR headset support is enabled through command
line arguments. For example, you would type
"tn +vr" rather than typing "tn".
+vr enables headset auto-detection. The
game should auto-detect which type of
headset you have.
+iglass only looks for the Virtual IO iglasses
+vfx1 only looks for the Forte VFX1 Headgear
+cmaxx only looks for the VictorMaxx CyberMaxx
These put you into a mode where the direction you
look is the direction your PBA* faces.
[...]
Terra Nova does not support stereoscopic vision,
only headtracking. But it's cool anyway.
I think it's a safe bet to say that SS1 supports the same models and they're enabled the same way.
*PBA = "Powered Battle Armor"
