:-) Life marches on! Sure 4K is pricy now and early adopters will pay the price... but at some point 4K will be the norm and then it'll be 8K (and everyone will shout and scream we don't need it)... then 16k etc.
This is the inevitable march of technology - it's a good thing really. I remember people saying we didn't need any more power (or resolution) when I had an Amiga 1200 with 8 gig of RAM (that was a lot) - both statements totally laughable now.
I think what really gets peoples backs up is when they don't get a good long use out of their investment. If I spend a wedge of cash of a brand new TV and games system - I don't really want another next generation standard to come for a while ;-)
PC owners however are kind of used to it - Sure my monster rig is perfectly capable of playing most things maxed out at 2500x1600 but I'm used to swapping out graphics cards, motherboards and processes - it's a way of life and part of the fun. I think console owners "may" start to realize a shorter cycle than the usual 7 year one - especially as the parts used in them are now more `generic' than they used to be.
Either that or there will start to be a bigger disparity between PC games and consoles...
Bottom line is you need to have cash if you want to be at top or an early adopter and as always - it sucks to have shit forced upon you, especially if you can't afford it!
@Verenti Wow - Titan really IS just like Gundam - just bought well up to date with the usual polish! Here's a youtube showing the gameplay. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_MI-PGzXoQ Thanks for that Verenti
Haha - wicked old-school games. Amiga was the best (though they where also on the snes & megadrive)!! Chaos Engine, North & South (I think), Desert Strike, Monkey Island, Sensible Soccer, Mortal Combat, Road Rash, Chaos Engine, James Pond...
@00J Not that bad actually. The rift uses reasonably low power screens like that on a phone. Also, the lenses over the screens are focused to infinity so your eyes are at rest (as if looking into the distance), therefore technically better for you than having to focus on your normal monitor.
@Buck_Swaggler Yes you are right - keyboard is a bit crap with the current setup! The Razer Hydra is one answer to the problem http://www.razerzone.com/gb-en/gaming-controllers/razer-hydra
And then there is the Virtuix Omni for movement http://www.virtuix.com/
Obviously you need the space and of course - all this kit does start to add up. Still, a control pad works OK for most stuff.
And any flight/space sim is sorted as long as you have a stick with enough programmable buttons - the Saitekx52 is a good example of one of these.
@vivalatourIt's like describing food to someone - in the end you just have to try it. It's a completely different experience.
Nothing else currently can make your stomach actually drop when going over a precipice or make your legs go wobbly (for real) when teetering on a super high ledge.
Or the very real feeling of scale and size when walking down a street and looking up at the massive buildings. Space games are just unreal - dog-fighting in War Thunder is just utterly mad!
It's just one of those things, it gets compared to something else or just older technology when the facts are.... there is nothing else quite like it.
Unfortunately it's an abstract proposition until you've given it a go! I recommend at some point (if you can) that you do.
@TERMINATOR-SSD The difference with the Rift to a 3D screen is that you are actually looking into the world as you do naturally every day. You actually FEEL like you are really there - you get a real sense of scale and depth.
With a 3D screen you still see everything around you and you are focused down narrowly on this rectangular object. A big building only looks big because it is next to something that you know the size of - like a human character.
With the Rift you are actually STANDING next to this building. You know it is big because you have to look right up at it - it makes YOU feel tiny!
You don't have to suspend belief, or wait to get drawn into the story or action - just put the goggles on Wham! You are there - you believe!
ps. I love my TrackIR too and it actually does something the rift currently doesn't - positional tracking. This will be apparently added to the consumer version. There are however hacks for this with open-track and a web cam or PlayStation eye (or the move) if you want to add the support to the dev kit.
@gamemaven @The_J3ster @666NightsInHell Put it this way - although the resolution of the dev unit is low enough that you can actually see the individual pixels that make up the screen - the immersive quality was so believable that I actually fell over while I was standing up on a rollorcoaster demo?!! My body just reacted to the swift turns and dips as if I were on the real thing.
Playing Half Life 2 & Elder Scrolls is awesome and when the Hi Def version comes out I will NOT want to play these types of games on a normal monitor again! Games like strike suit zero are just AMZING already - any game where you are in a fixed position works just great.
So yea - the answer is YES, you feel like you are part of the game and when the resolution and pixel density of the screen is increased it will be unreal!!
@arqeOne of the things is we now have a convergence of technology. PC's with the capability of delivering high end graphics with high frame rates and low latency to a device that is relatively low cost and that has (will have) high quality screens with a wide field of view.
On top of that we have most of the top game companies promising content that supports the Rift. Then we have media distribution with sites like this and YouTube that are actively showing people having a great time with the device - that's compelling marketing!
A lot of people want a kind of Start Trek `Holo-Deck' experience - and this is so far the closest thing to it... and it's good, even at this stage!
It's not necessarily about delivering a delivering a more realistic Gaming experience as opposed to a more IMMERSIVE experience (although the two do tend to go hand in hand).
The thing with Kinect is that nobody was really yelling out for someone to bring gesture control to gaming. Now the world wasn't exactly screaming for VR either, BUT... Ask most people if they would like to be placed DIRECTLY into middle of their fav game, to see and experience it as if they were really there - then I think most would say - hell yea!
That's a bit more compelling that being told you can wave your hands and dance about in front of your screen. Not putting Kinect down or anything - it's just a different value proposition.
That is why (in my opinion) the Rift and VR in general is now getting the attention you see.
The_J3ster's comments