The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Bruticis]

I always thought it looked interesting but didn't support for it pretty much dry up and die?

 

[Dexter]

I always thought it looked interesting but didn't support for it pretty much dry up and die?

It did afaik at its time, but the Oculus Rift kind of rekindled a new wave of interest in the device since it seems to fit together like bread and butter.
They offered some software support and did some deals and the Razer Hydra is sold out in most places nowadays throughout the US and Europe: http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-hydra

Spoiler

The company behind it (Sixense) is working on a Prototype for Version 2, but without Razer manufacturing it.

A lot of new Oculus Rift games and prototypes work with it too, e.g. here's a few different ones:





Right place, right time kind of thing.

 

[FeelTheRads]

If you have a problem attack my arguments

Now, really, what kind of arguments would those be? Did you actually argue for something? Posting news/links about these stupid gadgets doesn't really constitute arguing for anything.

And sorry, you are a gadget fag.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/babyfur

 

[Metro]

 

[Konjad]

https://www.humblebundle.com

For $1
Saints Row 2 & 3
Risen 2
Torchlight 2

More games for more money

 

[FuelBlooded]

Sacred 2, not Torchlight 2.

 

[Metro]

Also wrong thread, Kony.

 

[Bruticis]

 

[Unkillable Cat]

If you have a problem attack my arguments

Now, really, what kind of arguments would those be? Did you actually argue for something? Posting news/links about these stupid gadgets doesn't really constitute arguing for anything.

I kinda have to agree with this. Putting forth that these things "R TEH FUTURZ" as an argument is blocked kinda quickly by a simple counter-argument: They've been "the future" for at least 20 years now, most likely longer. Virtual headsets, alternate means of control inputs, they've been there the whole time. Granted, this *might* be the time when they finally break through and become a standard of sorts, but I think you'll understand if I, at least, adopt a "wait and see" approach to this.

At least I am not jumping on some bandwagon that has Razer attached to it. Their mice are shit, their customer support is worse, I have no faith in their other hardware.

 

[Dexter]

If you have a problem attack my arguments

Now, really, what kind of arguments would those be? Did you actually argue for something? Posting news/links about these stupid gadgets doesn't really constitute arguing for anything.

I kinda have to agree with this. Putting forth that these things "R TEH FUTURZ" as an argument is blocked kinda quickly by a simple counter-argument: They've been "the future" for at least 20 years now, most likely longer. Virtual headsets, alternate means of control inputs, they've been there the whole time. Granted, this *might* be the time when they finally break through and become a standard of sorts, but I think you'll understand if I, at least, adopt a "wait and see" approach to this.

At least I am not jumping on some bandwagon that has Razer attached to it. Their mice are shit, their customer support is worse, I have no faith in their other hardware.

I'm happy to discuss this/argue about it and have been doing so for instance over here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/oculus-rift.79590/
Especially so now that I have one myself to test around with and have also experienced some of the downsides of the DevKit for a while, although it's still amazingly cool for the early stage. Unfortunately IDtenT seems to be following me around repeating the same shit and the only thing FeelTheRads has said in regards to it is (seemingly not understanding the technology or what the fuck it is supposed to do) something about "head bobbing like a retard" and how it's apparently "fucking stupid".

I'm sorry that I can't persist against their argumentational master strokes.

Why VR didn't take off 20 years ago is rather obvious, first most of what was being sold was in the thousands to ten thousands of dollars and mostly reserved for military and scientific application and not for the lowly hands of end consumers.
Second, the extent of what they could "display" on such hardware were a few polygons or scenes that boiled down to very simple VRML-scenes that were the height of fashion at the time "Virtual shopping malls!":

Also they were rather shit experiences compared to what you'd see in the movies.

This was around the time Wolfenstein 3D was a novelty and before "Doom" or "First Person Shooter" were a thing.

See:


The beginnings of the technology as a concept apparently also dates further back to the 30s with Hugo Gernsbach and his TV glasses:

Nowadays you can easily render most 3D games and a lot of other stuff onto it and technology has progressed quite a lot and has especially gotten cheaper.
I'm not sure if it'll "take off" yet in any major fashion, it's still too early to say for sure and they haven't even got a properly mass marketable product before next year, but I sure as hell won't miss out on the opportunity to make use of what is available and play the games that are getting support (like Half Life 2, Doom 3: BFG, Kairo, Euro Truck Simulator) and the growing number of upcoming titles with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_Oculus_Rift_support
The signs look rather good with native integration into engines like Unreal 3/4, Unity, Source and very likely also CryEngine 3 (Star Citizen, Mechwarrior Online) and Frostbite 2 and other entities like Nvidia, Intel and so on getting very interested.

Razer has nothing to do with the Oculus Rift by the way. They just came up because Bruticis brought up the Razer Hydra, which is a peripheral that works rather great in a combination with it.
As you'd know if you'd read my previous posts it is being developed by Sixense and manufactured/distributed by Razer. But Sixense will apparently make and market the second iteration on their own: http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/06/27/sixense-wireless-motion-tracking-development-kit-hydra-2-6824

Sixense Goes Indie

Equally as interesting as the new wireless tracking dev kit is that Sixense appears to be going independent. In the past, Sixense had sold their technology to Razer who put it into the Hydra package. Sixense has been careful not to call this the ‘Wireless Hydra’ or ‘Hydra 2′ and is specifically noting that that the unit will be launching under the Sixense name.

In fact, the original Hydra prototype was wireless to begin with. When Razer licensed the tech, they chose to go with a wired version (perhaps because of price concerns). It would appear that the consumer version of this new unit will also be launching as a Sixense product.

 

[IDtenT]

:youreafag:

 

[Dexter]

One thing I've got to hand to you.
You sure wear your name proud.

 

[Dexter]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...source-2-spotted-during-tour-of-valves-office

 

[Morgoth]

DOTA2 killed Valve, like WOW killed Blizzard.

 

[Metro]

Fucking Gabe plays in big picture mode.

 

[Morgoth]

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/why_half_life_3_has_not_been_released_yet.html

John Lowrie, a voice actor who has worked on several Valve games including DOTA 2, Left 4 Dead, Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, claims that one of the reasons Half Life 3 isn't out yet is because Valve is waiting for better motion capture technology.

Here is the biggest challenge with bringing out HL3: the big thing now with FPSs is motion capture, or mo-cap. One of the great things about HL2 is that all of the characters that you meet actually look at you when they talk to you no matter where you go or stand. With mo-cap you can't do that, at least not yet. Once you film the actor doing something and capture that motion, that's what the character is going to do. This works great in movies, but when you make something interactive it gets way less interactive with mo-cap. So that's one of the things they're working on. Still nothing definitive, but I hope this helps you understand at least one of the reasons why they haven't brought out HL3 yet.

I don't feel any rage because patience is a virtue that will always be rewarded.

Right Gabe?

GAAAYYYYYBE???????

 

[DalekFlay]

If that's true it says a lot about this industry that rather than just hand animate again for the sake of interactivity we have to wait for cinema flair to allow interactivity.

 

[Dexter]

http://ir-ltd.net/#portfolio
http://ir-ltd.net/clients/

Afaik they can 3D body-scan real peoplez and make a 3D model out of them but are working on improving their methods to allow for live-capture.

Valve have already been rather OCD in regards to animations, facial animations and lip synching for the first and second Half Life, can imagine this to be true and them trying to release another game that will be seen as "groundbreaking" instead of "another shooter". Half Life 2 even stole Doom 3's thunder back in the day.

 

[Bruticis]

I don't feel any rage because HL1 and 2 were pretty damn mediocre (at best) games.

 

[Metro]

If you cut the vehicle sections in half I'd call HL2 'good.' I have a feeling 3 will be grossly overproduced and have very little gameplay.

 

[DeepOcean]

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/why_half_life_3_has_not_been_released_yet.html

John Lowrie, a voice actor who has worked on several Valve games including DOTA 2, Left 4 Dead, Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, claims that one of the reasons Half Life 3 isn't out yet is because Valve is waiting for better motion capture technology.

This sound like someone is bullshitting about something he doesn't know. If it is true than nothing was lost because Valve had gone full retard then.

 

[Morgoth]

It might be true that they're still doing more R&D on mocap and need to wait until they get their targets working, but that doesn't mean the rest of the HL3 development stands still.

 

[DeepOcean]

I don't feel any rage because HL1 and 2 were pretty damn mediocre (at best) games.

Half life games were always about experiencing Valve's particular method of eviroment storyteling and atmosphere creation that you can see in all Valve's single player games, as pure shooters they aren't all that great but I have to say that the Marines and Alien grunts were very satisfying to fight on Half life 1 as they could kick your ass before you even know what was happening on the last difficulty, it is just a pity that in Half 2 the combine aren't as lethal as them.

 

[DeepOcean]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...source-2-spotted-during-tour-of-valves-office

Gaben, you big piece of human meat, stop playing that trash and give mah Half Life 3!