Scale was RE: AC2 was RE: [MUD-Dev] Total Annilation ofDowntime

[John Buehler]

Madrona Tree writes:
> From: "John Buehler" <johnbue at msn.com>

>> I have no idea at what size gaps become noticeable, but they're
>> smaller than what we were able to accomplish with three 19"
>> monitors set up left, front and right of the player.  Even
>> putting the three monitors adjacent to each other wasn't very
>> satisfying.  It's easier to show than it is to describe.

>> VR goggles are far more fun to fool with.  It is an absolute kick
>> in the pants to be able to 'look around' in a virtual world.

> I always wondered if VR Goggles help or hinder SimSickness.  I
> know i have a terrible time in first person games (I played EQ,
> DAOC in "ass cam" mode) ... but I wonder if VR goggles would fix
> that problem.

> Do you know anyone who has tried them for that purpose?

Nope.  My experiments with VR were back in the early 90s.  We made
some simple modifications to a flight simulator and flew a
helicopter, which really wants the situational awareness that the VR
gear can provide.  The modifications were primarily to accept the
inputs of the head-orientation sensors to drive the camera
orientation.

The ideal is to pipe two distinct camera views to the VR gear for
stereoscopic display of the environment.  That's undoubtedly beyond
what games are typically set to deliver, as they come out of the
box.  I'm sure that if some VR gear were made available at Mythic,
somebody would find the time to twiddle the software to produce the
images for each eye, and permit movement of the camera based on the
VR gear inputs (e.g. head movement).

I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that somebody somewhere in
the game companies has fooled around with this stuff.  In truth, I'd
be disappointed if nobody had.

Oh, and note that if the VR display gear produces an opaque display
for both eyes, the player can't see the keyboard.  If the hands are
kept on the keyboard and mouse, SOME input can be produced, but not
the full set of keys.  I would expect that voice communication would
work best with VR displays like that.  It worked perfect for us on
the flight simulator.  Of course, the rest of the guys were in the
same room and I just yelled at them as I flew :)

One last comment.  The VR gear had better be light enough to handle
the speed at which the player needs to look around.  The gear we
were using was HEAVY.  There was a pair of screens on the front of
the head and a small sandbag on the back the head as a
counterbalance.  That's not gonna work for Quake.

JB


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