5 ms·

Elite: Dangerous will support Oculus Rift

42 points by stevejalim 13y ago

ergo14 13y ago
This is really great news, both for the game itself and for occulus. I've been waiting many years for next Elite.
dagman 13y ago
If my twelve year old self (who shut himself away for days on end with the curtrains drawn playing Elite on a Sinclair Spectrum 128k +2) had this, I may never have completed school. Sounds like a great feature, hope it works smoothly and naturally!
bayesianhorse 13y ago
I'm very excited about this technology. 2014 or 2015 might be "the year of VR". Let's hope that the technological challenges in commercialization are dealt with swiftly. Then we will experience a boom in VR games and applications.
Theodores 13y ago
Virtual Reality headsets have had a long history of not being as successful as they should have been. Anyone remember Virtuality, as in the company? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(gaming) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(gaming) Their products were amazing for the time but they just did not catch on. I never understood why. (However, I did subsequently learn that their games were not actually stereo vision!) It is a bit like 3D - amazing cinema experiences but the TV sets and cameras just did not find buyers. Actually VRML is in the same category - excellent 3D but with nobody able to see the point of it, develop content for it or share the vision of what it is all about. Although the original Virtuality products were headline grabbing, they did not generate any demand for the 3D headset market that did exist after they came out. In the early 1990's there were several brands of affordable VR headsets that were at a good technology level for the time (when TV's still had CRTs LCD displays were impressive). I thought everyone would want these things, not just gamers but normal 'soccer moms' (one brand of headset could work like a heads up display so you could do things like the washing up whilst still watching TV). Based on previous history I expect this new fangled headset to fail. I hope it does not, however, I don't believe that wonder technology or having exceptional games is going to crack the nut this time round. A new killer application is needed.
- DanBC 13y ago
  Early mode VR had significant problems with motion sickness. The technology just was not good enough, even if it was good for the time.
- dabeeeenster 13y ago
  You've obviously not tried an oculus rift. If you had you would not have typed that - I 100% guarantee it.
- saturdaysaint 13y ago
  So you're commenting on something (Oculus) you clearly have no knowledge of.
- potatolicious 13y ago
  I have a Oculus Rift, it is not even remotely comparable to the VR headsets of the 90s. The VR headsets of yesteryear were incredibly heavy, had extremely poor resolution, and either did not sense head motion or at all, or were so laggy at it that it induced severe motion sickness. The Oculus Rift has solved all of this except the resolution bit, and word has it they've got it figured for the retail launch of their product. The Oculus Rift is to 90s VR as the Ford Model T is to a donkey.
- Theodores 13y ago
  Cheers for the downvotes! Re: motion sickness. Oculus (Rift) are aware that this is a problem with their product and they have not solved it. If you think about it, having better tracking sensors than the VR headsets of the 90's does not do anything to fix the fundamental problem: your eyes getting different inputs to what the body is getting. If your eyes are telling you that you are falling but your stomach and ear canals are telling you that you are still sat on your arse in your mom's basement then you just might start feeling sick. Improved gyros in the headset are not going to magically create some anti-gravity field for you, are they? As for the 'you have not tried this particular brand of VR headset and therefore you don't know what you are on about', line of argument, true I have not tried these particular VR headset novelty devices yet. However, I have also yet to try a 2013 model 3D TV but, from having seen how the 2010 3D TV's had their failings I can fairly predict that the 2013 3D TV's have not addressed the fundamental failings that the 2010 models had and are therefore unlikely to take the market by storm. I am merely sharing the same level of scepticism that the BBC had regarding this particular product: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23877695 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23877695 We have seen it all before and people just don't want to wear some clumsy headset in their living room, whether that is to watch a movie, to be 'in' a game or anything else. Even without the motion sickness problem this product would be only for a few gamers with more money and sense.
stevejalim 13y ago
I'm _deeply_ excited about Elite: Dangerous - it's pretty much the only videogame I think that could these days, thanks to how it opened my eyes and captured my imagination as a youngster. The idea of OR on top is brilliant, too - seems like a great fit for a cockpit-based game. Question: only the OR dev kits appear to be available at the moment. Is there a public roadmap for a consumer version?
- TheCraiggers 13y ago
  Might want to temper that nostalgia-driven enthusiasm a bit. The path you're on leads only to disappointment and regret. To answer your question, not yet. I would expect to hear something later this year on the time frame for the consumer version, which I'm also waiting for. Not only for this game, but also to plug into a raspberry pi for a project. Just waiting for that 1080 display.
  - jerf 13y ago
    I'm cautiously optimistic. The Elite series has had a lot of misfires, but they do seem to have learned from them. And a lot of those misfires come from single design decisions that seemed like a good idea at the time, like using a true Newtonian physics model instead of the traditional "WWII fighter jet in space" physics model. If you could get past that, Frontier Elite still had the fun Elite stuff at its core, it's just that it was very nearly wrecked by that decision. I would still consider this a risk, but it looks like at the very least they have no intention of repeating that mistake. Note I did not fund it, so this isn't just rationalization of sunk cost for me. And I do mean "cautiously" optimistic... while I continue to believe that procedural content generation is the way of the future, its continuing failure to manifest is making me wonder if perhaps it is the way of the future in the same way that, say, raytracing or voxels has been the way of the graphics future for about 10 years now, without ever happening. Still, we'll see.
  - scotty79 13y ago
    I had much fun with X-Beyond Frontier
- georgwashington 13y ago
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

42 points by stevejalim 13y ago

This is really great news, both for the game itself and for occulus. I've been waiting many years for next Elite.

If my twelve year old self (who shut himself away for days on end with the curtrains drawn playing Elite on a Sinclair Spectrum 128k +2) had this, I may never have completed school. Sounds like a great feature, hope it works smoothly and naturally!

bayesianhorse 13y ago

I'm very excited about this technology. 2014 or 2015 might be "the year of VR". Let's hope that the technological challenges in commercialization are dealt with swiftly. Then we will experience a boom in VR games and applications.

Theodores 13y ago

Virtual Reality headsets have had a long history of not being as successful as they should have been. Anyone remember Virtuality, as in the company? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(gaming) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(gaming) Their products were amazing for the time but they just did not catch on. I never understood why. (However, I did subsequently learn that their games were not actually stereo vision!) It is a bit like 3D - amazing cinema experiences but the TV sets and cameras just did not find buyers. Actually VRML is in the same category - excellent 3D but with nobody able to see the point of it, develop content for it or share the vision of what it is all about. Although the original Virtuality products were headline grabbing, they did not generate any demand for the 3D headset market that did exist after they came out. In the early 1990's there were several brands of affordable VR headsets that were at a good technology level for the time (when TV's still had CRTs LCD displays were impressive). I thought everyone would want these things, not just gamers but normal 'soccer moms' (one brand of headset could work like a heads up display so you could do things like the washing up whilst still watching TV). Based on previous history I expect this new fangled headset to fail. I hope it does not, however, I don't believe that wonder technology or having exceptional games is going to crack the nut this time round. A new killer application is needed.

DanBC 13y ago
Early mode VR had significant problems with motion sickness. The technology just was not good enough, even if it was good for the time.
dabeeeenster 13y ago
You've obviously not tried an oculus rift. If you had you would not have typed that - I 100% guarantee it.
saturdaysaint 13y ago
So you're commenting on something (Oculus) you clearly have no knowledge of.
potatolicious 13y ago
I have a Oculus Rift, it is not even remotely comparable to the VR headsets of the 90s. The VR headsets of yesteryear were incredibly heavy, had extremely poor resolution, and either did not sense head motion or at all, or were so laggy at it that it induced severe motion sickness. The Oculus Rift has solved all of this except the resolution bit, and word has it they've got it figured for the retail launch of their product. The Oculus Rift is to 90s VR as the Ford Model T is to a donkey.
Theodores 13y ago
Cheers for the downvotes! Re: motion sickness. Oculus (Rift) are aware that this is a problem with their product and they have not solved it. If you think about it, having better tracking sensors than the VR headsets of the 90's does not do anything to fix the fundamental problem: your eyes getting different inputs to what the body is getting. If your eyes are telling you that you are falling but your stomach and ear canals are telling you that you are still sat on your arse in your mom's basement then you just might start feeling sick. Improved gyros in the headset are not going to magically create some anti-gravity field for you, are they? As for the 'you have not tried this particular brand of VR headset and therefore you don't know what you are on about', line of argument, true I have not tried these particular VR headset novelty devices yet. However, I have also yet to try a 2013 model 3D TV but, from having seen how the 2010 3D TV's had their failings I can fairly predict that the 2013 3D TV's have not addressed the fundamental failings that the 2010 models had and are therefore unlikely to take the market by storm. I am merely sharing the same level of scepticism that the BBC had regarding this particular product: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23877695 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23877695 We have seen it all before and people just don't want to wear some clumsy headset in their living room, whether that is to watch a movie, to be 'in' a game or anything else. Even without the motion sickness problem this product would be only for a few gamers with more money and sense.

stevejalim 13y ago

I'm _deeply_ excited about Elite: Dangerous - it's pretty much the only videogame I think that could these days, thanks to how it opened my eyes and captured my imagination as a youngster. The idea of OR on top is brilliant, too - seems like a great fit for a cockpit-based game. Question: only the OR dev kits appear to be available at the moment. Is there a public roadmap for a consumer version?

TheCraiggers 13y ago
Might want to temper that nostalgia-driven enthusiasm a bit. The path you're on leads only to disappointment and regret. To answer your question, not yet. I would expect to hear something later this year on the time frame for the consumer version, which I'm also waiting for. Not only for this game, but also to plug into a raspberry pi for a project. Just waiting for that 1080 display.
- jerf 13y ago
  I'm cautiously optimistic. The Elite series has had a lot of misfires, but they do seem to have learned from them. And a lot of those misfires come from single design decisions that seemed like a good idea at the time, like using a true Newtonian physics model instead of the traditional "WWII fighter jet in space" physics model. If you could get past that, Frontier Elite still had the fun Elite stuff at its core, it's just that it was very nearly wrecked by that decision. I would still consider this a risk, but it looks like at the very least they have no intention of repeating that mistake. Note I did not fund it, so this isn't just rationalization of sunk cost for me. And I do mean "cautiously" optimistic... while I continue to believe that procedural content generation is the way of the future, its continuing failure to manifest is making me wonder if perhaps it is the way of the future in the same way that, say, raytracing or voxels has been the way of the graphics future for about 10 years now, without ever happening. Still, we'll see.
- scotty79 13y ago
  I had much fun with X-Beyond Frontier
georgwashington 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]