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    Games that have you going into a computer generated virtual universe.

    VR Chair that spins

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    monkeyking1969

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    A company called Roto VR made an -odd trailer- for its rotating Interactive Virtual Reality Chair. They say that are at the Pre-orders phase for the chair, but I think wonder if the video SELLS IT as much as they think . A rotating chair might add some interesting 'movement', but the big question would be what does that chair sound like?

    A device like this 'theoretically' might have sense a few years ago, but now that we have VR, it seems like some of these more far fetched peripherals are not needed yet. As I see it, the problem with VR is not that lack of spinning chairs, The current problem is hanging wires...throwing up...not wanting to be in a game for more than 20 minutes, right?

    What do you folks make of the video and the concept?

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    meptron

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    #2  Edited By meptron

    They could use this for Jeff Bakalar on the beastcast!

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    ikilledthedj

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    I haven't watched the video, but umm... couldn't you just use any swivel chair? After all it was invented in 1776.

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    SchrodngrsFalco

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    Wow. I'm speechless in the worst way.

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    LeStephan

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    #5  Edited By LeStephan

    Lol, it does seem like it could be pretty awesome for racing games though im not sure it would feel right.

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    peteycoco

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    Seems ridiculous. Also, wouldn't this mess with tracking for most games? Wouldn't the chair rotating be interpreted as your head turning?

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    monkeyking1969

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    No Caption Provided

    What makes me think this was a concept that was thought up long ago is the inclusion of "walking simulation" peddles.

    I think most people who have used the VR we have gotten would agree, 'Yeah, the ability to walk in game just isn't needed nor is it practical given our current implementation of tech.' In fact most games have just gone the route of 'warping' position because the act of trying to mimic walking or running gets more people sick especially when their inner ear tells them they are stationary.

    Those peddles are likely an add-on that won't be worth the R&D that went into them. In fact, might actully never be practial, because walking/running is something only room scale VR will allow without nausea.

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    Dixavd

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    These games don't seem high fidelity/complex enough that this gains you much. I think you're helped in that you can go long stretches, being able to turn a lot, without getting tired as what was in the neck and back is moved to the chair... but I think literally any standard office rotating chair allows you to do that. A technically-impressive chair adds the possibility of movement independent of your body (i.e. representing the movement of a car) but that's probably a very quick way to make people sick while developers are still getting used to the technology. People hate the feeling in VR of not knowing they have control of where they are relative to the floor, I think an expensive chair that takes away that feeling from outside of the VR as well probably makes that feeling even worse.

    I don't think VR is at the level of realism and total-body immersion yet, so this seems a little ahead of the curve. This particular one also doesn't seem like the complete package that someone crazy enough to buy this kind of peripheral probably desires: they probably want more than one axis of rotation and minor translational movement capabilities to emulate things like the shaking of a car in real-time with the shaking in-game. That is a whole other level of intensity that will make most sick, but if you're going to lengths of buying this kind of chair, you probably want a home-kit closer to the movement capabilities of simulation systems.

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    monkeyking1969

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    Sorry, but I had to add this info because I think it a bit interesting to see how they price it all out. What you see in the video is often $900+ worth of gear, even more if using teh racing rack (or $1,100 without the pre-order discount) That base produce being a spinning chair with a 'base' wire harness system. The slashed out $699 price is the cost without the pre-order discount.


    No Caption Provided


    In no way, shape, or form am I endorsing this product. But to talk about it, comes with showing it off a bit. I'm neutral on the product or its need in the market, but I am very interested in what people think about the current/future necessity of products like this within VR.

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    Marcsman

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    I like it, but not $1100 dollars. Pass

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    thomasnash

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    #11  Edited By thomasnash

    No Caption Provided

    What makes me think this was a concept that was thought up long ago is the inclusion of "walking simulation" peddles.

    I think most people who have used the VR we have gotten would agree, 'Yeah, the ability to walk in game just isn't needed nor is it practical given our current implementation of tech.' In fact most games have just gone the route of 'warping' position because the act of trying to mimic walking or running gets more people sick especially when their inner ear tells them they are stationary.

    Those peddles are likely an add-on that won't be worth the R&D that went into them. In fact, might actully never be practial, because walking/running is something only room scale VR will allow without nausea.

    which is why everyone who uses a treadmill throws up

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    monkeyking1969

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    #12  Edited By monkeyking1969

    @monkeyking1969 said:
    No Caption Provided

    What makes me think this was a concept that was thought up long ago is the inclusion of "walking simulation" peddles.

    I think most people who have used the VR we have gotten would agree, 'Yeah, the ability to walk in game just isn't needed nor is it practical given our current implementation of tech.' In fact most games have just gone the route of 'warping' position because the act of trying to mimic walking or running gets more people sick especially when their inner ear tells them they are stationary.

    Those peddles are likely an add-on that won't be worth the R&D that went into them. In fact, might actully never be practial, because walking/running is something only room scale VR will allow without nausea.

    which is why everyone who uses a treadmill throws up

    You do see how that is the different, right? In so far as, the act of walk but your eye and inner ear not feeling movement forward or back, is different than your eyes being show you are moving while you inner ear screams "Fuck no! We are not moving" even if you are tapping your toes.

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    thomasnash

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    @thomasnash said:
    @monkeyking1969 said:
    No Caption Provided

    What makes me think this was a concept that was thought up long ago is the inclusion of "walking simulation" peddles.

    I think most people who have used the VR we have gotten would agree, 'Yeah, the ability to walk in game just isn't needed nor is it practical given our current implementation of tech.' In fact most games have just gone the route of 'warping' position because the act of trying to mimic walking or running gets more people sick especially when their inner ear tells them they are stationary.

    Those peddles are likely an add-on that won't be worth the R&D that went into them. In fact, might actully never be practial, because walking/running is something only room scale VR will allow without nausea.

    which is why everyone who uses a treadmill throws up

    You do see how that is the different, right? In so far as, the act of walk but your eye and inner ear not feeling movement forward or back, is different than your eyes being show you are moving while you inner ear screams "Fuck no! We are not moving" even if you are tapping your toes.

    Yeah, I was just being glib because of the way that it was phrased.

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    Shivoa

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    In no way, shape, or form am I endorsing this product. But to talk about it, comes with showing it off a bit. I'm neutral on the product or its need in the market, but I am very interested in what people think about the current/future necessity of products like this within VR.

    I really don't think powered rotating chairs are going to go places. I can see possibly adapted $40 office chairs that add a rotating connector for headset so you can keep rotating without being tied up (but the adding of such gear is non-trivial for the HDMI+USB connection all this hardware needs - can't do it with cheap brush and disc of metal) or worrying about it but I'm not sure you get that being something people actually buy for over $100. It's cool to plug your headset into the chair rather than having a cable but it's still a step back from true freedom and you've only got X slack for moving around on the chair (so already it's not for room-scale VR).

    Give it a few years for Carmack to work out how inside-out positional tracking (headset has camera in it, can do the work we currently use lighthouses or static cameras for) needs to work and VR headsets become something you wear and have to think about connecting to a powerful renderer but can generally play with as long as you've got an HDMI link (rather than being between two lighthouses or inside the vision of a static camera). At that point I'm a lot more interested in a basic office chair and devs making sure my chair is i the VR pace as well as the real space so I can get up and sit down. But that doesn't really need fancy chairs. Oh, and lawsuits will fly as soon as some jerk moves a chair out from under someone in VR then pretends ti was the headset tracking's fault they fell down and not the jerk trying to move the chair without the headset cameras seeing it.

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