Unity CEO On VR/AR: ‘In My Mind We Haven’t Seen A Consumer Launch Yet’

3D engines was a nich product to arcade halls for a long time.

 

Sure but 3D engines themselves don't put arbitrary requirements on the user's own environment in the way VR does. The 3D engine just needs some type of display, but doesn't dictate what kind, where it is located, whether you are holding it or putting it across the room, if you have to sit or stand, etc.

The closest parallel to VR I can think of is 3D TV. It was really cool tech, but just the environment requirement of simply putting some glasses on seems to have been enough to prevent it from going mainstream. VR's environment requirements are significantly higher than that, which is what I believe is holding it back.

 

Yes, but an arcade hall by its very definition would naturally include new technologies for entertainment since the entire purpose of going to them is to play things that would otherwise be impractical at home. It's basically a niche service for niche products.

 

My personal thought is we just haven't had the right game design genius(es) to figure it all out yet. Its the same as 3D movies. Early ones just did 2D techniques in 3D. It wasn't for several years that people started to figure out specific 3D techniques.

Its the same with games and VR. Most VR games are just traditional flat screen games on a VR screen. We haven't yet seen games developed for VR first. I reckon the eventual game designs that get worked out will be something quite different to what we currently expect.

 

The Wii was like... immediately super successful though. People "got" the Wii in the mainstream space. They had trouble keeping up with demand from day one.

 

3DTVs are a gimmick, VR is a valid tech on its own. Not comparable at all, not even the stereoscopic vision I comparable

 

This 3D gimmick owns significant more people than any VR.
You can go to cinema 3D then come back home and watch in 3D again, on many modern TV. Some require glasses some don't.

 

Wow. I'll admit I'm shocked the number of shipments they've had for them. The article below stated 40+ million units were shipped in 2011 alone and other sources backed up that number.

https://web.archive.org/web/2013072.../yonhap-news-agency/130318/3d-tv-sales-growth

VR HMDs on the other hand have only sold single digit millions this year which is lower than previous years.

https://www.vrfocus.com/2018/06/reports-shows-dip-in-vr-headset-sales/

I wish I could come up with a gimmick that successful.

 

I don't think 3D TV is a good parallel at all. 3D TV is just adding a layer to how you're already watching TV.
VR, for the most part, is changing the way you are gaming.

My rift is permanently attached to the computer, I just have to put it on to go, if I had to set it up every time I wanted to use it, that would be to much a hassle. I don't use it every day, but often enough to justify it.

But as previously mentioned, software is important, still missing that "one game" that I keep wanting to go back in to with VR. I want more though, I want the next gen VR HMD and the gen after that already

 

There is one more aspect, which is overlooked in my opinion, regarding VR.
Lots of people, specially in bigger cities, don't have enough space at homes, to throw hands about safely, without risk of walking into anything. Many flats are small, in congested areas. So that technical obstruction for many.

Wii itself already requires some space to play. And even it is possibly more for higher activity, players at least see safely, what is around of them. And you can play as well sitting (perhaps not the best experience tho).

 

You must be kidding?

Oculus has minimum specs defined for the hardware purchasers and which your app must also run on and pass the performance checks. Every new title is reviewed and must follow the guidelines. Poor performance apps will be automatically rejected until fixed or they let them be released with the same way as other poor or controversial content which means a keys only release with no store page.

https://developer.oculus.com/blog/app-submission-review-process-guide/

Some examples:

https://developer.oculus.com/distribute/latest/concepts/publish-rift-app-submission/
https://developer.oculus.com/distribute/latest/concepts/publish-rift-app-submission-performance/

 

They don't control the user's hardware...................... and have pittance sales vs steam. Not sure what you're trying to tell me - that they stop people purchasing?

You are talking about developer. I am talking about who buys and runs it. People do not look at tech specs. They buy, it sucks, they hate VR.

That doesn't happen on console. It will always be the correct user experience.

 

Well you outright went ahead said they did nothing in terms of performance or nearly anything, and even to quote your bold statement "It's not even slightly similar". They definitely do plenty to ensure the users have comfortable experience with titles from their store. On top the other stuff and from user perspective Oculus does things slightly better than Sony since they have a comfort rating for each app.

Since you seem to have zero experience of their system and did not bother to even Google the basics, let me do a short summary: They have a system check app to run to test your system before purchasing. Even if the user skips that or ignores the result the installed Oculus Home will constantly show a banner about computer not meeting the requirements and the experience might being poor until the requirements are met. You cannot permanently disable the message and it's based on lists of whitelisted hardware/software combinations. It will also be shown in VR. But wait, it does not even end there as for the occasions there is a slight system overload or performance hiccups they can't handle there are ASW/ATW to mitigate/remove nausea or poor experience. Allowing Steam or other external titles which have no quality control requires the user to enable 3rd party sources from advanced options and the option will require the user to confirm a warning dialog before proceeding. If the user still hates VR after all this its certainly not because of performance issues.

Now I won't even even comment the sales or other stuff as it seems you are just trying to derail from your original reply that you seemingly made without any facts or knowledge.

 

Im waiting for my neighbour to sell his 1 room condo so I can buy it and make a VR / mancave out of it. The going price in Stockholm is 12k USD per square meter though so it will not be cheap

Currently I have 1.5 X 2 meters in my home office which works but you always need to check with your hand itf here is room to toss a grenade

 

Tossing grenades in confined space like office. I love the idea

 

At 30 fps or upscaled 720p

 

We even have a map in our game called office

 

Yeah but when you do this on a console it's just like "eh, whatever" but if you do it in VR you just yarl all over the place.

 

You always have reprojection if that happens. But it's not impossible to create a VR game that runs at 90 fps at all times, ours do it and alot of others. Though there is alot of bad optimized VR games out there

 

That's very much a generalization. Most of the VR games I play have decent fidelity graphics or at least a clean presentation, and these games are good at reducing the screen-door effect. Lone Echo looks like a current gen game, as does Robo Recall.

It's not all tech demos either. There are dozens of full games. Ultimately, the issue lies in yourself not really looking much. You've barely scratched the surface here.

 

Every issue you just listed can be fixed very fast. This is like arguing back in 2001 that smartphones will never take off. Not to mention a lot of your assumptions are plain wrong. You don't need much space for VR, even while standing - and it's not like everything in VR needs to be a standing game. There are plenty of great seated experiences. Furthermore, VR works for just about all genres of gaming; there are almost no limitations to speak of.

There is nothing to stop VR from going mainstream. It's a real shame that developers, who should be passionate about advances in gaming, are so out of the loop when it comes to said advances. Are people worried that VR will take over, requiring them to learn a new skillset and make new design decisions? Maybe, I don't know. It does seem to be a stubborn and defensive stance with really no logic behind it though.

 

Alternatively the games are lacking proper marketing.

 

This I can agree with. Almost no one knows the best VR games, like Lone Echo and Robo Recall which is why some people think Job Simulator is the peak of VR.

 

I wouldn't call Robot recall the best VR game, sure if has good graphics, but the game it self is very basic very little VR interaction

 

Robo Recall might not be the best but it definitely is in the top of the high profile and "real game" category in a sense as it looks and sounds great, has a small story, fun gameplay and offers enough replayability vs many other VR games.

 

Another thing to note is that, while a lot of genres don't really add much, or if anything at all to VR (like civ, crusader kings etc).
There is a lot of game experiences that you only can do in VR, since you are playing with two hands, look direction and movement direction independently of each other.

 

Literally the only example I have seen mentioned to any degree regarding this is Skyrim VR's ability to let you cast magic spells in different directions.

 

Funny in my eyes its pretty much a wave shooter

 

Gorn is a good example of where you want to have 2 hand free motion, while looking at a third direction, and moving a fourth direction.

Skyrim is .. not done well in VR. Great world to explore though, would never play it non VR again.

Edit: Also, can not go back to mouse aiming again, .. maybe one day where I want to have the old school arcade feel again.

 

It's still highly polished with great design. It shows off the potential quite well, though I'd prefer if it came with smooth locomotion without modding. It's a game that people generally have a blast with. You can put it in the same vain as SuperHot really. Small scope but highly polished and fun.

Well you can apply that to anything. Dual-wielding guns, being able to throw something with complete precision. Being able to dodge with complete precision. Being able to climb a mountain with sub-millimeter pecision, etc. Interacting with someone naturally using gestures. These all change how gaming functions on a large scale and haven't been possible before.

I'd say this game does the best job at showing how different it can be:

 

One thing I often do in our game is stay in cover and shoot into a hallway or similar without exposing my body, impossible on desktop

 

Also, when you start doing hip shooting with your sidearm, not because it's supposed to looks cool, but because you just need to trigger really fast. One of those times where get sort of an eureka moment of VR.

 

I don't care about precision, I care about fun.

 

It is a wave shooter but does it matter at all? The gameplay is extremely fun with the guns, dodging, general pacing of the game, etc... it's still the top pick for me when I want to do some VR shooting for a short session.

 

To me it's pretty much a Triple A game with VR slapped on, pretty much how Doom VR is. Lone echo though that's a really well made game, the hand presence in that game is superb

 

It's not enough to keep me engaged and the VR interaction is none existing basicly.

I want games like Outlast or Alien isolation or metro 2033, great detailed world's and an engaging story

 

I, along with many others have had immense fun in VR. Beat Saber, Robo Recall, and Echo Combat are generally more fun for me than anything in the last 2 decades of gaming.

It's much easier to make VR more fun than normal gaming, because the adrenaline is naturally higher. Your brain takes it in as a more substantial process.

Precision doesn't lead to fun on it's own. But with the right developer mindset, it can improve how much fun a game can be. This is why people love the Echo games - because you have high precision in movement, leading to quite possibly the best movement system in gaming so far.

 

Alien Isolation actually has a pretty good VR mod. Totally recommend it.

Robo Recall isn't really VR slapped on, because all of it's design decisions are VR centric. There's a lot of interactivity in there - with the way you can pick up bullets, break off limbs, to the way the guns handle with simulated weight via weapon drag.

 

You mean the old DK1 code hidden in the exe? Haven't tried it.

I think the interaction is too basic, but don't get me wrong, there is much, much worse VR titles, I just don't think it deserves the title best VR game, Lone echo on the other hand does. Though it's way too short like most VR singles player games.

 

I hate to break it to you, but those "many others" you speak of are still a small portion of people since the launch of VR because VR offers no practical benefit to most people and is ridiculously cumbersome.

 

The only thing true in that statement is that it's a bit fiddly.

 

It's like the console peasants they try to justify their poor decision not buying a gaming PC it's really cute to watch

 

Story driven games sadly have less replay value on both desktop and VR. Lone Echo or Wilson's heart are both for example nice but there is little reason for me to play them again.

Robo Recall might not have every single item, door, thing interactable and is mostly shooting but it does not matter as the "star", weapon etc. grind or just highscore challenges are still fun if you play every now and then and has given me much more gameplay hours.

 

You sure do like to think you're better than everyone else.

 

It's an actual mod, so it has a bunch of fixes and design considerations. Just look up MotherVR to find it. It's on github.

That's mostly a result of most people not knowing what VR can actually do. It's a marketing problem as mentioned earlier. But I will say the clunkiness of 1st gen VR also plays a role.

Beat Saber has videos with 40+ million views. People on a large scale get interested when the marketing magic happens.

 

I have played alot of story driven games plenty of times over the years half life 2 and Doom 3 are probably the two I have played most times. Good story driven games have some reply value, I rather play those than those short experiences over and over again you talk about

 

Nice have missed that, will check it out. Loved the Doom 3 BFG mod

 

I find it strange people are still talking about VR needing AAA games, when there's already Resident Evil 7 and Skyrim that are fully playable in VR on the PSVR.

Sure, they weren't originally built specifically for VR, but does that really matter? Both are still amazing and incredibly immersive in VR, and that's really all that matters.

Haven't tried Fallout 4 in VR, though. That exists too.

 

VR is as useful as the "time machine" from the Napoleon Dynamite movie. VR is something that should be really cool, but it simply isn't. At this point, VR is a joke. Again, I am saying that as somebody who already owns an Oculus Rift.

 

Own it you may. Understand it you do not.

Like I said to someone else, this is a problem on your side.

How can you genuinely believe VR is a joke after trying a social VR app, a telepresence app like Google Earth or Welcome to Lightfields, a self-improvement app like Electronauts, Mindshow, artistic apps like Tilt Brush, computing apps like Virtual Desktop and BigScreen, and other misc apps like psychedelic music apps, meditation, educational / historical?

The answer is you simply haven't tried many of those yet. Games too, I would imagine are still something you need to really catch up on.