Virtual Reality and the future of gaming
On March 28th, 2016 the Oculus Rift by Facebook released to consumers and very soon after came its main competitor the HTC Vive came out. These two Virtual Reality headsets have dominated the market and yet soon we will have a new set of headsets release. This time it’s the Oculus Rift S and the Valve Index, and these two devices are very important for the future of gaming. Each of these Head Mounted Displays, HMD, will hopefully succeed at bringing new people to Virtual reality and expanding the user base.
Starting with the Rift S we are seeing Facebook going in a few directions with the device, firstly it’s ditching the cameras that connect to the computer to track the location of the head set to having cameras in the headset to track the controllers and player position. While this can weaken the amount of accuracy you have it allows for an easier setup. The Rift S will also have a more powerful screen that you look at however it will be just one with section being viewed at, giving up on the 2 separate lens screens that most other headsets have. This will make the device cheaper however could cause discomfort for users and this will take time to find out.
We don’t know much about the Valve Index yet, but we do know a few things such as it is coming with the Valve Index Controllers. These new controllers will be important because they are designed to improve the players ability to grip and grab things. This will help improve immersion and the ability for the player to interact with their environment. Another thing the Index is believed to have is an improved set of lenses which like the Rift S will improve the resolution of the games which will be played.
Why are these devices important? Its because they bring new innovations to the Virtual reality space that will hopefully lead us to the possibility of a new generation of Virtual Reality. Also, both Valve and Facebook can finance their headsets off of other income sources, so they can sell their headsets for lower prices and still be fine. This will allow for more people to play VR and therefor allow more developers to make games for it. However, I see the Valve headset being more valuable because the Rift S takes some steps back like losing the cameras that track everything outside the headset. Stuff like that are going to be useful in allowing for a wider adoption but we are seeing VR being weakened by it. The valve one is also rumored to have a few new games that should help push the ecosystem in new directions that will be beneficial while Rift has had a history of buying exclusivity for its games and that isn’t helpful in the long run because it entrenches people with a system and can be harmful for developers.
These are all still assumptions because both systems will be coming out in June and have only just been announced. However, I know both will be important for VR in that they take steps to allow new people to play and that is always a good thing.
