Valve has gathered developers in Seattle for its Steam Dev Days event from 15th-16th January. As part of the festivities, they have quietly announced a SteamVR beta that allows you to explore their Big Picture mode using an Oculus Rift headset.
News of this latest beta comes a few weeks after Valve introduced a VR category to the Steam library so that Rift development kit owners could find goodies for their face-hugging hardware. The giant software distributor is also planning to unveil its own VR hardware at the Steam Dev Days event and Palmer Luckey – the Rift’s inventor – is set to give a talk about porting games to a VR environment.
It would seem clear that Steam’s own plans for virtual reality support are closely tied with the work already done at Oculus and that the Rift makers will heavily support Valve’s own experiments with the technology.
The beta is accessible to anyone with the appropriate hardware, simply start Steam with -vr in the command line and enter Big Picture Mode. The VR experience is said to be basically the same layout – designed for living rooms – but wrapped around the viewer. Its current incarnation is less important than the potential impact that Steam’s clever folk could make on solving the general problem of user interfaces in a VR environment.
Evidence would seem to be mounting, then, that Valve is going to support the Rift, and VR environments in general, in a big way.
Source: RoadtoVR
tonycawley
I just don’t know how much call there is for such a thing. It’s like 3D, it’ll end up being a niche market with not a lot of interest. People don’t want extra hardware, hence why 3D isn’t popular right now, the glasses are just ridiculous, as is a VR headset.
When these things are possible without the extra hardware, then I think it’ll become popular. Until that day, it’ll just be a fad that won’t take off and hit popular culture.
Peter Chapman
I kind of agree. I think it’s about finding that niche and making a product that’s appealing enough that the niche is big enough and the implementation is simple enough that VR can be included as an option in everything.
I think of it in similar terms to surround sound options – they’re in every game now, not essential to the experience and not used by the majority of people playing games but they’re integral for a hardcore that uses the option – and the extra hardware they needed to buy – to enhance their experience.
stonyk
You answered pretty much what I was about to say. I’m not interested at the moment but without someone doing this we might not get what we get in the future. I think Sony said it the other day – you need to make many mistakes before you get to the greatness.
tonycawley
Very good response, hadn’t thought about it in terms of surround sound but you’re right!
baggyg
It’s hard to tell what will take off in the future. Who would have thought that the Wii would become such a phenomenon. You could have equally said motion controls were a fad / niche at the time. They probably were (since they don’t seem to be about hugely anymore).
I really class VR to be above this though. It is not an addition to gaming, its a completely new way of playing. To me I think it will represent a paradigm shift rather than an iteration.
camdaz
I think it’ll come down to the price of the headsets that will determine if VR is a success, it seems to have a lot of support of the big guns in the industry so there should be plenty software available.
baggyg
I really don’t understand your analogy. How will VR be possible without a VR headset?
What parts of the VR headset are ridiculous? Have you tried it?
Oculus sold over 50k developer kits to date. That a version of it that is low res and really just a proof of concept. Palmer did a good interview recently where he said that 3D was manufacturer lead. VR is consumer lead. People really want a true VR experience. Not many people were really crying out for 3D.
I understand your reservations. People have become all too used to bad VR. In the past it was a gimmick. However Oculus are changing peoples minds everyday. I predict 2014/2015 to be huge for VR. Oculus has $100 million of investment to prove it. Perhaps I am wrong. Time will tell.
bunimomike
I think that’s a reply to Tony’s comment:
“When these things are possible without the extra hardware, then I think it’ll become popular.”
As nonsensical as that reads, it’s absolutely true from a consumer-uptake perspective. Two pieces of decent-sized research were done in the UK and Japan – about 3D glasses. The percentages were almost identical. Two thirds of people simply weren’t interested in faffing about with glasses, etc. Excuse my paraphrasing. ;-)
When it comes down to it, the biggest inhibitor was the need for extra hardware. Hardware you wear. Hardware we’d all need to wear to enjoy the same 3D (or VR) experience.
I truly believe that ideas like the above will only ever stay as niche until something huge changes and we suddenly do without such headsets/glasses. Even if they end up being as neat as the Google Glasses, you might still find half the folk remain uninterested. :-\
tonycawley
Sorry I really meant wearable hardware, not just hardware. I’m sure they’ll come up with a way of doing vr one day without the need to wear something, then it will be popular.
What wearable hardware is popular? Smartwatches are failing, 3d is failing because people don’t want to wear the glasses.
Tell me you wouldn’t feel like a right nob sitting in your front room with a vr headset on. You can’t, because you’d feel like a proper nob!
Now if there was some form of futuristic projector that made my front room a vr environment without the need for new to wear a ridiculous contraption, then great. Until that day, I’m out, along with 99%* of the population for the same reason.
* based on a survey of 36 women who used our product once.
bunimomike
My mate has an old VR headset and also an Oculus Rift. He said “ah, I don’t mind if I look like a complete idiot playing games. I’ll just draw the curtains”. :-) He already knows how unpopular it will be (to the masses) but will continue with his gaming pleasure nonetheless.
Severn2j
I’m surprised by the comments on this topic, I personally cant wait for this. Everyone I’ve heard try it has been convinced its going to change the industry and the PC gaming community is crying out for the consumer version.
Granted it wont work for a lot of game types, but for driving/flying/space games its going to be amazing.
baggyg
There does seem to be very differing comments depending on where you go. Certainly this is a PC based development. I have found more console-based sites tend to have more disparaging comments. Not to say they are wrong, just a different perspective.
For me this is the biggest thing to happen in gaming in my lifetime. I already finished Half Life 2 + episodes in my Rift. Truly amazing experiences.
blarty
The other thing to be concerned over is that there’s talk of the Oculus games being a premium price, and that doesn’t seem to bother the Oculus CEO – which is very surprising…. and they’re already talking about monetising the experience….