Widescreen Gaming Forum

I'm giving a presentation on Virtual Reality and how to program for it using Unity tomorrow.

While programming for it, I realized, why are we so much into 21:9, triple monitor, triple projector setups to increase FOV?

I do appreciate my 21:9 monitor, it's beautiful. But for gaming, specifically simulation gaming, VR is AMAZING! I thought about setting up 3 projectors in my basement to create 180 FOV, but VR gives 360 FOV.

The resolution isn't the same, it needs to get a bit higher for the Oculus (which it will for the release). And even in 180FOV setups you can only see the major benefit in the sweet spot (i.e. just 1 person).

It seems like a VR setup in a car would be superior for space constraints.

Does anyone else think about VR as "unlimited FOV" vs. the other setups we think about?

-ELmO

I think that headsets like the oculus rift are going to be awesome and deliver great experiences but there are a few ways in which it's different than widescreen setups

Social Aspect. The biggest downside I can see with headsets is that it completely disconnects you from people in the room with you. That alone is enough to keep me from using oculus rift as my primary gaming display. I live with people who play games and if my monitor is strapped to my face not only can they not see what I'm playing but I can't see them either. I am pretty excited about how large split screen windows are on a 21:9 monitor and I want more pc games with couch coop.

Perspective. Oculus rift works great for first person games in which you are in the head of your player character. But a lot of games are designed from an isometric view where you're looking down at the world and I can't imagine the oculus rift would make those games more immersive or enjoyable. Do I want to look around a Civ V map using my neck?

UI. I suspect that designing ui for the oculus rift is going to be one of the biggest challenges for developing games on the rift. What is the interface for a game that wraps around your whole field of view and will it feel natural. This might work for first person games like Far Cry or exceptionally clever games like Dead Space but what about something like StarCraft? Creating an oculus friendly ui will be a challenge.

Those are some problems I anticipate with VR headsets. They're not insurmountable but they discourage me from getting on the VR hype train.

Actually, for Civ V you could have the map be like an actual map, and have the menus and such on panels off to the side. It'd be a different experience, but if pulled off correctly, could be awesome.