Octopus Overlords

coopasonic wrote:GameInformer says there's still no killer app. Anyone disagree? TiLT?

I came really close to trying them out over the holidays but then I got busy and didn't get to it and then my wife's car got new tires.

wonderpug wrote:Elite Dangerous

coopasonic wrote:GameInformer says there's still no killer app. Anyone disagree? TiLT?

ZeniMax Wins $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

[Feb 01, 2017, 7:39 pm ET] - 40 Comments
ZeniMax has won a $500 million judgment in its lawsuit versus Oculus, though the jury did not find they had misappropriated trade secrets, reports Polygon. The half-billion dollars is for failing to abide by an NDA, copyright infringement, and false designation. $300M of that will come from Oculus, $150M from CEO Brendan Iribe, and $50M from company founder Palmer Luckey. Polygon says Oculus says they will appeal, but are looking forward to putting the case behind them, expressing their commitment to the long term success of virtual reality, the technology at the heart of the lawsuit. On the other side of the decision, ZeniMax says it may seek court order to halt sale of current Oculus Rift headsets.

BI wrote:Facebook is closing around 200 of its 500 Oculus virtual reality demo stations at Best Buy locations across the US, Business Insider has learned.

The scaling back of Facebook's first big retail push for VR comes after workers from multiple Best Buy pop-ups told BI that it was common for them to go days without giving a single demonstration. An internal memo seen by BI and sent to affected employees by a third-party contractor said the closings were because of "store performance."

BGR wrote:The foot traffic of demo stations might not be the best way to gauge interest in a product, but to add insult to injury, a SuperData report this week (via MCV) revealed that Oculus shipped just 250,000 Rift headsets in 2016. To put that into perspective, Sony shipped 750,000 PlayStation VR units, HTC shipped 420,000 Vives and Samsung moved a whopping 4.5 million Gear VR units last year.

Lawsuit or not, Facebook and Oculus have some serious work to do.

ZeniMax Media has delivered on its promise to file for an injunction against Oculus, filing papers with a Dallas court asking that products using disputed code be removed from sale.

The injunction papers were filed yesterday, according to a report from Reuters, in the same court that heard its case against Oculus VR and its founders Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe last month. The trial resulted in the award of $500 million in damages to ZeniMax.

This injunction specifically relates to lines of code used by developers creating software for Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR. If the injunction takes effect, it will have an impact on which games can be sold for those devices.

A spokeswoman for Oculus, Tera Randall, stated that the company is appealing the original verdict, describing it as, "legally flawed and factually unwarranted."

Oculus CTO John Carmack made a similar point in the aftermath of the trial, describing ZeniMax Media's argument that Oculus code was "non-literally copied" from work he undertook at id Software as akin to saying Harry Potter was stealing from Joseph Campbell's theory of The Hero's Journey - "which also maps well onto Star Wars and hundreds of other stories."

ZeniMax responded with its own statement, pointing out that expert testimony had asserted "both literal and non-literal copying," and that, "Oculus programmers themselves admitted using ZeniMax's copyrighted code.

"Not surprisingly, the jury found ZeniMax code copyrights were infringed."

CCP announces Sparc, a full-body physical sport played in virtual reality coming to "all major high-end VR platforms" later this year. They say this is the first wholly original IP from the developer outside the EVE universe, and offer this trailer with glimpses of what to expect amid mostly live-action footage. Keep the five Ds in mind, as this sounds a bit like dodge ball. They say to expect more details soon, and in the meantime, here's the announcement:

Today, CCP Games is thrilled to announce Sparc, a unique virtual sport only possible in virtual reality. In Sparc, players connect online to compete with each other in fast and fun full-body VR gameplay.

Currently in development for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, Sparc will be the first wholly original IP to be shipped by CCP outside of the EVE universe when it releases in 2017.

Sparc's skill-based, full-body gameplay makes for a fast-paced and fun physical sport. Players use their motion controllers to throw projectiles at their opponents from a distance, and in turn defend themselves by dodging, blocking, or deflecting the incoming attacks. Players can join one-on-one matches with friends online or find opponents via matchmaking.

Sparc enables players to connect and compete in an online community. Players can watch matches in-person and queue for the next match in VR through Courtside, a freeform social area for spectating in VR or on screen. Sparc includes multiple two-player game modes as well as single-player challenges and training modes, plus a range of customization and personalization options for competitors.

"After our early experiments with standing VR gameplay, we were excited by the idea of building an original sport designed for the current generation of VR hardware. We've designed Sparc so that players can express and improve their skill through their physical actions." said Morgan Godat, Executive Producer at CCP Atlanta. "Ultimately, we want players to think of Sparc as a virtual court in their living room where they can meet and compete with other players from around the world."

"At CCP games, our goal is to harness our passion for virtual reality as a new medium and create the killer apps for the first generation of VR technology," said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games. "We set out to achieve that in mobile VR with Gunjack and in seated VR with EVE: Valkyrie, both released in the first year of VR becoming publicly available. With Sparc, we want to capitalize on the unique strengths of standing VR and deliver a game with all the depth and excitement to keep players returning long into the future."

Today's announcement is only the beginning for Sparc and CCP Games plans to reveal further information about Sparc's gameplay and feature-set ahead of release later this year.

Cortilian wrote:I've been playing Elite and IL2 Sturmovik recently on my rift since I just obtained a nice HOTAS. Really really fun but 1 generation away I think. They are going to have to upgrade the screen resolution to get rid of that screen door effect.

Daehawk wrote:Some idiots that skipped the academy play Star Trek Bridge Crew

Buatha wrote:Do you guys really think they are going to jump to Gen 2 so quickly? I have the feeling that they are going to follow the console release schedule and simply keep reducing prices on the Gen 1 headsets if they figure out cheaper ways to produce them. It's been one year already and all I've heard about so far are peripherals.

Buatha wrote:Do you guys really think they are going to jump to Gen 2 so quickly? I have the feeling that they are going to follow the console release schedule and simply keep reducing prices on the Gen 1 headsets if they figure out cheaper ways to produce them. It's been one year already and all I've heard about so far are peripherals.

Buatha wrote:Eye-tracking seems very cool, but they're going to need some games that take advantage of this feature.

gameoverman wrote:So...Doom is officially in VR. Could this be the killer app?

I was into computing back in the C-64 days, after transitioning from the Atari/Intellivision consoles post-videogame crash. Then I got into other things and didn't touch computers in the late '80s. It wasn't until a friend showed me this new game on his Packard Bell that computers became a thing in my life again. That game was Doom.

If anything could make VR interesting enough to fire my interest, it would be Doom.

Doom.

edit: I was just thinking, back in those Packard Bell Doom playing days if someone told me "You will be playing this game in virtual reality one day" I would have thought they were reading too much sci-fi. I haven't played it in VR yet but it's just a matter of time now. I hope I don't get hit by a bus.

Punisher wrote:I will be very interested in the reviews for both. So far, I don't see VR being good enough for twitch games where you have to move around. If it's move to a spot and then shoot the waves coming at you, then fine, but not where you have to run and gun.. It's not really responsive enough in my opinion.

Rip wrote:

gameoverman wrote:So...Doom is officially in VR. Could this be the killer app?

I was into computing back in the C-64 days, after transitioning from the Atari/Intellivision consoles post-videogame crash. Then I got into other things and didn't touch computers in the late '80s. It wasn't until a friend showed me this new game on his Packard Bell that computers became a thing in my life again. That game was Doom.

If anything could make VR interesting enough to fire my interest, it would be Doom.

Doom.

edit: I was just thinking, back in those Packard Bell Doom playing days if someone told me "You will be playing this game in virtual reality one day" I would have thought they were reading too much sci-fi. I haven't played it in VR yet but it's just a matter of time now. I hope I don't get hit by a bus.

No Doom isn't the killer app, Fallout 4 is.