VR

AMD Trades Oculus Support For SteamVR Support

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AMD released their new 18.12.2 driver; Featuring a new addition to AMD’s Radeon Adrenalin Software that will enable users to stream their games to Android and iOS via the AMD Link App, including SteamVR across a wide selection of VR Headsets, however… it appears Oculus headsets will no longer be supported by AMD.

AMD’s Radeon ReLive for VR feature won’t support Oculus devices, despite at first being claimed to. The functionality allows for Radeon graphics card owners to stream PC virtual reality games to standalone headsets. Unfortunately, this is inherently tied to SteamVR, which puts it on Facebook’s bad side. Therefore, as AMD has now informed us, it will not support any Oculus devices.

Apparently AMD’s choice to support SteamVR was a step too far, looks like NVidia now has their own exclusive headset… and they didn’t even have to bribe anybody! :trollface: But seriously, that move is going to cost Oculus a pretty penny

Not that any of this matters to me. Facebook’s involvement was enough to discourage me from ever buying into it. The HTC Vive looks sexier by comparison… although I’m not sure if my eyes could handle VR.

From the creators of Myst and Riven yada yada yada

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It seems Cyan is wanting to start another project:

The video doesn’t seem to show much other than it’s a puzzle type game (Cyan’s specialty) with some nice looking graphics and a creepy voice. Of course unlike their last games Cyan wants to make this a VR exclusive title because so many people play VR… That’s the reason, right? Obviously there are waaaaaaaay more VR gamers than those zombies that stare at their multimonitor setups with drool rolling down their faces.

The team has developed what Miller called a working “experience,” similar to a demo, that will be shown later this month at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in an attempt to garner interest and financial backing. It features the Mead-based company’s signature puzzle-solving gameplay, he said, in a world built from the ground up to be experienced through a virtual reality headset.

Well, that leaves me out. There aren’t enough games out to justify me getting into VR, plus I’m still pretty miffed about Obduction’s poor optimization for AMD GPU’s as well as overall optimization (broken LOD’s). Plus if I take into consideration how the last Kickstarter took place, and some of the more dramatic moments I’d rather not mention during their update posts, I really am reminded that I should play other games instead. Heck, I’ve been playing Quite a bit of The Phantom Pain lately, and that’s an NVidia Gumworks title.

That said I wish them no ill will. I would like for them to succeed and return to their former glory, but it seems unnecessary to leave people out if they can’t afford VR. Plus I would think they would make money if they developed a non VR version of their game. As it is Cyan’s core fanbase consists of about 7 people who still have use to run a Pentium III setup. :v:

The Terms of Service for the Oculus Rift are Facebook creepy… because Facebook

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facerift

Hate to say it, but I saw this coming.

 

  • Information about your interactions with our Services, like information about the games, content, apps or other experiences you interact with, and information collected in or through cookies, local storage, pixels, and similar technologies (additional information about these technologies is available at https://www.oculus.com/en-us/cookies-…);
  • Information about how you access our Services, including information about the type of device you’re using (such as a headset, PC, or mobile device), your browser or operating system, your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, and certain device identifiers that may be unique to your device;
  • Information about the games, content, or other apps installed on your device or provided through our Services, including from third parties;
  • Location information, which can be derived from information such as your device’s IP address. If you’re using a mobile device, we may collect information about the device’s precise location, which is derived from sources such as the device’s GPS signal and information about nearby WiFi networks and cell towers; and
  • Information about your physical movements and dimensions when you use a virtual reality headset.’

 

That’s a little too big brother-ish for my taste. I knew from the moment Facebook invested in the Rift I would lose what little interest I already had in the project. I say that I have little interest because VR is too new. I can say that I have little interest in other VR Projects as well, including Steam’s HTC Vive. But Oculus gets a big fuck no from me because of Facebook’s creepy uncle mentality.

As if I’m going to spend hundreds of dollars so I can have Facebook potentially watch my every move and try to sell me shit I probably don’t want. Why would anyone be ok with this? This is right up there with Microsoft’s telemetry BS and Google’s over the top data collection. I don’t see how people can be so open about their privacy and act as though nothing can go wrong because ‘they have nothing to hide’. Sorry, I’m a privacy advocate and shall remain as such. My computer and devices are like my house and house internals. I don’t want people snooping around in there unless I give them my permission.

Some interesting discoveries in Valve’s VR test program

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Valve leaked a test that people can use to confirm if they are ready for the new HTC Vive. I haven’t used it myself because I’m not really interested in getting into VR at this time as it’s a little too bleeding edge for this one. But since this is a Valve program people over at ValveTime have been having fun going through all the assets. It’s definitely worth a read. It has new models, newer versions of older models such as DOG from Half Life 2, a texture map for what is supposed to be the “Retired Engineer”, “Red Chell” and a lot more. Here’s an extremely creepy example of one of the many things found hidden in this program so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoucoXFPLPQ

I’m guessing those are headcrabs? I never knew how easily a dark map with nothing but errors and a random trickle of water could make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up like exclamations…