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Comment by aaronblohowiak | Hacker News Reader

The dev kit is not yet consumer ready, but it does show a glimpse of the future.

The (low) resolution of the screen on the dev kit is really distracting, but more importantly we are still learning about the control schemes. Right now, it is very hard/disorienting to play FPSs on the rift (IMNSHO).

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The solutions to this problem might be really odd.

Personally, I've been testing the Wii Balance Board as a useful input device for the Rift - and it's showing some promise.

One tester did describe my test game as "Dungeon Segway Challenge", but we're getting there slowly...

Put a gun, sword into the hands of the player. Just think of the Neal Stephenson kickstarter with Rift VR.

That's waaaaaaaaay harder than it looks.

The big problem with swords in VR is physical feedback. If I strike at you with a saber, the saber will stop moving, sooner or later - either because you parry, or because the resistance of your bones and muscle eventually slows the thing down. Either way, it's a key component of a realistic swordfight.

And it's bloody difficult to do in VR. You're not just talking about force feedback, you're talking about enough force to stop a 3 foot long piece of metal being swung with intent by a 200lb man, with the same speed and solidity of collision with another piece of metal - without interfering with the movement of that metal at any other time, risking injuring the person moving the metal, or generally screwing up.

Guns, on the other hand, are much more doable.

Not a solution, but an alternative to stopping your hand: http://tacticalhaptics.com/

I've tried this a couple of times at the local VR meetups. It's hard to describe, but it works better than you'd think.

I very much want to try Tactical Haptics' stuff. Wonder if they'll be in Scotland any time soon?

Can you use gyroscopes to provide resistive force. Keep a heavy one running at low speed in the sword in a gimble. when you are about to hit something predictively rotate it to the correct orientation and accelerate it to high speed. Not totally sure this would work but if there is anything that can provide counteracting force without physical contact, a gyroscope is it.

You don't even have to make a heavy sword, the gyroscope itself could simulate the force required to overcome the momentum of a heavy broadsword.

You'd have to apply a couple hundred newton metres of torque, which would probably require a 50kg gyroscope, (expensive, heavy!) and if you want it to be at all compact you'd have to make the reaction wheel out of tungsten. (even more expensive!)

Most swords aren't actually all that heavy - at least not ones designed for combat. My backsword feels about as light in the hand as a walking stick.

Good idea - I shall store that one away for future reference...

This is what VRcade[1] is doing, but not for consumers since it costs too much. I've played their demo and it's very immersive.

[1]: http://www.vrcade.com/

Dungeon Segway Challenge sounds like it could become a "viral" hit just like QWOP and similar nonsense. Might be worth pursing if only for the publicity. Make videos of people falling over when you secretly slowly adjust the floor angle while they are leaning forward to drive. "You thought people on Segways looked silly but have you seen these nerd-goggled freaks on wii boards?"

Oh, believe me, we're pursuing it. I'm slightly distracted right now by the RiftJam (Oculus Rift gamejam), which doesn't allow external input devices like this, but in the long term, I Have A Plan...

I've done work to translate familiar 2d fps aim views to 3d and it feels very natural. I had tons of people at QuakeCon jumping right in a fragging just as well as they do in 2d. If you have a rift you can try it - https://github.com/swax/Quakespasm-Rift

Thanks for this; I look forward to giving it a go tonight!

While the control schemes can be a little jarring, I've not had a major issue with them. For me, it's games that have you accelerate at an incredible pace -- I tried playing HL2 Episode 1, for instance, and have found that to be the most jarring/motion-sickness inducing experience so far.

So much so that I went out and got a Razer Hydra to give myself manual control of the acceleration (well, this was a convenient excuse, anyway!).

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