Virtual Reality

[Asura]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuck...214823119.html
A few months ago the Metaverse might have been heralded by Zuckerberg as the newly branded companies future but following a hit to hard yesterday that the money lost potentially brought him to tears he as turned to employees and pushed them to pivot their work towards 'video'

And they'll fail, too.

Teens like TikTok because their parents aren't there.

The moment their parents are there, they'll move to what's next. And so on, and so on.

[Neon Ignition]

I think Facebook/Meta has reached the point where the wise thing for Zuckerberg to do would be to cash out and go and live a life of luxury. He see's himself as a Musk/Gates/Bezos style giant when really he's phenomonally lucky SOB. The company is defined by social engagement, it doesn't have a product as such that ties into essential daily life as important as people hold their online presence. He's trapped because the space around him is so crowded and the right move is to get out before the stagnation sets in and not take the heat for it.

[wakka]

Counterpoint: I think Facebook will bounce back. Also, Zuckerberg will never go and chill on a beach for the rest of his life because that's just not what the frankly deeply odd people who become billionaire tycoons ever want to do. If anything he'll run for president (and fail at it because people find him creepy).

Meta are such a powerful force for advertising online. They're the number 1 place to go and sell literally anything B2C, and it's preposterously profitable for them. I think they are rich enough and smart enough to keep manoeuvring stay in the top spot.

Just a guess, though, based on not much at all

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I'd agree with that... and yet I hope for the opposite.

[wakka]

Likewise, yeah.

[MartyG]

Everyone knows that, outside of KotOR, the greatest Star Wars game is Darkforces. There's a fan remake in VR in the works, sadly not yet available to download but if you're a supporter on Patreon, you can get hold of the demo.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-02-20-play-star-wars-dark-forces-in-vr-thanks-to-this-stellar-new-fan-remake

[Asura]

Everyone knows that, outside of KotOR, the greatest Star Wars game is Darkforces. There's a fan remake in VR in the works, sadly not yet available to download but if you're a supporter on Patreon, you can get hold of the demo.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...new-fan-remake

This is probably pretty good - I've played the fan versions of Doom & Quake, and they were fantastic. Though they're definitely only for people with strong VR-legs.

[Atticus]

Yeah, sod that. I couldn’t even play Dark Forces on the pc without going grey and sweaty.

[huxley]

Couple of decent VR demos have dropped on steam
Green Hell

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1782330/Green_Hell_VR/

Hubris

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1265800/Hubris/

[huxley]

Gabe for the word!

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/gabe-newell-metaverse/

I hate the way Zuckerburk has used the Meta tag as if he came up with it. I`m sure it was all to kill the constant negative press at the time.

[huxley]

Fun historical look at VR

[Asura]

Finally finished RAW DATA by Survios.

It's a bit old now. It's essentially a tower defense game - of sorts - played like a first-person shooter. In truth though the tower elements are lite and you do most of the shooting yourself.

It's instructive, because I know that for many, it was one of the first games to appear on Oculus Rift with some degree of polish, that was more than, well, a glorified tech demo. RAW DATA is still a bit tech demo-y because they do a lot with not very much; like many of the stages are reused and being a tower defense, it's quite static (apart from one of the levels where you go on more of a journey).

But it tried many things. Some worked, some didn't. I particularly hated the bit where you have to fight amid a cloud of hallucinogens; the visual effect is really quite something but it's just irritating and goes on too long. Plus there are many things about the interface; suffice to say, the industry was still working out how to "do" an FPS in VR at the time, and RAW DATA cracked some things, and failed at others.

Overall though, I think it's pretty fun. Certainly gets very frantic in parts, and you get to feel very Equilibrium in places. When that's firing on all cylinders it's fantastic fun.

I'd say pick it up in a sale.

[Asura]

I just received these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002797889784.html

They have an elastic band which goes over your knuckles that means you can fully open your hand without dropping the controller. Going to try them tonight with Alyx.

[concretesnail]

I use something similar to those, can't remember which makes though off the top of my head, but they are great. Makes releasing thrown objects much more intuitive.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.androidcentral.com/quest-2-2021-most-sold

In 2021, 80% of VR headsets sold were Oculus Quest 2's