Whilst the real world shouts of the arrival of a virtual one, we are yet to find the perfect game or genre to play in such a VR or virtual world, with much controlled and one sided debate(?), some of it in shorts, on what makes a good VR or HMD gaming experience ..usually by the developers of said VR hardware or investors in that hardware ...which now over 3 years hasn't produced a single killer VR game.. or head set..
JC thought it was Doom back in the pre dev kit one days, the community screamed for Sword Art Online, still does, space combat and puzzle games dominate the current indie VR scene, that Sony see the limitless possibilities of VR as demonstrable by being locked in a shark cage really speaks volumes....all..unsurprisingly fall short of young Johnny or Jenny Minecraft's expectations ...much as "VR" and HMD hardware does ..at this embryonic stage.
None of these are THE game that will be played most by HMD users, or ever I venture have the honour of being requested by Game of Thrones cast members .. Hodor!!
Finding that game requires a VR gamer .. And great presence of mind (pun intended Mr Abrash) ..
The Elder Scrolls Online is THAT game *
Q.E.D.
* outside Minecraft for ages 3 and 1/2 to 7 and 3/4..
* outside Minecraft for ages 3 and 1/2 to 7 and 3/4..
let me show you why ... got HMDs? Then light 'em if you gottem..
It was a coastal town... they were about to throw down..
... dancing singing launching fireballs into the air with horses a leaping and a few people and non people attempting to do unsavoury things on the floor .. unsuccessfully I might add ..
This was the scene 27 hours( so Raptr tells me) into my 2nd Beta test of The Elder Scrolls Online.. the end of Beta... celebrations.. celebrations that I, as Abrash would say was able to grace with my "presence"
Every day is NOT silent and grey ..
27 hours plus however much time I spent in the first Beta in Tamriel in TriDef 3D using three different HMDs the Cinemizer OLED, smd ST1080 and Oculus Rift Dev Kit (1) .. attaining a state as close to NirVRana as current tech allows
NirVRana : Defn : a Zen like state of being where every one of your senses is functional and experienced in a game or VR world indistinguishably from the same sense in reality :Zen VR masters are able to transcend reality (and kickstarter) altogether and exist on another level ..some have mistaken for the Hell of Doom 3 ..or more recently a shark cage on PS4.. NB "presence" is but a grain of sand soiling the long and winding path to true NirVRana .. NirVRana also differs from presence in being a deliberately comical construct ..
It was on the path to NirVRana .. lost in Tamriel..or perhaps just high from Rift Nausea and foam.. the following startling truths were revealed to me..
1. The Elder Scrolls Online is the finest HMD or potential VR experience in existence..stuff all your indie games or so called VR flight or combat sim, stuck in a shark cage demos ... Tamriel was made for 3D and VR which was made for Tamriel .. this is so cool it may endanger the arrival of the Facebook Metaverse ....as Team Oculus give up on dev chores and go live in Tamriel.. perhaps Abrash, JC and Palmer will meet in Tamriel and craft Dev kit 3.. safe from the Reddit hordes.. and send out an enchantment to 3D Print it in the real world .. wait that's MR .. let's not get ahead of ourselves ..
2. The Elder Scrolls Online is going to be THE most played and requested game on HMDs of all kinds in LFOV 3D, WFOV Facebook Oculus VR and Sony PMVR ( Project Morpheus VR.. new tech ...new acronyms)
3. If you are not playing in 3D ..you are not playing... the game launch screen alone with it's brook extending off into the distance ..will floor you ..
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| 1080p side by side TriDef DX11 3D view on Rift, smd ST1080 and Sony Project Morpheus HMDs (yes you can.. just view this through a browser on PS4) I dare you (JC) not to say wow when you experience this ..in motion |
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| 1080p top bottom TriDef 3D view on Cinemizer OLED, smd ST1080 and Sony HMZT series ..you may notice saving up for all these HMDs ..leaves me no money for footwear.. wait.. long haired hippy type...barefoot .. I can hear the venture capitalists knocking at my cellar door.. |
5. If you are Bethesda .. reading this .. very little work needs to be done to optimise TESO for VR and non VR HMD use .. in fact none for LFOV HMDs..
Walk with me then in VR Tamriel .. as we attempt to close the Rift between great gaming, great VR and HMD gaming ..and VRy bad Rift puns and jokes..
Taking a look over the course of the last two TESO Betas .. how and why the Daedric Lords revealed this prophecy to me ..
The Elder Scrolls Online bridges the gap between legacy gaming and VR gaming .. better than any other game to date..
And crossing that "bridge" in Tamriel, is a stunning experience wearing your ST1080, Oculus Rift .. or Cinemizer OLED HMD .. time for some VR visual metaphors...
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| the bridge between gaming and VR gaming |
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| is one I crossed many times in The Elder Scrolls Online Beta |
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| sometimes having to battle the odd Rift Troll blocking the way ... something I am at least a Level 50 veteran at already.. |
A tale of Two Betas :
I played the opening level of TESO using the Cinemizer OLED HMD with Zeiss head tracking in 1080p TriDef 3D. With this LFOV micro OLED HMD you feel the dark, 0 nausea and 0 visible pixels..the head tracking just works... On a 40 inch display.. you wear put on and take off like a pair of shades ..
This is the HMD that you take on a plane with you, or can use in Shibuya Capsule hotel .. all without any discomfort.. this is one of two HMDs ..that I had with me at E3 and Eurogamer last year ( both together weighing less than a Rift) and could have shown the devs of any game on any device ...including TESO.. you as a developer have to do nothing to alter your code for .. your game already works .. on PC, console, next gen Console, iOS and Android phone... What no one told you? Naughty Internet..
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| try this scene with your HMZT , smd or Cinemizer to FEEL the depth of the environment .. |
It helps that ESO's designers .. design, craft and enchant their gaming world with as much fervor and dedication as it's most loyal players craft and enchant armor, weapons and spells.
With the Cinemizer and other HMDs you start to go into tourism mode ... of course you know you are not there .. but you might as well take a look around whilst you are...
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| a bland boring shot right ...wrong in 3D on the Cinemizer those chains are high up extending out towards you and you just looked up to notice them via head tracking ..the room is empty because you are the only one that noticed .. this detail or experienced it ..every one else just ran through a flat corridor on their screen .. missing the vertical detail ..the detail that some designer added to make you feel you were present in a game world rather than corridor.. |
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| on a PC monitor this is a bland lifeless normal picture ..played with the Cinemizer OLED you should FEEL that hand reaching out of the darkness towards you ..simple augmented reactions like this contribute to overall immersion |
Why is any of this relevant ?
My Dark Passenger ...
In TESO, atmosphere, layers of darkness punctuated with neon magics, glimmering fire and shimmering water with trademark Bethesda sound scapes all combine to place you in the game world better than any other game ..to connect you to it. That's before we get to the story or characters . Thus I can totally subjectively ( that one's for you JC) say Mr Abrash that TESO is a beyond presence experience .. as close to NirVRana as current HMD gaming gets
NB HMD use and VR are a subjective experience..much like your own individual experience or memory of a book, film or song...the challenge is how many people you can bring along for the ride, share that experience..and maintain that experience .. over the course of a full game ...in the case of TESO ..this has to work over months to years .. 4 minutes of "presence" in an empty room ..is just a beginning..
These are some shots I took as I traversed this level, noting elements of the game world that stand out and are augmented by HMD use..
NB HMD use and VR are a subjective experience..much like your own individual experience or memory of a book, film or song...the challenge is how many people you can bring along for the ride, share that experience..and maintain that experience .. over the course of a full game ...in the case of TESO ..this has to work over months to years .. 4 minutes of "presence" in an empty room ..is just a beginning..
These are some shots I took as I traversed this level, noting elements of the game world that stand out and are augmented by HMD use..
Fire
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| in the game this is a fleeting moment , incidental detail , which in 3D on a HMD with head tracking just makes you want to stick around and "experience" the game world..plus it looks stunning .. Light and Dark |
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| less is most definitely more TESOs most atmospheric locations in 3D on HMDs often appear to have the least physical detail but generate a deeper "presence" than high poly counts or complex level design... |
Depth
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| as you can see I spent a considerable amount of time trying to capture and attain the beyond "presence" state of NirVRana .. |
Yet More Depth
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| which without the BS means TESO in 3D on a HMD will simply floor you .. (if the Rift nausea doesn't ..though Mr Zuckerberg..for health reasons please remember to take breaks when using Dev Kit 3 ..) Scale |
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| the Dude Huge of this Tamriel prison is actually the size of a mouse in real life though his VR alter ego would like to disagree with you..and anyone else critiquing his friends..looks stunning on the HMD though.. Elevation  Height |
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| whether by divine providence or happy accident of design TESO is the perfect HMD and VR game ..the closest you will get to attaining NirVRana with this generation of gaming ..or HMDs |
I purposely included shots with darkness present as : Day night cycles and darkness are used as game mechanics in TESO .. the world looks beautiful in 2D in daylight scenes ..but generates some of it's finest moments and derives a lot of it's atmosphere from dark catacombs, night time battles .. the haze of dusk ...
The micro OLEDs of the Cinemizer really augment this experience .. which is why for me I looked forward to every dark dank dungeon and day night transformation in ESO .. after experiencing the intro level this way ..
You can play for any reasonable length of time that you would on your PC monitor.. I only stopped to move on to other HMDs ..
This is the above level being played on the Cinemizer OLED : Watch my Cinemizer ghost to see the head tracking at work.. over a sustained period there is no perceptible drift, lag or random failure present as you can see JC ..
Issues
HUD text needs to be larger, other than that TESO is perfectly suited to play with the Cinemizer OLED HMD, right now .. just plug and play using TriDef's standard display top bottom, frame packed 3D .. and at 1080p (scaled) res too..
I made it through the wilderness..
Elevation
Depth
height
feel any of that?
With this HMD we can use top bottom, over under and frame packed 3D .. Depending on the game you play ..the way it is designed ...one method may be more effective or suited to the way your brain interprets 3D .. I chose 1080p side by side for this test : partly because you cannot take snapshots of frame packed 3D...
I use one of my ST1080s in transparent or AR mode always .. which is not ideal for so called immersion but let's me type this on the monitor behind me, through the HMD screen on which I am playing TESO in 3D ...with head tracking.. Interestingly as long as your background is not a powered source of light or sky you still see a near opaque HMD screen.. even with the light blocker off ..
Issues : none the 100 inch TriDef 3D screen looks stunning, that I am powering it with a USB lead never gets old . The ST1080 is the first HMD you can read that text clearly on that 100 inch display ..ideally though we want to move the HUD to the centre and enlarge text in menus..
Both these HMDs are portable, I took both on the same flight and gave one to my fellow passenger whilst I used the other ...
If your HMD is not portable you need to be near your PS4 or PC to feel that ole black VR magic Abrash coined as "presence" and that I am bashing here ...
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| you are going to want to stop and watch the sunlight glimmer on the water that ripples and bends your shadow that you can feel the distance to below you .. on the road to NirVRana |
This is an example where versatility of function of light weight LFOV HMDS trumps a lack of the same in WFOV VR HMDS of this generation...
You feel 0 nausea or see 0 screen door or pixels using either..
Isn't it Ironic ..
That I then went and spent the entire second day of the TESO Beta playing on the Oculus Rift
The Elder Scrolls Online Beta 2 1080p SBS TriDef 3D Oculus Rift Dev Kit 1
Method : this uses my tried and tested, non patented method of sans Warp Rift gaming
or How to play a DX11 game using TriDef 3D on the Rift
Do not use the Oculus Rift Beta settings in the TriDef menu!
1.Set your Display to 1080p res or 4K if you are using Dev Kit 3 (Marshmallow Unicorn)
2.Using TriDef 3D set the display to standard, 3D model to side by side
2.1 Start TriDef 3D and add a game manually , adding TESO
3. Select a generic profile for TESO
4. Start the game
Now at a very basic level the Rift ( or Morpheus) will display side by side content as any 3D TV would to your eyes ...in you guessed it 3D..
The level of warp, geometrical warp that is done in software seems to be more significant than the level of optical warping the Rift lens does ..at least in Dev Kit 1 .. what this means is even without the geometrical warp the image you see is not bent out of shape ..as some people expect.
You do lose the outer 4 corners and base line of the screen..but you still get to play TESO on your Rift in DX11 ..whilst we wait for the update to the Rift Beta .. and in a game like TESO you turn to turn the FOV anyway ..
Now hit Alt Shit V to switch off Power 3D ( you want it on for the Cinemizer OLED and ST1080 and off for the Rift). This should deal with some cross talk or doubling of the fore ground .. with a third person game you may need to adjust TriDef settings to prevent the third person model doubling ..there are several methods of doing this .. using screen depth and custom focus .. mess around with these and you will find a setting that works for your particular game and your individual anatomy .. the short cuts can be brought up on the PC monitor you are mirroring the Rift content to by hitting ALT SHIFT and F1 together..
Once you have found a setting save the profile, you can apply this to other games you want to play with the Rift. You can play ANY PC game in this way.. this is how I was TVRKING Arma III and Bioshock Infinite back in May 2013 ..
ISSUES : most of the HUD is useless, but we can move the HUD or play without it .. I could play the whole game this way .. after all why would there be HUDS in VR .. surely this would diminish the sense of "presence" and certainly lead you to stray from the path of attaining NirVRana ..
there is another issue that may diminish the Abrash Presence or thegameveda NirVRana level you attain using the Rift :
Mitigating nausea is not the solution .. ELIMINATING nausea is the only thing that will make this WFOV FOV2GO derived HMD design commercially viable ..
there is another issue that may diminish the Abrash Presence or thegameveda NirVRana level you attain using the Rift :
Nausea : yes you will feel some , but playing sans Rift warp has always helped me with this .. I played for hours .. as you can see .. what was also critical is the head tracker I use does not fail or alter function randomly..
And here we come to the reality of wide field of view HMDS at this stage in HMD evolution all WFOV HMDs will produce nausea due to the fact that honestly WFOV HMD design is at the Stone Age part of it's evolution .. place two magnifying lenses in front of a pair of LG L3s or any other coming 2K phone display and you have a 2K per eye WFOV HMD .. better than CV1 of the Rift, Project Morpheus or the Valve prototype.. however though I am sure others have tested this .. all WFOV HMDs based on this FOV2GO design share one characteristic NAUSEA.. which is a clinical optical neurological phenomenon, which after 3 years of at least two companies developing HMDS independently along this path ..Sony and Facebook OVR .. we should be noting is a function of WFOV FOV2GO based HMDs ..
Further evidence: Recently Sony cancelled the Project Morpheus VR version of their fabled VR driving game .. because of NAUSEA
Thus we have irrefutable data/evidence from two independently WFOV FOV2GO derived HMD design teams producing products that produce Nausea..
Mitigating nausea is not the solution .. ELIMINATING nausea is the only thing that will make this WFOV FOV2GO derived HMD design commercially viable ..
Caveat :
I would say to the three OVR Amigos Abrash,Carmack and Luckey.. first ola seniors .. second congrats again on the Facebook buyout and third and most important that The Elder Scrolls Online IS the most PLEASANT Oculus Rift experience I have had in over 10 months of testing games with it .. the pace of the game, the gentler head tracking movements, the scale and beauty of the world , the soundscapes and atmosphere all of the things I note make it perfect for HMD gaming also apply to VR gaming ..and it's current shortcomings
So I can live with the pain on the Rift for a game this good, sorry for an experience this good.
It also happens to be the most requested game to play on the Rift ..
With the first Beta over .. I set about uploading all this video .. and presently in my inbox came the invite for a second Beta.. with the client updated it was time to see if all of the above was just a wonderful delusion ... which if you know .. can be real sometimes..
The Elder Scrolls Online Beta 2 16/03/14, 17/03/14
Cinemizer OLED
On the Cinemizer OLED (and the smd ST1080) we have the option of playing in 2D as well as 3D.. head tracking still works of course .. so if your hardware cannot handle 3D, or your wetware cannot handle 3D, or if you are playing on an Xbox One or PS4 .. you can still play TESO.. on these HMDs .. like so..
The Elder Scrolls Online Oculus Rift 1080p sbs TriDef 3D Zeiss Head Tracking Beta 2 part I,II ,III
What follows are 3 sustained plays of TESO with the Rift Dev Kit 1: these are real gaming sessions, just 3 I could upload in the time I had.. but you can see we can play this game on Rift and for considerable amounts of time..
You may be totally useless at fighting or combat in MMOs .. at an early point in TESO you start working things out in your own way and time .. pretty soon you are pulling off combos, combining with fellow travelers to take on adversaries, experimenting and learning at your own pace ..as a result far more skilled and satisfying than just mouse clicking or hitting the number keys .. blocks, dodges counter attacks and exploits all start weaving their way into your combat..
Where other MMOs have you following or chasing or dragging a cursor, TESO has you focusing on looking at your enemy and looking for a weakness .. or exploit
And this makes playing it with head tracking on a HMD the perfect way to play.
TESO is the greatest experience you can have with your Oculus Rift Dev Kit 1 or 2 (of?) . After 10 or so months TVRKING the Rift, playing TESO with which is the best experience ( with a a Rift!) I have had .. or could recommend to anyone.
Take a trip into VR Tamriel and you will soon realize TESO is THE most significant game for mass HMD and VR use to take off.
So with all due respect to VR Creationists ... I believe in the augmented gamer .. evolving how we game and evolving VR and HMD use .. point in case I could have spent 4 minutes in a shark cage on PS4 with Project Morpheus or 4 minutes in a Crystal Cove space ship .. I just spent 27 hours in The Elder Scrolls Online .. in VR and 3D .. which do you think Mr Carmack , Luckey , Abrash and Yoshida san ..is going to be more popular with real world gamers outside controlled show demo environments and industry insider speeches? And which do you think is more relevant to the evolution of the consumer HMD and VR in general ..?
The HMD developer that gives the users what they want ...listens to what they want to play as opposed to force feeding them game ideas rooted in late night highlighting sessions of 90s scifi .. will emerge victorious..content is king.... all it takes is Microsoft turning up with HALO VR or Nintendo with Mario and Zelda VR (Metroid VR?) and everything just gets reset .. mayhaps GabeN will gift OVR Half Life 3.. ?
Experiencing or living games like The Elder Scrolls Online with a world so carefully crafted and wholly crafted could take half a decade to arrive in pure VR form.. it took Rare 5 years to produce Goldeneye on an N64 .... the issue with pure VR gaming is as the hardware devs have started to admit .. the hardware, display and input tech has issues within issues and cannot be finalized ..development is in a chaotic embryonic and Darwinian state of change,adaptation and evolution which the more astute of you will have gathered does not sit well with VR Creationists...who believe VR was created in a matter of days back in 2012 ..
What then for the VR or HMD fan?
It is a stunning waste of current technology not to allow non VR gaming on HMDs like the Rift and Project Morpheus... and there is no reason why you could not have been playing whatever you wanted to with your Rift over the last 10 months which is what I have been doing ..from day 1 with Arma III and Bioshock Infinite to TESO .. and Titanfall ..
Get me a PS4 Project Morpheus Dev Kit and I will be working out how to play Metal Gear Solid V, Killzone and Second Son on it ..whilst Sony decides whether to let the diver out of the shark cage.. or which game is suitable for VR .. or HMD use ..
This is the difference between a pilot or driver and the engineer that builds the hardware they use..
VR and HMD design has to move to a pilot/driver led evolution with the engineers sitting out the VR sermons ..or 5 years from now we will have excellent VR gaming engines with 0 public engagement .. as every one and their toddler scoots off to play Flappy Bird 12 instead once again consigning VR gaming to scifi..and that includes the developers that are so vital to kickstarting (in the less bitter taste leaving sense of the word) the so called VR gaming revolution..
I have much more to do with augmenting how we play TESO, but that is for another time, right which reminds me I have to go buy it now to play the full game ..
See you in Tamriel .. and remember don't feed the VR sharks..the bite back's killer..
Epilogue and Thanks
1. Bethesda thanks for the Invites and such an awesome game
2. Carl Zeiss
3. siliconmicrodisplay
4. Oculus VR
5. DDD and TriDef 3D .. stunning as always
Find out more about the gear I use
Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED + Zeiss Head Tracker
Siliconmicrodisplay ST1080
Oculus Rift
this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/ if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached
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