The next wave of players: AH3 and VR headsets?

[Brooke]

There is a lot of discussion these days on ways to increase players in AH.

Things sometimes run in cycles -- and a new cycle is just starting with VR going mainstream.

One thing that seems very exciting to me is that if HTC can get AH3 bundled with VR headsets (or listed in their materials), that might be the magical solution.

AH3 could be the first and main combat flight sim as this wave of VR grows, with sales of VR headsets starting to get quite large, relatively speaking.  AH3 could be one of the small number of games to fully use VR in these early days.

Also, the main VR headset contenders include (or soon will include) control devices that could be used to control the plane perhaps nearly as well as a joystick and certainly more intuitively than a mouse, so that lowers barrier to entry a great deal.  Also, AH3's use of those controllers will enhance the probability of AH3 getting bundled or mentioned in their materials.

Let us hail the growing wave of VR, hope that AH3 can get bundled or listed, and see what it brings us! 

[8thJinx]

I think my wife would throw all my stuff out the second floor window onto the lawn if she walked in and saw me wearing VR head gear.  But that's just me.

[Chris79]

What's VR gear cost? I figure it will be somewhat pricey

[Brooke]

Expense isn't the important point -- it's how many are sold.  Oculus has already sold 100,000, and the market is in its infancy.  Market-research companies estimate that many millions of VR headsets will be sold over the next several years.

Let's say 0.5-1M are sold in the next year -- that's a lot of potential market for AH3 if it can get bundled or listed, especially if it is the only combat flight sim in the list.

[MADe]

IMO,
VR will most likely crash and burn, as a fad.

You can fool the mind thru filling the entire field of vision but you will never get the sensations of gravity, the diving, the rolls those things that define...flying will not happen. The amount of time to learn your controllers blind will scare away many.....its also bit pricey to find out you hate it.
IMO
 

[Brooke]

Lot's of people are betting lots of money that VR will be quite big and predict that more than 10 million VR headsets will be sold in the next several years.  It is merely the next stage of interaction, foreseen for a long time.  Technology just had to get good enough to enable it.  We are now there.

Right now Oculus alone has already sold 100,000 of them, and it is a ripe market for AH3 at the moment (given that Oculus's sales are moving way up, and there are several other VR headset manufacturers adding to that volume).  My hope is that HTC can benefit from it.  Even if VR headsets were to flop in the future, they are a great market for AH3 right now.

[Ack-Ack]

What's VR gear cost? I figure it will be somewhat pricey

No more than a set of premium controllers, the HDK OSVR starts at $299.

[shotgunneeley]

IMO,
VR will most likely crash and burn, as a fad.

You can fool the mind thru filling the entire field of vision but you will never get the sensations of gravity, the diving, the rolls those things that define...flying will not happen. The amount of time to learn your controllers blind will scare away many.....its also bit pricey to find out you hate it.
IMO
 

I've heard mixed things - early on I read quite a few reviews expounding on the technical hurdles and the capital needed to gamble on then weak market interest. What Brooke says is encouraging with sales picking up and positive word-of-mouth spreading - that will certainly drive ingenuity and improved features.

Operating a PS4/XBox simple game controller with a VR headset probably wouldn't be too challenging to get used to, but a PC game would be something else with the separate keyboard, mouse and joystick. They would have to develop these external pieces to register within the VR device as well as wired gloves for hands so the operator could maintain hand-eye coordination with the controls. I'd be interested for both improved immersion and view control, but I'm not quite ready to hop aboard yet.

[Skuzzy]

Check the Youtube video demonstration using the HTC Vive controllers, instead of the mouse.  It is a first pass demonstration of the interface.  FYI:  For those who do not know.  At the beginning of the video you see the hand on the tower floor.  It is showing you where the Vive controller is so you can pick it up.

I'll say this about the current generation of VR headsets.  They really do add a lot more immersion to the game.  They also make it much easier to track targets and allow you to concentrate more on flying and shooting.  The Oculus is incredibly smooth in panning and motion.  The Vive controllers are also very smooth.

[Randy1]

. . .  They also make it much easier to track targets and allow you to concentrate more on flying and shooting.  . . .

The one i tried, there is no doubt, there is a playing advantage in tracking and in FOV for shooting in near full scale like views.

Come Halloween, blood could be dripping off the hand.   Then on leap day, a three finger salute.

[Brooke]

Sweet!

[zack1234]

Scratch and sniff cards would be good

Yak9T scratch and sniff

[Wiley]

Got to admit the interactive cockpit stuff is interesting, but I'm just more excited for the display and head tracking being 1:1.  I can use my keyboard just fine by touch, and HOTAS is HOTAS, so I'm not worried about it.

I really wish I could find a demo unit to putz with just to see how it works with me.  Haven't run across one yet though.

Leap Motion front mounted on a VR headset is exciting to me, but I wonder how that would ultimately work out with no tactile feedback.

That kind of stuff is not going to be on this computer though, just not enough horsepower to run it politely.

Wiley.

[NatCigg]

i think ill tell the wife. "its like buying another monitor, a really nice one.  we can buy one now or i smash our old monitor and buy one to replace our broken monitor." 

[Brooke]

I'm most excited by it being a possible angle for more people into AH.

A market that can be reached by AH3 at a time when AH3 might have no competition in there yet and when the market is expanding like crazy.  1 million people with VR headsets and one combat flight sim to go to.

That's what I like best! 

I'm hoping HTC can get bundled or mentioned in the list of games that is pushed with the VR product.