Cyberith Virtualizer ODT

Its like they specifically made this with all my complaints about the omni in mind. This looks fantastic. I never even considered getting the omni, but this looks great.

Most people seem to miss the fact that the way you move on the Cyberith appear to be absolutly unnatural (That said we'll only be able to clarify this assumption when more users have a chance to test both the Cyberith Virtualizer and the Omni). Sure the Omni isn't perfect either on this point (You still need to lean forward to walk, putting a part of your weight on the harness) but at least it appears to come way closer to natural walking than the Virtualizer.

I want to make clear that i'm far from being a Virtuix fanboy, they kinda failed to properly communicate on the developpement of their product (I did not manage to find a "developper blog" like there is for the oculus rift). It's just that a priori the Omni is the only one of those two products to have the main feature i look for : almost natural walking and running.

Most importantly i agree with everybody on the fact that this competition is very healthy for us users. I just find that it would be regrettable if at the end, the standard adopted by the major part of the industry to move in VR would be led by a better communication campaign from one of the two competitor.

Looks like Virtuix also noticed that this is the better concept. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK4V4JR4fgs

Although i tried none of them, to me it seems more natural to walk on a flat plate than in some curved surface. Also Cyberith took care of the cable problem which otherwise would only be solved if you would get a special-made fancy fair rollup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19k9E16PB1s

The mainproblem of both concepts (feltsocks and/or teflon) is to find the right spot between slipery-enough-so-its-not-too-exausting and enough-friction-that-it-feels-real. Basically it's controlled slipping and sliding with both of them.

A combination with the vrwalker shoes http://www.vrwalkerproject.com/ (if they get real) would be perfect, but again most likely better with the flat surface.

How is Virtualizer (or Omni) going to work with DK2 and it's positional tracking? It relies on the camera which obviously won't be in front of us at all times when we use these treadmills.

A flat surface makes more sense if it had friction and you were moving by pushing off with your toes, like with real treadmills. On a slick surface where you don't actually move forwards, it leads to shuffle walking while leaning entirely on the harness. In the videos he spends a lot of time with his feet planted and both feet behind his body, kind of like he was pushing an immovable object in front of him on a slippery floor.

Note quite walking, whether this works better than the Omni or not, no one will know until someone not affiliated with either side has spent quality time on both.

"BlackMage" wrote:
Note quite walking, whether this works better than the Omni or not, no one will know until someone not affiliated with either side has spent quality time on both.

x1000

I really want to see a back-to-back comparison review made by a mainstream site such as The Verge / Engadget / Road to VR.

I canceled my Omni order last week and just backed the virtualizer. A bit expensive considering no shoes but A much better design and for me living in Europe probably a lot less delivery cost.

"volv88" wrote:
How is Virtualizer (or Omni) going to work with DK2 and it's positional tracking? It relies on the camera which obviously won't be in front of us at all times when we use these treadmills.

I am hoping and praying that Oculus follow Sony's lead and add LED's to the back for full 360 degree rotation. Assuming they still use optical tracking for CV1.

"Mrob76o" wrote:
A bit expensive considering no shoes but A much better design and for me living in Europe probably a lot less delivery cost.

How much would your shipping be? I thought paying 429$ for the Omni was paying a lot (+100$ for shipping) if my wife saw me buy a platform for 1000$ I'd need divorce papers too... I guess they both have their niche; People with less money and people with more!

Looks like Cyberith's response to the "it's not like walking normally" and "you can't run" complaints is this speed-matched video of the Virtualiser vs. a linear treadmill. Walking and jogging looks like a VERY similar gait, but flat-out sprinting definitely shows a difference.

"edzieba" wrote:
Looks like Cyberith's response to the "it's not like walking normally" and "you can't run" complaints is this speed-matched video of the Virtualiser vs. a linear treadmill. Walking and jogging looks like a VERY similar gait, but flat-out sprinting definitely shows a difference.

Honestly the nitpicking about ODTs in the VR community is insane IMO. Yeah, so it's not perfect, 1:1 holodeck esque natural walking but it beats the HELL out of a thumbstick or WASD + mouse turning. By miles.

Also I don't see myself full-out sprinting very often anyway.

If the Rift got as much flak for not being 1:1 perfect full-dive VR, we'd constantly be hearing:

The Rift isn't like jacking into the Matrix, therefore monitors are better in every way and will always be so.

If the Rift is an acceptable VR solution, limitations aside, then the same applies to the ODTs. They are better than thumbsticks, even if they aren't perfect, period. Yet we constantly get people going on about how "OMG this isn't perfect so it's worse than a thumbstick!"