At a time when Oculus is doing front facing standing VR, HTC Vive is doing roomscale, everyone seems to be replacing foot movement with teleportation mechanics (or even not moving at all), and Virtuix Omni is cancelling international pre-orders as it switches from an affordable home product to an expensive high end public product... I am left wondering what the state of VR treadmills in December 2016 is...
Like does anyone here currently own one, and more importantly (manage to) use one on the Oculus Store products ?
While the treadmill sounds like a good idea on paper, I'm not sure we'll see one in anything other than commercial grade solutions for quite some time and even there what you lose in locomotion is unlikely to be made up for in gameplay. It's a true VR gimmick because it creates a lot of challenges and solves none, it's like a 3d television: a half measure, novel but ultimately largely useless.
As the platform matures people will find the experiences most suited for it, or that seem to work best. Right now the 'wave shooter' is pretty popular because it's compatible with most setups and gets around most of the limitations of VR, ie: lack of physicality. I'm guessing treadmills will be more like the custom controllers that people build for simulators. Tailored to very specialized experiences with limited products, hence that commerical arcade use is more likely. So I'd say the outlook for VR treadmills is that they aren't going to happen for quite some time. It's more likely we'll find new methods of interaction before they become practical.
I agree. Now they've all pulled out of the home market, I suspect their window of opportunity in that market is over. If they try to come back in five years, we'll have found something else that works better (or, at least, adequately) by then.
These may be VR's "NES Power Glove", but I still want to buy a unit before they go belly-up if they do.
It's more like they can't keep up with the demand (their backlog is almost 2 years long), and they're handpicking their customers. So turns out there is a demand for VR treadmills (in the tens of thousands), it's just that they can't produce them fast enough.
So in the Brave New Future of VR, everything has to match the layout of my house?
Not a lot of room for a Skyrim dungeon in my basement, dude.
If you start with the requirement that everything must fit in your basement then you have to use a treadmill.
Hmm, that's a funny requirement. You don't see that come up when people are arguing for room scale. With room scale people ignore the boundaries of the physical area and purport the ability to freely move about. Ignoring the physical boundaries is part of the fallacy. I am glad you recognize that. But if you truly want to do away with physical boundaries then you have to go untethered inside out tracking so you can do X-scale. You are right... basements are not X-sized so you have to go out into the real world generally.
kevinw729, good points. These may be VR's "NES Power Glove", but I still want to buy a unit before they go belly-up if they do. Because I don't want to wait 5-10 years for some delicious FPS locomotion!
The most important thing, other than the actual device, would be the support of said device. Unless you know how to maintain and fix any issues with the Treadmill, you'll eventually have a huge brick in your home, should they go belly up and you can't find any replacement parts. As with any electronics, it's not a matter of "If" they break, it's "When".
I'm one of the backers of the Virtuix Omni and that will be the last tech-based project I EVER back on any site especially Kickstarter. It seems like they spend more time at conventions than communicating with their backers. Although it is quite a surprise that they are willing to refund international backers plus 3% interest, it still sucks for them and I would not be surprised if the same happened for backers in the U.S.
I contacted them last week for a status update and they could not even give me an estimate even though I should be near the top of the list.
Part of me wants to cancel but on the other hand I would feel like I got ripped off for funding the development of a product I never received. I am glad that the few that have received it are enjoying it. Between the Touch and Perception Neuron, that should be enough to keep me occupied until I receive the good or bad news about the Omni.
Assuming some of these are accessible, it looks like a lot of these Treadmills are using specialized shoes. What I'm wondering is how practical it would be for Guests? Part of the fun of VR for me is sharing it with others, and entertaining people with it. Buying various shoe in different sizes seems a bit much.
I remember seeing some demos using just socks, so I'm not sure if that's an option for all of them.
So in the Brave New Future of VR, everything has to match the layout of my house?
Not a lot of room for a Skyrim dungeon in my basement, dude.
If you start with the requirement that everything must fit in your basement then you have to use a treadmill.
Hmm, that's a funny requirement. You don't see that come up when people are arguing for room scale. With room scale people ignore the boundaries of the physical area and purport the ability to freely move about. Ignoring the physical boundaries is part of the fallacy. I am glad you recognize that. But if you truly want to do away with physical boundaries then you have to go untethered inside out tracking so you can do X-scale. You are right... basements are not X-sized so you have to go out into the real world generally.
You're claiming that the future of VR is everyone walking around the real world and the computer translating that into a game environment. That means every single VR game has to match your real environment. That means the vast majority of current games will be impossible. To walk across Skyrim, I'll have to walk three miles through something that's laid out exactly like a modern city.
Which part of this is proving difficult to understand?
