![[PSA] Patchnotes February 2020](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/-clAXsf7X4P6yfMSHyQNkTBsbvme0VmEsfuyU-2gIEE.jpg "[PSA] Patchnotes February 2020") | https://preview.redd.it/t79preeab1e61.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4d364e66b71bdb81f140d86ce0d6a9f678812da7 submitted by TheSailingRobin to WoWs_Legends [link] [comments] Server maintenance is scheduled to take place on February 1, after which the Update will be pushed to the consoles. Maintenance times:
EN: https://wowsl.co/3qU08loDE: https://wowsl.co/2NCzoYuFR: https://wowsl.co/3ojappLRU: https://wowsl.co/3a4sO4nJP: https://wowsl.co/36dWj2SES-MX: https://wowsl.co/3t8i4LgPT-BR: https://wowsl.co/3oew7LuWatch our trailer on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/BgBkQpp_J90It's February, and while we should probably be done with all the celebrations by now, we aren't! Aircraft carriers are coming to Legends as a part of special test event, a branch of British heavy cruisers is arriving in Early Access, a new game mode—Arena—is shaking up the battlefield, and our latest Campaign features the fabled dragon slayer realized in steel—Tier VII German battlecruiser Siegfried. Add to that Lunar New Year content and some balance tweaks, and this Update is bound to make for an exciting start to 2021! Please note: while this Update runs for 5 weeks, the next one will be released on Tuesday, March 9, instead of the usual Monday. https://preview.redd.it/3s9zkpweb1e61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=420e05d6483f8edb291982b343896fa09543d059 https://preview.redd.it/zgq30qgdb1e61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=8c49d4c0c09e23c3f87fda9e255f57ec732df1c6 Air Strike EventAt long last, aircraft carriers are storming into Legends, albeit in a form of a test event. We're starting with Tier III and V ships separated into their own mode for the first 2 weeks of the Update (Feb 1–15). You'll be able to try out Japanese carriers III Hōshō and V Ryūjō, as well as their American counterparts, III Langley and V Ranger. To command the new ships you'll get the help of Ernest King for the U.S. flattops and Tamon Yamaguchi for the Japanese machines.To get yourself behind the helm of one of the carriers you'll first have to win a couple of battles in this mode playing a non-carrier. We understand that most of you will be interested in playing carriers rather than against them, therefore the Airstrike mode has bots added to fill the battles, considering that only one carrier per side is allowed. Another important point is that we’ll allow our volunteers and a few randomly selected players to get carriers right away (ostensibly, just two battles before everyone else) to collect more data. We understand that they will have a bit more experience with the ship type at the moment of release, but that curve will flatten within the first week. We hope that you’ll get enough of a first look to give us ample feedback! We plan to bring carriers into the game as a mainstay several Updates after this event. Some important info about carriers in their current form:
You'll be able to use ships of up to Tier VI when playing against the carriers, and you'll want to play the regular ships as there are several sets of available missions! The first batch will be available during week one of the Update, encompassing getting your first carriers (New Dimensions), carrier mastery (Born to Fly), and prowess in battling against them (Born to Swim). Week two will offer similarly titled missions for Tier IV–VI ships. The missions are chained, and Born to Fly can be quite specific with its requirements, so make sure you familiarize yourself with them! https://preview.redd.it/z875xj2gb1e61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=68229327117862428032241c072396d79289388e British Heavy CruisersAn entirely new line of ships is entering our waters in Early Access! There are quite a few differences that these ships possess in comparison with their lighter counterparts. First, they have access to HE shells, and while the ballistic trajectories may be comparatively arced, the per-salvo damage is quite significant, no matter what shell type you use. They are also relatively well armored and have an improved Repair Party consumable that restores significantly more citadel damage than it does for other nations. Additionally, these cruisers have access to Sonar, plus their torpedoes can be launched individually, further improving your tactical freedom. Something, of course, has to give, and that something is speed and maneuverability. You'll have to “play chess” a lot of the time and try to predict your opponents’ movements.To gain Early Access to either of the ships, open the British cruiser crates that are available in the Campaign and in the Store. As usual, the higher the ship tier, the lower the chances of getting her, and big crates offer better chances for all ships. While there's no Tier VII Albermarle available through Early Access, Tier V Premium ship London is among the ships that may drop as a reward. Please check out the drop chances at wowslegends.com/containers before making your purchasing decisions! Among the goods that can drop from the containers is also the Union Jack expendable Camo, which you can convert into the permanent version for any of your ships, including non-British ships. https://preview.redd.it/ripqkx2mb1e61.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d2ddf0a2e932d87be6774aaf612c56ecf7b06e8 The available ships are:
https://preview.redd.it/vqqmok9nb1e61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=547d72cbe277c235bebeb74775b393a10bf9dd17 https://preview.redd.it/uwhcsyxnb1e61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=a440331e645fce7acb77ebae8bd23e997c15cb3c The Dragonslayer CampaignGerman battlecruiser (cruiser in our game) Siegfried is the centerpiece of our new Campaign. She's capable in a multitude of situations, thanks to her powerful guns with strong AP rounds, as well as her torpedoes and Sonar. The ship has found her home at Tier VII among the top competition, and she's ready to take on all comers.Much like the previous Campaign, we're introducing a currency that you'll be able to earn once you're done with the main Campaign—from this Update onwards, it’s Steel. You'll be able to earn it after reaching the final milestone of the Campaign, no matter whether you have the Admiralty Backing or not. However, if you purchase the Campaign prior to the last week, you'll be able to get more Steel from Daily and Weekly Missions. Steel will become an increasingly useful resource as we add ships and other rewards available in exchange for it. The most exciting offer right away is probably going to be USS Missouri, but it will take seasoned Captains several updates to gather enough Steel to obtain her. This Campaign in particular will allow you to amass as much as 1,250 units of Steel, provided that you buy it outright on day one. Otherwise, if you finish it on the first day of week 5, you'll be able to up your Steel count by 250. Other than Missouri, you'll be able to obtain various goods in exchange for Steel, starting with Commander items. More Steel is always going to be available from either Arena or Ranked modes than from Campaigns. The Campaign rewards include the usual array of goods—currencies, XP, Commander items, and so forth, but importantly, there are also several Royal Navy Cruisers crates that might just contain one of the newcomers! All of the available rewards can be found below. https://preview.redd.it/hmx9x83tb1e61.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e38c59fce7042cbd84d5ab28f20e65ee2d64ef5f Rewards you can get without an Admiralty Backing for the Siegfried Campaign:
Additional rewards you can get with the Admiralty Backing (2,500 doubloons)
https://preview.redd.it/cudgn2kub1e61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=54d5732fb97863883556fa2927a45b605c6d683a https://preview.redd.it/tjd4t7xub1e61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=e7f856f70d9ec223ecd06c36fe598d434515e5c8 Arena ModeAnd now for something (mostly) different. We're introducing a new game mode! Arena is a seasonal team death match event that features four teams of three ships. You'll get the chance to show off your skills playing Tier V ships and make a name for yourself across the entire Legends community by climbing the ladder! The first iteration of ladder is going to count all of your ship XP with all possible Boosters applied, so those who play the most and use boosters will come out on top. However, we will try different methods (including those unaffected by Boosters or Premium) later on. Please consider this a test season in this regards, as we plan to use other metrics in the future—not necessarily boostable by anything other than the number of games played. Importantly, the biggest reward of this season (for the top 1% of the leaderboard) is 2,500 units of Steel, which you can either stockpile over several updates to go for USS Missouri (30,000 Steel), or use to get some intermediate goods, such as Commander items.The basic rules are:
Lunar New Year ContentTo commemorate the Lunar New Year celebrations, the home Port will be set to a themed haven and special content will be offered in the Store. You'll get a choice of two ships and a special container, combined in different bundles. This content will become available in the Premium Store on February 12, and we’ll announce the end date for sales separately.https://preview.redd.it/eqwbvi4yb1e61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=3555217121ef0d18c973c2fe0b23c64eb7291ea7 You can expect the following content:
Balance ChangesThere are only a few balance touch ups this time, but all of them were really called for. You'll be the ultimate judge of that, of course!
https://preview.redd.it/70d0uxk3c1e61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=2de9bb139e1a6c3f2d647fe35d767ce9510f1435 Miscellaneous Changes and Improvements
Bug Fixes
New Premium ShipsThe following ships will become available in the Store for doubloons:
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 | submitted by VideoGamesArt to VideoGamesArt [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/megpop9nb3e61.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c806a6bae6d934d1636a133b4fe5152c9a29737e You can read the original article with videos and images here: https://vgartsite.wordpress.com/2021/01/27/at-the-gates-of-the-vr-consumer-era/ No, I'm not pushing you on the website because I make money from click. I have the free plan on wordpress, no money for me. It's just the best way to read the article. However I'm happy even if you read it here on Reddit. I know, my ideas are provocative, unconventional and "heretical". My thought has no chains. If you disagree, please respect my ideas. No polemical and confrontational attitude allowed. INTRODUCTION In the previous chapter I told you the prodromes of VR consumer era from the early Rift prototype built in the Luckey's trailer to the foundation of Oculus company together with the Scaleform guys. This is where troubles begin! Could a group of talented and ambitious young adults really bring VR to the masses? Short answer: NO, this is something that only a very big company specialized in design, manufacture and distribution of hardware and software could do. Let's see why.
CARMACK LEAVES THE STAGE In the Kickstarter campaign the Oculus guys promised to ship the DK1 together with Doom 3 BFG VR. Well, it never happened! Doom was property of ZeniMax, parent company of Id Software, and John Carmack had an employment contract with ZeniMax. Until then John Carmack had helped the guys for free because his contract left him a lot of freedom, ZeniMax had let him research and explore VR. However ZeniMax didn't believe in VR, it wanted Carmack to come back to work full time on hardcore 3D PC games. The guys tried to establish an understanding with ZeniMax by promising dividends in exchange for Carmack's advice and Doom 3 license. Nothing to do, they had to give up on Carmack and Doom. Carmack was upset, but it was not the case to break the contract with ZeniMax. Btw, it was not the first time he had found himself at odds with ZeniMax. In the past he had proposed ZeniMax to develop games for the mobile market. At first ZeniMax had let him experiment; Carmack had experimented with an alternative strategy where the games were free but the return was from in-game advertising and microtransactions. Zenimax didn't want to go down that road and told Carmack to get back into AAA PC games. You read that right, I'm not jocking, Carmack, the guru of advanced 3D computer graphics aimed at AAA hardcore games, was interested in smartphone gaming and had smelled the buisiness of microtransactions and in-game ads! Unexpected! When you're interested in microtransaction and in-game ads, you're interested in squeezing people like cows, no more in the noblest art and the most advanced technology of video games. Putting ads in games is like putting ads in movies, in novels, in comics, I cannot stand it! Introducing microtransactions is an ugly speculation similar to gambling! Development of not demanding casual games for billions of mobile users is very convenient, you have more profit with less work and lower quality. OCULUS RIFT DK1 The Oculus crew was engaged in the design of the DK1. They were also recruiting skilled personel. Reknown robotics expert Steven M. LaValle was one of the best acquisitions. Don't miss La Valle's free e-book and on-line lessons about VR (links here). Sorry, I'm not listing all the programmers and engineers working at Oculus despite their contribution was unvaluable. At the same time the guys came into contact with Asian companies and factories for the manufacture of the DK1. It was an hard challenge! The first model coming from the Berway factory in China was a mess, everything was wrong! As consequence, production was delayed. DK1 was officially released on the occasion of GDC 2013 on March 29 and a few demos were showed. There were many issues and delays even in shipment. Overall around 60K units were shipped until 2015, more than 20K in the first year; remember, it was a kit for developers, not for consumers. DK1 Specs: 7 inch LCD single panel, refresh rate: 60 Hz, pixels persistence: 3 ms, resolution: 640X800 per eye, FoV: 110° diagonal (twice than previous headsets on the market), 3DoF head tracking, drift correction through magnetometer, tracking latency: 2 ms; end-to-end latency: 60 ms, fixed IPD at 63.5 (adjustable by software), adjustable eye relief, no hand controllers, coming with external control box and 3 interchangeable prescription lenses. Big FoV is the main feature of DK1 in comparison to other headsets that were on the on the market at the time. After 7 years, average FoV of actual headsets is not so much bigger, with the exception of some unbalanced extreme devices like Pimax headsets. As said in the previous chapter, correction of optical distorsions and aberrations through software allowed for the big FoV in DK1. Other specs were not on par with FoV: refresh rate and resolution were very low, tracking came with just 3DoF, global latency was high. That's the reason why Oculus wisely did not anticipate the times for a consumer version, but committed to produce a better version of the development kit, the Oculus Rift DK2. I think the guys were also aware of the limitations of PC hardware of the time; the power needed to satisfy VR gaming was not yet within the reach of consumers, just of developers and their workstations. The "premature launch" syndrome was once again prevented! EARLY GAMES In the meanwhile Oculus invested for pushing VR games development; the indie community responded positively by creating some VR mods that left their mark, such as Skyrim and Half Life 2. Valve had worked on a VR mod of Team Fortress 2 presented at GDC. CCP was working on a EVE game immersing players in spaceships battles; developed exclusively for VR, it could be an attractive title for the launch of the first consumer headset that Oculus was already working on (the CV1). Rift developers received full support and free-access to Unity and Unreal Engine. Sorry, I'm not listing all the early VR games; maybe in the future I'll write an article about the evolution of VR games! For now give a look at the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShfCF-F284A TRAGIC INTERLUDE At the end of May 2013 a tragedy shook the crew: Andrew Reisse, co-founder of Oculus company, ex-Scaleform guy, died at the age of 33. He was struck by a vehicle driven by gang member who was attempting to elude police at nearly 100 mph on a residential street. The Oculus guys reacted in the best way they can, they dramatically increased the effort to realize the dream they shared with Andrew: bringing virtual reality to consumers. SAMSUNG GEAR VR Oculus tried hard to convince Samsung to produce custom OLED displays with higher refresh rate and lower persistence for the Oculus Rift DK2 and in perspective for the first consumer version (CV1). They needed a first batch of 25000 units for DK2, but big companies like Samsung are hardly interested in producing such a small number of units for such a small company. Nevertheless they managed to an agreement: Samsung would produce the required units and in return Oculus would help Samsung develop the Samsung Gear VR! Samsung was not the first one to have the idea of a 3D viewer for smartphone, in 2010 Hasbro had launched My3D Viewer for Iphone, however it was not properly a headset. Gear VR was meant to be a remarkable evolution offering a true smartphone-based 3DoF VR headset. Samsung had been conducting internal research on VR and HMDs since 2005; they believed that thanks to the evolution of technologies and the Oculus assistance the times were ripe for their first VR consumer product. Mmm... Are you sure? VR with just 3DoF and smartphone hardware in 2013/2015? When there is still no consumer headset that can run VR games decently despite the most powerful PC hardware available? Not by chance, Iribe himself was skeptic, he was used to refer to Gear VR as the "Samsung gimmicky toy" well before it was released. Anyway, if this was the only way to get the best displays on the market, Oculus would help Samsung produce its toy. JOHN CARMACK COMES BACK ON STAGE! Carmack's contract with Id Software ended in June 2013; he was really interested in the mobile VR gear sustained by a colossus like Samsung. Despite the job offers from Valve and Space-X, he joined Oculus as CTO; the employment contract granted him full freedom, after all he was the "magnificent" Carmack! However Carmack was disappointed. He renounced to contracts with Valve and Space-X to join Oculus explicitly for mobile VR. Yes, you read that right. He believed mobile VR could be vey very big, billion people would buy and use VR gears with their smartphones. He suggested the guys to focus on mobile VR. Nevertheless for the Oculus guys the mobile project was just this thing Oculus was doing to make Samsung happy so they could get the screens. The guys at Oculus didn't believe in mobile VR, they were looking at PCVR. As a compromise, Carmack proposed to put together a small team in Dallas to focus on the collaboration between Oculus and Samsung. The guys at Oculus would have preferred Carmack to work on PCVR, imagining what the Rift might be capable of if Carmack would unleash his full powers on PC. However they gave max freedom to Carmack, his name could attract the favor of developers, hardware manufacturers and Oculus employers. Oculus opened a new branch in Dallas, Carmack's home town, exclusively aimed at mobile VR and software engineering of Samsung Gear VR. Carmack and the Oculus guys discussed several times their different visions about VR, as reported in the book by B.J. Harris. The guys complained that mobile GPUs will have less power than a typical PC GPU even in the next future; you certainly won't be able to make something that looks like a modern console or PC game for a long time to come. VR is very demanding, more than flat gaming, you will have diminutive experiences on mobile devices. Iribe was used to say that Gear VR is going to be a toy, a gimmick. Moreover, the guys didn't want to betray PC users and PC gaming "philosophy". On the contrary, Carmack believed that "there are great games to be made at every point along the graphics performance spectrum. The magic of VR does not lie in globally illuminated sub surface scattering calculations. Games will wind up with roughly Quake 3 level of shader and depth complexity, but higher geometric complexity". Regarding PC users, "*we have been selling a developer kit, our customers so far have been developers. The best thing you can give a developer isn’t an SDK or a new feature, it is a market. Having millions of potential customers next year will turn many hobbyists into professionals, and the chance of a small struggling team becoming the next Rovio (*Angry Birds development team) is real". “The way I believe it’s all going to play out, is that you will eventually have a head-mounted display that probably runs Android as a stand-alone system that has a system-on-a-chip . . . where you’ve got some ‘stand-alone’ thing that you can watch videos on or have VR chat room things . . . and it does make a big difference: not having a wire dragging off your shoulder. It’s significant”. COLLABORATION WITH VALVE Valve was truly interested in VR, they never stopped to research and experiment about VR. Mindful of the VR bubble of the '90s, they believed consumer VR to be difficult, premature and hazardous. They were busy and satisfied with Steam. However Gabe Newell was observing with sympathy, curiosity and interest the exploits of the Oculus guys and never denied his endorsment and collaboration; he kept a window open, ready to take the field wether a small company like Oculus really did the miracle. Michael Abrash was researching about VR at Valve, together with Atman Binstoch. They were always sharing with Oculus the results of their experimentations. Abrash had an interesting meeting with Iribe in September 2013, as reported in the book by B.J. Harris. Binstock and Abrash were experimenting inside-out tracking with camera on a bulky headset and QR code markers on the wall as reference targets for room scale tracking. The ancestor of lighthouse tracking! Results were encouraging, the tracking system was able to provide a smooth experience with no sickness. Iribe himself was used to suffer from sickness even with DK1, however he had a sickness-free experience with the so called "Valve Room". He was so enthusiast that asked Abrash and Binstock if they could help him to set up the same room at Irvine. Obviously they did and in return Iribe gave them precious technical info about Oculus researches in Irvine. Iribe wanted Abrash and Binstock to work at Oculus, but they were not intentioned to leave Valve. Despite Abrash was really a VR enthusiast and despite Valve was not willing to invest in VR in the near future, he thought that the company that was going to make VR really successful was going to be a big company; the capital required to do custom displays, hardware, tracking system, to build the full headset, and do all this work in the right way, was very expensive. Iribe replied Oculus were raising more than $16 millions (from Spark Capital and Matrix Partners). Abrash said 16 was great, but still small and not enough for VR. Abrash pointed to Microsoft as an example, they were spending many hundreds of millions on AR project Hololens and it will take years to be consumer-ready. Valve's approach to VR is well expressed in Abrash speech at GDC 2013. However Iribe was happy to continue collaboration with Valve and happy with everything Oculus was doing to push VR. Iribe believed that even if Oculus never managed to be the company that's going to make VR successful, what they were doing was still critical to the larger revolution. Abrash agreed, they were opening the way for others to come. THE TURNING POINT In the end of 2013, after an official visit in Irvine, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (A-H) decided to fund Oculus with $75 millions. A few months ago they had rejected the request for a series A fund. I think they changed their mind because of the acquisition of Carmack and the partnership with Samsung. Moreover they were impressed by the new headset prototype (the Crystal Cove), the quality of team, the hand-controllers prototypes, an hour-plus meeting with Carmack (who flew in for the occasion) and, of course, a demo of the "Valve Room", which according to the investors was a big step ahead in defeating simulation-sickness. Now the guys had enough money for covering their main projects: DK2, hand controllers, software engineering for the Samsung Gear VR, early design of the first consumer model. Luckey and his team had been working since months on hand controllers with touch system, the early prototype of the Touch Controllers, a project temporarily called “Oculus Virtuflexitron 3000”. However they were meant to be released with the first consumer Rift and not with DK2. Early prototype of DK2, called Crystal Cove, was showed at CES 2014 in January. Thanks to the agreement with Samsung , it was equipped with low-persistence and high-resolution OLED panel; it was able of 6DoF outside-in tracking through frontal infrared camera. A-H's hefty investment was the signal that many companies were waiting for: VR could truly be a sector to invest in and a business capable of generating profits. VR was ready to enter the consumer market. And Oculus was the leading company with a few years' advantage over other competitors in terms of vision, innovation, human resources, technology and know-how. Not by chance, Valve launched Steamworks VR API (SteamVR Beta) in January 2014, a toolkit of toolkits to allow virtual game developers to publish and integrate their games on Steam, compatible with Oculus Rift headsets (and any other headsets in the next future). Steam had to be ready and in pole position for the new frontier of gaming. However Valve was focusing just on software, not on hardware, not yet. On the contrary, Oculus was a company funded with $100 millions and determined to produce and sell VR headsets to consumers. In February and in the first half of March Iribe met Abrash and Binstock again and again; the pressing was strong! In March 11th Binstock decided to leave Valve and join Oculus; Abrash was still unsure and not ready for the jump. He did it on March 28th, when Oculus was already a subsidiary of facebook.... But this is a story for the next chapter! FINAL THOUGHTS As you see, in 2013 Carmack apparently had no concern for PC users and believed the future of VR gaming to be something like Angry Birds VR... He was focusing on videos and VR social things more than games! Do you see? This is what Oculus is doing right now, in 2021! I told you that Carmack is the deus ex machina of this story! I'm not saying that Zuckerberg and facebook have no responsability; I'm just reporting the fact that what we are observing today was already in Carmack's mind well before Oculus acquisition! John wanted Oculus to take care of mobile VR first, long before it was acquired by facebook in March 2014. As you'll see in the next chapter, Carmack himself believed Mark Zuckerberg could be a powerful ally and pushed for the acquisition. Carmack's obsession for mobile market matched Zuckerberg's obsession for social networks and users data profiling; it is one of the key to understand many of the controversial dynamics of the VR market in recent years. Carmack is the man behind Gear VR, Oculus Go and Quest1&2; I remind you that Gear VR and Oculus Go (and other cheap mobile devices from other companies) are the reason why many people still today are skeptic and suspicious about VR and think it's just a gimmick or a sickness-simulator. Obsession for mobile VR is the reason why Oculus dismissed PCVR in 2020, an obsession that well matched facebook ambitions. Zuckerberg and Carmack shared the same vision about the Metaverse (obviously ruled by facebook) since the beginning, a vision that is coming to reality with facebook Horizon, which will also have its own virtual currency, obviously managed by facebook. Recently, on January 12 2021, Carmack responded to Quest users asking for the removal of the forced facebook login to use Oculus headsets: “FB login isn’t going away”. It is quite impressive to hear these words from the one who was once considered the "hero" of open source, openness and technological transparency, the "king" of the most advanced computer graphics in the service of hardcore PC gaming! No wonder Carmack influenced so much the evolution of VR consumer era. Carmack is a living legend for the generation of Palmer, Iribe & co. They were grown playing his seminal 3D games (Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake), he was an icon and inspiration to them. Carmack working at Oculus was an opportunity and a dream come true! The Oculus guys were aware Carmack's vision was different, but they cannot do without Carmack. Carmack was the one who started the whole thing; probably without Carmack the early Rift prototype would have been gathering dust in the Luckey trailer. Don't forget that Carmack gave even great contibution to Time Warp algorithms that try to bridge the gap between hardware capabilities and demanding performance of VR (mobile devices cannot do without it). When discussing Carmack's opposite vision and his request to open a new Oculus branch in Dallas aimed at mobile VR, Palmer said: "When Jesus asks to borrow your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle, you say yes!”. I'm not saying that Palmer & co. are the naive innocent kids lead astray by the "devil" Carmack. In the well reknown song by Pink Floyd, Roger Waters wrote: "Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today". Money is not the problem, greed is the problem! Money is just a conventional measurement unit for greed! And greed leaves no one out of this story, you'll see! Let's come back to mobile VR. In 2013 no consumer headset was still able to run VR games decently despite the most powerful PC hardware of the time. DK1 was aimed at developers and had a lot of limitations and issues. The experience was still not suitable to consumers. I cannot understand the reason why Carmack focused on mobile VR. Can you think of the smartphones hardware in 2013/2015 in comparison to PCs? Can you think of the development of VR games or experiences for smartphones in 2013/2015? PC VR was not still ready for consumers but it was very very near, first PC VR consumer headsets were released in 2016 with quite satisfying results in terms of quality of experience. Mobile VR is not ready even today in 2021! I'm discussing in depth Gear VR and Oculus GO in the next chapter, but let me say that they were symptoms of the "premature launch" syndrome (see previous chapter). Gear VR launched in 2015, it was just a box with straps, optics and sensors, a container for Samsung smartphones running pseudo-VR software; until 2020, when it was dismissed, it sold almost 8 million units, not bad; it was cheap ($99) and Samsung phones were (and are) widespread around the world. Nevertheless consumers were completely disappointed. I remember the first experience together with my friends. They asked: is this the amazing VR they promised? Not at all! It wasn't VR, it was something different and disappointing sold like VR! The same happened to other VR boxex for smartphones like Google Daydream in 2016; Google Cardboard (2014) cannot be considered a VR device in my opinion. They were all disappointing, just gimmicky toys, they were left to gather dust very soon! You can fool consumers for a while by promising who knows what wonders and selling it junk, but the trick can't last long. Smartphones VR boxes have disappeared today. Oculus/facebook in 2016 tried again to deliver mobile VR with a new trick, they integrated the smartphone inside the headset; I'm talking of the Oculus GO. This time consumers were skeptic and suspicious about VR; GO was not so successful, it sold not so many units (around 2,5 millions units until 2020), even because of the price, not so cheap as the VR boxes. As you see, VR consumer market started with disappointing mobile VR; this was a wrong move driven just by greed; billions of users of the ever growing smartphone market were very appealing; who cares of what you're selling, just sell it! VR has been in danger of failing again as in the '90s because of the "premature launch" syndrome, because of greed. Luckily, PC VR and PS VR headsets launched in 2016 and were not gimmicky toys, they could rely on adequate hardware (for the time); finally VR could deliver on its promises and start to really amaze consumers; and this is the reason why VR is an ongoing reality still today and it's here for going away no more. As long as it can rely on powerful hardware; and powerful hardware it's not always the same as expensive PC hardware. Console hardware is powerful enough for good VR experience at only $500. However Oculus/facebook didn't give up and in May 2019 released another mobile device, the Oculus Quest (just 1 million units sold until 2020); and again in October 2020 the Quest 2 with the forced subscription to facebook! This time the trick is to sell mobile devices you can link to PC, so that you can use them as affordable/average PC VR headsets, especially the Quest 2. So weird! You're obsessed with mobile VR and put mobile chipset inside the headset, but in the end you sell it as affordable/average PC VR headset! So confusing! You started to sell mobile devices but then ended to sell affordable/average PC VR headsets! I cannot understand such obsession for mobile VR! It seems that Oculus/facebook have to sell mobile VR to consumers even if they don't want it and even if it doesn't make sense! Maybe Quest 2 is going to be more successful than previous mobile devices, who knows, but just because it's an affordable PC VR headset with acceptable/average quality, e.g. you can play Half-Life Alyx on thetered Quest 2. As standalone headset it cannot be successful. The "acclaimed" XR2 Snapdragon chipset hasat most half of the power of the PS4 OG! Oh yes, wonderful for a mobile chipset, but not enough for satisfying VR experience. In 2016 PS VR on PS4 OG was a very good start for consumer VR but today in 2021 it's outdated; e.g. in Hitman 3 VR you see objects and NPCs popping from nowhere and disappearing to nowhere in front of you, hardware cannot handle the requested power; e.g. Resident Evil 7 VR is an outstanding VR experience, but it's blurry, hardware cannot handle the necessary supersampling and antialiasing. Can you imagine the "acclaimed" XR2 Snapdragon chipset dealing with VR games or meaningful experiences? Ridiculous! Not to talk of the internal battery, it lasts just 2 hours! People using the standalone Quest 2 with no PC will be disappointed and will leave it to gather dust very soon. Just a gimmicky toy and sickness-simulator! It's true that tethered Quest 2 is an affordable/average PCVR headset, but the link between PC hardware and internal chipset is a bottleneck, it makes you experience higher latency and artifacts. I cannot understand why Oculus/facebook loaded an affordable/average PC VR headset with a mobile chipset! Maybe because of the forced facebook subscription? It was too easy to hack on PC? Oculus/facebook needed proprietary hardware? Oh yes, this is the reason! I don't buy the story of the wireless VR; at the state of today technology, it's more like powerless VR! The time of wireless VR will come but not as standalone headset; wi-fi streaming from PC or console will be the next future. Mobile VR doesn't make sense, it's a paradox! Think about it. For mobile I mean standalone devices that you carry with you far from home and use in public or working places, just like smartphones. VR needs your senses to be detached from Real Reality. What's the point of putting a bulky headset in front of your eyes when you are not at home, e.g. while traveling or in work breaks, surrounded by other people and noise? I can understand mobile AR applications, which allow you to see RR, but not mobile VR applications. VR is to be consumed at home, when you're alone and isolated from RR, otherwise bye bye immersion. Or at work, but you don't want to make remote surgery with mobile powerless hardware! Maybe I'm wrong, but VR is not going to be mobile even in the far future. AR is going to be mobile, but it needs ultra-powerful hardware and high definition displays because it has to render photorealistic stereoscopic CGI perfectly fitting RR; you need also very advanced AI to dinamically match CGI and RR. I'm sure that we will be able to experience both AR and VR on the same device in the future, such to play even AR games. However mobile VR doesn't make sense, it needs complete isolation from RR. I believe the future of VR is more like you see in sci-fi novels or movies, our brain connected to computer while lying inert, completely detached and suspended from RR. To say the truth, I'm skeptic even about AR glasses or contact lenses. Someone believes that in the future everyone will wear high-tech glasses or contact lenses. Are you sure that people want to wear glasses and contact-lenses all the time? Not me! I suffered from myopia, then I underwent a laser operation to get rid of glasses and contact lenses. People look at the success of smartphones and think that it will be the same with smart glasses or contact-lenses. I'm not so sure. Smartphones are portable and handy small computers you can keep in your pocket. Wearing glasses and contact-lenses is not so pleasant. Anyway, even if we want to give them for sure, mobile VAR cannot happen in the near future. Today headsets or glasses are too heavy and bulky despite their powerless hardware! The right place for mobile AVR today is in reasearch labs, not on the market. It's absolutely worth to research about mobile solutions for the far future. But it's counterproductive to sell mobile devices now; it's the "premature launch" syndrome; people could be disappointed and become skeptic. The '90s VR launch failure is teaching us something, let's learn from past mistakes. VR has to amaze people with good looking, smooth, immersive experiences; you need very good visual and audio rendering, you need powerful hardware, at least console hardware. That's all folks. See you on the next chapter. Stay tuned. |
PS Plus is a paid subscription service from PlayStation which gives members two PS4 games to download every month, as well as access to online multiplayer gaming, exclusive discounts from PlayStation Store, 100GB of cloud storage for game saves and bonus content such as skins and in-game items for free-to-play games like Fortnite. There’s also Bloodborne and others, and you can even enjoy games that were exclusive to the PS3 such as the original inFamous and its incredible sequel.. You should know in advance that a PS Now ... "I wish I could make my own character and play with my friends like in RuneScape," is what 13-year-old me said after playing myriad Final Fantasy games. Well kid, now you can. Well kid, now you can. The majority of the time most online/multiplayer activity on PS4 games requires a Playstation Plus membership. Same thing applies for Xbox Gold membership for Xbox games. But not always the case as the Battle Royale does NOT require PS Plus. Source here. While the PlayStation 3 featured free online multiplayer no matter the game, Sony decided to put online multiplayer behind the PlayStation Plus paywall similarly to how Microsoft operates with Xbox Live Gold memberships. However, there are a handful of games you can play online without requiring a PlayStation Plus subscription. Sure, if you want to enjoy a number of perks on the PS4 (like being able to play online on a number of multiplayer titles), you might want to shell out some money for a PlayStation Plus account. The short answer is yes, you need PlayStation Plus to play Minecraft with your friends. Used to be that you didn’t need PS Plus to play online games, but Sony made it mandatory during the current generation. While some have decried the necessity o... Best games you can play online without PS Plus Android Central 2021. While PlayStation Plus is usually a requirement to play online multiplayer, there are notable exceptions to this rule. Most ... There are already a number of free-to-play titles confirmed for the PS4. However, PS Plus won't be necessary to access all of them: titles such as Blacklight Retribution, DC Universe Online and ... 15 Best Free PS4 Games You Can Play. ... Plus, the fishes in the game are supposedly intelligent and meant to mimic the unique behavior of their species. There are over 110 types overall. ... You and your friends will battle for control over a 2D map, trying to kick, punch, chop, and shoot each other over the edge.
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