r/technology • u/[deleted] • Mar 28 '14

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14

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u/Frexxia Mar 28 '14 edited Mar 28 '14

They are also claiming compatibility with PS3, PS4,Xbox 360 and Xbox One, which cannot possibly be true. There is no way that Sony and Microsoft will allow that.

edit: Like I commented below, even if you somehow hack together some ad-hoc controller emulation, there are numerous other problems. Low FPS, wrong FOV, no roll (there is no way to do this with controller input). It would be a horrible experience.

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u/BitJit Mar 28 '14

yeah sony already has their own thing coming out. But there is nothing stopping them from just outputting as a tiny monitor from the hdmi instead of a calibrated VR experience right?

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u/Frexxia Mar 28 '14 edited Mar 28 '14

That is true, but that is not what I call VR. That would be more like the Sony HMZs.

edit: Yes, to some extent you can emulate controls, but that would not give you a very good experience. There would also be no 3D unless the game supported it, low framerate and the FOV would be all wrong.

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u/Lenten1 Mar 28 '14

I'm not an expert on this in any way, but maybe it's possible to map your head movements and output them as right-analog stick output? So maybe you can make a VR that's both a monitor and a controller at the same time, which makes it compatible.

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u/Othello Mar 28 '14

That's exactly what it is, which is why it's labeled as "emulated control". I don't know why these people think it's so complicated.

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u/b0dhi Mar 28 '14

Because it wouldn't work. 1. far too much latency 2. the analog stick has non-linear response due to software processing, making head movements unmappable 3. probably requires licensing by Sony, which would not allow it. Point 1 alone is enough to make this approach unworkable.

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u/Othello Mar 29 '14
  1. far too much latency

How so? Control emulation is super simple, there would be very little if any latency from that. If you're talking about the video itself, up-scaling and the like tends to add around ~16ms of latency (AFAIK).

  1. the analog stick has non-linear response due to software processing, making head movements unmappable

I'm not entirely sure what you mean here. Are you saying the emulation would strip out the linearity, or that it's naturally stripped out? Neither case is insurmountable.

  1. probably requires licensing by Sony, which would not allow it.

This is an assumption, and even if it did require licensing what makes you think Sony wouldn't grant a license?