Mumble Media 0.1
Testing the idea of creating a way to communicate to people or in other words mumbling my way to an idea. Is it a great idea? The answer to that is, maybe? The point for what a creator on the internet is to make something that people want. Funny, skillful, DIY tips content might be what people want but there is space for unique ideas. At this point using a cliche here, I am just throwing stuff to the wall and see what sticks.
Since this is the first test of Mumbling Media I thought of breaking down the style and content which would happen every week. Typing of course about media which breaks down into movies, technology, culture and other cool stuff.
This week is about #AGDQ2016
Awesome Games Done Quick for the year 2016 where people gather to play video games quickly for charity. The speedrunning community of video games have been doing charity video games marathons focused on speedrunning, or playing the games fast. These events happen a few times of the year and support several charities. For #AGDQ2016 it is for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. They raised $1.2 million dollars at the end of this event which is a huge success while the next event is #SGDQ. Summer Games Done Quick is taking place July 3-9 later this year.
For more and participate watching visit Twitch.tv/gamesdonequick
Also gamesdonequick.com
#Opinion
This is a great event that present the best players who dedicate into the fun of speedrunning which blows my mind. They find the glitches and/or methods of beating a single game to a certain completion. Not wasting a second because jumping goes further than the standard walking in a game. That is one example of how much research is put into a speedrun by figuring out the limits, testing the best and fastest way to progress in a game to a specific completion. Beating a video games in the fastest way for charity is the most respected event.
VR - CES 2016
Moving onto some tech news that the Oculus Rift came out with the Price of $599 and March 28, 2016 as the release date. Oculus VR has announced this at CES the consumer electronic show 2016 to set the VR product release debut. The price is for the VR headset, VR sensor, Oculus remote, Xbox one controller, and two video games. The two games are EVE: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale. To make sure that consumers of Oculus VR are ready they ask to make sure that the PC that are running the VR headset had a certain system requirements.
The system requirements are on Oculus.com
In case that some people do not have the proper computer Oculus has a PC + Headset combo called Oculus Ready PC. There is not a ton of detail of what the PC specs but they have the price set $1499 and ready for pre-sale in February.
Will Smith from Tested.com
#Opinion
This is the best moment for video games as VR is taking the first step of getting a new experience out to people. VR existed for years already but not a ton was for consumer products.
Nintendo had one VR headset called The Virtual Boy release July 21, 1995, it was more of a portable console than a actual virtual reality experience. It was big and had little support from video game developers which led to a failed console. I played with it once and found problems like ergonomics, the color red vision which might have burned the red cones in the retina after an hour use.
HTC and Valve Vive and Sony VR has yet to come out with any info like price and release date but so far this is huge for VR enthusiast. Personally I am not looking forward for VR at all but this is a great chance for video games to available and more people to play them. VR does allow for a different experience due to the headsets that set vision, sound and the software to create an reality to be immerse. For example, movies have the giant screen which covers most of the vision cone where all the visuals help the world is set in front of the viewer. The headsets are designed with that in mind to make sure all the senses are covered to create that reality.
At least that is my knowledge so far.
Oculus started with a kickstarter and had a successful campaign and had made some technological progress solving the old VR problems. Essentially for the Oculus product it is two screens close up onto a person's eyes to create to VR experience. Unlike a television that has a set range refresh rate and frame rate that creates a visually appealing product for tv shows and movies. It is different for VR. The reason for VR to be different is how the screens are built with lights sending to the eyes at a different location then a television. How a human eyes receives light affects the behaviour to create an unsettling feeling of being sick. There are other factor that cause “VR sickness” it is the screens that are the central problem.
Oculus has solved it over the last few years and even got acquired by Facebook! This is an excerpt from the Oculus developer center website.
Here is the link https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/intro-vr/latest/concepts/bp_app_simulator_sickness/
Numerous factors contribute to simulator sickness, including but not limited to…
Acceleration: minimize the size and frequency of accelerations
Degree of control: don’t take control away from the user
Duration of simulator use: allow and encourage users to take breaks
Altitude: avoid filling the field of view with the ground
Binocular disparity: Some find viewing stereoscopic images uncomfortable
Field-of-View: reducing the amount of visual field covered by the virtual environment may also reduce comfort
Latency: minimize it—lags/dropped frames are uncomfortable in VR
Distortion correction: use Oculus VR’s distortion shaders
Flicker: do not display flashing images or fine repeating textures
Experience: experience with VR makes you resistant to simulator sickness (which makes developers the worst test subjects)
VR has already made progress and movies already with a small features and commercials with 360 videos. The future is getting close to be made a cultural influence and Oculus is coming in first.
That is all I got for VR now but if there is any more questions or discussions please leave them in the comments to this post.