Nintendo Labo VR Kit announced (launching 4/12, starter kit $40)
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Kids don't exactly see different to adults. If it's blurry as hell and hard to focus on for you, it's going to be blurry as hell and hard to focus on for your kids too.
How does this work if the games aren't designed with VR in the first place?
Man I got kids. They both play our switch. They also both were basically like "what hell is that?!?! #HardPass" when I showed them the news.
Don't worry, the launch applications are Elephant, Bird, Wind Pedal, Blaster and Camera. Don't expect anything too sophisticated.
There are actually some pretty legit cardboard viewers. The Viewmaster one was made for kids in mind, but this one:
is the one my niece and nephew have, that they like and use. With this type of setup, you can seriously get very close to what the DK1 was, especially with modern phones.
The main problem with this kit will be the weight. The Switch is just too heavy to use with an actual head strap, these viewers will always have to be handheld, which will slightly limit the utility. A game like Rez Infinite, however, is totally doable on such a system.
Judging from the announced "modes", though, this sounds remarkably similar to the Cardboard demo app that comes with the Cardboard SDK download. When you first use cardboard for the very first time, it takes you a on a virtual safari.
$40 is a high price to pay for what will no doubt be terrible VR even compared to Google Cardboard or other cheap options. I had an original Oculus Rift devkit, so I can tell you firsthand just how atrocious and nausea-enducing VR is with a 720p screen and no motion tracking... and that's not even accounting for the fact that the old Rift was relatively light and comfortable compared to some cardboard monstrosity.
I shudder at the fact that this will be some people's first VR experience. VR is genuinely incredible so long as everything powering it is purpose-built. I tried the latest version of the Rift recently and it was mindblowing. But when you take devices that weren't meant for VR and strap lenses to them, the results are predictable.
This isn't $40 for just a viewer, though. Presumably part of that price is the price for actual nintendo VR software. I'm certain the actual VR "viewer" here costs literal pennies, it's the software that is being bought.
Once you bought Google Cardboard for $1 or so, you still had to pay money to buy actual apps afterwards. The Free google cardboard demo app would otherwise hold your attention for maybe 5 minutes.
Ah, nice to see they didn't abandon their QoL plansIt got buried in today's news but they also announce the Nintendo Neckbrace.
Every LABO related thread....
What could be a great VR experience for a $40 VR and a $300 console?
The software for this isn't going to be high games. Shouldn't be a problem for what they will be going for.
well, I honestly think this would be a better product if it was one of Nintendo's mobile phone products. If I'm being realistic here, I'd have much rather seen Nintendo throw software support behind Google Cardboard, than create their own separate immitator. It'd further lower barrier to entry, and it'd be neat for all these really cheap headsets that have already proliferated to have Nintendo-quality software all of the sudden. But whatever, anything that gets more people into VR is a good thing. At least the hardware in the switch is way beyond what is in most cricket phones.
I dunno Samsung phones have done an okay job for a lot of VR. I mean, don't expect PSVR, but decent enough software could be done.
The performance might've improved since the demo. It's also possible they have a separate VR minigame you can play rather than the whole game. I'm still betting on Yoshi.
Isn't that game Unreal engine? Does Unreal have a VR mode? I assume it does so it probably wouldn't be.....oh my god shitty resolution fortnite.
GearVR actually has hardware inside their viewers to improve 3DOF polling. They're not mere plastic holders like Cardboard.
This was the sorta thing I was getting at but I thought it was better to just apologize and take the lumps for bringing up the thought.
I've always thought this was nonsense. If anything, things like cardboard makes the value proposition that much more apparent. It gives a baseline to compare to. I.e. "If this is what a $1 viewer does VR like, it's easy to imagine how much better a viewer that is literally 800 times more expensive would be"
One other thing to say -- even if there is way, way better VR out there, when I demoed Cardboard way back in the day, it still made jaws drop. The vast, vast majority of people still haven't tried any sort of VR, at all. Never forget how potent the very first taste of VR is, even if it's on a weak platform.
That's true, it probably depends on the individual though, I could just as easily see someone not very tech-savvy feeling unimpressed, like the people who say they can't see a difference between DVD and Blu Ray enough to upgrade (or the investment isn't worth it for them), or 1080p and 4k I guess.
*Golfclap*
I still remain adamant that the fundamental problem of requiring a headset of some kind is going to remain a major barrier for future VR adoption. The proliferation of the cheap low-end options is encouraging but that's still a long way before it becomes the one true "future" that a lot of its proponents are expecting. As I sort of implied in a previous post, turning the headser iteself into part of the play experience is exactly the kind of interesting lateral move I would expect from Nintendo to create value in their product, but I remain skeptical that that will do anything substantial to break through that major barrier.
I'd like to be wrong, as I think VR needs a true mainstream breakthrough to finally start getting the content it needs to be more than an occasional curiosity, so we'll see what happens I guess.
Just to be clear, I don't think nintendo is going to be leading VR anything. They're very much behind, and this is positioned more like an e-reader type of peripheral than even something like the virtual boy. I view this very much as them dipping their toes, and doing what has already worked for others, not so much driving the medium forward.
In theory, there could be outside-in VR tracking with a right Joycon sensor as the camera and reflective tape on cardboard Joycon holders, for a PSVR-like set up.
Also, I think the Labo Robot kit is an interesting lo-fi way of tracking what your arms and even legs are doing, something other VR solutions don't have a good (let alone in-expensive) solution for currently. It may not be able to straight up offer a "room scale" experience, since it can't tell the positioning of your hands, but similar to how the Labo Robot software could tell if you were punching or walking or squatting, you could certainly build a game around what are still analog inputs that tell the game how far your limbs are outstretched.
I could see a lot of potential for Nintendo to make specific VR accessories since the cost is relatively low for Labo which could make interactivity something beyond even what we get with VR right now.
Also, I think the Labo Robot kit is an interesting lo-fi way of tracking what your arms and even legs are doing, something other VR solutions don't have a good (let alone in-expensive) solution for currently. It may not be able to straight up offer a "room scale" experience, since it can't tell the positioning of your hands, but similar to how the Labo Robot software could tell if you were punching or walking or squatting, you could certainly build a game around what are still analog inputs that tell the game how far your limbs are outstretched.
I could see a lot of potential for Nintendo to make specific VR accessories since the cost is relatively low for Labo which could make interactivity something beyond even what we get with VR right now.
Honestly, the Camera Toy-Con could be legitimately useful for any game that has a picture mode. It doesn't even need to be stereo 3D. The fact that it gives you manual/analog control over the aperture would be incredibly useful for taking better shots in-game, provided the game had DOF/f-stop settings that could be mapped to the aperture controls; literally a point and shoot camera for games. I'd use it just for that. A high-end version would be even better.
I can see an option being added to swap the robot kit visor for the vr and make the robot kit totally "portable".
Every Labo kit has worked great, looking forward to this one too.
Every Labo kit has worked great, looking forward to this one too.
Toy Con 1 is what I consider a YMMV though. If you don't want to use your stuff after building them, then it's pitiful. My friend built a few things and had nothing else to do afterward after he made a few things, and he's the type who's super creative in minecraft. TC3 I will say i'm uncertain on due to a bunch of conflicting reports. People on this forum were really mad at it and I saw several who claimed it got boring and they 100%ed it in just a few hours after setting up the kit, while some say it's a lot better than TC1/2 like you do, so I don't really know what to think on that outside on how I don't know why it was made or what purpose it serves, and I don't think anyone else did if it did poorly
Really the only thing I think this VR may be fun for, thinking back is using this for youtube videos that have a first person perspective or other games that update to support this. It's a wait and see situation but I find these sets ultra frustrating since what started out as a cool premise with Toycon 1 ended up being something that's just filler for the sake of filler. Hopefully TC4 proves me wrong but none of the other Toycons screamed must have to me
Didn't Nintendo create a very early example of VR back in 1995 with the Virtual Boy?
The only thing that's weird about this to me is the price. At $79.99, the full kit is the same price as buying all the pieces individually (it's actually two cents more!). It's also the most expensive Labo kit on the market now that the Robot Kit has had a quiet official price drop to $59.99.
I get that it comes with the plastic VR lens thing, but it's just a little odd not to offer a small discount to the people who were buying the whole set at once.
That said, I'm sure discounts will be plentiful if this thing doesn't light the sales charts on fire.
I get that it comes with the plastic VR lens thing, but it's just a little odd not to offer a small discount to the people who were buying the whole set at once.
That said, I'm sure discounts will be plentiful if this thing doesn't light the sales charts on fire.
