I'm a complete nut when it comes to VR and immersion gaming. However, I haven't given much consideration to how VR could be applied to RTS games until I saw this video from the AirMech (an action RTS, like Starcraft and Warcraft had a baby) team came out today:
The idea of using VR for RTS games has me pretty thrilled.
From my experience with VR, there are some huge concerns. First of all, unless you're a complete pro that knows your keyboard ridiculously well, it's pretty hard to play a keyboard and mouse game with a VR headset on. Even if you don't ever "look" at your keyboard, it's not until you can't see it at all do you realize how much seeing it in your peripherals helps you align your hands on the keyboard. Secondly, controlling the camera separately from head movement at all can lead to motion sickness, though controlling from a "driver" perspective (Elite Dangerous, Vox Machinae) reduces potential motion sickness a ton. Of course, this perspective isn't great for RTS games, because you need that "god" view.
So, it seems like, for playing Starcraft, you'd need to be comfortable with a controller and be sturdy against motion sickness... doesn't sound great.
However, how about for spectating? With the DK2 and the Vive can support moving the head around. Imagine watching an RTS game on a war room table in front of you. You could walk around the edges of the map (or in the middle of the map if you're feeling like it). Instead of heaving to scroll all over the map to look at stuff, you could just turn your head and see the whole map at once, then look/walk over to where the most interesting action is occurring.
One of the things I really appreciate about StarCraft is the beautiful detail of the units, but it's not something you really get to appreciate much while normally playing or spectating a game. With the newer VR headsets, though, you could literally just lean in to see better!
I would get an absolute kick out of spectating RTS games with a VR headset, walking around the map table like a commander. It gets me all giddy to think about! Can't wait to see what these AirMech guys produce. Hopefully it will start a trend and Blizzard will follow suit. Hell, I think it would be great for spectating MOBAs, too!
What do you guys think? See any issues? Am I the only one super excited for this stuff?
While I lack the imagination to envision the possibility of a VR RTS, I remember hearing about using a Vr headset to watch a movie in a movie theater environnement and thinking how cool it would be if we could use the same kind of idea to play SC2 in front of a crowd.
I would live to play my ladder game in the 2015 Blizzcon stage booth with a crowd in front of me.
On July 24 2023 01:13 Nakajin wrote: While I lack the imagination to envision the possibility of a VR RTS, I remember hearing about using a Vr headset to watch a movie in a movie theater environnement and thinking how cool it would be if we could use the same kind of idea to play SC2 in front of a crowd.
I would live to play my ladder game in the 2015 Blizzcon stage booth with a crowd in front of me.
Similar things have been tried and accelerated through covid, but there are some good reasons why it has not taken off yet. There are just too many elements missing from the live experience: planning it, getting there, sitting down and waiting, smells, sounds, chatting with others in the breaks...
With VR, ok, you can look around, but you can't move, nobody will react to you and your experience for actually seeing the games will be worse.
Being in the same room just can't be replaced, and I don't know if it should. Broadcasts just work better on their own terms.
On July 24 2023 01:13 Nakajin wrote: While I lack the imagination to envision the possibility of a VR RTS, I remember hearing about using a Vr headset to watch a movie in a movie theater environnement and thinking how cool it would be if we could use the same kind of idea to play SC2 in front of a crowd.
I would live to play my ladder game in the 2015 Blizzcon stage booth with a crowd in front of me.
EPT
