Valve Employee Proposes using Virtual Reality

[christianled59]

Virtual reality is making its way to the mainstream. Personally, I'm hoping VR is a success. One of these days we could see VR becoming as social as mobile phones. A valve employee used the HTC Vive as a unique and adorable way to propose.

The HTC Vive virtual reality headset hasn't yet reached store shelves, meaning only a select few developers have gotten their hands on pre-release kits and explored the possibilities of "room-scale" VR. For one staffer at Valve Software, the Vive's official SteamVR partner, that meant an opportunity to claim first dibs on doing something nobody else has ever done with a Vive headset: propose marriage.

The news came from the bride-to-be's public Facebook feed, and the proposal took place in a Vive testing room at Valve's headquarters in Bellevue, WA. Kelly Tortorice had gone to the Valve offices—where her then-boyfriend, now-fiancé Chandler Murch works—under the pretenses of trying out a range of SteamVR demos (including the very-impressive Tilt Brush art app) that the company has shown off at various gaming expos in the past year.

"So there I was, typical day... on a sunken ship deck; fixing robots; painting three-dimensional fire; walking through the Alps," Tortorice wrote. "Suddenly, a virtual engagement ring started floating my way."

As Tortorice's Facebook photos reveal, Murch had walked toward her while holding a trackable HTC Vive wand controller, which she saw through her headset as a ring floating toward her in mid-air—meaning, this was perhaps a bit higher-tech than a Google Cardboard proposal that was publicized in April. She then took the headset off to see Murch on one knee, where she'd seen the virtual ring floating, with both the wand and a real engagement ring in his hands. "It wasn't imaginary anymore," she noted. (Pardon the suspense: She said yes.

So what do you guys think of this? What are your hopes of VR? Which are you more interested in? HTC Vive or Oculus?

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/10/valve-employee-uses-virtual-reality-to-propose-real-life-marriage/

[Venomz1337]

I personally don't understand VR...

I'd rather experience reality in REALITY.

Virtual stuff is just ridiculous in my opinion.

[tsk]

I have zero interest in gluing one of those large headsets to my face.

[JebKerman]

I'm interested in where VR goes, but I doubt I'll get involved myself.

[ozziestig]

So where is real ring?

[Khajiit Dealer]

I'm concerned that if I use VR someone will mess with me while I have it on.

[Tech_Dreamer]

Perfect to propose to my virtual non existent girlfriend & live a happy life within VR :')

[Misanthrope]

VR might have gained a lot of track now (And you know why: not it's not the tech, is not the potential, it's because Facebook bought Oculus) but I still maintain it's just an unpractical, not really needed fad that will die out quickly not unlike 3D.

[Sidiox]

I personally don't understand VR...

I'd rather experience reality in REALITY.

Virtual stuff is just ridiculous in my opinion.

So you like getting shot at in real life? Jumping from helicopters and racing at stupid fast speeds?

Not to mention flying in a space craft or airplane.

 

Sure, using VR for something that you can easily and without problem do IRL its silly, but for most other stuff its a very very good substitute (being both cheaper and safer)

[Rolling Potatoe]

I think VR is interesting, but its still 10 years out or so before being really nice.

We'd need ~80 megapixel 200hz or so display + way better motion tracking + good sub 500$ omni directional threadmills + 

some advanced software for the motion tracking input.

[killcomic]

Over 20 years after it's invention, VR still clunky and not very good at all. Hope to see it go mainstream before I die.

[givingtnt]

thats interesting

here. lets have a virtual marriage ! so I don't Really get in trouble !

[Aytex]

then theres the forever alone people

[Humbug]

VR might have gained a lot of track now (And you know why: not it's not the tech, is not the potential, it's because Facebook bought Oculus) but I still maintain it's just an unpractical, not really needed fad that will die out quickly not unlike 3D.

The thing is VR is 3D done right.

Without the limitations and image quality problems of things like 3d tv.

I think the head mounted displays VR will not die. I think it will keep evolving and get lighter, less bulky and eventually it will be no less inconvenient than wearing glasses.

[Miguel Batista]

I think VR is interesting, but its still 10 years out or so before being really nice.

We'd need ~80 megapixel 200hz or so display + way better motion tracking + good sub 500$ omni directional threadmills +

some advanced software for the motion tracking input.

I for obe think vr is feasable now. I know I will play racing sims on vr till my eyes bleed or my stomach churns. Also all that list of kit is way overkill. If we were waiting for affordable all that, we will be waiting for a long time. Wait until you start renting a flat of your own then tall me where you will stick a threadmill and all that. VR is here now and I intend to enjoy it.

[Guest Kloaked]

I personally don't understand VR...

I'd rather experience reality in REALITY.

Virtual stuff is just ridiculous in my opinion.

 

It's not about experiencing reality in a headset.

 

You're leaving out the word virtual.

[CommandMan7]

We can't really expect virtual reality to succeed when we haven't even yet mastered augmented reality, something I think is much more practical and will have real-world uses.

[Misanthrope]

The thing is VR is 3D done right.

Without the limitations and image quality problems of things like 3d tv.

I think the head mounted displays VR will not die. I think it will keep evolving and get lighter, less bulky and eventually it will be no less inconvenient than wearing glasses.

 

Well I could agree on that much: 3D done right. And the VR headset being lighter and such would be nice, however we can pretty much go back to the example and look at 3D: it has resurfaced numerous times and goes all the way back to like the 50s and 60s (I think, judging from the age of some of the old 3D films) and each time people get exited for it and forget why it failed: It wasn't necessarily the tech involved. It's the fact that is tech is usually the only focus and we end up with just tech demos.

 

That's really the issue at hand here: Nobody is designing from the ground up to make a VR experience that people want. And it's because is deceptively simple to use a few tricks here and there or just take something that already has 3D elements like FPS games and call it the next step. In reality this is not unlike the development of cinema: You should try to watch some of the classic films right after silent era stuff and see just how awkward those were: it was just basically people putting theater plays in front of a camera, and the actors and stories pretty much reflected this.

 

It took decades for the medium to evolve into what we know today: fast cuts, realistic acting, edited down and modified stories made to do a lot more showing and a lot less telling, etc.

 

No matter how much people talk about VR is always "Oh it looks awesome" and "The resolution on displays is great!" and so on and so forth. Yet like 3D it runs the risk of falling to the same pitfalls: nothing but adapting existing media for it and maybe adding a few, irrelevant to the experience effects like "Look at how this water drops are coming right at you! Ok that shot was expensive, now back to your typical fly-in-the-wall shot while we show people talking and shit"

 

If this time the tech gains enough traction and moves towards becoming the standard, then we might see people use it appropriately, but until then just like 3D, the VR parts would be mostly gimmicky and people will have a "good enough" experience on regular 2D panels. The kind of evolving games would need to take advantage of VR won't happen over night it will take years, decades even.

[Maslofski]

i thought an employee proposed they should use VR in games

[Venomz1337]

So you like getting shot at in real life? Jumping from helicopters and racing at stupid fast speeds?

Not to mention flying in a space craft or airplane.

 

Sure, using VR for something that you can easily and without problem do IRL its silly, but for most other stuff its a very very good substitute (being both cheaper and safer)

 

Well I'm not stupid to get shot at or jump from helicopters but racing at stupid fast speeds? Since when does that require VR

[DEDRICK]

I want to play TRIBES: Ascend in VR, this is hacked but

 

[Guest]

then theres the forever alone people

 

They can use VR too ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Megahurt]

I don't have really high hopes for VR, it will exist but will remain a niche market. I don't expect to be able to wear such a device for extended periods of time and it wouldn't replace a monitor, so it's someting you need on top of what you already have.

[S3XYADAM]

Personally, I find the idea of virtual reality extremely interesting when used as an input into games with a simulating or cinematic experience (driving simulators, space simulators, etc.) not games with an arcade-y experience, and I have high hopes for its success. However, I feel that everything else should either remain essentially the way it is or find a way to implement augmented reality, for I would like to remain in reality for the majority of my time, but that may just be me. We need to have someone pioneer the experience AND the applications.

 

EDIT: I must add that I have a professor here at my university, who is currently specializing and actively researching virtual reality, and I am trying to research with her. There is some VERY interesting stuff being done on the research end of this field. The scientific and military applications for this technology are basically endless. However, I do think the movie industry is going to move to virtual reality for the home for everything eventually.

[crystal6tak]

I personally don't understand VR...

I'd rather experience reality in REALITY.

Virtual stuff is just ridiculous in my opinion.

It's for things that you CAN'T do in reality. Here's a simple example:

It allows a whole other dimension of entertainment.

If that doesn't change your opinion, then well, ok, but personally I'm excited as heck to get my hands on a VR headset in the future.

 

Although this virtual reality engagement is kinda ridiculous lol