Speedrunning Oculus Rift games

2014-01-19 03:33:16 pm

So this is something that has been crossing my mind recently. I feel like there are two ways to do this, either run OR exclusive games, or run games in OR mode.

OR exclusive games consist almost entirely of indie games made in Unity. I'm pretty new to the speedrun community so I'm not entirely sure how obscure indie games are looked upon, but it seems to me like a less interesting run for others.

Games that added the ability to use OR don't require the usage of the OR once enabled. Which means that you can sit still and move the camera around, which wouldn't add anything to the speedrun.

I might have just answered my own question here, but maybe somebody else sees a good way to do speedruns with the Oculus Rift in a way that actually creates a different running experience? Maybe by setting limitations on the amount you're allowed to rotate with the controller?

Thread title:

nate

2014-01-19 03:46:36 pm

i think it's more a question of what it adds for the viewer. record the screen using fraps or something and then sda will post it. then people with rifts can watch/"experience" your run as though they were you running it.

rift control will probably be treated as a separate category if someone also wants to run the game without the rift, since head control could be seen as an advantage. but probably no one will want to run rift exclusive games without the rift, so that's moot for them.

Asgard

2014-01-19 03:52:24 pm

Yeah, exactly. I'm imagining a seperate Rift category. My question is, would it be unique enough to be worth a seperate category? If I, for example, decide to do a Doom 3 run, but with the Oculus Rift on, would it be different enough to be a seperate run? On the other hand, if I want to speedrun Ceiss, a Rift-exclusive game, would people care enough with such an obscure indie game?

noclip

2014-01-19 04:19:04 pm

You can definitely make videos of Rift gameplay but watching them on a Rift is a bit more complicated than just playing them back while wearing one. Any "normal" video would be recorded with the runner's IPD (distance between the centers of their pupils) burned in. Anyone with a different IPD who tried to watch it on their own Rift would experience motion sickness (unless their IPD happened to match the runner's), to the point that the video would be unwatchable. The only real way to let people "experience" runs of Rift-enabled games would be if the game natively supported demos and was smart enough to adjust the viewport inside the demo according to the viewer's movements.

Asgard

Edit history:

Asgard: 2014-01-19 04:29:36 pm

2014-01-19 04:29:17 pm

Yeah, that's true.

The question still remains, though. Would a Doom 3 run whilst the runner is wearing a Oculus Rift be unique AND interesting enough for its own category, or would Oculus Rift runs work better with Rift-exclusive games like Ceiss, which are almost exclusively obscure indie games?

Paraxade

2014-01-19 06:01:18 pm

A run played in VR mode being played back on a Rift would be pretty much unwatchable. From what I understand, it's extreeeeemely uncomfortable when the camera moves on its own. A video where the camera's not only constantly moving on its own but also not factoring in your own movement would be.. yeah.

Only way I can see it working is if the game were able to be recorded in panoramic style, where everything happening in all directions is captured at once, and if the viewer were able to choose what in the video to look at. Would still probably be a bit uncomfortable, but not anywhere near as much.

Asgard

2014-01-20 02:48:24 am

Maybe I'm not explaining myself well enough. My concern is not as much about watching OR runs, but about OR runs being a category of its own in the speedrunning community.

For example, you could have a Doom 3 any% WR, and a Doom 3 any% OR WR.

Would a speedrun using the Rift be unique and interesting enough for people to watch, or would that require playthroughs of Rift exclusive games, which are almost entirely obscure indie games.

Paraxade

2014-01-20 02:50:29 am

Quote from Asgard:

My concern is not as much about watching OR runs, but about OR runs being a category of its own in the speedrunning community.

Quote from Asgard:

Would a speedrun using the Rift be unique and interesting enough for people to watch

huh?

To answer your question though, I don't see why there would be separate categories unless there were significant gameplay differences

Asgard

2014-01-20 04:16:24 am

Quote from Paraxade:

Quote from Asgard:

My concern is not as much about watching OR runs, but about OR runs being a category of its own in the speedrunning community.

Quote from Asgard:

Would a speedrun using the Rift be unique and interesting enough for people to watch

huh?

To answer your question though, I don't see why there would be separate categories unless there were significant gameplay differences

Oh yeah, you're right.

However, do you think that speedrunning smaller indie games that are Rift exclusive would be interesting to watch? I have no idea how the speedrunning community looks upon speedruns of smaller indie titles.