There are quite a few features of this kind, dealing with UI problems, nausea inducing fixed cameras in cutscenes and so on. That is not only pretty cool, it’s also a important thing for many games that use more (or more complex) keyboard shortcuts than just WASD. Think of it as a kind of augmented reality interface inside VR. One example that I already talked about earlier: vorpX has a built in VR-menu, which let’s you map keyboard actions to a floating in-game menu that is operated by simply looking at ‘buttons’ you want to ‘press’. ![]() That’s important, but it’s not the most important thing when it comes to playing games beyond short tests. And by that I don’t mean just making a game ’3D’. That being said, what vorpX does buy you is the opportunity to play games you already own on the Rift right now in the best possible way. No driver for older games will do that, it’s up to games designed with VR in mind to deliver that experience. I said that in quite a few discussions half a year ago, and I think it’s important to stick to the truth in this regard: vorpX does not magically convert any existing game into the 100% perfect VR experience. Ralf: Let’s first start with vorpX does not buy you. Road to VR: How much will vorpX go on sale for? What does your money buy you? ![]() But since I’m seldomly perfectly satisfied with anything I do, I started to add more and more functionality until eventually I realized that I invested too much time into the project to give it away for free. No 3D, no headtracking, just something I did to play a few classic games I wanted to try on the DIY-Rift I had built. Ralf: vorpX started as a small image duplication + warping shader project that I hacked together directly after backing the Rift-Kickstarter. If only they would spend a little more development time for things beyond fighting… Todays Bethesda-style first person RPGs are pretty close to what we dreamed of back in the day by the way. A little shooter from time to time can’t hurt either, of course. So, I never was a hardcore gamer who played dozens of hours a week, but I always loved (and love) to play role playing games of all kinds. Fortunately games weren’t as good as they are today, which is why I also started doing something productive with the machine. That must have been in the early bronze age or so. My first real gaming computer was an Amiga, before that I owned a pre-historic console that most people won’t know about today, a Phillips G7000 ( Odyssey 2 in the U.S.). Ralf: I’m a gamer for a pretty long time. Then I nearly forgot about it, until last year a now well known young Californian came up with a slick low cost design made of mobile phone tech to make history. Ralf: My story in this regard is most likely pretty similar to many of the slightly older guys who are interested in the Rift: I was quite intrigued by the idea of VR in the early- to mid-ninetees, when first (quite horrible) attempts where made to create VR consumer products. Road to VR: Would you call yourself a VR enthusiast? What made you begin developing for the Rift? And when I’m in the mood, I occasionally torture a piano. When that’s the case, I jog a few miles or go windsurfing (greatest sport in the world by the way, everybody should try it!). ![]() From time to time though I need a little break from being nerdy. On the personal level, I’m - of course - a nerd, like most people doing jobs similar to mine. ![]() Programming wise projects are mostly related to this work, quite specialized plugins for renderers and 3d-applications. Usually nothing gaming related, mostly product vizualization, cars, machinery that kind of stuff. Ralf: Professionally I’m what can be best described as a self-employed technical 3d artist, which means I’m doing content creation as well as programming work. Road to VR: Tell us a little about yourself. In the mean time, we wanted to know a little bit more about the man behind the vorpX project, so we spoke to Ralf Ostertag and asked him to fill us in. We’ve had our hands on the beta version of vorpX for a couple of weeks now and are busy putting the finishing touches to the first part of our in-depth preview, due to land later this week. “On the personal level, I’m - of course - a nerd” We talk to its creator, Ralf Ostertag, to find out more. VorpX is a new, commercial 3D driver which promises to unlock the virtual reality potential in your existing games library.
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