Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter Is Just About There For Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter Is Just About There For Linux

Croteam issued a new build of Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter today and there is now VR support on Linux, pending an updated SteamVR for Linux...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Serious-Sam-VR-Linux-Pending

[tildearrow]

Finally!

Croteam mentioned that VR is mow supported on Linux

[ernstp]

So would that be actual HTC Vive support? Or OSVR? With Nvidia driver? What's the situation...

[ElectricPrism]

On your mark...

[sarmad]

What do they mean by Vulkan being recommended? I thought Vulkan is required for Linux VR.

[eydee]

The non-VR version which could be played by more than 3 people is still missing too.

[L_A_G]

You just stand and kill enemies, no running around, boring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDuG7OHaoas

The thing about VR is that in most cases the movement of the in-game character has to be the same as the player in real life or you run the risk of serious motion sickness. Until developers can start doing "building scale" or "world scale" rather than just room scale VR games where you're standing up and moving about will have to be limited to room scale type experiences where you only move around a bit or use the "point-to-teleport" mechanic found in games like the VR version of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Valve's own The Lab.

[zboson]

I am very interested in VR on Linux. I currently use an Oculus Rift CV1 on Windows 10. If the Vive works on Linux I will likely move to Vive. The tracking issues are better on Vive anyway. But the HDM and hand controllers are perhaps better with the Rift. The first time I tried VR was playing HL2 on Linux with a DK2 and to me it was revolutionary. It's too bad the CV1 neither supports HL2 or Linux now.

As to VR sickness, I only get really sick when rotating my body in the game but not in reality. I don't get sick from translational motion. The solution for FPS games for me is snap turning where you rotate in discrete angles say 45 degrees and rotate your body physically otherwise for smaller angles. In fact you could just use your body for turning anyway. That's because tracking with two sensors with the Rift is not great (at least with how I have them configured) and I also get tangle up in the cord sometimes. That's why I use a combination of snap turning and physical rotation. You also build up a tolerance to VR sickness after a week or so of use just like sea sickness.

In any case, I want more FPS like VR games. The teleport and stand in place shooting games are not my thing.

[roothorick]

So would that be actual HTC Vive support? Or OSVR? With Nvidia driver? What's the situation...

At Steam Dev Days they had a retail Vive fully operational and running the Dota 2 viewer on (what looked like) a Kubuntu system, and some low-level bits of SteamVR already have Linux binaries that are generally available (like the Lighthouse driver). There's no Word of God on it right now, but it's expected to be pretty much everything you get on Windows except (probably) Oculus support.

What do they mean by Vulkan being recommended? I thought Vulkan is required for Linux VR.

If it's anything like the Windows situation, the game can use whatever API it wants to render, but then has to submit each completed frame to the VR compositor instead of displaying it directly. This is necessary for reprojection and the chaperone to work, among other things.

The compositor we know to use Vulkan; I don't know how exactly that process plays out underneath. Presumably there's some GLX / Vulkan wizardry to transfer the frame data from the game's graphics context directly to that of the compositor; if you're already doing that Vulkan-to-Vulkan I could see GLX-to-Vulkan being pretty doable as well.

How you explain the existence of INCELL VR game then:-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXoFMNG0PMM

A number of developers go "hell with it" and risk the motion sickness. This is controversial, and has resulted in the concept of "VR legs" and training yourself to tolerate the movement. Your average person cannot tolerate InCell for long without conditioning.

I am very interested in VR on Linux. I currently use an Oculus Rift CV1 on Windows 10. If the Vive works on Linux I will likely move to Vive. The tracking issues are better on Vive anyway. But the HDM and hand controllers are perhaps better with the Rift. The first time I tried VR was playing HL2 on Linux with a DK2 and to me it was revolutionary. It's too bad the CV1 neither supports HL2 or Linux now.

A number of factors pushed me towards the Vive, but Valve's track record with Linux and open standards / interoperability was a major consideration. I don't regret my purchase

[konserw]

I am very interested in VR on Linux. I currently use an Oculus Rift CV1 on Windows 10. If the Vive works on Linux I will likely move to Vive. The tracking issues are better on Vive anyway. But the HDM and hand controllers are perhaps better with the Rift. The first time I tried VR was playing HL2 on Linux with a DK2 and to me it was revolutionary. It's too bad the CV1 neither supports HL2 or Linux now.

As to VR sickness, I only get really sick when rotating my body in the game but not in reality. I don't get sick from translational motion. The solution for FPS games for me is snap turning where you rotate in discrete angles say 45 degrees and rotate your body physically otherwise for smaller angles. In fact you could just use your body for turning anyway. That's because tracking with two sensors with the Rift is not great (at least with how I have them configured) and I also get tangle up in the cord sometimes. That's why I use a combination of snap turning and physical rotation. You also build up a tolerance to VR sickness after a week or so of use just like sea sickness.

In any case, I want more FPS like VR games. The teleport and stand in place shooting games are not my thing.

Fortunetly wireless VR is just arund the corner see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTtKqIOgAAI