[HN Gopher] VR Powered by N64 [video]
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       VR Powered by N64 [video]
        
       Author : zdw
       Score  : 71 points
       Date   : 2024-03-16 03:13 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | Rebelgecko wrote:
       | This guy is a wizard. I'm glad he's still hacking on cool stuff
       | after he was forced to stop working on Portal64
        
         | Grazester wrote:
         | Couldn't he just release something what wasn't call Portal
         | instead? Couldn't he call it "Hole Jump" and just not use
         | Portal's assets for it?
        
           | MBCook wrote:
           | The issue wasn't portal, it was Nintendo. Even if he
           | reskinned it Nintendo would still be mad at him for using
           | their libraries.
           | 
           | Valve seemed to be relatively cool about it until Nintendo
           | decided to come knocking and then it became too much of a
           | legal threat.
        
             | pipes wrote:
             | I doubt they are "mad". There will be a team of people
             | whose job it is to pursue ip infringement for Nintendo,
             | they probably don't get emotional about it.
        
           | VelesDude wrote:
           | The only reason Valve pulled it was because they feared
           | Nintendo would come after them as it was using Nintendos
           | proprietary graphics API. They could not distribute the code.
           | 
           | If it was to use a custom built API then there is no issue
           | but hacking N64s RSP is a tricky beast of a chip due to all
           | the oddities of it being essentially experimental 3D hardware
           | at the time.
        
             | Rinzler89 wrote:
             | _> hacking N64s RSP is a tricky beast of a chip due to all
             | the oddities of it being essentially experimental 3D
             | hardware at the time_
             | 
             | It was basically trimmed down cost reduced SGI hardware,
             | noting too exotic or revolutionary.
        
       | Rinzler89 wrote:
       | I'm assuming this is the kind of side-project that gets you hired
       | on the spot in the VR teams at Apple/Meta/Snap without the LC
       | bullshit?
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | This is what James Lambert does as a follow up when Valve shuts
         | down [1] his "Portal in N64" project [2].
         | 
         | James is like Kaze [3] and builds incredible N64 demos [4] and
         | technical videos about them.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdBzok8GjA0
         | 
         | [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4KGm7ixcqI
         | 
         | [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_rzYnXEQlE
         | 
         | [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf036fO-ZUk
        
         | tantalor wrote:
         | LC=?
        
           | Rinzler89 wrote:
           | Leet Code
        
       | dfxm12 wrote:
       | Interestingly, the NES had 3D glasses that go over your face like
       | the occulus and the power glove (mentioned in the video), which
       | has roll and flex sensors. No games combined the two, but I
       | wonder what that could have been like with such little power. It
       | wouldn't be true VR in any sense we think of today, but it would
       | have been very unique gaming experience at home in the late 80s.
        
         | toast0 wrote:
         | The Famicom 3D system was shutter glasses; these were also used
         | on the Sega Master System. On the NES, there wasn't a shutter
         | glasses peripheral released, so dual perspective 3D games used
         | anaglyph glasses (red/blue).
         | 
         | In my book, that's not really 'over your face like the
         | occulus', but that's up to you. Shutter glasses have come and
         | gone several times on computers; many supported by Descent from
         | 1995 on several different types of glasses, and there was a
         | revival of the concept around 2009 with Nvidia 3D Vision.
         | Having used some of the 1995 stuff, gearVR, and a quest 3,
         | shutter glasses are a big pain.
         | 
         | On the power glove, man is it trash. Theoretically maybe, and I
         | think some determined moders have turned it into something
         | useful, but period gamepay is atrocious. My brother bought one
         | with his paper route money and I think it turned him off video
         | games.
        
           | sandworm101 wrote:
           | Shutter glasses were also used on PC even where games did not
           | support them. I remember playing WWIIOL on a CRT with shutter
           | glasses. The effect was amazing, even though a few non-3d
           | assets rendered flat. When VR came along I was hoping that it
           | too could be handled entirely within drivers, negating the
           | need for a title to "support VR". I am so far disappointed.
        
             | VelesDude wrote:
             | Core memory unlocked! I had completely forgotten about
             | those things. When it worked it was pretty cool.
             | 
             | I guess the issue with driver based VR support is that the
             | headset movement would be independent of the game code.
             | Thus you would get a lot of issues because you are
             | overriding the games camera system.
        
       | bradneuberg wrote:
       | The interesting thing is that the original chip inside the N64
       | was created by Silicon Graphics and was called Project Reality,
       | and it was originally created to pursue consumer VR before that
       | whole industry blew up in the 90s and it was made to power a 3D
       | console instead. More details:
       | https://medium.com/@AguyinaRPG/the-nintendo-64-was-the-culmi...
        
       | alexisread wrote:
       | I'd love to see what he could do to optimise and compare the
       | Jaguar VR. I don't think the rendering would be as good, but the
       | lag might be lower with a more raw interface:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh8T6iSbMhc
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-MD8P0c6U
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFZCgNBxkcM
        
       | djmips wrote:
       | This is really cool. I was involved with getting the HTC Vive
       | (SteamVR) headset working on a low power Intel NUC with embedded
       | graphics - to do VR without using Valve's software. Like James,
       | we used Occulus code as a guide, particularly guiding our efforts
       | for the chromatic aberration correction - One thing that James
       | will not have the processing power to handle. It was difficult
       | but in the end we got it all working at 90 FPS (11 ms) - Good
       | luck on your efforts James!
        
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