We are getting a HTC Vive but we need your help.
We currently need 900 more dollars to buy it and we request your donations.
There is a donation box by the Digital Media room labeled Vive.
We may also have online donations soon.
We have many exciting things planned for this and want you to be a part of it.
Here is some demos that we will try out in the interactive classroom
I cannot wait to schedule the event …
Considering that the Vive costs $800, what is the money going toward?
We want to buy some accessories as well
I will get a full list and post it here
It’s to cover tax and accessories.
Accessories span from easy to clean over the ear headphones, glow in the dark tape to mark the perimeter of our virtual environment, as well as back-up face cushions and cables. In general it is financial cushioning to ensure that we’re completely ready to offer VR to our membership.
For more information, you can check out the headset’s wiki.
I try to keep it up to date with my current plans/thoughts about bringing VR to the space.
https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Virtual_Reality_Headset_Donation_Campaign
I’m going to add an accessories section to allay future skepticism concerning the funding.
Nice, is there a machine with a video card that will run it?
Yes. There is! It is in the digital media room!
We’re tax exempt. Just saying…
I’d like to have Unity 3D and Unreal classes for VR. I think the Vive is amazing and would be awesome for demos.
I’ve already started talking with the Dallas Film Crew about collaborating with them to create a cinematic video game.using the headset. We would do a few short adventures to get the hang of it and see who is interested and then perhaps do a full length one.
James has experience with Unity. I’d definitely want to reach out to him to see if this is an idea he’d like to explore.
Is there any reason that you’re not settling for Gear VR?
The Gear VR is good, but the Vive really makes it way better with the motion capture IR tracking and the hand motion controls. Plus something that’s tethered is less likely to walk off like the GearVR.
They’re made for different purposes. The Gear VR has no spatial awareness in a room and it renders everything on the phone which is relatively low performance compared to computer which significantly limits what can be done with it. The Vive and Oculus are the opposite. They’re spatially aware of the room they’re in (stationary trackers placed in the room) and they use a computer for rendering. I’ve used the Gear VR and the Oculus Rift regularly at work since their beta stages.
I would like to start by saying that I’m definitely considering HTC Vive over any other VR solution. I’ll list some ideas on why I think so.
Cost and Accessibility of Samsung Gear-VR
You’ll need your own samsung device for gear VR.
If we buy a phone to be shared it can cost $300 for a used S6 or even more If we buy it new.
Otherwise, accessibility would be limited for non-samsung owners.
The future of VR
The vive is sort of setting the trend for VR hardware. It’s solved a lot of problems concerning interaction with the virtual environment as well as finding a good mechanism for in-game locomotion. These improvements make a world of a difference.
Specifically… a combination of position tracking and proper VR-controller design offers a greater sense of presence, and in general, a more immersive experience. I believe that future VR hardware is going to start resembling the Vive.
Performance
The performance bottleneck of a Vive will be the Vive hardware itself and a beefy PC owned by the digital media committee. The performance bottleneck of a Gear VR is the phone being used and the quality its sensors. Sensors that aren’t included with VR applications in mind.
With these sort of hardware restrictions in mind… The Vive has a refresh rate of 90Hz compared to a Samsung device’s 60Hz. That refresh rate number is an important factor in VR.
For this reason things like subtle movements of objects in a virtual environment are harder to pick up on Gear VR than it is for the Vive or Oculus (the Oculus has a comparable refresh rate of 90 Hz)
Another thing to consider is that lower frame-rates are also thought to be one of the major causes of VR simulator sickness.
Thanks for the reply. Does Oculus have controllers that are similar to the Vive’s?
No, it has a traditional looking controller. It also has less functional spatial tracking. To me it seems designed more for someone sitting at a computer rather than standing and moving around.
I see. Thanks for the info.
Possibly off topic, but, I was wondering about that, the one game I would love to play with VR has the most controls evar (not really)… Elite Dangerous - I don’t get how you are supposed to keep indexed on joystick etc with the Oculus headset on, I am assuming maybe use our controller not yours… but I really like my controller 
I just ordered a vive and a new laptop with a gtx 1070 in it. I’m a computer programmer (been awhile since I wrote in C) and I want to get into VR programming, might even be interested in startup opportunities. I have an old oculus dk2 too. If someone wants to organize a VR night next week I’ll bring them up.