ValveTime Spotlight: TF2 On The "Omni" Directional Treadmill at EGX 2013

[Omnomnick]

As some of you may have heard from our latest weekly news round-up, a few of our writers recently attended the 2013 Eurogamer Expo at Earl's Court in London. While visiting, the team came across a small booth demonstrating the "Omni", a multi-directional virtual reality treadmill. The developers regularly used both Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 to demonstrate how the device could be used in conjunction with an Xbox 360 controller and an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to provide even more immersive experiences in video games. The following ValveTime Spotlight video highlights a variety of footage captured at the Omni booth, showing how the hardware can be used to provide a more believable experience within one of Valve's most popular multiplayer titles.

Thanks for watching. Apologies if the footage shown appears to be blurry or low quality. The video was not planned ahead of time, so any footage shown was recorded using a small handheld camcorder in extremely poor lighting conditions within a busy section of the expo centre. Don't forget to subscribe for more ValveTime videos, news, and reviews coming soon!

 

[Exdread]

Every time this guy starts running he looks constipated.

This imho is something that will amuse a very small crowd.

People usually.play games to relax. I know I do.
And I can imagine its going to cost more than 100 bucks to purchase.

Not to mention it makes you the gamer look like a complete idiot, excuse my language.

 

[Krynn72]

It doesn't look very responsive. There's a pretty significant delay between him starting to "run" and the game responding. The thing is also way too small to feel comfortable, and you can't actually run like you'd expect. He's just powerwalking essentially, which is going to seem weird when your is truly running.

 

[Omnomnick]

It doesn't look very responsive. There's a pretty significant delay between him starting to "run" and the game responding. The thing is also way too small to feel comfortable, and you can't actually run like you'd expect. He's just powerwalking essentially, which is going to seem weird when your is truly running.

There was definitely some delay between physical action and the on-screen response.

 

[ríomhaire]

I wouldn't use it for serious playing but I could definitely see it as a more relaxing and entertaining way of getting exercise. Just put on god mode and walk around Skyrim for a an hour or two.

 

[TheWiktor]

And I can imagine its going to cost more than 100 bucks to purchase.

http://shop.virtuix.com/Default.asp

 

[-smash-]

A gimmick if I ever saw one!

 

[Omnomnick]

A gimmick if I ever saw one!

Hell, at least this is a cool gimmick. It isn't totally worthless like most are!

 

[Ikagara]

a technology like this i see better targeted at a game like ARMA

 

[Krynn72]

a technology like this i see better targeted at a game like ARMA

People would die of exhaustion. People think the characters in game have low stamina, wait until you go off the stamina of the gamers themselves.

 

[MFL]

Old people today can't handle controllers with lots of buttons. Old people tomorrow won't be able to handle controls requiring new inputs.

 

[cavifax]

This is the future! Right in front of us!

 

[Exdread]

http://shop.virtuix.com/Default.asp

Yaikes!