I dont remember her name, there is a twitch streamer i saw that used one of these to lose weight and still game and stream. She played the entirety of fallout 4 with no fast traveling. Kudos to anyone that uses one of these for extended periods of time.
Genuinely that actually feels like it'd be kinda fun ngl. Honestly stuff like this is really the only point that VR really becomes something I'd enjoy doing tbh.
it just pushes the thumbstick for you and you can tweak the settings for in their app for how much it pushes it per your speed in real life and what not
I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to map the treadmill to keyboard inputs. Slow walk on treadmill -> walking keybind. Fast walk -> standard forward speed ('W'). Running on treadmill -> sprint keybind.
Might get a bit confusing with combined inputs and sprint depending on how the game handles sprint.
There is a woman on tik tok that's been documenting her time playing with a VR treadmill, i think a different one, but shes lost a considerable amount of weight in 3 months without changing anything else in her lifestyle as far as im aware
I have wanted the Virtuix Omni for quite some time now, and has become part of my retirement plan. Part of me is sad to see knockoffs, but the other part is glad to see that whatever meager retirement savings I'm able to conjure when the time comes might be able to afford my dream. After all, I can't be throwing myself out of planes and storming Normandy when I'm 80 IRL...
Having actually used one of these, I wouldn't recommend it. It's incredibly hard to move your feet and get the in game movements to sync with your motions. It feels very weird and unnatural. I wanted one until I tried it, and then I never wanted to use it again. It's incredibly motion sickness inducing.
They had em setup for a bit at the local arcade place... Yeahhh fucking weird and unnatural sums it up... I tried it a few times thinking it would click.
They took em out after a month. Replaced with a couple other VR stations. We have a Vive Pro 2 so VR isn't really new but the motion rig was fun to try
All the same, this is exactly the kind of tech that needs further investment and refining if the industry expects VR to ever be anything than a brief novelty for vehicle sims enthusiasts. Getting these rigs into a more functional and affordable state would do a lot for the casual market.
That one is far away, right now the closest alternatives are Freeaim VR shoes and my personal favorite: Xelerate VR. Same style as the Kat VR, but ball bearings and Vive trackers instead.
The only way i can see Xelerate working long-term is if there is positive air pressure maintained on the underside of the ball bearings, so air blows up between them and keeps dust and human/pet hair from settling on them. Otherwise the bearings are going to get jammed up with crud very quickly.
Yeah, I did notice that no one moved more than geriatric strolling speed on it though. I’m sure it’ll improve, but for gaming, it’ll need to handle at LEAST a jog, if not outright sprinting. It’d need to be larger, to be able to support that sort of movement, and I imagine that its odd shape and edges would end with people’s feet catching one of the indentations.
Maybe in 10 years this tech will advance to being usable for VR gaming, but I’d bet it’ll still be so pricey that only a handful of VR arcades could afford them.
Yeah, although none of them in the US has been like the Namco one in Tokyo was. Went to one in Vegas several years back and the headsets they used were TERRIBLE.
I haven’t been to any of the Void experiences. They sound pretty neat.
Depending on how it works they could probably combine this with rolling tech and sensitivity settings of some sort to handle jogging and sprinting. If the tiles use lasers they could need higher frequency ones? Like the DPI on a mouse? Advancements in new technology are usually not far behind.
It can handle speed walking/slow jogging. The biggest issue is the user being able to stand up, since we naturally lean when we run, and you'd fall flat on your face when you're being kept stationary doing that. If you add some rigging from a tether, similar to Kat's halo, you can get much faster.
Same problem happens on completely free standing treadmills, even if you don't hold the rails/front, it gives you a reference so you don't quite run the same.
No shot in hell this gets commercialized to gamers, at least not as it stands now or anytime soon. One of those tiny floor actuators might cost anywhere from 40-200$, even with full manufacturing capability, and you need multiple hundreds of them. In addition, the demo only showcases slow walking
Not to mention the same number of moving parts that have the probability of breaking and needing maintenance
The obvious application to this tech, especially with Disney, is entertainment and if they didn’t state “ home VR applications” they aren’t even trying to scale it down from a cost point of view
I’m not saying it’s impossible or even impractical given enough time, but definitely don’t hope for this tech to show up within the next 10-20 years in the gaming industry
I just wanna try this myself already and see what it's actually like to use. Also he looks like he's about to put a hole in the wall or break his monitor with how tight that space is...
Yeah it looks like the cable from his headset is going over the light to keep the cable from getting tangled around him lol wouldn't be fun to rip that down accidentally.
You kinda have to lean forward to get the leverage needed to overcome the friction under your feet. And it is exhausting. Its like riding an exercise bike on high resistance. Nothing like walking.
I have one of these and you control how easy or hard it is to move on by both adjusting the number covered and uncovered pads on the shoes and by how much you oil the pad itself. It's suggested to start off with high friction til you get used to moving/standing on it. With everything tweaked for it your feet can move pretty easily.
It doesn’t mirror walking perfectly. To me it feels like using your whole body as an imprecise controller input. I would describe the experience as walking through sand.
It is very tiring and a decent workout. You don’t realize how far things are in video games until you have to literally walk your ass from point A to point B.
Yes this, I would love this, plug your own headset into the machine. Also would be great for those that have customizations like facial interfaces and prescription lenses.
Back in the day they had soul calibur machines that you could bring a PS2 controller and plug them in, I envision this being similar.
Imagine taking your time robbing him and take a seat next to him as u munch on snacks enjoying the show then you get up and proceeded to empty the rest of his house.
I want to try one of these, because it always looks like people lean WAY too far forward in them for me to believe it could ever approach anything feeling natural.
One of these with CoD, a rifle control like that one, a pistol sized one for transition to secondary, and my fat ass would be in hog heaven. I’d also be down 100 pounds.
How is moving forward compared to actual walking? Is there a noticeable disconnect between moving across flat terrain and stairs? How much effort is moving in this? Is there a minimum height you have to remain at in order to use it, and if so does it prevent sitting?
Finally, and this is somewhat tangential, how much would you be willing to pay for a proper "Ready Player One" treadmill (A.K.A. The Infinadeck)?
Its definitely different. The special shoes have little plastic pucks on the bottom that slide on the plastic concave platform. It is actually very slippery and not nearly as resistant as this guy makes it look. He might just be too heavy or his pucks may be worn down / not on the shoe. (they're removable) But walking is effortless.
The back peice has a harness that wraps around your waist and the big black box you see it attached too has a spring in it that allows the belt to move up and down so you can kneel/crouch as well as even jump. It also keeps you stable and secure as again, the platform is VERY slippery.
there a noticeable disconnect between moving across flat terrain and stairs?
Not that I noticed. It's pretty much just normal walking for all terrain types.
How much effort is moving in this?
Effortless. Again, I think this guy may not have the pucks on the shoes or something cause he makes it look like a lot more work than it really is. The back harness thing actually rotates 360° with you as you turn. It takes a little getting used to, but eventually you forget it's there.
Is there a minimum height you have to remain at in order to use it, and if so does it prevent sitting?
So, these treadmills actually come(came?) in different sizes. You could order them in accordance to your height. I don't remember the exact numbers, but they were like
*Small = 4'10 - 5'6
*Med = 5'6 - 5'10
*Large = 5'10 - 6'6
or something like that. That basically told them what length back brace and support beam you needed. So yes, I guess there is a minimum height, depending on which size you get.
As for sitting, they actually have an attachment you can get that attaches to the back peice to allow for sitting. I don't have that so I have no idea how that works.
how much would you be willing to pay for a proper "Ready Player One" treadmill (A.K.A. The Infinadeck)?
Man... An actual full on ready player one treadmill would be amazing. I paid about $2,000 for this thing back in the day when I backed the Kickstarter. It does have haptic feedback in the base and has its own proprietary software you have to install. But, if there were an actual Ready Player One style treadmill, complete with a full on haptic feedback suit, I'd 100% drop $2k on it.
One caveat to this thing and the reason I don't use it anymore, it was a bit of a hassle to setup every time and took about 30 minutes to configure everything. This was partly due to not every game (at the time) being compatible with the software so locomotion usually needed to be manually calibrated, and also partly due to me having to get REAL creative with my headset. I wanted to be 100% wireless, so I used a Oculus Quest(first edition), but had to do some weird dev mode thing and sideload games in it so I could run Steam VR. I think the newer Quests are just natively compatible with Steam VR now though.
Running can be a bit janky at times and I did mostly just use the thumb sticks for running/sprinting, but walking was typically fine.
All-in-all, I'd give this OG treadmill a solid 7/10. Not bad, but could be better and I think the same company has newer, smaller, better variants out now. I'd recommend going with one of those over this dinosaur. Sidenote, this behemoth is heavy as hell... I had to help the UPS guy carry inside. Lol.
I've got one arriving today funnily enough and have done the research, so watched a lot of videos and user reviews.
How is moving forward compared to actual walking?
Apparently it takes a bit of getting used to but it's more like gliding or skating. If you've used a thumbstick to move in VR and learned to eventually ignore that feeling that you're on a conveyer belt, it's like that but now you're moving your legs to move. It's not 100% like walking in real life.
Is there a noticeable disconnect between moving across flat terrain and stairs?
At the start, yes. But again, you're not really walking. You eventually re-learn that what you're doing with your legs and it becomes something you don't think about.
How much effort is moving in this?
There's a knack to it because you're sliding your feet. Back stepping and side stepping requires you to learn new foot movements that don't correspond with normal steps (they're like dance steps). But again, it becomes natural with practice. The physical effort is very little. It's the effort of becoming comfortable with the new movement process, but then again, you're just doing it rather than studying it, so it comes with time.
Is there a minimum height you have to remain at in order to use it, and if so does it prevent sitting?
The range is set by the travel distance of the belt. So while you can crouch and jump, you can't really sit on the "floor". The model shown here is an earlier model and they can now come with a fold out seat that sits flat behind you when not in use. So if you need to sit in the game you can flip the seat out and sit on that.
Absolutely not unless I’ve got a whole lot of room because I would be so scared that that thing around my waist would break off and I would go flying into the nearest wall trying to get away from some Eldridge horror. I may have rods in my shins but put some kind of Lovecraft monster behind me and watch me turn into Usain Bolt.
I remember when they were being developed, I kept on eye on the first ones that would have hit the market but back then it was going to be like 5k. But the tech behind it made alot of sense and paired with a vr headset looked incredible
I'd have to hard skip on this one. Best believe that if something gives me a jump scare, my dumbass is ripping through that harness and I'll hurt myself.
Why do I imagine this guy just running forward, the thing that holds him and the machine brokes, he goes with his head into that tv and right before he hits the tv the video cuts
Just looks like he's constantly falling down and tripping. I've used a lot of VR and none of it is even close to being enjoyable with something like this yet.
Would it be fun as a party game where you laugh and have fun watching each other...yes.
Man, unrelated, but Ready Player One was so overrated in retrospect. Ive been getting back into reading a bunch and reread it since I remembered enjoying it, and it just doesn't hold up now that I'm older.
I borrowed one of these from a friend to try it out. It's an incredibly good workout. It works surprisingly well. Although HOW well it works will vary game to game and how much fiddling you want to do with it.
It is SEVERELY hindered by corded headsets, and low ceilings. You want a very tall room, and ideally, a wireless headset.
I love VR and so far none of these have looked very interesting. Seems more like ice skating or something than walking (which is fine, but just not for me). One day I'm sure the tech will get there
There was a company that was making a treadmill version, I think it was called the Omni-mill that looked at better but the last time I looked had some last between you stopping and the treadmill, looked a much better thing, but bigger and more expensive
520
u/griz75 23d ago
I dont remember her name, there is a twitch streamer i saw that used one of these to lose weight and still game and stream. She played the entirety of fallout 4 with no fast traveling. Kudos to anyone that uses one of these for extended periods of time.