CINEVEO - VR Cinema

This is an interesting tech demo -- sort of. There are a few things that need to be done before this app is really ready for prime time. This is delivered as a folder. In the folder, there are two separate Unity executables for each of six environments. And then there's an additional batch file to support DirectX 11. It requires installation of a specific CODEC pack from GitHub in order to operate, and overall is at a quality similar to the Multiplayer Theater demo that is available for free. At the very least, take half an hour, write a launcher. Put a button to download the required CODEC pack, have Steam launch that by default. Use Environment.GetSpecialFolder and ask for videos -- look for the movies there. If you're not going to do that, then at least use a single movies folder for all the environments. But using the folder under Steam versus the user's Video folder (or any user specified folder) is something that is going to annoy users. Think about if you really need 12 separate executables here -- that cannot be pleasant to maintain in Unity. Those scenes can all be in a single executable, and you can use LoadLevel to load the level you want. So instead of separate executables, make one executable. At that point you need a menu -- there are a lot of good Oculus-enabled menus in the Unity asset store, and the default Unity UI is workable as well. Basically, if you're going to ask for money you need to be a cut above the tech demos in the forums, for free, at the Oculus forums. Keep in mind, Oculus is currently a developer only club -- developers are going to hold you to a higher standard than traditional users may, usually, and are going to have seen the various demos on the Oculus site most likely. I know it's the first thing that I did after I unboxed my Oculus -- install the SDK, look at what people are uploading, see "hey, I should do that." This is not currently ready for prime time, and needs some work before it will be. As a demo on GitHub, I'd recommend it. As a commercial paid product, it needs some basic professionalism brought to the table.

"You have been permanently banned from all CINEVEO - Virtual Reality Cinema discussions. You were banned by a CINEVEO - Virtual Reality Cinema developer." This is what I get for making suggestions on how to improve the app? The is the lowest of the low. This developer simply don't listen to feedbacks and suggestions. They want you to report errors but would never appreciate feedbacks. This is why the app will never improve and will not succeed. Compare this dude to the developers of BigScreen is night and day. If you're asking for help or anything, expect either significant delay or no response at all.

Great concept, but it suffers from the same problem that Whirligig currently suffers from - MKV videos judder and skip all over the place making them unwatchable. This is apparently due to the Unity video plugin they use, so hopefully a fix will come eventually. The developers documentation notes that your will need a "powerful" PC to play MKV's smoothly - well buddy if a Core i7 4790k, 16GB RAM, RAID-0 SSDs and a 980ti isn't enough to play a video, somethings not right! Once this issue is fixed it will be a solid thumbs up, the UI is great (if buggy) and the environments are cool, but for now - it's not fit for purpose.

I really wanted to like this. I had initial issues with things not launching correctly from the Steam app, but found I could just run the EXE from the appropriate folder and it launched fine. It was a bit annoying to have to move the files around for different theaters, I don't know why they all couldn't share a single space, but even that was just a minor issue. The immersion was decent, the headset driven controls (i.e. look here, hover there, etc.) were actually pretty well done, I didn't mind them at all. But everything stuttered. It wasn't a codec issue, or a bad MKV issue, since they played fine in everything else, from Media Player to VLC to any other program I tried playback in. And then I saw at the end of the PDF file that if the video you are trying to watch is larger than 1.5GB then you're pretty much out of luck, large file sizes will stutter. I don't have any of my movies in any MKV file that small. So I couldn't use it to watch ANY of my movies... Requested a refund, and hopefully someone else will see this review and not have to go through the hassle of the install and configuration and such, only to find out that the movies you intend to use won't be compatible anyway...

Garbage, cant play high res 3D mkv files with out stuttering like crazzy. Playing from fast SSD on a system running on a fast SSD with 32GB DDR3 and GTX970 with i7 4790K. It just cant handle MKV and the developers expect us to re-encode our videos to MP4 to play them. Sorry bad program bad developers this is seen as nothing more than a cash grab trying to profit from VR while its the in thing. Try making your video player play video files then you might get a better review.

you need to install 3rd party codecs, one from github (not aproblem), one from some other site riddled with those 'download now' adverts riddled with malware. ULTRA 3d mode is just 'zoomed in' i could rant for hours... but.. i cant be bothered.. this is the first time ive ever asjed for a refund.

I've been a user of this great app way before it came to steam, and am still loving it! If you are a movie buff and Oculus Rift DK2 owner you OWE it to yourself to get this. The hands free controls are simple and effective. Not all of the different environments may be to everyone's liking but there are a decent amount of them, and all of them provide something to look at during the boring bits of whatever movie you're watching. My personal favorite is the 4D movie theater, it just looks so cozy and authentic. I love how the ambient light of the movie screen dynamically lights up the environment. A word of advice: eating popcorn while wearing a VR headset can get a bit messy ;)

N.B. Time Played does not reflect my actual use. I have had the non steam version for a while now..... Love this product and so happy its now available as something that can be added to my steam library. Since I started watching my movies through this on my Oculus DK2 I really have trouble even thinking about just going back to watching movies on a standard flat screen. Its hard to explain it if you have never used an Oculus , but when you watch movies using Cineveo it really is like being at the movies watching your favorite films on a big screen. And just like the movies , if you pick a seat right up front you will have to look left and right to catch all the action lol. The different enviroments are great too , although myself I tend to stick to the classic big screen cinema room but I did have a laugh watching Gravity 3D while using the space station setting. I do tend to get quite drawn in when using my oculus to the point I forget I am wearing it sometimes. I keep a drink behind me on a shelf while watching films and I often catch myself turning around expecting to see it sitting there lol. The handsfree interface is a great feature too , being able to navigate without having to remove the rift is a bonus. Few things to mention to offset a couple of the negative reviews. 1) You dont need to use shortcuts to start the different enviroments , this can be done by right clicking cineveo in steam and picking which one you want to launch. 2) Yes you need a codec pack but all are free and chances are if you watch movies from the internet then you already have a codec pack installed. Overall its a great movie watching program for Oculus users so thumbs up from me !!! :D

Excellent program that does a great job of simulating the cinema environs. I Haven't been able to get smooth .mkv playback but ,mp4 works perfectly. Just to note that, at the moment, although this is now on Steam, it doesn't actually work through steam, it either launches an instruction .pdf or brings you to the directory containing all the launchers. Other than that the program works fine and hopefully this will be addressed in a future update.

this app is terrible. Its way to difficult to use. I spent 20 minutes figuring out how to use this like seriously. Ans another thing, why dont you let us the the controles that come with the vr headset? Why did you make it to where you have to either use the headset or take of the headset just to selct something?! In all this is the worst vr experience ever.