The Virtual Reality Thread

[Vagabond142]

Seeing as one doesn't exist yet, I am hence creating one!

This is a non-partisan thread, so things like Playstation VR, Oculus Rift, Gear VR, OSVR, HTC Vive, those little flipslide viewers from the late 80's, etc, are all welcome to be chatted about You also don't need to own one. If you have questions, ask away, I'm fairly sure with the friendly nature of (most) Beyonders, questions can get answered ,or at least fingers pointed at Google

Myself, I have an HTC Vive, and it gets used every night, pretty much. Tilt Brush is awesome if you just want to wave your arms about and make "art" (cough), and things like The Lab are great for quick little blasts of VR fun (The Archery part of The Lab = so much fun).

My main addiction at the moment, however, is Audioshield, from the same developer that made Audiosurf and Audiosurf 2. Basically, same concept of using music to generate the game, but instead of a racer on a track trying to collect blocks, you are a "guardian" with a left and right shield and have to block incoming blobs in time to the music. It's fun as hell and a good cardio workout too on the harder difficulties


So, discuss away fellow Beyonders!

[Gman.45]

I have both the Vive and Rift, running them on a 1080 (sli but sli doesn't work in VR well...yet), and will put in a new Titan when they come out in a couple weeks. With decent hardware the experience is good with both.

There are advantages to both units, for sit down/in cockpit games, the Rift blows the Vive away, however the reverse is true for room scale and standing games. Just my experience. Changing the pixel density manually to 2.5 in the Vive if you have the HW to push it makes a difference in how stuff looks IMO with the Vive. Many games have an in game tool to change the density with the Rift, like DCS flight sims and Elite Dangerous/etc, but there is a way to do it with the Oculus developers tool as well for generally every game.

I'm happy with both, but if I had to pick one, it'd be the Rift, as I just use it more for my type of gaming. Most people would pick the Vive, as it is far better for room scale, and the controllers blow the xbox control out of the water.

Space Pirate Trainer for $17 is a great game, but I mainly am playing DCS flight sims, Elite Dangerous, and a WW2 online flight sim Aces High with VR support built into all of them. Very immersive environment, I can't wait until more driving and combat games like ARM3 incorporate VR.

[spikerS]

I am waiting for the hololens (sp?)

That thing looks boss.

[Vagabond142]

Originally posted by Gman.45
Very immersive environment, I can't wait until more driving and combat games like ARM3 incorporate VR.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/244210/

Assetto Corsa works with the Rift natively, and the Vive via ReVive... and it's pretty much the only driving game you will need. It's AWESOME Very highly recommended that you get a good wheel and pedal set (with shifter if possible) for the full VR immersion

For the Vive (not sure about the Rift), there is The Nest, a sniping game, as well as Space Pirate Simulator as your mentioned, and the next game on my "must buy" list, HoverJunkers. With that one, it takes your room scale space and makes it the deck of a hover salvage barge. You use junk to make walls, armor, etc on your ship, then fight off other players or AI and to duck, you ACTUALLY DUCK behind your cover, etc.... I tried it at my buddy's place and it's a beast of a workout, as well as just bloody good fun

[Vagabond142]

Steam VR sale this weekend

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/vr_weekend

[Vagabond142]

So I picked up Vanishing Realms on the sale.... oh MAN that game is fun XD It's like first person Legend of Zelda with D&D damage rules applied. Also, getting charged down by 5 skeleton warriors is in VR. First time I actually felt my stomach tighten because it was "OH SHIT I'm being attacked!"

VR ftw

[BrknFngrs]

Any issues with nausea or are those concerns overblown?

[NewLextasy]

Can you buy the rift locally ?

[Vagabond142]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs
Any issues with nausea or are those concerns overblown?

I have yet to experience nausea at all related to vision or movement in the Vive. Only even slightly dizzying thing is spinning out in Assetto Corsa or Project Cars and rolling backwards, as the inner ear expects to feel back to front inertia on the body, but you're sitting still. But it's more of a "oh, that's weird" instead of "ABANDON SHIP! ALL LIQUID OUT OF THE STOMACH NOW!" :P

But, in general, I would say that if you are fine on a roller coaster without puking, then VR is nothing to fret about. It's one of those "1% of people get nauseous, but make up 90% of the complaints" things.

As to local availability, nothing yet, but as both companies have now completed all their preorder shipments and are now in "general sales" as it is, I would expect retail store availability, if any is coming, in fall or holiday 2016. As HTC is already working on a version 2 of the Vive using lighter plastics and slightly different machined lenses, that may be the retail version they use. But, in terms of OFFICIAL words from either Facebook or HTC/Valve: no announcements yet regarding retail availability

[Sugarphreak]

...

[pheoxs]

Originally posted by NewLextasy
Can you buy the rift locally ?

You can buy it from bestbuy.ca and have it here in a few days. I know it's not local pickup but it is a local store in case you want to return it or have any issues.

Rift is also 100$ off at bestbuy too at the moment so it's the cheapest option too

[rage2]

Our family is really enjoying PSVR. The Playroom VR games are awesome even though only 1 person is using the headset. We even have our 3 year old able to help us explain where ghosts are as well as identifying the bad guys in the saloon for the VR user to catch.

I've played through Rush of Blood a few times. So much fun.



Only complaint is, need more GOOD games, like Rush of Blood quality. Half the VR games out there are so half assed in either graphics or experience, and only relying on the immersion factor.

[carson blocks]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs
Any issues with nausea or are those concerns overblown?

I bought the Samsung Gear since it's on sale for $99, to hold me over until I decide to get a Rift or something. The Gear made me feel a little funny on the rollercoaster demo, then outright nauseous for half a day due to some shitty spinny helicopter flying in first person view in a game called 'Perfect Wings' (kind of like Pilotwings from the SNES days). I can only play the Gear now for maybe 20-30 minutes at a time where I tried the PSVR for about 2.5 hours and felt fine. I think one of the key reasons is that the PSVR has a 90/120hz refresh rate and the phones are locked to 60hz max. I never noticed the PS stutter once, where I'd bet my phone dropped to 15-30fps or lower occasionally which doesn't help the nausea.

I've also found lowering my phones brightness helps a bunch with eye strain as having a cell phone screen 3 inches from your eyes is less than ideal.

[carson blocks]

I've been on the fence on the Rift due to it not being officially supported on a laptop. I've heard anecdotes of it running fine on my machine (MSI GT72 2QE / GTX980M) but it's a big spend for something that might not work, or might not work well.

[Mitsu3000gt]

The only thing I notice is if I use it for too long I just get a headache from my eyes being that close to a bright screen. It's definitely not something I can use for hours on end.

The other thing that completely ruins the experience is the screen door effect where you can very obviously see every pixel. I tried an Oculus Rift in Japan (not sure which model, but I assume one of the newer ones) and it was absolute garbage. It was like I was watching an old TV through a thick screen door.

I have the Google Daydream and with my Pixel XL it's much better and you can still see pixels but it isn't nearly as obvious. The tech in general has such a long way to go still. That's about the only reason I can see 4K (or higher) coming to smartphone screens. Needs more games, but so does every VR device.

I think the most fun games will be FPS games where you have a gun-like controller with following-precision and zero lag.

[pheoxs]

Originally posted by carson blocks


I bought the Samsung Gear since it's on sale for $99, to hold me over until I decide to get a Rift or something. The Gear made me feel a little funny on the rollercoaster demo, then outright nauseous for half a day due to some shitty spinny helicopter flying in first person view in a game called 'Perfect Wings' (kind of like Pilotwings from the SNES days). I can only play the Gear now for maybe 20-30 minutes at a time where I tried the PSVR for about 2.5 hours and felt fine. I think one of the key reasons is that the PSVR has a 90/120hz refresh rate and the phones are locked to 60hz max. I never noticed the PS stutter once, where I'd bet my phone dropped to 15-30fps or lower occasionally which doesn't help the nausea.

I've also found lowering my phones brightness helps a bunch with eye strain as having a cell phone screen 3 inches from your eyes is less than ideal.

The psvr also uses a better tracking system so the movements feel more realistic whereas the gearvr although better than the google cardboard options, still relies heavily on internal accelerometers. The psvr uses the camera to externally track it which helps make it feel closer to the real thing

[born2workoncars]

Looks like the Asus GL502VS is the best deal on a pascal based notebook. Bestbuy had them on for $1999 but I'm hoping to see a 16-1700 deal for boxing day.

[gwill]

Santa brought me the ps4 virtual reality system this year... so far the families been having a lot of laughs watching everyone use it.

[rage2]

Originally posted by gwill
Santa brought me the ps4 virtual reality system this year... so far the families been having a lot of laughs watching everyone use it.

This.

Having the grandmas sit through the Kitchen demo is so entertaining.

[gwill]

grandma refused to get on it but gramps sure had a blast. He had to keep giving the play by play even though we could see all that he was doing.