VR is dying

[UFO]

Price is definitely a reason. A good pair of VR googles including hand controllers will set you back $1000. With few games not many can justify paying that much, especially when there are good games for normal screens available.

[twonha]

Originally Posted by OverclockN'

We definitely need more experiences where you can tour and do different things. I just can't understand why that hasn't exploded. Tour a museum? Tour the great pyramids? Walk around Rome? I mean...why is this not a huge thing with VR? What a huge wasted opportunity. Especially with so many people home these days.

I've done a few of the tours that *are* available, and I think this one comes down to the quality of the VR headsets. Only the high end headsets deliver visuals that are good enough to see detail, which is exactly what needs to survive when "visiting" a place virtually. In a game, texture detail doesn't really matter (see Valheim's popularity), but if you're going to a museum to watch a painting and the painting's a blurry mess up close, that's a useless experience.

Most VR tours looked about as good as Google Street View. It works on a technical level, but the level of detail isn't anywhere near close enough for a convincing experience. This needs to improve both on the headset ánd in the software.

[Trunks0]

Originally Posted by Nagorak

If you want a portable headset with PC VR quality graphics what you're looking for right now is basically a VR backpack. You can often pick up used Zotac VR backpacks on eBay for a big discount to original retail. As a niche product there apparently isn't a lot of people looking for them.

Definitely not enough power in mobile silicon to get that much performance into a headset that you could wear without breaking your neck.

Well Vive has the wireless adapter. You can also jump through the hoops to use PCVR wirelessly using a Quest/Quest 2.

Originally Posted by UFO

Price is definitely a reason. A good pair of VR googles including hand controllers will set you back $1000. With few games not many can justify paying that much, especially when there are good games for normal screens available.

That's why your better off buying a Quest/Quest 2 (despite the FB crap). Far less investment for 90% of the functionality.

[SubCog]

I'm hearing that the next round of stand-alone headsets will support wifi 6e, and that'll basically be the end of wired headsets as we know them.

[SubCog]

Originally Posted by UFO

Price is definitely a reason. A good pair of VR googles including hand controllers will set you back $1000. With few games not many can justify paying that much, especially when there are good games for normal screens available.

My Quest2 will argue with you there. Especially with the 90hz support, and the rumored upcoming 120hz support, the delta between index and quest is shrinking alot.

Here's hoping the Quest3 has a much wider fov though! Oh, and OLED would be nice too.

[Nagorak]

Originally Posted by OverclockN'

I don't think VR is dying, but it's reaaaaally slow on the growth for sure. There's just not many games worth playing. I still don't have it and have been waiting until there is an actual list of games making it worth owning. The same thing I do for any console system, but VR is taking forever.

I agree and disagree with a few of the posts here.

We definitely need more experiences where you can tour and do different things. I just can't understand why that hasn't exploded. Tour a museum? Tour the great pyramids? Walk around Rome? I mean...why is this not a huge thing with VR? What a huge wasted opportunity. Especially with so many people home these days.

We need more real, actual games with substance. Most of the games remind me of the Wii era of 999999 games out there and most of them are mini game and random trash. It's a mess to sort through.

A lot of stuff you're complaining about is a "chicken or the egg" situation. There aren't enough VR headsets out there to justify solid, big budget titles. Then there are people like you looking at it from the other perspective and not buying the headsets. The headsets also didn't sell in large numbers because they plus the hardware needed to run them was too expensive.

I guess from my perspective things are evolving just as you'd expect them to. It's not like anyone did anything wrong, it's just going to take a while for the tech to mature, and for the user base to expand.

[SubCog]

I think alot of the sentiment about VR dying is not base on sales numbers, but on a very real impression that there's not alot of high quality content that's pushing the medium forward in new and innovative ways.

I think something similar happened with the Wii, where Wii Sports showed off tremendous potential for waggle controls, and everyone expected that later games would take that concept and expand on it in even more amazing ways... in the end it turned out that Wii Sports was probably the best implementation of waggle controls ever released, and most other waggle games kindof sucked. Sure, nintendo had many other amazing games on the platform, but they mostly gravitated toward using the waggle controls less and less over time, and I think we eventually arrived at a consensus that waggle was a gimmick that was really only good for very specific (usually novelty) games.

I do feel like VR is kindof getting into similar "gimmick" territory as well, at lease in some areas. Yes, there are VR games where I wish I could just play them with a mouse and keyboard, and VR adds little value beyond the initial "wow" factor.

But there are other areas that I feel are pretty un-tapped. Why are there so few 3rd-person platformers? I've adored all 3 that exist. Why aren't we seeing more games that leverage Robo Recall's dual-handed gameplay mechanics? Just give me Robo Recall set in WW2, Robo Recall set in a medieval fantasy setting, Robo Recall in space, etc. We should be getting so many Robo Recall clones that we all want to barf. My point is that VR is failing to fully capitalize on the stuff that's already been proven to work, while simultaneously failing to really take things to amazingly innovative new places.

I understand why we're not seeing a bunch of games like HL:Alex though... games with that level of quality and polish are just difficult and expensive to produce.

I think part of the problem is that we're in that awkward transition stage, where VR has a larger audience now, and AAA studios are starting to work on their games, but those games are still in the pipeline. It's possible that in another year we'll start having a massive glut of AAA VR experiences, and that will feel like a real revolution.

I also think people are realizing what VR is good for and what it's not. Initially, everyone thinks it's a medium that will replace all other entertainment, and now we're realizing that's probably not going to happen. People will still watch TV and movies, play console and PC games, scroll through their social media, read books and comics, and VR will take it's place along side those other mediums in competing for people's attention.

[Eisberg]

Oculus got some big complex games in the pipeline that should be releasing this year or next year

https://old.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest...on_from_the_1/

[SirBaron]

Quest 2 has now sold more that quest, rift rift s and oculus go, combined. And hasn't even been out a year yet.

[Gandalfthewhite]

I think devs are also figuring out what works and what doesn't in terms of things where you don't have the ability to give a haptic response so you need to use brain hacks to get an input across. VR hardware is still in it's youth and I think we will see a lot more growth within the next 1-2 generations of hardware especially in the areas of tracking and feedback.

[NIGELG]

Most nerds probably don't realize how stupid VR headsets look and that the mainstream will never buy into an expensive, uncool looking, geeky device.

The same thing happened with 3D gaming.

It might be immersive to the wearer/user but it doesn't yet have the attractiveness to catch on .Fans of technology will lap it up but I don't think there is enough of a critical mass of people to care.

[Destroy]

Someone on Reddit summed it well "VR is stuck in 2016."

[KAC]

Does Quest 2 support dudes with glasses. The rift was garbage. I played it 3 times. Kept it in my cupboard for 2 years and sold it for 220 smacks. What a waste of money.

[demo]

Originally Posted by OverclockN'

We definitely need more experiences where you can tour and do different things. I just can't understand why that hasn't exploded. Tour a museum? Tour the great pyramids? Walk around Rome? I mean...why is this not a huge thing with VR? What a huge wasted opportunity. Especially with so many people home these days.

We need more real, actual games with substance. Most of the games remind me of the Wii era of 999999 games out there and most of them are mini game and random trash. It's a mess to sort through.

I totally agree and was hoping for more 'virtual tours' when I bought a VR headset. I'm not interested in 99% of VR games.

[Seyiji]

Originally Posted by KAC

Does Quest 2 support dudes with glasses. The rift was garbage. I played it 3 times. Kept it in my cupboard for 2 years and sold it for 220 smacks. What a waste of money.

Shame you didn't buy into the touch controllers in time you probably would have had a better experience !__!

[KAC]

Mine came with touch controllers. Also what does that have to do with the headset not fitting over my glasses?

[Seyiji]

Originally Posted by KAC

Mine came with touch controllers. Also what does that have to do with the headset not fitting over my glasses?

Cause you sold your rift and I thought they didnt have touch which is why I thought you sold it. I was gonna recommend an aftermarket face thingy that worked well with people with glasses but alas they don't make one for the quest series afaik.

Basically...

IGNORE ME!!

[Trunks0]

Originally Posted by KAC

Does Quest 2 support dudes with glasses. The rift was garbage. I played it 3 times. Kept it in my cupboard for 2 years and sold it for 220 smacks. What a waste of money.

Yes. Although you may want to buy a set of the little lens bumpers/anti-scratch rings so your frames/lens can't possibly touch the lenses. Hasn't been a problem with the frames for my glasses and my Quest, but many people have encountered issues.

[Cyko]

I had a Quest, just got the Quest 2 yesterday.

VR is definitely not dead. It’s not where it should be, but it’s getting there.

[Nascar24]

Still have a psvr and Quest 1. Don’t use either near enough to justify buying another newer one. Really have hardly touched them in the last 6 months. Having no cables definitely makes it more assessable but still hasn’t had me come back regularly.

[SubCog]

So some people have started digging into various hidden/upcoming features that are included in the quest software. Looks like lots of in-progress productivity features, for supporting keyboards, furniture, real-life objects like white boards, etc. Looks like more emphasis on AR-style features. Of course on the current Quest hardware that's all black and white, which will limit the experience alot. I expect Quest3 will have color tracking cameras, and will really start to push hard on AR & productivity functionality.

One feature I've seen people talking about is something they're calling "portals"... basically means you can designate a window in the 3d space that looks through to the tracking cameras. Imagine using this for your mouse & keyboard, or your entire desktop... rather than Quest having to track and reconstruct all that stuff in 3d, they can just show it to you in the real world. Pretty neat, but it would be WAAAAY better with color cameras.

Check out timestamp 6:00 here:

[Nagorak]

For it to really work well they also need to be quality cameras. The Vive Pro has color cameras, so you can set it to provide pass through in full color (instead of the default Tron mode), but the resolution is so bad and the size/distance between the cameras is slightly off, so overall not a great experience. It works fine for what it is, but you wouldn't want to be doing AR stuff with it, IMO.

[theduce]

Originally Posted by KAC

Does Quest 2 support dudes with glasses. The rift was garbage. I played it 3 times. Kept it in my cupboard for 2 years and sold it for 220 smacks. What a waste of money.

Yes, I wear glasses at home. I bought a bunch of aftermarket stuff to make headset more comfortable. I do enjoy playing more with my contacts though.
Spending more time with Oculus 2, it can be clunky, janky and not all games are great looking.

However, it is a very fun experience and well worth the price in my opinion. I would buy again and recommend.

[SubCog]

Originally Posted by Nagorak

For it to really work well they also need to be quality cameras. The Vive Pro has color cameras, so you can set it to provide pass through in full color (instead of the default Tron mode), but the resolution is so bad and the size/distance between the cameras is slightly off, so overall not a great experience. It works fine for what it is, but you wouldn't want to be doing AR stuff with it, IMO.

Carmack talked about this at the oculus event last year. He mentioned that they largely chose to go with low-res b&w cameras on Quest2 because the b&w CCDs are able to resolve environment tracking at a sub-pixel level, based on the various shades of gray of each b&w pixel. He said that color CCDs, because of the geometric pattern of the color sub-pixels, are far worse for environment tracking. He said this was the problem with the Vive Cosmos, for example. He then went on to suggest that they could easily do color environment tracking by using much higher resolution color CCDs, and that the Quest2 soc is capable of running those cameras... but it ultimately came down to a cost issue, as they were trying to push the Quest2 price as low as possible.

Carmack did outline a clear path to accomplish pretty much full AR with Quest style hardware with color cameras, so it's clearly possible and something that they're thinking about.

[Gandalfthewhite]

you can also get custom lenses so you dont need to wear your glasses. For most of the major VR headsets at this point.

[Trunks0]

Originally Posted by Gandalfthewhite

you can also get custom lenses so you dont need to wear your glasses. For most of the major VR headsets at this point.

Forgot about that option. Possible to do as well .

[andino]

VR isn't dead. It just feels that way because there are not many AAA coming out on it. Truth is, there aren't that many AAA games coming out off of VR either. Something to do with a global pandemic.

It isn't dead...

[Mangler]

RE4 VR is coming to the quest.


RIP PCVR.

[Seyiji]

Originally Posted by Mangler

RE4 VR is coming to the quest.


RIP PCVR.

Cancels RE Village Preorder

[SubCog]

Pre-orders for DecaMove are up. I just ordered one.
https://www.deca.net/decamove/campaign/

Basically you clip it to your belt, and it tracks the orientation of your hips, so that joystick movement games base your movement on your hips instead of your head. All the VR youtubers are saying it's a huge improvement.