VR is dying

[Nascar24]

If they want to do ads, yes the game should be free. But look at cable, when it first started everything was ad free because you were paying, now its just like regular TV plus your paying.

[Johnmcl7]

I found VR absolutely incredible the first time I tried it on an Occulus DK2 headset a while back, I immediately bought my own Vive then upgraded to wireless when that was offered which was a big improvement both for the freedom and comfort. I upgraded to the Vive Pro because I didn't want to go back to cable but my 1070 struggled with it but been loving VR again now I've got a 3080. The immersive feeling of being taken into another world just never gets old for me and makes for such a different experience to anything else.

The headset is still uncomfortable and a pain to get aligned for the sweetspots, it baffles me why HTC made a big improvement with these aspects in the deluxe audio strap but went backwards on the Pro. However after exhausting the battery again it's not enough to stop me enjoying it and never had anyone who was less than amazed after having a shot.

[andino]

VR has kept me interested in gaming. It's just so amazing.

[A2597]

I just dumped 1400 to switch from my CV1 to the Vive Pro 2 with basestatioms and valve knuckles controllers.

Vr is amazing.

[SubCog]

Originally Posted by theshadowcult

The decamove thing seems sweet.

Just got the shipping confirmation. Looking forward to trying it with HL Alyx.

[theshadowcult]

Originally Posted by SubCog

Just got the shipping confirmation. Looking forward to trying it with HL Alyx.

Awesome! Let us know how it is, im dying to know.

[Johnmcl7]

I've not been a big fan of Half life in the past but though I should get Half life Alyx since it's meant to be such a good VR game and I was absolutely blown away by it. Instead of being a powerful gun toting warrior bulldozing their way through everything Alyx is not great at combat and generally has to sneak her way through the city which gives you a great feel for what life in that setting would be like. While it wouldn't be as good I still think they could easily make a non-VR version although I guess they don't want to reduce potential sales of the Index.

On the VR side it's incredibly well implemented and most of the VR mechanics feel intuitive without needing explanation. When I started there's a radio I reached out and could adjust plus a whiteboard you can draw on and throughout the game there's many bits you can interact with for no reason giving it a more authentic feel. I needed to extend a scissor lift and noticed a control on the wall so just reached out, pulled it over and pressed the button. I opened a door and noticed some zombies so armed the grenade, tossed it in and closed the door while it detonated. There's subtle touches like if you move through a wall you'll lose the display so it makes you feel like you really are in the environment even if there's no physical resistance. While many VR games go for simpler graphics, HL:Alyx doesn't with an incredibly detailed environment as you'd expect from a non-VR game.

Bringing an excellent game and a super VR implementation makes for a stunning experience, it's just head and shoulders above any other VR game I've played and really shows off what the technology can do. The level of immersion is incredible especially going through the quarantine zone and seeing some of the spores in the air making me feeling genuinely uncomfortable about going through there. The head crab zombies can be terrifying when they catch you out and there's been a few times I've been too flustered with them to correctly reload my gun firing off a bunch of shots only to get an error warning me I haven't chambered a round. I thought I was going to jump through the ceiling when doing a very creepy part when you first get the torch and my dog brushed against me.

I've been finding the increase in resolution from the Vive to the Vive Pro to make a significant difference to the likes of Project Cars 2, I just couldn't play it with the original Vive because there was too little detail so I couldn't make out the details on the dash or the penalties or other information like that. With the better resolution I can make out the dash clearly and any of the text and while outwith the car it still looks a bit low res it's definitely still usable.

I'm curious to see if any effort is made to offer a consumer version of the HTC Focus 3 which looks like it has excellent potential as a standalone headset and if it could be integrated into Steam I'd be tempted to pick one up.

[demo]

Alyx is certainly the gold standard for VR. I was totally blown away. It's a shame that's the first VR game I played because nothing else comes close. It's all downhill from there, except MSFS2020 but that's a totally different kettle of fish.

[John C Flett]

Originally Posted by demo

Alyx is certainly the gold standard for VR. I was totally blown away. It's a shame that's the first VR game I played because nothing else comes close. It's all downhill from there, except MSFS2020 but that's a totally different kettle of fish.

I had the advantage of coming to Alyx after about a year of VR so I got to enjoy more primative titles.


Excluding sims, which are a different kind of experience, I'd say Walking Dead Saints and Sinners is probably the best title I've played after Alyx. Not as rich in interaction but it feels like a complete experience.

[andino]

Half Life Alyx is probably my top game right now in VR. Followed by MS Flight Sim 2020, Elite Dangerous, and Demeo.

I end up playing those the most now a days.

Still hit up Google Earth quite a bit as well as some of the other games. But those top games get hit just about every other day.

EDIT: Add Project Cars 2 to that list as well. That is amazing with the vive pro 2.

[A2597]

I'm DCS primarily, but also FS2020, HL:Alyx, Beat Saber, and...someday I'll get back into driving games. Spend all my time flying though, LOL

Oh, and Tetris effect is amazing in VR.

[twonha]

Boneworks deserves a lot of love for pushing the envelop in VR. Very, very cool game.

I'm reading some articles that suggest PCVR isn't very profitable, and that developers are better off focusing on the Quest ecosystem over anything else. I hope that doesn't end up ripping the VR world apart, because I truly can't wait for more high end stuff from high profile developers.

[jjjayb]

Contractors is my go to game. Think Call of Duty in VR. The weapon handling and movement are top notch.

[SubCog]

Finally setup and tried out my DecaMove. Tried it with HL Alyx. Yup, it makes smooth locomotion WAAAAY better. Difficult to describe, but whereas smooth locomotion always felt very floaty and slippery before, now it just feels solid and intuitive. I also think it reduces motion sickness a fair amount.

It's a bit complex to get set up too. It comes with a little usb antenna dongle, and you have to install their software, get everything connected and calibrated.

Their website says that it can work with native quest apps (but I think none currently support it), but I don't understand how it would even connect to the Quest.

Is it enough to make smooth locomotion my preferred way to play? I'll give it a definite maybe.

[SubCog]

I tried out Horizon Workrooms this last week with some coworkers. It's really neat.

Virtual conference room, with lots of interesting concepts, many executed well.

• There's a whiteboard on the wall that you can draw on with your coworkers. There's also a tablet on the table in front of you that you can draw on. The drawings are duplicated on the tablet and whiteboard, so it's really one shared drawing space.
• You hold your controller like a pen for drawing on the whiteboard or tablet. It works surprisingly well. Not as precise as a wacom stylus, but not far off.
• Avatars are really expressive and impressive. The mouths move realistically when you speak, and they do a good job of guessing your facial expressions. It's cooler than you expect.
• You have a little screen on your desk in front of you that you stream your computer screen to. You can choose to project your screen onto the whiteboard for everyone else to see.
• There's various keyboard options, and Quest will recognize a few common keyboards (mostly mac stuff) and represent those in 3d with hand-tracking. Otherwise you can designate some desk space as a sort of pass-through portal, basically it'll show part of your real-life desk so you can see your mouse & keyboard. It works surprisingly well, although the pass-through cameras can't really capture the individual letters on the keys.
• Spatialized audio is neat, and does add alot to the experience. You talk to your coworkers as if you were in the same space together.

Still lots of stuff that's not quite ready for prime-time yet, but it's an impressive start, and definitely worth trying out. I can imagine a time in the future when they have better headset ergonomics, dedicated drawing hardware (VR stylus with wacom precision), better handtracking, and smooth out some of the other interactions, this could be a viable way to work remotely.

[theshadowcult]

Originally Posted by SubCog

Finally setup and tried out my DecaMove. Tried it with HL Alyx. Yup, it makes smooth locomotion WAAAAY better. Difficult to describe, but whereas smooth locomotion always felt very floaty and slippery before, now it just feels solid and intuitive. I also think it reduces motion sickness a fair amount.

Is it enough to make smooth locomotion my preferred way to play? I'll give it a definite maybe.

Nice, i really hope this gets mainstream.

[Mangler]

I don't want to be a debbie downer, but I'm pretty sure about that never hitting the mainstream.

[SubCog]

Facebook is pushing the Quest2 super hard right now. The new 128gb model is $300, which is pretty great. They have a couple of promotions now, and they stack on top of each other.

• Buy one get one for $100 off.
• Refer a friend and you each get $30 store credit.

If you fully take advantage of both, that pushes the effective price down to $190.

I have several friends who have just bought a Quest2, or a second one so they can play with their wife. Suddenly I've gone from the only guy with a Quest2 to seemingly everyone I know having multiple.

I expect all of this means that Facebook is going to be pushing Quest2 super aggressively over the holiday season, and I predict it's going to be pretty successful.

[SirBaron]

Pretty strong indications of a Pro model appearing sometime soon. (several mentions of features and the pro in the latest firmware code)

[SubCog]

Originally Posted by SirBaron

Pretty strong indications of a Pro model appearing sometime soon. (several mentions of features and the pro in the latest firmware code)

Yup, rumor is that the pro model will include eye tracking, possibly improved hand-tracking, a more powerful SoC, and a lense-depth setting for people who need prescription glasses. Also some speculation that it might have a wider fov. Will not have anything super futuristic, such as verifocal lenses, light-field screens, etc.

Word is that Quest2 will remain the primary platform, facebook expects to continue to sell Quest2 in much higher volumes, with Pro being a much more expensive device.

Eye-tracking, btw, is good for 2 things: Making avatars more expressive by matching eye movements, and then foveated-rendering, which could dramatically boost rendering quality.

[Exposed]

And it's probably going to be LCD which means it will still suck.

[Eisberg]

Really awesome VR games bundle on Fanatical

https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/vr-thrills-bundle

Heck, paying $8 for just Traffic Jams is well worth it, but the other games in that bundle are really good as well.

[SubCog]

So I've been playing alot with my wife lately. So far we've been doing alot of Walkabout Mini Golf, and a bit of Demeo. Sometimes we play with a larger group of friends, sometimes just the 2 of us. I'm looking forward to trying more multiplayer games that she can enjoy (probably not fps games). Let me know if you have recommendations.

It's traditionally been difficult to spend evening time playing VR, as it's tough to justify the isolation when I know my wife wants to spend time with me. And VR is much more isolating than playing other video games, where she can come sit with me, hang out and talk and work on her own stuff while I play. It's a total game-changer to have 2 headsets, and games that she enjoys.

Oculus has a promotion now where you get a $100 discount if you buy 2 headsets. I think a 2 headset bundle is a smart way to think about VR moving forward, unless you live alone.

I've said for a long time that I think Oculus should move toward having every game have a multiplayer component, even if it's just 1 player spectating. I know there's guys here who disagree and want them to focus on single-player games... but I'm telling you that the isolating effect of single player VR is a real hurdle that we're going to have to overcome for everyone who has a family living in their house.

A 2-player VR bundle could be particularly compelling...

• Assuming the price is right ($500 for 2 headsets is not bad)
• And that there's a good selection of games that couples can play together, or that dads can play with their kids (preferably every game should have some kind of multiplayer component, even if it's just spectating)
• And that it's really easy to get into local multiplayer (currently it's still a mixed bag). Allow families to buy 1 copy of a game and play together (some games already do). There should be an easy and consistent way to get into every multiplayer game.

[SubCog]

Rumors about an upcoming Valve headset codenamed Deckard.



Rumors suggest:

• Micro-oled screens, with that crazy lcd-based varifocal lense stuff, so there's a potential for the headset to be super small and light-weight.
• Built-in ARM soc, likely a successor to the XR2. used for setting up boundaries, positional tracking, etc., ... but yeah also probably to play mobile VR games.
• Support for 60ghz wigig, for uncompressed 4k wireless streaming... sounds like there's a ton of challenges there to make sure it doesn't melt your brain.
• Head-straps that allow you to attach various different types of compute-pucks, with the eventual goal of having x86-based stand-alone VR that can be upgraded over time.
• Eye-tracking for varifocal stuffs, foviated rendering (which could be a GIGANTIC win).
• Likely a much more expensive price tag.

Interesting contrast, between the Quest business model, where you release cheap, fully-integrated stand-alone headsets that are expected to be obsolete and replaced in a couple years, vs the Deckard approach where you sell a more robust (and expensive) headset that can be upgraded over time. Honestly I think that optics are going to evolve so rapidly in the next 5 years that it's best to not be tied-down to a particular device for a long time, but we'll see.

Quest really has set a new bar-of-entry though. Wired headsets are going to be dead-on-arrival. So rumors about PS5 VR or an Index successor still using a wire, I would rethink those ideas... nobody's dumb enough to launch a wired headset in 2021-2022. Just my opinion.

[Mangler]

They are going to have start opening their wallet though, there are not going to be many games left after sony and facebook are done with their moneyhatting.

[SubCog]

One thing I would love to see announced at Oculus Connect this month would be some really robust mixed-controller support.

• Hand tracking for PC VR games. This one's coming eventually, so it's plausible that they could announce it now. This would be especially amazing for games that use additional controller peripherals, like driving wheels or flight yokes. Imagine flight simulator, where you can see your hands on the yoke, and then interact with all the controls on your dashboard with your real hands.
• Combinations of VR controllers + hand-tracking. There's loads of things you could do in games where one hand holds a controller and the other is hand-tracked.
• Combining controllers + handtracking would also open up possibilities for new kinds of dummy peripherals. Imagine a pinball table facade (like PinSim), where you snap your tough controllers into some slots with the tracking rings exposed for positional tracking. Now the pinball game can automatically match the position of the in-game table to your facade in the real world. Designed properly, you could even leverage the buttons on the controllers, so the whole facade could be non-electronic. I can imagine a similar setup for a driving wheel and pedals, where the facades are non-electronic and simply rely on your controllers to snap in. Add in hand-tracking on top, and everything is possible. I can also imagine a contraption that you click in your quest controllers to use as dual tank-sticks, perhaps for a mech simulator. Tons of possibilities for cool dummy peripherals.
• We also need some kind of wireless USB connector, to allow hooking up USB peripherals like steering wheels or flight yokes, to use with quest-native games. It's practically criminal that we don't have a quest-native driving simulator right now.

[SubCog]

Another feature I'd really like to see is an option to play normal PC games in 3d, sortof like what we used to have with shutter glasses. I'd love to try out Doom Eternal in stereoscopic 3d, for example. If they really wanted to take it to the next level, maybe they could add just a touch of position-based parallax... as if your monitor was a window looking into the game. That would be neat.

[Destroy]

Originally Posted by SubCog

Another feature I'd really like to see is an option to play normal PC games in 3d, sortof like what we used to have with shutter glasses. I'd love to try out Doom Eternal in stereoscopic 3d, for example. If they really wanted to take it to the next level, maybe they could add just a touch of position-based parallax... as if your monitor was a window looking into the game. That would be neat.

https://www.vorpx.com/

[SubCog]

Originally Posted by Destroy

https://www.vorpx.com/

If that supported Vulcan (and generally had better compatibility), I'd be all in.

[theshadowcult]

Resident evil 4 looks kind of awesome in vr. Just saying incase someone didnt know.