Oculus Rift and other VR experiences

[Kchrpm]

Post your Oculus and VR related stuff here.

Like this lady having quite the experience.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adjGMBV7h30

[MR2 Fan]

Here's tested.com's Sony VR unit video...Will Smith (guy in the background) looks absolutely silly using it


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DavXJG1Br1I

[Yw-slayer]

Hammered the store for about 15 minutes, managed to get in, found out that it won't ship to HK, and am hence now going to sleep.

[Reynard]

Heh. My VR experience would be playing a game called Zone Hunter with one of these:

http://www.arcadianvr.com/images/2000su.gif

at "Virtual World" in the Embarcadero Center here in S.F. circa 1993/4 :lol:

Thing is, there was a Battletech Center out in Walnut Creek then too and that, while not VR in any way... that was worth the drive . :cool:

[Yw-slayer]

Zone Hunter wasn't great. Battletech wasn't VR, but it was far better. :up:

[thesameguy]

at "Virtual World" in the Embarcadero Center here in S.F. circa 1993/4 :lol:

Thing is, there was a Battletech Center out in Walnut Creek then too and that, while not VR in any way... that was worth the drive . :cool:

Man, I remember a nerd pilgrimage for both of those! Getting an SF-worthy car at that young age was a challenge!

[Yw-slayer]

I visited Virtual World while on a family holiday to Vegas. I still remember almost everything, and the t shirt I bought is still a prized possession.

[XHawkeye]

FWIW: An example of the Oculus Rift when flying planes in War Thunder [not me]


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhmaJMWDF28

[XHawkeye]

FWIW II: An example of the Oculus Rift when flying planes in War Thunder [not me]


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0-UR3FVH1E

[Phil_SS]

That looks fucking amazing.

[stephenb]

^^^you know there is a new Ace Combat coming with PlayStation VR.

[Rare White Ape]

You know what would be a good game for PSVR?

A sequel to Dropship.

I liked that game a lot. Maybe I should try getting it running on PCSX2 with smoother graphics.

[Reynard]

Good one. That was a favorite of mine too, very overlooked at the time. Prolly my fave console flying game behind the Aerowings and Energy Airforce series'.

[Tom Servo]

Any of you actually end up getting any one of these? I've been saving my pennies to get a triple monitor setup mostly for racing games, then suddenly realized it'd actually be cheaper to get one of the VR setups for it instead. I've played for a *very* short amount of time with an Oculus Rift at a friends house and thought it was pretty convincing, but wanted to see if anyone else had any experiences. It really sounds like for the PC there's basically the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. The Vive is more expensive and has some sort of Steam integration, but I'm assuming I can still use the Rift with Steam games as well. I'm not too worried about missing out on the Vive's ability to track where you in the room you are so you can move around, I'm not looking forward to smashing my shins on things and plan to really only use it with "seated" games (read: Driving, Flying, or other activities where you'd be seated in real life as well).

[Kchrpm]

I got a Daydream free with my Pixel. Not nearly as good for games as the Rift, Vive or PSVR, but it has some simple spin-in-place-and-point ones, and can handle YouTube 3D/360 videos well.

Also sometime last year I got to play a Vive game called...Raw Data, I believe. It was at a local entertainment complex that has several setup in a large room, so I did co-op with a friend. It was a great time, teaming up to defend and attack objectives. He used a pistol, I did my best Jedi impression with a glowing sword that could reflect shots and return when thrown, and a move similar to force push.

[stephenb]

Tom - VR is definitely the way forward for cockpit based sims. Been using my Rift since June last year and can't go back to triple screens, although I have kept them set up for some PCARS 2 testing. The Rift works in all the leading race sims that support VR, either natively using the Oculus SDK or via the Steam/Open VR SDK.

PCARS, AC, iracing all have native support.
R3E is supported via Open VR which works fine in my experience.

The Rift recently had a price cut and you can still by just the headset and single sensor if you're not interested in standing or room scale. You do need a powerful PC to get the best out of it, same with triples. I run a GTX 1080 and overclocked i7 4930K.

[Tom Servo]

I'm having a hard time keeping track of CPU designations these days. I've got a GTX 970 and a non-overclocked i7-2600 @ 3.4Ghz. Seem strong enough for it?

[Tom Servo]

Turns out Oculus has a "compatibility tool". It says, unfortunately, that my CPU isn't up to snuff. Also, and this does not surprise me, it seems like there's an excellent chance my USB 3.0 ports are not up to snuff. I have problems with them *constantly*, so I'm not surprised by this.

That basically means this just went from a doable ~$500 purchase to more like $1,200 when all is said and done, and I still don't get an awesome new video card out of it. Maybe someday.

[stephenb]

You should be OK with that CPU. If you look at the Oculus recommended spec you've got a higher stock and boost frequency on your CPU although it is three generations older so has less IPC, not sure if it is missing any important instruction sets. Probably worth a look over at reddit.com/r/oculus to see how others are doing with similar spec, I'm sure I've read of people running it OK on Sandybridge CPUs. My Ivybridge, although a 6c/12t model, is only a generation later.

You GPU is fine and if you have any problems with your USB 3.0 ports you can get a separate PCI-E add in card. You're not going to be running max settings but should still have a wonderful immersive experience.

[Tom Servo]

I did have to get a separate PCI-E card, and so far it seems to be working pretty well. Picked one up tonight and fought with it for a while but eventually got it all up and running. We've only sat through the Dreamdeck so far, that's all there's really time for tonight. Dreamdeck runs just fine, no issues. The whole thing really tripped Michele out.

It's a seriously tight fit around my glasses, but it is doable. It always pulls my glasses off when I take it off though.

[GreatScawt]

FWIW II: An example of the Oculus Rift when flying planes in War Thunder [not me]


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0-UR3FVH1E

Man, I could listen to that guy talk and fly in VR all day. That was cool.

[Tom Servo]

Argh. Well, having serious problems with the PCI-E USB adapter. I think it *may* be power related, but not certain. It worked okay last night, though I was occasionally hearing the USB disconnect sound followed by a connect sound. Machine crashed at some point last night, blue screened once this morning, and the Oculus won't show up as connected for more than a couple of seconds before it drops out. I fiddled with the power settings to no avail, and somehow I have the wrong cables for my modular power supply - must have thrown the wrong boxes out when I moved. Ordered a new PSU, get to look forward to re-running all the power cables through my case tomorrow.

Also, on the plus side, got me to finally get around to swapping out my CPU cooler fan for a four-pin one vs. a three-pin. I forgot that my computer can actually be nice and quiet.

[stephenb]

USB seems to be the one weak spot of the Rift. Had a few issues, predominantly with the headset disconnecting, over the first few months of ownership which no manor of Oculus updates or USB drivers seemed to solve fully. Thankfully it's been rock solid for months now, touch wood. I'd recommend checking out Lucky's Tale. First time I completed a game in ages, great fun and excellent at showcasing the Rifts capabilities.

[Tom Servo]

I gather part of that is its reliance on USB3 while USB3 still seems fiddly to me. I've yet to have a really stable USB3 setup. I'm sure that's better with the newest motherboards (I see they're all talking about USB 3.1 now), but it's a pain right now.

[Tom Servo]

Well, it's not a power issue. Brand new PSU, brand new PCI-E USB3 card, dedicated line to it, same problem.

[Yw-slayer]

Could be the motherboard then.

[Tom Servo]

Was never able to get this working, so I finally bit the bullet and bought an upgrade. I should have realized that this was going to be one of those purchases that ends up costing twice as much.

Gear should be here tomorrow evening, hope to have the new machine up and running on Sat. I wonder if I still have my windows license key lying around, I have a feeling that big of a change will invalidate it.

[Tom Servo]

New gear didn't fix it. On the plus side, machine reboots really fucking fast. On the downside, I'm out around $700 and still can't get it to work.

Grrr....

[Tom Servo]

And now I'm thinking it's faulty hardware in the Oculus. Just did a clean install of Windows 10, installed only drivers, Chrome, Dropbox, Keepass, and the Oculus software and it's doing the same thing. I just have to convince them to RMA it now.

[Tom Servo]

On the plus side, between a fresh OS install and new hardware, this computer is now stupidly fast. So, that's nice.

[Alan P]

ahh I knew we had a thread. I've just bought an 'as new' Gear VR to go with my new S7. First foray into anything VR, what's good to try on the Gear?

[Tom Servo]

No idea...I'm currently in the throes of the very, very long lived Oculus RMA process.

[Yw-slayer]

ahh I knew we had a thread. I've just bought an 'as new' Gear VR to go with my new S7. First foray into anything VR, what's good to try on the Gear?

"Stuff". Seriously.

[Alan P]

"Stuff". Seriously.
Is that Romantic Adventure 'stuff'?

[novicius]

Ocean Rift, it's free. ;)

Otherwise check these lists out: Top 5 (https://gearburn.com/2016/04/must-have-samsung-gear-vr-games/)& Top 10 (https://www.gearbrain.com/top-10-gear-vr-apps-sure-to-blow-your-mind-1622029014.html)


Also get a Bluetooth Xbox Wireless Controller (https://www.amazon.com/Xbox-Wireless-Controller-White-one/dp/B01GW3H3U8?th=1) and pair it with your Gear VR.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkq2DffKqQA

[Yw-slayer]

Is that Romantic Adventure 'stuff'?

Of course.

[Tom Servo]

Oculus finally got ahold of my old and busted Rift and have shipped what will hopefully be the new hotness Rift.

[Tom Servo]

Got the replacement rift and, so far, works like a charm. Fired up Project Cars and took a BMW Z4 GT3 to Laguna Seca. Holy shit.

It feels like you're there. Being able to look over at the rear view mirrors, look through the driver side window to spot the apex at T5. Holy shit.

This is awesome.

[Yw-slayer]

Don't forget to try Romantic Adventure Stuff.

[Tom Servo]

Michele said the stupid thing on my face made that impossible.

[Yw-slayer]

That's the beauty of the stupid thing on your face, you don't need other people!

[Alan P]

Kagney Lynn Carter's assets have never looked so good! Things do get a bit blurry when things are happening very close to the camera though which spoils the immersion.

[Tom Servo]

Whew, tried Dirt Rally and almost immediately got motion sickness. Coming over a jump made my stomach just drop. Hoping that's something I can learn to deal with in time. I couldn't even finish the one stage I tried, though it was super cool for as long as I could tough it out.

EDIT: Tried a stage with the Mini in Monaco, so tarmac. Was a lot easier to get through, though still gave me a bit of the queasys. There's nothing quite like seeing the snow banks with actual depth to them, or seeing the lights at certain corners shining down. I am looking forward to pushing my way through this motion sickness to where it doesn't affect me. I did find the setting that supposedly locks the "camera" to the horizon, so head movement is more about me and less about the car bouncing around. Supposedly that helps, but I'm feeling unsettled enough that I don't think I can have any more VR tonight.

[Tom Servo]

Monza in a pseudo (read: unlicensed) F1 car in VR is something everyone should get to experience at some point in their lives.

[Tom Servo]

I just found the bit of the Oculus Home app that shows all the different apps that already "have" (as in, they're free) and just needed installing. I tried out Robo Recall, which is one you get for free if you buy the Oculus Touch controllers. I didn't expect much since it sounds like a shovelware game, but that was awesome right up until it got confused as to where I was (I think because I have some objects that might be interfering with the sensors' lines of sight). At one point there were a bunch of little spider-like robots coming at me that leap at you, and there's something super satisfying about ducking as one comes in and raising your hand to fire at it and watching it get blasted in mid air.

I can't imagine what I looked like to anyone who might have seen me do that, but that's a heck of an experience. I'm also hearing that somebody modded DOOM 3 to work with the Oculus, including using the touch controllers to hold the weapons. I may have to give that a shot, but I am a little worried about motion sickness with that...Robo Recall gets around it by having you teleport to spots rather than walk.

[Tom Servo]

For whatever reason, nothing seems to be giving me VR sickness today. Did about 8 rounds of Dirt Rally and a few attempts at not sucking in an LMP1 around Le Mans on Project Cars. Triple monitors has nothing on this.

[Yw-slayer]

I'm probably going to get the DJI Goggles anyway for use with my Mavic.

[MR2 Fan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ruckp8-vI0

[Tom Servo]

Played a little "Robo Recall" today - I finally figured out what they were trying to tell me to do to get past one of the first levels.

It was all going very well until I felt my cat attack my left foot - biting and rabbit kicking at it. That made the game harder.

[Dicknose]

So what's the go with PlayStation VR?
Seems Skyrim is coming, which I think would be great. Fallout/skyrim with their massive beautiful worlds should be great for VR.
And Gran Turismo is also suppose to do VR.
Will these be the games that finally kick PS VR to life?
I'm keen to get it and try it, but so far nothing has jumped out as the game that you must have on the new platform.

[novicius]

I've read that Playstation VR is the most convenient way to get a competent all-in-one-box VR experience.

Resident Evil 7
Farpoint
Star Wars: Battlefront - X-Wing VR Mission
Batman: Arkham VR
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (party game)


Then there's the E3 2017 announcements:

Sony just revealed 5 good reasons to buy PlayStation VR (http://www.techradar.com/news/sony-just-revealed-5-good-reasons-to-buy-playstation-vr)

[Tom Servo]

It also looks like you can use something called Trinus PSVR to use the PSVR headset with SteamVR games on the PC. I'm not sure how well that works with Oculus exclusives. I know there's an app called Revive that lets you play Oculus exclusive games on the Vive, which presumably means it runs through SteamVR (as that's the standard Vive method), but not sure how well that all chains together.

Also worth nothing - Skyrim and Fallout both come from Bethesda who have been in a nasty legal battle for a while now with Facebook/Oculus. They officially are only supporting the Vive on the PC. The Rift also supports SteamVR fully, but there's presumably nothing preventing Bethesda from checking which headset is running and blocking you out if you have a Rift. I hope they don't do that, and they've only responded with "no comment" when asked, but it's a possibility.

[Tom Servo]

Picked up two more VR games during the summer sale that coincided with Steam's summer sale, Rock Band VR and The Climb.

Rock Band VR is pretty neat so far, though I had to cut things short as I don't know what I did with my guitar strap and that makes it really difficult to play standing up. I wish I could say I got more of a feeling of being on stage, but two things were working against me: 1) There's no note highway but there is a sorta chord/measure highway, and I spent so much time looking at that I didn't really look around. When I did, 2) I somehow had something miscalibrated and my character was like 11 feet tall, so I was looking down at all of my bandmates. Was still cool to look out over a crowd, and I like that you can start a song by looking back at the drummer to let him know you're ready.

I played for maybe 30 minutes, and that's how long it took to go through the tutorial mode. It's more an experience than a game. As long as you can keep time at all, you'll do fine. You basically just strum in time (1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16) and mess around with "chords" that you make via different patterns of 2 or 3 fingers. It's interesting how they made it so you're changing the guitar track to all these famous songs...they still sound okay and fit in with the overall song, but you're also making it your own. It's a neat trick, and can't have been easy to pull off.

Also, with the way they mount the controller on the guitar, it tracks the guitar so you can see it floating in space in the game. When you press down on the buttons, they shoot flames, and when you do overdrive, the whole guitar lights up in blue flame. Pretty impressive looking. I still didn't feel like I looked like a huge dork until near the end of the tutorial, where they explain that you can extend the length of the overdrive by headbanging in time with the music. That's when Michele started laughing.

The Climb is a rock-climbing game using the touch controllers. Michele was specifically interested in this one, and she loves it though it did give her some VR sickness (not surprisingly, it's rated as "intense" on the comfort scale, and involves things like falling off of cliff faces). I honestly didn't expect much of it, but I think I'm going to play a lot of it. You see each of your hands in space, and they're your indicators of how tired they are. Any time you're only hanging on by one hand, it drains stamina. It drains faster the less chalk you have on your hands, which you replenish by holding down the secondary trigger and shaking your hand. You pull yourself up by bringing the hand that's holding onto a handhold downwards while reaching up with the other. I couldn't figure out how they could make it work by not having you actually move up, but it works extremely well. The visuals are incredible, as are most Oculus-specific titles, and it immediately set off my fear of heights. I did the demo level, which is basically just a weird computer white-room kinda thing with well lit handholds, but the next one is climbing this sort of thing: https://previews.123rf.com/images/iakov/iakov1107/iakov110700027/10035914-rocks-on-Railay-beach-in-Krabi-Thailand-Stock-Photo.jpg

I made it part way up, but when I hoisted myself up on to a platform and got a good view of everything around me, I had to take the headset off. Michele doesn't have the same fear of heights that I do, but she did get some VR sickness. That said, it's the one game that I think she immediately wants to play again...controls aren't too complicated, and the experience is incredible. I'm sorta hoping that forcing myself to play it might help with the heights thing, but we'll see. I have to close my eyes every time I fall.

Rock Band VR is cool, but The Climb is definitely a killer app if you can get over the VR sickness.

[Tom Servo]

For the next six weeks, the Rift + Touch combo is $399, down from $599. Oddly, the Rift and Touch by themselves are not reduced, so it's $499 to get just the Rift itself, making it $100 cheaper to get it with the Touch controllers.

[Tom Servo]

The $399 sale supposedly ends on 8/21, but Newegg and other sites are hinting that it ends next Wed., on the 9th. After that it'll go up $200.

[Tom Servo]

In first world problem news, I bought a 4K monitor, so then I had to decide if I wanted to do iRacing in 4K, or if I wanted it in VR. Then I figured I didn't have to decide, and fired it up in 4K on the monitor first. It looked goddamn gorgeous. Skippy at Road America ran around 240fps at 4K, and you could make out details far into the distance at speed.

Then I fired it up on the Rift. It was (comparatively) blurry and you can't make much detail out of objects in the distance. However, I felt like I was in the car. On the monitor it was like watching someone else drive. In the Rift, it felt like being back in the Skippy.

In ten years we'll be rocking 4K in VR. Even still, I think VR's a better bet than a nice monitor or even multi-monitor setup at this point.

[novicius]

Which 4K monitor did you go with?

[Alan P]

I just ordered an Oculus Rift and touch controllers. Rather excited!

[Tom Servo]

I got an asus MG28UQ. The nice thing so far about it is that it doesn't generate a ton of heat like my old monitor did. That thing forced the AC to work extra hard.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BYU0GVC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I love it so far, no issues with dead pixels or anything, and everything looks glorious on it. The one big downside is the audio - for some reason I saw Asus bragging about the speakers but it's a) really quiet (I had volume up to max and could barely make out what people were saying in Fallout) and b) it sounds like it's being generated out of a tin can in a bucket of water.

[Alan P]

I got an asus MG28UQ. The nice thing so far about it is that it doesn't generate a ton of heat like my old monitor did. That thing forced the AC to work extra hard.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BYU0GVC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I love it so far, no issues with dead pixels or anything, and everything looks glorious on it. The one big downside is the audio - for some reason I saw Asus bragging about the speakers but it's a) really quiet (I had volume up to max and could barely make out what people were saying in Fallout) and b) it sounds like it's being generated out of a tin can in a bucket of water.

Sounds faulty to me?

[Tom Servo]

Maybe, though the only mentions of the sound in the customer reviews mentioned similarly tinny, crappy sound and having the volume at full just to hear anything.

[Yw-slayer]

ALWAYS use external speakers or headphones.

[novicius]

I got an asus MG28UQ. The nice thing so far about it is that it doesn't generate a ton of heat like my old monitor did. That thing forced the AC to work extra hard.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BYU0GVC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I love it so far, no issues with dead pixels or anything, and everything looks glorious on it. The one big downside is the audio - for some reason I saw Asus bragging about the speakers but it's a) really quiet (I had volume up to max and could barely make out what people were saying in Fallout) and b) it sounds like it's being generated out of a tin can in a bucket of water.
Huh -- I have had the ASUS Designo MX239H 23" Full HD IPS frameless monitor (https://www.amazon.com/Designo-MX239H-1920x1080-Frameless-Monitor/dp/B00B1IAL7W) for the past two years and the Bang & Olufsen integrated speakers are serviceable. No punch, of course, would be better with a small subwoofer but really I can't complain (and most times I game with a headset on anyway). Love this monitor.

I've love this experience so much that I'm going to upgrade to the ASUS Designo MX27UC 27” 4K UHD IPS (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XPJYVF2/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=ISYSHNS14DXUF&colid=2LYI04ZRD9TP1) later this month. :hard:

[Tom Servo]

Yeah...I'm noticing that it was a different Asus monitor I saw that bragged about the audio. The product page I linked to never once appears to mention that it even has speakers, much less that they're any good.

It's fine, I have a separate set of speakers and now that I figured out how to get the monitor to stop trying to force itself to be the default playback device, things are good again.

[novicius]

:up: :up:

Continuing this OT ramble, here's my current monitor: ASUS 23" LED-Backlit IPS LCD monitor - $150 (Madison, WI) (https://madison.craigslist.org/sop/d/asus-27-led-backlit-ips-lcd/6257612972.html)

I'd like to pair my 4K gaming monitor with a 4K VR Xbox One X headset. Time will tell if that'll happen.

[Alan P]

just posted on Facebook:

I know I told some of you I bought an Oculus Rift VR Headset and it arrived yesterday. Had a go last night and, to be honest I didn't think much of it but I just played the demo missions and found I didn't really have enough space at my desk to use it effectively. I was a bit disappointed considering how much I paid for it. (£260, along with an additional £140 in Amazon Vouchers).
Then I had another go this evening. Re-jigged my computer room a little, moved the sensors around and fooled the sensors into thinking I was facing my desk when I was actually facing the corner of the room giving me much more space to move my arms around. Now I TOTALLY GET IT. Immersive to the point I was moving my head around, my hands moving in game as if I was standing there and no 'Screen Door Effect' thanks to the improved resolution of the two screens. Robo Recall is AWESOME! To anyone on the fence, if you have a capable PC, or even are considering the PSVR, GET IT. It's amazing!

[Tom Servo]

Speaking of, the sale that was supposed to end August 21st has now been extended "a few weeks". So, you'll have a little longer to get the bundle for $400.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that before, but I also have a new found ability to repeat myself on here, so I'll do it anyway. I think the moment that sold me on Robo Recall was when I was standing up playing and one of those spider things jumped at me. The fact that I was able to avoid damage and kill it by physically ducking down, looking up, and shooting it as it flew over my head was like "This is that vision of videogames that old NES commercials were trying to sell us back in the 80s", where the game would come to life and the kids are physically dodging and ducking. I was actually doing that, and it was fucking awesome.

I still have yet to do a flight sim with it...the only sim I know of that supports it out of the box is the newest version of P3D and I haven't felt like spending the money on it yet. All the others require paid plugins, so I still haven't done it.

The Climb is totally worth it. Lone Echo is neat so far, but I'm not as sold on it as others, but I also got some VR sickness from it, so that didn't help. Echo Arena sounds like great fun but I don't have the free space and keep seeing pictures of the damage people have done to their belongings while playing it, usually busted lamps. Dirt Rally is also really amazing, but that definitely takes some warming up to, it's been the worst for giving me VR sickness so far.

[Alan P]

I've managed to avoid motion sickness so far, Robo Recall has it best I think with the teleporting but I'm still having trouble reloading my guns, especially the Shotguns. I must download Elite Dangerous again and Google Earth VR is amazing. Was flying round Manhattan looking at all the spots I've noticed playing The Division although I also see some poetic licence in places in the game. I can only play for around 30-40 minutes so far and I have this annoying gap around my nose that I can see and it lets light in so it's a little distracting. I might look for another surround as apparently you can get them.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, there are tons of other "facial interfaces" as they call them. I hear there are some that will work better with my glasses - I don't have too much trouble with them, but any time I take the Rift off it takes my glasses with it. It means it's basically impossible for me to just move the Rift up onto my forehead to find something in real life, as my glasses go with it and I still can't see anything. I definitely have the light thing too, though it's not much of an issue for me.

One thing they don't really explain, the head strap is supposed to go around at the base of your skull, not right at the back. I had mine too high up on my head, once I lengthened the top strap and pulled that back triangle down to the base, it aligned the HMD a lot better for me and made the image much clearer. I think it also helped with the light coming in, but I'm not certain about that.

Also, get the Oculus Tray Tool, reddit thread on it is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/5okoju/oculus_tray_tool/ It lets you set a default supersampling rate, get framerates, and do all sorts of other things that you should just be able to do in the first place. If you've got the horsepower, upping the supersampling can make a huge difference in visual quality.

[Alan P]

Already put my SS to 1.2x, might play around with higher but it looks great so far.

[Yw-slayer]

I have a PC with enough horsepower, but not enough space. Sadface

[Alan P]

I have a PC with enough horsepower, but not enough space. Sadface

You only need about 2feet by 2 feet, although 3x3 is better

[Yw-slayer]

I don't even really have that. I guess I might be able to make it. Particularly in Chambers. But I don't have time to play games anyway. Sadface

[Tom Servo]

And if you use it for racing sims, you don't need any more room than you already have.

[Alan P]

And if you use it for racing sims, you don't need any more room than you already have.

Exactly. And the price for a Rift at the moment is clearly....Awesome Value!!!!

[Freude am Fahren]

Hmm, I want to get this, mainly for iRacing, but I don't want to have to spend hundreds of dollars to upgrade my PC. It runs everything great, even iRacing on three screens no problem. 4GB GTX 770 Classified, i7 2700k, 16GB DDR3 1600

[Tom Servo]

So, your CPU will be classified as not good enough by Oculus, but I hear from others it should work. The video card is a little on the weak side, but I've seen people on the iRacing subreddit saying they could do iRacing at lower details with a 670.

I'm telling you, if you can get it to work, it's a game-changer for iRacing.

[dodint]

I have been itching to rebuild my PC. Maybe this would be a good reason.

[Tom Servo]

The price war is on now, with HTC lowering the price of the Vive to $599, $200 less than it was before, still $200 more than Oculus + Touch at $399. The plus side is that the Vive has full-room support out of the box, and from what I gather the sensors are both easier to set up and less obtrusive with wiring. The Rift will require another sensor at $60, and you'll need USB3 wiring to all three sensors required to support that, which means you'll need some extension cords.

Otherwise, it comes down to personal preference, especially since it sounds like the coming Knuckles controllers from Steam will work with both setups.

[dodint]

Anyone sell them in stores where you can try them on? I wear glasses and have a giant head so I worry about the form factor in terms of fit.

[Tom Servo]

Some Best Buys have Oculus demo stations - ours claims you needed an appointment to demo it, but I'm not totally sure I believe that. You can search for a demo spot here: https://live.oculus.com/bestbuy/search

I couldn't find a similar page for Vive's demo support, but it looks like there are *some* Gamestop locations with a demo setup and that Microsoft Stores will have them as well. Found this map (https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1ZS5lYddr1rqarWltrfTsT8NJqOo&hl=en_US&ll=34.24653250571963%2C-97.75295831249997&z=5) and this link for MS stores: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/locations/htcvive/

I also wear glasses and have a giant head. The Rift fits my head and Michele's head just fine, though there's some adjustment when we switch. It comes down to three straps, one at each temple and one at the top of the head, and it's just "pull velcro tab off, either pull tighter or loosen, reattach velcro", so it's not particularly complicated. Like I've mentioned, it's fine with my glasses on, but it does pull my glasses with it when I take it off, it's a pretty tight fight. The biggest issue I've run into with glasses is fogging, it can get a little warm sometimes in there and fog up my glasses pretty quickly. I hear that pointing a desk fan at yourself while using it helps, but I haven't done that yet. It helps to make sure that the HMD is high enough up that you're not breathing out of your nose into it at all. On the downside, that lets some light in, but I've never noticed light bleed once I'm immersed into something.

[21Kid]

I'm going to wait until it's wireless. My son really wants one. But, I'm worried about all of the cords. Not just with him, but moreso with the dog.

Intel’s wireless HTC Vive add-on is where VR is headed (https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/14/intel-wireless-vr-htc-vive/)
Oculus reportedly planning $200 standalone wireless VR headset for 2018 (https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/13/oculus-reportedly-planning-200-standalone-wireless-vr-headset-for-2018/)

[Yw-slayer]

I also wear glasses

If all goes well, I'm getting Lasik soon. I'm sick of my bad eyesight for so many reasons, even if I'm probably going to wear clear lenses for work anyway (and when I start getting longsightedness, reading glasses).

[Tom Servo]

I've used contacts before when I knew I was going to have a long race. That worked out pretty nicely. My eye doctor tells me I'm not a good candidate for lasik, so so much for that.

And yes, the wires are an issue. It's not so bad when you're not doing full room scale - I'm either standing in front of or sitting at my desk, and the sensors are on the desk with the wires running down the back along with all the other ones (for the joystick, wheel, monitor, etc). It's that third sensor that has to be on the other side of the room, and the cord that goes to the HMD, that's where the real fun will be.

As is, though, wireless still introduces enough latency that I bet it will make for serious VR sickness issues. It also means you have to strap a battery pack to the HMD that's enough to power two screens, headphone speakers, and the other ancillary sensors. Weight's already an issue for the HMDs (I've heard more complaints about the weight of the Vive, the Rift isn't bad at all, but it's definitely noticeable), having to add enough battery power to support all that would make weight a much bigger problem.

[Yw-slayer]

I'm getting a second opinion, but the first one said it'll be fine.

I hate contacts. I use disposables, all that plastic waste really pisses me off. Most VR headsets I've tried work fine with glasses but it's the other things that irritate me. Like waking up on an intercontinental flight and panicking for 10-15 minutes while you search for your glasses in the pitch dark on a plane. Or dropping your glasses on the floor in the shower and spending USD650 to replace both lenses because the drop caused one chip in each corner.

[Tom Servo]

HTC are reportedly trying to sell off their Vive business, as their mobile phone sales have slowed and they can't keep losing money on two fronts.

[Sad, little man]

I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing, but this seems like a very thorough and interesting article about the Nintendo Virtual Boy.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3050016/unraveling-the-enigma-of-nintendos-virtual-boy-20-years-later

[Tom Servo]

It sounds like the Rift will be going back up in price from the $399 it's at now after labor day. Not sure if it'll end up all the way at $599 again, which would have it at the same price point as the Vive.

[Tom Servo]

I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing, but this seems like a very thorough and interesting article about the Nintendo Virtual Boy.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3050016/unraveling-the-enigma-of-nintendos-virtual-boy-20-years-later

Good read. I still remember seeing one of those at a Gamestop or somesuch. I had a similar reaction to the way they describe people at CES and other shows. Stereostopic stuff was kinda neat, but the novelty wore off really quickly. Also, it seemed like it was impossible to set it up in a way that didn't mean you had to have your head in a really awkward position to use it.

[Tom Servo]

Oculus have shown off the "Go", which appears to be a wireless/PC-less HMD. https://www.oculus.com/go/ It's essentially the GearVR (and compatible with GearVR), only without the need for the phone as the SoC is built in. It'll have LCD screens instead of OLED, meaning it'll likely have more blurring of actual colors but less black blurring than OLED. It also probably can't get quite as black as OLED. Says it "starts" at $199 and will come out next year, no idea what the possible upgrades are.

Also, the Rift + Touch controllers is now permanently $399 like it was during the summer sale.

[Yw-slayer]

Oh yes. I got lasik and my colleague gave me his Rift. I have some touch controllers that should arrive next week.

[Alan P]

Hmm. Considering selling mine. Not sure why but I've hardly used it.

[Tom Servo]

I don't use mine a ton, but that's mostly because it's so isolating, so I don't really want to use it a lot when my wife is home. Feels sorta weird to be completely shut off from what's happening.

Apparently there is also project Santa Cruz, which sounds like it'll slot in between the Go and the Rift. Also wireless, but with higher performance specs than the Go and updated touch controllers that apparently can track all of your fingers, not just via the triggers, ala the Steam Knuckles controllers. A little disappointed to hear that it's like the Go, that it's entirely self contained, so you can only run anything that can run on its integrated hardware. It also sounds like it's noticeably heavier than the Rift, though less heavy than I would have expected considering the amount of battery power it's got to have. According to this article, it'll run a lot more than the Go, but it couldn't run Robo Recall as is. Oh, and like the Go it'll have "inside-out" tracking, meaning no sensors required.

My main want is wireless that's run off a solid gaming PC, but I have a feeling that that's a ways off. As it is, even a wired connection between my PC and TV via Steam Link has some latency, and latency will get you nice and sick while using VR.

[Tom Servo]

Almost like the old-timey Steam sales. Edge of Nowhere is $4.99 today instead of the usual $39.99. https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1026648920729545/

And, much like an old-timey Steam sale, I have no idea what this game is like or whether it's worth $39.99, but $4.99 is impulse buy enough that if I don't like it, oh well.

[Yw-slayer]

Thanks. I bought that and Duck Season.

[Tom Servo]

If you get a chance to try Duck Season today, lemme know if you think it's worth it. I was kinda worried that it'd be fun nostalgia for approximately 3.4 minutes, then just be boring.

[Yw-slayer]

I probably won't have time to try it today, but sure. So far I've bought a ton of games and have only used the Rift for, er, watching "Internet tv". Because I'm waiting for my Touch controllers. Yeah, that's why.

[21Kid]

What do you do with your hands in the meantime?

[Yw-slayer]

Hands? Other people do the work for me.

Touch controllers have arrived but I haven't been effed to try them yet.

[Tom Servo]

The best is when they basically just disappear. The Climb and Robo Recall both got me to a point where I forgot that I was holding controllers, I just was doing intuitive things with my hands.

[Alan P]

Rift sold. I wanted to gel with it but far more often I found myself not being bothered with it and playing something normal. £290 I got for it.

[Yw-slayer]

I set it up at work, where I currently have more room. Playing The Climb is great!!

[Tom Servo]

Rez: Infinite is on sale for $14.99. Significantly easier since you can aim by pointing (if you've got the touch controllers), but a way cooler experience than it is outside of VR.

[Yw-slayer]

I see. I may get it, then.

[Tom Servo]

Just got all the way through it. It's a pretty great trip.

[Tom Servo]

X-Plane 11 has native VR support now:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpKlKyoO0lc

[Tom Servo]

This guy and his voice are both incredibly annoying, but the way he's interacting with the cockpit of a 737 getting ready to take off is like my flight sim dream come true. All those dials and switches in the cockpit suddenly are things you can interact with just by grabbing them.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdDVT_dIRcg

[dodint]

Eh, I think I would still rather have a real instrument stack. What he is doing looks tedious. Wonder if VR is practically going to have to make you choose.

[Yw-slayer]

The dream must be to have AR. A full and moving racing seat (for example) with the gaps and inconvenient rubbish like the detritus of your home life filled up/overlaid with VR goodness.

[Tom Servo]

Eh, I think I would still rather have a real instrument stack. What he is doing looks tedious. Wonder if VR is practically going to have to make you choose.

Doesn't sound like it. In that video he's specifically trying to do it with no other hardware, but the vast majority of other videos for this have people using their normal hardware (the other video points out that the guy has to situation himself early on, otherwise there are buttons in the cockpit he can't interact with because of real life hardware in the way). This just means being able to use the touch controller to interact with the things they don't have hardware for rather than using a mouse to point-and-click onscreen like we have for the past 20 or so years.

And yeah, it's tedious. Some people want to go through every step like it's real life, some people just want to get flying. I think all the major sims default to having the majority of things handled automatically, but you can choose to do it manually if you want.

[dodint]

I don't think his preflight routine is tedious. What I mean is he's using that controller to interact with the controls which looks cumbersome. If you can have the VR headset on and be able to reach over to your GoFlight radio stack and change the frequency by feel and the numbers change in the sim, then yeah, that'd be awesome. Same with the throttle, yoke, rudders, etc.

The disconnect will be when your hardware controls are not in the nearly same relative position as the ones in the sim and you have to peek out to make sure you're doing it right. That can be mitigated with diligence though.

Excited at the possibilities.

[Tom Servo]

Finally just got the whole thing started up. Having some issues with calibrating Steam VR, for some reason when I try to interact with the settings menu in the hangar, it's like 6 feet over my head. Also, I definitely need to tweak the settings as I'm getting a ton of judder if I move my head too quickly.

That said, best flight sim experience I've ever had. Took off from KSMO in a little Cessna and literally felt my stomach drop as the plane left the ground. Being able to just look around freely was a game changer.

Now, if only I can figure out how to get the audio to go to the Rift's headphones instead of coming out of my main speakers.

Oh, and I was using my flight stick and throttle to do most of the controls, I didn't really do anything with the VR controllers other than interact with menus.

[Tom Servo]

The latest update to Google Earth VR for street view is incredible. I flew down to where we stayed in Barcelona, then navigated down through the streets to our favorite restaurant, and you can just sit there and look all around. It's amazing.