Jeshibu on 20/8/2020 at 12:40
I wonder what that functionality gap looks like if you refuse to get a Facebook account. I'd imagine you could still run Steam games, but that also does launch the Oculus app. Worst case the headset could just completely refuse to function, but that's apparently not the case.
Anyway, good job, never buying anything from the Oculus store again.
Renault on 20/8/2020 at 15:45
I wonder if this will eventually just be accepted or if it will actually impact their sales and market share. Not a ton of players in the field here though, especially in the un-tethered arena.
I'm also kind of wondering, given the popularity of the PSVR, if the advent of the more powerful PS5 and the inevitable PSVR2, if Sony might be in a good position to steal some portion of that business.
Jeshibu on 20/8/2020 at 21:44
If PSVR was any indication, Sony is looking to provide an entry-level price to VR, cutting corners in quality. If that's their thrust for PSVR2 I think Valve, HTC and Microsoft offer better alternatives for people who owned or were considering Oculus/Facebook headsets. Unless of course Sony is banking on good exclusives.
woah on 21/8/2020 at 02:45
Quote Posted by Brethren
I'm also kind of wondering, given the popularity of the PSVR, if the advent of the more powerful PS5 and the inevitable PSVR2, if Sony might be in a good position to steal some portion of that business.
Sony could actually completely overshadow their success. A ton of people are going to buy the PS5 regardless of their interest in VR. That means for the vast majority the cost of "getting into VR" with the PSVR2 is considered independent of the cost of the PS5. So if the PSVR2 costs less than or equal to the Quest, isn't gimped like the Quest is with its mobile hardware, and has Sony's AAA developer muscle behind it, for the average console gamer the choice is obvious. And, despite all of the hype, the assessments I've read estimate that Quest has still not surpassed the PSVR in terms of headsets sold when comparing corresponding points in the consoles' lifecycles.
Quote Posted by Jeshibu
If PSVR was any indication, Sony is looking to provide an entry-level price to VR, cutting corners in quality. If that's their thrust for PSVR2 I think Valve, HTC and Microsoft offer better alternatives for people who owned or were considering Oculus/Facebook headsets. Unless of course Sony is banking on good exclusives.
Well, back when the PSVR launched there weren't any viable inside out tracking solutions. Inside out tracking will reduce the cost of controllers and tracking substantially (and move Sony away from the crappy Move controllers--their patents suggestion they're taking inspiration from Index controllers). But tracking and controllers aside, otherwise the PSVR's display was actually quite good in some major respects when compared with gen 1 PCVR offerings. The pixel density is limited (quite understandably given the power of the PS4) but otherwise the display is 120hz and has an RGB subpixel layout (albeit hexagonal).
On the PC side, the best alternative to the Rift S appears to be the HP Reverb G2 at $600 (which, despite being largely designed by Valve, is actually better than the Index in several respects--e.g. has twice as many pixels and it's almost half the weight, on top of having the Index's audio solution and headstrap). Samsung is also rumored to be working on another PCVR headset and perhaps they may target the low end ($400 to $500 range).
I don't think wireless PCVR and PSVR2 is very far fetched either. 60GHz 802.11ay is expected to be ratified later this year and it will have enough bandwidth to transmit the signal without compression. Compression is the source of the noticeable latency in the current wireless VR solutions (well, many people don't notice the latency of the Vive's 802.11ad wireless but on the Quest--which uses regular home wifi routers--it's pretty noticeable)
Renault on 27/8/2020 at 16:42
Played a little bit of Skyrim VR last night, it's pretty damn cool. I know others opinions have varied, but since I'm not a huge graphics whore, the slightly blurrier visuals don't really bother me that much. It's pretty wild being able to go anywhere in VR in a large open world game like this. Kind of makes all other virtual reality experiences seem kind of simple and limited so far. Really hope we see more of this from bigger developers in the next generation.
I haven't touched the game in years, so I thought it might be fun to play through again, using some class I have no experience with. Might be interesting to completely disregard the main questline as well, and just focus on exploring.
I also finished Astro Bot Rescue Mission recently, which was an incredible game in it's own right. Very memorable and it feels really significant, like the next big step in platforming games. It was a bit simple and maybe too easy in spots, and also somewhat short, but I could easily play through again, the levels are just so creative and fun to navigate through. I would love to see a longer sequel for the PS5.
Thirith on 31/8/2020 at 14:22
Have any of the local VRnauts played much, or any, No Man's Sky in VR? I originally tried playing it standing up, using the full 360°, but it doesn't really work particularly well, so I got started again over the weekend and am now playing it sitting down and using the controller to turn around. While this works better, it is disappointing that they obviously put some thought into the VR controls, in particular with respect to your hands and the multitool, but it seems that at some point they lost interest and therefore the VR implementation comes across as half-assed.
Anyway, it's a nice enough game, but I'm not sure VR adds all that much. The worlds don't seem to feel distinct enough for that. I'll play it for a few more sessions, but unless things improve I think I might move on to something else.
woah on 31/8/2020 at 15:11
Quote Posted by Thirith
Have any of the local VRnauts played much, or any,
No Man's Sky in VR? I originally tried playing it standing up, using the full 360°, but it doesn't really work particularly well, so I got started again over the weekend and am now playing it sitting down and using the controller to turn around. While this works better, it is disappointing that they obviously put some thought into the VR controls, in particular with respect to your hands and the multitool, but it seems that at some point they lost interest and therefore the VR implementation comes across as half-assed.
Anyway, it's a nice enough game, but I'm not sure VR adds all that much. The worlds don't seem to feel distinct enough for that. I'll play it for a few more sessions, but unless things improve I think I might move on to something else.
That's basically my thoughts on it and I don't really understand why the game has been so hyped up for VR. The game was already a mile wide (well, billions of miles wide, I guess) and yet only an inch deep, but their motion controller inputs are about as basic as it gets. Though it's hard to blame them because the game fundamentally doesn't really have enough depth to really take advantage of VR. IMO where VR excels is in adding depth to a simulation and this kind of game is pretty much the opposite of that. Everything in the game is highly abstracted, making motion controllers rather redundant--I would rather just play with M&K (in VR or flat). If this were my first VR game I may have come away thinking VR was a gimmick.
Another thing that NMS reinforces for me is that past the honeymoon phase, VR's purely visual affordances *currently* have as many downsides as upsides. The lack of variable focus in particular becomes more and more noticeable over time and kind of ruins the 3D effect and comfort. Plus it makes interacting with UIs and reading text (of which there is a ton in NMS VR) particularly terrible. The exception would be some cockpit VR games, but otherwise what keeps me interested in current gen VR are games with good motion controller interactions.
Here are some recent games I've been having a ton of fun with (will flesh out details later, just want to list them for now):
(
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1352020/Yupitergrad/) Yupitergrad - Soviet themed spiderman / platformer-ish game
(
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1365940/Eye_of_the_Temple_First_Steps/) Eye Of The Temple - Roomscale Indiana Jones sort of experience
(
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1110980/Warden_of_the_Isles/) Warden of the Isles - Lighthearted Black & White sort of RTS
(
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1010100/Airborn/) Airborne - Shooter with high speed flight, jetpacks mounted to hands, quite exhilarating. I recommend even people that have never been able to get their VR legs give it a shot
(
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1012790/Into_the_Radius_VR/) Into The Radius VR - This is basically STALKER in VR but closer to the original source material. Still need to put more time into it but the atmosphere is very good
Indie VR games have really reignited my passion for gaming. There is so much interesting stuff being created.
Thirith on 31/8/2020 at 15:23
I'd actually disagree with you on the controllers: while the UI could definitely be improved, I like how it's placed on the back of your hands and how you interact with those. It could do with a lot of polish (see something like Lone Echo for an instance of this being done tremendously well), but they have put some thought into this. In comparison, Skyrim VR does a much more minimalist job of adapting its UI to VR, yet the sense of immersion is fantastic IMO. I feel like I'm traversing those woods or castles or dungeons. The game is similarly shallow as NMS, but just being there is more enjoyable to me.
I don't really have the problem you mention re: reading text in VR, at least not as a general thing. For me it was even okay in Elite Dangerous on the original Oculus Rift. What I sometimes wonder is whether my eyesight has an effect on how I perceive VR - I'm nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other, which I assume reduces my depth perception in real life, as my stronger eye pretty much seems to do double duty.
Talking about cockpit-based VR games, I'm curious how Flight Simulator will turn out to be in VR, and I'm very much looking forward to Star Wars: Squadrons.
woah on 3/9/2020 at 23:12
Quote Posted by Thirith
I don't really have the problem you mention re: reading text in VR, at least not as a general thing. For me it was even okay in
Elite Dangerous on the original Oculus Rift. What I sometimes wonder is whether my eyesight has an effect on how I perceive VR - I'm nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other, which I assume reduces my depth perception in real life, as my stronger eye pretty much seems to do double duty.
That's interesting. Have a question then: when using VR on the desktop for extended periods, how does it make your eyes feel? For me I can last about 10 to 15 minutes before my eyes get really tired and text becomes harder and harder to focus on, to the extent that it starts to look blurry. And there's a good deal of discomfort that occurs before I get to that point. This happens even if pixel density of the HMD I'm using is sufficient to easily discern the text. Furthermore, when reading "virtual paper" in VR I feel like I have to hold it with my hands stretched out. Or, like those terminals in The Talos Principle VR, at some point I just didn't bother to read them anymore because they were just so uncomfortable for me--the sensation is almost like crossing my eyes. And if I go through a period of playing VR extensively, I start to lose the 3d effect as well because--I suspect--my brain just starts to pick up on how the depth cues are wrong. Near field objects are hard to focus on, and "medium field" and distant vistas are tolerable but something about them "looks wrong".
The only thing that I can imagine is causing this for me is the fixed focus because in "real life" I have very good vision. As long as I'm interacting with dynamic/moving objects in VR--taking in more of a "flow" of information--it's is largely OK for me, but when I need to read text or pay attention to static detail for an extended period, immersion and comfort start to suffer. After I take the headset off, things will look a little blurry for me until my eyes "remember" how to correctly focus again. When using VR it's almost like my eyes have to switch to an alternative "visual mode".
Variable focus is one of the major technologies I'm looking forward to because once we have it I think--I *hope*--that I'll finally be able to perceive depth correctly and these problems will go away. I think it will make VR much more immersive, more comfortable, and make many kinds of near field interactions more viable.
While we're on the topic, another thing that bugs me in current gen VR is geometric stability. Like with the Rift CV1 and Quest, every time I rotate my head it's like the whole scene is warping. On one hand I can play e.g. BallisticNG racing >1000kmh around tight turns and twisting tracks without an issue, but just basic VR usage with the Quest will literally ruin my day. The Odyssey was particularly bad for me here--it was like looking through a fish bowl. The best I've experienced so far in this category is the Index. Now I can generally play without noticing this too much but it's definitely still there. I suspect this is one of the reasons why the Index is so good for long term comfort because apparently research has shown that geometric instability can cause VR discomfort without the user even being able notice it--it may only be "subconsciously observed". As far as I know the only way this gets solved is with eyetracking and adjusting the distortion function based on where the eye is (something separate from varifocal)
Thirith on 4/9/2020 at 14:31
I have to say that I experience nearly none of these - except in my few experiments with VorpX, where there's often a warping effect at the edges when I turn. The environments in games designed for VR don't look or feel equally three-dimensional in all games, and I can't really say why that is, as it seems to have nothing to do with fidelity, but the ones that feel like they have proper depth maintain this even when I play for one to two hours.