Malf on 24/6/2022 at 09:38
henke, it's been a while now, so how are you faring with your Index?
My Rift won't work on Linux, so I'm side-eyeing the Index quite heavily. Although given the news about recent patent applications by Valve, I half-expect them to announce Index v2.0 any day now.
Thirith on 13/7/2022 at 06:27
I've been playing Firewatch with the VR mod, and it's really lovely and a good fit for VR. The mod also works very well and makes smart choices with respect to player animations and the like, and so far the only two issues I have with the VR are that god rays look a bit odd and some movement can be a bit juddery. (My impression is that it's an engine/performance issue, but lowering the settings doesn't make a huge difference.) However, those issues only diminish the experience very slightly. I'd not played Firewatch before, but my impression is that this is a perfectly fine way to experience it for the first time, as so much of the game is about being in the place and taking it in.
henke on 18/9/2022 at 13:09
Hooked the Valve Index up since I have a new computer now, tried the new HL2 VR mod. It's fun, though it made me nostalgic for Alyx so I reinstalled that. Just to try it a bit again, but ended up getting really into it. I'm up to chapter 4 now (just derailed a train). Great game.
Quote Posted by Malf
henke, it's been a while now, so how are you faring with your Index?
Now that I've used it on a beefy RTX 3080 system I feel qualified to say... it's not so good, man! The knuckles controllers suck ok? A simple grip-button would be much preferable to the ambiguity of the knuckles' grip. Besides that I'm still have trouble just getting the headset started as well. With my old Rift I could just pop the headset on and the computer would take care of the rest, but with this you gotta press the VR button in Steam and after that it probably won't even start anyway. I thought it was just my old computer causing these problems, but even on a new computer this thing just doesn't wanna start. Maybe some issue with the hardware on my unit? Anyway, the only reliable way to get this thing going is to restart the computer, open Steam, and go straight into VR.
Between this and the uncomfortableness of the Oculus Quest my opinion of VR is that it's been all downhill since the original Oculus Rift.
Malf on 18/9/2022 at 21:37
Damn, not good to hear, but thanks for the honest opinion.
Briareos H on 18/9/2022 at 22:07
Never had any troubles with my Index or knuckles. Well, I do have some troubles but that's because I damaged the cable which I need to replace. Otherwise, I just start Steam VR and everything comes up fine. It's my first headset and I recently tried someone's Quest with the controllers and it felt like a step back, there's a ton of stuff I feel more "free" to do with the grip on the knuckles. I'm very disappointed that there is still no proper wireless solution for the Index, hopefully this will come with the Deckard (if it ever comes out).
HL2:VR is very nice, can't wait to get back to it once I get the new cable. Also hoping for more conversions like Amid Evil VR, and then Vertigo 2 which is hopefully not too far away.
That being said, I am pretty jaded about the state of VR. It feels like it is a done thing as developers have realised there isn't much money to be made with traditional games and Meta is keeping full steam ahead with their deeply unattractive metaverse. Oculus exclusives are also pretty shitty, it's really too small of a market to segment it. I still absolutely love VR and find it magical but there seems to be a dearth of new experiences. Either that or I don't know where to look.
catbarf on 19/9/2022 at 04:24
The only issue I've had with my Index was an annoying speck of dust on one lens that Valve RMA'd, but the controllers have been fine. It did take some acclimatization to stop death-gripping the controllers in order to grab something, but after getting used to it I can't go back to the Vive style of having to click grip buttons to grip or un-grip things. My #1 complaint with them is actually that the narrow touchpads aren't so great for games that rely on pressing to the left or right of the touchpad, but that's a game-implementation thing rather than the hardware itself.
Haven't had any software trouble with the headset but these things are notoriously picky so I'm not doubting Henke's experience at all.
It definitely seems like AAA support for VR has stagnated and even indie VR titles are slowing in pace. But there are more projects than ever for running non-VR games in VR, so that's fun at least.
Thirith on 19/9/2022 at 05:32
Yeah, I'd also say that the most interesting stuff happening in VR at the moment is the fan mods, and there's some pretty nice stuff out there. I wonder whether/to what extent PSVR2 will shake things up, though.
henke on 19/9/2022 at 05:38
Quote Posted by Briareos H
there's a ton of stuff I feel more "free" to do with the grip on the knuckles.
Like what? Yeah you can move individual fingers but... uh, why? Haven't seen a single game take advantage of that, not even Valve's flagship VR game Alyx does anything with it.
Briareos H on 19/9/2022 at 05:58
Clearly subjective but anything that has a grab button instantly feels off to me. I'm sure I could get used to it but having the same grabbing motion as in real life makes it feel more natural and gives me more freedom, even if very little is different in practice. The pressure sensitivity is also a nice touch even if it's rarely used. I just love squeezing things I grab.
henke on 19/9/2022 at 06:25
Being able to grab things like in real life only works if games are programmed like that, but they aren't! Even in Alyx, grabbing is a binary action. You're either grabbing or not grabbing, there's no fuzzy half-grab. Which leads to things like me putting an ammoclip over my shoulder to drop it into my bag, releasing my grip, swinging my arm back forward, and the ammoclip goes tumbling to the ground in front of me, because apparently I wasn't releasing enough! To me it felt like I opened my hand enough to release it, but the game thinks I was 1 degree too far from release-state. Having a simple button for grip would remove this needless ambiguity.