Aja on 9/3/2023 at 15:47
My very limited understanding of VAC is that virtual objects appear to be closer than the actual focal length of the lenses, meaning your eyes focus in the wrong place. So while my virtual hands may look like they're a foot away from my face, the actual distance I need to focus on is around two meters (for PSVR2, anyway). It's a bit like looking at a MagicEye, where you have to defocus your eyes to see it. I've always been good at those, so I wonder if over time my eyes are learning to focus in a different spot. I also ordered some prescription lenses, which should allow me to pull the visor in closer, hopefully widening the sweet spot (which is a different issue, but still will be nice).
I have seen the fervour on Reddit over a possible sharpness update, but I get a bit of a bad vibe from that crowd; reminds me of audiophiles insisting that their CDs sound better because they Sharpied the edges. In any case, I installed the update last night and it looked about the same to me although the fact that it wouldn't let me try the unit without updating meant it was impossible to actually compare. And most of the improvement I've experienced happened last week, before any update.
As for persistence blur, I have experimented with turning the brightness down. It makes night driving a bit more moody and reduces glare, and possibly I can see an increase in motion clarity, but the more I play, the less motion sickness I feel, and the tradeoffs of lowering the brightness are significant. For one, the colours look more muted, you lose the realism of bright highlights on things like the sun or tail lights, but most importantly it makes the OLED grain much more noticeable. And that mura, I feel, is a bit like tinnitus: you stop noticing it until you don't, and then you just have to try to ignore it. Again, the Reddit crowd is going nuts over exchanging their headsets to win some supposed panel lottery -- and I admit it is tempting to want to try to fix it -- but it seems to me that focusing on the thing you need to ignore is the worst way to make it happen. People just need to accept that the tech isn't perfect, everything is a compromise, and concentrate on enjoying the games themselves. And in five years when consumer headsets can display 8K per eye, we can rejoice.
Aja on 11/3/2023 at 21:03
Dimitrescu slicing my hand off and then chasing me around the cellar in VR was easily one of if not the most stressful things I've ever experienced in a game. It's maybe a combination of the scale and realism but also a bit of motion discomfort from all the flailing around, and holy smokes I feel exhausted now. Exploring the castle for the first time — leaning around corners, marvelling at the vaulted ceilings and just the scale of everything, including the merchant — is incredible. I haven't felt like this about gaming since I was kid, and I'm trying to savour every bit of it.
It's also making me pine for a VR Thief. Even with the original graphics, having that freedom of movement combined with the PSVR2's 3D audio and deep-black display would be just about the greatest gaming experience I can imagine.
woah on 11/3/2023 at 21:46
That sounds about right regarding VAC. I'm not an expert in this field or optics in general, but if you're interested in this stuff (if not, don't bother to read):
[INDENT]My understanding is that in modern VR displays the display and optics create a virtual image plane that is about 2 meters away when looking down the optical axis. That is, regarding the light that actually enters your eye, the curvature of the wavefronts always correspond to light that would propagate from such a virtual screen fixed at 2m, even though one's sense of depth from stereoscopy, your perspective of the scene, and perhaps other cues (you have many different senses of visual depth) may conflict with that. So you can imagine two such virtual screens affixed to your head and in front of each eye, but somehow overlapping for stereoscopic depth perception and each only visible to one eye.
This is compared to the lightfield you see in real life where light from every object in the scene at every depth is simultaneously overlapping and entering your eye ("real light" is thus "3 dimensional"), and you can bring light from any such depth into focus through accommodation (changing the shape of the lens in your eye). The out of focus light is also important too, because there are certain feedback cues from that out of focus light that your visual system uses to accommodate to other depths.
So if in VR you're looking at virtual content that is not entirely coincident with the aforementioned virtual screen (like, anything that isn't a surface situated 2 meters away), there is a conflict between that focus depth and the stereoscopic vergence of the eyes and this is referred to as the "vergence accommodation conflict," as vergence and accommodation are typically synced up in real life. But I should really use "fixed focus" vs "dynamic accommodation" to describe the problem instead of "VAC", because even if in VR you close one eye so there is no concern about stereoscopic depth perception, you are still not able to see depth correctly in VR. In real life, even with one eye closed you can still sense the various depths of the lightfield (through a variety of accommodation feedback/cues) and bring into focus light from different depths appropriately--but not in modern VR (it's all just that virtual screen). The lack of true focus depth causes discomfort, breaks immersion, and causes some issues with near field interactions.
Moreover, even if we accept this fixed focus reality, there are still problems even with the two aforementioned "virtual screens." It's a little hard to describe but it's related to the fact that the virtual screens are not fixed to your eyes but rather your head, and also that the center of the eye and center of projection in the eye are offset from each other. This offset shifts the image slightly on your retina, but it is not properly replicated in VR (not without good eyetracking and adjustments to rendering). It's best to see a visual demonstration (
https://youtu.be/FUPpU_sT3LQ?t=513) . So more discomfort, immersion, and usability issues. The video also goes into why this is important for dynamic IPD.
So even as cool as VR is, it's really exciting to hear about how much better it can get. It sounds like this latter problem can be solved with headsets that have accurate, high frequency eyetracking. The former though is extremely difficult. Varifocal headsets are the solution everyone is hoping will pan out. You need moveable optics that are reliable or solid state switchable optics (that have their own issues, like light loss with each layer or artifacts during switching), extremely accurate eyetracking that works for everyone (if it's not perfect, the experience is worse than fixed focus), and you need to be able to simulate the out of focus light (through in focus light?) in order to drive accommodation properly.
[/INDENT]
If the more vibrant option is better for you, then all the better--just wanted to point out the potential issue. One of the things you'll find in VR is that people have very different sensitivities and preferences when it comes to different aspects of VR displays--like way beyond anything you'll see in desktop monitors. There are so many things that will disgust or cause fatigue in one person, whereas another will not see it at all even if you point it out to them. It makes it quite difficult to determine whether or not you'll prefer one headset over another.
And yeah, VR Thief would be absolutely amazing. It's like almost everything is a perfect match for VR: the sense of immersion and atmosphere and the slow paced gameplay that works well within the constraints of VR movement. And for a VR specific Thief, there's the potential for so many interesting and dynamic interactive capacities: bows, climbing/mantling, swordplay (check out Blade & Sorcery if it comes to PSVR2), looting, secrets and puzzles, lockpicking. Of course, I can think of a variety of issues as well, but the potential is there. There is a PCVR game called "Unknightly" that attempted something along these lines but I didn't really find it that satisfying.
Aja on 21/3/2023 at 03:04
VR UPDATE
Pistol Whip is good! Feels really good to play except for when I accidentally pistol whipped my lamp and had to put it back together. And then I accidentally jumped to dodge a bullet and hit my head on the ceiling. I'm learning! The music is not really what I'm into but in this context I can't help grooving along with it and trying to be as stylish and rhythmic as possible. The haptic triggers make it feel crunchy and satisfying, too, and the headset buzzes whenever a bullet whooshes past, which is awesome.
Back to RE8, the fucking giant baby was just as horrible as I was expecting; what a brilliant horror setpiece that section of the game is. For some reason the giant fish didn't make me feel as awed as I thought it might; maybe I'm just getting to use to this, or maybe it's that the water textures looked kinda bad in 3D. Anyway, feels like I might be past the most horrory parts and am in the action section of the game, which is fun but also finicky. A werewolf jumps me once and it's thrilling and terrifying, but the subsequent times I have to sit there and watch the werewolf claw me to death with feeling like my head is buried in the ground because my virtual body fell over got a bit tedious. Still, I'm loving the game overall, and somehow it has possibly the sharpest graphics I've seen so far; textures up close look razor sharp in a way they just don't in Horizon or GT7; not sure what the deal is.
I've got my eyes on a few other games: Walking Dead comes out soon, and I also kinda want a goofy game like Job Simulator or What the Bat or Cosmonious High. And maybe the full versions of Star Wars and Horizon. As someone who's never used VR before, I will say that this launch lineup is actually a lot better than it maybe initially seemed: you've got a handful of triple-A, full-fledged games, and a decent number of smaller more niche experiences. I really hope they can keep it up.
And whoa, thanks for that info. I guess I'm interested in VR tech now, and although I won't be getting a PC VR any time soon, it's fun to read about and compare.
Minion21g on 21/3/2023 at 23:00
Just wanted to put out the recommendation for Cosmonious High, I loved it. It's bright, it's pastel, it's cutesy, the interactions in the game are so much fun. I wanted more of it so I went out of my way to get the Platinum trophy.
Aja on 22/3/2023 at 03:58
Nice, thanks. It's definitely near the top of my list; the demo has a good vibe.
Aja on 3/4/2023 at 17:10
So how long does the VR honeymoon last? It's been a month and I'm still kind of obsessed with it. I've also found that I'm more interested and excited to play games that I might ignore if they weren't in VR. Case in point, Saints and Sinners, which is an adaptation of a TV show I've never watched (Walking Dead) on a subject I'm not particularly fond of (zombies). I don't think it's quite the masterpiece that some fans make it out to be, but it is really engaging. I got caught by the bells for the first time the other day and spent a tense 20 minutes scrounging for whatever meager weapons I could find in order to clear a path to the boat, and after crow-barring and kitchen-knifing my way through the horde I managed to escape by the skin of my teeth.
I also downloaded the full version of Horizon, and it's a pretty solid intro to VR, basically a climbing and archery simulator, which is fine with me as the controls are smooth and the world is beautiful. I've never played a Horizon game before, so the lore is lost on me although I do know who Aloy is and was pretty excited to meet her face to face.
I've seen some complaining online about the PSVR2 launch line up, but as a newbie it's a bit of an embarrassment of riches for me, and I'm having to stop myself from buying every game whose demo is somewhat appealing. Ah well, enjoy it while it lasts, I guess.
Thirith on 4/4/2023 at 06:43
Saints and Sinners is janky, but it's probably the closest we've got to a VR immersive sim. I'd love to see future games build on this.
As far as the VR honeymoon is concerned: with me it lasted a fairly long time, but with last year's hot summer I stopped playing for fairly long because when I'd sweat the lenses would fog up, which is a faff to get rid of. I want to get back into it, not least to play some more Dirt Rally 2 and eventually some WW2 battles in IL-2 Sturmovik.
henke on 4/4/2023 at 07:17
Yeah I don't play much VR any more, but I'd say my honeymoon with it lasted from 2014 to 2020.
woah on 4/4/2023 at 13:35
There's no strict duration for the honeymoon. For some people it lasts a month, others 6 months, others two years, etc etc. We'd need more hard stats from platform holders to know the average but if they're at all interested in preserving the hype around the medium they will never let that info out willingly. There was a leak from facebook/meta not too long ago that revealed they lose 50% of new users after 6 months so that may be a good baseline. And according to the only large scale market research I've seen, overall VR retention is something like ~15% for usage on a weekly basis and ~35% on a monthly basis, with the remainder using VR less frequently or not at all, but mind you these stats were collected a few months after 2021 holiday sales so we don't know the long term behavior.
Also, keep in mind that these percentages may not apply to all segments of the market. That is, someone that's spent $600 on a PSVR2 is much more likely to be dedicated to the medium than someone that bought a Quest 2 on a whim at $300 when they were otherwise isolated during COVID lockdowns.
As for myself, I would say that my honeymoon lasted about a year or 1.5 years, but I still play now anyway. It's just that during that period I had the usual "honeymoon delusions" (that's the only way I can describe how I felt looking back, I can only laugh at my old comments).
At this point I'm still deeply involved with VR, have some hobby projects I develop for it, and still actually play it for entertainment about once a week, but I just see fundamental problems with it everywhere. I think most of those problems can be solved through advances in vr technology, but at least for fully immersive motion controller based VR I think there are a few insurmountable problems pertaining to the very nature of the medium that may prevent it from gaining the "mainstream" success big corps desire. It may end up being relegated to a "more niche" market but, personally, I'm entirely OK with that.