General VR Catch-All

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Are you guys using vr controllers or flight sticks for space sims? If flight sticks which ones are good?

Depends on the game.

HOTAS (X52 Pro) for Elite (with VoiceAttack to offload the keyboard commands as I can't see the keyboard).
Gamepad for House of the Dying Sun.
M+K for Everspace.

Thanks people. I'll be using it for elite dangerous. I thought about tie fighter but I turned off my stupid brain. Hmmm well I guess I could still use the stick for tie fighter but without vr. Ok maybe not so stupid.

The thing that was cool about the X52 is that they used it as the model in Elite Dangerous so when you looked at your hands you would see the same joystick.

Any lurkers a great oculus + Touch deal for $300. https://slickdeals.net/f/12430801-oc...

Subnautica is currently free in the new epic store which includes the VR version.

Got the vr setup. Tried a game or two. Watched a movie or two. Played around in the VR space.

Had some minor problems setup but got through everything quickly. Biggest problem or mistake was I bought a regular odyssey instead of the plus version. Which is sad since it was just on sell. I'm pretty sure it was on sell when I bought it. I didn't realize my mistake until I setup the controllers. The plus pairs directly to the headset. The original pairs to the pc.

Anyway the VR movie clips impressed me. I can see why more aren't done. You can't be sure where the person is looking when showing stuff off. Some dude is talking about a tank and I'm looking in the opposite direction.

regular movies had a blur effect at the edges. I don't think it looked good enough to watch movies in VR rather than on my tv which is only 32 inches. This will be even more true when I get a new 55 inch tv.

I haven't tried the main games I wanted for vr yet. First game I tried didn't work at all. I forget what it was called. Tried Subnautica which didn't work. the menu was in a odd place that I could barely see and the vr controllers apparently don't work for the game. I did see a brief message about a controller mismatch. I'm going to try again with a 360 or steam controller. I played some demo game a bout shooting targets that did work. Going to try Skyrim VR and Elite Dangerous next.

I also tried the voice stuff for windows 10. I have voiceattack but haven't tried it yet. It is always listening sending what you say back to the demons that run microsoft. I have no idea how to program it or even if it is possible. Using it to control and open media worked well.

The WMR house isn't all that great. The environment is a bit wasted. I would have liked something that was also a game. I would have liked something as customizable as the sims and had lots of stuff to play with like rick and morty. Make sure you don't have any questionable photos on your pc because you might see it on your walls. I'm pretty sure you can configure where the pictures come from.

Baron my advice would be to try some games that were truly built from the ground up for VR. Games like Subnautica, Skyrim VR and Elite were all designed as flat games first and foremost. In each of them I've had some trouble setting up or with motion sickness. Yep the menus in Subnautica are weird in VR.

IMO the games that will impress the most and require the least amount of 'work' on the part of the user are the likes of Beat Saber, Gorn, Job Simulator etc etc. Built from the ground up for VR and great at what they do, and yeah they have a much narrower scope than the likes of Subnautica. Try them, get your VR legs and get used to your set up then look at optimising something like Skyrim.

Of course YMMV, and you could go straight to Skyrim VR and have a great time start to finish, but the above has been my experience and I hope others find it useful. I was just getting frustrated with VR at first but I think I needed to take my time with it.

That is a good point. I don't have any ground up VR games. I'll need to pick one up. Skyrim though is my jam, bending it to my will is part of the fun. Already got some ideas for some mods to fix some of the vr problems.

Vanishing Realms, while somewhat short, is also a must for fantasy VR.

Probably no one remembers a Conference Call from back in the Wii days where I sent in an email regarding moral dilemmas arising from enhanced and violent interactivity with the Wii controllers.
Well with VR, we have crossed that path, and I present to you exhibit one:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/6...

I am quite a bit older now but I feel like we have murder simulators now. I am still a staunch proponent of violent video games but I feel like we know at some point there will be a line crossed for everyone. I am very uncomfortable with the fact that I we have crossed mine.

fangblackbone wrote:

and I present to you exhibit one:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/6...

I enjoyed the first user review I read on steam...
"Gorn's hotter sister".

Hey I just bought that game and beat saber. Now I can murder in the virtual world instead of in real life like usual.

Have to admit, the tech in that looks really impressive.

Just tried both games. Both worked perfectly. Beat Saber had me moving . Really fun game. Blade and Sorcery I just played around in the training area. Was a little to beat saber out to do more than mess around. I need a nap now.

I picked up Blade and Sorcery and have had a blast with it over the weekend; it’s a mix of Mount and Blade in VR with some Jedi-like magic. It’s obviously violent, but the pleasure comes from mastering the weapons (where the physics engine is really, really good) and when to use the spells and abilities you have.

I would have a much harder time with it , as a “murder simulator”, were it not in a medieval setting. I don’t think this is any worse than M&B.

I love the way you put away and pull out weapons. Makes it feel like you are really carrying them around.

Subnautica looked great once I got into the actual game. However, the vr isn't very good. Playing it in non vr is fun so I would go with that until they work out the vr situation. Also you might want to watch a tutorial video on youtube because they don't tell you anything. It is like a bad parent teaching a kid how to swim by throwing them into the ocean. Swim or die kid.

What'd you dislike about the VR version, Baron?

I said it before but the menus are messed up. Then the hud doesn't fit. For example I can see the air supply but the other icons below and two the right are hard to make out. Also I can just barely see messages on the top of the screen. Then the PDA is way to close to the screen, it is like holding a book two inches from my face. My eyes are straining to take it in. The hud moves with your head so I can't change my head position for a better look.

The game doesn't officially support motion controllers. So you can't reach out and grab something. You select stuff by moving your head and then hit a button. So using the move controllers just feels wrong. Mouse and keyboard are fine if you are good with key placement. The tips if you can see them are all for a 360 controller which I would suggest people use in vr.

Completely agree with everything Baron said. UI's borked, VR games that have you holding a controller feel like a trick missed, and it was a touch barfy to boot - turning the head felt....woozy. Interestingly, my 5 year old got motion sick from watching me play it on the monitor too, so not sure if there's something weird going on there...

It's been on my wishlist for a while, partly because the VR space is lacking big crunchy games, and that seemed to fit the bill.

But yeah, after mucking about for a half hour in VR and another half out of, I'm planning on sticking with the monitor for this game.

Could be field of view issues...

I'm sure FOV is the problem with the hud not fitting. The odd thing is they removed the FOV slider in the VR version, it was there and they removed it in a patch. There is a way to get around that by going into console but I didn't try it since it wouldn't fix the other problems I had.

I think UI is a general issue with VR. The neatness of "wow, its so immersive!" wears off with things like inventory. Yes its cool you can pick things up and actually place them in the back pack, but that takes a lot more time than auto loot or shift clicking or just plain drag and drop on your character sheet. Plus don't forget how quickly placing things in the bag will feel after 2 hours of play let alone a 5 hour stint.
2D (or overlayed on 3d) UI is lightyears more advanced than VR UI. Some of it will be addressed but some of it can't due to the nature of VR technology.

I think Budget Cuts is still the gold standard for non-realistic inventory in VR. I’d like to see more people rip it off.

Personally I love physically managing items on my person, to the point that I’ve mimed it every single time in Fallout VR over 50 hours of playtime as well as running in place the entire time, because the physicality is part of what makes VR different than flat games. Personally, if I wanted to just sit and relax and play a game, there’s an inexhaustible amount of ways to do that on traditional platforms. Cockpit games notwithstanding of course.

VR as a gaming platform is a relatively new thing. Think back to games in the 80s and 90s and all the interface problems they had, forgetting even hardware compatibility. Heck, even pancake Skyrim had a bad UI interface. I don't think there is anything that can't be done, I just think it is more a matter of time.

kazar wrote:

VR as a gaming platform is a relatively new thing. Think back to games in the 80s and 90s and all the interface problems they had, forgetting even hardware compatibility. Heck, even pancake Skyrim had a bad UI interface. I don't think there is anything that can't be done, I just think it is more a matter of time.

Has this exact thought when I had all sort of setup and driver issues at first. Was a bit nostalgic really.

PSVR came in the mail today. Looking forward to losing my VRginity.

Congrats! I've had one since launch, and it's only gotten better in those two years; right now we're overflowing with great VR experiences.

I'm sure it's already been covered before, but it's a good idea not to jump in to something crazy frenetic at first; work up to something with full motion like Skyrim (or Borderlands VR, although I haven't played that). Games where you're mostly standing still are great starters - Moss, Ocean's Descent (on the PS VR Worlds disc), Job Simulator, Batman: Arkham VR, Tetris Effect, etc. If you start to feel sick, give it a break until the next day - "powering through" can be disastrous, training your body to associate nausea with VR. I definitely experienced some motion sickness when I started out, but now I can't think of the last time I had any issues; some people start out with their VR legs, others have to acquire them.

Evan E wrote:

work up to something with full motion like Skyrim

The PC copy of Skyrim I have allows for snap or smooth motion. You can teleport across the whole world and snap spin. Makes it comfortable to play standing in place. I did try the whole 'jog in place' with full motion and it does work, but I found placement accuracy was better with snap. Snap is easier to teleport straight up a mountain.

Now riding a horse doesn't allow snap and I almost performed a holiday cookie dragon shout.