General VR Catch-All

EvilDead wrote:

It looks like Resident Evil 4 for the Quest 2 is out today. I'll probably pick it up down the road.

I picked it up and played up to the Farm. Plays and looks great.

Nice. Looking forward to it!

Ohhh Supernatural is adding a boxing mode! Yay!!!

If anyone is looking to get a Quest 2, DM me. I can provide a referral code that will get us both $30.

I picked up a quest 2 on the weekend deals, and so far (admittedly only a few minutes) I’m underwhelmed. Set up felt clunky and setting up a new Facebook account—as I long ago closed all of mine—got me immediately suspended. Huh?

Anyway, I tried streaming an HDX video on the Vudu app and it was buffering like crazy, yet I’m in the same room where my Apple TV streams 4k no problem.

Downloads seemed fast though, 2gb for the free roller coaster app was quick. Speaking of, that roller coaster app was awful for me. Almost instantly sick to my stomach. Too much movement.

Going to try the Beat Saber demo and Super Hot VR demo next and hope for something more polished and better for my quease. Trying not to spend money on apps until I’m certain I’m keeping it. So far, I’m sold on the novelty but not the long term viability for me. We’ll see how my stomach does on something more stationary.

Oh, and my head feels like it’s swimming still, even after only about 15 min in chunks (between putting kids to bed and such)

Though if there are any of those $30 referrals floating around, I’d love to try a full game for “free” while I’m still evaluating and deciding.

Also open to showcase recommendations to try out what the experience is really like

EDIT: okay, two very short demos in and I’m having a better time, though I did tap my shelves slightly during super hot. Need to reign in that playable area, I think.

Also, playing with glasses sucks—so if I decide to keep it, I’m very much investing in lens adapters

Super Hot is a must play.
PokerStar VR poker is a fun casual play too.

WizKid wrote:

Super Hot is a must play.
PokerStar VR poker is a fun casual play too.

Super Hot took me a minute to really -get-

“Oh!, I actually have to reach out far enough out to grab that, not just point and click”

And it turns out my VR aim is WAY worse than my mouse aim

Antichulius wrote:

Also, playing with glasses sucks—so if I decide to keep it, I’m very much investing in lens adapters

Worth every penny. Bought mine from vr-wave.store and the easy on/off, as well as not needing my glasses, is something I recommend.

trueheart78 wrote:
Antichulius wrote:

Also, playing with glasses sucks—so if I decide to keep it, I’m very much investing in lens adapters

Worth every penny. Bought mine from vr-wave.store and the easy on/off, as well as not needing my glasses, is something I recommend.

+1
I got mine from VR Optician, for the Oculus Rift I got second-hand from work. I was even able to use HSA money to pay for them! SO, SO, SO much better when I don't have to try to fit the headset over my glasses. It honestly completely changed my experience.

WipEout wrote:
trueheart78 wrote:
Antichulius wrote:

Also, playing with glasses sucks—so if I decide to keep it, I’m very much investing in lens adapters

Worth every penny. Bought mine from vr-wave.store and the easy on/off, as well as not needing my glasses, is something I recommend.

+1
I got mine from VR Optician, for the Oculus Rift I got second-hand from work. I was even able to use HSA money to pay for them! SO, SO, SO much better when I don't have to try to fit the headset over my glasses. It honestly completely changed my experience.

+1

I got mine from here:

https://widmovr.com/product/oculus-q...

For my Quest 2. They're SO GREAT I love them.

Thanks for all the lens sites--I've bookmarked them all for later reference.

I messed around a bit more before bed. I really wanted to see how streaming from my PC was going to play out since I already own a handful of VR capable games there, but I wasn't able to get AirLink to work because I can't login to the Oculus App with my for-no-reason-suspended-account. A coworker mentioned an alternative Open Source app that I'll try next while I wait for FB to do their thing.

Hopefully by the weekend it'll be sorted and I'll have more time to really dive in.

Well my newish Facebook account was finally allowed so I got to try out AirLink for the first time and everything seemed fine until I tried to get Steam involved. Only 2.5 of the games I tried would even load, Steam would go non responsive if I tried to initiate a new download, and it was generally more frustrating than enjoyable. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but every guide I could find made it sound simple once you got the PC and headset talking.

The little I did successfully play of Obduction (think Myst) was beautiful, but so frustrating to do anything—maybe it’s just the game, or maybe I was too far on the frustrated scale already, or maybe I’m just not acclimated enough on VR interactions.

But so far, it just hasn’t grabbed me (and yet I’ve come back to it daily, because I’m convinced there’s something here that I’m just not grasping yet). Basically, it’s compelling, but I’m not truly sold yet.

Antichulius wrote:

Well my newish Facebook account was finally allowed so I got to try out AirLink for the first time and everything seemed fine until I tried to get Steam involved. Only 2.5 of the games I tried would even load, Steam would go non responsive if I tried to initiate a new download, and it was generally more frustrating than enjoyable. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but every guide I could find made it sound simple once you got the PC and headset talking.

The little I did successfully play of Obduction (think Myst) was beautiful, but so frustrating to do anything—maybe it’s just the game, or maybe I was too far on the frustrated scale already, or maybe I’m just not acclimated enough on VR interactions.

But so far, it just hasn’t grabbed me (and yet I’ve come back to it daily, because I’m convinced there’s something here that I’m just not grasping yet). Basically, it’s compelling, but I’m not truly sold yet.

Have you tried anything from sidequest? I really liked ancient dungeon beta. Has a minecraft look to it but the exploration is fun

Anti - That exactly describes my experience with Obduction too.

I've been on the VR train for a few years now, and my nutshell-description of it is that there's a lot of chaff in amongst the wheat, but the wheat is REAL tasty.

At this point, my VR use by hours is >90% driving sims and rhythm fitness games, and the other 10% is noodling around with the rest of the catalog. Because it's truly transformative for those two genres - I've largely given up driving sims that don't support VR.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's a piece of tech that the user should be prepared for some disappointment with, but that IMO the trancendant experiences more than make up for. It's all about finding which of the experiences are trancendant for you.

I'll also say that the first year of VR ownership did involve a lot of tinkering and learning, and that's not for everyone.

Antichulius wrote:

Well my newish Facebook account was finally allowed so I got to try out AirLink for the first time and everything seemed fine until I tried to get Steam involved. Only 2.5 of the games I tried would even load, Steam would go non responsive if I tried to initiate a new download, and it was generally more frustrating than enjoyable. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but every guide I could find made it sound simple once you got the PC and headset talking.

This has pretty much been my experience with the Quest as well.

Unfortunately, for me the wired cable also doesn't reliably carry a video signal. So, I feel like I'm locked out of most of the VR games on the Steam library.

Nobody talking about the Nreal yet?
The future looks really bright. (especially AR)
https://www.nreal.ai/light

Antichulius wrote:

Well my newish Facebook account was finally allowed so I got to try out AirLink for the first time and everything seemed fine until I tried to get Steam involved. Only 2.5 of the games I tried would even load, Steam would go non responsive if I tried to initiate a new download, and it was generally more frustrating than enjoyable. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but every guide I could find made it sound simple once you got the PC and headset talking.

The little I did successfully play of Obduction (think Myst) was beautiful, but so frustrating to do anything—maybe it’s just the game, or maybe I was too far on the frustrated scale already, or maybe I’m just not acclimated enough on VR interactions.

But so far, it just hasn’t grabbed me (and yet I’ve come back to it daily, because I’m convinced there’s something here that I’m just not grasping yet). Basically, it’s compelling, but I’m not truly sold yet.

You should try Virtual Desktop! Far better than Airlink in my experience.

For the people having trouble with Steam and VR over the Quest 2...do you have pretty modern computers and video cards? Strong wifi?

I do have the occasional hiccup with Steam VR - where it hangs or something, but I had a very smooth experience with almost all Steam VR games. I even played Half Life Alex without a hitch on my old PC - an Intel core i7 6600k with a GTX 1070. I used the cable for that one, but I have since used Virtual Desktop and now Airlink for other games.

I’m only running a 970, but my wifi is solid and I’m in the same room as the router when I’m streaming the PC, but I know there will be things that won’t run well or that I’ll need to turn all the way down. My issue was that I couldn’t even get things to load in, not even the Steam VR interface.

But I spent some time the last few days tinkering—updating windows, updating drivers, troubleshooting the Steam not responding on game install issue. And I started making progress. Last night, I got Conscious Existence to play—on the 3rd try—and today Job Simulator loaded right up. Yay!

And it was a fun diversion for a bit—not entirely my type of game, but I had fun throwing donut copies into other cubicals and cheered when I made a basket.

Now that I think I’ve got things running, I want to try I bit more of what I already own before seeing what’s new and cool on the Quest.

The pendulum that had swung entirely toward “just return it” has returned to a solid “maybe” with a hint of “oh, heck, why not?”

I appreciated everyone’s comments. Virtual desktop is now on my list, and thanks to Jonman for that perspective—it helped temper my expectations down from “this will be revolutionary so long as I don’t get sick.”

robc wrote:

For the people having trouble with Steam and VR over the Quest 2...do you have pretty modern computers and video cards? Strong wifi?

I do have the occasional hiccup with Steam VR - where it hangs or something, but I had a very smooth experience with almost all Steam VR games. I even played Half Life Alex without a hitch on my old PC - an Intel core i7 6600k with a GTX 1070. I used the cable for that one, but I have since used Virtual Desktop and now Airlink for other games.

I have decent wifi and a 2080ti.

You should be set with a 2080-Ti Brian. I didn't think you usually had issues on VR, or is that you just do a lot of native Quest 2 stuff so you usually don't have issues?

Sidenote: I signed up for the Supernatural trial and thought it was pretty good. I got my heartrate up in the 130s - not as high as when I jog or elliptical, but enough to be called a workout for me. I was only doing some of the beginner type stuff - but with some gusto. More advanced workouts would get me a higher HR I would think. I'm getting over being a little sick so I haven't done it since, but I will probably do it again tomorrow.

I wish it was a bit cheaper. $18 monthly is a big ask for some variations on the same couple of workout types. I think $10 would be more palatable. I think I will at least sing up for a couple months to give me something new to do. I haven't been able to jog for a couple months because I did something to my foot. I think running has been to hard on my body now because it always seems to injure me once I get back into it.

robc wrote:

You should be set with a 2080-Ti Brian. I didn't think you usually had issues on VR, or is that you just do a lot of native Quest 2 stuff so you usually don't have issues?

Sidenote: I signed up for the Supernatural trial and thought it was pretty good. I got my heartrate up in the 130s - not as high as when I jog or elliptical, but enough to be called a workout for me. I was only doing some of the beginner type stuff - but with some gusto. More advanced workouts would get me a higher HR I would think. I'm getting over being a little sick so I haven't done it since, but I will probably do it again tomorrow.

I wish it was a bit cheaper. $18 monthly is a big ask for some variations on the same couple of workout types. I think $10 would be more palatable. I think I will at least sing up for a couple months to give me something new to do. I haven't been able to jog for a couple months because I did something to my foot. I think running has been to hard on my body now because it always seems to injure me once I get back into it.

My WiFi isn't the best so I get drops sometimes sadly.

Also Supernatural is cheaper with a yearly subscription.

I also signed up for the supernatural trial. As a bonus I think I finally got my headset fitted more securely—decided to do the workout without my glasses, which while a bit blurry, was much more comfortable.

Supernatural was good. The flow beginner intro was fun. I made sure I had more space this time around and didn’t hit anything, though I get now how that’s entirely possible to do. It really made me forget where I was for a bit there.

After a couple days of supernatural, I'm leaning more toward keeping my quest. What are considered the essential accessories? I'm eyeing the elite strap or elite strap with battery, a case, maybe something to give better grip on the controllers--they start to feel a little slick 15 min into a supernatural run. I think I'm going to skip the link cable until I have something where AirLink or Virtual Desktop aren't cutting it.

Antichulius wrote:

After a couple days of supernatural, I'm leaning more toward keeping my quest. What are considered the essential accessories? I'm eyeing the elite strap or elite strap with battery, a case, maybe something to give better grip on the controllers--they start to feel a little slick 15 min into a supernatural run. I think I'm going to skip the link cable until I have something where AirLink or Virtual Desktop aren't cutting it.

Sooo, you're gonna have to trust me on this one, but.....

IMAGE(https://www.valecus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Untitled-e1616591071148.jpg)

These things are great for VR fitness - a step up from a plain old sweatband. Another Goodjer recommended them to me, and I'm a convert. Yes, you'll look stupid as f***, but you already do, jumping around with TVs strapped to your face, so this doesn't make you look any stupider.

Pairs nicely with a fan just outside your play space.

Jonman wrote:
Antichulius wrote:

After a couple days of supernatural, I'm leaning more toward keeping my quest. What are considered the essential accessories? I'm eyeing the elite strap or elite strap with battery, a case, maybe something to give better grip on the controllers--they start to feel a little slick 15 min into a supernatural run. I think I'm going to skip the link cable until I have something where AirLink or Virtual Desktop aren't cutting it.

Sooo, you're gonna have to trust me on this one, but.....

IMAGE(https://www.valecus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Untitled-e1616591071148.jpg)

These things are great for VR fitness - a step up from a plain old sweatband. Another Goodjer recommended them to me, and I'm a convert. Yes, you'll look stupid as f***, but you already do, jumping around with TVs strapped to your face, so this doesn't make you look any stupider.

Pairs nicely with a fan just outside your play space.

Seconded! I have one of those and they're AMAZING.

Only comfortable for people with head circumferences under 57cm? Lame.

VR players be like...

IMAGE(https://images.theconversation.com/files/184610/original/file-20170905-9740-mdm7h9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1200&h=1200.0&fit=crop)