General VR Catch-All

Jonman wrote:

Added to wishlist - looks like it's regularly on sale for six bucks and change

Next opportunity is probably the Lunar New Year Steam sale at the start of February. Might grab it myself then.

As recommended by Veloxi, Space Docker VR got HOTAS support patched in. It's still a beta feature, so there's no auto-binds, you'll have to bind it manually, but after that, hoo boy is the game better. It really needs that finely grained control that's really difficult to achieve with zero tactile feedback of virtual sticks.

I had trouble making a single successful dock with VR controls, switched over to HOTAS, and boom, just call me Docky McDockerface.

Just wondering how long it took everyone to get their VR legs.

I'm totally fine playing stationary games for hours, but anything with smooth movement gets me sick pretty quick. For some reason, Half Life Alyx is the easiest on my stomach, but Doom 3 VR, Echo Arena, and Resident Evil 4 still make me queasy. If I push through it too long, I'm sick for the rest of the day.

I'm aware of comfort options and all the little tricks like nibbling on ginger and having a fan pointing at you. I usually play until the moment I feel myself slipping into motion sickness then take the headset off. I aim to do a little bit longer every other day.

I was hoping I could slowly get my brain used to it over time, but it's taking a bit longer than expected.

Are you using "jump" movement or natural movement? The jump movement helps a bit in games that support it.

I'm trying to get used to smooth movement. I really love the sense of immersion, and that's lost a little with snap movement. I'll turn on snap turning, but prefer to move freely.

Gotcha.

SkyrimVR taught me the settings I needed for comfortable movement and let me move from warp-only movement to smooth locomotion. I still prefer snap turning because not having it always feels bad to me but in my space I can turn physically, freely, most of the time. I've gotten a sense for where the cord is, so that's not much of a factor.

Tunnelling (where the edges go darker) hasnt really ever been a benefit to me so I leave it off.

Anyway it was actually playing Skyrim that got me comfortable with it. Moving with a thumbstick like you're riding on an RC car is not really natural so your brain isn't really a fan at first but play with it a bit, take a break when you start to feel sweaty or queasy and pick it up again when it passes. You'll be a pro in no time.

Yeah, Skyrim with walking locomotion and Ultrawings were the things that trained my VR legs. Took a month or two?

That said, there been a couple games that I've still had to nope out of and uninstall. Adr1ft, with it's zero gee locomotion is just a yarf-fest, for instance.

Pretty attention to framerate too. I use fpsVR to give me an fps counter in the headset. Low or choppy framerates can trigger nausea, so pull your graphics sliders to the left to recover frames if you're <90 fps.

Also, swallow your pride and stick with teleport locomotion for a bit. That will be training your VR legs too. Switch back to walking locomotion every few weeks to check where you're at - at some point you'll probably find it's easier.

polypusher wrote:

SkyrimVR taught me the settings I needed for comfortable movement and let me move from warp-only movement to smooth locomotion...

Skyrim was the point of inflection for me, too. Prior to that most of the games I'd played either didn't have free movement or were short enough that nausea didn't really build up, but I tend to play multi-hour sessions of Skyrim. Movement in a direction I got used to in a day or three, but spinning in place via the thumbsticks, which I'd regularly do to make sure nothing was attacking me from behind, took over a week to get used to.

My rule of thumb was always to stop playing as soon as I started to feel nausea and leave it alone for the rest of the day; I've assumed that like food-related nausea VR sickness affects such a fundamental part of your brain that it's very easy to train it to associate the sickness with the source, so if you push it too far your brain will make you feel sick if you even look at the headset. After a week of being able to play longer and longer sessions I was able to do multi-hour visits to Skyrim, and eventually put about 180 hours into the game (even though I'd already played over 100 hours in the flat-screen version - there's a lot of content in that game).

It seems like some people can never adjust, though; everyone's brain is different. Hopefully you'll either adjust or learn what comfort settings are necessary for you. Even with teleportation and snap turning turned on, VR still brings something extraordinary to gaming; the sense of scale and immersion is really unlike viewing things through a flat, constricted window. Until I played Skyrim in VR I never marveled at how much work the developers put into the ceilings.

A_Unicycle wrote:

Just wondering how long it took everyone to get their VR legs.

I adapted pretty quickly, so my experience may not be too helpful.

That being said, someone on Reddit suggested pretending your riding a hoverboard - so basically, a slight lean for moving forward/backward/side-to-side. This removed the little nausea I experienced when first started. Might be worth a shot?

I've never played Skyrim in VR, but I'd say Lone Echo was the middle-of-the-ground experience for me nausea-wise. The "pull yourself forward" locomotion was just on this side of comfortable for long enough to train my inner ear. It also didn't happen that gradually for me. It seemed like one day I could hardly handle a minute of smooth locomotion, while the next I was good for full sessions.

I still prefer snap turning, though.

A_Unicycle wrote:

Just wondering how long it took everyone to get their VR legs.

I got mad at Boneworks and uninstalled it the other day because the experience caused so much motion sickness. The more I played, the more I disliked the game and the VR motion sickness effects linger for longer than 24 hours (the nausea goes away in a few hours, but there is an unsettled feeling that can last for days). I feel pretty okay playing HL Alyx as long as the framerate stays up. Unfortunately, it does a thing where it crashes down to 20 fps after a while and then stays there.

I don't think I'm ever going to get to point where the Boneworks style of movement works for me.

My biggest frustration with VR is that it doesn't seem to work well for the kind of shooting I want to do. VR works great for virtual pistol ranges at 5 to 20 yards. I want to shoot at stuff with long guns at 50-200 yards. Current VR setups can't replicate the 4 point bracing (two hands, shoulder, cheekbone) necessary for decent short range stability, or the experience of using the environment to find a position to brace or stabilize a gun for precision shooting at longer ranges.

I've seen 3D printed stocks that you slide VR controllers into to replicate a long gun, but the software support for that kind of thing is almost non existent.

It's weird, my thing with VR isn't motion, it's heights. I was playing that Vader game until I fell off a pipe on the side of a building. I'd never ripped off the headset so quickly. Same thing happened in SimplePlanesVR just yesterday. Was only my first flight, tested some buttons and I was in the air behind the plane.

Oh no no no.

Weird thing is it's not so bad when I'm seated, bit when I'm standing? No way.

Try eating some ginger snaps. Sounds non-intuitive, but I learned the trick dealing with seasickness and they seem to with VR as well. Or drink some ginger ale. (Make sure whatever you are eating actually has ginger and not just "flavoring.")

And there's always Dramamine, of course.

Veloxi wrote:

...I'd never ripped off the headset so quickly.

I always tell people when I'm demoing VR "If it gets too much, just close your eyes. It may feel like you're in a whole other place, but as soon as you close your eyes you're back here." But if anyone freaks out, the first thing they do is grab for the headset, trying to tear it off their head.

I got really excited to try things when I first got VR and BONEWORKS was highly recommended. I was not ready. I’m still not ready. One day I might be but honestly maybe not. The motion in that game is just horrible for me. I will retry with some ginger sometime but whenever I think about it I feel sick so im not in a rush.

Made some upgrades to my VR setup:

1. Picked up some Valve Index knuckles controllers with lighthouses to use with my HP Reverb G2 in place of the somewhat crappy G2 controllers.

Used these instructions. Picked up receivers for the Index controllers from VR Dongles.

Note to anyone doing this with the Index controllers and G2 headset: in OpenVR Space Calibrator, set the Scale value to 0.9924 as suggested by a user in this Reddit thread. That value seems accurate to me.

A video on using the knuckles with other headsets like the G2:

2. For anyone using Index controllers, this charging stand is a must IMO:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/qy7gjCn.png)

3. For my play space, I grabbed the ProxiMat Space Traveler Elite. Provides nice little reference "bumps" to help keep me centered in my place space (important because my space isn't particularly large, and it's surrounded by TVs and monitors that I really don't want to punch).

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/qpgMC2a.png)

4. Some ceiling hooks for headset cable management:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Jn1EZXZ.png)

But I replaced those crappy rubber rings with some small carabiners:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/FU0L6Oo.png)

5. I grabbed VR Cover's face gasket for the G2. I had been using a 3D printed replacement gasket which increased my FOV a little too much, to the point where I would catch the edge of the screens. This one (when using the thinner pad) pushes me back juuuuust enough to stop seeing the screen edges, but still closer than the stock G2 gasket. Also more comfortable than my 3D printed hacky solution.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/wyR2UbH.png)

Evan E wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

...I'd never ripped off the headset so quickly.

I always tell people when I'm demoing VR "If it gets too much, just close your eyes. It may feel like you're in a whole other place, but as soon as you close your eyes you're back here." But if anyone freaks out, the first thing they do is grab for the headset, trying to tear it off their head.

That makes sense but in the moment that was the first thing I thought to do.

Veloxi wrote:
Evan E wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

...I'd never ripped off the headset so quickly.

I always tell people when I'm demoing VR "If it gets too much, just close your eyes. It may feel like you're in a whole other place, but as soon as you close your eyes you're back here." But if anyone freaks out, the first thing they do is grab for the headset, trying to tear it off their head.

That makes sense but in the moment that was the first thing I thought to do.

It's the intuitive thing to do. Closing your eyes is all well and good, but if you're feeling off-balance, what you really want is the visual reference of the real world.

I just added a VR Cover "fitness" style interface and foam replacement to my Quest 2. So far I really like it. Comfortable and easy to clean. I also added their rubberized controller covers as we've had some wall punching in this house (not me I swear) while playing Thrill of the Fight.

I don't love the default head strap and I was looking around for an alternative. Most people suggest avoiding the official pro strap as it breaks easily. I ended up grabbing a very adjustable BoboVR headstap after seeing some recommendations and while I do generally like it more than the default it also never feels quite snug enough and during active gameplay I'm worried it's going to fall of. Not sure if I have an abnormally large head or I just haven't adjusted it correctly yet. I'm going to invest some more time into it but I also may just send it back and try a different one. Any suggestions? I've heard the Kiwi Design pro strap recommended. It seems really similar to the official pro strap and looks similarly flimsy tho. Maybe I'll wait a few months to see if consensus is good.

I've been streaming non-VR games to my Quest 2 for wireless gaming a bit more lately. It is incredibly convenient to be able to sit anywhere in my house and play PC games on a big screen. Works incredibly well for mouse only games like Wildermyth. My problem is that controllers don't seem to work as expected. VR wants to treat controller button presses as mouse clicks and other actions. I'm trying to find a way to have the controller act just like it would if I was playing directly on the PC. I'm not using SteamVR in this case, just Air Link, so it's something in Oculus capturing and trying to use controller inputs.

I'm also curious about the Quest accessory rabbit hole.

For headstraps I'm curious about the Bobo VR M2(the one with the battery,) supposedly it fits more securely than the first Bobo that panda bought or the Kiwi.

I'm also considering the Bobo VR fan/facial interface.

But I think my first purchase will be Kiwi knuckle style grip covers.

Badferret wrote:

I'm also curious about the Quest accessory rabbit hole.

For headstraps I'm curious about the Bobo VR M2(the one with the battery,) supposedly it fits more securely than the first Bobo that panda bought or the Kiwi.

I'm also considering the Bobo VR fan/facial interface.

But I think my first purchase will be Kiwi knuckle style grip covers.

The Bobo VR M2 (without the battery) is the one I have: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B093WN...

As for battery I just run a usb cable down from the quest to a battery pack in my pocket. Works great and allows me to use big battery packs I already have.

I was just playing some active games again today and while I can get the Bobo VR M2 strap snug and comfortable it starts to slide up the back of my head during active play and I have to keep adjusting. I think it’s that the back piece shape isn’t right to stay snug on the bottom of my skull. Doesn’t have enough curve to it. If I adjust it so it’s sitting higher on my head it doesn’t slide up but it’s always a bit loose. I’m going to try going back to the original strap for a bit and see how I feel. Now that I’ve got better padding for my face it might work out better. Will find out soon.

Regarding my issues with Quest using inputs from my Xbox controller I found a workaround posted on Reddit. The trick is to pair the controller with the PC directly and launch the non-VR game in SteamVRs Theatre Mode. I’m doing that by showing my “full library” in SteamVR which opens the Steam Big Screen looking interface. Had to search for the game as it seems to only a filtered list by default. This works while I’m close enough to the PC for the controller to pair properly which limits how far from the PC I can be. It’s also not really smoother than Steam Link or Moonlight so maybe I’ll just use a tablet in these situations when the game needs a controller. Too bad. Would be so much nicer if a Xbox controller paired with the Quest just worked here. Oculus desktop mode will still capture inputs even if controller is paired directly to the PC so I didn’t find a solution without SteamVR.

One long-standing solution for a replacement headstrap has been a FrankenQuest (e.g. this, although I've not used that one), adapting a Vive Deluxe Audio strap to the side connectors on the Quest with a D-ring or similar to bridge to two velcro straps. Never helped the balance for me, but then the back of my head is pretty flat compared to most people.

The designs are online for anyone who wants to print their own.

*Legion* wrote:

Made some upgrades to my VR setup:

1. Picked up some Valve Index knuckles controllers with lighthouses to use with my HP Reverb G2 in place of the somewhat crappy G2 controllers.

How much did all that run you, and is/was it worth it?

WizKid wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Made some upgrades to my VR setup:

1. Picked up some Valve Index knuckles controllers with lighthouses to use with my HP Reverb G2 in place of the somewhat crappy G2 controllers.

How much did all that run you, and is/was it worth it?

I replaced my Vive wands with Index controllers when they launched, and they're SOOOOO much better, even if you're not using the additional features (e.g. finger tracking). Open hand controllers are just so much more comfortable to use.

WizKid wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Made some upgrades to my VR setup:

1. Picked up some Valve Index knuckles controllers with lighthouses to use with my HP Reverb G2 in place of the somewhat crappy G2 controllers.

How much did all that run you, and is/was it worth it?

Well what I did was buy the full Index kit ($1000), and I'm turning around and selling just the headset on eBay, which goes for around $700.

So, once that's sold, it will be $300 total out-of-pocket, which is a better price than trying to buy the controllers ($279) and base stations ($150 each, and perpetually out of stock) separately.

As for being worth it, it definitely makes me want to play it more. The poor tracking of the G2 controllers kinda sapped my interest in non-seated VR experiences.

I feel like I'm finally getting the VR experience I've been shelling out money to chase.

If I knew 2MD VR Football was this fun, I would have bought it long ago.

Then again, this is exactly the kind of thing that feels fantastic with the Index controllers but would have been much worse with the G2 controller tracking.

*Legion* wrote:

If I knew 2MD VR Football was this fun, I would have bought it long ago.

Which version are you playing? I just looked this up and now I want it too.

staygold wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

If I knew 2MD VR Football was this fun, I would have bought it long ago.

Which version are you playing? I just looked this up and now I want it too.

I have both of them. I've only fired up the Classic edition so far. I bought Evolution on Steam which comes with Classic for free. I figured I would exhaust the older edition before jumping into the new upgrade.