General VR Catch-All

escher77 wrote:

Has anyone here with the Vive (or spent many hours with it) upgraded to Vive Pro? Wondering how much better it really is.

I went from no VR to a Vive Pro.

I have some buyer's remorse.

Don't get me wrong, it's really good, and I'm enjoying it a bunch. I just have a hunch that I could have saved myself nearly a grand and gotten a standard Vive.

Like, I recognize that my Pro has significant QoL improvements over the base model (not least of all, the built-in headphones), I'm just entirely unconvinced that they were worth the premium I paid. I'm genuinely interested to have a go with a basic Vive to see if the lower visual fidelity is going to be immediately obvious.

I think getting your hands on a regular Vive will be a good way to feel better about your purchase Maybe get a day pass to Pax in a few weeks and go check out the Indie Megabooth or any number of other exhibits that will have Vives for demos.

Nothing official but rumor is Q1 2019.

The original vive does have an replacement strap that has the built in audio to (cost me $100 extra) which was well worth it. The vive pro cable is nicer then the original vive. I think the higher fidelity is definitely worth it, but probably pushes up the minimum system requirements. If there was a more cost effective upgrade path I probably would have gotten it. Instead I am waiting for the next release and leapfrogging to it. If not, probably get will get the wireless add on for mine.

vypre wrote:
CatPhoenix wrote:
Warriorpoet897 wrote:

I didn’t even know about the Hellblade VR adaptation until I stumbled on it on Steam’s top sellers list. I wonder how many other great VR experiences I’ve missed because there’s little to no coverage of them.

Well, the exclusivity period on the VR version of Megaton Rainfall has run out for PSVR so the game recently got its VR support on steam a week or two back.

That sounds... soggy.

Yeah no sure what they were thinking with the name, because Megaton Rainfall sound nothing like a superman defending cities from aliens, where you usually end up failing for destroying the city yourself.

As an occasional psychonaut, I'm super interested in trying Sound Self VR.

Sound Self wrote:

What is SoundSelf?

SoundSelf is an ecstatic meditation experience designed for VR.

You use your voice to explore a hypnotic world of sounds and visuals that feel like they are emerging directly from your body. Each tone will navigate you through strobing tunnels-of-light, impossible shapes, and into a meditative trance.

The result is an elegant symmetry of image, sound and body that takes advantage of loopholes in the way you perceive to facilitate a new experience of yourself and your world. Each play-through lasts one extremely intense hour.

I'm super skeptical of the claims they're making, but I'm interesting in taking it for a spin, both sober and decidedly not.

Has anyone else got any standout meditation or "technodelic" VR experiences to recommend? I haven't explored that aspect of the headset yet. I like the idea of popping the helmet on to mediate, but wonder if that's kind of missing the entire point of meditation.

Well, that Sound Self VR website is on the verge of making me sick so I think I will refrain from attempting VR meditation. Seems like a sound concept that may not be ideal in execution

I'd far rather give money to Double Fine for their version of VR Psychonautery.

Evan E wrote:

I'd far rather give money to Double Fine for their version of VR Psychonautery.

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For me, VR meditation was adding a thing to my experience when the whole point is to shed them. I tried it briefly with "Nature Treks VR" and found it unnatural and distracting. Of course, if your experience of being in VR is for it to be a calming place for you, YMMV. For me, it felt like I was trying to force peacefulness on my mind rather than letting it come to me.

Technodelic? You have Rez Infinite, right? That's the whole reason I bought the headset and is an absolute work of art.

Also Thumper and Universe Sandbox 2, though the latter gives me bad nausea. Many of the semi-interactive 'experiences' on the Oculus store are also rather mind-bending.

stupidhaiku wrote:

Technodelic? You have Rez Infinite, right?

I owned the original Trance Vibrator for PS2 Rez, buddy. Damn right I've got Rez Infinite. Question though - gaze aiming or controller aiming? I haven't put much time into it yet - have only played with gaze-aiming ,and I'm finding it a lot harder than back in the day (though age could be behind that).

Likewise on Thumper, I'm a sucker for solid rhythm games, so I bought that at launch, long before my foray into VR. But I actually find Thumper easier in VR - I assume the increased immersion helps. Fun anecdote, I showed Thumper to one of my non-gamer buddies, who was all ike "Whaaaaaat? Is this DMT in the form of a videogame."

I haven't tried aiming with the touch controllers -- I use gaze aiming because I feel the motions are a great complement to the synaesthesia Mizuguchi cited as an inspiration. Great way to work tension out of your neck, too!

stupidhaiku wrote:

I haven't tried aiming with the touch controllers -- I use gaze aiming because I feel the motions are a great complement to the synaesthesia Mizuguchi cited as an inspiration. Great way to work tension out of your neck, too!

I tried the controllers once, but the gaze felt more novel, so I stuck with it. Thing is, I haven't managed to clear Level 2 yet - the boss keeps doing me in (like I said, I've barely spent an hour with it yet - only bought it a few weeks ago in a sale).

Can't remember having that much trouble on PS2 or 360 versions. Mind you, I'm ending up with the Tera version of the boss because the old Rez skills are still working, and I'm getting >98% shotdown. Maybe I should suck a bit more, that way I'll only get the Giga boss.

Check the top leaderboards for advanced/dynamic vr direct assault. Gaze is the way to go.

And yeah, Teras are the hardest part of the game.

stupidhaiku wrote:

Check the top leaderboards for advanced/dynamic vr direct assault. Gaze is the way to go.

And yeah, Teras are the hardest part of the game.

Well I can't argue with evidence!

I'm down with the wireless part. Not so much the stand alone. I'm skeptical of the experiences offered when you take away the PC component.

This is a game changer in my opinion. I own a Vive but this is a day one purchase for me. They've already announced RoboRecall and Moss will be available for the system -- to have games of this quality in a self-contained VR headset is amazing. I really think this is finally going to start getting more people playing VR games which is what is desperately needed to move the tech forward.

To be able to play Robo Recall in whatever room you want to play it in (even outside?) just by putting a head set on, that's crazy to me. It's certainly a great entertainment device for $400 that I'd recommend to anyone that can afford one unlike the Vive/Rift where I had to make all sorts of caveats to anyone asking if they should get one.

iloveplywood wrote:

This is a game changer in my opinion. I own a Vive but this is a day one purchase for me. They've already announced RoboRecall and Moss will be available for the system -- to have games of this quality in a self-contained VR headset is amazing. I really think this is finally going to start getting more people playing VR games which is what is desperately needed.

To be able to play Robo Recall in whatever room you want to play it in (even outside?) just by putting a head set on, that's crazy to me. It's certainly a great entertainment device for $400 that I'd recommend to anyone that can afford one unlike the Vive/Rift where I had to make all sorts of qualifications to anyone asking if they should get one.

IF it offers a similar level of graphic fidelity and control precision as the PC-connected headsets, then I'm inclined to agree with you. Seems like a big ask, though I'm no expert on the tech. Honestly, I think the killer-app nature of this is the pricepoint.

The Wii Sports looking tennis demo video wasn't very convincing. Not the style but the way they, with even the power of post processing, failed to show much of a connection between avatar actions and the actor.

JeremyK wrote:

I'm down with the wireless part. Not so much the stand alone. I'm skeptical of the experiences offered when you take away the PC component.

In a related vein, Ars Technica has a review of the Vive wireless adapter. They love it, except for the price tag.

I have used the Google Daydream with my phone, and while the image looked horrible due to light bleed, and my phone has a blue hue to it which is very noticeable in the VR, the games graphics themselves were far from what the Vive can do (and probably the Occulus). I suspect that this new Occulus will have a good display in it, but a phone CPU/GPU won't be able to compete with a high end PC. I am looking forward to the wireless kit more then anything.

Though I do agree that this new Occulus device is very good for VR. It doesn't need to look great, it needs to feel great at an affordable price to get more people excited about VR.

It's obviously not going to have the graphical quality of PC games, it just needs to reach that good enough level (it does have higher resolution potential than the rift). I have Thumper on both the Vive and the GO and I definitely noticed the aliasing difference at first but after a minute I was just completely in the Thumper world. I highly doubt they'd release versions of Moss and Robo Recall with crap graphics (the tracking is very good from what I've heard as well). VR at this point is not about graphical fidelity anyway, it's about immersion. Right now for a lot of people the trade offs of having to have a high end PC and dealing with cables and tracking devices is just not worth the effort. I think the convenience/price point of this device is rather brilliant.

Who knows though, VR has been a tough sell so far -- I just think this device is actually going to be more fun and useful than PCVR for the vast majority of people out there so I have a lot of hope for it.

Jonman wrote:
iloveplywood wrote:

This is a game changer in my opinion. I own a Vive but this is a day one purchase for me. They've already announced RoboRecall and Moss will be available for the system -- to have games of this quality in a self-contained VR headset is amazing. I really think this is finally going to start getting more people playing VR games which is what is desperately needed.

To be able to play Robo Recall in whatever room you want to play it in (even outside?) just by putting a head set on, that's crazy to me. It's certainly a great entertainment device for $400 that I'd recommend to anyone that can afford one unlike the Vive/Rift where I had to make all sorts of qualifications to anyone asking if they should get one.

IF it offers a similar level of graphic fidelity and control precision as the PC-connected headsets, then I'm inclined to agree with you. Seems like a big ask, though I'm no expert on the tech. Honestly, I think the killer-app nature of this is the pricepoint.

iloveplywood wrote:

This is a game changer in my opinion. I own a Vive but this is a day one purchase for me...

The Vive wireless adapter costs less.

Kurrelgyre wrote:
iloveplywood wrote:

This is a game changer in my opinion. I own a Vive but this is a day one purchase for me...

The Vive wireless adapter costs less.

Not if you've got a Vive Pro, it doesn't.

It also requires some level of skill installing components into your PC (hardware installs in a PCI slot).

Jonman wrote:

Not if you've got a Vive Pro, it doesn't.

It also requires some level of skill installing components into your PC (hardware installs in a PCI slot).

There is only one Vive Wireless Adapter.

Edit: NM, the higher resoluition needs a high speed transmitter kit.

2nd Edit: Looks like the Vive Pro version goes for 360 so still cheaper then the new Oculus.

The Quest's advantage isnt just that there's no cord to a PC. Part of it is that there's NO PC. What that means it can run is up in the air. They name dropped Robo Recall which is a very fast, pretty, and high detail shooter but they didnt show it.
Its also that it doesnt require any external sensors at all. You can play in your living room or garage or on the plane or at your friends house.

Its not really just Rift/Vive without the cord. Its a different beast.

It seems to me like and Oculus Go + with Rift controllers instead of the remote.

I am more blown away by the Pimax or whatever its called.

polypusher wrote:

Its not really just Rift/Vive without the cord. Its a different beast.

Yeah, the quest is not Rift 2 (which will likely still be wired) but more of a Rift lite that they are hoping will have more mainstream appeal for gaming for the masses that don't have a gaming PC.

I think the play is to just get more VR out there, so that developers can more easily find a path to profitability. Release your game on Rift and "low pixel" on Quest = sell more copies. In theory anyway.

Plus, it should be a great demo device for VR as a standalone.