Virtual Reality - What do you think about it and use it for?

Post Reply New Topic

Hello! Anybody here who own VR equipment? What do you think about the VR technology and what do you use it for?

I,m a big VR enthusiast, it's one of my main special interests. I have an Oculus Rift with Touch and a HTC Vive with Deluxe Audio Strap. I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about the tech also writing my thoughts on reddit and other places on the net. I usually spend about 1-2 hours in VR every day. Mostly I play the Vivecraft mod for Minecraft on the Nornia server while listening to podcasts. I also spend a lot of time in social VR like VRChat, Altspace and Rec Room. But I'm not very good with people and conversations. I also have Social Phobia as well as being an Aspie, often I feel a bit alone. Usually I just sit and watch what other people do and listen to their conversations.

I have one good friend with Asperger who also own a VR headset, if he had not known me he would probably not have have been in to VR. I usually meet up with him once a week to hang out and play games in VR. Yesterday I made him a puzzle with some buckets and pink elephants he had to solve in SteamVR Home. That was fun

What I like about VR is all the things I can do that is not possible in real life. And it's great meeting people from around the world in the comfort of my own home, even though I,m not very good at social stuff it's good practice.

Last edited by Enceladus on 27 Sep 2017, 2:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I know what virtual reality is, I just haven't really used it.

-LegoMaster2149 (Written on September 27, 2017)

You plan on getting it in the future?

I feel like so many people are missing out. It would be great to have an autism community in some of the social VR spaces. Like regular meetups and activities and stuff. I'm too shy to arrange something like that. But I hope we'll get there soon when more people get on board with the tech. I think maybe I would open more up if there where other Aspies I could talk to in VR.

I think it's just going to be a fad like 3d.

Well, you are clearly very wrong I think. People who say that have not tried good VR. It's so much different when you're actually inside the game and can move around with your own body and hands. I dare anyone to try some of the best games and experiences on either the Vive or the Rift and come tell me afterwards that it was not awesome.

It's just something you have to experience to understand.

Maybe, if I have enough money to buy one.

Yeah that is the biggest barrier to entry right now, it's expensive, especially if you include the computer you need to run it on. But if you're a gamer there's a chance you already have a computer powerful enough to run VR. But eventually prices will come down. This summer we already saw the price of the Rift w/touch drop as much as 50% down to $399. So it's getting cheaper.

With every product, it starts out expensive, then it gets cheaper as time goes on.

I own a HTC Vive and have had it since launch. Prior to that I had the Oculus Rift DK2 since shortly after its release, so I guess you could call me an enthusiast. I love VR and have since I first used it. I really tend to use it only for gaming, with some occasional video watching.

I don't see how it can be a fad like many people say. 3D TVs were always a dumb gimmick and most people who used it immediately dismissed it as such. The difference with VR is that the people dismissing it have largely had no experience with it. There's lots of reasons for that including the high barrier for entry in terms of cost and setup. Also I don't see how mobile VR, which is probably how most people are going to initially experience it can be that compelling in terms of content. This may change in the near future now that inside out tracking without external reference points is coming soon to consumer hardware - Microsoft's confusingly named 'Mixed Reality' HMDs. Once this tech makes it back to mobile setups it will make mobile VR much more compelling and the only difference will be the hardware driving it.

I have spent the most time in VR playing Elite Dangerous. I have over 700 hours logged in the game, all in VR. It's incredible to play in VR, really fun to just fly from place to place and looking at the planets, or manoeuvring through asteroid belts whilst checking your six to see if you've lost line of sight with a pursuing pirate. I have 68 VR titles on Steam, my favorite games so far being Airtone, Battlezone, The Gallery, House of the Dying Sun, The Lab, Onward, Paranormal Activity, Raw Data, Rez: Infinite, and Superhot. Unfortunately I haven't had time to play much at all this year because I'm currently working full time and studying part time. There's a lot of other stuff that's out I really would like to play when I have the time.

The games I'm most looking forward to at the moment are Episode 2 of the Gallery, Doom VFR and Budget Cuts. I would love Fallout 4 to be good but I feel like it will be incredibly disappointing - I have no faith that Bethesda will be able to retrofit VR well into their aging decade old engine. The one thing I really feel is missing on the platform is a good mech game. I would love a port of something like Mechwarrior 2 or a new game similar to it. Games like Ultrawings and VTOL prove that such a game can work just fine.

Do you have the Deluxe Audio Strap? What do you think of it? Do you have any other accessories for the Vive? Also have you been having issues with your trackpads getting stuck? Mine did but I where able to fix it myself following some guides.

I have tried to watch movies in VR with BigScreen Beta and the Vive Video software but it has so far been too straining for my eyes. Strangely though watching movies and stuff when I'm using Social VR applications like VRChat or Altspace together with other people it's more comfortable. I'm not sure why that is, it's strange. I have to do some research into that.

I've played Elite for several Hours in VR as well, I mostly played it on the DK2 with HOTAS about 2-3 years ago. I tried playing it recently with the update that included landing on some moons, but I've become spoiled with high amounts of supersampling in some games and I can't seem to find a balance in the graphics settings I'm happy with. I need a better GPU apparently

I recently almost finished House of the Dying Sun, what an excellent game that was. But crazily I have not finished or even tried the last mission, I'm a bit stuck at one mission and too stubborn to just drop it and go for the last one. I recently bought Superhot but have not tried it yet, I do plan on doing it over the next days, I've heard good things about it. Rez infinite was good and I especially liked the Area X level, I do wonder though how it would have been in first person. I hope for more Area X content and an experimental first person mode. First person mode I don't expect at all but I'm hopeful for more content. The devs seem to have plans for more.

And yep I too look forward to those same games you mention. And I'm very skeptical if they can get Fallout 4 and Skyrim (currently only for PSVR but later coming to PC Bethesda has confirmed) to work well. Most of the reports from people trying them has not been very good. But I'll buy it on release and give it a good try, if it's bad I'll probably refund it. Doom VFR though has been getting excellent reviews so I'm sure that will be worth it.

Other games I look forward to is of course the three Valve games, but that might take a while though. Triple AAA games takes a long time to make. In the meantime I'm enjoying myself in SteamVR Home. Valve has kept a steady stream of updates for it in Beta with new features and content, and that has been interesting to test out. I've spent most of my time with my good friend there testing stuff and exploring the areas people upload. It's an excellent way to meet and greet before we decide what next to do or games to play.

Another game I really want to play that is out in the coming months is From Other Suns. The trouble with this game though is it's an exclusive for Oculus Rift. I do have that headset (bought it on the summer sale) but I have so far been skeptical of buying anything from their store. I've just tested all the free stuff I could get my hands on plus some of the games I got for free with the DK2. One amazing experience for the Rift that is free and I have played a lot is Aircar VR. That is probably one of the best experiences I've tried so far in VR. From what I've read it looks like it will be a full game at some point. I tried Aircar on the Vive as well with the Revive software hack but it was not running as smooth as on the Rift. And the Touch controls is just better than the Vive wands, especially with the thumb sticks in some games. Hopefully the knuckle controllers for Steam VR HMDs will solve that. When those are released I'll be buying them in an instant.

Oh looks like I've been rambling on for long enough here, I even had to cut out some parts because it would have been a giant wall of text

Apparently the devs of Mechwarrior 5 is designing it to support VR.
https://uploadvr.com/mechwarrior-5-merc ... upport-vr/

Ultrawings and VTOL is on my wishlist over games I'm planning to buy. Have heard good things about them. At this point I have bought 70 VR games. And I still have lots of gameplay left in most of them.

Yeah I have the Deluxe Audio Strap. I love it and it makes a huge difference to the comfort of the headset. I think it is overpriced however, and it is a terrible decision for HTC to continue to ship new Vives without it as the default setup. HTC like to bill their product as the 'premium' device compared to their competition - well they should perhaps not be the only mainstream high end VR product to ship with a velcro strap that has more in common with Google's low end Daydream or the countless cheap Chinese mobile headsets.

I also recently purchased a Vive N Chill, which is essentially a pair of USB powered 40mm fans with double sided tape that sit atop the headset to cool you down. I think they're great even if they look incredibly derpy, particularly for any game that gets you moving like Raw Data or Airtone. It significantly reduces the amount of sweat produced and makes for a much more comfortable experience. Having the headset be dripping with sweat during a gaming session is gross and it ameliorates that.

I also have a couple of thin foam replacements from VRCover which allow me to swap foam between users, and effectively increase the field of view. They're much more washable than the default foam too, the latter of which I'm pretty sure wouldn't survive the washing machine without bits falling off.

For Elite Dangerous the main thing you need to do is turn off ambient occlusion and turn shadows to low. These settings have such a high performance hit and no matter what your hardware it's always best to turn these right down and use the extra headroom to bump up supersampling. I have used these settings across three generations of graphics cards from the GTX 780 to the 1080 Ti and even on the higher end card I maintain that it's never worth upping the lighting effects if it means turning the supersampling down - 95% of the time you don't even see the difference with more detailed shadows.

I refuse to buy anything on Facebook's platform. I know I can install Revive and use that to play Facebook games but the only way I'd remotely consider that would be via piracy and I'm not particularly interested in that either. I think Facebook wants to position itself in the industry like Apple has in the world of smartphones, but if they're going to do that on the PC it's not going to work for them. PC users aren't going to support software exclusive to a particular brand of display device, not once more competitors come into the industry.

Have a DK2, going to get a vive when i get a steady job again.

I've done some development in Unity 5 with the Oculus SDK, and it was really a snap (drag and drop an Oculus control object), i also played around and evaluated it professionally it has real potential for interactive analysis and data visualization.

At home, i'd use it for gaming, really looking forward to some flight simulator games with awesome graphics. Airdrift is fun and i'd love to see some multiplayer content for it, i gave them lots of ideas like CTF and some other ideas, hope they get off their butts and do it.