I have now tried Virtual Reality and it is amazing

[fallacy]

you can pick

[pbj]

Ah, I’m just going by their gameplay videos.  Cool.

 

[Wzrd0803]

I love my Oculus Quest.

Beat Saber is awesome.  Star Wars is cool too. Dance Central really gets you sweating. Bait! is a fun relaxing fishing game.

[pbj]

I finally fired up Super Hot.  I just can’t do it.  Fighting humans or humanoids in VR is beyond disturbing to me. 

Level 5-1 in Astro Bot is incredible, though. 

 

[mimic]

I finally fired up Super Hot.  I just can’t do it.  Fighting humans or humanoids in VR is beyond disturbing to me. 

Really? It's a fantastic mix of Matrix/"ballet" type of game.

Half Life: Alyx though, wow! One word comes to mind GORGEOUS! I mean it's the closest thing to realistic looking. Just fantastic! But I have to admit Boneworks game play has spoiled me. The physics with all its rubbery faults is just better than what HL has to offer, and the lack of melee is big oversight. I am constantly looking around every corner scraping for any mag I can.

[fallacy]

Ya for me when I am playing Half Life I wish I was playing Walking Dead instead. As good as the graphics are... the game play is to simplistic. I have not gone that far yet but it seems like linear levels, Just one gun that you upgrade? And you need nothing in the levels except gun clips and these power packs that are used to upgrade your gun randomly hidden in the scenes like a kindergarten Easter egg hunt. Noting else you pick up is useful or works for anything... lame

[Loafmeister]

Been a while since I visited this thread. Yeah Half Life Alyx is something else, certainly raised the bar. On the Valve Index everything is so clear and the game is fun as heck too

On the flip side, anyone fans of pinball?  If yes, any fans of digital pinball?  If yes, any fans of PC Visual Pinball?  If yes to all, then check this out.  With the Rift S, it's very clear but with the Valve Index, even the back of the table is superb.  I'm certain quality is probably comparable with Vive Pro or HP Reverb (that one is pretty hires!).

Some of these tables need a good PC to run properly though.

[pbj]

GOT7 Love Loop is worth a download just to see the video quality the PSVR should always be doing.  Might get a rise out of your homophobic friends, too.

 

[leafygaim40]

Has anyone seen that Black Mirror Episode where things got REAL 

[fallacy]

I hated that Black Mirror Episode so much . What a waste, it looked like they put a lot budget creating that episode as well.

[pbj]

Iron Man VR demo is definitely worth a look.  By the end of it, the controls were feeling very natural.

[pbj]

If you have PSVR, you need to get Dreams.  Full stop.

 

[Fungible]

I also just played the Half Life Alyx, I was really impressed with the graphics.

[mimic]

I've got to say WOW to the Astro Bot! Nintendo eat your heart out! I have never seen more entertaining, engaging, clever, cute platfromer!

I hope more quality content like this will come to VR, it's truly totally different way of content presentation.

BTW Pre-ordered HP Reverb G2. I hope it will have the clarity everyone claims it supposed to have. Too bad no improvements to FOV (they could've done at least 120°).

[fallacy]

I pre-ordered the G2 as well. Definitely did not see that coming. If you would have told me HP is going to come out with a worthy VR HMD few months ago I would have rolled my eyes and called you crazy. Looks like they some how got Steams help for the build quality but I am still nervous.

[pbj]

I’ve played Space Harrier and pinball in PSVR Dreams now, it was awesome.

[SammyWI]

Fanatical has an eight game Steam VR bundle on sale right now for $2.49.  Nothing great looking but several that look to be worth the low price.  Vector Wars and Panzer Panic look fun.

[RandyT]

If you have PSVR, you need to get Dreams.  Full stop.

I had to see what Dreams was after reading this.  I agree, looks very cool.  I may just plug my PSVR back in to check it out.

I pre-ordered the G2 as well. Definitely did not see that coming. If you would have told me HP is going to come out with a worthy VR HMD few months ago I would have rolled my eyes and called you crazy. Looks like they some how got Steams help for the build quality but I am still nervous.

I jumped on the G2 pretty much as soon as it was announced.  I don't think you have a thing to be nervous about with this unit.  There is a laundry list of "best in class" upgrades over the G1, which was already considered the king of graphics fidelity, but marred by a lot of issues.  The G2 has addressed all of them and is the flagship for WMR2, with Valve's name attached.  There is a lot riding on making this the ultimate VR HMD and considering that the technology has finally reached a point where the GPUs are the limiting factor, this one will be viable for a long time to come.  HP knows what they have, and it shows in virtually every aspect of how they are handling it's debut.

Oh yeah, and Pistol Whip is my new favorite VR game.  I'm saving HL:Alyx for the G2, but couldn't help playing it on my Odyssey for 15 minutes to get a taste.  It was hard to stop, but I made myself

[fallacy]

You must also watch MRTV because he was the only one for like 2 months straight, had a demo unit and dropped the bomb that the G2 was the next big HMD. 

I am not really nervous about the visuals even though the FOV is still just standard. Worried about having to go through the ---smurfy--- windows mixed reality software, worried about the tracking, I doubt they improved it at all. I bought the Lenovo and thought it was ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---; not a complete dumpster fire but it left a bad taste in my mouth for the mixed reality stuff.

did you watch MRTV last video, he claims when he got his demo G2 it has awsome colors but than HP took it away because the power consumption was causing some kind of lag; he complained stating let the user enable it if they want; instead HP fixed the issue by feeding it more power and it will be on by default now. That's the one thing I am looking forward, I want good and bright colors in VR.

[RandyT]

You must also watch MRTV because he was the only one for like 2 months straight, had a demo unit and dropped the bomb that the G2 was the next big HMD.

The first MRTV video was June 29th.  My pre-order was placed on June 12.  But yes, it was nice to see my predictions confirmed on MRTV

I am not really nervous about the visuals even though the FOV is still just standard. Worried about having to go through the ---smurfy--- windows mixed reality software, worried about the tracking, I doubt they improved it at all. I bought the Lenovo and thought it was ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---; not a complete dumpster fire but it left a bad taste in my mouth for the mixed reality stuff.

Larger FOV leads to lower pixel density.  An increase to 120 degrees would mean about 25% more space between pixels.  My preference is an SDE-free display.  As for the WMR software, I'm not sure I understand all the hate.  I'm not sure when the last time was that you used it, but for the most part, you almost never need to see it nowadays, and once you are in SteamVR, it's nonexistent until you shut down your session.  Tracking has also improved greatly over the last couple of years.  Had family over on the weekend, and much Pistol Whip was played, using both lighthouse-tracked Vive Wands and (Samsung)WMR controllers.  Not only did no-one complain about the WMR controllers, at least one player preferred them.  The added volume of the G2's tracking area, thanks to the new side cameras, will only make a good thing even better.

did you watch MRTV last video, he claims when he got his demo G2 it has awsome colors but than HP took it away because the power consumption was causing some kind of lag; he complained stating let the user enable it if they want; instead HP fixed the issue by feeding it more power and it will be on by default now. That's the one thing I am looking forward, I want good and bright colors in VR.

Here's something I think is funny.  I posted publicly that I thought the issue with MRTV's pre-production unit constantly losing connection, was due to the high brightness of the backlighting (i.e. power consumption.)  It sure sounds like that turned out to be the problem.  HP had a few options, either 1) shorten the cable, 2) cut the brightness or 3) ditch USB power.  HP did the admirable thing and went with ditching USB power, even though it would cost them extra to include a laptop-style power supply.  Yet another indicator of just how seriously they are taking the launch of this unit.  I think all of the parties involved with it are banking hard on this being the benchmark for VR moving forward.

[fallacy]

The first MRTV video was June 29th.  My pre-order was placed on June 12.  But yes, it was nice to see my predictions confirmed on MRTV

Why do you own a G1? Besides having the highest resolution I heard every thing else about the G1 sucked. Not only could HP not produce a lot of them in time but the demo units they shipped out all came back broken. Plus they were complaints on seeing mura, and you could see the edges of the screen and a bunch of other issues.

[RandyT]

Why do you own a G1? Besides having the highest resolution I heard every thing else about the G1 sucked. Not only could HP not produce a lot of them in time but the demo units they shipped out all came back broken. Plus they were complaints on seeing mura, and you could see the edges of the screen and a bunch of other issues.

I do not. But I was aware of these things.  What I am also aware of is technology marches on, and large companies learn from their mistakes.  The G1 could have been the Ultimate VR HMD, had it not been for those issues.  But HP was doing things virtually on their own, just like every other WMR producer at the time.

This round, however, HP is the first, and currently only producer of MS's second generation WMR technology.  There is a lot riding on this HMD, and MS worked closely with HP.  But the biggest tell was Valve.  Valve doesn't make junk, and they certainly wouldn't allow their name to be connected to a sub-par product.  So you have the latest 2160x2160 panels, coupled with updated controllers, expanded tracking, re-designed lenses, and best-in-class comfort and audio taken directly from the tried-and-tested Index unit, with the big players' names plastered all over the marketing.  And to top it off, the price is just $100 more than the Odyssey was at launch.

To me, it was a no-brainer. 

[fallacy]

I don't understand why Valve even partnered up with HP? Could they not find their own high rese displays? I mean the headset is the same material as the index, same strap, same face pad, same earphones you would think it would be more profitable to make it themselves... and they have to pay Microsoft for mixed reality fees.

I bet they still do come out with an index 2 sporting the same displays as the G2 saying they have another 10 degrees FOV using the base station with different color index controllers and basically sell us the whole thing again twice just like the vive pro.

[fallacy]

RandyT what HMD's do you have at this point?

[RandyT]

I don't understand why Valve even partnered up with HP?

I can't speak for Valve, but given their lack of ability to have adequate volume of product to supply the demand, coupled with the launch issues they had and continue to have with the first batch of Knuckles controllers and the fact that they really don't need the money from hardware, I believe that they are more than happy to do the fun research stuff (on "Valve Time", of course) and let someone else deal with the headaches of production and fulfillment.  And every WMR HMD sold, means money in their pocket for every game purchased for it.  Again, no inside info, just a somewhat educated guess.

I bet they still do come out with an index 2 sporting the same displays as the G2 saying they have another 10 degrees FOV using the base station with different color index controllers and basically sell us the whole thing again twice just like the vive pro.

See above.  If I am correct, I think it's a losing bet.

RandyT what HMD's do you have at this point?

PSVR w/AIM and Move controllers, OG VIVE with lens mod, Samsung Odyssey, Odyssey+ (dedicated to the racing rig) and a couple of the Walmart specials for no particular reason other than they were stupidly inexpensive on closeout and came with a nice bluetooth game controller.  Sounds like a lot, but the Vive setup and both Odyssey's (one of which was purchased new at launch) didn't cost me much more than a new Index kit would have. 

[fallacy]

Does not sound like a lot mine are adding up as well.

You had the old vive so the base stations were covered making the index $750, if you still just wanted to use the vive wands you could have bought the index HMD for $500. Also with the index no addons are needed, plus you would have gotten Half Life Alyx free $60 value and you could be playing it right now guilt free.

[RandyT]

Heh.  I don't feel so bad now

By time the Index was offered, I already had most of that stuff.  Given that the Odysseys have the same resolution, good audio, are OLED and I really didn't have much interest in finger tracking, I didn't feel the Index offered enough (to me) for the price tag.  My only blunder is that I could have gotten the $45 I spent on HL:Alyx as a discount on the Knuckles controllers, as it was included free with those as well.  But I would probably still be waiting for them to ship.

There's no guilt involved, BTW, I'm just a serious HL fan and I'm saving the experience for 2160 x 2160 per eye.  It already looked amazing in my current HMD, so it should be mind blowing on the G2. The extra side cameras won't hurt when it comes time to start throwing grenades either!

[fallacy]

Half life Alex is an amazing visually, I like valve art style in the
first place. The lab is still one of my favorite VR worlds and it was
the first  thing to come out in 2016 for VR consumers. Not only is
that everything so well optimized there is no bad anti-aliasing, no
missed frames ,no pop in textures. There was this one area where you
have to climb up a destroyed hotel that is partially being taken over
by the alien living organisms, when you get up the destroyed stair
case you have to go through a hotel room and then go through its
windows to get on the balcony. I swear I must have spent 20 minutes in
that dirty hotel room just amazed at how real it looked. The lighting
coming through the window, how realistic the bed covers and pillows
looked. I swear if the HMD was lighter and someone put it on while you
were asleep and you woke up in the same position as the VR bed, you
would look around thinking where the hell am I for the first 5
seconds. It proves the theory that we are all probably just living in
a simulation.

I just wish the game was more fun, I find the gun play for be fairley
week and repetitive, there are not that many different kinds of mobs,
they all act like rag dolls, you can’t blow off any limbs or wound,
they all act the same when they get shot which is not much recognition
at all until they die. There is no hand combat which is just mind
boggling when you consider Half Life is known as one of the first
–first person games to use a crow bar as a weapon. There is also no
energy weapon that does not use ammunition; the whole game you are
just trying to find and conserve you ammunition because they give you
no other options. The first few stages I ran out of ammunition and I
was stuck in a room with a head crab… ok tried throwing a bottle at it
does not notice, I had to look around the entire room with it jumping
at me until I found another clip.

Take Walking Dead Saints and Sinners If I found a bottle on the ground
I could pick it up smash it against a car and use the shard handle
to ram it in a zombies neck; I can throw the bottle into a zombies
head and he will stumble back; I can throw the bottle in the distance
and have the sound distract them from coming my way; I can put that
bottle in my backpack take it back to camp and use it for scraps to
make my own weapons(of which there are many). Half life all the props
they have are completely and utterly useless which I found after
playing Walking Dead to be the biggest issue with any sense of
progression or discovery. Maybe if it had a good story but it doesn’t
so the entire game becomes getting from point A to point B and being
more annoyed when I have to use my gun to kill the same generic cut
and paste mobs, while looking at all the pretty graphics but it is
bitter sweet since I know I won’t find anything when I look around at
everything. Upgrades to your weapons all suck to, the only good
upgrade is the rocket launcher. Upgrade to rapid fire ---my bottom--- you don’t
have the ammo for that!

[pbj]

Anyone get the Star Wars game?  I’ve spent $80 on other psvr games the last week and wouldn’t have done it had I had known about it.

[RandyT]

Half life Alex is an amazing visually, I like valve art style in the first place. The lab is still one of my favorite VR worlds and it was the first  thing to come out in 2016 for VR consumers.

I think that's what hooks me.  I also still go back to the lab on occasion, and it's usually the first thing I show someone new to VR. 

I honestly think I would be happy with HL:Alyx just to be able to enter that world as an observer or as part of a mildly interactive story, so there's no chance I'll be disappointed with it.  The Walking Dead game is on my short list as well.  Again, I'm not expecting deep gameplay.  The series really wasn't all that deep either    

Anyone get the Star Wars game?

I'm sure I will.  The free teaser which came out on PSVR way back pretty much sold me on it before it was even announced.  It's going to be great with HOTAS in the racing rig.

[Howard_Casto]

Anyone get the Star Wars game?  I’ve spent $80 on other psvr games the last week and wouldn’t have done it had I had known about it.

Yeah I saw that one and didn't know about it either.  Feel like a first class chump for ordering all that other stuff.   

I need to get some kind of Hotas for all of these cool flight games..... first we had no decent flight games for years and then this past year or two..... ALL THE FLIGHT GAMES

[pbj]

Only thing that’s getting me into the next console generation is better VR unless they hit the $150 with a free game stage.  So I guess it didn’t hurt to show a little financial support.

Blood and Truth has been amazing for the $10 I paid.

 

[RandyT]

I need to get some kind of Hotas for all of these cool flight games.....

Yeesh!  I was about to recommend the Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS Joystick and throttle controllers as a lower cost, entry level HOTAS, but I now see that the price has skyrocketed.  I picked up mine for $99 a couple of years ago, but it has tripled or more now. 

Might be tough to find a deal, now that there is an increase in demand.

[Howard_Casto]

There's an el-cheapo model for 79 I see all the time but I don't know if it's any good.  Yeah everything has raised due to covid.... I paid about $200 more for my new pc than I expected to spend and that was towards the start of the pandemic. 

[pbj]

So, how’s star wars?

[RandyT]

So, how’s star wars?

Requires 3rd-Party Account: EA

Annoying.  Don't have it yet, but I don't like games which require third party accounts beyond Steam.   I own 2 Ubisoft games I couldn't play for ages because I couldn't remember my password and their site was so broke, I couldn't get in to change it.  They fixed their site after a year or so...better late than never, I guess.

But I'll probably break down and buy it soon anyway.  Hopefully, this one will be seamless with it's Steam account linking.

[pbj]

It's on sale for $30 today for pc apparently. Buy buy buy.

[RandyT]

Thanks for the heads up, but that's an Epic games only deal (you have to purchase Rocket League for free to get the $10 coupon.)  I don't trust anything other than Steam when it comes to WMR.  I remember going through hell trying to get Subnautica working in VR from the Epic launcher.  It worked, but it was never easy to get it to launch in VR for me.

[RandyT]

Ok, against my better judgment, I couldn't take it and I gave the $30 deal a whack (thanks again, pbj) and now have to install the Epic game store and Origin on my cockpit/racing rig. The Steam version probably would have been better, as I have heard there is at least a "Launch in VR" option, but the game launches through Origin and uses SteamVR for VR functionality.  At least no issues with WMR compatibility.  The Epic Game Store -> Origin is also pretty seamless if you tell it to remember your credentials.  For now, VR is activated at the main menu of the game, and after that, everything is accessible through the HMD.  Hopefully Origin or EGS will implement a launch in VR option at some point.

Anyway, after about an hour and a half just using a X360 controller in VR, I'm on the fence.  One of the dumbest things is that the cut-scenes are all flat in VR, which makes you just want to skip them unless you are a die-hard SW fan.  I don't know what EA was thinking on that one.

I've read that the flying dynamics just didn't feel right, and I find it hard to disagree.  When you cut throttle, the ships stop like they are on a roadway riding the brake.  As far as I can tell, there is no reverse thruster and no drifting, so no real space flight dynamics.  Somehow, this cheapens the experience and counter-intuitively seems to make things harder to control (at least with a gamepad).  But a proper HOTAS setup may make all the difference here.

The graphics are good, but occasionally a bit glitchy out of the box.  I "only" have a 1080 on this machine and installed the game on a mechanical drive, so not the most ideal circumstances.  But it's mostly a smooth experience.  There's definitely some tweaking in my future to see what can be done to smooth things out a bit more.

Flying the Tie-Fighters almost makes you feel sorry for the Empire.  That sadistic bastard Vader put those poor guys in a ball, with only a forward bay window to see from.  And that's how you'll feel inside of one when you are getting shot from the sides, rear, above and below without being able to visually find your target.  The X-Wings are more open feeling and easier to navigate with.  The sense of actually being in the cockpits is very good, regardless.  The sound is good and explosions are convincing enough.  The maps, so far, don't seem great, but I haven't gotten too far into it.  I hear there are only 6 currently, so I hope EA will crank out more in the future.  They should have enough assets to draw from with their other SW titles, so hopefully some of those will find their way in at some point.

So early conclusions (personal ramblings) are that it's too early to tell if this is a solid buy, unless you are a hardcore SW fan.  For $40, I'd probably give it a "wait and see", for $30 it's a tough call, but reasonable enough to be optimistic with.  But at the moment, it feels more like a "pick it up when it hits $25 or less on sale" type of game.  Still fun, but unless you really get into the multi-player aspect and get good at flying with these dynamics, there may not be enough content to hold your interest over time.  YMMV      

   

[fallacy]

I probably just skip the Star Wars game unless everyone was passing out on how good it was, which they are not. I have not had a single sitting cockpit game I have liked in VR… so much so that I don't even want to try them anymore. Ok I kind of like Vox Machine, it feels like Mec Warrior 3 in VR but I don't like the online arena game play. I would rather have well thought out missions. It took them 5 years to bring out the game so I doubt we will ever get anything more from them.