Ok... Seriously Tempted by VR

[Games Retrospect]

I won't commit to purchasing any VR headset for a while and I have to admit, that while the experience sounds tempting, I find the available headsets prohibitively expensive. Technology tends to get cheaper as time goes by, so we'll see what happens, but that's how I feel about it right now. I would love to try it somehow though. Everything I've heard from the press side of things sounds amazing (most of the reviews are glowing, to say the least,) but it's remarkably difficult to communicate how it feels to use/be in "VR" without experiencing it.

[fultonbot]

Tested Google Tilt Brush today at work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TckqNdrdbgk

 

Oh. My. God.

 

If this is the future of VR, sign me up.

 

[Parrothead]

Give VR a whirl with the inexpensive new Viewmaster. It works with your phone and is quite amazing. And there are lots of free apps to use with it. Like Google Cardboard.

 

http://www.view-master.com/en-us

Edited May 13, 2016 by Parrothead

[toiletunes]

[Reaperman]

Slightly hijacking this since it's not really worth starting a thread. Now that VR has been out, is it worth my time?

 

I got a bit abused at work in 2020, so now I've got to spend an exceptionally large bonus pretty fast, hoping to make the burnout go away.  I already went for a NeoSD, MiSTer, and Steam Deck, but the wife shocked me when she suggested I get a setup. I guess she was playing on her brother's unit, so that means it's 'a thing' and even normies have them. Last time I tried VR was on a pre-release oculus (but this was a couple years post-release) at a High Voltage Software demo booth, and it was terrible--as in the hardware image, as well as the game. Everything was terrible. but now I see that 35 of my current steam games seem to already support VR, and some of those actually seem fun (GRIP, BallisticNG, Redout, etc).  That sure beats the...maybe 5...games that work on my 3d TV (my last projector upgrade coincided with the failed 3dtv revolution, which was the last tv gimmick) 

 

Now I've seeing that lightly-used 'oculus rift s' units seem to only be about $250, but the staggering volume of "lightly used vr headsets" seem to have me wondering about quality. Also is the rift s where I should be looking? Any other models I should consider? I surely don't want to go expensive if I can avoid it. I've already got the main gaming computer in the living room, so no need to re-arrange my life for this, and I suspect it's older GTX 1080 can probably still handle VR (as if I could upgrade even if I wanted to right now)

 

Also Oculus Quest is out, as it requires a smartphone.

[Austin]

Huh, Oculus' website says the Rift S is no longer available. I wonder if that means they've got another one in the works, or if they are solely focusing on the Quest now (I hope not). That's a shame as I believe mine was $250 NIB from them, free shipping, earlier this year.

 

The Rift S is what I currently have and I enjoy it quite a bit. Tracking is good, the "screen door effect" is less pronounced than on the original Rift, and with it being sensor-less, overall it's an improvement over the original retail Rift.

 

One thing I am not a fan of is the "360 audio". It's too thin and tinny. To get the full experience, headphones are pretty much mandatory (there's a port for them on the headset itself). The original Rift's headphones were great for me and I don't understand why they didn't have those as an option on the S.

 

Your 1080 will be perfectly fine for VR, at least for games from a few years back. When I had my original Rift I was rocking a RX 580 (about equivalent to a 1060) and with a first-gen Ryzen 7, I had pretty much zero problems.

 

I'm not entirely sure what software compatibility is like these days. I bought my first Rift in 2017 and so I built a decent sized library of games through the Oculus shop. I've also started realizing recently that some of my Steam games are now compatible. However, it seems like it's a crapshoot whether they will actually function with a Rift. If you go the Oculus route, you will need to research the games you want to play (check Steam user reviews and such) to make sure they are compatible.

 

Now this differs for everyone, but I still can't do games where I have free movement with an analog stick. There's a disconnect between me and the controller and I get nauseous instantly. I pretty much have to rely on teleportation movement for first person games, or play games (like Serious Sam: The Last Hope) where I stand in place and move freely with my own feet within my play area. If you haven't messed around much with VR, keep that in mind.

Edited August 6, 2021 by Austin