General VR discussion thread

[Linux23]

I honed that skill with Space Pirate Trainer. Now I can track and shoot at two targets at once with pretty good accuracy, even over 90* apart.

That's awesome. And yes it really does take practice when handling two firearms. Just all out shooting is not going to hit your targets accurately. And in the case of this game headshots are the only thing that counts.

 

[Kaido]

i'm under LinuxVR2000 so you can add me. not sure how to do the multiplayer thing yet, but yes this game is awesome and my shots are getting much more accurate now.

Also, thanks for the tips on Holopoint. That game had me sweating and provided a really good workout so will definitely try to get this in every few days.

If you want to amp up the workout aspect, I have these ankle/wrist weights (3 pounds) & they are pretty decent: (will be adding a second set to increase my arm weight & move these to my ankles)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V1WGGQS

Probably a lot cheaper to get them at a local sports store, but Amazon Prime has free 2-day shipping & the mall is 30 minutes away from me

Also check out AudioShield if you haven't already. Great workout if you allow yourself to get into it (i.e. dance & punch). You get more points (flair) for actually hitting the notes, although it kills your arms in pretty short order if you're holding them out in front of you AND punching. About halfway through I usually wuss out & just have my hands up against my chest, hahaha. You can import your own music (just use an MP3 merge tool to make a playlist), but I pretty much just use their remixes because they are dance beat-oriented.

QuiVR is very addicting. The mellow soundtrack actually works out great for keeping the game chill. Multi-player is fun, although there's no private rooms or friends list support yet, just random multi-player. It's not as intense as Holopoint, so it's way more of a game than exercise, but it will definitely leave you sore for about a week if you play it often. I'm probably averaging an hour a day in it right now. In multi-player, you start out on the same map (there's only one at the moment) with up to 3 other players (4 total including you) & take on waves of bad guys, which makes it easier to defend the gate, but I think they also increase the number of enemies based on the number of players, so by Wave 50 you're killing off hoards of baddies & your arms are screaming at you in fatigue lol. The bosses get pretty fun too, the furthest I've gotten is to the giant rock monster, but there are even weirder ones after that if you can defend your gate & your arms last that long!

 

[Kaido]

That's awesome. And yes it really does take practice when handling two firearms. Just all out shooting is not going to hit your targets accurately. And in the case of this game headshots are the only thing that counts.

A good 2-gun game is Belly Bots. It's basically an arcade shooter (it gets pretty fun as the waves increase...they add drones & stuff to the mix). Two guns is REALLY hard, but this game makes it easier because it's arcade instead of simulation. Great sound effects & again a lot of fun for a seemingly simple game.

 

[Kaido]

I honed that skill with Space Pirate Trainer. Now I can track and shoot at two targets at once with pretty good accuracy, even over 90* apart.

SPT, Zombie Simulator, and Horseshoes are all on my wishlist...the quality of shooters is getting better & better!

 

[Kaido]

That's awesome. And yes it really does take practice when handling two firearms. Just all out shooting is not going to hit your targets accurately. And in the case of this game headshots are the only thing that counts.

In QuiVR, if you tap the circle pad, it will bring up an abilities menu. When you have enough points after a few waves, buy the one where you restore your gate's health with headshots...it's a great way to practice your aim. I'm pretty good at the two ground-level positions; my room isn't big enough for the one above the gate or to the right of the gate, but I'm working on my long-distance accuracy from the two turrent towers. It's amazing how quickly your aim improves in this game!

 

[Linux23]

i only really practiced at the point by the castle gate. It'd be nice if they just allowed us to shoot an arrow a few seconds before the match begins to position yourself anywhere on the map.

but yeah, i think i hurt myself playing one of these games. had to take ibuprofen for a week as I barely could lift my left arm. the odd thing is that I workout and lift weights/cardio 5x a week and never was sore in my arm pit area like this before. barely could get out of my bed that's how bad it was.

 

[Aikouka]

I don't think I'd be able to resist doing AudioShield to Survivor's Eye of the Tiger if I started wearing weights like that.

 

[Kaido]

i only really practiced at the point by the castle gate. It'd be nice if they just allowed us to shoot an arrow a few seconds before the match begins to position yourself anywhere on the map.

but yeah, i think i hurt myself playing one of these games. had to take ibuprofen for a week as I barely could lift my left arm. the odd thing is that I workout and lift weights/cardio 5x a week and never was sore in my arm pit area like this before. barely could get out of my bed that's how bad it was.

Yeah, it's a different set of muscles. I didn't realize how weak my arms were until I played AudioShield for a few songs, punching the notes with my arms out...yikes! It's really quite fatiguing haha. I can handle a lot longer now, but still, there's a point where I'm just like uggggh lol.

 

[Pheran]

Now that I've completed my new system build, I'm definitely looking to get a VR headset, but it won't be earlier than this Christmas, and maybe not until mid-2017.

 

[Linux23]

Now that I've completed my new system build, I'm definitely looking to get a VR headset, but it won't be earlier than this Christmas, and maybe not until mid-2017.

Truthfully man, you can hold off. It's no rush. It's nothing ground breaking yet anyway for this platform. Next year I think we'll start seeing more AAA titles come out.

For me, i'm a casual gamer. I don't think i've finished any game in my lifetime. LOL. So these short games are perfect for a person like me where I can put it down for awhile and then come back to it.

However getting exercise while gaming is new to me and I think i'm going to try doing it for at least 1 hr each day alongside my 1 hour that I workout at the gym during my lunchtime.

 

[Linux23]

@Kaido Belly bots seem too familiar to Zombie Training, so I might pass on that.

I've been hearing a lot about this game Onward:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/496240/

Has anyone played this yet? I'm a little concerned about how to move in a game like this.

Also looking at Paddle Up:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/496250/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_1

How is Job Simulator? Is it worth the $30?

On the fence about Hover Junkers too.

 

[Kaido]

Now that I've completed my new system build, I'm definitely looking to get a VR headset, but it won't be earlier than this Christmas, and maybe not until mid-2017.

The longer you wait, the more games & accessories will come out. Right now, it's a hard justification if you're not super interested in VR because even though there are like 500 titles available, there's only a handful of good ones, and within those, maybe half a dozen of really replayable games. They just need time to pump out more good games, especially longer ones with good stories.

With that said, my Vive is amazing & I wouldn't trade it for anything! I use it pretty much every single day.

 

[Kaido]

@Kaido Belly bots seem too familiar to Zombie Training, so I might pass on that.

I've been hearing a lot about this game Onward:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/496240/

Has anyone played this yet? I'm a little concerned about how to move in a game like this.

Also looking at Paddle Up:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/496250/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_1

How is Job Simulator? Is it worth the $30?

On the fence about Hover Junkers too.

Eh, I wouldn't say Job Simulator is worth $30. It's fun but it's like $8.49 worth of fun imo. Hover Junkers is cool, but I haven't really dug into it so I can't say too much about it. I have a ton of stuff on my list, but with things like Onward being $25 for early-access, I try to limit my spending on a weekly basis lol. I've already eaten pretty heavily into my VR laptop budget between paying for games & buying stuff like my Subpac. Oh, and speaking of, Asus has a VR-ready GTX1060 laptop out for $1,399. Pretty reasonable price for getting a portable VR machine!

 

[Sabrewings]

Job Simulator was interesting for a little while, and the wife thinks it's fun. I personally wouldn't pay $30 for it. Wait for a sale.

 

[Kaido]

Truthfully man, you can hold off. It's no rush. It's nothing ground breaking yet anyway for this platform. Next year I think we'll start seeing more AAA titles come out.

For me, i'm a casual gamer. I don't think i've finished any game in my lifetime. LOL. So these short games are perfect for a person like me where I can put it down for awhile and then come back to it.

However getting exercise while gaming is new to me and I think i'm going to try doing it for at least 1 hr each day alongside my 1 hour that I workout at the gym during my lunchtime.

Job Simulator was interesting for a little while, and the wife thinks it's fun. I personally wouldn't pay $30 for it. Wait for a sale.

I wish there was a story mode to go with it. Like follow along to an episode of The Office where you have to prank people in the office or something. The gameplay is pretty entertaining due to the amount of interactive elements involved, but the replay value rapidly diminishes once you've kind of done everything. Like, it would be fun in say the cooking game to have to cook for the president & make a multi-course meal & then screw it all up upon delivery, haha.

 

[Linux23]

Eh, I wouldn't say Job Simulator is worth $30. It's fun but it's like $8.49 worth of fun imo. Hover Junkers is cool, but I haven't really dug into it so I can't say too much about it. I have a ton of stuff on my list, but with things like Onward being $25 for early-access, I try to limit my spending on a weekly basis lol. I've already eaten pretty heavily into my VR laptop budget between paying for games & buying stuff like my Subpac. Oh, and speaking of, Asus has a VR-ready GTX1060 laptop out for $1,399. Pretty reasonable price for getting a portable VR machine!

Just curious, as that laptop sounds really good spec wise, where do you plan on using it? I mean the VR HMD and the cables and the power supplies are already cumbersome as it, do you plan on lugging all of that stuff with you?

 

[Linux23]

Job Simulator was interesting for a little while, and the wife thinks it's fun. I personally wouldn't pay $30 for it. Wait for a sale.

yeah, i think i can hold off a bit. it looks neat but not $30 bills neat. Under $10 maybe.

 

[Linux23]

i have a long weekend so may be trying out some new games on the Vive. I tried that supersampling thing and to be honest, i can't really tell the difference.

do you guys notice a huge difference? is the screen door effect lessened (i hate the SDE on this headset). is the image much more smooth? what's the big rave on this? LOL.

 

[Sabrewings]

Supersampling makes a difference for me. Smoother image with less jaggies.

i have a long weekend so may be trying out some new games on the Vive. I tried that supersampling thing and to be honest, i can't really tell the difference.

do you guys notice a huge difference? is the screen door effect lessened (i hate the SDE on this headset). is the image much more smooth? what's the big rave on this? LOL.

Supersampling will definitely help image quality. I like using it. Smoother lines with less jaggies.

SDE is a totally different animal. That's a product of the physical properties of the screens in your HMD. Specifically, it's the distance between pixels in the screen's structure. No amount of software trickery can solve this, as the only solution is more densely packed pixels.

 

[Linux23]

yep, definitely know about SDE. I've owned like 5 projectors back at the time when 720P was cutting edge. 720P image on a 8 foot screen showed a lot of SDE.

I use the Vive chaperone to change the SS value so maybe i'll double check the settings file manually to see if it actually made the change.

 

[Kaido]

Just curious, as that laptop sounds really good spec wise, where do you plan on using it? I mean the VR HMD and the cables and the power supplies are already cumbersome as it, do you plan on lugging all of that stuff with you?

Well, for starters, I don't really have a dedicated room for it at the moment, with family & friends coming & going. For the next couple of months I don't have anyone in my "guest" room, so I've set that up as VR HQ (PC + Virzoom bike + Vive gear). It's a mess tho (no desk in that room), especially with the big computer tower, separate monitor, keyboard, mouse, surge protector, etc. Plus, I'm borrowing the tower from a buddy who is traveling, so it will go back before Christmas, which means I need to get something of my own at some point. This is the laptop I was talking about btw - $1,399 for an i7, 16 gigs of RAM, and 6GB GTX1060: (0.94" thick & 4.8lbs)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834234299

However, Intel's 7th-gen Core chips drops next month for laptops, and they sip power (the Y-series only uses 4.5 watts!) & can play 4K video effortlessly, so I think I'll wait (plus, you know, I've blown way too much cash on VR games, so I gotta save up again haha). But as the recommended setup is a $1k gaming computer, a $399 premium for a laptop seems pretty dang reasonable (which includes a monitor, keyboard, touchpad, and battery in a compact, portable form factor).

As far as portability goes, I'm not sure yet. I may build a cut-foam duffel bag that can hold the laptop, HMD/wires, both remotes, Lighthouses, extension cords, etc. I do a lot of nerdy stuff with work stuff as well as with friends, plus occasionally stuff like boy scouts & whatnot with my nephews, so it'd be really cool to have some semblance of a travel pack. Maybe a cheap suitcase with cutouts for everything, I dunno. It would be pretty fun to be able to bring it different places tho because it's a lot of fun to show off, especially seeing people's reactions to how awesome VR immersion is & what the interaction capabilities are. Depends on how social you are & how much you want to share too...I know people who won't let anyone else even wear their HMD lol. I think the setup would have to be something like this:

1. VR-capable laptop (with SSD)
2. Headset/wires/breakout box
3. Both remotes (and optionally chargers)
4. Surge protector with lots of outlets
5. Three extension cords (one for the surge protector & another pair for the Lighthouses)
6. Optionally, a pair of spare Lighthouses (so they wouldn't have to be removed from home)
7. A pair of tall lightweight tripods for the Lighthouses
8. Waterproof VR cover (and wipes)
9. Suitcase with wheels, extension handle, and foam cutouts for everything

Loading wouldn't be too bad...the remotes really wouldn't need the chargers because the batteries last something like 6 hours, so you could pretty much drop in the laptop & charger, both remotes, the headset & wire bundle, tripods & Lighthouses (or just tripods if you spring for spare Lighthouses), and the surge protector & extension cords. You could keep the tripods, surge protector & extension cords, and optionally a spare laptop charger, in the suitcase full-time so you'd just be dropping in the HMD, remotes, and laptop. Could probably even buy spare remotes if you were serious about it, but I don't think I'd even spring for spare Lighthouses just due to the high cost. But that would be pretty cool because it'd be a stow & go type of setup where you could drag it anywhere & easily have it setup in about 5 minutes, provided you had enough space. There are some skinny tripods here:

http://imgur.com/a/wXRCT

Pair for $33:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L4YR0BS

I've also found there are different mechanics to sharing, based on the HMD. Like with my GearVR, it's all wireless & at most I have some cheap wrap-around headphones & a Bluetooth gamepad, whereas with the Vive, there's bunch of different pieces & the games are also computer games, so there's some setup involved rather than just pointing & clicking on an app, smartphone-style. So it's more involved to get someone fitted into the Vive, especially since there's no focus dial like there is on the GearVR, just an IPD adjustment dial, which makes switching between users quickly more of a pain. Especially since people tend to get more immersed & not really pay attention to the chaperone lines all that much, and games tend to take a little longer to get a good feel for, so especially if you're rotating through kids trying it, you tend to get upset feelings because "their turn is taking too long"

 

[Pheran]

The longer you wait, the more games & accessories will come out. Right now, it's a hard justification if you're not super interested in VR because even though there are like 500 titles available, there's only a handful of good ones, and within those, maybe half a dozen of really replayable games. They just need time to pump out more good games, especially longer ones with good stories.

I am super-interested in VR, but I'm willing to wait a bit longer. I'm definitely interested to see what the Oculus Touch will offer. Also I'm pretty interested in Minecraft VR, but do I understand correctly that it's exclusive to the Rift? Or can it be made to work on the Vive as well?

 

[Sabrewings]

I am super-interested in VR, but I'm willing to wait a bit longer. I'm definitely interested to see what the Oculus Touch will offer. Also I'm pretty interested in Minecraft VR, but do I understand correctly that it's exclusive to the Rift? Or can it be made to work on the Vive as well?

There's a fan modded version called Vivecraft. I like it better than the official Minecraft VR version.

 

[Aikouka]

This is the laptop I was talking about btw - $1,399 for an i7, 16 gigs of RAM, and 6GB GTX1060: (0.94" thick & 4.8lbs)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834234299

I see two things. It doesn't have a SSD, and I don't know how easy it is to add one or if you can at all. Also, it's a thin laptop, which correlates to the first problem. Anyway, thin usually means noisier as there simply isn't as much cooling as the big, bulky laptops.

However, Intel's 7th-gen Core chips drops next month for laptops, and they sip power (the Y-series only uses 4.5 watts!) & can play 4K video effortlessly, so I think I'll wait (plus, you know, I've blown way too much cash on VR games, so I gotta save up again haha).

Kaby Lake's U series will be used in things like ultrabooks. I doubt that you'll find them in "real" notebooks.

 

[Linux23]

I had a blast playing QuiVR in multiplayer earlier today. Was up to like wave 36 before it was over. I couldn't wait for us to get defeated. My arm was about to fall off. Lol. The guys I was with was like "suck it up". We had a really good team going but after that huge battle everyone agreed it was time to take a break.

Also bought audio shield and that thing kills the arm. I like the fact that I can load my own music however i wish the algorithm was a bit faster and synced better with the notes/rhythm. Not worth $20 and should be priced at $5-10

Anybody get in any gaming this weekend?