General VR discussion thread

[Aikouka]

I'd wait and see what Intel's wireless setup looks like before getting the TPCast. Seems like the more info that comes out about it (TPCast) the less I want it.

The only two things that I don't like about it are (1) the router, and (2) the whine from the 50GHz transmitter. Rumors are that the router will go away for the US release, and it'll probably switch to a USB dongle. As for the whine, we'd have to see what happens with that.

 

[gorobei]

doh, valve kinda screwing over early adopters.
lighthouse system/steamvr tracking 2.0 not backwards compatible.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/new-basestations-drop-vive-support,34678.html
plus side "house scale" tracking.

im really hoping LG comes out with their hmd sooner rather than later.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

doh, valve kinda screwing over early adopters.
lighthouse system/steamvr tracking 2.0 not backwards compatible.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/new-basestations-drop-vive-support,34678.html
plus side "house scale" tracking.

im really hoping LG comes out with their hmd sooner rather than later.

"Valve’s new tracking technology is half backwards compatible. Vive headsets, wand controllers, and peripherals with TS3633 sensors aren’t compatible with Steam VR Tracking 2.0 basestations, but new peripherals with the latest sensors would still work with Steam VR Tracking 1.0 basestations."

Looks like room scale isn't going to lose out in interesting new peripherals, but the existing headset etc. cant be upgraded to house-scale.

 

[pj-]

doh, valve kinda screwing over early adopters.
lighthouse system/steamvr tracking 2.0 not backwards compatible.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/new-basestations-drop-vive-support,34678.html
plus side "house scale" tracking.

im really hoping LG comes out with their hmd sooner rather than later.

Why would you want the LG headset soon? If it comes out now it's not going to have the steamvr 2.0 sensors and it will have the same compatibility problem as the vive.

The 1.0 basestations will continue to work with new tracked objects so if they are adequate for you, you can just upgrade the stuff that needs upgrading anyway (hmd, controllers)

 

[clamum]

Doom 3 BFG in VR is going to give me a heart attack. My ability to suspend disbelief is too strong.

Oh shit there's gonna be Doom 3 in VR? AWESOME. I really enjoyed that game. And yeah I better wear my brown Levi jeans when playing it so when I shit myself it'll be less visible.

So now that you've had a awhile to play around with your vr setup. I was kind of curious how your system handles the load. I have almost the exact same setup as you. Everything really except for the gpu which I have a rx480 which is honestly on par with yours.

So anyway....do you have any incites now that you've had it for awhile? Is you system powerful enough? The reason I ask is I'm thinking about getting into vr and want to know if my system with be enough.

My system handles the games I've tried easily and with no problems. I haven't had any Vive setup issues nor game issues. Here are the games I have:

• The Solus Project (haven't tried it yet; dang it I keep meaning to though. I'm sure it'll run and look great)
• The Thrill of the Fight
• Cloudlands: VR Minigolf
• Vanishing Realms
• Arizona Sunshine

If your system is very close to mine then in my opinion you'll have no issues and should really enjoy it. Btw, did you try the Steam VR Tester app?

 

[WiseUp216]

Oh shit there's gonna be Doom 3 in VR? AWESOME. I really enjoyed that game. And yeah I better wear my brown Levi jeans when playing it so when I shit myself it'll be less visible.

Yep! It is a mod that is currently in alpha. I don't have the links here on my work PC but you should be able to Google it pretty easily.

Movement can be a little janky, and cutscenes look really funny, but otherwise it is amazing considering the age of the game and not being native VR.

I installed the HD texture pack prior to trying VR. I imagine it will look pretty rough without the modded textures.

 

[clamum]

Yep! It is a mod that is currently in alpha. I don't have the links here on my work PC but you should be able to Google it pretty easily.

Movement can be a little janky, and cutscenes look really funny, but otherwise it is amazing considering the age of the game and not being native VR.

I installed the HD texture pack prior to trying VR. I imagine it will look pretty rough without the modded textures.

Yeah I did look up some info about it; I read you needed the Doom 3 BFG game so I picked it up on Steam for $20. I will get the HD textures, too, thanks for the tip.

Oh man I'm really looking forward to this! Haha. How were the controls, using the Vive controllers to move and shoot and change weapons?

 

[WiseUp216]

Yeah I did look up some info about it; I read you needed the Doom 3 BFG game so I picked it up on Steam for $20. I will get the HD textures, too, thanks for the tip.

Oh man I'm really looking forward to this! Haha. How were the controls, using the Vive controllers to move and shoot and change weapons?

Shooting feels good - like it was meant for VR.

Movement takes a moment to get used to. Teleport works well but sometimes you'll end up perpendicular to your body and see your shoulder armor. A quick tap of the left trackpad centers yourself. You can also use the trackpad for 3rd person movement but I didn't like it at all.

Here are the links that I used -
https://github.com/KozGit/DOOM-3-BFG-VR/releases
http://www.moddb.com/mods/doom-3-bfg-hi-def/downloads/doom-3-bfg-hi-def-28

Important note:
Compatibility with the Hi-Def texture pack
Doom 3 BFG:Fully Possessed is compatible with the hi-def texture pack. Please be aware that the 'generated' folder included in the hi-def texture pack is corrupt, and will crash the game if not deleted. This is not an issue with this mod, but with the texture pack itself. After installing the texture pack, delete the 'generated' folder inside the 'Base' directory.

 

[bbhaag]

Oh shit there's gonna be Doom 3 in VR? AWESOME. I really enjoyed that game. And yeah I better wear my brown Levi jeans when playing it so when I shit myself it'll be less visible.



My system handles the games I've tried easily and with no problems. I haven't had any Vive setup issues nor game issues. Here are the games I have:

• The Solus Project (haven't tried it yet; dang it I keep meaning to though. I'm sure it'll run and look great)
• The Thrill of the Fight
• Cloudlands: VR Minigolf
• Vanishing Realms
• Arizona Sunshine

If your system is very close to mine then in my opinion you'll have no issues and should really enjoy it. Btw, did you try the Steam VR Tester app?

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't tried the Steam app yet but I'm going too. I just saw that your system was almost identical to mine and wanted to see how you felt after a few weeks of use.

 

[clamum]

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't tried the Steam app yet but I'm going too. I just saw that your system was almost identical to mine and wanted to see how you felt after a few weeks of use.

Ah. Yeah I think you'll probably get good results from the Steam app. I unfortunately don't have more to share cause I don't have a ton of experience with the Vive yet; just a few hours really. I'm just not the gamer I used to be, haha. But I really enjoy it and don't regret buying it all, though that news about the Steam Tracking 2.0 kinda sucks. Hopefully it won't be too big of an impact.

One thing that I didn't expect was my living room actually being kind of small for room tracking. I live in an apartment but my living room isn't that crowded with stuff IMO. But I'm actually kinda limited for room tracking though I'm going to try moving out one of the sensor stations some more. When I first measured I thought I measured 15' diagonal from one base station and put the other one roughly in that spot but I had a very small area so I must've fuct something up. I need to get a tripod and move one base station out a bit more though my futon is in the way (I'd rather not anchor shit into the walls in a rented apartment). Anyway, just a suggestion to have plenty of space cause coming up against the virtual wall often is a little annoying.

 

[Kaido]

Ah. Yeah I think you'll probably get good results from the Steam app. I unfortunately don't have more to share cause I don't have a ton of experience with the Vive yet; just a few hours really. I'm just not the gamer I used to be, haha. But I really enjoy it and don't regret buying it all, though that news about the Steam Tracking 2.0 kinda sucks. Hopefully it won't be too big of an impact.

One thing that I didn't expect was my living room actually being kind of small for room tracking. I live in an apartment but my living room isn't that crowded with stuff IMO. But I'm actually kinda limited for room tracking though I'm going to try moving out one of the sensor stations some more. When I first measured I thought I measured 15' diagonal from one base station and put the other one roughly in that spot but I had a very small area so I must've fuct something up. I need to get a tripod and move one base station out a bit more though my futon is in the way (I'd rather not anchor shit into the walls in a rented apartment). Anyway, just a suggestion to have plenty of space cause coming up against the virtual wall often is a little annoying.

Yeah, I would love to have like a small barn to play in. More space would be awesome! I think if omni-treadmills were going to work, they would have taken off already. I could be wrong tho, as everything in VR is only like a year old at this point, so there's still a lot of ground to cover.

Really the only thing I want at this point is Retina-quality screens. Not just to eliminate pixels, but also for stuff like Remote Desktop & other things where you need to read text, do graphics, and so on.

 

[Aikouka]

Yeah, I would love to have like a small barn to play in. More space would be awesome! I think if omni-treadmills were going to work, they would have taken off already. I could be wrong tho, as everything in VR is only like a year old at this point, so there's still a lot of ground to cover.

The problem with the omni treadmills is that they solve one problem, but create another huge one. So, the problem that they attempt to solve is that walking in place doesn't feel normal and if you walk in your room, you'll invariably walk into a wall/boundary, and they solve that pretty well. Unfortunately, they restrict you to this circular/octagonal shape, which means you really can't do any sort of room scale activity, or advanced movement. In other words, it's going to be kind of awkward to duck down to avoid enemy fire when you're stuck in this contraption. Essentially, it feels like it's developed for the standing experience, and that's just a small part of the available games.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

The problem with the omni treadmills is that they solve one problem, but create another huge one. So, the problem that they attempt to solve is that walking in place doesn't feel normal and if you walk in your room, you'll invariably walk into a wall/boundary, and they solve that pretty well. Unfortunately, they restrict you to this circular/octagonal shape, which means you really can't do any sort of room scale activity, or advanced movement. In other words, it's going to be kind of awkward to duck down to avoid enemy fire when you're stuck in this contraption. Essentially, it feels like it's developed for the standing experience, and that's just a small part of the available games.

Right, in Portal Stories you finally understand what VR is really about when you hear "hello friend" and you jump to duck behind a chest-high wall.

 

[Aikouka]

Ended up ordering it from Amazon this morning, and I should have it by Friday. My only worry is that I haven't been able to find any information on how it fits people with big heads.

So, it turns out that wasn't my only worry. Lately, Amazon's shipping has been getting rather... well, let's be blunt and call a spade a spade... it sucks. If it doesn't go through UPS or FedEx, there's a decent chance that it'll get delayed for unknown reasons by at least a day. Well, in this case, my Deluxe Audio Strap has disappeared. It was marked as leaving the Atlanta facility, but it never showed up at my local post office. I talked to Amazon, and they refunded my money and said I could keep it if it did end up showing up, but I doubt that I'll ever see it. Normally, this wouldn't be a huge issue as I could always order it again, but you can't... it's out of stock at major retailers.

As a sort of cherry on top, I ordered some batteries, which were supposed to arrive today, but as you can guess by me writing this, they aren't coming. They actually made it to the post office this morning (4 AM), but at least according to the tracking, they're just sitting there.

 

[WiseUp216]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017...-wolfenstein-evil-within-vr-fallout-and-doom/

Fallout 4 VR will be a nice excuse to upgrade my GPU...

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Guys, Vorpix + click "cinema mode" allows you to play most games on a giant, 3d, tv set.

Lots of fun!

The 'full immersion' settings are a bit much, imho.

 

[Kaido]

Intel has their own wireless accessory coming out for the Vive:

https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/14/intel-wireless-vr-htc-vive/

No word on pricing or a release date yet, but the prototype is getting better reviews than the TPcast...I'm going to save my money & hold out for the Intel version, I think.

 

[Kaido]

Hah the new Duck Hunt looks amazing:

https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/13/duck-season-htc-vive-duck-hunt/

A serial killer dog! I'm in.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Hah the new Duck Hunt looks amazing:

https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/13/duck-season-htc-vive-duck-hunt/

A serial killer dog! I'm in.

Hope it is sanctioned, or gets released before it gets shut down.

Also, Nintendo is apparently bringing Mario Kart to VR...unfortunately I am pretty sure it is Japan arcade only.

 

[Aikouka]

Intel has their own wireless accessory coming out for the Vive:

https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/14/intel-wireless-vr-htc-vive/

No word on pricing or a release date yet, but the prototype is getting better reviews than the TPcast...I'm going to save my money & hold out for the Intel version, I think.

A Reddit thread stated it was due out in 2018. I don't know if I'd want to wait that long when the technology doesn't seem that much different. I guess it will depend on how TPCast implements the non-video transmitting for the US release (i.e. no router).

 

[Dr. Zaus]

A Reddit thread stated it was due out in 2018. I don't know if I'd want to wait that long when the technology doesn't seem that much different. I guess it will depend on how TPCast implements the non-video transmitting for the US release (i.e. no router).

My concern is that I don't know how much space I need between wireless head-sets to avoid cross talk.

 

[Kaido]

Oh dang, I might need to get a PSVR:

https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/16/moss-polyarc-vr/

 

[Aikouka]

Oh dang, I might need to get a PSVR:

https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/16/moss-polyarc-vr/

I think the biggest problem with games like this is that it's hard to prove to users why the game needs to be in VR rather than just a standard 3rd-person view video game.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

I think the biggest problem with games like this is that it's hard to prove to users why the game needs to be in VR rather than just a standard 3rd-person view video game.

Only when they haven't played it in VR.

 

[Aikouka]

Only when they haven't played it in VR.

The Oculus had that third-person platformer game at release, and given that I can't even remember the name, that's not a great sign.

For me, my rule of game design is that "changing the formula" should always come with the question, "What useful experience am I adding?" The biggest faux pas that I use for failing to ask this question is Fable 3's sanctuary, which replaced the menu system with an in-world set of rooms. It pretty much provided no benefit to the user, and it made all actions take longer.

Now, I think a VR example where this is done right is Valve's The Lab. One of the mini-games in there is the arcade shooter. If I were to tell you that it had a shmup in it, you may wonder why you'd want to play a shmup in VR... with standard controls. What Valve did was completely change the control scheme to make perfect sense in regard to VR and also make it immersive to the player. While the archery game is probably one of the most fun in The Lab, the arcade game is probably my favorite from a mechanics standpoint.