General VR discussion thread

[GodisanAtheist]

That's the problem with VR at the moment. There shouldn't be an ecosystem in the first place!
Does your monitor have an ecosystem or your mouse. So why should VR when at it's core its a head mounted display with position sensors and a couple of VR controllers.

-Because everyone wants their thing to be the next iPhone walled garden.

PC openness was a fluke, not the standard, and will likely continue to erode over our lives.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I love VR and would recommend every PC gamer experience it once, but there is a lack of good new content these days. Lots of early access indie stuff and short tech demos, which are great but not something you would go back to more than once. I've already played most of the major VR releases at this point, or found that they have issues (Boneworks doesn't have teleport and is uncomfortable to play, Lone Echo crashes all the time). I mostly spend time with non-game experiences like Space Engine or Google Earth, or doing a few laps in simracing. At some level VR is better for relaxing than gaming.

I use mine most for Thrill of the Fight and Beat Saber. Thrill of the Fight is the closest thing so far, to what I hoped for from VR. It has completely replaced shadow boxing for me. It is far more entertaining, and being able to train the various equipment, then fight, or use the ghost for reaction drills, is outstanding.

Beat Saber is another killer app for me. It is a great warm up before lifting weights.

VR tours, movie theater modes; there are some cool things to do. Nvidia's VR funhouse, shooters, stuff like that, wear off on me pretty fast.

 

[CP5670]

All the racing/flight/space games really should include VR support. Only a few do, even though those games are ideally suited for it and don't require much extra work from the developers. Sometimes modders add it in, like Mechwarrior 5, but the mod often has glitches and is more of a novelty than something you can use in regular gameplay.

 

[Gabkicks]

^ yeah simracing flight and space games really benefit from VR. you really experience elevation and camber changers on racetracks SO MUCH MORE in vr.

anyone here play Thrill of the Fight?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

anyone here play Thrill of the Fight?

That's my jam right there.

 

[CP5670]

Gunman Contracts for Alyx is amazing and the most fun I've had in VR in a while. It has Max Payne style gameplay in urban environments with unlimited ammo.

Alyx is becoming like what HL1/2 or UT99/UT3 were back in the day, the main platform and engine for modders to build things on, and is much more than just the base game.

 

[Aikouka]

Gunman Contracts for Alyx is amazing and the most fun I've had in VR in a while. It has Max Payne style gameplay in urban environments with unlimited ammo.

Alyx is becoming like what HL1/2 or UT99/UT3 were back in the day, the main platform and engine for modders to build things on, and is much more than just the base game.

I haven't had a chance to try that out yet, but have you tried the rhythm game Pistol Whip? What you described kind of reminded me of that.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

What are some of the AAA games like in VR? Eg does Skyrim really feel like you're there and could one realistically do a playthrough of the game in VR? Or Resident Evil 7 (PSVR) & 4 (Quest 2)? I kind of want to play Half Life Alyx and have just barely enough PC to probably be able to handle it (Xeon E3-1231v3 + 16GB DDR3-2400 + GTX 1660 Super) but not sure I want to pay $300 on a Quest 2 just to play through Alyx once in 20 hours and then only use it for porn or 15 minute sessions of Beat Saber or Job Simulator after. I'm kind of disappointed I haven't seen a program for say virtually walking a few blocks of Tokyo or hiking part of the Milford Track in New Zealand, stuff like that. Are there any killer experiences outside of games and porn?

 

[CP5670]

I haven't had a chance to try that out yet, but have you tried the rhythm game Pistol Whip? What you described kind of reminded me of that.

It's a bit like this, but with AAA-quality level design. The unlimited ammo makes it much more fast paced than Alyx.

What are some of the AAA games like in VR? Eg does Skyrim really feel like you're there and could one realistically do a playthrough of the game in VR? Or Resident Evil 7 (PSVR) & 4 (Quest 2)? I kind of want to play Half Life Alyx and have just barely enough PC to probably be able to handle it (Xeon E3-1231v3 + 16GB DDR3-2400 + GTX 1660 Super) but not sure I want to pay $300 on a Quest 2 just to play through Alyx once in 20 hours and then only use it for porn or 15 minute sessions of Beat Saber or Job Simulator after. I'm kind of disappointed I haven't seen a program for say virtually walking a few blocks of Tokyo or hiking part of the Milford Track in New Zealand, stuff like that. Are there any killer experiences outside of games and porn?

I think Alyx and Star Wars Squadrons are the best AAA games. The Lone Echo games are supposed to be very good if you can get them working (I couldn't, but it should work on the Quest). Among the sim games, DIRT Rally 2 and Project Cars 2 are maybe the best ones with native VR support. I haven't tried the ports of Skyrim/Fallout 4 but heard they are janky. Among the indie games, my favorites are Overload, Grip and Distance.

Outside of games, the best things I've seen are Google Earth (lets you do exactly what you described) and Space Engine. I actually keep coming back to these things more than the games.

 

[lakedude]

What are some of the AAA games like in VR? Eg does Skyrim really feel like you're there and could one realistically do a playthrough of the game in VR? Or Resident Evil 7 (PSVR) & 4 (Quest 2)? I kind of want to play Half Life Alyx and have just barely enough PC to probably be able to handle it (Xeon E3-1231v3 + 16GB DDR3-2400 + GTX 1660 Super) but not sure I want to pay $300 on a Quest 2 just to play through Alyx once in 20 hours and then only use it for porn or 15 minute sessions of Beat Saber or Job Simulator after. I'm kind of disappointed I haven't seen a program for say virtually walking a few blocks of Tokyo or hiking part of the Milford Track in New Zealand, stuff like that. Are there any killer experiences outside of games and porn?

I play Alyx with my laptop which does remarkably well most of the time. The weapon mod stations bog it down a little and the big antlion battles make it chug but overall the experience is good. It runs a 1660ti MQ.

In my opinion Alyx and Beat Saber are enough to justify the $300. Oh and I love that it all works so well with no stupid wires.

Google Earth is something in 3D. You can travel without traveling.

I just followed the path of a tornado 🌪 that just hit our town in GE. Couldn't find the downed cell tower on maps but it was quite obvious which tower was down in VR.





My kid like to play Spider Man with Google
Earth. He goes flying around in big cities just having a ball.

Other travel apps do a nice job showing you around interesting places.

Help Yourself is a really fun shooter with a twist. Hmmm they might have renamed it to Better Together... Great concept!

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I think Alyx and Star Wars Squadrons are the best AAA games. The Lone Echo games are supposed to be very good if you can get them working (I couldn't, but it should work on the Quest). Among the sim games, DIRT Rally 2 and Project Cars 2 are maybe the best ones with native VR support. I haven't tried the ports of Skyrim/Fallout 4 but heard they are janky. Among the indie games, my favorites are Overload, Grip and Distance.

Outside of games, the best things I've seen are Google Earth (lets you do exactly what you described) and Space Engine. I actually keep coming back to these things more than the games.

Star Wars Squadrons looks pretty cool and like my system could run it. Dirt Rally also. Don't think I have much of a chance running Project Cars 2 with my very weak for 2022 PC though. Disappointing about Skyrim and Fallout.

I heard Google Earth looks really low res when you browse at low level.

 

[lakedude]

I heard Google Earth looks really low res when you browse at low level.

Yes, of course and some areas are not 3D like our house which is just flat like it would be on Google Maps. Sometimes they botch the bridges so they go down to water level, instead of being above the water.

That said you can often find high res 3D pics imbeded within GE.

In spite of the fact that it isn't perfect it is still amazing.

See pic from GE:

 

[CP5670]

Star Wars Squadrons looks pretty cool and like my system could run it. Dirt Rally also. Don't think I have much of a chance running Project Cars 2 with my very weak for 2022 PC though. Disappointing about Skyrim and Fallout.

Squadrons is actually very demanding in VR. Many of the sim-type games are just optimized poorly for VR compared to flatscreen and run at like 1/3 the framerate you get at a similar flatscreen resolution. You have to use medium/low settings or a reduced resolution. Alyx was designed around VR and has a dynamic resolution that adjusts itself depending on the framerate, and runs much better on a variety of hardware.

 

[sze5003]

Squadrons is also more fun with a throttle and stick too. I use a reverb G2 and compared to a military flight sim software I also use, squadrons is much more optimized for VR than that thing. It's still demanding but I don't have any issues with stutters or framerate.

It's also pretty short for the story mode but I haven't played it since it came out either. So I don't know if the online has improved much. If it's on sale I would grab it. I think I paid around $30 at some point.

 

[CP5670]

What settings do you use? I play it on the G2 at medium settings with 75% resolution in SteamVR (50% global, 150% per-game) and it generally runs at 90fps but still chugs in heavy battles.

 

[sze5003]

I think mine was set to high but my global steam resolution was 100%. I didn't play too much of the game but I could feel my PC was heating up as things got intense.

I also was using whatever the default for steam VR reprojection was set to.

 

[CP5670]

I found 100% too intensive in big fights, it would drop to 45fps frequently. Having it lower was needed to get 90fps most of the time.

 

[Auroraa]

-Because everyone wants their thing to be the next iPhone walled garden.

PC openness was a fluke, not the standard, and will likely continue to erode over our lives.

a beautiful, stellar, magnificient, fortuitous, & gorgeous fluke that we are all grateful for each and every day that we get to enjoy our love of tech

 

[slightlyhuman]

Gunman Contracts for Alyx is amazing and the most fun I've had in VR in a while. It has Max Payne style gameplay in urban environments with unlimited ammo.

Alyx is becoming like what HL1/2 or UT99/UT3 were back in the day, the main platform and engine for modders to build things on, and is much more than just the base game.

gunman contracts! i forgot about that, never played it. is it a simple installer to play it or a PITA to get it going?

 

[lakedude]

gunman contracts! i forgot about that, never played it. is it a simple installer to play it or a PITA to get it going?

It is pretty easy with the proper instructions.

 

[bigi]

can you recommend VR for movie watching and playing old(er) games via the simulator? PC platform or standalone. Thanks.

 

[lakedude]

can you recommend VR for movie watching and playing old(er) games via the simulator? PC platform or standalone. Thanks.

What Simulator?

The Quest 2 is hard to beat for the money.

1) It is only $300
2) It has one of the better resolutions and
3) It is wireless ( so awesome )

Drawbacks are

1) Facebook requirement
2) Contrast is much better with OLED.

but

OLED looks terrible under magnification so while OLED contrast is fantastic OLED in VR looks terrible IMHO.

 

[CP5670]

The Quest 2 is very good for what you get. To be honest, while the PC VR headsets are better, they are all fiddly to set up and have drawbacks despite the higher prices. I love the G2 but generally recommend the Quest 2 to others. Getting PC VR working reminds me of what it was like to get games running in the Dos era with sound card IRQ settings, memory extenders, etc.

gunman contracts! i forgot about that, never played it. is it a simple installer to play it or a PITA to get it going?

Just subscribe to it in the steam workshop for Alyx, and then start a new game with it.

 

[bigi]

What Simulator?

VorpX.

Happy to consider something else. My knowledge is nill.

 

[lakedude]

We have several stand alone units. I highly prefer the LCD over the OLED because of the fuller subpixels.

My buddy had a Vive and now has an Index with the awesome controllers. It is a much sturdier unit but I hate the wire.

The wireless freedom of the Quest cannot be overstated.

The Quest controllers are pretty good but not as cool as the knuckles that pair with the Index.

My buddy is accustomed to stepping over the wire so it does not bother him. There are ways to mount the wire so it hangs down rather than laying on the floor. There is a wireless option but just that one option costs as much as a Quest.

The Quest is easily portable. It takes seconds not minutes to set it up in a new room.

Oh one big drawback is that the Quest can only track controllers out in front of your body. You can't steer the tiller of a boat while looking towards the bow for example. This is not a problem for VR with external tracking.