General VR discussion thread

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ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
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Unless you are extremely far sighted, I'm not sure why you would need lenses. I have horrible vision and I can see just fine in the Vive w/o my contacts. Has anyone actually done a comparison? The image is just centimeters if not less from your eyes. The distance is virtual, not real, so it shouldn't affect you being able to see.
 
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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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Unless you are extremely far sighted, I'm not sure why you would need lenses. I have horrible vision and I can see just fine in the Vive w/o my contacts. Has anyone actually done a comparison? The image is just centimeters if not less from your eyes. The distance is virtual, not real, so it shouldn't affect you being able to see.

Funny you mention that, I have pretty bad vision & just use the Vive as-is. IPD adjustment does nothing I can visually see. Still need to get that # from my eye doc tho haha.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
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Funny you mention that, I have pretty bad vision & just use the Vive as-is. IPD adjustment does nothing I can visually see. Still need to get that # from my eye doc tho haha.

For the most part, IPD only will affect close up 3D effects, meaning the stuff that really pops out at you. If you ever have to cross your eyes to see 3D coming at you (out of the screen per-se) you need to adjust your IPD. It also plays a minor role in reading characters, but it seems to be very minimal.

There is a program called IPD Test. Go get that and then run it. Close one eye and adjust the IPD until it is mostly clear, then repeat with the other eye. That will get you close, you can fine tune it from there. Obviously on these, the center will be the clearest. The Rift's built in IPD tuning is better than the Vives in terms of figuring out what is a good setting, but this program works pretty well.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Unless you are extremely far sighted, I'm not sure why you would need lenses. I have horrible vision and I can see just fine in the Vive w/o my contacts. Has anyone actually done a comparison? The image is just centimeters if not less from your eyes. The distance is virtual, not real, so it shouldn't affect you being able to see.

My vision isn't even that bad...

RIGHT: SPH = -1.50, CYL = -1.75, Axis = 14
LEFT: SPH = -2.25, CYL = -1.50, Axis = 166

...and it's rather noticeable when I try to play without my glasses on. That's actually how I normally play because it's too uncomfortable with them on. The one thing that they did say about the 3D printed lens option is that the lenses are actually separate from the "dock", so you can remove the lenses if you want someone else to play. Apparently, some people just use the dock as a buffer to ensure their glasses don't hit the Vive's lenses.
 

sxr7171

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2002
5,079
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Looks really cool. I've been having a lot of fun with No Limits 2. Great for riding a bunch of coasters but it has performance issues on some tracks. I see CPU at 65% and GPU at 30%.

The ulitimate booster if you can do it standing and without closing your eyes I think you'd be ready for anything.
 

sxr7171

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2002
5,079
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I don't care about the politics. But I do care about some crap scheming company mining my data.

Even if we ignore all that the technology was behind from day one. Just a few minutes in Steam's The Lab will convince you who put the real work in and who ran a hype machine.

The fact that you can see your hands in the game field may have been that one thing pushed the whole experience from "wow that's cool but a lot of screen door effect" to "wow how i'm I looking at the controller? Omg that's being recreated by the software." For that first moment your brain can't add the illusion up.

Granted I haven't tried Oculus touch but it brings nothing new to the table afaik. I definitely like the idea of a lighter headset. As for tracking the only I know is that the headband has LEDs in the strap to track the headset if the wearer turns around. I wonder how the controllers will be tracked in that case. It seems to me all they really worked on was the headset and their asynchronous timewarp which I must admit is a pretty slick concept assuming only rotational movement.

I look at the headset itself as commodity hardware. Anyone can make that. The software and tracking are the real differentiators. It's clear the oculus vision from the beginning was for seated experiences with simple rotational movements. Whereas Valve was in for full movement from the beginning.

I couldn't really care less about oculus at this point since PS VR will be the mass adoption system anyway. If PS VR didn't exist then I'd have to support oculus just because I support all forms of VR and support it's adoption.

Sadly I'm not sure what the long term prospects are for either high end PC based VR with PS VR in the mix. But at least the Vive has that one huge differentiator. People may try an Oculus or PS VR demo but will have no clue about what's really possible until they try Valve's tracking. In short I think the PS VR vs Oculus experience won't be all that different from each other. Certainly not enough to spend an extra $1-1.5k and deal with software issues of PCs. And also fartbook but I guess the average joe would consider that a plus even. They can populate their stupid feed with their bathroom exploits in the virtual world.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
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Oculus will have full tracking as touch will ship with another camera -- and can use up to 4 cameras (I believe). Touch has finger movement -- kind of like leap.
I will probably end up getting touch just to see how it is compared to Vive wands, but at the end of the day it comes down to the catalog. Right now...to me it is still up in the air, I use Vive more because of room scale now, but that might change once touch is out and more room/scale, interactive type things come out for Rift.
 

sxr7171

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2002
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I see. So two cameras would be almost like having two lighthouses. Each would need a USB connection though so I wonder what they will suggest for placement. To equal the Vive they would have to be on oppposite sides of the user and one very long USB cable.

Let's see what they do with the tech.
 

gorobei

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2007
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I see. So two cameras would be almost like having two lighthouses. Each would need a USB connection though so I wonder what they will suggest for placement. To equal the Vive they would have to be on oppposite sides of the user and one very long USB cable.

Let's see what they do with the tech.
that's where the constellation system starts to really look shortsighted. right now it works well for tracking one object(headset) but once you add touch that is 3 objects and 3x the amount of cpu load. add a 2nd camera and now the cpu is working on 6 objects. add any other cameras for better coverage of roomspace and you will need a 8-16 core/thread cpu or more.

meanwhile the lighthouse system can add an extra 1 or 2 units to the base 2 and the cpu load is the same. the sync handshake between units may halve in frequency but it should be fine.
 

sxr7171

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2002
5,079
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The lighthouse system is pretty brilliant when I read about how it works. In practice it isn't perfect but it's pretty darn great.

They can add almost as many as they want it would seem. I can see users with elbow pads, knee pads, shoulder pads and shoes with them built in. I suppose they would have to communicate wirelessly to the headset or to a separate box attached via USB or maybe just use Bluetooth. They just released a much cheaper more integrated version of the lighthouse sensor.

If you haven't seen this yet you'll hopefully find it interesting: http://www.roadtovr.com/lighthouse-...c-vive-2-cost-reduction-improved-vr-tracking/

They really think these things through
 

gorobei

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2007
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lucky palmer aka nimbleRichMan aka trump supporter
http://kotaku.com/oculus-rift-founder-funding-trump-shitposters-1786977098

probably wont affect the vr race but seems like something a smarter person would want to avoid associating with his company.
with Fove coming out Oculus is looking a little stagnant on the technology side.
well i guess i was wrong about that one.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/developers-backing-away-from-luckey,32751.html
so long as it is only a few indie devs, it isnt that much of an issue.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
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OK, so I've finally found my addictive VR game....although it is a clone and a sitting game lol. I'm in the Dragon Front beta on the Rift. It's a Hearthstone/MTG clone basically, but it has its own depth and twists that make it interesting. The visuals are pretty cool as well. Nothing ground breaking, but because it is multiplayer and competitive it is addicting :) I've almost been playing it exclusively for the last month.
 

Mutilator

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2000
3,516
10
81
Any of you playing Onward? Finally picked it up 2 days ago... it's got issues like you'd expect from an early access game but seems to live up to the hype. Now I just need to MacGyver up a stock. ;)
 

clok1966

Golden Member
Jul 6, 2004
1,395
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Are there any sites that keep up on games available for each, maybe some comparisons? I'm sick of all the reviews "they both have pro's and cons", I get that, we all do, i can make my decisions, i just want some objective insight. I dont much care for whole room gaming, I do think it is a big plus, but its not the deciding factor for me. I am in Vive camp right now, but only from some reviews, that kind of purchase requires much more info for me. Right now I would love to just try one. The glasses thing is HUGE to me (comfort) Im blind as a bat and WILL be using glasses with it. These are things its hard to "read" about. And in the end, games is it.. i keep hearing "fallout 4" etc.. one of the VR camps can port any game, but if it plays like crap who cares? I need more INFo, so again, any really good sites comparing the two out there?
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Are there any sites that keep up on games available for each, maybe some comparisons? I'm sick of all the reviews "they both have pro's and cons", I get that, we all do, i can make my decisions, i just want some objective insight. I dont much care for whole room gaming, I do think it is a big plus, but its not the deciding factor for me. I am in Vive camp right now, but only from some reviews, that kind of purchase requires much more info for me. Right now I would love to just try one. The glasses thing is HUGE to me (comfort) Im blind as a bat and WILL be using glasses with it. These are things its hard to "read" about. And in the end, games is it.. i keep hearing "fallout 4" etc.. one of the VR camps can port any game, but if it plays like crap who cares? I need more INFo, so again, any really good sites comparing the two out there?

If you are looking for fleshed out experiences, hold off. There are very few lasting items out there. Most are simply short tech demos, or considerably pricey for no longer than the play time is. That isn't to say there isn't some decent content, but you will be paying a premium for it. Most games, even the high priced ones, average around 3-5 hours.

I would also suggest waiting until the release of Touch at this point to compare the two. Honestly the stuff for Oculus is more fleshed out than the stuff on Vive (they have some crossover though), but room scale and interaction really sets the bar high, even if you don't think you'll use it.

Personally not a huge fan of Fallout 4, and I think that VR will break the game mechanics...but I guess we will see.
 

gorobei

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2007
3,654
980
136
oculus santa cruz wireless vr
https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/07/oculus-santa-cruz-headset-impressions/
the guys from tested podcast indicate the inside out cameras work in a nice static room with no one else moving between whatever landmarks the unit is using to register on. this is likely what carmack has been working on given his comments in his twitter feed over the past few years.

not sure how much battery life you can get out of the soc in the back.
 

Alamat

Senior member
Apr 30, 2003
683
9
81
Seeking advise...
Have birthday coming up and I can upgrade my box to spec, at least CPU, mobo and RAM. The 1060 I'll keep for now.
From the discussions here, shall I wait to pick which one I get, Vive or Oculus?
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,388
5,256
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Seeking advise...
Have birthday coming up and I can upgrade my box to spec, at least CPU, mobo and RAM. The 1060 I'll keep for now.
From the discussions here, shall I wait to pick which one I get, Vive or Oculus?

I would lean towards a Vive because (1) it has Steam integration, and (2) there are 500+ VR games available on Steam right now. Plus (3) Roomscale & the VR motion controllers already come with the Vive; the Oculus Touch & co. don't ship until December 6th (available for pre-order today, however). Another option to consider is the PSVR. Although you can see the pixels, they've apparently gotten rid of the screen-door effect, and it's launching with something like 50 games...my personal guess is that the gaming experience is going to be much more fun on the Playstation VR system than any other platform because all Playstation developers are exclusively gaming shops, you know? I still don't feel like there's a killer app for the Vive...I love QuiVR, but after playing through most games a couple times, I don't feel like much sticks. So if it's pure gaming you're after, I would actually recommend checking out the PSVR when it becomes available (hopefully they'll have demo stations at places like Best Buy & Gamestop).