General VR discussion thread

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Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
With that I think I'm gonna go with the Rift. Anyone know if they'll drop the price to $350 again as Xmas gets closer? I have a couple of bucks in Amazon rewards that can drop it close to $300 if they have another sale.

In my opinion, if you want a seated experience mostly, then I'd say the Rift is the best option. It's cheaper, and when you remove roomscale, there really isn't as big of an advantage to the Vive. On the other hand, roomscale is just a bit easier on the Vive due to not using USB 3-based webcams like the Rift.

As for a sale... it's hard to tell, but I'd probably lean toward no. It's pretty close to Christmas at this point, and we're not likely to have too much more in the way of sales... especially if it has already been on sale a time or two since Thanksgiving.
 

jtvang125

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2004
5,399
51
91
In my opinion, if you want a seated experience mostly, then I'd say the Rift is the best option. It's cheaper, and when you remove roomscale, there really isn't as big of an advantage to the Vive. On the other hand, roomscale is just a bit easier on the Vive due to not using USB 3-based webcams like the Rift.

As for a sale... it's hard to tell, but I'd probably lean toward no. It's pretty close to Christmas at this point, and we're not likely to have too much more in the way of sales... especially if it has already been on sale a time or two since Thanksgiving.

I see myself playing mostly fps and a few racing sims here and there. I decided on the Rift cause of the price and the bundled games. I have the Gear VR and hopefully some games from the store can be used across both. I just don't think I can drop that much $ on the Vive. I see them used on craigslist for about $400 but that seems like a pretty big gamble since you lose the warranty and who knows what they did while using it ;-).
 

jtvang125

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2004
5,399
51
91
Rift bundle is currently $379 with a $20 off discount. Tempting but I think I'm going to wait. My cpu should be up to snuff but my gpu might holding me back for a good experience (390x). Will probably upgrade that before jumping into VR on the PC.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Rift bundle is currently $379 with a $20 off discount. Tempting but I think I'm going to wait. My cpu should be up to snuff but my gpu might holding me back for a good experience (390x). Will probably upgrade that before jumping into VR on the PC.

Mmm it might depend on what you're looking to play. Not all VR games are the VR equivalent of Crysis, and I'd argue that some of the best games are found in that aforementioned group. Space Pirate Trainer is arguably the best wave shooter for VR (some might argue the Serious Sam games are pretty good too, but far more expensive), and it isn't a visual masterpiece.

So, I'd say that if you're really interested, consider finding some sources of people with the same GPU and see what they say. Keep in mind that they do have reprojection for VR, which enables if you're below the refresh rate. It pretty much just repeats frames to keep the refresh rate up while your GPU can't keep up.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
I have 290x and it works just fine with SS at 1.4-1.5 for pretty mcuh everything - note that AMD didn't enable reprojection on these series of cards.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Did anyone try onward? It was $25 a few weeks ago. Thought it looked pretty good from initial videos.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
I have it but haven't tried it yet. Also, all the Serious Sam VR games and the Talos Principle in a bundle for $50. Great deal as all of these are some of the best VR games out right now.
 

jtvang125

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2004
5,399
51
91
So I played around some more with my Gear VR. I tried some of those 360 photos and videos. They were horrible and honestly felt very gimmicky. Just about everything was blurry and just didn't make you feel like you're there. One in particular was an app in the Oculus store called Face Your Fear or something. It's just 360 videos of heights with cliffs and sheer drops. I do get a little quesy in real life but this did nothing to me at all cause it was so bad.

Is the source just not high enough in resolution or is the screen the limiting factor. I think on the s8 it's 1480x1440 to each eye.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
So I played around some more with my Gear VR. I tried some of those 360 photos and videos. They were horrible and honestly felt very gimmicky. Just about everything was blurry and just didn't make you feel like you're there. One in particular was an app in the Oculus store called Face Your Fear or something. It's just 360 videos of heights with cliffs and sheer drops. I do get a little quesy in real life but this did nothing to me at all cause it was so bad.

Is the source just not high enough in resolution or is the screen the limiting factor. I think on the s8 it's 1480x1440 to each eye.
No, those are just bad in general. Too low res because they are streaming. You need real hi res context localized.
 

Alamat

Senior member
Apr 30, 2003
683
9
81
I just got the TP Cast off of Amazon and will get it up and running hopefully by tomorrow night. I have stopped playing Doom and FO4 so I can "enjoy" being untethered. I'll put in my 2 cents thereafter.
 

Alamat

Senior member
Apr 30, 2003
683
9
81
TPCast set-up was not all hard but it didn't work the first time for the software. Apparently, there is newer software than what the manual tells you as the hardware has changed. Once loaded up, you needed to reinstall the Vive drivers for everything. I just have the transmitter box just hanging from a window facing the play area and that was working fine. It does have some sort of coil whine, unnoticeable once you are ingame. No stuttering noted that I saw though I did not see if I dropped any frames yet. Sound cut out once initially but never happened again.
Very liberating to have no cables attached to you and with room scale, that is a major thing I think. You at times forget and move briskly towards a goal until the chaperone flashes in front of you.
All in all, I think its worth it for me. It is $300 though I used some gift cards to offset the lot.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
TPCast set-up was not all hard but it didn't work the first time for the software. Apparently, there is newer software than what the manual tells you as the hardware has changed. Once loaded up, you needed to reinstall the Vive drivers for everything. I just have the transmitter box just hanging from a window facing the play area and that was working fine. It does have some sort of coil whine, unnoticeable once you are ingame. No stuttering noted that I saw though I did not see if I dropped any frames yet. Sound cut out once initially but never happened again.
Very liberating to have no cables attached to you and with room scale, that is a major thing I think. You at times forget and move briskly towards a goal until the chaperone flashes in front of you.
All in all, I think its worth it for me. It is $300 though I used some gift cards to offset the lot.

I bought one, but I just can't get it to work. Although, it sounds like you may have done some things that I didn't? The first time, I tried setting it up using the 3-in-1 cable up to the transmitter. The second time, I bought a DisplayPort to HDMI cable to go straight from the PC to the transmitter. The TPCast software says that everything is setup and I just need to start the VR software, but it doesn't work. Eventually, after the two minute timeout, the receiver's indicator LED goes dark, which means it's in sleep mode waiting for a signal. To note, I did sync the receiver and transmitter multiple times.

Although, there was one difference the first and second time. The first time, I could never get the LED on the HMD to ever change from red. The second time, the LED on the HMD finally changed to green, but I still never got a picture. Although, there was one huge negative difference too. During the second time, when I would start Steam VR, it just went to a black screen each time... and it wasn't any ol' black screen. It pretty much hosed the whole computer each time! Although, oddly enough, as I mentioned, it worked fine once I put the cables back. During the first attempt, it would usually just give me an HMD Not Found error.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,255
403
126
Mother scratcher, I paid full price for Fallout 4 on release day (or maybe I pre-ordered it, don't remember, but it was full price) and now if I want to play it on VR I gotta buy the whole dang thing for $60 again? Jesus. I'd really like to try this but I'm gonna have to wait, cause I think paying another $60 for this (not even from-the-ground-up VR game) is way too much.

EDIT: Cheapest is currently $49 on GameBillet (for Steam key).
 

pj-

Senior member
May 5, 2015
481
249
116
I bought one, but I just can't get it to work. Although, it sounds like you may have done some things that I didn't? The first time, I tried setting it up using the 3-in-1 cable up to the transmitter. The second time, I bought a DisplayPort to HDMI cable to go straight from the PC to the transmitter. The TPCast software says that everything is setup and I just need to start the VR software, but it doesn't work. Eventually, after the two minute timeout, the receiver's indicator LED goes dark, which means it's in sleep mode waiting for a signal. To note, I did sync the receiver and transmitter multiple times.

Although, there was one difference the first and second time. The first time, I could never get the LED on the HMD to ever change from red. The second time, the LED on the HMD finally changed to green, but I still never got a picture. Although, there was one huge negative difference too. During the second time, when I would start Steam VR, it just went to a black screen each time... and it wasn't any ol' black screen. It pretty much hosed the whole computer each time! Although, oddly enough, as I mentioned, it worked fine once I put the cables back. During the first attempt, it would usually just give me an HMD Not Found error.

The vive's 3-in-1 cable should work, but keep in mind the hdmi cable in that is directional. You want the orange plug to go into your PC. I think people have had issues with DP to HDMI for tpcast.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
The vive's 3-in-1 cable should work, but keep in mind the hdmi cable in that is directional. You want the orange plug to go into your PC. I think people have had issues with DP to HDMI for tpcast.

Hm, that's kind of annoying. I'm using HDMI for the TV that the PC is connected to. :\ Part of me would rather just wait for a better headset to spend $300 on a wireless solution. Yeah, the cable is annoying, but when I put the headset back on to make sure it worked after removing TPCast for the second time, I still found the blurriness at the edge a bit annoying when trying to use VR Home. I have to retrain myself to move my head and not my eyes, which is a bit hard at times.
 

maniacalpha1-1

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2010
3,562
14
81
It's entirely possible that I asked this before and forgot, but...when do you anticipate that VR will actually affect the way games and other media are designed,and more importantly, in what ways could it affect the design? Would games becomes more complex overall, would it increase the detail level of game mechanics (like actually requiring you to reach and push buttons in a vehicle in a game), etc?

I clearly don't think it's going to happen in this generation of VR devices, because VR needs higher resolution. But Oculus 2.0/Vive 2.0, who knows?
 

Alamat

Senior member
Apr 30, 2003
683
9
81
The vive's 3-in-1 cable should work, but keep in mind the hdmi cable in that is directional. You want the orange plug to go into your PC. I think people have had issues with DP to HDMI for tpcast.

Actually I am using a DP cable from the 1080ti to the link box as I am using the HDMI for the TV/monitor. I even have a longer USB cable form the PC to the link box as well. Its all OEM Vive though from the link box to the TPCast transmitter.
 

pj-

Senior member
May 5, 2015
481
249
116
Actually I am using a DP cable from the 1080ti to the link box as I am using the HDMI for the TV/monitor. I even have a longer USB cable form the PC to the link box as well. Its all OEM Vive though from the link box to the TPCast transmitter.

Maybe it works the majority of the time but a lot of the folks who end up in the tpcast discord for troubleshooting have their problems solved by bypassing the linkbox or switching to HDMI.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I ended up giving up and just returning it. I would still like a wireless HMD setup, but part of me wouldn't mind if there was a system that was designed with one in mind from the ground up. Also, the ability to do things like swap batteries on the fly would be nice. Although, to be fair, the batteries do last a decent amount of time... probably longer than most people play VR in one sitting... or standing. :p

Although, as a note, I did see that (unsurprisingly) Pimax delayed the release of the 8K HMD. Delays aren't necessarily a bad thing, but I think it was also pretty obvious that the company wouldn't meet their manufacturing deadlines even before the Kickstarter campaign ended. Given that it was supposed to start shipping last month, I do wish that the company was more upfront about things rather than only being transparent when they didn't meet their deadlines.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,388
5,256
136
Vive Pro VR announced:

https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/08/htc-vive-pro-vr-headset/

Vive Wireless Adapter announced:

https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/08/htc-vive-wireless-adapter/

* No price or release date set (HMD-only upgrade available Q1)
* OLED screens
* Double the resolution (2880 x 1600 versus the original's 1080 x 1200)
* You can just buy a standalone headset and your wand controller and everything else will remain compatible with the upgraded display hardware
* The Pro's headphones also feature integrated 3D audio
* Wireless adapter uses Intel's WiGig technlogy; no word on price, but ships sometime this summer

I would really like wireless, but it's not a dealbreaker for me...the cord isn't an overly huge nuisance. As far as the new headset goes, I would really like the enhanced resolution, especially to see how text would look with it (ex. remote desktop), but I don't know if there's enough quality VR content out there to warrant me purchasing the new headset.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126

GameCrate has an article up on the new headset and wireless adapter. Here are some good bits that you might be interested in...

the Vive Pro makes virtual text and other fine details much clearer than the standard Vive. While reading text on the existing HMD often involves a bit of a struggle to get the text into the central “sweet spot” of the headset lenses to make it readable, all of the text in the Driftwood virtual environment I explored in my Vive Pro demo was instantly, perfectly clear. Whether signs that were close up or book titles on shelves that were a few virtual yards away, text was easy to make out regardless of the portion of the lenses in which it was displayed.

In addition to the display improvements, the Vive Pro is lighter and offers improved ergonomics and stability compared to the standard Vive. This is something you will notice immediately if you have experience with the previous Vive, as the Pro feels much less front-heavy, and doesn’t wobble or move out of place in the same way when you move your head rapidly.

Playing wirelessly with the adaptor I noticed what I believe to be a slight dip in graphical quality and resolution but, more importantly, I didn’t encounter any tracking or latency issues whatsoever.

In an FPS like Doom freedom of movement is essential, and after a minute or two spent adjusting I was able to move easily around the demo area through a combination of joystick movement and physical real-world movement, all without the need to worry about tripping over a wire.

They also noted that similar to the TPCast, it will have a battery pack and an extra sensor/transmitter in addition to the head-mounted device that they showed.
 
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