General VR discussion thread

[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?

Find it on Steam "Workshop".

Steam Workshop::Gunman Contracts - Chapter 1 - The Extraction

steamcommunity.com

Subscribe and then look for it in add-ons.

 

[bigi]

Just found out about Varjo Aero and it looks fine to me.

 

[slightlyhuman]

Find it on Steam "Workshop".

Steam Workshop::Gunman Contracts - Chapter 1 - The Extraction

steamcommunity.com

View attachment 60199


Subscribe and then look for it in add-ons.

View attachment 60198

thanks for this! i could not figure out how to get it to run after subscribing.
i'm a lake dude myself, just got my malibu wakesetter out of storage cheers!

 

[lakedude]

i'm a lake dude myself, just got my malibu wakesetter out of storage cheers!

 

[lakedude]

The older boy got his own place...

 

[lakedude]

I've had a Quest 2 and now have an Index coming. I'd like to use the Index Controllers and trackers wirelessly with the Quest and I've seen videos on how to do this but I'm confused about the dongles you need to buy. Are they Watchman dongles or SteamVR dongles, or are those the same thing?

 

[lakedude]

 

[FlawleZ]

Anyone really familiar with VRChat performance and how GPU/CPU scaling is? The setup in question is a Ryzen 1600AF @ 4Ghz, 16GB 3200Mhz DDDR4 and an OC'd RX 580. From what I've read it's heavily reliant on single thread IPC. Wondering if a GPU upgrade would benefit more or a CPU upgrade. FWIW the system runs it pretty well but some of the areas with lots of people drag it down.

 

[lakedude]

Really disappointed with Star Wars Squadrons so far. Nothing but trouble to get it running and VR controllers are not supported! What!! Looks like I need to buy a flight stick and maybe set up a keyboard as well?

 

[CP5670]

I play it with a keyboard because I'm used to a certain layout in Freespace, but a gamepad works well too. I would recommend getting a gamepad anyway for the seated sim-type games. I like this one but the cheap ones work fine too. A HOTAS is ideal but expensive if you're getting it just for this game.

Another VR space game worth trying out is House of the Dying Sun. It's very short but has great gameplay and atmosphere.

 

[Kaido]

New Meta Quest Pro from Facebook: ($1,500)

Cookie-Einwilligung

www.meta.com

* Mixed-reality pass-through (magnetic blinders with an RGB camera)
* Pro controllers
* Eye tracking (yay ads) & expression tracking

I have a pair of Quests right now, plus my old Vive (somehow it's still working!). Although my old 1080 Ti now crashes all the time, so Airlink & SteamVR is not so great for me at the moment lol. Plus my PC is from 2013 & the newest card it supports is the 1080 on a beta BIOS, so I can either buy a replacement 1080 for a couple hundred bucks off fleabay or invest in a new PC.

As far as the headset goes...$1.5k is lot for a headset these days. The mixed-reality feature is pretty cool, but it's going to need some killer apps to make the price worth the new features & specs.

 

[gorobei]

this high end push seems a bit contrary to John Carmack's preference for bottom up market adoption. i suppose that's why he stepped down as oculus CTO.

you have to wonder if apple locking out facebook data mining will be the downfall of zuck. all his eggs are in the metaverse vr basket. pushing vr towards higher margin sku seems like it will kill adoption and reduce the addressable market making vr less attractive to software devs.

 

[aigomorla]

New Meta Quest Pro from Facebook: ($1,500)

Cookie-Einwilligung

www.meta.com

* Mixed-reality pass-through (magnetic blinders with an RGB camera)
* Pro controllers
* Eye tracking (yay ads) & expression tracking

I have a pair of Quests right now, plus my old Vive (somehow it's still working!). Although my old 1080 Ti now crashes all the time, so Airlink & SteamVR is not so great for me at the moment lol. Plus my PC is from 2013 & the newest card it supports is the 1080 on a beta BIOS, so I can either buy a replacement 1080 for a couple hundred bucks off fleabay or invest in a new PC.

As far as the headset goes...$1.5k is lot for a headset these days. The mixed-reality feature is pretty cool, but it's going to need some killer apps to make the price worth the new features & specs.

yeah i lol'd when i saw that.

I guess they think because steam deck and HTC Vive Pro can get away with 4 figure price tags, they can one up it because its META.
It reminds me of this meme that META is trying to do...



Seriously... tho.... just go outside... the virtual world is not going to catch on until we get stuff like sword art online type VR.

 

[Kaido]

this high end push seems a bit contrary to John Carmack's preference for bottom up market adoption. i suppose that's why he stepped down as oculus CTO.

you have to wonder if apple locking out facebook data mining will be the downfall of zuck. all his eggs are in the metaverse vr basket. pushing vr towards higher margin sku seems like it will kill adoption and reduce the addressable market making vr less attractive to software devs.

Carmack: “There’s a bunch that I’m grumpy about” in virtual reality

Lonely lecture as a VR avatar is a far cry from last year's "thousands of people" goal.

arstechnica.com

 

[CP5670]

One good thing is the Quest no longer needs a FB account. I might try out one at some point. I never got a chance to play Lone Echo properly.

 

[gorobei]

One good thing is the Quest no longer needs a FB account. I might try out one at some point. I never got a chance to play Lone Echo properly.

i believe you are required to have a meta account to use the quests.

 

[Aikouka]

this high end push seems a bit contrary to John Carmack's preference for bottom up market adoption. i suppose that's why he stepped down as oculus CTO.

you have to wonder if apple locking out facebook data mining will be the downfall of zuck. all his eggs are in the metaverse vr basket. pushing vr towards higher margin sku seems like it will kill adoption and reduce the addressable market making vr less attractive to software devs.

Carmack actually commented on that in an unscripted video that he had at Meta's Connect event. Surprisingly, they allowed him to be (seemingly) rather honest in his feelings, which isn't something that you'd expect from a renowned member of a huge corporation. If I recall -- I read the article a few days ago -- he doesn't dislike the functionality of the new headset, but it isn't where he thinks VR needs to be going.

The Quest Pro might not be too bad if we get a trickle down approach. For example, if the (eventual) Quest 3 has the self-tracking controllers, that would be a nice upgrade. My biggest thing with it is that I'm hesitant about the strong push for AR in addition to VR. I don't think there's anything wrong with AR, but if the features to support it are jacking up the price tag that affects the already existing and prominent VR portion of the HMD, then it's a problem. The most problematic aspect is probably that AR doesn't really have a "killer app" where people can just point to things like Beat Saber or other fitness programs for VR.

yeah i lol'd when i saw that.

I guess they think because steam deck and HTC Vive Pro can get away with 4 figure price tags, they can one up it because its META.
It reminds me of this meme that META is trying to do...

View attachment 69088

Seriously... tho.... just go outside... the virtual world is not going to catch on until we get stuff like sword art online type VR.

I think your last remark points to one problem that I've had with some VR experiences/games, and that is the lack of tactile feedback. For example, Beat Saber works fine because you just slice through things. It might be nice to feel a little resistance or something, but it isn't necessary. On the other hand, if I'm dueling someone with a sword, I'm expecting the resistance when we clash our blades. When you don't get that sensation, you pretty much realize that you're just in a slightly more immerse Wii-like waggle fest.

i believe you are required to have a meta account to use the quests.

Yes. You can also transition your existing Facebook setup to the Meta account (i.e., transfer your games/apps), but I don't think you need to then link your Facebook account to the Meta account (but you can). My Meta account is just a basic one with a sign-in and no link to Facebook.

 

[Kaido]

Carmack actually commented on that in an unscripted video that he had at Meta's Connect event. Surprisingly, they allowed him to be (seemingly) rather honest in his feelings, which isn't something that you'd expect from a renowned member of a huge corporation. If I recall -- I read the article a few days ago -- he doesn't dislike the functionality of the new headset, but it isn't where he thinks VR needs to be going.

The Quest Pro might not be too bad if we get a trickle down approach. For example, if the (eventual) Quest 3 has the self-tracking controllers, that would be a nice upgrade. My biggest thing with it is that I'm hesitant about the strong push for AR in addition to VR. I don't think there's anything wrong with AR, but if the features to support it are jacking up the price tag that affects the already existing and prominent VR portion of the HMD, then it's a problem. The most problematic aspect is probably that AR doesn't really have a "killer app" where people can just point to things like Beat Saber or other fitness programs for VR.

Really my only gripe is lack of new AAA games. The rest of the stuff is "nice to have" but not a dealbreaker for me. I just want more cool stuff to play in VR!!

 

[Linux23]

So 3x the cost for what exactly?

 

[ericlp]

So 3x the cost for what exactly?

almost 4X as much. Not much... You'd be better off buying the cheaper Pico 4 with pancake lenses, just lacks the eye and face tracking. That is unless you want to wait till next year probably around this time for the Quest 3 that might implement some of the pro features.

Personally, I'm more interested in eye/fae tracking and Zuck already said that wouldn't come to the 3. so... Why wait, just get the pico 4.

 

[JujuFish]

almost 4X as much.

5x the original price for the Quest 2.

 

[Kaido]

OXR Runtime Switcher:

GitHub - WaGi-Coding/OpenXR-Runtime-Switcher: OpenXR Runtime-Switcher for Windows

OpenXR Runtime-Switcher for Windows. Contribute to WaGi-Coding/OpenXR-Runtime-Switcher development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

5 options:

1. SteamVR
2. Oculus/Meta
3. ViveVR
4. Windows Mixed Reality
5. Varjo

You can also add custom runtimes. Note that games can still switch themselves off the system default themselves. This is a nice tool if you run into that Steam bug with Airlink where it won't let you switch runtimes.

 

[Kaido]

No teaser footage, but they're working on an Attack on Titan game for the Quest 2:

 

[Kaido]

Pretty good list of Quest 2 freebies:

25 Free Games & Apps Quest 2 Owners Should Download First

Not ready to plonk down your first $100 on Quest 2 games? Thankfully there’s an impressive number of free games, experiences, apps, and social VR platforms to keep you playing before you’re paying. Note: We didn’t include demos for paid games in the list, but you should definitely also check out...

www.roadtovr.com

25 Free Games & Apps Quest 3 Owners Should Download First

Free Interactive Experiences Anne Frank House VR This interactive experience takes you into the secret annex where Anne Frank lived for two years in hiding from the Nazi regime. The experience lets you explore the entire annex where eight people hid, and experience what it must have been like...

www.roadtovr.com

 

[aigomorla]

No teaser footage, but they're working on an Attack on Titan game for the Quest 2:

That was like the most pointless video i have ever seen with no game photo, no sample of anything.
Also attack on titan is very dynamic, well the non VR version is at least.
Its bound to give the average person motion sickness.
Think of Spiderman but in VR with swinging swords.

Its not that great of a game to be showing off IMO.