They could consider putting the battery (and other dead weight) inn a belt or in some kind of webbing, then the weight would make any FPS a bit more realistic (i.e. combat vest\ammo).
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Tue, 2016-03-15 14:28
That's not a bad suggestion. Although if you have a chunk of weight in the bit on the front of your face (GPU, CPU, SSD, etc etc) the battery as a counterweight on the back may actually be a better place (even if it does make the overall head weight greater). NVGs used by pilots normally have a counterweight velcro'd onto the back of the helmet to reduce fatigue on the neck, and that weight is just a dead weight. It's not even usefully used as a battery.
2kg is definitely an improvement over my old gaming laptop. For comparison the Rift and Vive are ~500g each. If we do get rid of keyboard etc and halve the weight to 1kg, balanced correctly maybe we are in the realms of realistic then?
Then we're "just" left with thermodynamics to quietly overcome :)
They mention console level graphics in their pitch which is graphics cards from a few years back. Dial back the graphical fidelity and the 2k resolution and 90Hz even on something less capable is a going to be a lot more achievable and if it's not working as hard then there's less heat to deal with.
Still a lot of missing information on this one.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Tue, 2016-03-15 18:39
Sony just announced their price point and launch date
$399/ 349 pounds out in october
interesting it's lower res than oculus or vive 1920x1080 90-120hz RGB Oled display
not sure what is in the box for that (maybe the camera but perhaps not the move controllers)
Submitted by Evilmatt on Wed, 2016-03-16 01:29
The camera is not in the box, so that's +£40 for head tracking
I can't find the article that said pixel density needed was 2160x1200 for it to look anything reasonable at all. 1920x1080 is HD output for consoles but I don't believe it's enough.
Sony said that the reason that the camera is not in the box is that the vast majority of PS4s sold have it bundled. I don't know if that's true but it's a reasonable argument. Even at £389, it's considerably cheaper than the others.
Submitted by brainwipe on Wed, 2016-03-16 11:02
the resolution issue is usually the screen door effect if your resolution isn't high enough you can see the gaps between the pixels it's something that plagued the early oculus prototypes but that's highly dependent on the screen technology from all reports the screen door effect on psvr is minimal if present at all (supposedly the rgb subpixel display is the key there giving it individual pixels for red green and blue some other screen designs the subpixels are shared across pixels so it's an overall decrease in sharpness)
In other technology it's even less noticeable I've used one of the new digital projection displays (the ones that beam images directly into your retinas) that are 720p and you can't tell because there is no pixelation the only hint is the things like compression artifacts.
In terms of fidelity of image it's not going to match the vive or oculus but I know from people that have tried the prototypes that it is a pretty immersive experience and that's what you want from vr.
It's closer to a mainstream price too although I wonder if it's still in that uncomfortable gap where it's too expensive for real mainstream adoption yet not high spec enough for the high end experience.
It'll probably shift a lot of units though
Submitted by Evilmatt on Wed, 2016-03-16 18:02
Ah, thanks for the info about resolution.
Most people I know that have a PS4 haven't bought a console in a few years so are rubbing their hands together.
Submitted by brainwipe on Thu, 2016-03-17 14:45
Sounds like PSVR is going to focus on seated experiences and that's what they are recommending to developers which for me is less interesting that the holodeck style experience the vive and oculus are exploring as well.
Also sounds like the quoted 120hz is converted from native 60fps (possibly via asynchronous timewarp) from the ps4 if they manage 90fps in the ps4 then it goes native to the headset.
One thing they pointed out is that the dualshocks on ps4 are motion tracked already so even if you don't get the move controllers you've got a motion tracked control that can be mapped into vr space.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Thu, 2016-03-17 19:47
One thing I've noticed in all these demo videos of PSVR or Occulus or VIVE that they always have someone standing in the corner holding the cable out the way so you don't a) pull the pc off the shelf b) trip on the cable c) hang yourself
So is that person going to come with these kits as well or are they an extra:D
Submitted by Evilmatt on Thu, 2016-03-17 20:17
LOL! I don't trust anyone not to hang me with a cable. I want to be able to move around too, especially for this money and yes, I have a tiny mid-terrace house but I'D MAKE IT WORK, DAMMIT.
Re: the controller, one thing that I've read about Elite Dangerous players on the Dev Kits is that you're having a splendid time and thoroughly immersed and then you want to take your hands off the flight sticks to push buttons and swipe and all that. Apparently, it's quite instinctive to do that but your hands in the game stay solidly on the control. Not a deal breaker by far but I like that the Vive allows you to wave your arms around (and the Rift will too eventually by all accounts). It's more tricky to fix but XBone kinect can track your fingers without much problem so, massive complexity aside, I'm hoping that they get the body of the in-game avatar moving like your own. I remember reading early tries of one game and the avatar had no legs - it was freaking people out! A quick fix but made a big difference. :)
I hope Sony have a plan to get some more "move around" controllers because only then will full on VR really start coming into its own. Hurrah!
Submitted by brainwipe on Fri, 2016-03-18 10:07
The PSVR headset on it's own has no positional tracking to cover moving around. Or certainly not to the extent needed for room scale VR. That said it is compatible with a PS camera that already exists and the Move (?) controllers that are already out there which will give you positional tracking and controls for doing stuff with your hands.
I don't think we're completely there yet, but things like Leap Motion that directly track your hands are already out there (if not perfectly yet). At that point Minority Report style interaction becomes more of a reality.
Submitted by baron on Fri, 2016-03-18 12:24
The RIFT is now shipping, to kick starters first, then to pre-orders ... woo!!
Thanks to their pre-order website refusing my payment detail for so long I probably won't see mine until the later end of April (according to some random person who has been comparing order numbers to when the website said order around that time of ordering would be shipped).
I have my fingers crossed I get one sooner ... but I am pretty miffed at the added delay; hopefully I at least get an email soon saying when one might turn up.
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Tue, 2016-03-29 11:44
It looks like Oculus as managed to screw up the Rift launch, very few people (if any) that pre-ordered got a Rift in March despite the advertising, some people have been sent emails saying despatch in 1-3 weeks ... but most people (including myself) have heard absolutely nothing about when to expect one. It seems the only confirmed deliveries have been the kickstarter backers, but a lot of them have also not heard anything.
At this point I am left regretting not pre-ordering a Vive, just to have a chance of getting some VR any time soon.
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Fri, 2016-04-01 18:59
It's because each rift has to be hand delivered by Palmer Lucky
Submitted by Sparky Marky on Tue, 2016-04-05 10:37
And a wait until at least the 12th April to find out when an order might be despatched.
The £30 saving is nice, although it felt like a stealth charge when I was ordering.
The delay wouldn't be so bad, except thanks to the website originally not accepting my payment details for 40mins+ when I order so I am quite far down the list, despite the website saying March delivery all the way through.
... but I clearly have no choice but to wait ... and throw other toys out of my pram.
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Tue, 2016-04-05 13:28
With both of the pc centric units "released" I've been looking at the demos and games on the various sites and just lusting after one of these things. I had decided to wait given the humongous cost but just happens that work just cashed out all my stored holiday (american holiday system is weird you accrue it as you go and rather than use it or lose it you just keep accruing until you hit a cap and it's basically money then used to pay for days you have off so if you leave a company or some such they are legally required to give you a check to the balance of your holiday) my work is now officially part of toshiba so thats new holiday systems so all my stored holiday was converted to money. So I'm realizing I could use a chunk of that get a vr headset and a pc capable of running it ... so tempting.
Course with either system if I order now it'll be months before I get the thing and that aspect combined with my natural reticence with spending what I've mentally marked as "savings" is keeping me from splurging. I think if I could get one by tomorrow it would be another story.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Wed, 2016-04-06 06:39
I am a little biased, but ...
If you can hold off, it might worth waiting until Q3 (which in the grand scheme of things isn't that far off) to see if the new nVidia Pascal cards come out, they should give significantly more bang for your buck on the GFX side; the current card line up for VR is quite limited and pricey if you want something that will support excellent VR for any reasonable period of time.
If you can't wait, your best bet is probably to order a Vive now; the expected shipping is "around May 2016" and they don't seem to be having trouble meeting their dates, so it wouldn't surprise me if you get it sooner rather than later.
... please note, I have not provided the option to where you don't get VR ... you ARE GETTING VR!!
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Wed, 2016-04-06 08:44
Always the question of whether to wait for better graphics hardware. The graphics "war" in pc space had cooled off in recent years they were trying to flog 4k gaming but not many people were convinced but it feels like the excitement over VR is going to be the key to getting things moving again.
Still my gaming rig though at one point cutting edge is 4 years old now and starting to show it's age in normal games let alone cutting edge vr stuff. So I could do with a new machine at somepoint. I could go for the half measure swap out the graphics card for the minspec gtx970 (which the valve vr tool suggested would probably be enough to reach the acceptable levels of vr) and limp along on that for a bit upgrade to a better machine when newer better stuff becomes available.
Yeah I will get vr at some point just a question of when
Submitted by Evilmatt on Wed, 2016-04-06 18:38
The 12th of April has come; as promised Oculus have updated my expected shipping date:
5/30/2016 - 6/9/2016
... it said March when I ordered ... so this part of the email was never truer "This window may be later than your original estimate" ... gutted.
The Vive 2 might be out by the time I get my hands on one of these
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Tue, 2016-04-12 09:35
Seems like oculus greatly underestimated demand or just didn't have the supply of parts. I've heard htc/valve have had a few fuck ups on their end too.
Maybe the psvr launch will go smoothly :S
Now that both consumer versions are "out" it's been interesting to read the various comparisons. It sounds like in terms of visual quality it's pretty much a wash both systems have about the same quality some slight differences but nothing amazing. In terms of comfort it sounds like the rift has the edge there it's lighter and the design of the strap is better. The built in headphones are also supposed to be good. In terms of tracking systems it sounds like the vive has the better system so long as you position their lighthouse widgets well and bolt them down. The controller tracking with the vive is supposed to be incredible the virtual positioning matching real world positioning well enough you can juggle the things with their vr representations. In the software stage sounds like valve have that down much better than oculus with all the normal steam friends and so on oculus suprisingly doesn't have that yet. You'd think given their parent company that stuff would have been in day one it is basically the only thing facebook do. The walled garden approach that oculus are taking with their games is plus for the rift I guess since valve let any headset access steamvr though some bits only work with the vive oculus home only functions with a rift attached to the machine. I bet someone will hack round that but still it's a limitation.
I still think oculus missed a trick by not launching with the touch controllers people want that touch controlled room based vr it's the next big thing the first person sat in a chair using a xbox controller is nice but it's not that different from what we already have but more uncomfortable. I think if they'd come out of the gate with the full package the choice between vive and rift would be much cleaner cut. As it stand it seems like rift has a slight more comfortable headset but more limited more conventional experience vive is a bit more clunky but offering a truly new experience we've never seen before.
But then I guess if they'd launched with touch given how they've screwed up just the headset launch it would have been 2017 before people saw units. I aslo have to wonder that the vive might well have been a bit rushed to market the last prototype was out only a few months before launch it seemed oddly close together maybe they felt they had to go to market at the same time to match oculus's push.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Tue, 2016-04-12 19:28
This is interesting a prototype of the sort of actions people can have in social vr
Submitted by Evilmatt on Thu, 2016-04-14 19:57
Oh wow, that's brilliant. Brand new ways to take the piss out of your friends.
"Here Pete, let me draw you a T-Shirt.... oh it's says you're gay... is that true?"
Submitted by brainwipe on Fri, 2016-04-15 09:20
It actually brought to mind Snow Crash, and (quite specifically) how it's noted that the key breakthrough for virtual avatars was the mapping of facial expression, or as it's referred to;
"Condensing fact from the vapour of nuance"
...which is a beautiful phrase.
Watching what is effectively a police e-fit communicate with no facial expression looks very plasticky...
Submitted by babychaos on Fri, 2016-04-15 18:24
I see oculus plan to start selling rifts at amazon and best buy on may 7th seems a bit poor to do that before they've supplied all their preorders although they had some blurb about how if preorder people buy the thing instead they can cancel their preorders.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Mon, 2016-05-02 20:44
I picked up my HTC Vive last night and set it up.
It came in a massive box that contained a slightly less massive box one thing that was a little odd was most of the kit was ensconsed in foam the headset was in a foam lined area but was essentially loose which was a bit strange.
Realised when I got it out of the box I didn't have enough HDMI ports as my monitor was using the only one, quick trip to frys for a mini displayport to displayport cable (the little break out box on the PC side has both hdmi out and mini display port my gtx card has a spare display port socket) I stuck the light house units to my walls with gorrila tape (not sure this is a long term solution) Cleared the floor so I could have space to wander. Went through the setup process setup my play space by waving the controller around to indicate the perimeter which is pretty genius way to acomplish that.
Then I was off into a virtual world.
I ran tilt brush first which was really magical painting with light it's like nothing I've ever played with in art programs before and something you can really only do with VR. It also made me aware that even though my play space felt pretty big just looking at it the area in vr felt a little cramped the chaperone warning system that stops you walking into walls kept popping up and unlike other games or experiences you cant reposition yourself in the 3d space in tilt brush. Something the should add for those of us with only a couple of meters square available for the vr's.
I played Job Simulator which is quirky fun I did the office level and was throwing cups at my coworkers playing a game of flappy birds on a virtual pc with a virtual keyboard. I then tried the other free game fantastic contraption sort of a vr incredible machine if anyone remembers that game the interface of building these simple machines in virtual space is really intuitive.
Then the Valve demo suite the Lab finished downloading it's five or six little demo experiences that they built to show the possibilities of VR. They are simple mini games or demos the most game like was a archery game where you had a bow and had to shoot arrows at the rampaging horde to stop them storming your castle. There was also a sling shot game where you shot portal personality cores at boxes, a demo of 360 degree photogrammetry, a little bullet hell shooter game where your controller becomes the spaceship, a space area where you can fiddle with the planets, a magic shop thing that didn't seem to do much, a xray of a human body you could look through, and the robot repair thing. They were nice little demos of the possibilities.
I then tried surgeon simulator VR team fortress 2 edition. You have to cut out and replace the heart of a heavy from team fortress 2. In some ways adding the precise tracked motion controls to surgeon simulator undoes the joke. The original game was a play on something you would typically need really precised controls for but give you floppy arms and dodgy mouse controls. It's still quite a fun thing but it loses something when you can precisely control the thing.
I also picked up this RPG VR game called Vanishing Realms it wanted 2mx2m but my playspace is a bit narrower than that more like 1.5m x 2.2m I decided to try it anyway and it sort of worked the chaperone whould fling up any time I got off center but with some practice and thought I could stay in the middle and not get the grids. It's a really quite immersive experience standing in the dungeon seeing the skeletons stalk towards you having to fight them by actively swinging a virtual sword and blocking their attacks with the virtual shield. It was a quite simple game but the vr aspect made it feel fresh and interesting where on a monitor it might not have been anything special.
After that I stopped for the night. I didn't feel motion sick at anypoint wandering in the virtual space. It did get a little warm with the headset on. Pretty sure I had Vive face when I was done. It was reasonably comfortable I'm not sure I've completely dialed in the settings and fit yet but I played for a few hours without too much hassle. The chaperone system is really good I never once walked into a wall, I did once try to punch it when I ignored the grids in the heat of the moment.
It does need a lot of room to work well I think any less and I'd be in the standing space rather than room scale I might look at rearanging to try and eaek out some more room or else maybe drag the whole setup into the living room.
When it works perfectly it's a magical experience you are somewhere else feeling like you are there. In the robot repair demo at one point glados swings down into the area and the sense of scale is suddenly apparent in the way it isn't in the games. She's this massive machine looming over you it was surprisingly intense as an experience.
After spending a but load of money on this kit I feel like it has delivered on the promise and I'm excited for what it will develop into
Submitted by Evilmatt on Fri, 2016-05-06 20:49
:)
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Sat, 2016-05-07 12:02
Oh wow. Amazing write up, nice one.
Submitted by brainwipe on Sun, 2016-05-08 19:55
Couple of other things I've tried over the weekend
Hover Junkers
Vr multiplayer shooter you fly around on these hover platforms which you weld junk to that acts as cover, hence hover junkers. You can have multiple people in each hover junker they come in various sizes. I just flew the single one. You can translate the hover junker around the play area hunting for people with a hand control that uses gesture to direction. Once you stop you can then dual weild a selection of guns I think my favorite was the shotgun.
Your playspace is essentially the inside platform of the hover junker you can position your avatar to shield it from incoming fire dodge and duck in the real world the pop up and unleash fire or just hold the guns over the barrier and hope. It's a lot of fun and shows the possibilities of multiplayer games in VR.
Space Pirate trainer
A fun little demo game where you shoot at waves of flying pirates. You have several weapon options single shot precise, burst shot, auto shot, laser, or charged shot. You can also reach behind yourself to get a shield that reflects back incoming fire and can also fire a concussive wave of force knocking enemies back. It's fun blasting away with both hands or one hand with a shield, two shields is not very effective.
Apollo 11
Not so much a game as an experience. Constructed from the footage of apollo 11 it's a slightly interactive vr experience where you get to stand at the base of the saturn 5 experience lift off from inside the command module. Dock the LEM and command module in space. Land the LEM on the moon (or try to I kept pranging the thing into the ground). I love the space aspect of this which makes it interesting to me but I'm not sure it would hold up if you didn't have that hook.
Crystal Rift
Roguelike dungeon crawler bit slow and makes the mistake of sliding you through the space like you are on a gigantic moving walkway really disorienting the first time. Not sure I'd recommend this one Vanishing realms does the same thing only better.
Ledgend of Luca
Another sort of Roguelike more action based uses teleporting focus on more blasting away with fancy weapons to a rock soundtrack rather than the slow pace of crystal rift. Quite fun though the teleporting around bosses and reorienting nearly tripped me on the cable a few times as it wrapped around me.
The Foo Show
This one isn;t a game, it's an attempt at a VR talkshow by ex Tested.com's Will Smith. I've been itching to try this out since it was announced a few month back. There is currently just one episode which is a tester for the concept. For guests they have the people behind the excellent game Firewatch. They start with a fairly standard interview format except you can bounce around the studio to various nodes. Then they cut to the experience portion inside a version of the firetower from Firewatch. You can wander the tower teleporting to various nodes and pick up the objects looking at them while the creators and host talk about the game and the models and how they were made. It's a fascinating idea a recording that you feel present in and one thing I notice was I would be standing near one of the avatars of the host or guest and they would move in my direction and my brain would feel uncomfortable with that and I would move out of their way. These were recordings and even then completely insubstantial yet they felt real enough that I gave them personal space. It's something you notice in vr you assign objects solidity you mentally don't want to put your hands or body through things because a lifetime of experience tells you you can't. It's a very interesting phenomenon.
Anyway the Foo show is pretty fun and a great new use of the technology I look forward to seeing new episodes.
I think that's about it there is also the demo for budget cuts which I'd like to try and a few other experiences floating around. A lot of these games are small focused experiences for a few bucks there are only a couple of full length type games as yet.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Mon, 2016-05-09 22:59
Turning fucking jade with envy.
Thanks for the balanced write up. I trust you far more than the press!
Have you tried Elite Dangerous with it?
Submitted by brainwipe on Tue, 2016-05-10 09:22
Great write ups.
Roll on 5/30/2016 - 6/9/2016 … until then I can't say much more without my general rage at Oculus being excessively expressed.
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Tue, 2016-05-10 12:30
Not tried elite yet still need to try and get the steam key for that.
did try a demo of a game called Budget Cuts which is this cool VR stealth game with killer robots that was pretty cool.
Oculus really seem to have ballsed up their launch something fierce they came out of the gate strong looked like they were going to be the leaders in this and it looked like HTC were scrambling to release in the same time frame. Now it seems Oculus had no idea how to deliver on their promise and have at every turn made stupid decisions that fuck over their waiting customers. Guess they have no experience shipping product only small prototype runs and their parent company doesn't make things. Still with 5 billion dollars you'd think they could hire someone that knew what they were doing.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Tue, 2016-05-10 17:54
One thing I've noticed so far in the VR stuff is it's currently mostly little experiments or short concept demos there are very few long form games that use the technology. Almost all of the full sized things are sandbox type experiments. The most game like of the things I've tried was Job Simulator which while a lot of fun only has the four environments and once you run through them although there is the mod's option (doll house mode is great reducing everything so it's tiny) it's a limited experience and not something you can keep playing again and again. Hover Junkers is the most complete as a game you can just keep playing I think.
There are a couple of things like Elite and on oculus Eve Valkyrie that take the sit down approach most of those are more games that exist anyway that just leverage the VR tech for some extra gimmick points. I've not tried any of those yet I've been wary of anything that involves motion for fear of motion sickness.
The longer experiences are probbaly coming things like budget cuts show promise as having more of a game than just a quick "wow isn't this cool" that a lot of the various demos have.
There is also the specter of exclusivity with things being locked to the oculus platform or vive/SteamVR platform (although most of the vive only games are not vive only because of any walled garden type approach more techinical differences ie the lack motion controllers which will be resolved when oculus touch comes out) which seems counter productive to such a new environment with only the small audience of early adopters onboard.
I guess it's still early days and there are a lot of fun things to try hopefully as people figure out how the thing works we'll get some more long form interesting games to play.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Tue, 2016-05-10 19:14
Tried out elite found it pretty odd as while the cockpit is imersive with the displays popping up as you look over I can see my controls so had to play with the gamepad. I'm sure if I'd gotten back into it and pulled out my hotas it would have been good after a few goes.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Thu, 2016-05-12 06:29
Elite with the headset is ace. I recommend using a HOTAS for it. Much better than using a gamepad. Flying down over the planets or through asteroid fields really highlights the 3D aspect of things.
With respect to feeling motion sick. I am pretty tough in the real world and I have been completely fine in the virtual one too with the exception of roaming around in a buggy in Elite. That was pretty awful. The bouncing suspension is bad. I am however completely fine rolling, looping and fucking about in the ships fine.
Also been playing Project cars. That's pretty cool too. Much easier to judge distances etc. 3D in these headsets is not like a 3D film, it's so much better.
It really is 3D and you can focus on things close or far away pretty much as you would in real life.
I recommend final approach as a really well put together room scale game. Simple in concept, but nicely done and a mix of small scale tabletop type playing with mini toy planes and immersive full scale activities. Switching between eye in the sky to standing on the runway is neat.
Windlands is a nice platform style affair. I can imagine that is quite sick inducing though. Swinging through the air on bungie tarzan style takes a little to get used to.
I only gave the budget cuts demo a quick go. Mainly because it is quite intense and my play space is not massive. I fucked up killing a robot and it was amazing how I panicked trying to get away and survive. I was a flailing mess of arms and dodging until I died. I was afraid of ignoring the chaperone all together! Will give it another go at some point.
Sorry, that was a bit rambley...
Submitted by baron on Tue, 2016-05-17 14:50
I'm assuming this is some kind of competition for everyone to get VR before Big Rob?
I'm half-tempted to join in, just for shits and giggles (and vomit).
Submitted by babychaos on Tue, 2016-05-17 14:55
I read on reddit Vive is on about a 3 day turnaround form order nowadays...
And then they ran out in the US.
Submitted by baron on Tue, 2016-05-17 15:05
Yeah Final Approach is pretty fun I've been playing that probably most often it does a good job of taking the simple concept then adding layers of extra gameplay to it and makes excellent use of the roomscale 3d.
I played The Blu last night (well played is probably too strong a word there is very little interactivity) there are three experiences Whale encouter (which does a good job of scale with the massive blue whale looming over you) turtles (which has lots of jelly fish) and then luminous garden. The third one was perhaps the most atmospheric it starts almost pitch black with the light from an angler fish the only illumination. You have a flash light to look around with and it's very intense being only able to see that small cone of light yet getting hints of things moving around you. Not sure this one is worth the price even tho it was only ten dollars but it is very pretty.
I also downloaded Disney VR which has a couple of essentially promotional 360 videos. It has three subsections Starwars Marvel and disney proper. The starwars ones seem the most interesting you're flying through Jakku in a speeder somewhat vomit inducing . The marvel video is the red carpet for captain america civil war premier which is pretty dull. Not tried the other disney section it seemed to be all jungle book.
I saw windlands and thought it would probably turn me into a vomit fountain so steered clear of it.
Selfie Tennis is quite good you play tennis with yourself every time you hit the ball you teleport to the other side to knock it back and the goal is to keep up a rally for as long as possible. Simple concept that works really well in the vr somewhat meditative after a while. Can lead to smashing hands into walls ceiling or in my case each other when I got a bit enthusiastic serving and smacked the ball hand controller into the racket hand controller squashing a finger or two.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Tue, 2016-05-17 20:38
I love reading these through! It's great to see what "normal people" are enjoying in VR - means more to me than game reviewers, no matter how professional they are.
Submitted by brainwipe on Wed, 2016-05-18 09:18
If the rumours are true, my Rift turns up tomorrow ... but am trying not to get my hopes up too high ... who knows what lengths Pete would go to just to stoke my Oculus rage, a spoofed a UPS email? maybe even as far as getting a fake UPS guy to turn up an hand me an empty box?.
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Wed, 2016-05-18 12:14
A complete fake rift made using his unestimable baking skills
Submitted by Evilmatt on Wed, 2016-05-18 18:55
LOL, yummy and upsetting. It might put you off food for a long time - which would helping in dieting.
Submitted by brainwipe on Thu, 2016-05-19 09:21
Tried out Zombie Training simulator had seen it but though it looked a little cartoony and dismissed it but then saw a video of it in action and it looked quite fun. Has huge waves of zombies that you have to defeat by baiting them with steaks you throw out and then explosives to take out large numbers and a variety of weapons you gradually unlock. Pretty fun game
Submitted by Evilmatt on Thu, 2016-05-19 19:13
So did you get the Rift or are you still waiting? Was it just so good you are now stuck in a virtual world unable to get back to reality?
I played a sit down VR experience "Time machine VR" you pilot this little pod around examining water based dinosaurs. It's a port from gear VR so the graphics are a little rough in parts but it was fun to steer my time pod around with one hand and do scanning and analyzing of various dinos with the other.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Wed, 2016-05-25 20:05
Ah the rift, yes it did arrive, and it is excellent, when little niggles aren't ripping me away from the otherwise awesome total immersion.
I haven't given it quite as much time as I wanted to due to other commitments, but what I have used it for has been great fun.
The main things I want to try out are Elite and a few driving games, but they all have large setup time (30 mins of faffing with peripherals and setting up controls) which has put me off a little, but I am hoping to give it a real bash on the upcoming bank holiday monday.
Submitted by Bigger Rob on Thu, 2016-05-26 10:04
Superb! Keen to hear your thoughts on it.
Submitted by brainwipe on Thu, 2016-05-26 09:15
And of course the question we all want answered is lucky's tale, where you play as palmer lucky as he sells out to facebook, as good as they say
Submitted by Evilmatt on Thu, 2016-05-26 18:54
The ultimate VR experience has arrived Light Saber Blade VR now on Steam for the vive allows you to deflect blaster shots from a small flying drone a la episode 4 with dual weild light sabers not much more to it but the first game where the one to one tracking of the motion controls with the vr view of the sabers makes it feel real. They have all the sounds and a variety of unlockable styles.
Finally that several thousand dollars I spent getting VR is justified :D
Comments
They could consider putting the battery (and other dead weight) inn a belt or in some kind of webbing, then the weight would make any FPS a bit more realistic (i.e. combat vest\ammo).
That's not a bad suggestion. Although if you have a chunk of weight in the bit on the front of your face (GPU, CPU, SSD, etc etc) the battery as a counterweight on the back may actually be a better place (even if it does make the overall head weight greater). NVGs used by pilots normally have a counterweight velcro'd onto the back of the helmet to reduce fatigue on the neck, and that weight is just a dead weight. It's not even usefully used as a battery.
2kg is definitely an improvement over my old gaming laptop. For comparison the Rift and Vive are ~500g each. If we do get rid of keyboard etc and halve the weight to 1kg, balanced correctly maybe we are in the realms of realistic then?
Then we're "just" left with thermodynamics to quietly overcome :)
Looks like they're aiming for AR as a focus in the following demo: https://vimeo.com/158922156
They mention console level graphics in their pitch which is graphics cards from a few years back. Dial back the graphical fidelity and the 2k resolution and 90Hz even on something less capable is a going to be a lot more achievable and if it's not working as hard then there's less heat to deal with.
Still a lot of missing information on this one.
Sony just announced their price point and launch date
$399/ 349 pounds out in october
interesting it's lower res than oculus or vive 1920x1080 90-120hz RGB Oled display
not sure what is in the box for that (maybe the camera but perhaps not the move controllers)
The camera is not in the box, so that's +£40 for head tracking
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-03-15-playstation-vr-will-cost-349
I can't find the article that said pixel density needed was 2160x1200 for it to look anything reasonable at all. 1920x1080 is HD output for consoles but I don't believe it's enough.
Sony said that the reason that the camera is not in the box is that the vast majority of PS4s sold have it bundled. I don't know if that's true but it's a reasonable argument. Even at £389, it's considerably cheaper than the others.
the resolution issue is usually the screen door effect if your resolution isn't high enough you can see the gaps between the pixels it's something that plagued the early oculus prototypes but that's highly dependent on the screen technology from all reports the screen door effect on psvr is minimal if present at all (supposedly the rgb subpixel display is the key there giving it individual pixels for red green and blue some other screen designs the subpixels are shared across pixels so it's an overall decrease in sharpness)
In other technology it's even less noticeable I've used one of the new digital projection displays (the ones that beam images directly into your retinas) that are 720p and you can't tell because there is no pixelation the only hint is the things like compression artifacts.
In terms of fidelity of image it's not going to match the vive or oculus but I know from people that have tried the prototypes that it is a pretty immersive experience and that's what you want from vr.
It's closer to a mainstream price too although I wonder if it's still in that uncomfortable gap where it's too expensive for real mainstream adoption yet not high spec enough for the high end experience.
It'll probably shift a lot of units though
Ah, thanks for the info about resolution.
Most people I know that have a PS4 haven't bought a console in a few years so are rubbing their hands together.
Sounds like PSVR is going to focus on seated experiences and that's what they are recommending to developers which for me is less interesting that the holodeck style experience the vive and oculus are exploring as well.
Also sounds like the quoted 120hz is converted from native 60fps (possibly via asynchronous timewarp) from the ps4 if they manage 90fps in the ps4 then it goes native to the headset.
One thing they pointed out is that the dualshocks on ps4 are motion tracked already so even if you don't get the move controllers you've got a motion tracked control that can be mapped into vr space.
One thing I've noticed in all these demo videos of PSVR or Occulus or VIVE that they always have someone standing in the corner holding the cable out the way so you don't a) pull the pc off the shelf b) trip on the cable c) hang yourself
So is that person going to come with these kits as well or are they an extra:D
LOL! I don't trust anyone not to hang me with a cable. I want to be able to move around too, especially for this money and yes, I have a tiny mid-terrace house but I'D MAKE IT WORK, DAMMIT.
Re: the controller, one thing that I've read about Elite Dangerous players on the Dev Kits is that you're having a splendid time and thoroughly immersed and then you want to take your hands off the flight sticks to push buttons and swipe and all that. Apparently, it's quite instinctive to do that but your hands in the game stay solidly on the control. Not a deal breaker by far but I like that the Vive allows you to wave your arms around (and the Rift will too eventually by all accounts). It's more tricky to fix but XBone kinect can track your fingers without much problem so, massive complexity aside, I'm hoping that they get the body of the in-game avatar moving like your own. I remember reading early tries of one game and the avatar had no legs - it was freaking people out! A quick fix but made a big difference. :)
I hope Sony have a plan to get some more "move around" controllers because only then will full on VR really start coming into its own. Hurrah!
The PSVR headset on it's own has no positional tracking to cover moving around. Or certainly not to the extent needed for room scale VR. That said it is compatible with a PS camera that already exists and the Move (?) controllers that are already out there which will give you positional tracking and controls for doing stuff with your hands.
I don't think we're completely there yet, but things like Leap Motion that directly track your hands are already out there (if not perfectly yet). At that point Minority Report style interaction becomes more of a reality.
The RIFT is now shipping, to kick starters first, then to pre-orders ... woo!!
Thanks to their pre-order website refusing my payment detail for so long I probably won't see mine until the later end of April (according to some random person who has been comparing order numbers to when the website said order around that time of ordering would be shipped).
I have my fingers crossed I get one sooner ... but I am pretty miffed at the added delay; hopefully I at least get an email soon saying when one might turn up.
It looks like Oculus as managed to screw up the Rift launch, very few people (if any) that pre-ordered got a Rift in March despite the advertising, some people have been sent emails saying despatch in 1-3 weeks ... but most people (including myself) have heard absolutely nothing about when to expect one. It seems the only confirmed deliveries have been the kickstarter backers, but a lot of them have also not heard anything.
At this point I am left regretting not pre-ordering a Vive, just to have a chance of getting some VR any time soon.
It's because each rift has to be hand delivered by Palmer Lucky
All pre-orders to date will have free shipping: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35959537
And a wait until at least the 12th April to find out when an order might be despatched.
The £30 saving is nice, although it felt like a stealth charge when I was ordering.
The delay wouldn't be so bad, except thanks to the website originally not accepting my payment details for 40mins+ when I order so I am quite far down the list, despite the website saying March delivery all the way through.
... but I clearly have no choice but to wait ... and throw other toys out of my pram.
With both of the pc centric units "released" I've been looking at the demos and games on the various sites and just lusting after one of these things. I had decided to wait given the humongous cost but just happens that work just cashed out all my stored holiday (american holiday system is weird you accrue it as you go and rather than use it or lose it you just keep accruing until you hit a cap and it's basically money then used to pay for days you have off so if you leave a company or some such they are legally required to give you a check to the balance of your holiday) my work is now officially part of toshiba so thats new holiday systems so all my stored holiday was converted to money. So I'm realizing I could use a chunk of that get a vr headset and a pc capable of running it ... so tempting.
Course with either system if I order now it'll be months before I get the thing and that aspect combined with my natural reticence with spending what I've mentally marked as "savings" is keeping me from splurging. I think if I could get one by tomorrow it would be another story.
I am a little biased, but ...
If you can hold off, it might worth waiting until Q3 (which in the grand scheme of things isn't that far off) to see if the new nVidia Pascal cards come out, they should give significantly more bang for your buck on the GFX side; the current card line up for VR is quite limited and pricey if you want something that will support excellent VR for any reasonable period of time.
If you can't wait, your best bet is probably to order a Vive now; the expected shipping is "around May 2016" and they don't seem to be having trouble meeting their dates, so it wouldn't surprise me if you get it sooner rather than later.
... please note, I have not provided the option to where you don't get VR ... you ARE GETTING VR!!
Always the question of whether to wait for better graphics hardware. The graphics "war" in pc space had cooled off in recent years they were trying to flog 4k gaming but not many people were convinced but it feels like the excitement over VR is going to be the key to getting things moving again.
Still my gaming rig though at one point cutting edge is 4 years old now and starting to show it's age in normal games let alone cutting edge vr stuff. So I could do with a new machine at somepoint. I could go for the half measure swap out the graphics card for the minspec gtx970 (which the valve vr tool suggested would probably be enough to reach the acceptable levels of vr) and limp along on that for a bit upgrade to a better machine when newer better stuff becomes available.
Yeah I will get vr at some point just a question of when
The 12th of April has come; as promised Oculus have updated my expected shipping date:
5/30/2016 - 6/9/2016
... it said March when I ordered ... so this part of the email was never truer "This window may be later than your original estimate" ... gutted.
The Vive 2 might be out by the time I get my hands on one of these
Seems like oculus greatly underestimated demand or just didn't have the supply of parts. I've heard htc/valve have had a few fuck ups on their end too.
Maybe the psvr launch will go smoothly :S
Now that both consumer versions are "out" it's been interesting to read the various comparisons. It sounds like in terms of visual quality it's pretty much a wash both systems have about the same quality some slight differences but nothing amazing. In terms of comfort it sounds like the rift has the edge there it's lighter and the design of the strap is better. The built in headphones are also supposed to be good. In terms of tracking systems it sounds like the vive has the better system so long as you position their lighthouse widgets well and bolt them down. The controller tracking with the vive is supposed to be incredible the virtual positioning matching real world positioning well enough you can juggle the things with their vr representations. In the software stage sounds like valve have that down much better than oculus with all the normal steam friends and so on oculus suprisingly doesn't have that yet. You'd think given their parent company that stuff would have been in day one it is basically the only thing facebook do. The walled garden approach that oculus are taking with their games is plus for the rift I guess since valve let any headset access steamvr though some bits only work with the vive oculus home only functions with a rift attached to the machine. I bet someone will hack round that but still it's a limitation.
I still think oculus missed a trick by not launching with the touch controllers people want that touch controlled room based vr it's the next big thing the first person sat in a chair using a xbox controller is nice but it's not that different from what we already have but more uncomfortable. I think if they'd come out of the gate with the full package the choice between vive and rift would be much cleaner cut. As it stand it seems like rift has a slight more comfortable headset but more limited more conventional experience vive is a bit more clunky but offering a truly new experience we've never seen before.
But then I guess if they'd launched with touch given how they've screwed up just the headset launch it would have been 2017 before people saw units. I aslo have to wonder that the vive might well have been a bit rushed to market the last prototype was out only a few months before launch it seemed oddly close together maybe they felt they had to go to market at the same time to match oculus's push.
This is interesting a prototype of the sort of actions people can have in social vr
Oh wow, that's brilliant. Brand new ways to take the piss out of your friends.
"Here Pete, let me draw you a T-Shirt.... oh it's says you're gay... is that true?"
It actually brought to mind Snow Crash, and (quite specifically) how it's noted that the key breakthrough for virtual avatars was the mapping of facial expression, or as it's referred to;
"Condensing fact from the vapour of nuance"
...which is a beautiful phrase.
Watching what is effectively a police e-fit communicate with no facial expression looks very plasticky...
I see oculus plan to start selling rifts at amazon and best buy on may 7th seems a bit poor to do that before they've supplied all their preorders although they had some blurb about how if preorder people buy the thing instead they can cancel their preorders.
I picked up my HTC Vive last night and set it up.
It came in a massive box that contained a slightly less massive box one thing that was a little odd was most of the kit was ensconsed in foam the headset was in a foam lined area but was essentially loose which was a bit strange.
Realised when I got it out of the box I didn't have enough HDMI ports as my monitor was using the only one, quick trip to frys for a mini displayport to displayport cable (the little break out box on the PC side has both hdmi out and mini display port my gtx card has a spare display port socket) I stuck the light house units to my walls with gorrila tape (not sure this is a long term solution) Cleared the floor so I could have space to wander. Went through the setup process setup my play space by waving the controller around to indicate the perimeter which is pretty genius way to acomplish that.
Then I was off into a virtual world.
I ran tilt brush first which was really magical painting with light it's like nothing I've ever played with in art programs before and something you can really only do with VR. It also made me aware that even though my play space felt pretty big just looking at it the area in vr felt a little cramped the chaperone warning system that stops you walking into walls kept popping up and unlike other games or experiences you cant reposition yourself in the 3d space in tilt brush. Something the should add for those of us with only a couple of meters square available for the vr's.
I played Job Simulator which is quirky fun I did the office level and was throwing cups at my coworkers playing a game of flappy birds on a virtual pc with a virtual keyboard. I then tried the other free game fantastic contraption sort of a vr incredible machine if anyone remembers that game the interface of building these simple machines in virtual space is really intuitive.
Then the Valve demo suite the Lab finished downloading it's five or six little demo experiences that they built to show the possibilities of VR. They are simple mini games or demos the most game like was a archery game where you had a bow and had to shoot arrows at the rampaging horde to stop them storming your castle. There was also a sling shot game where you shot portal personality cores at boxes, a demo of 360 degree photogrammetry, a little bullet hell shooter game where your controller becomes the spaceship, a space area where you can fiddle with the planets, a magic shop thing that didn't seem to do much, a xray of a human body you could look through, and the robot repair thing. They were nice little demos of the possibilities.
I then tried surgeon simulator VR team fortress 2 edition. You have to cut out and replace the heart of a heavy from team fortress 2. In some ways adding the precise tracked motion controls to surgeon simulator undoes the joke. The original game was a play on something you would typically need really precised controls for but give you floppy arms and dodgy mouse controls. It's still quite a fun thing but it loses something when you can precisely control the thing.
I also picked up this RPG VR game called Vanishing Realms it wanted 2mx2m but my playspace is a bit narrower than that more like 1.5m x 2.2m I decided to try it anyway and it sort of worked the chaperone whould fling up any time I got off center but with some practice and thought I could stay in the middle and not get the grids. It's a really quite immersive experience standing in the dungeon seeing the skeletons stalk towards you having to fight them by actively swinging a virtual sword and blocking their attacks with the virtual shield. It was a quite simple game but the vr aspect made it feel fresh and interesting where on a monitor it might not have been anything special.
After that I stopped for the night. I didn't feel motion sick at anypoint wandering in the virtual space. It did get a little warm with the headset on. Pretty sure I had Vive face when I was done. It was reasonably comfortable I'm not sure I've completely dialed in the settings and fit yet but I played for a few hours without too much hassle. The chaperone system is really good I never once walked into a wall, I did once try to punch it when I ignored the grids in the heat of the moment.
It does need a lot of room to work well I think any less and I'd be in the standing space rather than room scale I might look at rearanging to try and eaek out some more room or else maybe drag the whole setup into the living room.
When it works perfectly it's a magical experience you are somewhere else feeling like you are there. In the robot repair demo at one point glados swings down into the area and the sense of scale is suddenly apparent in the way it isn't in the games. She's this massive machine looming over you it was surprisingly intense as an experience.
After spending a but load of money on this kit I feel like it has delivered on the promise and I'm excited for what it will develop into
:)
Oh wow. Amazing write up, nice one.
Couple of other things I've tried over the weekend
Hover Junkers
Vr multiplayer shooter you fly around on these hover platforms which you weld junk to that acts as cover, hence hover junkers. You can have multiple people in each hover junker they come in various sizes. I just flew the single one. You can translate the hover junker around the play area hunting for people with a hand control that uses gesture to direction. Once you stop you can then dual weild a selection of guns I think my favorite was the shotgun.
Your playspace is essentially the inside platform of the hover junker you can position your avatar to shield it from incoming fire dodge and duck in the real world the pop up and unleash fire or just hold the guns over the barrier and hope. It's a lot of fun and shows the possibilities of multiplayer games in VR.
Space Pirate trainer
A fun little demo game where you shoot at waves of flying pirates. You have several weapon options single shot precise, burst shot, auto shot, laser, or charged shot. You can also reach behind yourself to get a shield that reflects back incoming fire and can also fire a concussive wave of force knocking enemies back. It's fun blasting away with both hands or one hand with a shield, two shields is not very effective.
Apollo 11
Not so much a game as an experience. Constructed from the footage of apollo 11 it's a slightly interactive vr experience where you get to stand at the base of the saturn 5 experience lift off from inside the command module. Dock the LEM and command module in space. Land the LEM on the moon (or try to I kept pranging the thing into the ground). I love the space aspect of this which makes it interesting to me but I'm not sure it would hold up if you didn't have that hook.
Crystal Rift
Roguelike dungeon crawler bit slow and makes the mistake of sliding you through the space like you are on a gigantic moving walkway really disorienting the first time. Not sure I'd recommend this one Vanishing realms does the same thing only better.
Ledgend of Luca
Another sort of Roguelike more action based uses teleporting focus on more blasting away with fancy weapons to a rock soundtrack rather than the slow pace of crystal rift. Quite fun though the teleporting around bosses and reorienting nearly tripped me on the cable a few times as it wrapped around me.
The Foo Show
This one isn;t a game, it's an attempt at a VR talkshow by ex Tested.com's Will Smith. I've been itching to try this out since it was announced a few month back. There is currently just one episode which is a tester for the concept. For guests they have the people behind the excellent game Firewatch. They start with a fairly standard interview format except you can bounce around the studio to various nodes. Then they cut to the experience portion inside a version of the firetower from Firewatch. You can wander the tower teleporting to various nodes and pick up the objects looking at them while the creators and host talk about the game and the models and how they were made. It's a fascinating idea a recording that you feel present in and one thing I notice was I would be standing near one of the avatars of the host or guest and they would move in my direction and my brain would feel uncomfortable with that and I would move out of their way. These were recordings and even then completely insubstantial yet they felt real enough that I gave them personal space. It's something you notice in vr you assign objects solidity you mentally don't want to put your hands or body through things because a lifetime of experience tells you you can't. It's a very interesting phenomenon.
Anyway the Foo show is pretty fun and a great new use of the technology I look forward to seeing new episodes.
I think that's about it there is also the demo for budget cuts which I'd like to try and a few other experiences floating around. A lot of these games are small focused experiences for a few bucks there are only a couple of full length type games as yet.
Turning fucking jade with envy.
Thanks for the balanced write up. I trust you far more than the press!
Have you tried Elite Dangerous with it?
Great write ups.
Roll on 5/30/2016 - 6/9/2016 … until then I can't say much more without my general rage at Oculus being excessively expressed.
Not tried elite yet still need to try and get the steam key for that.
did try a demo of a game called Budget Cuts which is this cool VR stealth game with killer robots that was pretty cool.
Oculus really seem to have ballsed up their launch something fierce they came out of the gate strong looked like they were going to be the leaders in this and it looked like HTC were scrambling to release in the same time frame. Now it seems Oculus had no idea how to deliver on their promise and have at every turn made stupid decisions that fuck over their waiting customers. Guess they have no experience shipping product only small prototype runs and their parent company doesn't make things. Still with 5 billion dollars you'd think they could hire someone that knew what they were doing.
One thing I've noticed so far in the VR stuff is it's currently mostly little experiments or short concept demos there are very few long form games that use the technology. Almost all of the full sized things are sandbox type experiments. The most game like of the things I've tried was Job Simulator which while a lot of fun only has the four environments and once you run through them although there is the mod's option (doll house mode is great reducing everything so it's tiny) it's a limited experience and not something you can keep playing again and again. Hover Junkers is the most complete as a game you can just keep playing I think.
There are a couple of things like Elite and on oculus Eve Valkyrie that take the sit down approach most of those are more games that exist anyway that just leverage the VR tech for some extra gimmick points. I've not tried any of those yet I've been wary of anything that involves motion for fear of motion sickness.
The longer experiences are probbaly coming things like budget cuts show promise as having more of a game than just a quick "wow isn't this cool" that a lot of the various demos have.
There is also the specter of exclusivity with things being locked to the oculus platform or vive/SteamVR platform (although most of the vive only games are not vive only because of any walled garden type approach more techinical differences ie the lack motion controllers which will be resolved when oculus touch comes out) which seems counter productive to such a new environment with only the small audience of early adopters onboard.
I guess it's still early days and there are a lot of fun things to try hopefully as people figure out how the thing works we'll get some more long form interesting games to play.
Tried out elite found it pretty odd as while the cockpit is imersive with the displays popping up as you look over I can see my controls so had to play with the gamepad. I'm sure if I'd gotten back into it and pulled out my hotas it would have been good after a few goes.
Elite with the headset is ace. I recommend using a HOTAS for it. Much better than using a gamepad. Flying down over the planets or through asteroid fields really highlights the 3D aspect of things.
With respect to feeling motion sick. I am pretty tough in the real world and I have been completely fine in the virtual one too with the exception of roaming around in a buggy in Elite. That was pretty awful. The bouncing suspension is bad. I am however completely fine rolling, looping and fucking about in the ships fine.
Also been playing Project cars. That's pretty cool too. Much easier to judge distances etc. 3D in these headsets is not like a 3D film, it's so much better.
It really is 3D and you can focus on things close or far away pretty much as you would in real life.
I recommend final approach as a really well put together room scale game. Simple in concept, but nicely done and a mix of small scale tabletop type playing with mini toy planes and immersive full scale activities. Switching between eye in the sky to standing on the runway is neat.
Windlands is a nice platform style affair. I can imagine that is quite sick inducing though. Swinging through the air on bungie tarzan style takes a little to get used to.
I only gave the budget cuts demo a quick go. Mainly because it is quite intense and my play space is not massive. I fucked up killing a robot and it was amazing how I panicked trying to get away and survive. I was a flailing mess of arms and dodging until I died. I was afraid of ignoring the chaperone all together! Will give it another go at some point.
Sorry, that was a bit rambley...
I'm assuming this is some kind of competition for everyone to get VR before Big Rob?
I'm half-tempted to join in, just for shits and giggles (and vomit).
I read on reddit Vive is on about a 3 day turnaround form order nowadays...
And then they ran out in the US.
Yeah Final Approach is pretty fun I've been playing that probably most often it does a good job of taking the simple concept then adding layers of extra gameplay to it and makes excellent use of the roomscale 3d.
I played The Blu last night (well played is probably too strong a word there is very little interactivity) there are three experiences Whale encouter (which does a good job of scale with the massive blue whale looming over you) turtles (which has lots of jelly fish) and then luminous garden. The third one was perhaps the most atmospheric it starts almost pitch black with the light from an angler fish the only illumination. You have a flash light to look around with and it's very intense being only able to see that small cone of light yet getting hints of things moving around you. Not sure this one is worth the price even tho it was only ten dollars but it is very pretty.
I also downloaded Disney VR which has a couple of essentially promotional 360 videos. It has three subsections Starwars Marvel and disney proper. The starwars ones seem the most interesting you're flying through Jakku in a speeder somewhat vomit inducing . The marvel video is the red carpet for captain america civil war premier which is pretty dull. Not tried the other disney section it seemed to be all jungle book.
I saw windlands and thought it would probably turn me into a vomit fountain so steered clear of it.
Selfie Tennis is quite good you play tennis with yourself every time you hit the ball you teleport to the other side to knock it back and the goal is to keep up a rally for as long as possible. Simple concept that works really well in the vr somewhat meditative after a while. Can lead to smashing hands into walls ceiling or in my case each other when I got a bit enthusiastic serving and smacked the ball hand controller into the racket hand controller squashing a finger or two.
I love reading these through! It's great to see what "normal people" are enjoying in VR - means more to me than game reviewers, no matter how professional they are.
If the rumours are true, my Rift turns up tomorrow ... but am trying not to get my hopes up too high ... who knows what lengths Pete would go to just to stoke my Oculus rage, a spoofed a UPS email? maybe even as far as getting a fake UPS guy to turn up an hand me an empty box?.
A complete fake rift made using his unestimable baking skills
LOL, yummy and upsetting. It might put you off food for a long time - which would helping in dieting.
Tried out Zombie Training simulator had seen it but though it looked a little cartoony and dismissed it but then saw a video of it in action and it looked quite fun. Has huge waves of zombies that you have to defeat by baiting them with steaks you throw out and then explosives to take out large numbers and a variety of weapons you gradually unlock. Pretty fun game
So did you get the Rift or are you still waiting? Was it just so good you are now stuck in a virtual world unable to get back to reality?
I played a sit down VR experience "Time machine VR" you pilot this little pod around examining water based dinosaurs. It's a port from gear VR so the graphics are a little rough in parts but it was fun to steer my time pod around with one hand and do scanning and analyzing of various dinos with the other.
Ah the rift, yes it did arrive, and it is excellent, when little niggles aren't ripping me away from the otherwise awesome total immersion.
I haven't given it quite as much time as I wanted to due to other commitments, but what I have used it for has been great fun.
The main things I want to try out are Elite and a few driving games, but they all have large setup time (30 mins of faffing with peripherals and setting up controls) which has put me off a little, but I am hoping to give it a real bash on the upcoming bank holiday monday.
Superb! Keen to hear your thoughts on it.
And of course the question we all want answered is lucky's tale, where you play as palmer lucky as he sells out to facebook, as good as they say
The ultimate VR experience has arrived Light
SaberBlade VR now on Steam for the vive allows you to deflect blaster shots from a small flying drone a la episode 4 with dual weild light sabers not much more to it but the first game where the one to one tracking of the motion controls with the vr view of the sabers makes it feel real. They have all the sounds and a variety of unlockable styles.Finally that several thousand dollars I spent getting VR is justified :D
SUPERB! Love the idea of being a Jedi.