My life in VR

Calranthe · 13 Jul 2016 at 07:58

Hopefully by this weekend I will have the Vive in my hands, this post is going to be updated frequently with my experiences and thoughts both good and bad.

Room:
I have managed to clear out a 2 by 1.5 space to begin my exploration, in august we are moving and I will have my own VR room although that will only raise the empty space to 2.2 by 2.2.

Equipment:
Dual telescopic support poles (seemed like the easiest way with out the issue of putting holes in walls or tripod stands getting in the way) Already setup ready.

Computer:
i7 6700k (stock speed)
16gb DDR4
950 samsung m2 (steam library)
Gainward G1 golden sample 1080 GTX
Windows 10 Pro
Headphones DT 990 Pro
TX Thrustmaster Racing Wheel
Thrustmaster Hotas X Joystick
Mouse G600 Logitech
Nitro concepts gaming chair.

My experience of VR will be different from a lot due to the following, I have never tried any resolution for gaming above 1080p and much of the time my gaming system is at a resolution of 720p due to playing a lot of old games and RPG maker games as well as modern pixels and jaggly edges have never bothered me or taken away from the enjoyment of a game.

I am the kind of person who was playing 8 and 16 bit games before it became fashionable to create the modern versions, Gameplay has always been more important than graphics to me.

I do play some modern games Elite Dangerous, Fallout 4, Mass effect, Alien Isolation, Euro Truck Simulator, American Truck Simulator, Skyrim, ESO to name a few.

When I decided on the phrase My life in VR, what I mean is using what is available today the Vive + VR desktop + Vorpx I will be shifting 80-100% of what I do on computers into the virtual space, from email to web browsing, modern games to playing RPG Maker games in cinema mode.

MY only experience until it arrives was the 15 minutes inside VR at Overclockers and I was completely blown away by it, maybe it is because I have limited what resolutions I use or maybe because my first gaming experience was the Atari 2600 and Sinclair ZX80 it was quite literally the best gaming experience of my entire life even including those first moments of original shareware doom when I realised barrels exploded.

So lets see what happens, I will be listing all my experience of VR except NSFW

GBRusty · 13 Jul 2016 at 09:32

You appear to have a PC just like one I've just ordered from overclockers. I'd love to see how the setup goes.
We're very similar in gaming experience and I've been blown away by VR. Have you bought anything yet from Steam?
You'll be wanting to set aside some money for the ones you'll want to buy but there are plenty of free demos to get started with.

D3K · 13 Jul 2016 at 09:37

Calranthe said:
When I decided on the phrase My life in VR, what I mean is using what is available today the Vive + VR desktop + Vorpx I will be shifting 80-100% of what I do on computers into the virtual space, from email to web browsing, modern games to playing RPG Maker games in cinema mode.

Good luck with this endeavour. Can you set up a livefeed so we can make bets on how long you'll last

Born_2_Kill_83 · 13 Jul 2016 at 09:39

Thinking of jumping in as well, never ever tried anything remotely VR before so this will be a new experience, I have the PC and enough living space I think, so hopefully we'll get these Saturday?

P3nT4gR4m · 13 Jul 2016 at 11:01

I'm in the same boat as OP - first "PC" was a zx81 when installing a game meant typing in 200-odd lines from Sinclair User and then debugging it for the next two hours. Those whippersnappers moaning about screen doors and god rays don't know how good they have it!

Daaaveee · 13 Jul 2016 at 16:03

Looking forward to reading your experiences

From my use of virtual desktop its not something I would use full time but interested to see what you think to it!

Calranthe · 13 Jul 2016 at 16:09

I remember typing in the "zombie" game from Sinclair User with my friend we checked every line typed in took us a whole day to get it working, from what I remember just a little black square (you) being chased by a flashing black square.

Plan is to go through all the free to play and demo steam games and apps see how limiting 1.5 by 2 really is, test out the tracking and generally poke around a bit.

My first purchase will probably be Virtual Desktop because I want to see how easy it is to do normal stuff like web surf in VR.

This isn't plug and play, I know that a lot of tweaking and messing in files will be needed but most of us none call of duty gamer's generation remember Dos and batch files, we know about getting mods to work on games before it became fashionable.

I myself am guilty of spending more time modding Skyrim till it breaks than actually playing it "what if I do this" we remember the internet before google Lycos! and we remember getting online via a modem chatting on BBS.

Daaaveee · 13 Jul 2016 at 16:41

Calranthe said:
Plan is to go through all the free to play and demo steam games and apps see how limiting 1.5 by 2 really is, test out the tracking and generally poke around a bit.

I feel like you might be a bit restricted but it will depend on the game. Our area is a conservative 2.5x2m and it works well but if it were much smaller games like Budget Cuts wouldn't be so good.

Also I say conservative as there are sofas around 3 of the sides and only a small bit of wall on the edge of the other side, so those times where you reach beyond the chaperone boundary by accident won't mean punching the wall most of the time

If your space is bounded by walls just be aware you will probably have a couple of accidental controller-wall clashes!

Calo · 13 Jul 2016 at 22:08

How long before VR Garages become a thing to solve the space problem?

People would have to throw all their useles junk out first of course. Hmm, VR removals could be a new business idea.

Calranthe · 13 Jul 2016 at 23:30

The new place will be 2.5 by 2.5 just where I am now is 1.5 by 2, called OC today if the delivery is on time tomorrow then instead of waiting for it to arrive at my house on friday, I will be going over to pick it up

millermilla · 13 Jul 2016 at 23:46

My space is not that big, I think it's 1.5x2.2 but it works just fine with everything I have tried. You get used to your room size. I have a rug that pretty much matches my walking space so you can feel on your feet when you are stepping outside. The only thing I would say is if the room is small you may have to play around with the room setup a few times to get the best out of your space.

Jarrastafari · 14 Jul 2016 at 01:40

Don't mean to be a bummer but I wanted to give a word of caution after reading your bit about moving what you do into VR.

I was (and still am) happy with my rift, after having received mine early on, months back now. I love the technology and have been spending a lot of time with it not only for pleasure but also because I am focussing on developing my own VR experiences. VR is great but it will take it's toll on you.

For example, the first day I giddily put in four to five hours sampling all of the free experiences I could find, from the Oculus Store to old DK2 demos. I stopped because it suddenly felt overwhelming, having tried a game with more traditonal controls. Immediate feelings of doom, like I had been on a weekend bender and was hungover to the point of death. I am now aware of these issues after having only heard warnings about them before. My tolerance has also improved since then, having played a lot more content and now developing for the rift upto 12 hours per day.

The problem with doing work in the rift, in virtual desktop for example, is that even though it is possible, it just isn't as productive. The resolution isnt an issue so much as rotating your head or leaning in to see parts of the screen are, and you will be doing this frequently if you use a standard UI and text size in windows. You're moving your head and focussing your eyes in ways your body isn't familiar and this leads to what I describe to my partner as VR exhaustion. I find that I have to take at least two good breaks during a 12 hour workday and most of the time was actually spent outside vr looking at my monitors. The rift is amazingly light, lighter and easier to snap on and off with no headphones connected, but you feel the weight and discomfort of it after it's been on a while.

Don't let this put you off though, as there is nothing like it in this world. Let us know your first day, week and month for comparison.

P3nT4gR4m · 14 Jul 2016 at 11:41

What kind of dev stuff are you working on Jarrastafari? I'll be looking to get my hands dirty in a month or so, after the honeymoon period wears off.

Calranthe · 14 Jul 2016 at 12:51

Just got home with the huge box, unpacking now

Calranthe · 14 Jul 2016 at 14:13

Setup was easy, support poles worked fine, had to bodge the mapping of the game space but it is only temporary, spent way too long making balloons and firing lasers into the air like it was 5th November, downloading the lab and the blu atm.

Wife told me to shut my mouth so that I do not start catching moths Yes I stood there with my mouth open playing with things that were not there.

P3nT4gR4m · 14 Jul 2016 at 14:18

This your first experience with any kind of VR?

Calranthe · 14 Jul 2016 at 15:14

My first experience outside of the 15 minutes demo at overclockers, 15 minutes later I ordered it.

I abso-bloody-lutely love it, my arms ache due to firing arrows in the lab, my legs and feet ache due to standing up for an hour and lots of "oooooh" "ahhhh" moments of silliness.

I can see myself doing a lot of tweaking of this

I can also see me taking it easy as in slowly changing the way I use a pc and changing how my shortcuts are setup.

Calranthe · 14 Jul 2016 at 15:19

Yes there is some blur and yes if you look for the screen door effect you will see it.

****Notice****
I have purposely not tweaked the headset or config in any way yet, not even the nobs on the vive itself, I am wearing it "out of the box".

Sound is great, have my DT 990 Pro's plugged into the vive sounds quite good.

Feeling Quite worn out at the moment which is why I understand it will take time to integrate this new life style.

Calranthe · 14 Jul 2016 at 15:35

Need to take my own advice and take a break, I am hot and sweating lol.
Time to look at steam.

Hoping the VR fun house comes out today (Nvidia)

I Am Glass · 14 Jul 2016 at 15:39

Calranthe said:
Yes there is some blur and yes if you look for the screen door effect you will see it.

****Notice****
I have purposely not tweaked the headset or config in any way yet, not even the nobs on the vive itself, I am wearing it "out of the box".

Sound is great, have my DT 990 Pro's plugged into the vive sounds quite good.

Feeling Quite worn out at the moment which is why I understand it will take time to integrate this new life style.

Ive made a tweak to my settings and turned on supersampling to 1.4 with my GTX 970 and running fine so far, has made the image look somewhat better, but it never really bothered me before as I'm into gameplay ahead of resolution.