My life in VR

Calranthe

Calranthe

Calranthe

Associate
Joined
5 Oct 2007
Posts
620
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 :)
 
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.
 
Last edited:
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 :)
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
I spent about 8 hours in VR today and I know damn well going to suffer for it tomorrow lol.

I bought Virtual desktop and watched a couple of TNG HD episodes, played some Hordz, Tried out some RPG maker games, answered emails did some browsing all inside virtual desktop, not perfect but usable needs some tweaking.

Yes I overdid it today but there was method to my madness, I wanted to push it and see if anything beyond a good night sleep is needed to fix how I feel.

Will chat more tomorrow.
 
Woke up at 6am and decided to do an objective opinion of my first day of VR and the HTC vive.

Feeling no more tired than I normally would, no aches or pains that I could attribute to VR or use of the headset.

Setup was easy, I think this was partly due to the Vive not being in stock, I spent a lot of time this week reading and watching setup guides.
Support poles instead of tripods, I did acquire two tripods before deciding on the support poles the room taken up by the stabilizing legs put me off, the support pole just goes from floor to ceiling as a singular rod.
Having seen the issues people had with asmedia usb chipsets I bought an Inateck pcie usb card, this also solved other usb problems on my system.
Everything just worked.

Will talk about games and other stuff later.
 
Motion sickness:
I seem to be almost immune to it, I spent last night playing high speed demo's and I played some games with SS set to 2.5 which dropped the FPS below 75, still didn't affect me badly or cause an un-enjoyable experience.

Games in General:
I find myself restricted now when I have to go back to my monitor keyboard and mouse, yes you sacrifice resolution but instead of playing the game you are actually in the game and sadly it is almost impossible to describe that feeling to anyone who has not used VR.

HordeZ:Amazing game Doom in VR, dual wielding freaky scary omg fun that is my official review :P fighting zombies both behind and in front, looking one way shooting another, I found myself taking headshots in one direction a doorway zombies were coming through (with the pistol) while zombies were coming up the stairs behind me, a quick glance behind then while still shooting the enemies in front with my pistol I was using my smg behind me to spray the enemy without a glance. I doubt whether I will ever be satisfied with a fps using keyboard and mouse ever again.
Will post more later.
 
I have removed all of my none VR FPS, I can not see myself playing such games again, all these years of mouse and keyboard believing them so superior to controllers of the console generation, I could never get use to FPS on consoles, I played through the Halo Master chief collection using a mouse and keyboard adapter on my XB1, tried FPS on the original Wii and even light guns for ps2 none of them felt real or gave an accurate representation of 1:1.

Nvidia VR Funhouse While not really a game more a collection of cool technologies that push the envelope even down to the perfect haptic feedback, when you touch the blades of two swords together and you feel it then something special is going on.
 
Life is really boring at the moment waiting for the move, we move on the 9th, have a room to myself (wife has her crafting room) not a huge room but 2.3*2.4 completely clear.
Bought an extension cord for hdmi and usb, bought a pair of sennheiser earbuds (like my DT 990 pro's but thinking of how to reduce weight on the head).
Picked up an X52 pro hotas for ED
Bought a stand for my TX Wheel and pedals.
Will be linking my phone and skype so that family can poke me if needed.

Games and Apps and Demo's I have installed ready to play:
Virtual Desktop
Euro Truck Simulator 2
American Truck Simulator 2
A-10 VR
Elite Dangerous
Project Cars
Fallout 4
Skyrim
Bioshock infinite
HordeZ
Alien Isolation
book of Merlin
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades
Job Simulator
The Lab
Life is Strange
Nvidia VR Funhouse
QuiVr Alpha
theBlu
The Thril of the Fight
Trials on Tatooine

Hardware
Gainward Golden Sample 1080 GTX
16gb ddr4
i7 6700k (stock)
Windows 10 professional
 
No one told me how long a house move takes, 18 years ago we moved out of our rented house with 5 black bags and 2 Taxi rides.

This time it took a little longer, all boxes are gone and I have my 2m*2m VR room.

Only just these last two days been able to get back into VR but have started to do 90% of things in VR.

Playing primary VR games like Vanishing realms and Hordez but also games like Just cause 3 on a virtual cinema screen.
 
I have many games on my pc, it is a good gaming machine but I find myself unable to play none VR games, even with the god rays and screen door effect, even with the pixels you can see if you look for them and the resolution any normal game played on my monitor is like standing outside a house looking in through the window, yes it looks nice and the games being played are fun but you are not part of it.

Even none VR games are enhanced, you play Just cause 3 on a 27" monitor ? I play it on my own 100ft cinema screen.

360 Videos have allowed me to explore places I will never visit in real life.

Then we come to the few (we are still 1st gen early adopters) magical games that are VR and it is so far beyond anything it is beyond words.

As I said before 25+ years of gaming with mouse and keyboard FPS games and never a controller in sight and then that moment when you actually feel like you have a gun in your hand, a gun in each hand, firing both in front and behind yourself, hitting what you aim at.

RPG role playing games ? I love fallout, bards tale, wasteland and own nearly every 1st/3rd person rpg but now I have REAL playing games, that moment in Vanishing realms when you realize you can actually crawl under a swinging axe trap or hide behind a tree, bracing yourself as you block a blow with your shield then cut deep into the skeletons chest.

Yes there are flaws and a lot more tech demo's than games but this is that moment when Doom came out and that first time we blew up a barrel, next gen may be probably cheaper, hopefully better resolution and OMG some kind of ninja wireless ability but right now I am taking those first steps on the moon before the habitats go up and I have no regrets.

My life in VR ?
Living a dream born of holo decks and b movie science fiction.
(written from within VR desktop)
 
A month on from my last post the easiest question is what do I not do on the Vive ?

Fallout 4

My main native games are Fruit Ninja VR, Audio Shield, Zombie Training Simulation, Raw Data, Final Approach and Elite Dangerous.

None native I play Just cause 3 and gems of War using virtual desktop.

VR has impacted most of my life from getting rid of stress and loosing weight to VR parties with friends over, everyone loves it.

Maybe its the friends I have most of us growing up with the Atari 2600 and most of us still on 1080 displays we all have amazing fun in VR and not one person who has come and tried it has said "oh what about the god rays" or "ugh graphics are bad" or "but but its not 4k" no the biggest issue has been prying the vive from there head so some one else can have a go.

600+ for the Vive + 400+ for the 1080 nvidia best money I have spent on a gaming system and group entertainment in 35 years and most immersive fun I have had ever.
 
As with a lot of people who are gamer's we spend a lot of time sitting on our asses for long periods of time, now instead of two hours a night playing my favourite game with mouse and keyboard, I spend that time standing up smashing things, moving my body, lots of upper body movement, pair that with a game like pirate trainer where you actively dodge.

If I listen to 4 songs in Audioshield punching the air that is a 20 minutes work out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom