My life in VR

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Job simulator is a lot of fun but I really do need to take a break.

VR fatigue is real lol, not even for the eyes but just for the whole body being up and moving about, sometimes using muscles most of us virtually never use! I also get quite hot specially with it being summer at the moment :)

I hope your enthusiasm for it is maintained, ours has dropped off, honeymoon peroid over I guess. I went on again tonight after over a week of it being unused. The wife and I find it most fun with a couple of friends over so you can take it in turns on games like Audioshield, Budget Cuts and Holopoint. I picked up a few games in the steam sale the other week which I need to find the time and energy to try out over the weekend, I'm just a little too lazy after a day of work!
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.

This is something I've been slightly worried about. Having not used mine yet I don't konw how it will affect me. I've never suffered from motion sickness in cars/boats, etc before. Has anybody been been the same as me and yet got badly sick from VR?
 
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Got evil queasy on a couple of rollercoaster sims. There's three kinds of VR sick as far as I can tell - Low FPS, straight up vertigo and a weird effect where what you're seeing doesn't match up with what your inner ear thinks is going on.

I'm currently training myself tolerance to the last kind (don't suffer vertigo but the wife does) by flying about homemade levels on unreal editor. I'm almost at the stage where it doesn't bother me so my guess is that it's something you just get used to with practice.
 
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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
 
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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.
 
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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)
 
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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.
 
Soldato
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How exactly has it helped you to lose weight? I mean I get you might be waving your arms a bit more but unless you were jabba the hutt beforehand roomscale VR hasn't been widely advertised as weight loss aid...
 
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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.
 
Soldato
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Fair enough, but you could have sorted the stress and losing weight by actually doing some exercise, even a small amount per day.

I'm not having a go and its good thats it's helped you but thats a lifestyle choice that you could have done something about ages ago, you didn't need VR in your life (or to live your life in VR) to make that change.

Again its good that its helped, but you've pinned a lot on VR helping you where really it hasn't.
 
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Fair enough, but you could have sorted the stress and losing weight by actually doing some exercise, even a small amount per day.

I'm not having a go and its good thats it's helped you but thats a lifestyle choice that you could have done something about ages ago, you didn't need VR in your life (or to live your life in VR) to make that change.

Again its good that its helped, but you've pinned a lot on VR helping you where really it hasn't.

Hi, you are assuming a lot and you know what they say about the word assume it makes an ass of both U and Me :)

So let me give a little background info to better explain things, I am 46 and for the last 19 years I have been primary carer for my wife who is dying from an incurable illness, it is very slow and the only drugs which stop it from happening quicker cause side effects very nearly as bad as the illness itself, at the start she was able to do all the normal things we take for granted but as time has gone on this has meant me making "lifestyle" choices.
In the early days it was simple pay an electricity bill or visit her in hospital, keep up with the rent or take her to town on the one day out from hospital because the next day a treatment was starting that could kill her.

Lets just say my credit rating ended up in the dumpster lol.

Lets fast forward and as she got more disabled she needed my help 24/7 (I gave up my job and career to become a full time carer) at the same time so called friends stopped visiting and thus we became very insulated, even going to the shop for 15 minutes was some times too long away.

We all make choices and I am at peace with mine.

I used to comfort eat a lot due to stress (see below)

Stress well it slowly builds up inside everyone has it but then add this little scenario, that person you met who you fell in love with the first moment, who you never get sick of spending every moment with, that person who can debate you on the best episodes of Ds9 and who is also your best friend one day she faints on the way to college.
The doctor takes you aside and tells you "prepare yourself its going to be bad"
Your friends take you aside and tell you to leave her that you are throwing away your career and life (we were only BF and GF at the time)
They got kicked to the kerb and we got married in hospital :)

You watch as the person you are meant to be with goes through so much pain and suffering, you watch as at 23 she needs a cane to walk and her leg muscles begin to waste away and she still smiles and you can't fix the one thing in the universe you know you need to.

Tick tick tock time goes on and you deal with it, you make sure she smiles every day and you do everything you can to allow her to have some sort of life.

Then the universe seems to think you do not have enough to deal with so the one person who has been with you from the start and supported you, your mum (her family disowned her when she got ill it didn't look good) is diagnosed with dementia and the other amazing woman in my life is now a child.

Rational tells you one thing but your heart tells you another and the self hatred starts when you see yourself failing those most important to you.

Computers and gaming have been the saving grace for us both, we can explore universes together and apart do things we can never do in real life, we may never be able to do something as simple as walk to the local shop together but we can instead team up together in EVE or explore a new MMO.

But some times the stress gets to you and you know what is good for that ? good for all that anger and frustration, turn on the VR, load up Zombie simulation, HordeZ or Pirate trainer and for 30 minutes to a couple of hours it all goes away, the immersion level of these games means I can completely let go (wife has me on skype and phone + knock so if needed I can be out of it in seconds).

Games without VR are okay but it is like you are looking inside through a window, games in VR you are in the game.

Now as for weight loss, over the last 10 years I have tried many times and I get down from 20 stone to 15 stone and then a bad hospital visit, a bad week or and it all gets lost in the mess.

Now remember I play games a lot, I love games, now every game I play is building up a sweat, is cardio, and it in on way feels like work, its fun, its kick ass and it feels better that a 5 mile jog (I was in training for the stoke half Marathon, my mum used to look after my wife while I did it).

I am not the only one who thinks this, I said about VR parties, a couple of friends visited over the weekend, they are heavily into martial arts, both of them healthy and with good stamina (they are training for ma contests) 30 minutes on Pirate training dodging and ducking plus others like Thrill of the Fight gave them a work out like the best stuff they do out in the so called "real world".

VR has made one hell of a difference, I stand by my post.
 
Soldato
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I wasn't assuming anything at all and it's great that it's obviously had a positive impact for both of you.

I mean tbh I'm surprised that there aren't any actual fitness programs out there yet in the style of a boxing game or something, maybe that's a market that will come out of VR
 
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I know I am raising this thread from the dead but it is still very relevant 14+ months into my VR life, looking back on the year that passed.
I switched to the Rift (kept both vive and rift for a 6 months then sold the vive) graphics always seems a little better on the Rift and less screen door.
My monitor now only gets turned on for firmware and driver updates I can not deal with in VR, From desktop to VR games to social in Rec room and alt, all my time using a computer this last year has been in VR, I had my vision checked before I started and once again last week no harm done.

My computer is now nearly 100% voice controlled, I am even producing this post via Braina dictation, still a few more tweaks and I will always need a keyboard/mouse/monitor for Bios and software setup.

I still hear all the arguments about resolution and phrases like "it must be torture".

While those people spend there time with shiny 4k monitors looking in on a world through a flat window I exist in those worlds, I stepped through the looking glass and I can never go back.
Doom 3 BFG with the VR patch playing the entire game in VR using your voice to switch weapons with custom phrases "we're going to need a bigger gun" switches me from pistol to shotgun" "oh %&*£ me" brings up the BFG 9000.
Superhot VR you are literally neo!
From other suns 4 player co-op FTL, you jump back to your ship after encounter scary ass aliens using the ducts and dropping behind you then they follow you back to your ship and eat you on your bridge!
Star Trek bridge crew, even in single place with voice activation its just beyond words.
Rec room, amazing fun with strangers around the world (better now you can mute anyone bothering you)
Elite Dangerous in VR with Hotas setup, you have never experience ED unless you side in that cockpit in VR.
Karnage for that RP fun of swords and bows.

Vanishing of Ethan carter VR and Talos principle in VR takes it to a new level.
Audio shield
Zombie Simulator
Thrill of the fight
Bar Brawl

For once hell of a work out.

Flat screen games are a thing of the past to me, the future is already here and anyone on the fence waiting for 4k/8k you are missing out, look at this black friday PSVR + Skyrim VR packs sold out around the world, PSVR is lower quality than the rift/vive but people are spending 10-12 hours in skyrim at a time, people who have never gamed before, both those new and those old players, fighting dragons, scaling mountains and delving into dungeons.
 
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