Question for Early Adopters

AndyT

AndyT

AndyT

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So.... How do the early adopters feel that VR is shaping up? Will it be a viable medium for "proper" AAA (for want of a better term) games? Can you imagine a half life, left 4 dead or battlefield type game being properly realised with the current VR headsets and controllers?

I'm thinking of getting involved, probably end of 2017 or early 2018, whenever there are some fully polished titles ready. It's gonna require a complete new build and some serious investment I think, so hoping to wait for the early issues to be ironed out and see if the costs flatten out. It'll be a family decision so will need to be approved by the wife as we are looking at probably 2k+ if you are doing it right, and what's the point if you don't do it right eh?

So, what are your thoughts? Does the shooting mechanic work? Can you imagine ducking behind an imaginary wall as bullets fly past your head? I just can't imagine how it's going to work...

Also, do you let your young kids use it? I have read that it can damage development of the eyes and htc don't recommend for kids younger than 13.
 
It's early adopter kit, mate. You sound like you know the score - north of two grand for an experience that will look fairly mickey mouse, in comparison to the kit you'll be able to buy for a quarter of that in two or three years time.

That's what I signed up for and I wasn't disappoint. Played a couple of AAA games so far, plus a ton of free demos and some cheap, disposable garbage. The AAA's work, just a matter of the right format.

Issues - wise, I've been pleasantly surprised by Oculus - turn on PC, stick rift on head, pick a game and go. HMD integration into windows 10 is seamless. Can't speak for motion controllers since mine aren't a thing yet but they'll be here soon enough and by all accounts the HTC camp are loving them.
 
I have a Vive, and have ducked behind a glass wall while playing Portal Stories, and crawled on the floor while playing Vanishing Realms to avoid the swinging axes.
 
AndyT said:
Also, do you let your young kids use it? I have read that it can damage development of the eyes and htc don't recommend for kids younger than 13.
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It's not suitable because it's also really addictive. Also the eye spacing (or overall size) is really designed for adult heads. I can't see how it'd damage the eyes any more or less than TV or mobile devices though.

But for short fun experiences I'd say it's fine. My son loved the Star Wars interactive videos.
 
wywywywy said:
It's not suitable because it's also really addictive. Also the eye spacing (or overall size) is really designed for adult heads. I can't see how it'd damage the eyes any more or less than TV or mobile devices though.

But for short fun experiences I'd say it's fine. My son loved the Star Wars interactive videos.
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Good point on the headsets sizes etc. I hadn't thought of that. I had read an article that the constant focussing on a fixed point could trigger lazy eye in some kids.

In any case - I think I will wait until the computing power becomes more cost effective. At the moment I can't justify (even to myself, never mind the wife) spending hundreds, if not thousands on lots of lovely frames per second.

In an ideal world I will wait until HL3 is released. I had a 3-4 year hiatus in PC gaming up until the release of HL2 in 2004 and built a brand new rig to play it after watching every video there was. Firing HL2 up on my shiny new Nvidia 6800 was probably the greatest gaming experience I've ever had. Such a massive leap in experience and interaction with the environment. Hopefully the timing will be the same for HL3, if it ever happens....
 
I would like to point out that you don't focus on a fixed point. You do perceive depth and focus on different distances just like irl.

But yea with the current technology, it's not really worth spending this much money on such an immature (technology-wise) plaything unless you're a die hard VR enthusiast.

I must have spent over £4k on DK1, DK2, Rift, Vive, PC upgrades, new furniture, software, etc just to play a very limited choice of things in VR. But then I'd waited for over 15 years for VR!
 
Thanks for the responses - Out of interest - has anyone recorded their heart rate / calorie burn with a fitbit or similar during a VR gaming session? I'm hoping it makes gaming a more active hobby in the future! I can imagine ducking, crouching, weaving flailing arms around etc for a few hours burns significantly more calories than twitch aiming with a mouse...
 
wywywywy said:
I would like to point out that you don't focus on a fixed point. You do perceive depth and focus on different distances just like irl.
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That's not true, the focal distance is a function of the optics and is constant. Can't find anything concrete about either final product but there's a few suggestions that the DK2 was something like 1.3m.

If your eyesight is reasonably ok and you only need glasses for things like reading or driving you probably won't need them at all for VR because you're never actually having to focus on something very close or far away. I'm shortsighted as **** but can read ok if I hold something close enough (~20cm). That's definitely not possible in VR.
 
Is there a solid road map going forward yet?

I'm sure I'll be on the bandwagon at some point, but I don't have the disposable to play with the tech in it's current state.

Just wondering where VR is likely to be in 2 years or 5 years from now.
 
I'm not aware of any roadmap (although I'd be surprised if the main players didn't have theirs) however, there's a few technologies on the horizon which seem likely to be incorporated.

Things like foveated rendering and a realsense/tango solution to head tracking would seem to me to be no brainers, coupled with increases in display pixel density and the usual moores law jumps in transistor performance. I expect we'll see something around 4k, untethered, in the 4-500 quid range by the time 2020 rolls around. Maybe a bit sooner, depends on how much R&D cash gets flung at it in the meantime.
 
I can see VR being the next huge thing, it's so close, yet still so far in terms of mainstream. It's been coming for years now. I hope a load of money is thrown at it. I've not been bothered about anything gaming wise for the last 3-4yrs. I need something new, the games these days are not really to my tastes. Vast and in many ways endless content at the expense of a quality experience.

I want to be blown away by something, and incremental increases in graphics just don't cut it anymore. I've been spoiled going from the C64 to present day and all the leaps in between.
 
Blown away, for me, lasted a weekend but, for those two or three days, I was genuinely, right down to my cotton socks, bona-fide blown away. Never ceases to amaze me how quickly I can get used to something that impactful but get used to it I did.

Now that I'm used to it, I don't think I could game in 2d ever again. I mean, seriously, I think I'd puke. There's a lot of talk about sim sickness but for me the elephant in the room is non-sim sickness. Even watching the telly on my 2-d bigscreen feels off nowadays. It's like black and white or lowdef video only much worse. Kinda like being at a party v's someone trying to tell you about it with pictures.

My view remains unchanged, tho - this is an early adopter, non-mainstream quality, comedy overpriced, clunky as hell experience. If you know the score and have the disposables - buy it. If you'll settle for nothing less than stepping into the matrix, my advice is to be patient and wait a couple of years.

Trust me on this, tho, a few years from now, when they've ironed out the creases, you will be stepping into the matrix! Like forealz. :cool:
 
AndyT said:
Thanks for the responses - Out of interest - has anyone recorded their heart rate / calorie burn with a fitbit or similar during a VR gaming session? I'm hoping it makes gaming a more active hobby in the future! I can imagine ducking, crouching, weaving flailing arms around etc for a few hours burns significantly more calories than twitch aiming with a mouse...
Click to expand...

My missus does. She's clocked up a lot of extra steps playing Space Pirate Trainer and there are some games that will increase your heart rate.
I can play in The Lab (Longbow) or Quivr for about an hour before my arm starts to hurt. That constant action of drawing a bow certainly burns calories.
 
'Hopefully'

The playstation VR experience will bring a more mainstream audience on tap, publishers will have no choice but to think twice if it's hit. What I always tell everybody, if this thing happened to be underneath every television like the wii.

You would see the same national panic to get hold of one.

As for working out, yeah/no. Boxing.... the NVidia funhouse with the springy things you hit away, or the whack a mole. Problem with it is the headset, it's not too long before your head starts to sweat up.
 
Id say its not quite early adopter kit, but it is enthusiast kit

Early adopter kit was the DK2 and its major headaches with drivers, sdk versions and continually broken application support. The retail units are usable by consumers but its high end gear right now.

VR has been described as instantly converting, you might be dismissive of it before trying it but once you do you realise just how good it is. But if people are currently dismissive they arent going to want to spend 2K+ on an enthusiast level system, this includes people like yourself. You need to exerience it to be sold on it because the price is so high and adding more tech and pushing the price higher is not going to work for adoption.

What I see happening is things remaining fairly stale until PSVR comes along, VR HMDs are still rare enough that most people wont even know someone who has one to try it, PSVR will change that. People will try it and then people will likely want to either buy one themselves or having tried PSVR want a better experience and buy a rift or vive.

You would still be able to resell it on ebay and not loose much if you decided it wasn't something you wanted to keep or that you could live without for a few more years. It is a bit of an expensive luxury but if you can reasonably afford one then id say go for it, if you are buying it on your 3rd credit card id say its probably not worth it
 
DK2 shortly after release, use it often. Newest game was Nvidia's VR Funhouse. Used mostly for truck sims, racing sims and "meant to be for Vive but got it working" games.
 
HTC Vive, I am completely spoiled for playing "normal" games now, yes you can see pixel's yes the screen door effect and god rays are there but compared to the immersion nothing compares absolutely nothing.
Vanishing realms the first action RPG in my life where I am a part of it not just looking at a flat screen.
I have already worked out a budget to cover the next generation of VR but for now I am having a blast.
 
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