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Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

105 points by billconan 10y ago

I'm trying to tell if I should invest time into VR development. HTC vive and oculus owners, are you still actively playing VR after few months, or you put it on the shelf?

badjano 10y ago
Just bought it, I'm on my second week, everyday I can't wait to get home and play again, using monitors is completely obsolete now... I have a friend that has it since 2013, and he use it almost everyday ( he himself says ). And I am also a developer myself, I had a game that I had put aside because I wasn't enjoying it so much, so I decided to put VR support on it, and now it lives again! Edit: Oculus CV1
excalibur 10y ago
I only have a GearVR, but I can tell you that the novelty has worn off for me. I still want to play it, but I rarely get around to it anymore.
- joeyrideout 10y ago
  Same here. Only a Gear VR, and it's mostly on the shelf. My usage habits with it mimicked my usage habits of a a single video game - get excited and play it a bunch at first, but then lose interest.
- smacktoward 10y ago
  I have a Gear VR as well, and wrote up my experiences with it here: https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2015/12/gear-vr-the-future-is-not-quite-here/ https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2015/12/gear-vr-the-future-is-not... Mine's on the shelf now too, for a couple of reasons. First, there wasn't a whole lot of good VR content available at launch, and even now around nine months later there still isn't. Second, I found it the only experience where the device really provided a knockout experience was when viewing panoramic photos -- games had to be simple and cartoon-ey to work with the limited horsepower and control options available, and it didn't have enough resolution to display 360-degree video in a convincingly immersive fashion. (I chalked the latter limitation up to the fact that the Gear VR is driven by a cellphone, but from what I've heard Vive and Rift aren't great on this front either, which legitimately surprised me.)
  - GFischer 10y ago
    Your experience mirrors several other peoples' "the only experience where the device really provided a knockout experience was when viewing panoramic photos" I believe that this feature alone is enough to provide a "killer feature", I'm trying to work on it but I don't think I will get there as a side project :( (I did apply twice to Y Combinator and other incubators, no luck)
serg_chernata 10y ago
I had a DK2 but decided to hold off on purchasing the new headsets. I know that everything has gotten much, much better but even then the novelty was wearing off for me. Motion controllers may have changed that. I can't really describe why the excitement wore off for me. I'm still optimistic and will end up purchasing current gen once the price comes down or simply wait for the next iteration.
- swalsh 10y ago
  I went from a DK1 to a vive, so the transition was even more dramatic... but for me the motion controllers have been EVERYTHING. Everything I love about playing on the vive is about having my body in the game, not just my head.
richardjdare 10y ago
I play Elite Dangerous on my DK2 all the time. It's so immersive, I wouldn't want to play it on a normal screen. Been thinking about getting a consumer Rift but I'm not sure yet. I've also been doing some vr experiments with Unreal Engine, but nothing substantial.
vessenes 10y ago
I have a Vive, and love it. My kids still use it every day, often with friends over. That said, they are definitely hungry for new and more sophisticated / open-ended content. Upgrades to tiltbrush are a big deal; a good sculpting tool would be greatly appreciated. Budget Cuts updates also. Easier unity setups to make their own environments would be rad, or that racket-based setup carmack demoed a year ago. They would LOVE that. I think if you can wait another 18 months you could get a v2 headset with a much larger stable of content, but there's lots to do right now, the experiences are just more bite-sized. If you aren't going to code with it and aren't a highly avid gamer it's possible you'll run out of interesting experiences in a few months.
nabaraz 10y ago
I have Freefly VR that I purchased few months ago. I watch some youtube videos (360) once in a while but mostly it stays in the dust.
cven714 10y ago
HTC Vive owner. Mine is mostly on the shelf. I bring it out when new people visit and want to give it a try, but I haven't played otherwise. It's still a good time and the novelty isn't completely worn off...games like Chamber 19 (Xortex from The Lab) or Fantastic Contraption are a lot fun once I get myself to turn it on. But I haven't played a really compelling game--I'm hoping Budget Cuts is as good as it looks. The wow factor is huge the first few times. The VR immersion really works. I just haven't found a game yet that combines that Wow with game mechanics I want to keep playing for more than the novelty of it.
- mrfusion 10y ago
  Yeah plus it seems like a bear to get set up. Plug in base stations. Turn on steamvr wait two minutes for it to detect everything. Move the controllers around so it detects them. Put on the mask. Adjust the straps just right. Wonder if ipd is really correct ...
  - lfowles 10y ago
    It's not quite that bad. Assuming base stations are already plugged in, I'm generally up and in Steam in 1 minute. Only step necessary to detect controllers is turning them on. Straps are annoying if you play with others though. IPD is easy once you know "the trick": close one eye, adjust IPD until lines as viewed straight ahead are sharp.
    - eddieroger 10y ago
      Do you let your base stations sleep? I have mine set to (yay moving parts with limited lifespans), and I agree that there's a noticeable delay between when I click the VR button and when I'm ready to put my headset on. I did not know the IPD trick. I'm tempted to go try that right now. Which kind of aligns me to cven714's point - mine sits there. I have fun when I play, but I just got up off my couch after deciding not to want to go through the full dance of starting VR up. I know I have fun, but I need something enthralling to make me want to play.
broonix 10y ago
I'm really into sim-racing (iRacing and Assetto Corsa). I used my DK2 and now my CV1 almost daily for the last 1.5 years.
schwabacher 10y ago
I have an oculus - I played with it daily for around two weeks after getting it, but can't remember the last time I touched it. I'm not a big gamer though - I mostly was interested in trying out and programming for VR and just have found other projects more interesting.
nickthegreek 10y ago
I work at a makerspace and we just got our 2nd vive. We also have a Rift and a Hololens. The Vive gets the most use. I go through periods of use and then ignore it for a bit. But as long as games continue to be released, I think I would be using it regularly. I am real excited for more multiplayer games. PoolNationVR is a great example of a quality polished VR experience that you just cant get in any other medium. Cant wait for a multiplayer ping pong experience. Rec Room and AltSpace are 2 other interested free social vr experiences.
- aaronsnoswell 10y ago
  You might be interested to know that Rec Room has a multiplayer VR ping-pong / beer-pong game - just head to the upstairs loft area.
cgusto 10y ago
I play it a few times a week. Project Cars and DiRT are what I spend most of the time with. I'm also enjoying Chronos right now, which is more of a RPG. Echoing what a few others have said, there are not a lot of great AAA titles for either the Vive or Rift. This will change over time. Are you excited about VR, or are you looking somewhere just to make money? If you're into this, then yes, I would recommend you learn about developing for VR. No one I know has tried the Rift and just shrugged their shoulders and said "that's kinda cool'. Everyone, even my most techie friends, drop their jaws and lose their minds. That's exciting. This is a brand new field with tons of potential. That being said, I don't think it will be a very lucrative market to indie devs for sometime.
- charliecochrane 10y ago
  Out of interest, I've heard that acceleration I'm VR games is a big cause of sickness, have you experienced this in your racing games at all?
Nuffinatall 10y ago
Since I'm developing a new game, I will be porting it to VR at some point. Right now I don't have the equipment.
- lostgame 10y ago
  Assuming you're supporting iOS and Android (which, by now, I'd hope to God you are, if you want any sales...) - you can use a Google Cardboard headset along with the Unity SDK for a total of $4 if you've already got an iPhone/Android handset.
  - Nuffinatall 10y ago
    Can Google Cardboard do controllers?
    - GFischer 10y ago
      Kind of... it does, but it has problems https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/2r84ug/what_bluetooth_controller_do_you_use_with/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/2r84ug/wha...
- rocky1138 10y ago
  Vive is the only thing you should be targeting. Everything else is just not up to that level.
untog 10y ago
Depending on what you're doing, you probably should invest time in VR development, but I don't think you need to do it now. Still extremely early days, and I have no doubt frameworks/toolkits will emerge that make things easier, development-wise. One thing I keep coming back to with VR (as a personal observation) is how anti-social it is. Not sure what the implication (if any) is of that, but it leads me to hesitate in using mine.
- monocasa 10y ago
  > One thing I keep coming back to with VR (as a personal observation) is how anti-social it is Can you elaborate on this? The potential for social VR seems huge (which is probably why Facebook bought Oculus).
  - untog 10y ago
    I mean, in-person. The internet, online, potential for VR is huge. But strapping on a VR headset when someone else is in the room with you is just awkward.
    - lfowles 10y ago
      This is true for most games, the difference that with VR you're strapping on figurative horse blinders. As I mentioned in my sibling post, there are some games taking advantage of the disconnect.
    - echeese 10y ago
      Yeah it can suck when others are waiting for their turn. It's nice though because the games themselves are a lot of fun to watch. I'd suggest checking out Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, it's fun for people not in VR.
  - lfowles 10y ago
    I get the opposite experience, with games such as Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes[ktne], Black Hat Cooperative[bhc], and Pool Nation VR[pnvr]. [ktne]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/341800/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/341800/ [bhc]: http://store.steampowered.com/app/503100/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/503100/ [pnvr]: http://store.steampowered.com/app/269170/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/269170/
drzaiusapelord 10y ago
I use my Vive probably 3-5 times a week, depending on how busy I am. There seems to be a flavor or two of the month release for VR that keeps me busy and interested. Currently its Raw Data with a touch of Battledome and Poolnation. I'm not typically a single person gamer, but I did spend a fair bit of time with Final Approach, which makes you feel like a kid again, standing in front of a model airport and playing with toy planes. Most vive gamers are early access and I'm eager to get back into them after major updates. I haven't had time to try Rec Room, but I heard it really puts AltspaceVR to shame. I could gush about Raw Data for quite some time, but its really the first VR game to feel like a AAA title and the swordplay is very rewarding. SteamVR gets updated almost monthly as well and gives much needed fixes and performance enhancements. The Vive is much more user friendly now and the latest batch of video drivers seem to be helping VR performance as well. I did see the Poolnation and Raw Data devs have implemented Nvidia's mult-res shaders which give fairly impressive performance increases. Now I'm waiting on the full Budget Cuts game and EVE: Valkyrie to get released for the Vive. Its incredible how much content there is right now. That said, its not much considering all the non-VR games on Steam, but its enough for an adult with a FT job or family to be unable to keep up.
drewrv 10y ago
I've had a vive for three or four months now and still play pretty regularly. I only play games on the vive now (though I only have time for a few hours of gaming a week). Even though there's not a lot of content, "regular" video games seem really lame now. I've felt for a long time that the video game industry is stagnant. The big studios come out with the same shooter franchises and sports franchises. Most indie games use mechanics that are decades old now (puzzles, platformers, etc). In app purchases and pay to win crap has taken over mobile gaming. VR changes this. Games like tiltbrush and fantastic contraption could not have been built before now. Playing VR makes me feel like a kid again playing mario 64 for the first time.
- SmallDeadGuy 10y ago
  Fantastic contraption literally was built before now. It's been out since 2008, and was a great game before and after VR.
  - drewrv 10y ago
    Yeah but it was 2D which is quite different.
  - pjc50 10y ago
    Isn't it an inheritor of "The Incredible Machine" (1993)?
arielweisberg 10y ago
By play do you mean as a consumer of content or a producer of content? I have a Rift and play Elite Dangerous several times a week. Otherwise the software situation is quite dire with no content that can match the depth of typical AAA titles. The lack of motion tracked controllers is a problem right now as it blocks access to a lot of Steam games.
- malnourish 10y ago
  Are the Oculus Touch controllers motion tracked? And by motion tracked do you mean e.g. how the Vive controllers perform?
  - arielweisberg 10y ago
    Yes they are motion tracked. They have inertial sensors and are tracked by cameras just like the Rift headset. Early reports are that they work about as well as the Vive controllers. We'll know more towards the end of the year when they are slated to be widely available. The great thing about Valve's approach to VR is that they have been very open and committed to compatibility with Rift hardware and aren't playing favorites with hardware. To Valve a motion tracked controller is a motion tracked controller. People are using stuff like Razer Hydra to play Steam games with tracked controllers and the Rift today.
  - moron4hire 10y ago
    Yes, they are, but very few people have them. Oculus hopes to have 5,000 copies out by the end of the year, whereas HTC has already sold over 100,000 units. Oculus Touch is a great device, but your just not going to see it available or supported very well for a very significant amount of time.
nilkn 10y ago
I was in the very first wave of Vive shipments and I got a Rift at the very beginning of June. So at this point I've had both for a pretty decent chunk of time. I haven't been using them much, but that's largely due to lack of content. I used them both heavily when they arrived, and the Vive in particular got a ton of playtime, but after a certain point I just don't want to fire up SPT again. Recently it got to a point where I'm not even all that excited to demo the Vive to others either. I disagree strongly with those saying monitors are obsolete. They're definitely not, not right now at least. I've recently been playing The Witcher 3 and not only is it far more graphically impressive than any VR content available, but the game itself has a level of complexity that would be very hard to achieve in a VR game. It's just too convenient and easy to play games on a 1440p or 4K monitor with keyboard and mouse. The extremely crisp resolution, the fantastic and complex and comfortable controls, the ability to trivially do stuff concurrently while playing the game, the fact that you're not blocked off from people around you... there are more than enough reasons to continue playing standard monitor-based games. I feel I do need to emphasize how much VR blocks you off from friends and family who might be around. It feels very social when you demo it for the first time, but eventually I could definitely tell that my SO was starting to resent VR. From her perspective, it's the equivalent of me just disappearing into the garage and locking the door with little to no communication.
- arielweisberg 10y ago
  I haven't really had the blocked off issue. With the Rift I can hear things outside the headset and I can pop up one ear to talk more easily. The games are mirrored to our 65" TV so my spouse can see what I see and enjoy games vicariously the way she usually does. They enjoy when I play horror games and let loose with the color commentary. I actually pulled her into the game and play Elite with her now. I'm in VR and she is on a screen. I do agree there is a temptation to use a screen just for comfort and ease of context switching. I think a solid forward facing camera with stellar software support is table stakes for a VR headset. Not PiP, I am talking about always available full screen pass through that can activate and deactivate lightning quick. Heck give me a hardware button on the set. And wireless. I can dream right?
  - 10y ago
superkuh 10y ago
Nope. I bought an HTC Vive because Valve promised linux support. It's 5+ months since release and there's still not even a hint that they're working on it. It was a huge mistake to buy hardware based on promises of software support.
- DiThi 10y ago
  > there's still not even a hint that they're working on it The 64 bit version of Linux binaries have been updated on every OpenVR[0] release since the Vive was released. And it seems it works since the version 1.0.1. It's just there's no games for it. The ball is currently on the game and game engine developers. The only things Valve could release other than SteamVR and the API is Robot Repair (the only part of The Lab that is not Unity) and Dota 2 VR spectator mode (released just a few days ago). Also, most games are currently using DirectX. In the near future when most VR games use Vulkan it will be easy to run them with Wine at full performance (basically impossible with DX because of the high API overhead and game specific optimizations in drivers). That's assuming game devs don't compile for Linux, of course. And if most use DX12 instead of Vulkan, it would be still much better than previous versions of DX and OGL. [0] https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr
  - DiThi 10y ago
    Replying to myself, it seems it doesn't work well, yet, but they're working on it https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr/issues/213#issuecomment-237398505 https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr/issues/213#issuecomm...
phodo 10y ago
Putting this out there: This is one of those threads that would be interesting to go back and read 3 to 5 years from now... at that point we'd have at least one killer app that redefines what VR is, we would have a sense of what the emergent mechanics that resonate with folks are, etc. Similar to reading old mobile threads, before the inflection point hit and we got the killer apps / patterns we have today. Or reading about the web when it was just "brochure-ware". I would say it is less about killer apps and more about emergent behaviors and new "n+1" techniques that redefine what VR (and AR and MR) means. Exciting times ahead.
- troymc 10y ago
  It's also possible that there is no killer app, and the whole thing just stays niche, like 3D movies or Second Life.
  - swalsh 10y ago
    I can see it staying niche just because of the fact that any new advance makes the thing more expensive. It's like boating, if you have one they're great fun... super useful, but they're money pits. I think VR is going to be a money pit for a while. Each additional step of immersion linearly increases the price of VR. If it could actually fake the signals sent to your brain, whatever that means... maybe it would be possible to improve it via software, but that's far future stuff.
    - bombless 10y ago
      gvs put electrical signal to your brain to make you feel that you are moving. It looks scary to me though.
  - lucb1e 10y ago
    > niche, like 3D movies I don't know where you live, but in the Netherlands at least they still advertise with a movie being in 3d and you pay a surcharge for viewing the 3d version, on top of the glasses (one time purchase). I wouldn't mind so much, preferring 2d anyway, but often the 2d version is not even available...
cma 10y ago
Vive regularly, Rift on the shelf.
- rocky1138 10y ago
  Same. Especially since Vive plays Rift games. I played all the way through Lucky's Tale on the Vive. Fantastic game.
rasengan 10y ago
I think it would be worth it. I use the Oculus Rift. I wish there was some kind of group collaboration stuff that could be self hosted and use Oculus Rift.
Vexs 10y ago
I don't think I've heard a single person say elite dangerous is better without VR. It's just so much better with it than without, I can't not use it. Mind you, I just have google cardboard, but it's kinda similar, right?
- dogma1138 10y ago
  Try playing more than 30-45min with a VR headset, it's amazing for the first couple of times of short play sessions. But once the initial awe fades away it's just cumbersome and actually is a disadvantage in many aspects.
- blazespin 10y ago
  Hah hah! No. But yeah, ED without the Vive is like B/W TV.
- sp332 10y ago
  My brother did say this. But only because the text is fuzzier in his DK2 than on his giant monitor.
swalsh 10y ago
After Raw Data was released, I accidently smashed one of my controllers into a piece of furniture. Now it loses tracking after about 5 mins, which breaks immersion. I haven't played much since then. Before that though, any free moment I got.
13of40 10y ago
I got an Oculus for supporting the kickstarter, and I'm actually looking to sell it. Beyond the fact that I'm one of the lucky folks who get nausea, a lot of the games I've tried are like exploring the world in an electric wheelchair. (Ironically I think I feel that way because it's a lot more convenient to look around with a thumbstick instead of my neck muscles.) I'm still holding out hope for augmented reality though.
super-serial 10y ago
Had a Vive for months, still play it 4 times a week. That's not going to stop because it's pretty much replaced my workouts. Instead of doing a 30 min intense workout, I do two hours in the Vive. It used to be more Holoball, Holopoint, Zenblade... but now it's RecRoom, BattleDome and Pong Waves VR. More stuff comes out than I have to try with a full-time job and a minimalist social life.
dogma1138 10y ago
Both Oculus and Vive have been shelved after 1-2 weeks of use. Played some of the launch titles, Adrift was amazing, the steam VR workshop was nice, some of the creative stuff was pretty darn cool. But "hardcore" PC gaming on them is just god damn awful once you get pass the "omg it's so fucking cool in in awe" period. They are heavy, comfort levels aren't there, sweat is an issue especially in the summer, they put strain on your neck and since they give you a considerable smaller viewing angle than what you can do with a display (not to mention an ultrawide/screen spanning setup) they are disadvantaged in just about every game. Replacing a wide viewing angle and a quick mouse look ability with turning your head is just harder and slower (and after 45 min painfull). Losing the ability to switch to 3rd person views, zoom and pan the camera or detach it is a huge disadvantage in just about every game that supports VR. Losing the ability to disconnect from the game for even a second and to focus your eyes on something else, turn your head without affecting the game, take a drink of water, stretch and pretty much just be free to do what you want puts so much stress on you that after 30min you just stop enjoying it. Overall VR seems to be nice for very very specific applications, ones that are completely impossible to do without it, for everything else it's just worse it turns a completely detached leisure activity in a real life activity and that's a problem. The holodeck concept might sound cool until you figure out that it's actually hard work. Personally I don't think VR would go much further, AR on the other hand (Microsoft Hololens) has a bright future, if Google comes out with a slightly less sucky version of Google Glass and you mate it with Pokemon Go it's game over.
- DiThi 10y ago
  Most of those problems sound related to early software implementations. E.g. There are ways to "switch to 3rd person views, zoom and pan the camera or detach it" in comfortable ways. The easiest is having a virtual screen (or portal) but not the only one. Some other problems relate to game play versus screen/mouse users, which I think it's sort of missing the point. The sweat problem would be easily resolved with a "soldering mask" solution, like PSVR. Some have modded their Vives that way. And I agree the angle could be better, as the resolution. But hey, it's definitely a gen 1 product and GPUs just started to have features that allow improvements in hardware that don't tax GPUs so much (such as viewport multicast).
orlandojr 10y ago
Developer here, we have pretty much every headset. Vive Pre for 7 months now, and we play it daily. Audioshield, The Lab Archery and Tilt Brush are the favourites around here.
microman 10y ago
Most of the replies here focus on the gaming experience. What about for entertainment (don't mean porn)? I'm unfamiliar with the Vive/Oculus ecosystem but is there not a huge opportunity for live content (concerts, sports etc.)? I'm also a developer and can see a huge amount of potential for all sorts of content-based applications.
Artlav 10y ago
Not really. I never found anything "playable" for Oculus Rift i bought a year ago. I use it for VR development and show-offing at various events, which in my case are various experience sims like base jumping from a space elevator or riding a rocket-powered chair. Doesn't have much of a replay value, especially if you know what is coming.
marssaxman 10y ago
Still? God no, that was twenty-five years ago. Oh wait - Oculus. You're talking about all this new stuff that's coming up and might actually make VR work this time? No, I haven't gotten back into it again, yet. Still waiting to see if it's actually going to take off.
- DiThi 10y ago
  Apples and oranges. 25 years ago we didn't have 4000+ GFLOPS GPUs. No 90 hz, no low persistence, no 90+ deg FoV, no high enough resolution, no absolute positional tracking... at least for a sub-1000$ device (expensive ones had a couple of those features). And until this year 2016, there was no actual, released games where the VR user had hands (other than tech demos) with the Vive (or leap motion or razer hydra which sort of work with SteamVR too). It's like being a kid wanting to have a car, then realizing you need to be 18 and to have a job, so all you had was a toy car.
  - marssaxman 10y ago
    Yeah, I suppose I'm just unhelpfully poking at the disjunction between my perception of time and the poster's, as illuminated by the phrase "still play with". From my perspective, VR was a thing that got massively overhyped the minute it was dreamed up, a beautiful idea that never had a chance to grow because there was such a stampede to get in and make money before anyone had figured out what was going on or what the limits were. It blew up and died, and that was a long while ago. It's kind of cool to see people taking another crack at it now, and I have some hope that the smaller, simpler, less ambitious version of VR people are talking about now might actually fly, given improvements in technology since. It's just funny to hear someone referring to this second wave of VR, which to me feels like something that is just in its beginning stages, as though it is something in the past that one might already be done with.
bane 10y ago
Of three coworkers who bought VR headsets, the Vive user says he plays about once every week or two. The Rift users have completely stopped. I have a cardboard that sits unused, but that's mostly because my phone doesn't quite fit into it and I can't be bothered to fix it.
nkw 10y ago
Nope. On the shelf. Ordered both. Purchased Vive. Cancelled Oculus when they couldn't get their stuff together. It was neat but I thought the resolution was awful. My laptop, desktop and gaming box (w/ 4k TV) have good enough quality I can't see discrete pixels. I guess I've become a 'retina' snob. They are huge on the VR headsets. Video quality is like I'm playing Sierra games from the early nineties.
kirrent 10y ago
Yeah, I play Elite Dangerous, Chronos, blaze rush, and Assetto Corsa. I don't try and play every little thing like I used to want to. It's only the really well done games that I find super compelling, but those games are so compelling that it makes me excited about games in a way I haven't been in years.
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dawnerd 10y ago
Have a vive, I use mine whenever I get a block of an hour+ for setup and actually playing. It's not something you can just impulse play. That said I haven't found many games that really do vr right. Job simulator nails it I think. I tried Elite Dangerous out briefly and it looked quite amazing. I just don't have the controls down enough to play comfortably with a headset on. American Truck Simulator is okay once you get it working. The screendoor effect is quite apparent though. So far the best of the games have had cartoon style graphics. Anything that tries to look realistic is hurt by the poor (relatively speaking) resolution. The other thing keeping from playing more is the price of the "games". I put it in quotes since most of them are just tech demos for 20+ bucks.
- greggman 10y ago
  Have you tried Cosmic Trip? http://store.steampowered.com/app/427240/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/427240/
raptorpark 10y ago
Wow, lots of shelfers. Only two people in here talking about Raw Data, really? The games are starting to mature beyond games. I would never part with mine because to me it's the cheapest/fastest form of travel. I look for content daily and try to test something new every night. Of course, I'm an aspiring VR developer. Since nobody's talking about porn, please allow this burner account to speak up for it. I'm talking room-scale VR, not 360 videos. It does take a lot of digging and tinkering since that stuff is not on Steam, but if you know where to go on subreddits, torrents, etc. Try it for science, it's fantastic.
- irascible 10y ago
  Shelfer here.. porn is what keeps it on the nearby shelf.
educationcto 10y ago
I use my Oculus Rift basically every day. I prefer it to tv or other entertainment. I thought it would fade but there are new apps released all the time and I love the feeling of being transported to another world. I would say about 50% gaming (I'm a fan of puzzle games personally) but the other half is entertainment- 360 videos and immersive education experiences from Vrideo, Jaunt, and several standalone apps are phenomenal and I can't get over the fun of "being there". I can't wait for the market to grow and additional content to come out.
BuckRogers 10y ago
I think Nintendo is going to be the one to knock VR out of the park next year with the NX. That's what I'm waiting for because I believe it's going to not only be a handheld device/home console in one, but also easily support the holy grail, untethered VR. With first-party support from the world's premier game developer. Of course, it will be Nintendo art style, easier to render than faux reality. But that style is ideal for the relatively weak VR resolutions that systems have today. Personally, I prefer artistic or cartoonish graphics. If I want reality, I don't want it rendered. I'll walk outside. Go play paintball and obliterate the desktop or HMD VR experiences. If you want to dip toes in the water and start now, I'd get yourself a Google Cardboard setup. Nintendo is going to make Oculus/Vive and the 90's VR stuff (including VirtualBoy!) look silly as they bring this to mass market. It's going to be the games, simplified setup and console pricing that will win it. There won't be anything else like it.
spotman 10y ago
Former oculus owner here. I wear eye glasses and it's just a giant hassle. Ended up giving it to a friend. The times that I got it up and running and having fun could be counted on one hand. Most of the use I got out of it was introducing friends to VR for the first time. Everyone thought "cool!" No one asked for me to pull it out a 2nd time.
- DiThi 10y ago
  The Vive is much more glasses-friendly. Also having hands in the virtual world is a whole different experience.
  - spotman 10y ago
    Cool. I definitely want to try one. Especially if the eye annoyance is less.
dingo_bat 10y ago
I occasionally watch 360 videos on my gear vr. But it's no more frequent than once a week. I also like playing the smash game. I feel the resolution is not quite there yet. Maybe it's because I'm not using the full PC powered version.
driverdan 10y ago
I got my Vive in batch one. I played it for a while and loved it but ended up selling because I couldn't justify the cost for the amount of time I used it. While the current version is fun the low resolution is limiting. FPS games are nearly impossible because anything in the distance is only represented by a few pixels. I will buy room scale VR again when the price comes down and the resolution goes up.
- DiThi 10y ago
  Try 1.7+ supersampling with a 1080 some time. The difference is notable, esp with the current batch of VR games that can't use MSAA. I think it has enough resolution for games, just not enough for text to replace a screen.
etcet 10y ago
I love trying out all the cool new stuff coming out but most of my actual playtime is spent in multiplayer experiences like Rec Room, QuiVR, and Hover Junkers. A lot of stuff is free right now which is awesome for consumers. Social games like Rec Room practically have to be free and that team seems to be positioning themselves well to be the go to social experience. It's so strange, where the hell are all the big players? I think you can still get your VR game on Steam with basically anything these days so if you have the chops I would say it's well worth it to put a prototype out there to see if it sticks. Stuff like https://github.com/thestonefox/SteamVR_Unity_Toolkit https://github.com/thestonefox/SteamVR_Unity_Toolkit makes it really easy to get started. Everyone is starved for content and many of us would pay $5-$10 for a short or bare bones experience if it's done well.
hatsunearu 10y ago
Yeah, I play on it regularly, though recently I've been playing Fallout 4 so I've kinda put it aside for the time being.
lagudragu 10y ago
I have played around with the DK1 version of the Oculus. For slower paced immersive games VR is a great option. I have played hours of Skyrim (through 3rd party software) and really enjoyed viewing the Skyrim world from a VR perspective. Other immersive games that I would imagine the VR set would work are war simulation games, space simulators, puzzle games, horror games, ... or games with an immersive story or worlds to explore. Good news regarding the vive and skyrim, by the way; it seems a VR version of skyrim is on the way: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/five-things-you-didn-t-know-about-the-htc-vive-1323843 http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/five-things-you-didn-t-....
thenomad 10y ago
Not only still playing actively but actually changed careers to develop for room-scale VR. Personally I'd strongly draw a line between sitting-down VR and room-scale walking around and interacting with hands VR. The first one I liked but never really grabbed me. The second... well, see above re "changed careers". One of the issues VR does have right now is that the audience is small - particularly for room-scale. As a result, the games tend mostly to be quite limited in scope. There are very few narrative, long-form experiences out there. (My game, Left-Hand Path, is one of the few conventional narrative experiences in an RPG form for the Vive). Most games are arcadey, often wave shooters or similar. But as time goes by longer games are getting released. This month's actually been pretty amazing for Vive games, with Brookhaven Experiment and Raw Data, both bigger, more polished experiences. IMO, the future's bright. (People have gotten annoyed in the past when I didn't link Left-Hand Path in comments like this, so here's a link for anyone curious - http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760 http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760 . It's a heavily Dark Souls influenced RPG where you cast spells by drawing symbols in the air.)

105 points by billconan 10y ago

I'm trying to tell if I should invest time into VR development. HTC vive and oculus owners, are you still actively playing VR after few months, or you put it on the shelf?

badjano 10y ago

Just bought it, I'm on my second week, everyday I can't wait to get home and play again, using monitors is completely obsolete now... I have a friend that has it since 2013, and he use it almost everyday ( he himself says ). And I am also a developer myself, I had a game that I had put aside because I wasn't enjoying it so much, so I decided to put VR support on it, and now it lives again! Edit: Oculus CV1

excalibur 10y ago

I only have a GearVR, but I can tell you that the novelty has worn off for me. I still want to play it, but I rarely get around to it anymore.

joeyrideout 10y ago
Same here. Only a Gear VR, and it's mostly on the shelf. My usage habits with it mimicked my usage habits of a a single video game - get excited and play it a bunch at first, but then lose interest.
smacktoward 10y ago
I have a Gear VR as well, and wrote up my experiences with it here: https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2015/12/gear-vr-the-future-is-not-quite-here/ https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2015/12/gear-vr-the-future-is-not... Mine's on the shelf now too, for a couple of reasons. First, there wasn't a whole lot of good VR content available at launch, and even now around nine months later there still isn't. Second, I found it the only experience where the device really provided a knockout experience was when viewing panoramic photos -- games had to be simple and cartoon-ey to work with the limited horsepower and control options available, and it didn't have enough resolution to display 360-degree video in a convincingly immersive fashion. (I chalked the latter limitation up to the fact that the Gear VR is driven by a cellphone, but from what I've heard Vive and Rift aren't great on this front either, which legitimately surprised me.)
- GFischer 10y ago
  Your experience mirrors several other peoples' "the only experience where the device really provided a knockout experience was when viewing panoramic photos" I believe that this feature alone is enough to provide a "killer feature", I'm trying to work on it but I don't think I will get there as a side project :( (I did apply twice to Y Combinator and other incubators, no luck)

serg_chernata 10y ago

I had a DK2 but decided to hold off on purchasing the new headsets. I know that everything has gotten much, much better but even then the novelty was wearing off for me. Motion controllers may have changed that. I can't really describe why the excitement wore off for me. I'm still optimistic and will end up purchasing current gen once the price comes down or simply wait for the next iteration.

swalsh 10y ago
I went from a DK1 to a vive, so the transition was even more dramatic... but for me the motion controllers have been EVERYTHING. Everything I love about playing on the vive is about having my body in the game, not just my head.

richardjdare 10y ago

I play Elite Dangerous on my DK2 all the time. It's so immersive, I wouldn't want to play it on a normal screen. Been thinking about getting a consumer Rift but I'm not sure yet. I've also been doing some vr experiments with Unreal Engine, but nothing substantial.

vessenes 10y ago

I have a Vive, and love it. My kids still use it every day, often with friends over. That said, they are definitely hungry for new and more sophisticated / open-ended content. Upgrades to tiltbrush are a big deal; a good sculpting tool would be greatly appreciated. Budget Cuts updates also. Easier unity setups to make their own environments would be rad, or that racket-based setup carmack demoed a year ago. They would LOVE that. I think if you can wait another 18 months you could get a v2 headset with a much larger stable of content, but there's lots to do right now, the experiences are just more bite-sized. If you aren't going to code with it and aren't a highly avid gamer it's possible you'll run out of interesting experiences in a few months.

nabaraz 10y ago

I have Freefly VR that I purchased few months ago. I watch some youtube videos (360) once in a while but mostly it stays in the dust.

cven714 10y ago

HTC Vive owner. Mine is mostly on the shelf. I bring it out when new people visit and want to give it a try, but I haven't played otherwise. It's still a good time and the novelty isn't completely worn off...games like Chamber 19 (Xortex from The Lab) or Fantastic Contraption are a lot fun once I get myself to turn it on. But I haven't played a really compelling game--I'm hoping Budget Cuts is as good as it looks. The wow factor is huge the first few times. The VR immersion really works. I just haven't found a game yet that combines that Wow with game mechanics I want to keep playing for more than the novelty of it.

mrfusion 10y ago
Yeah plus it seems like a bear to get set up. Plug in base stations. Turn on steamvr wait two minutes for it to detect everything. Move the controllers around so it detects them. Put on the mask. Adjust the straps just right. Wonder if ipd is really correct ...
- lfowles 10y ago
  It's not quite that bad. Assuming base stations are already plugged in, I'm generally up and in Steam in 1 minute. Only step necessary to detect controllers is turning them on. Straps are annoying if you play with others though. IPD is easy once you know "the trick": close one eye, adjust IPD until lines as viewed straight ahead are sharp.
  - eddieroger 10y ago
    Do you let your base stations sleep? I have mine set to (yay moving parts with limited lifespans), and I agree that there's a noticeable delay between when I click the VR button and when I'm ready to put my headset on. I did not know the IPD trick. I'm tempted to go try that right now. Which kind of aligns me to cven714's point - mine sits there. I have fun when I play, but I just got up off my couch after deciding not to want to go through the full dance of starting VR up. I know I have fun, but I need something enthralling to make me want to play.

broonix 10y ago

I'm really into sim-racing (iRacing and Assetto Corsa). I used my DK2 and now my CV1 almost daily for the last 1.5 years.

schwabacher 10y ago

I have an oculus - I played with it daily for around two weeks after getting it, but can't remember the last time I touched it. I'm not a big gamer though - I mostly was interested in trying out and programming for VR and just have found other projects more interesting.

nickthegreek 10y ago

I work at a makerspace and we just got our 2nd vive. We also have a Rift and a Hololens. The Vive gets the most use. I go through periods of use and then ignore it for a bit. But as long as games continue to be released, I think I would be using it regularly. I am real excited for more multiplayer games. PoolNationVR is a great example of a quality polished VR experience that you just cant get in any other medium. Cant wait for a multiplayer ping pong experience. Rec Room and AltSpace are 2 other interested free social vr experiences.

aaronsnoswell 10y ago
You might be interested to know that Rec Room has a multiplayer VR ping-pong / beer-pong game - just head to the upstairs loft area.

cgusto 10y ago

I play it a few times a week. Project Cars and DiRT are what I spend most of the time with. I'm also enjoying Chronos right now, which is more of a RPG. Echoing what a few others have said, there are not a lot of great AAA titles for either the Vive or Rift. This will change over time. Are you excited about VR, or are you looking somewhere just to make money? If you're into this, then yes, I would recommend you learn about developing for VR. No one I know has tried the Rift and just shrugged their shoulders and said "that's kinda cool'. Everyone, even my most techie friends, drop their jaws and lose their minds. That's exciting. This is a brand new field with tons of potential. That being said, I don't think it will be a very lucrative market to indie devs for sometime.

charliecochrane 10y ago
Out of interest, I've heard that acceleration I'm VR games is a big cause of sickness, have you experienced this in your racing games at all?

Nuffinatall 10y ago

Since I'm developing a new game, I will be porting it to VR at some point. Right now I don't have the equipment.

lostgame 10y ago
Assuming you're supporting iOS and Android (which, by now, I'd hope to God you are, if you want any sales...) - you can use a Google Cardboard headset along with the Unity SDK for a total of $4 if you've already got an iPhone/Android handset.
- Nuffinatall 10y ago
  Can Google Cardboard do controllers?
  - GFischer 10y ago
    Kind of... it does, but it has problems https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/2r84ug/what_bluetooth_controller_do_you_use_with/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleCardboard/comments/2r84ug/wha...
rocky1138 10y ago
Vive is the only thing you should be targeting. Everything else is just not up to that level.

untog 10y ago

Depending on what you're doing, you probably should invest time in VR development, but I don't think you need to do it now. Still extremely early days, and I have no doubt frameworks/toolkits will emerge that make things easier, development-wise. One thing I keep coming back to with VR (as a personal observation) is how anti-social it is. Not sure what the implication (if any) is of that, but it leads me to hesitate in using mine.

monocasa 10y ago
> One thing I keep coming back to with VR (as a personal observation) is how anti-social it is Can you elaborate on this? The potential for social VR seems huge (which is probably why Facebook bought Oculus).
- untog 10y ago
  I mean, in-person. The internet, online, potential for VR is huge. But strapping on a VR headset when someone else is in the room with you is just awkward.
  - lfowles 10y ago
    This is true for most games, the difference that with VR you're strapping on figurative horse blinders. As I mentioned in my sibling post, there are some games taking advantage of the disconnect.
  - echeese 10y ago
    Yeah it can suck when others are waiting for their turn. It's nice though because the games themselves are a lot of fun to watch. I'd suggest checking out Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, it's fun for people not in VR.
- lfowles 10y ago
  I get the opposite experience, with games such as Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes[ktne], Black Hat Cooperative[bhc], and Pool Nation VR[pnvr]. [ktne]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/341800/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/341800/ [bhc]: http://store.steampowered.com/app/503100/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/503100/ [pnvr]: http://store.steampowered.com/app/269170/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/269170/

drzaiusapelord 10y ago

I use my Vive probably 3-5 times a week, depending on how busy I am. There seems to be a flavor or two of the month release for VR that keeps me busy and interested. Currently its Raw Data with a touch of Battledome and Poolnation. I'm not typically a single person gamer, but I did spend a fair bit of time with Final Approach, which makes you feel like a kid again, standing in front of a model airport and playing with toy planes. Most vive gamers are early access and I'm eager to get back into them after major updates. I haven't had time to try Rec Room, but I heard it really puts AltspaceVR to shame. I could gush about Raw Data for quite some time, but its really the first VR game to feel like a AAA title and the swordplay is very rewarding. SteamVR gets updated almost monthly as well and gives much needed fixes and performance enhancements. The Vive is much more user friendly now and the latest batch of video drivers seem to be helping VR performance as well. I did see the Poolnation and Raw Data devs have implemented Nvidia's mult-res shaders which give fairly impressive performance increases. Now I'm waiting on the full Budget Cuts game and EVE: Valkyrie to get released for the Vive. Its incredible how much content there is right now. That said, its not much considering all the non-VR games on Steam, but its enough for an adult with a FT job or family to be unable to keep up.

drewrv 10y ago

I've had a vive for three or four months now and still play pretty regularly. I only play games on the vive now (though I only have time for a few hours of gaming a week). Even though there's not a lot of content, "regular" video games seem really lame now. I've felt for a long time that the video game industry is stagnant. The big studios come out with the same shooter franchises and sports franchises. Most indie games use mechanics that are decades old now (puzzles, platformers, etc). In app purchases and pay to win crap has taken over mobile gaming. VR changes this. Games like tiltbrush and fantastic contraption could not have been built before now. Playing VR makes me feel like a kid again playing mario 64 for the first time.

SmallDeadGuy 10y ago
Fantastic contraption literally was built before now. It's been out since 2008, and was a great game before and after VR.
- drewrv 10y ago
  Yeah but it was 2D which is quite different.
- pjc50 10y ago
  Isn't it an inheritor of "The Incredible Machine" (1993)?

arielweisberg 10y ago

By play do you mean as a consumer of content or a producer of content? I have a Rift and play Elite Dangerous several times a week. Otherwise the software situation is quite dire with no content that can match the depth of typical AAA titles. The lack of motion tracked controllers is a problem right now as it blocks access to a lot of Steam games.

malnourish 10y ago
Are the Oculus Touch controllers motion tracked? And by motion tracked do you mean e.g. how the Vive controllers perform?
- arielweisberg 10y ago
  Yes they are motion tracked. They have inertial sensors and are tracked by cameras just like the Rift headset. Early reports are that they work about as well as the Vive controllers. We'll know more towards the end of the year when they are slated to be widely available. The great thing about Valve's approach to VR is that they have been very open and committed to compatibility with Rift hardware and aren't playing favorites with hardware. To Valve a motion tracked controller is a motion tracked controller. People are using stuff like Razer Hydra to play Steam games with tracked controllers and the Rift today.
- moron4hire 10y ago
  Yes, they are, but very few people have them. Oculus hopes to have 5,000 copies out by the end of the year, whereas HTC has already sold over 100,000 units. Oculus Touch is a great device, but your just not going to see it available or supported very well for a very significant amount of time.

nilkn 10y ago

I was in the very first wave of Vive shipments and I got a Rift at the very beginning of June. So at this point I've had both for a pretty decent chunk of time. I haven't been using them much, but that's largely due to lack of content. I used them both heavily when they arrived, and the Vive in particular got a ton of playtime, but after a certain point I just don't want to fire up SPT again. Recently it got to a point where I'm not even all that excited to demo the Vive to others either. I disagree strongly with those saying monitors are obsolete. They're definitely not, not right now at least. I've recently been playing The Witcher 3 and not only is it far more graphically impressive than any VR content available, but the game itself has a level of complexity that would be very hard to achieve in a VR game. It's just too convenient and easy to play games on a 1440p or 4K monitor with keyboard and mouse. The extremely crisp resolution, the fantastic and complex and comfortable controls, the ability to trivially do stuff concurrently while playing the game, the fact that you're not blocked off from people around you... there are more than enough reasons to continue playing standard monitor-based games. I feel I do need to emphasize how much VR blocks you off from friends and family who might be around. It feels very social when you demo it for the first time, but eventually I could definitely tell that my SO was starting to resent VR. From her perspective, it's the equivalent of me just disappearing into the garage and locking the door with little to no communication.

arielweisberg 10y ago
I haven't really had the blocked off issue. With the Rift I can hear things outside the headset and I can pop up one ear to talk more easily. The games are mirrored to our 65" TV so my spouse can see what I see and enjoy games vicariously the way she usually does. They enjoy when I play horror games and let loose with the color commentary. I actually pulled her into the game and play Elite with her now. I'm in VR and she is on a screen. I do agree there is a temptation to use a screen just for comfort and ease of context switching. I think a solid forward facing camera with stellar software support is table stakes for a VR headset. Not PiP, I am talking about always available full screen pass through that can activate and deactivate lightning quick. Heck give me a hardware button on the set. And wireless. I can dream right?
- 10y ago

superkuh 10y ago

Nope. I bought an HTC Vive because Valve promised linux support. It's 5+ months since release and there's still not even a hint that they're working on it. It was a huge mistake to buy hardware based on promises of software support.

DiThi 10y ago
> there's still not even a hint that they're working on it The 64 bit version of Linux binaries have been updated on every OpenVR[0] release since the Vive was released. And it seems it works since the version 1.0.1. It's just there's no games for it. The ball is currently on the game and game engine developers. The only things Valve could release other than SteamVR and the API is Robot Repair (the only part of The Lab that is not Unity) and Dota 2 VR spectator mode (released just a few days ago). Also, most games are currently using DirectX. In the near future when most VR games use Vulkan it will be easy to run them with Wine at full performance (basically impossible with DX because of the high API overhead and game specific optimizations in drivers). That's assuming game devs don't compile for Linux, of course. And if most use DX12 instead of Vulkan, it would be still much better than previous versions of DX and OGL. [0] https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr
- DiThi 10y ago
  Replying to myself, it seems it doesn't work well, yet, but they're working on it https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr/issues/213#issuecomment-237398505 https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr/issues/213#issuecomm...

phodo 10y ago

Putting this out there: This is one of those threads that would be interesting to go back and read 3 to 5 years from now... at that point we'd have at least one killer app that redefines what VR is, we would have a sense of what the emergent mechanics that resonate with folks are, etc. Similar to reading old mobile threads, before the inflection point hit and we got the killer apps / patterns we have today. Or reading about the web when it was just "brochure-ware". I would say it is less about killer apps and more about emergent behaviors and new "n+1" techniques that redefine what VR (and AR and MR) means. Exciting times ahead.

troymc 10y ago
It's also possible that there is no killer app, and the whole thing just stays niche, like 3D movies or Second Life.
- swalsh 10y ago
  I can see it staying niche just because of the fact that any new advance makes the thing more expensive. It's like boating, if you have one they're great fun... super useful, but they're money pits. I think VR is going to be a money pit for a while. Each additional step of immersion linearly increases the price of VR. If it could actually fake the signals sent to your brain, whatever that means... maybe it would be possible to improve it via software, but that's far future stuff.
  - bombless 10y ago
    gvs put electrical signal to your brain to make you feel that you are moving. It looks scary to me though.
- lucb1e 10y ago
  > niche, like 3D movies I don't know where you live, but in the Netherlands at least they still advertise with a movie being in 3d and you pay a surcharge for viewing the 3d version, on top of the glasses (one time purchase). I wouldn't mind so much, preferring 2d anyway, but often the 2d version is not even available...

cma 10y ago

Vive regularly, Rift on the shelf.

rocky1138 10y ago
Same. Especially since Vive plays Rift games. I played all the way through Lucky's Tale on the Vive. Fantastic game.

rasengan 10y ago

I think it would be worth it. I use the Oculus Rift. I wish there was some kind of group collaboration stuff that could be self hosted and use Oculus Rift.

Vexs 10y ago

I don't think I've heard a single person say elite dangerous is better without VR. It's just so much better with it than without, I can't not use it. Mind you, I just have google cardboard, but it's kinda similar, right?

dogma1138 10y ago
Try playing more than 30-45min with a VR headset, it's amazing for the first couple of times of short play sessions. But once the initial awe fades away it's just cumbersome and actually is a disadvantage in many aspects.
blazespin 10y ago
Hah hah! No. But yeah, ED without the Vive is like B/W TV.
sp332 10y ago
My brother did say this. But only because the text is fuzzier in his DK2 than on his giant monitor.

swalsh 10y ago

After Raw Data was released, I accidently smashed one of my controllers into a piece of furniture. Now it loses tracking after about 5 mins, which breaks immersion. I haven't played much since then. Before that though, any free moment I got.

13of40 10y ago

I got an Oculus for supporting the kickstarter, and I'm actually looking to sell it. Beyond the fact that I'm one of the lucky folks who get nausea, a lot of the games I've tried are like exploring the world in an electric wheelchair. (Ironically I think I feel that way because it's a lot more convenient to look around with a thumbstick instead of my neck muscles.) I'm still holding out hope for augmented reality though.

super-serial 10y ago

Had a Vive for months, still play it 4 times a week. That's not going to stop because it's pretty much replaced my workouts. Instead of doing a 30 min intense workout, I do two hours in the Vive. It used to be more Holoball, Holopoint, Zenblade... but now it's RecRoom, BattleDome and Pong Waves VR. More stuff comes out than I have to try with a full-time job and a minimalist social life.

dogma1138 10y ago

Both Oculus and Vive have been shelved after 1-2 weeks of use. Played some of the launch titles, Adrift was amazing, the steam VR workshop was nice, some of the creative stuff was pretty darn cool. But "hardcore" PC gaming on them is just god damn awful once you get pass the "omg it's so fucking cool in in awe" period. They are heavy, comfort levels aren't there, sweat is an issue especially in the summer, they put strain on your neck and since they give you a considerable smaller viewing angle than what you can do with a display (not to mention an ultrawide/screen spanning setup) they are disadvantaged in just about every game. Replacing a wide viewing angle and a quick mouse look ability with turning your head is just harder and slower (and after 45 min painfull). Losing the ability to switch to 3rd person views, zoom and pan the camera or detach it is a huge disadvantage in just about every game that supports VR. Losing the ability to disconnect from the game for even a second and to focus your eyes on something else, turn your head without affecting the game, take a drink of water, stretch and pretty much just be free to do what you want puts so much stress on you that after 30min you just stop enjoying it. Overall VR seems to be nice for very very specific applications, ones that are completely impossible to do without it, for everything else it's just worse it turns a completely detached leisure activity in a real life activity and that's a problem. The holodeck concept might sound cool until you figure out that it's actually hard work. Personally I don't think VR would go much further, AR on the other hand (Microsoft Hololens) has a bright future, if Google comes out with a slightly less sucky version of Google Glass and you mate it with Pokemon Go it's game over.

DiThi 10y ago
Most of those problems sound related to early software implementations. E.g. There are ways to "switch to 3rd person views, zoom and pan the camera or detach it" in comfortable ways. The easiest is having a virtual screen (or portal) but not the only one. Some other problems relate to game play versus screen/mouse users, which I think it's sort of missing the point. The sweat problem would be easily resolved with a "soldering mask" solution, like PSVR. Some have modded their Vives that way. And I agree the angle could be better, as the resolution. But hey, it's definitely a gen 1 product and GPUs just started to have features that allow improvements in hardware that don't tax GPUs so much (such as viewport multicast).

orlandojr 10y ago

Developer here, we have pretty much every headset. Vive Pre for 7 months now, and we play it daily. Audioshield, The Lab Archery and Tilt Brush are the favourites around here.

microman 10y ago

Most of the replies here focus on the gaming experience. What about for entertainment (don't mean porn)? I'm unfamiliar with the Vive/Oculus ecosystem but is there not a huge opportunity for live content (concerts, sports etc.)? I'm also a developer and can see a huge amount of potential for all sorts of content-based applications.

Artlav 10y ago

Not really. I never found anything "playable" for Oculus Rift i bought a year ago. I use it for VR development and show-offing at various events, which in my case are various experience sims like base jumping from a space elevator or riding a rocket-powered chair. Doesn't have much of a replay value, especially if you know what is coming.

marssaxman 10y ago

Still? God no, that was twenty-five years ago. Oh wait - Oculus. You're talking about all this new stuff that's coming up and might actually make VR work this time? No, I haven't gotten back into it again, yet. Still waiting to see if it's actually going to take off.

DiThi 10y ago
Apples and oranges. 25 years ago we didn't have 4000+ GFLOPS GPUs. No 90 hz, no low persistence, no 90+ deg FoV, no high enough resolution, no absolute positional tracking... at least for a sub-1000$ device (expensive ones had a couple of those features). And until this year 2016, there was no actual, released games where the VR user had hands (other than tech demos) with the Vive (or leap motion or razer hydra which sort of work with SteamVR too). It's like being a kid wanting to have a car, then realizing you need to be 18 and to have a job, so all you had was a toy car.
- marssaxman 10y ago
  Yeah, I suppose I'm just unhelpfully poking at the disjunction between my perception of time and the poster's, as illuminated by the phrase "still play with". From my perspective, VR was a thing that got massively overhyped the minute it was dreamed up, a beautiful idea that never had a chance to grow because there was such a stampede to get in and make money before anyone had figured out what was going on or what the limits were. It blew up and died, and that was a long while ago. It's kind of cool to see people taking another crack at it now, and I have some hope that the smaller, simpler, less ambitious version of VR people are talking about now might actually fly, given improvements in technology since. It's just funny to hear someone referring to this second wave of VR, which to me feels like something that is just in its beginning stages, as though it is something in the past that one might already be done with.

bane 10y ago

Of three coworkers who bought VR headsets, the Vive user says he plays about once every week or two. The Rift users have completely stopped. I have a cardboard that sits unused, but that's mostly because my phone doesn't quite fit into it and I can't be bothered to fix it.

nkw 10y ago

Nope. On the shelf. Ordered both. Purchased Vive. Cancelled Oculus when they couldn't get their stuff together. It was neat but I thought the resolution was awful. My laptop, desktop and gaming box (w/ 4k TV) have good enough quality I can't see discrete pixels. I guess I've become a 'retina' snob. They are huge on the VR headsets. Video quality is like I'm playing Sierra games from the early nineties.

kirrent 10y ago

Yeah, I play Elite Dangerous, Chronos, blaze rush, and Assetto Corsa. I don't try and play every little thing like I used to want to. It's only the really well done games that I find super compelling, but those games are so compelling that it makes me excited about games in a way I haven't been in years.

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dawnerd 10y ago

Have a vive, I use mine whenever I get a block of an hour+ for setup and actually playing. It's not something you can just impulse play. That said I haven't found many games that really do vr right. Job simulator nails it I think. I tried Elite Dangerous out briefly and it looked quite amazing. I just don't have the controls down enough to play comfortably with a headset on. American Truck Simulator is okay once you get it working. The screendoor effect is quite apparent though. So far the best of the games have had cartoon style graphics. Anything that tries to look realistic is hurt by the poor (relatively speaking) resolution. The other thing keeping from playing more is the price of the "games". I put it in quotes since most of them are just tech demos for 20+ bucks.

greggman 10y ago
Have you tried Cosmic Trip? http://store.steampowered.com/app/427240/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/427240/

raptorpark 10y ago

Wow, lots of shelfers. Only two people in here talking about Raw Data, really? The games are starting to mature beyond games. I would never part with mine because to me it's the cheapest/fastest form of travel. I look for content daily and try to test something new every night. Of course, I'm an aspiring VR developer. Since nobody's talking about porn, please allow this burner account to speak up for it. I'm talking room-scale VR, not 360 videos. It does take a lot of digging and tinkering since that stuff is not on Steam, but if you know where to go on subreddits, torrents, etc. Try it for science, it's fantastic.

irascible 10y ago
Shelfer here.. porn is what keeps it on the nearby shelf.

educationcto 10y ago

I use my Oculus Rift basically every day. I prefer it to tv or other entertainment. I thought it would fade but there are new apps released all the time and I love the feeling of being transported to another world. I would say about 50% gaming (I'm a fan of puzzle games personally) but the other half is entertainment- 360 videos and immersive education experiences from Vrideo, Jaunt, and several standalone apps are phenomenal and I can't get over the fun of "being there". I can't wait for the market to grow and additional content to come out.

BuckRogers 10y ago

I think Nintendo is going to be the one to knock VR out of the park next year with the NX. That's what I'm waiting for because I believe it's going to not only be a handheld device/home console in one, but also easily support the holy grail, untethered VR. With first-party support from the world's premier game developer. Of course, it will be Nintendo art style, easier to render than faux reality. But that style is ideal for the relatively weak VR resolutions that systems have today. Personally, I prefer artistic or cartoonish graphics. If I want reality, I don't want it rendered. I'll walk outside. Go play paintball and obliterate the desktop or HMD VR experiences. If you want to dip toes in the water and start now, I'd get yourself a Google Cardboard setup. Nintendo is going to make Oculus/Vive and the 90's VR stuff (including VirtualBoy!) look silly as they bring this to mass market. It's going to be the games, simplified setup and console pricing that will win it. There won't be anything else like it.

spotman 10y ago

Former oculus owner here. I wear eye glasses and it's just a giant hassle. Ended up giving it to a friend. The times that I got it up and running and having fun could be counted on one hand. Most of the use I got out of it was introducing friends to VR for the first time. Everyone thought "cool!" No one asked for me to pull it out a 2nd time.

DiThi 10y ago
The Vive is much more glasses-friendly. Also having hands in the virtual world is a whole different experience.
- spotman 10y ago
  Cool. I definitely want to try one. Especially if the eye annoyance is less.

dingo_bat 10y ago

I occasionally watch 360 videos on my gear vr. But it's no more frequent than once a week. I also like playing the smash game. I feel the resolution is not quite there yet. Maybe it's because I'm not using the full PC powered version.

driverdan 10y ago

I got my Vive in batch one. I played it for a while and loved it but ended up selling because I couldn't justify the cost for the amount of time I used it. While the current version is fun the low resolution is limiting. FPS games are nearly impossible because anything in the distance is only represented by a few pixels. I will buy room scale VR again when the price comes down and the resolution goes up.

DiThi 10y ago
Try 1.7+ supersampling with a 1080 some time. The difference is notable, esp with the current batch of VR games that can't use MSAA. I think it has enough resolution for games, just not enough for text to replace a screen.

etcet 10y ago

I love trying out all the cool new stuff coming out but most of my actual playtime is spent in multiplayer experiences like Rec Room, QuiVR, and Hover Junkers. A lot of stuff is free right now which is awesome for consumers. Social games like Rec Room practically have to be free and that team seems to be positioning themselves well to be the go to social experience. It's so strange, where the hell are all the big players? I think you can still get your VR game on Steam with basically anything these days so if you have the chops I would say it's well worth it to put a prototype out there to see if it sticks. Stuff like https://github.com/thestonefox/SteamVR_Unity_Toolkit https://github.com/thestonefox/SteamVR_Unity_Toolkit makes it really easy to get started. Everyone is starved for content and many of us would pay $5-$10 for a short or bare bones experience if it's done well.

hatsunearu 10y ago

Yeah, I play on it regularly, though recently I've been playing Fallout 4 so I've kinda put it aside for the time being.

lagudragu 10y ago

I have played around with the DK1 version of the Oculus. For slower paced immersive games VR is a great option. I have played hours of Skyrim (through 3rd party software) and really enjoyed viewing the Skyrim world from a VR perspective. Other immersive games that I would imagine the VR set would work are war simulation games, space simulators, puzzle games, horror games, ... or games with an immersive story or worlds to explore. Good news regarding the vive and skyrim, by the way; it seems a VR version of skyrim is on the way: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/five-things-you-didn-t-know-about-the-htc-vive-1323843 http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/five-things-you-didn-t-....

thenomad 10y ago

Not only still playing actively but actually changed careers to develop for room-scale VR. Personally I'd strongly draw a line between sitting-down VR and room-scale walking around and interacting with hands VR. The first one I liked but never really grabbed me. The second... well, see above re "changed careers". One of the issues VR does have right now is that the audience is small - particularly for room-scale. As a result, the games tend mostly to be quite limited in scope. There are very few narrative, long-form experiences out there. (My game, Left-Hand Path, is one of the few conventional narrative experiences in an RPG form for the Vive). Most games are arcadey, often wave shooters or similar. But as time goes by longer games are getting released. This month's actually been pretty amazing for Vive games, with Brookhaven Experiment and Raw Data, both bigger, more polished experiences. IMO, the future's bright. (People have gotten annoyed in the past when I didn't link Left-Hand Path in comments like this, so here's a link for anyone curious - http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760 http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760 . It's a heavily Dark Souls influenced RPG where you cast spells by drawing symbols in the air.)