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I used to be a pretty hardcore gamer. Now I'm a bit older, have other responsibilities, and considerably less time. Also, home improvement is expensive. I desp

I used to be a pretty hardcore gamer. Now I'm a bit older, have other responsibilities, and considerably less time. Also, home improvement is expensive. I desperately wanted to love VR, but could not bring myself to buy a unit. The demos I tried just could not bring me to pay that amount of money given the limited games and limited quality of them. Many of the ones with the greatest potential seem like they require multiple friends to also have VR. I have a Daydream View headset and have barely touched it since getting it with my Pixel XL. Discoverability for Daydream apps on the Play store is a horrible experience right now. There's not even a filter, and no way to sort by newest, so you end up seeing the same crap over and over mixed in with generic VR apps that aren't made for Daydream (and thus a lower quality experience), or random apps that show up when searching for "Daydream" because that's the best way I've found to filter. I DESPERATELY want VR to take off, and I've wanted this my entire geeky life. But it just isn't there yet. Once the price comes down and quality comes up, and ideally isn't tethered, then I think we'll see a huge market open up. But I spent $5k on my last gaming computer (excluding peripherals) a few years ago, and I couldn't bring myself to purchase this.

cyrux004 9y ago
I was a casual gamer and I agree with whats written here. I did actually try the Vive for a week but passed on buying. I am actually pretty excited about AR these days though. Apart from games, productivity apps will be big on AR
contingencies 9y ago
Same. Here in Shenzhen there are VR gaming houses where you can try the tech from various companies in a pay-to-play environment. Nothing I played really convinced me to buy... a lot of the issues are with FPS movement in a walking scenario. (Car steering wheel systems and joystick based spaceships are less destructive to the illusion.) The most fun I had was on a moving horse saddle thing, where you basically hold a gun and play cowboy with your feet in the stirrups against zombies in a virtual desert! Awesome experience :)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
andybak 9y ago
I own a Vive and I demo it to people constantly. I've never seen a tech that makes ordinary people (as in "non-tech/non-gamers) gasp with delight with such regularity. It's wrong to consider VR as a gaming peripheral - the appeal is much wider. Music visualization applications are astonishing and photogrammatry is compelling. I've often just sat in a virtual location enjoying the ambience. Music making and 3D modelling (both for leisure and for professional use), social VR, fitness, narrative/story-based, virtual tourism and educational applications - these are all genres that work much, much better in VR than on a flat monitor. > given the limited games and limited quality of them This is quite simply not true unless you have very specific tastes or unlimited free time. There is more good content available now than I would ever have time to play. There is a lack of big-budget, AAA, 60+ hour gameplay titles mainly due to the economics of game production (creating a typical AAA title solely for VR would require it to sell for something like $1000 a unit to coup costs given the current user base) but there are several VR ports in the works including Doom, Skyrim and Fallout 4 from Bethesda by the end of the year. But I can list a dozen incredibly good gaming experiences in VR off the top of my head. I rarely touch non-VR games now. Yes - VR has room for improvement (FOV, lens quality and weight would be top of my list - the resolution is far from being a major problem and most others agree) and the cost needs to drop further for it to be mainstream. But the tech is already compelling in a way that no other technology in my lifetime has shown itself to be. Count me as a true believer. I'd buy another rig immediately if I had to choose again.
- Rampoina 9y ago
  > But I can list a dozen incredibly good gaming experiences in VR off the top of my head. I rarely touch non-VR games now. Could you actually do it please?
  - andybak 9y ago
    OK. I'll focus on games with reasonable length or replayability - there's some amazing short games and experiences that are still good value for money but I'll leave them to one side. I'll also avoid non-games - even ones that are primarily for entertainment. 1. Rec Room 2. Sairento 3. Arizona Sunshine 4. Doom BFG (with the VR mod) 5. SuperHot 6. Elite Dangerous 7. Climbey 8. Pavlov (some prefer Onward but I haven't tried it) 9. Vivecraft 10. Subnautica 11. Vanishing Realms 12. Robo Recall I can keep going if you like. The bottom of the barrel is a fair way off.
baby 9y ago
I've tried the Vive in different settings and with different demos. First: it's always impressive. You just get teleported to a different world in which you can move around and look around. You can notice the screen at first but you just quickly forget about it as you immerse yourself in this new dimension. It's just incredible. Second: a lot of demos you can try are kind of shitty. For example here in London you can play Serious Sam for 10 minutes for 6 quids and I wouldn't recommend that as a first experience as it's too simple and too limited. To understand VR you need to try tilt brush, job simulator, the lab, the portal demo, ... These experiences are incredible and I haven't seen someone not impressed by them. Having said that, I myself haven't bought an HTC Vive although I've been wanting for a very long time... just because I do not have a PC and this would increase the cost ten folds.
- lunchables 9y ago
  The most fun I've had with my Vive, personally, is playing two player Rawdata. But when I show someone the Vive I always start with Job Simulator. It's such a great start and when you experience the "presence" people talk about, it really is staggering.
Macuyiko 9y ago
Totally agree. For someone who is pretty busy and doesn't have much time for gaming, the current VR experience is simply too cumbersome, especially if you don't have a dedicated space for it. I own both a Vive and Rift, and apart from freelance work where I use those devices, I never take them out. Untangling all the cables, setting up the lighthouses, recalibrating the software, making sure the lighthouses are positioned well so there's no interference, asking my wife to stay out of the play area... It's a lot of work for an experience which ultimately leaves you with a headache after one hour of play (either from motion sickness, which I don't suffer from, or from the tightness of walking around with a heavy helmet on your head). Fumbling with the headset to have a quick peek around the room to see where you're standing is also annoying, especially for people (like me, and many gamers, I presume) wearing glasses. It's so uncomfortable I risk damaging my expensive glasses and fall back to wearing an older pair. A screen works much better, especially if you can afford a nice 4K setup (which until recently boils down to the same price as a full-fledged VR setup). I do have some hope for Microsoft's Hololens, though. I believe that augmented (or mixed) reality has a much better chance to lead to much richer experiences, in games but also video and creative work. Being able to play Minecraft on your living room's floor seems much cooler to me than in VR. You still have spatial awareness of what's around you, and there's hope that solutions for nearsighted people will be more elegant.
- andybak 9y ago
  Agree about the dedicated space. Or rather - a space where you can leave it permanently set up. I'm lucky enough to have an office with 2m square of clear space - so all I have to do is roll my office chair out of the way if I want the whole room. Inside-out tracking will help enormously with this. > Fumbling with the headset to have a quick peek around the room to see where you're standing is also annoying The Vive has a front-facing camera especially for this purpose. I wish the "welding mask" hinge seen on the new Lenovo was more widespread. > A screen works much better For what? You lost me here. > I believe that augmented (or mixed) reality has a much better chance to lead to much richer experiences AR and VR are just different ends of the same spectrum. Ideally you want both as they lend themselves to different types of experience. By the way - I have fairly large spectacles and I don't find wearing them in VR problematic at all. There's easily 5mm of clearance even when the Vive is set to it's closest setting.
dingo_bat 9y ago
I really think that gear VR is the best and most cost effective experience right now. The app store is great, there are a lot of options. An important thing is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's meant to be enjoyed 30 minutes at a time and that's the perfect duration for enjoying VR right now. You don't feel dizzy and you don't feel disoriented. The cost is also minimal. The headset is literally $100 or free with your phone. Apps are a bit expensive, but nowhere close to the PC based systems. Daydream is a low effort also ran. It lacks good hardware, the quality is noticably worse than gear VR and supported phones are rare to find. Now that the galaxy S8 and note 8 are slated to support daydream, it will finally have decent hardware support. Let's see if Google does something interesting, but I'm not holding my breath.
lunchables 9y ago
As someone who owns a Vive, what I hear is: "it's still too expensive" which is really encouraging to me because I think as the technology continues to progress it will become more and more appealing to a wider audience.

cyrux004 9y ago

I was a casual gamer and I agree with whats written here. I did actually try the Vive for a week but passed on buying. I am actually pretty excited about AR these days though. Apart from games, productivity apps will be big on AR

contingencies 9y ago

Same. Here in Shenzhen there are VR gaming houses where you can try the tech from various companies in a pay-to-play environment. Nothing I played really convinced me to buy... a lot of the issues are with FPS movement in a walking scenario. (Car steering wheel systems and joystick based spaceships are less destructive to the illusion.) The most fun I had was on a moving horse saddle thing, where you basically hold a gun and play cowboy with your feet in the stirrups against zombies in a virtual desert! Awesome experience :)

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

andybak 9y ago

I own a Vive and I demo it to people constantly. I've never seen a tech that makes ordinary people (as in "non-tech/non-gamers) gasp with delight with such regularity. It's wrong to consider VR as a gaming peripheral - the appeal is much wider. Music visualization applications are astonishing and photogrammatry is compelling. I've often just sat in a virtual location enjoying the ambience. Music making and 3D modelling (both for leisure and for professional use), social VR, fitness, narrative/story-based, virtual tourism and educational applications - these are all genres that work much, much better in VR than on a flat monitor. > given the limited games and limited quality of them This is quite simply not true unless you have very specific tastes or unlimited free time. There is more good content available now than I would ever have time to play. There is a lack of big-budget, AAA, 60+ hour gameplay titles mainly due to the economics of game production (creating a typical AAA title solely for VR would require it to sell for something like $1000 a unit to coup costs given the current user base) but there are several VR ports in the works including Doom, Skyrim and Fallout 4 from Bethesda by the end of the year. But I can list a dozen incredibly good gaming experiences in VR off the top of my head. I rarely touch non-VR games now. Yes - VR has room for improvement (FOV, lens quality and weight would be top of my list - the resolution is far from being a major problem and most others agree) and the cost needs to drop further for it to be mainstream. But the tech is already compelling in a way that no other technology in my lifetime has shown itself to be. Count me as a true believer. I'd buy another rig immediately if I had to choose again.

Rampoina 9y ago
> But I can list a dozen incredibly good gaming experiences in VR off the top of my head. I rarely touch non-VR games now. Could you actually do it please?
- andybak 9y ago
  OK. I'll focus on games with reasonable length or replayability - there's some amazing short games and experiences that are still good value for money but I'll leave them to one side. I'll also avoid non-games - even ones that are primarily for entertainment. 1. Rec Room 2. Sairento 3. Arizona Sunshine 4. Doom BFG (with the VR mod) 5. SuperHot 6. Elite Dangerous 7. Climbey 8. Pavlov (some prefer Onward but I haven't tried it) 9. Vivecraft 10. Subnautica 11. Vanishing Realms 12. Robo Recall I can keep going if you like. The bottom of the barrel is a fair way off.

baby 9y ago

I've tried the Vive in different settings and with different demos. First: it's always impressive. You just get teleported to a different world in which you can move around and look around. You can notice the screen at first but you just quickly forget about it as you immerse yourself in this new dimension. It's just incredible. Second: a lot of demos you can try are kind of shitty. For example here in London you can play Serious Sam for 10 minutes for 6 quids and I wouldn't recommend that as a first experience as it's too simple and too limited. To understand VR you need to try tilt brush, job simulator, the lab, the portal demo, ... These experiences are incredible and I haven't seen someone not impressed by them. Having said that, I myself haven't bought an HTC Vive although I've been wanting for a very long time... just because I do not have a PC and this would increase the cost ten folds.

lunchables 9y ago
The most fun I've had with my Vive, personally, is playing two player Rawdata. But when I show someone the Vive I always start with Job Simulator. It's such a great start and when you experience the "presence" people talk about, it really is staggering.

Macuyiko 9y ago

Totally agree. For someone who is pretty busy and doesn't have much time for gaming, the current VR experience is simply too cumbersome, especially if you don't have a dedicated space for it. I own both a Vive and Rift, and apart from freelance work where I use those devices, I never take them out. Untangling all the cables, setting up the lighthouses, recalibrating the software, making sure the lighthouses are positioned well so there's no interference, asking my wife to stay out of the play area... It's a lot of work for an experience which ultimately leaves you with a headache after one hour of play (either from motion sickness, which I don't suffer from, or from the tightness of walking around with a heavy helmet on your head). Fumbling with the headset to have a quick peek around the room to see where you're standing is also annoying, especially for people (like me, and many gamers, I presume) wearing glasses. It's so uncomfortable I risk damaging my expensive glasses and fall back to wearing an older pair. A screen works much better, especially if you can afford a nice 4K setup (which until recently boils down to the same price as a full-fledged VR setup). I do have some hope for Microsoft's Hololens, though. I believe that augmented (or mixed) reality has a much better chance to lead to much richer experiences, in games but also video and creative work. Being able to play Minecraft on your living room's floor seems much cooler to me than in VR. You still have spatial awareness of what's around you, and there's hope that solutions for nearsighted people will be more elegant.

andybak 9y ago
Agree about the dedicated space. Or rather - a space where you can leave it permanently set up. I'm lucky enough to have an office with 2m square of clear space - so all I have to do is roll my office chair out of the way if I want the whole room. Inside-out tracking will help enormously with this. > Fumbling with the headset to have a quick peek around the room to see where you're standing is also annoying The Vive has a front-facing camera especially for this purpose. I wish the "welding mask" hinge seen on the new Lenovo was more widespread. > A screen works much better For what? You lost me here. > I believe that augmented (or mixed) reality has a much better chance to lead to much richer experiences AR and VR are just different ends of the same spectrum. Ideally you want both as they lend themselves to different types of experience. By the way - I have fairly large spectacles and I don't find wearing them in VR problematic at all. There's easily 5mm of clearance even when the Vive is set to it's closest setting.

dingo_bat 9y ago

I really think that gear VR is the best and most cost effective experience right now. The app store is great, there are a lot of options. An important thing is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's meant to be enjoyed 30 minutes at a time and that's the perfect duration for enjoying VR right now. You don't feel dizzy and you don't feel disoriented. The cost is also minimal. The headset is literally $100 or free with your phone. Apps are a bit expensive, but nowhere close to the PC based systems. Daydream is a low effort also ran. It lacks good hardware, the quality is noticably worse than gear VR and supported phones are rare to find. Now that the galaxy S8 and note 8 are slated to support daydream, it will finally have decent hardware support. Let's see if Google does something interesting, but I'm not holding my breath.

lunchables 9y ago

As someone who owns a Vive, what I hear is: "it's still too expensive" which is really encouraging to me because I think as the technology continues to progress it will become more and more appealing to a wider audience.