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This is not meant as negative towards you at all. But I think your post demonstrates the gulf in perception between the savvy PC gamer and others. You say you h

This is not meant as negative towards you at all. But I think your post demonstrates the gulf in perception between the savvy PC gamer and others. You say you have no problems, then go on to list a whole bunch of problems. You're in a nice groove where this stuff is pretty easy to manage, but to a lot of people this stuff is an exasperating pain in the butt.

smacktoward 8y ago
It reminded me of the old days when I had a big library of AUTOEXEC.BAT files, one for each game, to set things up exactly the way they needed to be set up for that game. That was great for me, but it was a sign of just how unapproachable PC gaming could be for the average person back then.
com2kid 8y ago
> This is not meant as negative towards you at all. But I think your post demonstrates the gulf in perception between the savvy PC gamer and others. You say you have no problems, then go on to list a whole bunch of problems. These are issues that occur rarely. I have less troubles using my PC than some friends do with their consoles. It helps that Steam truly does update things in the background, and that it is possible to bandwidth throttle updates. In comparison, a rarely played console will want to potentially spent hours on updates. A PC has advantages because it is most likely used daily, so the updates have already happened in the background. Honestly, both consoles and PCs are about an equal pain to keep running now days. PCs have gotten better over the years, and consoles got worse, and they have kind of met in the middle.
watty 8y ago
I've got no VR and no problems. Game infrequently, computer off for weeks at a time. Yes, Steam or Battle.NET will need to install updates but that's just like any console.
xbkingx 8y ago
Oh, I totally agree and that was my point (besides offering up some advice for others with these issues). These are all annoyances that can be dealt with easily once you know the solutions, but you have to know how to arrive at those solutions. Most PC users would have trouble, and I would even argue many savvy users would have trouble nailing down some of the causes. Realistically, though, most of these aren't VR problems as much as they're general PC gaming problems with Nvidia and Steam. I accept that price for the flexibility I get in return. Contrast that to having no control over the various background processes and apps always loaded in memory when using a GearVR, though. Like most consumer-friendly tech, it just works until it doesn't. Then there are only three solutions possible: reboot phone, uninstall updates and reinstall them, and hope the bug is addressed in the next update, whenever that will be. (I'm assuming Oculus with lock down the OS similar to what Samsung does with Android, which means major compromises if you want to try rooting it.) I do realize I'm in the minority that spends a few hours fixing or working around a problem, rather than shelve the unit and play update roulette in random short increments. But, with VR still in its infancy, are we/they really ready for those types of consumers? I mean, there is a severe lack of standards across the board, making handholding really difficult. Everyone threw up their hands at tablet UIs and decided to just make them bigger phones and I'd hate to see VR suffer the same fate of being dragged down by the lowest common denominator.

smacktoward 8y ago

It reminded me of the old days when I had a big library of AUTOEXEC.BAT files, one for each game, to set things up exactly the way they needed to be set up for that game. That was great for me, but it was a sign of just how unapproachable PC gaming could be for the average person back then.

com2kid 8y ago

> This is not meant as negative towards you at all. But I think your post demonstrates the gulf in perception between the savvy PC gamer and others. You say you have no problems, then go on to list a whole bunch of problems. These are issues that occur rarely. I have less troubles using my PC than some friends do with their consoles. It helps that Steam truly does update things in the background, and that it is possible to bandwidth throttle updates. In comparison, a rarely played console will want to potentially spent hours on updates. A PC has advantages because it is most likely used daily, so the updates have already happened in the background. Honestly, both consoles and PCs are about an equal pain to keep running now days. PCs have gotten better over the years, and consoles got worse, and they have kind of met in the middle.

watty 8y ago

I've got no VR and no problems. Game infrequently, computer off for weeks at a time. Yes, Steam or Battle.NET will need to install updates but that's just like any console.

xbkingx 8y ago

Oh, I totally agree and that was my point (besides offering up some advice for others with these issues). These are all annoyances that can be dealt with easily once you know the solutions, but you have to know how to arrive at those solutions. Most PC users would have trouble, and I would even argue many savvy users would have trouble nailing down some of the causes. Realistically, though, most of these aren't VR problems as much as they're general PC gaming problems with Nvidia and Steam. I accept that price for the flexibility I get in return. Contrast that to having no control over the various background processes and apps always loaded in memory when using a GearVR, though. Like most consumer-friendly tech, it just works until it doesn't. Then there are only three solutions possible: reboot phone, uninstall updates and reinstall them, and hope the bug is addressed in the next update, whenever that will be. (I'm assuming Oculus with lock down the OS similar to what Samsung does with Android, which means major compromises if you want to try rooting it.) I do realize I'm in the minority that spends a few hours fixing or working around a problem, rather than shelve the unit and play update roulette in random short increments. But, with VR still in its infancy, are we/they really ready for those types of consumers? I mean, there is a severe lack of standards across the board, making handholding really difficult. Everyone threw up their hands at tablet UIs and decided to just make them bigger phones and I'd hate to see VR suffer the same fate of being dragged down by the lowest common denominator.