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I've been using a roommate's Quest 2 for a few days. A few years ago I was using an OG Oculus. The Quest 2 is so much staggeringly better in every way. So much

by dymk 5y ago

I've been using a roommate's Quest 2 for a few days. A few years ago I was using an OG Oculus. The Quest 2 is so much staggeringly better in every way. So much so that I can see a future where people are spending hours in VR games rather than hours playing games on a monitor. Yes, there are issues to work out with the headbands, weight, general FPS and battery life, but I finally _get_ it. The amount of badassery you feel as you shoot headcrabs and combine in Half Life: Alyx is hard to describe in words. Maybe that's not Metaverse persay (is that like, VR chat or something?), but it is the equipment that Facebook is selling, and they've got their own set of games that're pretty fun too.

jmknoll 5y ago
I’m with you on this. I received a Quest as a Christmas gift and basically went from 0 to 100 on VR and the Metaverse. It finally makes sense to me. Like you say, there are some issues with the tech, but they’ll be resolved in time, and it’s clear that this is the future of gaming at least, and maybe much of social media/virtual interaction.
- YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago
  The problem is that the problems are mostly the same problems we had since 2012. I am not sure if we can really address them without new breakthrough technologies.
- magicjosh 5y ago
  Wow what are your favorite apps? And a bit more leading question, what apps have you used in the last week?
  - dymk 5y ago
    In no particular order (well, except for Alyx, which is the gold standard)... - Half Life: Alyx - Lucky's Tale - Beat Saber - Thumper
  - Arainach 5y ago
    Not OP, but I also picked up a Quest 2 and was impressed after finding all previous VR experiences I'd tried gimmicky and not holding my attention for long. Lately I've been sinking time into: Half-Life Alyx I Expect You To Die (and its sequel) The Climb (and eventually its sequel, I assume) Creed
- civilized 5y ago
  For the sake of argument let's take you folks' word that it's the future of gaming (for the subset that can tolerate and enjoy the headsets). How much money is in that? I don't believe for a moment that it'll extend into work interactions. Maybe family visiting type experiences, again for the subset that can enjoy the headset setup.
  - dymk 5y ago
    Facebook loses about $150 per Quest 2 sold (basing this off of what an engineer who worked on it told me). Either way, they're not making money off the hardware. They plan on making it up via game sales in the Oculus Rift Store, and services. Same as what Sony did with the PS4 (which was quite successful). I see "Quest Season Passes" in VR's future.
  - bentcorner 5y ago
    I've tried working in VR and it's... ok. If you're ok with working on a single monitor at < 1440p you'll be fine. At 1440p and above resolution isn't there yet and pushing multiple monitors through to the headset is still (to my knowledge) not practical. The remote desktop-like apps I've tried only do a single monitor. I like the bet that Quest 2 made with making the headset do all the processing, but it fails for tasks like this. I think eventually we'll get a headset where working in VR becomes practical and affordable, but we're not there yet. Maybe apple pulls off a Gear-VR-like setup where you plonk your phone in front of some lenses on your face. But AFAIK anything better than the Quest 2 is substantially more expensive. My wild guess is that practical work VR is 2-3 years away. Meta's next headset iteration might do it + price drops.
    - GekkePrutser 5y ago
      ImmersedVR can do multiple virtual monitors. But I think the real step forward is dropping the desktop metaphor and having windows floating free in VR, like Simula are doing. They whole concept of a monitor is more constricting than useful in VR.
    - lovecg 5y ago
      Here’s the thing though. I remember when the iPhone came out. The web browser experience was a horrible low resolution experience; it was slow, clunky, and you had to charge it every day. Yet none of it mattered - almost overnight everyone became glued to their phones. It didn’t need hyping up like “just wait for 4k to come out and then it will really take off” - people wanted it despite all the original flaws. Same with original game consoles. I don’t know, I just don’t see it.
- evilantnie 5y ago
  I'd be curious if you feel the same way in a year or so. When I first got into VR I felt very strongly it was the future, but that novelty wore off over the course of a year. I go back every few months to catch up on experiences I've missed and try out new tech, but the novelty has still worn off. VR is not a daily use experience for me, and I assume for a lot of consumers, but it is still amazing.
  - mancerayder 5y ago
    I find that a) the bulkiness of the headset (and the added wires and external sensors of the Valve Index) and b) the fact that I don't always feel like waving my arms around or reaching stuff after sitting in front of the PC all day, made it wear off for me. I was into Pokerstars VR for a while but interacting with people through the microphone made me realize I don't really enjoy talking to strangers from around the country while playing poker.
    - GekkePrutser 5y ago
      Waving your arms around after spending a day sitting at the PC is a really good thing to do though, just saying :)
      - mancerayder 5y ago
        Yes, I agree! Kind of! I was developing neck pain from Pokerstars - it's not exactly table tennis. On the other hand, Moss was a very cool game but I found it annoying on my joints to reach under virtual corners and even get on all fours to look under something. Amazingly cool concept, but it's not exactly physical therapy after a computer posture.
    - prawn 5y ago
      Is it a realistic option for watching TV/movies without a TV in the room?
      - mancerayder 5y ago
magicjosh 5y ago
Wow what's better? As an Oculus owner I dismissed the 2 as just aesthetic. Can it run Alyx natively? On the Oculus 1 it requires a PC and cable.
- dymk 5y ago
  Sorry, I should have been more clear about Alyx - in both situations I'm running Alyx on a PC, and using the headset tethered. That being said, Quest 2 uses a USB-C cable that is quite a bit lighter and easier to manage than the Oculus' HDMI cable.
  - stavros 5y ago
    You can use it untethered too, I haven't had any issues at all with it.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  No but streaming services specially for VR are starting up already.
ErneX 5y ago
That's not technically Quest 2 that's PC VR (a nice PC hooked to a Quest 2).
- dymk 5y ago
  That's true, but specific to the Quest 2 hardware is the much nicer display, lighter than its predecessor, its inside-out tracking is more convenient than setting up stationary tracking beacons (a-la Valve Index), its guardian system is nice for setting up arbitrary play areas, and it degrades more gracefully at low FPS than its predecessor by respecting 6dof of head movement at a minimum of 90fps at all times, reducing motion sickness.
endisneigh 5y ago
I felt the same way, I literally bought a Quest 2 for everyone in my family. We have 4 of them and over $200 worth of games. After a couple months no one uses it anymore. It's sad lol. I do think it's amazing - Superhot is one of the best games I've ever played. But I get it - I don't know how to explain, but it seems like work to use it.
- ripper1138 5y ago
  It seems like they sold a ton over the holidays this year. I and at least 4 of my friends got a quest 2 and all of us have already not used it since early Jan. VR has been looking for a killer app for 5 year and the most popular app so far is basically VR guitar hero but only for one player.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  I guess you don't have a game PC? The PC games are amazing. If you don't have a good pc there's some streaming services coming online too like plutosphere that's doing a free beta now.
  - parineum 5y ago
    > The PC games are amazing I'm a PC gamer and have a very capable PC but haven't bought any VR equipment because I don't know what I'd play. The issue is probably that I'm not looking for an excuse to buy a headset, I'm waiting for a reason. I don't seek out information for VR and none of it is getting through to me.
    - shock-value 5y ago
      If you are into simulations (driving, flying) then I'd say get a headset ASAP. Also potentially if you see yourself getting into immersive rhythm/fitness games. Otherwise I think it's pretty reasonable to wait for more compelling content to be released (and reap the benefits of the better hardware that will be available at that time).
    - majewsky 5y ago
spywaregorilla 5y ago
I've been posting a lot of comments recently about how much Half Life Alyx disappointed me, not with any sort of motive but here we go again. I felt incredibly lame shooting the headcrabs in half life alyx. They were fat and slow, and when I felt like they were going to hit me I tapped the left stick twice to teleport 20m away while they waddled towards me hopelessly. When they hit me, I just kind of shrugged because the experience of being hit in VR is so uninteresting. A lot of the times I would just be annoyed that aiming at a headcrab 10m was hard so I just waited for it to fall close to me then shoot it at point blank range 4 times. In resident evil 4 (which is now vr but I've no experience with it) the zombies did this thing where they ran at you really fast, but when they got close, they walked slowly. This was because you had low mobility when aiming, so the enemies had to play nice to give you a chance. Half Life Alyx felt like that but way more so. Everything coddled you to the point of seriously breaking immersion for me. Electric dog? Warns you that it's going to zap a path for like 10 seconds before doing anything. Machine gunner guy? Shoots for 10 seconds then sits still for another 5 in plain sight while reloading. Normal combine guys? Mostly just standing out in the open or failing to use cover effectively so you can casually snipe their weak spot. Felt to me like a poorly curated house of dead line gun game.

by dymk 5y ago

jmknoll 5y ago

I’m with you on this. I received a Quest as a Christmas gift and basically went from 0 to 100 on VR and the Metaverse. It finally makes sense to me. Like you say, there are some issues with the tech, but they’ll be resolved in time, and it’s clear that this is the future of gaming at least, and maybe much of social media/virtual interaction.

YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago
The problem is that the problems are mostly the same problems we had since 2012. I am not sure if we can really address them without new breakthrough technologies.
magicjosh 5y ago
Wow what are your favorite apps? And a bit more leading question, what apps have you used in the last week?
- dymk 5y ago
  In no particular order (well, except for Alyx, which is the gold standard)... - Half Life: Alyx - Lucky's Tale - Beat Saber - Thumper
- Arainach 5y ago
  Not OP, but I also picked up a Quest 2 and was impressed after finding all previous VR experiences I'd tried gimmicky and not holding my attention for long. Lately I've been sinking time into: Half-Life Alyx I Expect You To Die (and its sequel) The Climb (and eventually its sequel, I assume) Creed
civilized 5y ago
For the sake of argument let's take you folks' word that it's the future of gaming (for the subset that can tolerate and enjoy the headsets). How much money is in that? I don't believe for a moment that it'll extend into work interactions. Maybe family visiting type experiences, again for the subset that can enjoy the headset setup.
- dymk 5y ago
  Facebook loses about $150 per Quest 2 sold (basing this off of what an engineer who worked on it told me). Either way, they're not making money off the hardware. They plan on making it up via game sales in the Oculus Rift Store, and services. Same as what Sony did with the PS4 (which was quite successful). I see "Quest Season Passes" in VR's future.
- bentcorner 5y ago
  I've tried working in VR and it's... ok. If you're ok with working on a single monitor at < 1440p you'll be fine. At 1440p and above resolution isn't there yet and pushing multiple monitors through to the headset is still (to my knowledge) not practical. The remote desktop-like apps I've tried only do a single monitor. I like the bet that Quest 2 made with making the headset do all the processing, but it fails for tasks like this. I think eventually we'll get a headset where working in VR becomes practical and affordable, but we're not there yet. Maybe apple pulls off a Gear-VR-like setup where you plonk your phone in front of some lenses on your face. But AFAIK anything better than the Quest 2 is substantially more expensive. My wild guess is that practical work VR is 2-3 years away. Meta's next headset iteration might do it + price drops.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    ImmersedVR can do multiple virtual monitors. But I think the real step forward is dropping the desktop metaphor and having windows floating free in VR, like Simula are doing. They whole concept of a monitor is more constricting than useful in VR.
  - lovecg 5y ago
    Here’s the thing though. I remember when the iPhone came out. The web browser experience was a horrible low resolution experience; it was slow, clunky, and you had to charge it every day. Yet none of it mattered - almost overnight everyone became glued to their phones. It didn’t need hyping up like “just wait for 4k to come out and then it will really take off” - people wanted it despite all the original flaws. Same with original game consoles. I don’t know, I just don’t see it.
evilantnie 5y ago
I'd be curious if you feel the same way in a year or so. When I first got into VR I felt very strongly it was the future, but that novelty wore off over the course of a year. I go back every few months to catch up on experiences I've missed and try out new tech, but the novelty has still worn off. VR is not a daily use experience for me, and I assume for a lot of consumers, but it is still amazing.
- mancerayder 5y ago
  I find that a) the bulkiness of the headset (and the added wires and external sensors of the Valve Index) and b) the fact that I don't always feel like waving my arms around or reaching stuff after sitting in front of the PC all day, made it wear off for me. I was into Pokerstars VR for a while but interacting with people through the microphone made me realize I don't really enjoy talking to strangers from around the country while playing poker.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Waving your arms around after spending a day sitting at the PC is a really good thing to do though, just saying :)
    - mancerayder 5y ago
      Yes, I agree! Kind of! I was developing neck pain from Pokerstars - it's not exactly table tennis. On the other hand, Moss was a very cool game but I found it annoying on my joints to reach under virtual corners and even get on all fours to look under something. Amazingly cool concept, but it's not exactly physical therapy after a computer posture.
  - prawn 5y ago
    Is it a realistic option for watching TV/movies without a TV in the room?
    - mancerayder 5y ago

magicjosh 5y ago

Wow what's better? As an Oculus owner I dismissed the 2 as just aesthetic. Can it run Alyx natively? On the Oculus 1 it requires a PC and cable.

dymk 5y ago
Sorry, I should have been more clear about Alyx - in both situations I'm running Alyx on a PC, and using the headset tethered. That being said, Quest 2 uses a USB-C cable that is quite a bit lighter and easier to manage than the Oculus' HDMI cable.
- stavros 5y ago
  You can use it untethered too, I haven't had any issues at all with it.
GekkePrutser 5y ago
No but streaming services specially for VR are starting up already.

ErneX 5y ago

That's not technically Quest 2 that's PC VR (a nice PC hooked to a Quest 2).

dymk 5y ago
That's true, but specific to the Quest 2 hardware is the much nicer display, lighter than its predecessor, its inside-out tracking is more convenient than setting up stationary tracking beacons (a-la Valve Index), its guardian system is nice for setting up arbitrary play areas, and it degrades more gracefully at low FPS than its predecessor by respecting 6dof of head movement at a minimum of 90fps at all times, reducing motion sickness.

endisneigh 5y ago

I felt the same way, I literally bought a Quest 2 for everyone in my family. We have 4 of them and over $200 worth of games. After a couple months no one uses it anymore. It's sad lol. I do think it's amazing - Superhot is one of the best games I've ever played. But I get it - I don't know how to explain, but it seems like work to use it.

ripper1138 5y ago
It seems like they sold a ton over the holidays this year. I and at least 4 of my friends got a quest 2 and all of us have already not used it since early Jan. VR has been looking for a killer app for 5 year and the most popular app so far is basically VR guitar hero but only for one player.
GekkePrutser 5y ago
I guess you don't have a game PC? The PC games are amazing. If you don't have a good pc there's some streaming services coming online too like plutosphere that's doing a free beta now.
- parineum 5y ago
  > The PC games are amazing I'm a PC gamer and have a very capable PC but haven't bought any VR equipment because I don't know what I'd play. The issue is probably that I'm not looking for an excuse to buy a headset, I'm waiting for a reason. I don't seek out information for VR and none of it is getting through to me.
  - shock-value 5y ago
    If you are into simulations (driving, flying) then I'd say get a headset ASAP. Also potentially if you see yourself getting into immersive rhythm/fitness games. Otherwise I think it's pretty reasonable to wait for more compelling content to be released (and reap the benefits of the better hardware that will be available at that time).
  - majewsky 5y ago

spywaregorilla 5y ago

I've been posting a lot of comments recently about how much Half Life Alyx disappointed me, not with any sort of motive but here we go again. I felt incredibly lame shooting the headcrabs in half life alyx. They were fat and slow, and when I felt like they were going to hit me I tapped the left stick twice to teleport 20m away while they waddled towards me hopelessly. When they hit me, I just kind of shrugged because the experience of being hit in VR is so uninteresting. A lot of the times I would just be annoyed that aiming at a headcrab 10m was hard so I just waited for it to fall close to me then shoot it at point blank range 4 times. In resident evil 4 (which is now vr but I've no experience with it) the zombies did this thing where they ran at you really fast, but when they got close, they walked slowly. This was because you had low mobility when aiming, so the enemies had to play nice to give you a chance. Half Life Alyx felt like that but way more so. Everything coddled you to the point of seriously breaking immersion for me. Electric dog? Warns you that it's going to zap a path for like 10 seconds before doing anything. Machine gunner guy? Shoots for 10 seconds then sits still for another 5 in plain sight while reloading. Normal combine guys? Mostly just standing out in the open or failing to use cover effectively so you can casually snipe their weak spot. Felt to me like a poorly curated house of dead line gun game.