Octopus Overlords

I got my first try at VR during the Holidays. My brother got a Valve Index and it's seriously impressive. I have to wear glasses at all times as I can't see well with them, and I tried it without glasses at first, but it was much better with glasses. I was skeptical that the experience could be that good, but damn, when it works well and it's designed to be used to its full potential, VR can absolutely be a transformative experience. I tried a bit of The Lab, played Batman VR, and Apollo 11 VR, and they were all very impressive. I wouldn't buy one myself as I simply don't have adequate space for it, but it's been fun to try it at my Brother's where he has more space for that kind of thing.

So I now am doing hard and expert without the no fail option selected. You can seriously get some good cardio workout with the higher difficulties. I have ordered a replacement foam piece as I am sure my sweat will wear it out at some point.

YellowKing wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 6:02 pm I've read that the Guardian (the boundary you draw to tell the Quest your room size) goes up to 25' X 25' - so you won't have any problem with movement limitations.

I have not yet tried it outside, but there's a scary warning sticker that says DO NOT EXPOSE QUEST LENSES TO SUNLIGHT so I'm not likely to try it anytime soon.

It really does not work well outside, or even if exposed to direct sunlight. Believe the warning stickers. Large indoor spaces work wonderfully, and it's super easy to set up in a new space. It takes about 20 seconds.

Got a PS4 bundle for Christmas, now I'm thinking about the PSVR. Any thoughts? Is it worth it? Decent games?

gbasden wrote: ↑Sun Dec 29, 2019 5:31 am

YellowKing wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 6:02 pm I've read that the Guardian (the boundary you draw to tell the Quest your room size) goes up to 25' X 25' - so you won't have any problem with movement limitations.

I have not yet tried it outside, but there's a scary warning sticker that says DO NOT EXPOSE QUEST LENSES TO SUNLIGHT so I'm not likely to try it anytime soon.

It really does not work well outside, or even if exposed to direct sunlight. Believe the warning stickers. Large indoor spaces work wonderfully, and it's super easy to set up in a new space. It takes about 20 seconds.

Ok, so it seems like the main issue with outside is the sunlight issue. What if you used it at night? Or does it just not work outdoors in general? This would be a big reason for me and I get one. Just to have a large play space to work with.
I already have a vive with index controllers to use indoors.

Punisher wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2020 11:34 pm

gbasden wrote: ↑Sun Dec 29, 2019 5:31 am

YellowKing wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 6:02 pm I've read that the Guardian (the boundary you draw to tell the Quest your room size) goes up to 25' X 25' - so you won't have any problem with movement limitations.

I have not yet tried it outside, but there's a scary warning sticker that says DO NOT EXPOSE QUEST LENSES TO SUNLIGHT so I'm not likely to try it anytime soon.

It really does not work well outside, or even if exposed to direct sunlight. Believe the warning stickers. Large indoor spaces work wonderfully, and it's super easy to set up in a new space. It takes about 20 seconds.

Ok, so it seems like the main issue with outside is the sunlight issue. What if you used it at night? Or does it just not work outdoors in general? This would be a big reason for me and I get one. Just to have a large play space to work with.
I already have a vive with index controllers to use indoors.

I don't see why night wouldn't work if there is some light to work with. I've used it in a parking garage with no issues. It's just the really bright sunlight seems to drown out the cameras.

I demoed the Quest for a co-worker of mine today and he went absolutely nuts. For frame of reference, this guy didn't really know that VR existed - at least not in a home setting. So it was sort of like unplugging him from the Matrix with no warning. To quote Keanu Reeves: "Whoa."

He tried the Creed demo (great fun, I almost knocked out my office chair the first time I played it), and I showed him some of the movie watching apps since he's a big home theater buff. "Instead of a home theater, why not a theater..........in your home?"

I think if they had been readily available, he would have left work today to go buy one. That's how pumped he was.

While I'm over my "honeymoon" period with it, I still mess around with it at least half an hour every day. My next big step is to get my hands on a suitable USB-C cable to try out the Oculus Link stuff.

YellowKing wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:11 pm I demoed the Quest for a co-worker of mine today and he went absolutely nuts. For frame of reference, this guy didn't really know that VR existed - at least not in a home setting. So it was sort of like unplugging him from the Matrix with no warning. To quote Keanu Reeves: "Whoa."

He tried the Creed demo (great fun, I almost knocked out my office chair the first time I played it), and I showed him some of the movie watching apps since he's a big home theater buff. "Instead of a home theater, why not a theater..........in your home?"

I think if they had been readily available, he would have left work today to go buy one. That's how pumped he was.

While I'm over my "honeymoon" period with it, I still mess around with it at least half an hour every day. My next big step is to get my hands on a suitable USB-C cable to try out the Oculus Link stuff.

What are your favorite movie watching apps? I have a ton of movies ripped but haven't really found a good player I like. I'd love to have something for trips or even laying in bed/on the couch.

gbasden wrote:What are your favorite movie watching apps? I have a ton of movies ripped but haven't really found a good player I like. I'd love to have something for trips or even laying in bed/on the couch.

Conventional wisdom says Skybox is the best, but I haven't used it much yet.

gbasden wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:44 am

YellowKing wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:11 pm I demoed the Quest for a co-worker of mine today and he went absolutely nuts. For frame of reference, this guy didn't really know that VR existed - at least not in a home setting. So it was sort of like unplugging him from the Matrix with no warning. To quote Keanu Reeves: "Whoa."

He tried the Creed demo (great fun, I almost knocked out my office chair the first time I played it), and I showed him some of the movie watching apps since he's a big home theater buff. "Instead of a home theater, why not a theater..........in your home?"

I think if they had been readily available, he would have left work today to go buy one. That's how pumped he was.

While I'm over my "honeymoon" period with it, I still mess around with it at least half an hour every day. My next big step is to get my hands on a suitable USB-C cable to try out the Oculus Link stuff.

What are your favorite movie watching apps? I have a ton of movies ripped but haven't really found a good player I like. I'd love to have something for trips or even laying in bed/on the couch.

I'm in the same boat for the Vive. I tried a few different ones and they only partially work and only with certain formats, but when they do work it's pretty damned cool.
I'd love a VLC version of it that worked completely. I tried using a Windows Desktop app to just watch VLC, but they are too clunky.

Kurth wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:52 pm Got a PS4 bundle for Christmas, now I'm thinking about the PSVR. Any thoughts? Is it worth it? Decent games?

I got one and while there are some good games, part of me says I should have got the Oculus Quest when it was on sale.
Being able to play games bought off of Steam is a big plus to me.

I forgot to post about my experience with VR over the holidays. Among my relatives visiting was my wife's nephew who brought a VR headset. I don't remember the name (the headset, not my nephew) but it was a standalone one, didn't need a computer. Eventually he got it away from his kids long enough for me to give it a try. He cautioned me that the graphics weren't too spiffy but I assured him that I'm old school and low-res is fine with me.

So I put on the headset and selected some game that has some Darth Vader connection to it. I'm at the helm of a starship and there are switches and buttons on each side of me, sort of like a 3D Elite Dangerous. And... well, it was very underwhelming. As I said, I didn't rate it on the graphics, that didn't really influence me. It's more that the 3D was just like some cheesey old 3D movie you'd see in the theater with the funny colored paper glasses. It reminded me of the Muppets 3D experience at Disney World. Yeah, some things looked closer and some things looked farther away, but that was it, nothing I hadn't seen done a lot better in 2D. And there was no sense of immersion either, no concerns about possibly getting motion sickness or disoriented. Oh well

So I won't be plunking down a bunch of shekels on any 3D equipment in the foreseeable future.

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:00 am I forgot to post about my experience with VR over the holidays. Among my relatives visiting was my wife's nephew who brought a VR headset. I don't remember the name (the headset, not my nephew) but it was a standalone one, didn't need a computer. Eventually he got it away from his kids long enough for me to give it a try. He cautioned me that the graphics weren't too spiffy but I assured him that I'm old school and low-res is fine with me.

So I put on the headset and selected some game that has some Darth Vader connection to it. I'm at the helm of a starship and there are switches and buttons on each side of me, sort of like a 3D Elite Dangerous. And... well, it was very underwhelming. As I said, I didn't rate it on the graphics, that didn't really influence me. It's more that the 3D was just like some cheesey old 3D movie you'd see in the theater with the funny colored paper glasses. It reminded me of the Muppets 3D experience at Disney World. Yeah, some things looked closer and some things looked farther away, but that was it, nothing I hadn't seen done a lot better in 2D. And there was no sense of immersion either, no concerns about possibly getting motion sickness or disoriented. Oh well

So I won't be plunking down a bunch of shekels on any 3D equipment in the foreseeable future.

I'm not sure you should be taking your nephews 80's Virtual Boy as a state of the art 3d gaming device. That doesn't sound at all like what I might see on, say, an Oculus Rift playing Elite Dangerous.

gbasden wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 2:58 am I'm not sure you should be taking your nephews 80's Virtual Boy as a state of the art 3d gaming device. That doesn't sound at all like what I might see on, say, an Oculus Rift playing Elite Dangerous.

Like I said, it wasn't about the graphics, it was about the 3D. It was 3D, but to me a 3d headset just didn't seem like something all that special. Anyway, just my opinion.

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 11:57 am

gbasden wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 2:58 am I'm not sure you should be taking your nephews 80's Virtual Boy as a state of the art 3d gaming device. That doesn't sound at all like what I might see on, say, an Oculus Rift playing Elite Dangerous.

Like I said, it wasn't about the graphics, it was about the 3D. It was 3D, but to me a 3d headset just didn't seem like something all that special. Anyway, just my opinion.

Right... My point is that you may be getting a poor reference of what a 3d headset is from that headset. With a good headset, I have to be careful about motion because it's easy to become immersed and have my inner ear get confused. The graphics aren't the point - I've gotten great immersion from low res headsets. That one just happens to sound like crap.

Ask the wife's nephew which headset it was. That's a pretty critical piece of data.

gbasden wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 2:58 am

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:00 am I forgot to post about my experience with VR over the holidays. Among my relatives visiting was my wife's nephew who brought a VR headset. I don't remember the name (the headset, not my nephew) but it was a standalone one, didn't need a computer. Eventually he got it away from his kids long enough for me to give it a try. He cautioned me that the graphics weren't too spiffy but I assured him that I'm old school and low-res is fine with me.

So I put on the headset and selected some game that has some Darth Vader connection to it. I'm at the helm of a starship and there are switches and buttons on each side of me, sort of like a 3D Elite Dangerous. And... well, it was very underwhelming. As I said, I didn't rate it on the graphics, that didn't really influence me. It's more that the 3D was just like some cheesey old 3D movie you'd see in the theater with the funny colored paper glasses. It reminded me of the Muppets 3D experience at Disney World. Yeah, some things looked closer and some things looked farther away, but that was it, nothing I hadn't seen done a lot better in 2D. And there was no sense of immersion either, no concerns about possibly getting motion sickness or disoriented. Oh well

So I won't be plunking down a bunch of shekels on any 3D equipment in the foreseeable future.

I'm not sure you should be taking your nephews 80's Virtual Boy as a state of the art 3d gaming device. That doesn't sound at all like what I might see on, say, an Oculus Rift playing Elite Dangerous.

Agreed. Something sounds very off here.
Can you find out what device you actually used?

I'll shoot off an email, but like his aunt, he tends to be rather a procrastinator on replying to them

I'm guessing this.

I've had an Oculus Quest for two weeks now and have to say that it's an incredibly impressive experience. The visual quality is great for something running off what is essentially an optimized mobile phone processor, and getting room-scale VR from a fully self-contained unit is very cool. I remember being impressed by my first Oculus Rift demo a few years ago, but that required external sensors for the controllers and cables that limited my movement. Getting an even better experience now, while being completely untethered, is a huge leap forward. The Quest does sacrifice visual fidelity to give that freedom, but it's totally worth it in my opinion.

As for experiences that I've tried, Beat Saber takes the prize for now...such a cool, immersive, and totally intuitive experience. It's so well done that even my 5yo was able to put on the Quest and instantly jump into the action.

Vader Immortal was included with the Quest and is a great example of immersive storytelling with good visuals, but the gameplay doesn't match other experiences.

The Climb is a highly immersive, fun, but sometimes very tense experience. It's a perfect example of how you can get fully pulled into a VR world, and I still get a little wobbly on my feet every time I lose my grip on the wall or miss a jump. One of my kids (11yo) tried it once but refuses to play again because the sense of height and falling freaks her out too much.

Overall, I think the Quest is an amazing piece of technology and great way to experience VR. Now I'm tempted to upgrade my PC in order to try some more graphically impressive games using the Link capability...

My Quest just arrived... with a completely dead battery. Hopefully I'll have some impressions eventually.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 12:03 pm My Quest just arrived... with a completely dead battery. Hopefully I'll have some impressions eventually.

3 months later and I have some impressions. I basically played Beat Saber on the regular for the first few weeks until I hit a plateau on the campaign and just stopped. Recently I finally picked up Half-Life: Alyx and played through that and it was a pretty great experience. I started playing Beat Saber a bit again as a bit of a workout as I haven't been doing much else. I managed to finally get past the plateau I had hit previously and completed the next "mission" and now I am stuck on the next one that feels pretty close to impossible. (playing crazy stuff on expert and only being allowed 4 or 5 mistakes is pushing my limits)

Yesterday I played Thrill of the Fight, a boxing simulation, for about 10 minutes. My arms and shoulders are seriously feeling it today.

My 10 yo has enjoyed some free fishing game and Job Simulator. My 14yo has never touched it. I think his mom scared him about messing up his eyes.

My nephew bought a Rift S without realizing that his laptop has no display port to plug it in. Being the good uncle I am I bought it from him for what he paid so that he could order the Quest instead. (He's better off with the quest anyway for his usage.) I took it home last night and only had a couple of hours to play around with it, but HOLY CRAP some of the stuff is amazing.

First off setting it up was super clunky and off putting. By default it wanted to install to the c: drive and instead of a dropdown to pick another drive I had to look up a command prompt line to type in to install it to me SSD. Seriously? What century is this? Whatever though moving along in the install it then doesn't see my sensors. Again I had to go to the internet and find out I had to turn off some settings in the device manage and reinstall a USB driver. So my initial 1st hour impression was to just give it back.

After finally figuring out how to get it to install I then tried the setup stuff and was blown away. I had seen the same stuff on the quest, but IMHO the S looked much cleaner. I then spent the next few hours just trying various games or at least trying to get various games working. The most impressive thing was Elite Dangerous which I tried right before bed. I knew it was supposed to be cool. I didn't think it would be mind bending cool. I mean I legit felt like I was there.

Can't wait to try it out some more when I get home. I briefly tried it with raceroom, but it certainly needed some setting tweaks to get running better and I didn't have my wheel setup, but ya I'm happy I got it. I have a super small place space, but for what I'm planning on using it for (Sims) this is the bestest thing I have bought.

I found that Skyrim was only 18 bucks on Humble Bundle so figured why not. I REALLY need to figure out the best motion settings as about 15 minutes in and I wanted to puke. I had to hang it up for the rest of the day after trying that game. There's no flipping way I'm playing with the teleporting setting as that's just super lame feeling.

Had to pace myself playing Alyx as it was pretty intense for my poor heart, but finally got all the way through it and loved it, especially the possibilities opened up by the ending.

Thought I'd also recommend a VR game my wife found that's been a lot of fun: Until you Fall.

It's a melee fighting game with some good mechanics and fun meta. You fight your way through different areas fighting progressively stronger opponents until you are defeated. When you are, you are brought back to a base where you can spend points you earn improving, buying, and changing your weapon loadout and then make another try.

It's still early access, but seems fairly fully featured now and it's a lot of fun. If nothing else it's a good way to trick myself into exercising.

I also picked up but haven't tried Into the Radius VR. It's a shameless Stalker clone in VR, but seems pretty cool from the videos of it I've watched.

So I saw that Oculus is going to require you to use a facebook login to use one?

The blog post wrote:Today, we’re announcing some important updates to how people log into Oculus devices, while still keeping their VR profile. Starting in October 2020:

Everyone using an Oculus device for the first time will need to log in with a Facebook account.

If you’re an existing user and already have an Oculus account, you’ll have the option to log in with Facebook and merge your Oculus and Facebook accounts.

If you’re an existing user and choose not to merge your accounts, you can continue using your Oculus account for two years.
...
Will a Facebook account be required to use future Oculus devices?

Yes. Future Oculus devices will require a Facebook account.

*scratches head*

I'm not sure what this will accomplish? Does Steam require you to be logged into it to use their Index? To be honest this is a deal breaker for me and I've been starting to look around at the options.

Facebook owns Oculus. This seems kind of inevitable. The login lets you access your digital library. Steam requires you to be logged in to access your games. Apple music requires you to be logged in to listen to your music. VUDU requires you to be logged in to watch your movies.

So yes, avoid Oculus if you want to stay out of the Facebook ecosystem. Oculus has a store. Vive has a store. Steam has a store. Generally, the native store for your headset has the version of the game with the greatest compatibility and performance.

I still feel like I'm missing what you're trying to say. I'm sorry if I haven't helped.

No that helps -- it's just that Facebook to me has a lot more baggage then say something like Steam. I didn't realize Facebook was in the digital game distribution market either.

I think the minute Facebook announced they were buying Oculus was when we all knew it would be an eventuality. Not an 'If', but a 'when'. I think most owners feel it should be run as an independent company and be completely separate from Facebook.

Well, yes and no. I don't think most current owners want the focus of VR in the future to be social interaction or the next generation of social media. However, Facebook has provided huge resources for R&D, game development, partnerships and let's not forget those big, fast, and reliable servers. When wireless streaming VR comes (probably sooner than we expect), Facebook's assets will be even more important. While I'd like to see Facebook just keep forking over the cash and materials without any strings, it doesn't seem realistic. I'd settle for some strong privacy protection guarantees.

I randomly ran across this when searching for a PS5 to buy, but the Oculus Quest 2 has been announced...
https://www.oculus.com/blog/introducing ... cale=en_US
10/13 release date I think.

One of the last new apps for Oculus Go is called Poo With a View

Today, we got DoVille Adventures, a cartoon island paradise simulation, where you can take a dip in the ocean, ride an air balloon, or sit back and enjoy the sunshine. Poo with a View is also a relaxation app of sorts. It's a VR app that lets you enjoy 360-degree panoramic views while you sit on the throne.

Poo with a Viewplaces a virtual toilet in the middle of the scene, so you can feel like you're making your mark everywhere you visit. Why you would want to do that is beyond me, but here we are.

They should make it filmed in the middle of a park or some busy street and people wave at you. Or maybe from inside one of those 1 way mirror public toilets where it looks like you're crapping in a glass room on the sidewalk as people walk by.

JetFred wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 6:47 pm I'm guessing this.

Bunch of good stuff on sale at the Oculus Quest store.

Haven't seen it mentioned on here, but I bought the link cable for my quest 2 and got a free game called Wrath of Asgard. Holy hell that game is fun. You can switch between a mortal you've possessed to get around and fight things, or at certain times you can morph back into your god form, a 100-foot tall being that can pick up anything from bridge pieces for puzzle solving to animals that you can transform into humanoid sidekicks. Fighting is pretty natural, and I have a system that's barely VR-capable. Also gives you access to the entire Rift and quest libraries. Well worth it.

VR is still my long-term grail. I won't have it anytime soon, but one day! One day you shall be mine!

Out of curiosity, what are some decent games that support VR out of the box? IE - without buying a special version. The three that I'm aware of right now are No Man's Sky, Subnautica, and Everspace. Are there any others that stand out?

Looking at the VR enabled stuff in my steam library, Elite: Dangerous is the only other one that really stands out. I have Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice VR edition somehow so I assume that came with the non-VR game as I didn't buy it separately.

I mostly only use it for car racing. Which is awesome btw. Elite Dangerous is super amazing in vr though.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:54 pm Out of curiosity, what are some decent games that support VR out of the box? IE - without buying a special version. The three that I'm aware of right now are No Man's Sky, Subnautica, and Everspace. Are there any others that stand out?

Alien Isolation?