Virtual Reality

[bob]

I think I finally made the decision to buy an Oculus Quest, and it's sold out everywhere already!

I know I only need to wait, but I bought it in my head already damn it!

[Sméagol]

The Oculus Quest really didn't sound impressive spec-wise. Maybe read up on the alternatives?

[bob]

The Oculus Quest really didn't sound impressive spec-wise. Maybe read up on the alternatives?

What are the alternatives? The Oculus Go is a bit bare bones. PSVR looks good but the tracking is a bit simplistic.

[Grazza]

Would anyone tell me, please, how you download games for these standalone headsets like Oculus Quest?  Do they connect to Steam directly?  Do they run Windows or have their own, custom-built OS like a console?

[Sméagol]

9 minutes ago, bob said:

45 minutes ago, Sméagol said:

The Oculus Quest really didn't sound impressive spec-wise. Maybe read up on the alternatives?

What are the alternatives? The Oculus Go is a bit bare bones. PSVR looks good but the tracking is a bit simplistic.

I'm not currently up to date on VR stuff myself, but I'd look into HTC Vice. I think they have new stuff coming as well. I just read the news about that Oculus Quest, and even to me (again, not up-to-date) it didn't sound impressive, but the other comments (it was a tech site) seemed to echo that sentiment.

[bob]

Would anyone tell me, please, how you download games for these standalone headsets like Oculus Quest?  Do they connect to Steam directly?  Do they run Windows or have their own, custom-built OS like a console?

I think they connect to the Oculus store, but you might be able to sideload other apps and games onto them via USB.

[bob]

I'm not currently up to date on VR stuff myself, but I'd look into HTC Vice. I think they have new stuff coming as well. I just read the news about that Oculus Quest, and even to me (again, not up-to-date) it didn't sound impressive, but the other comments (it was a tech site) seemed to echo that sentiment.

Yeah the Vice and Rift S are way out of my budget, so I'll have to make do with the Quest.

Most of the reviews I've read make it seem very impressive for the price though.

[Ronnie]

I was tempted by a Quest but I'll just wait for PSVR v2, hopefully that won't be too long.

Nothing on the Quest really appealed apart from Vadar Immortal.

[Hero-of-Time]

I had a play around with the Everybody's Golf VR demo yesterday evening and I had a great time with it. Looking down at the ball, lining up my shot and then hitting it and watching it fly off into the distance was great. It was so immersive I honestly felt like I was at a driving range. I spent well over an hour on the thing just smashing balls at the driving range and then practising my putting on the green. The full game is released today at a budget price of £25 and i'm pretty tempted to pick it up.

I also fired up VR Worlds again. I was curious to see how the London Heist played using the Move controllers and I was happy to find it played much, much better. I spent a bit of time on this just doing the various challenges the game had to offer, such as never reloading your gun during the fight scene and getting a certain amount of head shots, all made easier with the Move. It's made me pretty excited to see what Blood & Truth plays like when it's released next week.

[bob]

I think I finally made the decision to buy an Oculus Quest, and it's sold out everywhere already!

I know I only need to wait, but I bought it in my head already damn it!

Whoooooops, just bought it.

[Grazza]

On 22/05/2019 at 1:27 PM, bob said:

On 19/05/2019 at 4:32 PM, bob said:

I think I finally made the decision to buy an Oculus Quest, and it's sold out everywhere already!

I know I only need to wait, but I bought it in my head already damn it!

Whoooooops, just bought it.

 

I'd be really interested to know how you get on with it.  VR fascinates me, and I'm sure I'll get a headset eventually.

[bob]

 
I'd be really interested to know how you get on with it.  VR fascinates me, and I'm sure I'll get a headset eventually.

I'll definitely be posting my findings here, don't worry.

[bob]

Urgh. So Amazon fucking lied. Got an email the day my Quest was supposed to be delivered saying that they actually don't have any in stock and that they don't know when it'll be delivered.

Sad trombone.

I would cancel and try and get it elsewhere, but no-one has it in stock either.

[Shorty]

On 5/18/2019 at 1:10 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

I went out this morning to pick up A Plague Tale but I seen Argos had Move controllers in stock! I've been after some for ages so I decided to pass up on buying what intended to and instead purchase the controllers and Ghost Giant, a game I've been eager to play.

Its a bit stingy that the controllers don't come with a USB charging cable. Using the PS4 one isn't ideal, there's only 1 of them and you get 2 controllers.

I've played through the first four stages of Ghost Giant and it's as colorful and adorable as I had hoped for. I'm looking forward to playing some more of it later this evening.

 

You mean you don't just have 30 spare USB micro cables lying around the house by this point? Cos I sure do. They can be picked up very cheap on amazon or even at poundland.

Anyway good to see Move controllers back in stock, hope that's going to be part of a growing trend. Otherwise Move controllers are going to scupper the PSVR the way memory cards did for the Vita.

[Hero-of-Time]

43 minutes ago, Shorty said:

You mean you don't just have 30 spare USB micro cables lying around the house by this point? Cos I sure do. They can be picked up very cheap on amazon or even at poundland.

Nope. I don't buy new tech very often. You're speaking to a person who doesn't have a laptop/desktop, is still rocking an iPhone 4S and doesn't own any kind of iPad/tablet.  

[bob]

@Hero-of-Time right now

[bob]

Urgh. So Amazon fucking lied. Got an email the day my Quest was supposed to be delivered saying that they actually don't have any in stock and that they don't know when it'll be delivered.

Sad trombone.

I would cancel and try and get it elsewhere, but no-one has it in stock either.

So, with Amazon refusing to give a solid date for delivery, I decided to cancel and get one direct from Oculus. I ordered that one, and then found out that Amazon wouldn't let me cancel the first one.

Then an hour later I got an email from Amazon saying the first one has been dispatched, arriving tomorrow. Tried to cancel the second one, and it wouldn't let me do that either.

So it looks like I'm going to get two...

[Shorty]

Yo if you don't need that second one I'll have it.

[bob]

So I eventually got my (first) Quest on Friday, and eagerly took it home to try it out. Simply put, it is an astonishing piece of technology. i was really worried that I would feel sick or get headaches, but if you take a bit of time to properly position it on your face and find the sweet-spot in front of the lenses, I had no issues. I've spent a couple of hours with it on over the weekend, and aside from a bit of pressure on the forehead and general sweatiness, there has been no discomfort. The only problem i seem to be getting is dust and sebum smearing on the lenses after a while, but i've ordered some micro-fibre cloths to help out with that. They get much dirtier, much quicker than i was anticipating.


The controllers are amazing too - the way they sense if your fingers are touching the buttons so it knows what to do with your virtual hand is pretty clever. Tracking wise, it seems almost perfectly 1:1 as far as I can tell. I actually started giggling in the First Steps demo when i realised you could pick up the table tennis bat and first started hitting the ping pong ball around - it felt so weirdly real. I really want to get a game like Job Simulator and properly play around with the controller physics


I've only managed to play a few demos and try out a few experiences, but i already know which games i'm going to buy. Beat Saber is great fun, and my wife's family all enjoyed trying out Wander, which is like the stripped down version of Google Earth VR. I watched a few 360 videos on Youtube, which are ok, but the quality of them varies wildly. One of the best things i found was the Skybox app, which lets you watch videos. It instantly found my server, and let me stream movies off it, putting me in a giant cinema with a huge screen in front of me. I can definitely see me watching a film in this thing, although i rarely sit down and watch a film all on my own, so i don't think my wife would be up for that.


As I mentioned, my wife's family came round for a BBQ on Sunday, and they all had a go with it, and by the end, my wife's parents said they were going to buy one, and her aunt seemed really interested too. My friend came round on Saturday, and after 10 minutes, he wanted to buy my spare one off me (sorry @Shorty). These things basically seem to sell themselves once people have had a go.


Overall, I'm really happy with it so far, and I can't wait to try some of the proper games like Superhot and Vader Immortal. My one misgiving about the whole thing is that I do wonder if it is a bit gimmicky? I don't know how much i'll be using it in 12 months for example. I guess it depends on whether the games keep coming, and whether they are good enough once the amazement about picking up a crossbow or sword and swinging it around goes. We'll have to see, but I definitely think that for £400 the thing is worth it. I have always wanted to try VR, but the cost of entry was always far too high for me. £400 for the Quest might be the sweet-spot of price vs quality of experience.

[Sméagol]

On 30/05/2019 at 6:47 PM, bob said:

So, with Amazon refusing to give a solid date for delivery, I decided to cancel and get one direct from Oculus. I ordered that one, and then found out that Amazon wouldn't let me cancel the first one.

Then an hour later I got an email from Amazon saying the first one has been dispatched, arriving tomorrow. Tried to cancel the second one, and it wouldn't let me do that either.

So it looks like I'm going to get two...

Might as well have bought one of the more expensive versions.

Good to hear you're enjoying it!

[Shorty]

@bob your experience echoes exactly my first feelings on the Rift 18 months ago, I'm glad to hear the quest is powerful enough to recapture that. I really think the Quest is perfect not only for introducing people to VR through them buying it, but sharing it with their friends etc. Which will hopefully spread the word, increase the userbase and increase the quality and quantity of content.

If this is available on Quest, get it to play as a co-op game because I think you and your wife will really enjoy it: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. Superhot is also one of the best VR experiences as the closed spaces and short burst experiences lend themselves so perfectly to the technology.

[bob]

[mention=229]bob[/mention] your experience echoes exactly my first feelings on the Rift 18 months ago, I'm glad to hear the quest is powerful enough to recapture that. I really think the Quest is perfect not only for introducing people to VR through them buying it, but sharing it with their friends etc. Which will hopefully spread the word, increase the userbase and increase the quality and quantity of content.
If this is available on Quest, get it to play as a co-op game because I think you and your wife will really enjoy it: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. Superhot is also one of the best VR experiences as the closed spaces and short burst experiences lend themselves so perfectly to the technology.

That's the bomb defusing game right? Yeah, is available. I'm definitely going to get it for when I next meet up with a certain group of friends who will love it.

I can definitely see the Quest being a big hit, perhaps even being THE thing this Christmas. I'm going to try and show mine off to as many people as possible!

[Shorty]

Yep that's it. It's now been released in non-VR platforms but it's, IMO, the most perfect 2 player game there is for the system and it's a really fun, tense collaborative challenge.

[bob]

Bought and played through Vader Immortal last night. It's pretty good, but perhaps a tad overpriced considering how long it is. Haven't had a chance to play the dojo yet, so maybe that'll add some value to it.

The rest of the game really shows off the benefits of VR though. The moment when you first meet Vader is pretty intimidating - far more than in any film or other game. The lightsabre bits are really cool too, the rumble feedback from the touch controllers really makes it feel like you're swinging a laser sword!

Hopefully I'll get a chance to try Superhot tonight, can't wait!

It's crazy, I think I've already bought more games for the Quest in one week than I have for my Switch in 1 year. I just want to try everything!

[bob]

Played and completed Superhot, which I really enjoyed. I basically played the whole game stationary, since my playspace isn't very big. I'd be interested in playing it with more ability to move around, since I feel that would add a bit to it. Still, good game, with a bit more replayability than Vader Immortal. It's very satisfying to clear out a level quickly with a few practised movements.

I also downloaded the free game Bait!, which is a fishing sim, and a very enjoyable one. It's a very relaxing, simple game with fishing mechanics that aren't too complicated, but with enough variety to keep you interested for a few hours. I think if this was fleshed out a bit, with a few more locations, rods, equipments etc, I would consider paying money for it. It's quite addictive trying to get all the fish in an area, and trying to catch 3 star sized fish in every category.

I also bought a 'game' called VR Nature Walks, in which you can walk around CGI environments. I was pretty disappointed by this game. The environments are really too simplistic (considering there's not much else going on in them), and I would have returned it for a refund, but my wife quite liked it and made me keep it.