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60 Days later: VR owners was it worth it?

Helznicht

Member

Uh what? Exactly what in the display tech do you think they could not have improved? Are you saying that 4k phone displays don't exist? Are you saying they could not have used these in the HMD's? Are you saying there is a GPU that can push two 4k screens with AA and all the lighting effects of modern engines at 90+ fps?

On the Lenses, they seem perfectly fine to me. If I take off the foam on my vive, my FOV is huge as well as my sweet spot for focus. What is not ok when I do this is the display res, its even more noticable.
 
I have had my Vive for a month and I'm still amazed when I put it on. I'm not using it as much recently because I have been playing Doom and I'm so busy at work I feel too tired when I get home to do anything but sit on the sofa and watch TV. I'm patiently waiting for more games to come out.

I have been tempted to see if I can trade my Vive with somebody for their Rift, just to try it out for a while as I expect nothing amazing will be out until at least generation two.
 

Starviper

Member
Enjoying it but not as much as I really should be - I seem to run into sensor issues almost every time I boot up so it becomes a process to get into a game. Also waiting on some actual content to get more into. I'd say Holopoint has been what I spent the most time in beyond Vanishing Realms.
 

mario_O

Member
I have a DK2 and I barely touch it nowadays, maybe once a month for a few hours. Honeymoon is definitely over. And I know the DK2 is not as good as the new headsets but it's not too far behind either -I know what to expect from CV1 and I'm not interested in getting one.
I'm still excited about the tech and will follow it closely, but I think it needs more time to evolve, the hardware and the software.
 

tokkun

Member
Audioshield is Samba de Amigo on steroïds. Anyone who values that kind of game can relate with what that means. Arcade games in general are back in the most immersive way. This is a dream I had lost for years AFAIC.

Audioshield is an interesting experience, and it definitely wow'd me at first blush, but as a long-time fan of rhythm games, I don't feel like it has much staying power in its current form. I think the novelty wears off quickly, and at its core the gameplay just does not stack up. Part of that is that there is a tradition of experiential gameplay already in rhythm games, and swiping the shields isn't as satisfying as hitting a taiko drum or stomping on a dance pad.
 

Pit

Member
Yes.

Give the content time to come, but the launch games have been exactly what I wanted VR to be. I use it every few days, due to life stuff but that's fine. Multiplayer VR games are where your money is, playing with friends and being there is what you should aim to try.
 
Not sure what people buying so early were expected. I've found a couple games I can stick with for a while. This is going to be a slow burn, but give it a year or two and I guarantee there will be a lot of content. Built for VR games, Games modded to VR, non-interactive experiences, etc. VR wants to get big so damn bad, we just gotta let it.
 

Korezo

Member
Don't use the vive at all, probably used 3 times for a total of 10 hours or less. Would use it more if a theater mode came out that works with everything.
 
I've used mine every single day since I got it and that initial wow factor hasn't even begun to ware off.

After experiencing it for myself I honestly feel that VR is so compelling that it's actually hard to go back to flat games.

I had pretty high expectations going in and the Vive blew them all away.

It's interesting to see how the general sentiment around VR is growing more and more positive the more that people actually get it in their hands.
 

x3sphere

Member
Been happy with my Vive. I'm looking forward to the slow trickle of games coming out for it. Some of the experiences out right now are simply mindblowing, like The Gallery. Wouldn't think of selling mine at all.
 

BigTnaples

Todd Howard's Secret GAF Account
It's amazing. Use it all the time, and everyone who I let use it is just as amazed. Though I have an entire room to use it in. I suspect those with less or no space, might not be as enthused.
 

Fat4all

Banned
I really want one :(

One of my favorite Youtubers has got one and it looks like so much fun, but I am a poor poor man.
 
Uh what? Exactly what in the display tech do you think they could not have improved? Are you saying that 4k phone displays don't exist? Are you saying they could not have used these in the HMD's? Are you saying there is a GPU that can push two 4k screens with AA and all the lighting effects of modern engines at 90+ fps?

On the Lenses, they seem perfectly fine to me. If I take off the foam on my vive, my FOV is huge as well as my sweet spot for focus. What is not ok when I do this is the display res, its even more noticable.

It isn't the 4K display it's the pixel density the rift is already 460 ppi, phones have stopped increasing pixel density you need a higher density screen for the next gen of displays. The larger the screen physically the more the lens has to work.

and the lens isn't great I don't care about a sweet spot I need the whole thing to look good because having to shift your head to read text at the bottom gets annoying and there are other issues especially with glare.
 
It has been totally worth it to me. I still feel amazed every time I put it on and walk around and touch things in a flipping game!...

I actually have managed to work both Audio Shield and Holopoint into my daily workout routine and I feel amazing.

I call my new physique, "body by roomscale."

My wife greatly approves.
 
People complaining about Vive's resolution/screendoor got me a little nervous about PSVR honestly. I mean that's the high end device right now, is it really that bad?
 

ps3ud0

Member
Worth every cent - and I've only used it for Assetto Corsa for the last week. I will try other stuff eventually, but this is really the holy grail for sim racing.



I'm still acclimatizing and mostly jumping around to different cars and tracks to take it all in. I don't doubt I will be up to speed eventually. You can judge placement and relative distances in a way that just isn't possible on a screen. Elevation change and cambered corners in particular are suddenly very recognizable, when they're more like subtle details in 2d.

I can't speak for VR, but when I've played driving games in 3D I've found it significantly easier to judge a corner correctly, so I'd expect that to be even more pronounced in VR.
Sounds so good - sensible me is annoying - hurry up foveated rendering

ps3ud0 8)
 

Lylo

Member
My only VR experience is with my Gear VR, i understand that the Rift and the Vive have much better tech, but i don't know, to me it looks like that the VR devices are in the same situation the Wii U were, a cool new tech with a lot of potential, but developers don't know exactly what to do with it. I really dig the technology and i hope VR gets it's killer software soon.
 

x3sphere

Member
People complaining about Vive's resolution/screendoor got me a little nervous about PSVR honestly. I mean that's the high end device right now, is it really that bad?

I consider myself an IQ fanatic on PC (always use SSAA when possible) and it doesn't hamper the overall experience much for me. It is noticeable but as soon as I properly get into a game I quickly forget about the SDE. Can depend heavily on the game too, way more noticeable in certain games than others.
 

Sky Chief

Member
It's cool to experience and demo (rive) but fresnel lens and resolution are biggest issues, then followed by FOV, which is much less than an imax screen.

The casual gamers I demo to, none of them want to buy one for themselves after the demo, even though they agree it's interesting and fun in small doses. I feel like I bought a pro karaoke machine or something.

What!? FOV absolutely is not less than an IMAX screen. Am IMAX screen fills a good amount of your forward vision but not the periphery. The Vive doesn't fill ALL of your peripheral vision but it definitely fills significantly more than IMAX.
 
People complaining about Vive's resolution/screendoor got me a little nervous about PSVR honestly. I mean that's the high end device right now, is it really that bad?

Try it
http://vr.mkeblx.net/oculus-sim/

It's worse than this web gl sim off center (chroma aberration) and in terms of glare, when there is white objects on dark backgrounds. Take note of the aliasing and the screen door, that's what you will see under VR.

On the plus side I never had a complaint about tracking lag, or frame rate, except in fantastic contraption which gave me a headache.
 

tokkun

Member
What!? FOV absolutely is not less than an IMAX screen. Am IMAX screen fills a good amount of your forward vision but not the periphery. The Vive doesn't fill ALL of your peripheral vision but it definitely fills significantly more than IMAX.

It depends on how you adjust the headset. Moving the lenses closer to your eyes significantly increases the FOV, but I think that it comes with them set further away (smaller FOV) from the factory.
 
What!? FOV absolutely is not less than an IMAX screen. Am IMAX screen fills a good amount of your forward vision but not the periphery. The Vive doesn't fill ALL of your peripheral vision but it definitely fills significantly more than IMAX.

It is less, the fov of a headsets is about 100 degrees max horizontal and less vertical.
The last iMax I went to was much more than that however it depends where you sit. It also requires a made for imax movie.
The rift etc is like wearing average ski goggles, or snorkel mask, not wide view types.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
People complaining about Vive's resolution/screendoor got me a little nervous about PSVR honestly. I mean that's the high end device right now, is it really that bad?

If you're going in without unrealistic expectations you should be fine. Once you're immersed in a game the brain can ignore the SDE unless you're specifically looking for it.
 

eloxx

Member
What about theater mode in general? Is it a good alternative to a big tv? Are you able to spend some good hours in there?

Looking forward to PSVR, especially theater mode.
 

Sheytan

Member
I have gotten eye strain using the Vive for like an hour. For one thing, the screens seem to be pretty bright, and that alone will strain your eye pretty quickly. There are also lens quality issues that make them hard on the eyes. There is a lot of corner softness, so things get blurry if you don't have the headset adjusted well or you are not looking at the sweet spot in the center of the lens (or if you smudge the lens, since seems to happen to me a lot for some reason). There is also a fair amount of chromatic aberration. Both of these things are hard on the eyes when you are looking at text.

For what it's worth, the eye strain is less bothersome than the type I get when I watch 3D movies in theaters. That feels more like a headache, whereas the Vive is more like the typical eyestrain you can get if you spend too much time in front of a bright monitor in a dark room.

In dark scenes it looks like you are looking through nylon stockings
 

Wollan

Member
General thoughts:
- The Vive/The Lab was the most impressive jump forwards I've witnessed in gaming (moreso than the 3D polygonal revolution of the 90s). Once VR becomes more practical (no wires or external sensors) then there's no way back.
- I was given a glitchy Vive initially. Troubleshooting and support/replacement has been a hell that took a month.
- Luckey's Tale and Chronos are cool Oculus exclusives I enjoyed. Need to try The Climb and soon Edge of Nowhere.
- Oculus omitting 3D controllers was a *huge* miss, even with some nice games I say wait (or never thanks to PC VR disrupting behavior)
- In terms of importance: 3D controllers > 360 degree orientation without occlusion problems > Room scale
- Doesn't replace normal quality gaming (it's all Uncharted 4 these days). Even with crazy technology it still falls back on well crafted full-scale software experiences. The VR lineup is lacking currently.
- If you have a PS4 but not a high-end stationary PC then I recommend waiting for PSVR unless the $ and extra-space is a no problem
 

cheezcake

Member
What about theater mode in general? Is it a good alternative to a big tv? Are you able to spend some good hours in there?

Looking forward to PSVR, especially theater mode.

Not really. With the Vive I find it's just not that convenient and it can get uncomfortable just sitting down with a headset strapped on you for >1hour, with a Rift the comfort and clarity are slightly better but still not great. Pixelation is a real issue, yeh it looks bigger but it just doesn't look as good as on a 1080p monitor, I also imagine the pixelation is going to be quite a bit worse on PSVR given the lower res + single screen design.

Try it
http://vr.mkeblx.net/oculus-sim/

It's worse than this web gl sim off center (chroma aberration) and in terms of glare, when there is white objects on dark backgrounds. Take note of the aliasing and the screen door, that's what you will see under VR.

On the plus side I never had a complaint about tracking lag, or frame rate, except in fantastic contraption which gave me a headache.

I wouldn't call that site accurate, CV1 looks pretty different to reality.
 
How is The Lab on the rift? I'm guessing it's making use of the Vive's controllers, but is it playable?

The lab is 8(?) experiences

Robot assembly: funny short high quality
Castle defenders: haptic bow feedback, replayable
Some 3d tourism spots like Venice, a lava tube etc
A Warcraft-like magic hut where you have a light to look at the cute animations, short
Solar system (not to scale) interesting for 2 minutes
a catapult thing,
Human body X-ray : cool for 1 minute max
An arcade shoot em up .. Trippy but limited shoot em up where your hand is the ship and there is incoming bullets.

That's about it really, maybe i forgot something. As you do each one an item appears on the table in the lab some are interactive like the bow and arrow.
 
I wouldn't call that site accurate, CV1 looks pretty different to reality.

It's pretty accurate for Vive but i don't know if you are saying cv1 is worse, or better: I would say it's worse, not in terms of screen door or res, in terms of clarity off center, bleed etc etc.
 
Ive had my Rift for 5 days now and have been very happy with it. I'm definitely of the early adopter mindset though; I played around with active shutter 3D glasses back in 2003 and the Rift feels like what I really wanted way back then, lol. My personal recommendation is to try listening to music in Virtual Desktop's Milkdrop mode. Trippiest experience I've ever had, and I don't throw that word around lightly.

It's pretty accurate for Vive but i don't know if you are saying cv1 is worse, or better: I would say it's worse, not in terms of screen door or res, in terms of clarity off center, bleed etc etc.
That "simulator" is from back in the DK1 days and is not an accurate representation of the CV1 at all. It says the resolution of CV1 is 2560x1440 when the resolution is actually 2160x1200.
 

iceatcs

Junior Member
People complaining about Vive's resolution/screendoor got me a little nervous about PSVR honestly. I mean that's the high end device right now, is it really that bad?
I thought Vive and CV1 has quite bad SDE when trying to read some texts which it push me off to further on VR world.
Especially after PSVR demo, I felt PSVR virtually have no SDE or it didn't noticeable as Vive or CV1. Maybe it is the way how the RGB pixel work on the screen, because I though netting screen door effect is much less notices than mini crosses screen door effect like Vive and CV1 had.
 
It still surprises me how much people talk about SDE. After using both Rift and Vive pretty extensively, it's below a lot of other things on my list of things each need to improve.
If the next generation effectively had the same level of SDE, but massively increased the FOV, I'd be pretty happy.
 

artsi

Member
I thought Vive and CV1 has quite bad SDE when trying to read some texts which it push me off to further on VR world.
Especially after PSVR demo, I felt PSVR virtually have no SDE or it didn't noticeable as Vive or CV1. Maybe it is the way how the RGB pixel work on the screen, because I though netting screen door effect is much less notices than mini crosses screen door effect like Vive and CV1 had.

SDE is not really a problem while gaming, but it is a huge problem using Virtual Desktop or similiar use where you need to read small text.
 
That "simulator" is from back in the DK1 days and is not an accurate representation of the CV1 at all. It says the resolution of CV1 is 2560x1440 when the resolution is actually 2160x1200.

Sure, but that res is actually higher, so the real CV1 is less. Just because the res isn't quite right doesn't make the sim grossly inaccurate.
I tried minecraft in vive, and it does look like that. A bit brighter, but that was perhaps because it was noon when I generated the world. I guess what I'm saying is you see the sim and it looks a bit disappointing with regard to the res and the screen door overlay, you're going to be even more disappointed with VR res and VR SDE.
 

bj00rn_

Banned
Yes it was/is. But we're just a few days in, so to ask "was it worth it" feels wrong, almost juvenile thinking imo. And we're still so early in the game that software support hasn't ramped up yet so the best time is to come. Just ordered a 1080 just for VR.

With that said, VR is not supposed to be a replacement for traditional videogames, and It's not necessarily something you must spend 12 hours a day inside. I regard VR as some of my other hobbies like music, photography and hiking; I don't necessarily do it every day. So, "Oh no! I didn't use my Vive! I must sell it!"? I don't think so..

If the formula of "usage divided with money" is a big worry then it probably means you put more money into this than you could afford in the first place.
 

iceatcs

Junior Member
SDE is not really a problem while gaming, but it is a huge problem using Virtual Desktop or similiar use where you need to read small text.
Yes, that what I want to said. I can't do any deeper VR world aka other than gaming due of SDE.
Not just small text but thin font text at any size too.

It still surprises me how much people talk about SDE. After using both Rift and Vive pretty extensively, it's below a lot of other things on my list of things each need to improve.
If the next generation effectively had the same level of SDE, but massively increased the FOV, I'd be pretty happy.
I want it virtually non existed SDE will be great with FOV increased.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
I thought Vive and CV1 has quite bad SDE when trying to read some texts which it push me off to further on VR world.
Especially after PSVR demo, I felt PSVR virtually have no SDE or it didn't noticeable as Vive or CV1. Maybe it is the way how the RGB pixel work on the screen, because I though netting screen door effect is much less notices than mini crosses screen door effect like Vive and CV1 had.

Given the fact that the resolution is smaller on PSVR, there must be another trade-off at play to reduce the SDE. As with Rift we will find out most probably after the launch.

I want it virtually non existed SDE will be great with FOV increased.

Increased FOV needs increased resolution to compensate the SDE.
 

bj00rn_

Banned
I thought Vive and CV1 has quite bad SDE when trying to read some texts which it push me off to further on VR world.
Especially after PSVR demo, I felt PSVR virtually have no SDE or it didn't noticeable as Vive or CV1. Maybe it is the way how the RGB pixel work on the screen, because I though netting screen door effect is much less notices than mini crosses screen door effect like Vive and CV1 had.

Most likely because of higher FOV and brightness in the Vive, the pixel fill in the two Vive displays are pretty damn good. Those ~degrees of FOV difference means a lot in image quality.
 

bj00rn_

Banned
I think it is something subpixel rendering.

If you had a Vive you'd know it's not entirely that. There's slight uniform SDE in all color ranges. Sub pixel density is only in play in certain colors. And since video is not static monochrome theoretical numbers doesn't quite match in practise, the perceived resolution will vary. Different FOV and thus lense configuration (and brightness) is the safest bet. Another clue is that the Rift diffuses the SDE better than the Vive, but with increased artefacts. So everything is a tradeoff balance.
 
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