Before I begin, I must point out that I don't currently own any VR devices. I am contemplating picking up something nearer to Christmas but we'll see. So, as some of you know, I visited Gamescom this year, mainly to meet up with my Org friends from Star Citizen. I'm going to be honest: I don't think I'll return for a least a while. Gamescom is an incredibly busy event and queues typically take about 2-3 hours to get through, though if you get in early the first thing you queue for will only take an hour and if you stay until the bitter end (the event closes at 2000 each day) then you may be able to get some extra time with things as everyone else leaves. Still, I think that if you consider yourself a relatively hardcore gamer, you owe it to yourself to make the pilgrimage once. Try to go with friends so you have someone to talk to while you queue! I will warn those who have problems with social anxiety problems that it may be best to give it a miss though. So, first up, I played 'Dead and Buried' on the Oculus Rift (with Touch), a multiplayer wild west bar shootout game. I have to say, there were many thoughts running through my head when it first loaded - I'll list them as bullet points since they all popped up at once: HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING! Hmm, resolution is a bit low. MY HANDS ARE REAL BUT NOT REAL! WOAH! I HAVE VR LEGS! My friend and I were on the same team (2v2) but one of the other players on the other team was having technical problems, so we had a little extra time to try stuff. We fount out we could high five each other, built a card pyramid (the table in front of the player had cards on), throw cards at each other and waved at the other guys on the other side of the bar. I also found out that the Touch controllers have a magnetic couple if you bring them next to each other and are quite durable (that's how I found out about the magnets). Anyway, we eventually got around to fighting - queue lots of Matrix style bullet dodging and attempting to re-enact scenes from Equilibrium. Absolutely excellent. Later during the day, we went back to have another go. This time I tried 'Ripcoil' a Tron style disc throwing game that once again was excellent - the thought process was the same as above. Now this game nearly made me fall over! Your character is on an antigrav platform that can move sideways depending on whether you lean left or right and the lack of momentum almost got me - in fact, another one of my friends did manage to fall over in another game! Anyway, I managed to surprise the Oculus representative helping by adapting quickly and managed to soundly beat my opponent - don't worry, he was a grown man! At the end of the day I got to play around with PSVR and Eve: Valkyrie. It was pretty cool, but I only got a few minutes to try it as my friends also wanted to try it and we were near closing time. Pretty cool but the resolution was even lower. The next day, I got to try Eve: Valkyrie on the Oculus Rift. Now that was AMAZING. I managed to find a ship that allowed me to aim literally by looking at the target. Despite being on my own against a team of three, I won the match 17-2. I can't wait for VR to be implemented in Star Citizen - it will be a thing of beauty and IMHO a necessity for any space combat based esports. I will also mention that one of my friends could not stand more than a few seconds of Eve due to motion sickness, which surprised me as he's quite a tough Russian chap! Lastly, I got to play Project Cars (using the Vive). Now, I'm not normally a racer player, but VR improved things considerably. Now I could judge how fast the car was travelling - no more coming up to a hairpin bend at 200MPH! I was also sat in a simulator chair that moved and vibrated, so that was cool. I will definitely be investing in VR but the resolution needs to be improved greatly, as does the field of view before it replaces my main method of viewing games (currently either a 4K monitor or television). Having said that, I mentioned at the start of this article that I may invest in the technology nearer Christmas - I want to get a laptop that can support it but Nvidia's Optimus technology makes matters complicated. I think a workaround may be to find a laptop with a Displayport output (as it should be linked directly to the GPU and thus get around Optimus) and purchase an adapter to convert it to HDMI. I think that a VR headset and a small but powerful laptop would be the perfect companion to gamers who are typically on the go a lot as the VR kit can fit in a small-ish padded case. I will end this article on a bit of a sombre note. So far, my experiences have been quite 'family friendly'. What concerns me is how the technology can be implemented for more intense experiences. For example, I'm sure that playing Alien Isolation VR may reduce me to a gibbering piss covered wreck in the corner. There's also an upcoming game called 'Agony' - a game based on being in hell, and another one based on being in a nightmare that looks, well, as though it'd make me throw up from revulsion (think the icky bits from 'eXistenZ' but non stop). And I don't even want to touch on what some truly sick minds could come up with.
If oculas said to everyone, would you prefer we double FOV or double res and just increase fov 10deg i would opt for FOV doubling In assetto corsa its great but its time to tell it as it is, the fov is not nearly good enough. The fov is bad enough that it is like a bungy cord pulling you back from fully stepping through the looking glass. I want to don a device and find it difficult to even see in ny peripheral vision any semblance of black. Thing can and should improve big on the fov front. The cv1 is very good but after plus 50hours and when you are manning up in your chosen full on game that is demanding you start to really want a headset not obsuring your peripheral. It sort of a limitation whose pay off if they greatly improve it outways its work to get it. Or in other words, cutting the cord holding back the gamer from near full vr immersion of sight, fov saturation, is a bigger pay off than any other area of vr, and will deliver the biggest bang for the buck. When you drive or fly in real life, do you have a frog mask on? No Well it shouldn't look like a frog mans mask when gaming either it should look at least 75% of reality. At the moment its loke 40% or some thing Fov to near saturation of gamers vision is hugely important nothing else will deliver the next biggest step forward, with near full FOV you will be able to put to the reality a lot lot easier the tunnal vision stuff is no good, its very amature days but at least we have a soild base to start and every one knows what needs doing. VR in just say 10 years is going to look nothing like todays VR Edit Alien isoltation is easily the most scared i have been match in intensity that time i watched jaws 1 when i was around 4 when they dive down and go past that hole in the bottom of the fishermans boat. Plus some how through VR it keeps being really scary, your brain hobestly worries about life death aspects when playing aloen isolation.
Well, obviously I'd prefer both, but for the moment, I'd actually prefer a higher resolution. I think that goes without saying! I imagine in three years it'll have made enough advances that it will be my main method of gaming.
You're pretty much stating the obvious. We know VR needs a bigger field of view and increased resolution but your wholly negative view of first gen consumer makes it sound like a pile of ****. It's far from that and the FOV has massively improved from the pre-oculus days. Back when I had an IO-Systems PC3d with temperature sensitive LCDs with no contrast. The view was like sitting at the back of a very small movie theater. Same with the vusix. Problem is that many don't have that previous experience of VR and only compare it to some far off future ideal or to that 4k monitor. I fly and dogfight in DCS World and the FOV certainly isn't a problem with HTC Vive. I fly and dogfight in Elite and the FOV isn't a problem. Pcars and assetto cornetto are an amazing experience. "VR in just say 10 years is going to look nothing like todays VR" <<< Every time someone who dislikes current gen VR says this I want to punch them. It's such a nonsense statement. GPU in 10 years is going to be nothing like today's GPU. CPU in 10 years is going to have so many more cores. See how ridiculous that is? It's so obvious it doesn't need to be said. You're approaching it as; current gen VR isn't usable. That is your perception of it and the sales suggest people are finding it very usable. I know Elite D has a strong VR following for example. I know there are people who rate it highly for racing and say their driving is better with it. Do I want bigger FOV and increased resolution? Of course. First gen consumer VR is still an amazing experience in spite of current limitations. I personally wouldn't be without it. I was bored with viewing my games on a tiny rectangular window long before Oculus was a thing. My VR owning friends say the same... they're now only interested in VR titles.
I can understand where you're coming from Stanley, but the resolution just isn't quite there for me yet. Also, my 'tiny rectangular window' is, without meaning to sound like I'm boasting, not that small. I am VERY pumped for the future of VR though!
Some find VR res acceptable... others don't. Personal choice. I'm sure your window is very big but VR makes imax look small. I want lifesize 3d which is why VR is important for me. I'm quite horrified now when I view DCS world in 2d on a monitor compared to being in the cockpit and being able to look out over the sides and see the wings of my plane.
After playing Project CARS with the Vive I don't see myself ever wanting to race without a VR headset. I certainly don't think its perfect, you do lose some detail, but going from a 24" monitor with no peripheral vision to being enveloped by the game in VR, I'd say VR (for sims at least) has exceded my expectations and can only get better in the future.
Absolutely. I think given the cost of current gen VR it's not something most casual gamers could justify spending on but for sim enthusiasts it's worth it. Have you tried Assetto? I have a Vive so I have to use LibreVR for it. Dirt Rally is also impressive.
Re: Star Citizen VR... I'm concerned they won't get it working again. There's been so much negative BS from a minority about nausea that many developers either avoid VR or dumb-down the game to appease them. Hardly any devs will do full locomotion now in VR so that leaves teleport.. SC involves fast paced foot combat so how are they gonna do that in VR? Blink teleport won't work with non-vr players. What they should do is have full locomotion with VR for those who don't get dizzy and spew. There are VR games coming with full locomotion but I don't see big developers doing it because they're too scared now. Obduction for example lets you move with full motion in a straight line and turn on 90 degrees. Useless for fast FPS. Roberts could implement VR for the flying and space walking only but that would be frustrating having to play foot combat without VR.
Play the shooty bits in third person. Problem solved (although some people may claim competitive advantage - its already in the game, and I don't see anyone claiming its going away).
Star Citizen is 2-3 years off launch and probably double that from been feature complete which would include VR. Your VR Star Citizen dream is 3-4 devices and who knows how many gpu performance updates away. Anything could happen with VR between now and then, very few people could handle a fps game in VR. Project cars is more than enough after a few hours for a lot of people. With current devices anyway, as the resolution increases this should actually become less of a issue. But the hardware requirements could reach crazy levels for most. The VIVE or oculus rift you buy today is unlikely to be the VIVE or Oculus rift that plays Star Citizen. I'd expect to see a VIVE 2 or 3 and a oculus 2 or 3 before the launch of the game. They already said they won't put VR in the alpha / Beta. Not a big shock the game does not run well on any hardware and the settings make no difference to performance. You get lucky on a server the game can be played. We shall see where the tech goes after PSVR which in reality is the break point for this tech, if the Sony device sells well you could see big players start to see VR as a serous device. If this happens game support would increase and we could see some true next gen stuff from VR.
That will be the most sensible option I reckon. Good points. Just have to see how it all develops over the next few years then. The GPU requirements should balance out even with increased VR screen resolution once we get foveated. The nausea should be less of an issue once the peripheral shrink thing gets going and if Nvidia+stanton get the multi-plane headset to market. In the meantime I will be playing HL2 with keys and mouse. Someone on reddit explained how to get it working with Vive.
