Discussion Community Questions: On the Road to VR

[Jsimenhoff]

With upcoming releases from Oculus, and fresh competition—yes, of course I’m talking about the Valve Index—the state of VR hardware is as vibrant as ever. Since the Oculus Rift came out for consumers 3 years ago headsets, controllers, and GPUs have all improved. While the latest hardware is not exactly leaps and bounds better, it is certainly better: 2K or not quite 2K panels are now pretty much standard, base stations are the norm, and we have virtual fingers! There have been significant quality of life improvements as well. We have better lenses, faster refresh rates, a larger FOV, even eye tracking, all of which have brought clarity to the virtual. While the hardware improvements are great, and needed, we’re still not mainstream, nor have we obtained the crystal clear promise of truly immersive VR.

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What do you think of the state of VR? Have you bought in yet, or still in wait and see mode?

 

[Dazzler_K]

With no full complete 1:1 freedom of movement eg. Running. All the experiences are half baked. Until we crack the movement issue, VR is severely hindered.

 

[Wraith2021]

High end PC VR will never be mainstream, it is just too niche, it is a niche within a niche, which means adoption rate will only remain with the elitists.

To take something mainstream you have to redefine the paradigm, and I was sceptical to begin with just how good the Oculus Go actually is, especially when you drop on a really polished title. I was blown away. This portable device that was 3DOF was just so simple to pop on and use anywhere, no need for getting tangled in wires or even setup, if i wanted to play a game, i just popped it on my head and played the game. I found myself going for the Oculus Go with titles i had on other platforms just for ease of use, and the graphics held up on those games. Still blown away by End Space on it.

Now with the Quest around the corner, offering the freedom of the Go mixed with 6DOF and the ability to play AAA titles this is where I want to be at.

Some say the Quest is a step backwards, but I don't see it that way at all, it is more a step sideways, and in many ways a step forward. It is a step forward for untethered full freedom play almost anywhere VR, and it opens up the gates for going forward in a new direction, it is only a matter of time before we get fully wireless cloud based PC VR experiences, and when that day comes, something like the Quest will be ready to play.

With no full complete 1:1 freedom of movement eg. Running. All the experiences are half baked. Until we crack the movement issue, VR is severely hindered.

The WalkOVR device looks like an interesting thing, it allows free locomotion without a treadmill in VR on pretty much any headset including the Oculus Go. You just jog on the jog on the spot, or run on the spot.

But the future of VR is not with some sort of external intrusive, it is with technonly that can translate neuronic and brain activity into VR, and the trst they are currently doing look amazing. but this has its caveat, it means in place of exercising the body for movement, you would be stationary, not physically moving at all, yet in VR you would be running jumping, using 6 arms as if you really had them or even psychic powers.

This is way off, but most of the reserch does translate into the medical field to help those with who need replacement limbs and motor function disorders.

 

[fireaza]

I’m on my 3rd VR headset, so I think it’s safe to say I’m really enjoying VR. I’ve been having experienced I like anything I’ve even had in my many many years of playing games.

Yes, VR is still quite primitive, but I actually find that to be one of the most exciting parts. We’re constantly seeing leaps and bounds in advances. This is unlike traditional gaming, where everything has plateaued out and we’re just seeing more powerful versions of existing concepts.

I can totally understand why some people don’t feel ready to jump in yet. There’s a LOT of people who didn’t play video games until consoles that were capable of more realistic graphics and more cinematic games, such as the Xbox were released. These are the sort of people who won’t be jumping in until VR headsets, controllers and VR game design have been refined and matured and the headsets are at a mainstream price. But before we reach that point, we need people to support the current current efforts and experiments in the VR space. So less complaining about current gen VR being too primitive and expensive would be nice.

 

[tennis2]

I visited a VR arcade to test out the tech (HTC Vive IIRC). While the experience was great (my wife also really enjoyed it until I told her how much a headset would cost), most of the dozen games I played were stuck somewhere between "demo" and a complete game. And there really just aren't that many games available in VR that have enough polish to motivate me to buy them for $20-$60.

As with all gaming sectors, the amount of attention the game devs give a platform directly influences it's success. For many years, consoles have gotten the majority of the development hours. PC is secondary. And since VR is PC+, it's definitely an afterthought in the minds of devs. I know there are console VR headsets, so I'm hopeful that once the next-gen consoles come out in a year or two with better equipped hardware to handle VR, we might see a better VR landscape coming from the console arena so they can be halfheartedly ported to PC VR just like non-VR games today are.