Oculus Rift

[Saitama]

Anybody else have one? I was surprised that there isn't a thread up for it yet. Got mine last Thursday and I've been having an amazing time with it! Favorite games so far are Blazerush, Darknet, Pinball FX2, Elite Dangerous and Eve Valkryie. I plan on buying The Climb soon.

I've been doing a lot of non-game experiences as well. There are quite a few 360 degree videos on youtube that work great! Climbing mountains in Nepal, looking around Machu Picchu, being in various short movies. There was one experience I downloaded where I was on the ice at the Nashville skills competition and then got to watch some highlights of the All-Star game from the glass. Also got to be on the field while the Mets were doing batting practice! Can't wait until they add more sports stuff! I now watch netflix and youtube videos on a giant IMAX screen floating in space, or from a campsite on a movie screen set up on the Grand Canyon, or in a theater, or on the screen of a cell phone from the perspective of a bug!

I really recommend buying one if you've got some spare cash and a decent computer!

Any questions for me?

Click to read more...

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Does it make you feel sick

 

[Saitama]

The developers kit did on some stuff, but the commercial version hasn't made me feel nauseous at all.

 

[Seb]

How are the games compared to a PC or console one?

Any good shooter yet?

 

[Saitama]

I haven't found a good 1st person shooter yet. There's a great space dogfighting game called Eve Valkryie that's a lot of fun and I hear the company that made that (CCP) are working on a spaceship boarding shooter to go with it.

There are a lot of really short games that are more for the experience of VR than any real depth, but there are some games that are surprisingly deep. Then there are games that were adapted to work with VR, like Project Cars, which is stunningly good in my opinion. Euro Truck Driver 2 works really well with it too. That one surprised me, as I didn't expect to have fun driving a truck across Europe, but I really am. Blaze Rush is a top down racing game that really reminds me of Rock N Roll Racing, or RC Pro Am, and it's just as fun if not more than those two games. Pinball FX2 has three tables, an ocean table, a fantasy table and a space table. When playing the ocean table, you look like you're underwater. The table is in front of you and you can lean right in to look at the action, but around you are sharks, submarines and jellyfish. Trying to concentrate on the ball when a shark is swimming towards your head adds a whole new element to pinball! With the space table, you're surrounded by asteroids and small ships, the fantasy table has a cartoony knight leaning against the table that occasionally hops on a hobby horse and "rides" around you. There's also a giant pirahna plant that grabs the ball and spits it back onto the table sometimes.

Darknet is a great "hacking" game that is sort of more "Hackers the movie" type hacking instead of lines of code. It's hard to explain but it's one of my favorites already for sure. Farlands has you on an alien planet where you're cataloging alien flora and fauna, which is a decent game but feels more like it's there to show off the VR. Elite Dangerous, well VR just makes that game so much better in my opinion.

I'm hoping someone makes some AAA type RPGs at some point. With the touch controllers coming out in September, that's going to make those so much fun!

 

[syz]

Do you work for Oculus? Because you might be the first person I've seen recommend it. General consensus seems to be that the Vive is better, but still generally terrible as far as gaming experiences go. Lots of poorly made, overpriced tech demos that people are charging $20+ for. Sounds like VR needs some significant years under its belt before it's worth investing in at a consumer level.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Never heard of it.

edit - It costs $1000?

 

[SeidoN]

more like the Oculus RIP huehue

Vive > Rift

 

[Saitama]

Do you work for Oculus? Because you might be the first person I've seen recommend it. General consensus seems to be that the Vive is better, but still generally terrible as far as gaming experiences go. Lots of poorly made, overpriced tech demos that people are charging $20+ for. Sounds like VR needs some significant years under its belt before it's worth investing in at a consumer level.

Lol no I don't work for Oculus. I've heard the Vive is better as well and I'll be finding out shortly, as I'm getting one of those too. I'll start a thread for that too if there isn't one by the time I've got mine. I'm not too worried if it is better however, as I'm having a ton of fun with the Oculus. I've never been one to pick sides in gaming. I hope both are awesome!

I've bought a few games for 11.99 so far, Blaze Rush, Darknet, Pinball FX2 and I can't quite remember what I paid for Farlands. So far I've easily got my money's worth from all of them. The rest of what I've tried has been free in the store or online. I haven't gone wandering too much onto individual developers websites to find non-Oculus Store games, so maybe that's where people are finding these unfinished tech demos. I have a fair number of VR enabled games on Steam, but most of those I had already purchased and were also worth the money, like Project Cars, Elite Dangerous, ETS2.

People are entitled to their opinions and there are definitely some things that I've love to see changed/fixed/updated for the next version of the Oculus, but to say that the experience has been terrible is just laughable in my own opinion. I've heard that Best Buy will be having demo Rifts to try out. I would definitely give it a shot and decide for yourself. I do not regret my purchase one bit.

The things that I currently am not a fan of are:

Godrays - these are lens flares that can be annoying sometimes, but I can mostly ignore them.
Resolution - yeah, some stuff is pretty bad quality, but again, mostly this isn't too much of an issue if you don't go in expecting 4k quality. Most of the games/apps are just fine.
I'd love to see a mini fan installed into the unit because it can get frigging hot in there.
The game catalog - pretty slim still so far, although I've got lots to do yet before I've done it all. I'd like to see much more to choose from in the store. This will obviously change in time.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I have a Vive although poor timing because I got it like a week before Overwatch came out and I've been playing nothing but that since.

I'm not sure how many Oculus exclusives there are, it's really dumb that there even are exclusives for VR, it's like having exclusives based on the type of monitor you have.

I do love the Vive though, especially the room scale stuff which I thought wouldn't really be for me but I'm only using it. Space Pirate Trainer is a ton of fun standing in your room shooting robots as they fly around you.

 

[Saitama]

I have a Vive although poor timing because I got it like a week before Overwatch came out and I've been playing nothing but that since.

I'm not sure how many Oculus exclusives there are, it's really dumb that there even are exclusives for VR, it's like having exclusives based on the type of monitor you have.

I do love the Vive though, especially the room scale stuff which I thought wouldn't really be for me but I'm only using it. Space Pirate Trainer is a ton of fun standing in your room shooting robots as they fly around you.

Oh man do I ever agree with this! The library is so small right now that to have exclusives is crazy! Can't wait to try the Vive! I really want to try Job Simulator, that looks like a lot of fun!

 

[Belamorte]

I am probably sounding like a broken record at this point in these threads (and I am not trying to crap on the tech), but I would like to see in 6 or 12 months if these are sitting in people's closets with their 3dglasses, Kinect's and wii-nun-chucks.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

I am probably sounding like a broken record at this point in these threads (and I am not trying to crap on the tech), but I would like to see in 6 or 12 months if these are sitting in people's closets with their 3dglasses, Kinect's and wii-nun-chucks.

Nobody liked the Kinect idea really after everyone got bored with the wii. Which lasted a while

 

[syz]

I am probably sounding like a broken record at this point in these threads (and I am not trying to crap on the tech), but I would like to see in 6 or 12 months if these are sitting in people's closets with their 3dglasses, Kinect's and wii-nun-chucks.

I'd give the PSVR a year before considering the gaming side of VR a bust. It'll have applications beyond that because the tech is better than the Kinect/Wiimote, but I don't think the games will ever be good. So far it's a bunch of "experiences" that generally aren't very fun to actually play; lots of things where it's just like "well this would probably be more fun with a normal controller," just like the Wii and the Kinect.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Never heard of it.

edit - It costs $1000?

I actually thought this post was from last year or a year and a half ago, how have you not heard of oculus rift in 2016?

 

[FLYLine27*]

I actually thought this post was from last year or a year and a half ago, how have you not heard of oculus rift in 2016?

I get all my info from HFBoards...and there was no thread about it till now

 

[syz]

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1631995

Yep.

 

[FLYLine27*]

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1631995

Yep.

Thread title didn't catch my attention. Saw the word Facebook and immediately didn't care and didn't think it was anything important.

 

[Sined]

Thread title didn't catch my attention. Saw the word Facebook and immediately didn't care and didn't think it was anything important.

We've got a master of reading books by its cover right here fellas.

 

[FLYLine27*]

We've got a master of reading books by its cover right here fellas.

Indeed

 

[Osprey]

I'm not sure how many Oculus exclusives there are, it's really dumb that there even are exclusives for VR, it's like having exclusives based on the type of monitor you have.

There's actually a close precedent. I'm dating myself here, but this is similar to how 3D graphics cards started out 20 years ago (and, if you think about it, VR headsets are a lot like 3D graphics cards, since they're a new way of processing and rendering 3D). In those early years (in the late 90s), 3dfx and their Voodoo chip were duking it out against Rendition and its Verite chip (I owned a couple of Verite-based cards), like how it's Oculus Rift vs Vive now. There was no standard way to accelerate 3D games, so game developers had to make special versions of their games that targeted either Voodoo or Verite. That was a lot of extra work and it often required the direct assistance of those chipset makers (because only they knew how to program for their hardware), so developers mostly had to support one or the other. That lasted a year or two until Direct3D had matured to where developers could program for it, instead of programming specifically for different chipsets.

I imagine that it'll be similar with VR. After a few years of spotty support and exclusives, there will probably arrive complete support for VR in Direct3D (or some other standard) and we won't ever have to worry again about whether this or that brand of headset works with a certain game or app. We'll just have to put up with this in the meantime, though, while the technology gets off of the ground. I'm sure that no one (from the headset makers to the developers) likes this any more than consumers, but these are businesses that are trying to promote a new sub-industry without going under. It's not easy. 3dfx and Rendition didn't last much longer than about 5 years before going bankrupt and being absorbed, replaced by Nvidia and ATI (AMD) who benefited from their pioneering work, stepped into a proven market and had a much easier time becoming profitable... and they're still the co-leaders, today. Perhaps we'll see something similar with Oculus and Vive being dead brands in 5 years and a couple of companies who were late to the VR party becoming the industry leaders for decades beyond.

 

[Sined]

There's actually a close precedent. This is similar to how 3D graphics cards started out 20 years ago. In those early years, 3Dfx and their Voodoo chip were duking it out against Rendition and its Verite chip (I owned a couple of Verite-based cards), like how it's Oculus Rift vs Vive now. There was no standard way to accelerate games, so game developers had to make special versions of their games that targeted either Voodoo or Verite. That was a lot of extra work and it often required the direct assistance of those chipset makers, so developers mostly had to support one or the other. That lasted a year or two until Direct3D had matured to where developers could program for it, instead of programming specifically for different chipsets.

I imagine that it'll be similar with VR. After a few years of spotty support and exclusives, there will probably arrive complete support for VR in Direct3D (or some other standard) and we won't ever have to worry again about whether this or that brand of headset works with a certain game or app. We'll just have to put up with this in the meantime, though, while the technology gets off of the ground. I'm sure that no one (from the headset makers to the developers) likes this any more than consumers, but this is what they feel has to be done to get the ball rolling. It's not easy. 3Dfx and Rendition were both bankrupt or acquired within just 5 years, whereas nVidia and ATI (AMD) came swooping in after all of their hard, pioneering work had created and solidified the 3D graphics sub-industry. Perhaps we'll see something similar with Oculus and Vive being dead brands in 5 years and a couple of companies who were late to the VR party becoming the industry leaders for decades beyond.

Here's my crazy theory.

Your scenario comes to fruition and HTC is looking bleak (as if they weren't already) Google comes in an woops them up. Not unlike Motorola, BUT instead of selling of the VR division like it did with Motorola's Set-top Box division, Google (who is interested in VR) keeps the Vive division and pushes it to the heights of an Nvidia of today!

 

[Osprey]

Here's my crazy theory.

Your scenario comes to fruition and HTC is looking bleak (as if they weren't already) Google comes in an woops them up. Not unlike Motorola, BUT instead of selling of the VR division like it did with Motorola's Set-top Box division, Google (who is interested in VR) keeps the Vive division and pushes it to the heights of an Nvidia of today!

Yeah, I suspect that a couple of major players with deep pockets will come in after VR is established and there's a standard for it and out-compete the pioneers. Some of the big names (perhaps including Google) are probably waiting or quietly preparing to get into VR if/when it proves to be a commercial success. Facebook and HTC will have lost a lot of money at that point, just getting VR off of the ground, and won't relish competing with those big dogs, so they'll probably exit the VR market before long, sell their divisions to their rivals (or others) and go back to their bread and butter (social media and smartphones, respectively).

 

[RoadDoggFL]

Picking up a PSVR, I might upgrade to the new PS4K if I can sell my current one to a friend to recoup some of the difference. Then I'll make the jump to a future PC VR when they have eye tracking, wireless, and/or support for multiple headsets in a single space/on a single machine (obviously would require wireless).

All this while Magic Leap/Hololens threaten to sink VR before it gets going.

I am probably sounding like a broken record at this point in these threads (and I am not trying to crap on the tech), but I would like to see in 6 or 12 months if these are sitting in people's closets with their 3dglasses, Kinect's and wii-nun-chucks.

Have you seen any Tilt Brush videos? That alone seems like a compelling-enough application to make VR a mainstay for years to come.

 

[Osprey]

All this while Magic Leap/Hololens threaten to sink VR before it gets going.

There shouldn't be any worry about that. AR (which HoloLens and Magic Leap are) and VR have very different uses. AR augments reality (i.e. superimposes imagery on top of the actual world that you see around you), while VR replaces it entirely with a full virtual world. AR will be more for education, productivity and business, while VR will be more for games and entertainment. There will be some crossover (ex. Minecraft on HoloLens), but that's probably generally how things will shake out. For standard games (ex. your shooters, 3D RPGs and simulators), you need the full immersion that VR provides. If you can still see your messy computer desk with empty soda cans and cheetos lying around while you're playing such games, you might as well not be wearing an expensive headset at all.