Questions about VR

[tomoki]

Hi Everyone,

 

I was looking at some games and I have several question about VR as I'm kind of out of the loop. Hoping someone can provide some level of insight. 

 

I normally wear glasses and my eyes aren't great. Will I have to wear contacts just to play? 

 

Also, HTC Vive Pro or HTC Vive? I heard the Oculus is so-so ....so I'm not so sure about that. 

 

Also, I only want to play 1 or 2 games at the moment and they're all FPS games.... Oh and I believe I have the hardware to run games in VR; I've just never really considered VR until now. 

[Egg-Roll]

14 minutes ago, tomoki said:

I normally wear glasses and my eyes aren't great. Will I have to wear contacts just to play? 

No don't think so, go to a Microsoft store they should have VR try it there.

 

14 minutes ago, tomoki said:

Also, HTC Vive Pro or HTC Vive? I heard the Oculus is so-so ....so I'm not so sure about that. 

Vive for regular people, Pro if you have the money (ignore Linus's review on it)

 

 

I don't have VR so I'm going based on what I've heard and seen.

[KarathKasun]

Glasses SUCK in VR headsets.  Been there, done that.  It can be done, but you can easily scratch your glasses or the lenses in the headset.

 

Plan on the hardware being for only ~5 games.  VR development seems to have hit a brick wall.

 

Also, you need hardware that is generally capable of rendering @ 4k to get good results.  Heavily related to the fact that SSAA is needed to get rid of jagged pixels in the headset.

 

In my experience with Elite Dangerous, text looks godawful without SSAA.  Other game types are not impacted as much, but aliasing is more noticeable across the board.

[Origami Cactus]

I have glasses and htc vive is fine with them, there is room for them unless you have some super hipster glasses.

If your minus is not to big you could also try changing the focal distance on the vive, so you dont have to wear glasses.

[Sakkura]

5 hours ago, tomoki said:

I normally wear glasses and my eyes aren't great. Will I have to wear contacts just to play? 

 

Also, HTC Vive Pro or HTC Vive? I heard the Oculus is so-so ....so I'm not so sure about that.

You can get lens inserts for the headset itself, if your glasses don't fit comfortably inside.

 

The Vive Pro is overpriced - but good if you don't care so much about that. Otherwise, the Oculus Rift is a better mainstream option than the regular Vive. At the budget end, there are also the Windows MR headsets as a worthwhile option.

 

Samsung also just launched their tweaked Odyssey+ headset in the US, but it might not be available yet in Canada.

[tomoki]

11 hours ago, Egg-Roll said:

No don't think so, go to a Microsoft store they should have VR try it there.

 

Vive for regular people, Pro if you have the money (ignore Linus's review on it)

 

 

I don't have VR so I'm going based on what I've heard and seen.

I've tried the original Oculus Rift (don't know what it's called really). My friend had one and I went over to go try it out. I was on some roller coaster simulation and that was pretty fun though... it made me feel a slight headache afterwards. Perhaps the headset was too tight around my head. And yeah the Vive pro doesn't look like it's that much better? I read a couple reviews after posting this thread and it said it's better with text and images that are further away. I like that but for that extra cost, I don't see the justification. Oh also, there was that mentioning that the weight distribution was better on the newer set. 

11 hours ago, KarathKasun said:

Glasses SUCK in VR headsets.  Been there, done that.  It can be done, but you can easily scratch your glasses or the lenses in the headset.

 

Plan on the hardware being for only ~5 games.  VR development seems to have hit a brick wall.

 

Also, you need hardware that is generally capable of rendering @ 4k to get good results.  Heavily related to the fact that SSAA is needed to get rid of jagged pixels in the headset.

 

In my experience with Elite Dangerous, text looks godawful without SSAA.  Other game types are not impacted as much, but aliasing is more noticeable across the board.

Dang it haha. I'll have to sub out for contacts then I think. My eyes are fairly bad (-4.5 both eyes, no other attributes). 

 

Hm... I would want to play Pavlov and Zero Caliber so far. 

 

I've got a 1070TI but I'm really not sure if I can power a headset properly. I think people use 1080TI's .... 

7 hours ago, Origami Cactus said:

I have glasses and htc vive is fine with them, there is room for them unless you have some super hipster glasses.

If your minus is not to big you could also try changing the focal distance on the vive, so you dont have to wear glasses.

Hahaha mine are metal frames so I don't think I have hipster glasses. I'm not sure it would be too comfortable though so I might just go for contacts. 

I'm at -4.5 both eyes so they're fairly terrible :D 

6 hours ago, Sakkura said:

You can get lens inserts for the headset itself, if your glasses don't fit comfortably inside.

 

The Vive Pro is overpriced - but good if you don't care so much about that. Otherwise, the Oculus Rift is a better mainstream option than the regular Vive. At the budget end, there are also the Windows MR headsets as a worthwhile option.

 

Samsung also just launched their tweaked Odyssey+ headset in the US, but it might not be available yet in Canada.

Oh I can? Hmmm... that opens up new options. 

 

The Vive Pro definitely is overpriced! I'm more worried about not getting VR when I know I want VR eventually. Stupid tariffs plus the weak Canadian rupee is going to be killer together. Hmm... what's the benefit of having an Oculus Rift? I thought they had their own store for games and such; would I be able to play games off Steam? 

 

Thanks for the replies everyone! 

[Sakkura]

1 hour ago, tomoki said:

Oh I can? Hmmm... that opens up new options. 

 

The Vive Pro definitely is overpriced! I'm more worried about not getting VR when I know I want VR eventually. Stupid tariffs plus the weak Canadian rupee is going to be killer together. Hmm... what's the benefit of having an Oculus Rift? I thought they had their own store for games and such; would I be able to play games off Steam?

Yeah, companies like WidmoVR make lens inserts. I have no experience with the different options though.

 

The Oculus Rift has better controllers than the Vive, as well as coming with integrated headphones and a more comfortable headstrap (Vive has a similar headstrap with headphones available, but it's a US$100 upgrade). It also costs less and comes with more bundled content. On the flip side, the Vive tracking system is generally less tricky to set up for larger areas. There are some other differences but overall they have pretty similar capabilities.

 

Oculus does have their own store, but the Rift also works with Steam games. The Vive can run Oculus games too.

 

As for the Oculus you tried in the past, it might have been a development kit? They had those before the proper Oculus Rift launched, and they were quite a bit worse.

 

Here's what the two versions of Oculus devkits looked like:

 

Spoiler

 

And here is the current Oculus Rift:

 

Spoiler

 

[tomoki]

2 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Yeah, companies like WidmoVR make lens inserts. I have no experience with the different options though.

 

The Oculus Rift has better controllers than the Vive, as well as coming with integrated headphones and a more comfortable headstrap (Vive has a similar headstrap with headphones available, but it's a US$100 upgrade). It also costs less and comes with more bundled content. On the flip side, the Vive tracking system is generally less tricky to set up for larger areas. There are some other differences but overall they have pretty similar capabilities.

 

Oculus does have their own store, but the Rift also works with Steam games. The Vive can run Oculus games too.

 

As for the Oculus you tried in the past, it might have been a development kit? They had those before the proper Oculus Rift launched, and they were quite a bit worse.

 

Here's what the two versions of Oculus devkits looked like:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

And here is the current Oculus Rift:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Ohhh... wait if that's the case... why do more people get the Vive? I don't quite get it anymore. I'm just really behind in the talks between either getting the Vive or Oculus Rift. I think the company that made the Rift took a wrong turn somewhere and I'm under the impression they're now fine again? 

 

I'm already all ears for the Rift LOL Just by reading that! 

 

Oh yeah it looked like the picture you provided! The left one!! It's like a big screen square box. Those didn't have controllers though and you had to use a xbox-pc controller to play if the games did require input. That thing gave me a small headache afterwards. 

 

And yeah I've...definitely haven't seen the current Oculus Rift  

 

Interesting stuff! Thanks for all this info and enlightenment 

[Sakkura]

2 minutes ago, tomoki said:

Ohhh... wait if that's the case... why do more people get the Vive? I don't quite get it anymore. I'm just really behind in the talks between either getting the Vive or Oculus Rift. I think the company that made the Rift took a wrong turn somewhere and I'm under the impression they're now fine again? 

 

I'm already all ears for the Rift LOL Just by reading that! 

 

Oh yeah it looked like the picture you provided! The left one!! It's like a big screen square box. Those didn't have controllers though and you had to use a xbox-pc controller to play if the games did require input. That thing gave me a small headache afterwards. 

 

And yeah I've...definitely haven't seen the current Oculus Rift  

 

Interesting stuff! Thanks for all this info and enlightenment 

Part of it is that Oculus is owned by Facebook, and a lot of people dislike or distrust Facebook.

 

Another part is that the Oculus Rift launched without VR controllers, so the Vive was in that way a more advanced and complete VR system at launch. But a few months later the Oculus controllers were ready, and now they're a step ahead of Vive in that area. But part of the internet maybe hasn't realized that happened, instead just remembering those launch day reviews where the Vive was ahead.

 

Looks like you tried the very first devkit. It was kinda primitive, and the tracking system only tracked rotation of your head, not movement (like forward/backward etc). That made it a lot more likely to make you feel bad. Nausea or headaches are common symptoms. Current headsets are much better, though it isn't impossible to get those symptoms.

 

Cheers, enjoy your trek into the metaverse.

[Car712]

I tried VR before with the Google Cardboard, and it made me so dizzy, and unbalanced. Never tried anything else VR after that.

[Sakkura]

4 minutes ago, bobbyd52 said:

I tried VR before with the Google Cardboard, and it made me so dizzy, and unbalanced. Never tried anything else VR after that.

That has the same problem of only tracking rotation.

[samcool55]

Maybe i can give some advice, not that i am an expert.

 

I tried the oculus seated and room-scale.

I tried the vive seated and room-scale.

 

The difference is much bigger than i expected, i prefer the vive

For some reason the FoV is much wider and the vive just feels more immersive.

 

I wear glasses, quite small ones, and it was an issue for both, it makes putting the headset on and taking it off a bit more difficult, but i can easily play for an hour with glasses without issues.

 

if you get a vive i recommend getting wireless headphones. I use wired ones right now and they are sometimes annoying because the cable feels like you have a bit of stupidly long hair flopping around you.

 

Just do NOT compare cardboard or cheap phone VR whatever (gear vr for example) with the vive or oculus, it's in a completely different league.

Room-scale is absolutely fantastic and tbh if you want to go VR, go full-out (so get something that does room-scale) or don't bother with it.

[tomoki]

11 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Part of it is that Oculus is owned by Facebook, and a lot of people dislike or distrust Facebook.

 

Another part is that the Oculus Rift launched without VR controllers, so the Vive was in that way a more advanced and complete VR system at launch. But a few months later the Oculus controllers were ready, and now they're a step ahead of Vive in that area. But part of the internet maybe hasn't realized that happened, instead just remembering those launch day reviews where the Vive was ahead.

 

Looks like you tried the very first devkit. It was kinda primitive, and the tracking system only tracked rotation of your head, not movement (like forward/backward etc). That made it a lot more likely to make you feel bad. Nausea or headaches are common symptoms. Current headsets are much better, though it isn't impossible to get those symptoms.

 

Cheers, enjoy your trek into the metaverse.

Ah right ... hmm... I don't like Facebook much but I don't really mind that it exists either? I mean... I no longer have Facebook cause they took me out of it for copyright issues they won't tell me about - I submitted my government issued ID just to talk to a person and they wouldn't tell me what was copyrighted. I couldn't even think of anything that would've been so yeah. I don't have FB. That's a side story besides this topic though. 

 

Ah... what about connectors? Oculus has 2 wires, does Rift only have 1 that works faster (USB C?) I don't know if either unit is configurable in any way besides lens, padding and maybe "headphone" additions for Vive. Besides that, I don't have very much physical space to move around. I think i could stand up and swing my arms around no problem but if I had to walk anywhere in a room space, that wouldn't be possible. 

 

Hahaha yeah! A couple friends and I went over to this one guy's house just to try it out and a couple of my friends felt like throwing up. I didn't feel THAT bad though I did have a headache. It's so trippy.  

10 minutes ago, bobbyd52 said:

I tried VR before with the Google Cardboard, and it made me so dizzy, and unbalanced. Never tried anything else VR after that.

Neat! I saw when that program launched and I wanted to get one but couldn't... I think VR is a neat experience but at the same time, it would mean I'd hole myself up at home even more than I already do (more than 80% of the free time I have outside of work, I stay home... manga, anime, video games - Monster Hunter World, reading articles and so forth). I don't have much of a social life at this point LOL and I'm also sure my friends wouldn't join me in VR with something like either a Rift or a Vive. 

[tomoki]

4 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Maybe i can give some advice, not that i am an expert.

 

I tried the oculus seated and room-scale.

I tried the vive seated and room-scale.

 

The difference is much bigger than i expected, i prefer the vive

For some reason the FoV is much wider and the vive just feels more immersive.

 

I wear glasses, quite small ones, and it was an issue for both, it makes putting the headset on and taking it off a bit more difficult, but i can easily play for an hour with glasses without issues.

 

if you get a vive i recommend getting wireless headphones. I use wired ones right now and they are sometimes annoying because the cable feels like you have a bit of stupidly long hair flopping around you.

 

Just do NOT compare cardboard or cheap phone VR whatever (gear vr for example) with the vive or oculus, it's in a completely different league.

Room-scale is absolutely fantastic and tbh if you want to go VR, go full-out (so get something that does room-scale) or don't bother with it.

Interesting feedback. Thanks for your input! 

 

I don't think I'll have enough room to be moving around too much sadly. I was really thinking of getting Zero Caliber VR to play and I'd imagine you wouldn't have to physically move around the room too much while staying seated or standing. 

 

Dang this is tough. I think I'll just go with the lens that @Sakkurasuggested. That or if there are other people wanting to try, maybe I'll get contacts as well. I will eventually need contacts for day to day (sunglasses on and off sorta thing). 

 

Noooo that means I can't use my headphones hahaha ~ sadlife. I can't convert my headphones into wireless either. Hmm....

 

And yeah I heard the same thing, budget VR versus full out VR is totally different. 

[samcool55]

8 minutes ago, tomoki said:

Interesting feedback. Thanks for your input! 

 

I don't think I'll have enough room to be moving around too much sadly. I was really thinking of getting Zero Caliber VR to play and I'd imagine you wouldn't have to physically move around the room too much while staying seated or standing. 

 

Dang this is tough. I think I'll just go with the lens that @Sakkurasuggested. That or if there are other people wanting to try, maybe I'll get contacts as well. I will eventually need contacts for day to day (sunglasses on and off sorta thing). 

 

Noooo that means I can't use my headphones hahaha ~ sadlife. I can't convert my headphones into wireless either. Hmm....

 

And yeah I heard the same thing, budget VR versus full out VR is totally different. 

You can use wired headphones if you want, but you have to do something about the cable or it will be annoying AF.

What i sometimes do is wear a hoodie and put the cable in the thingy that you can put over your head (cap thingy? don't know the name).

 

Contacts are an option HOWEVER you have to learn to blink enough. If you are focused for longer times (looking at a monitor is a perfect example) you blink a lot less and your lenses could start to dry out which hurts like hell.

It takes some practice and it will involve pain, but it's worth it.