Virtual Reality Thread

Moosedrool

Moosedrool

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Virtual reality is very much in its infancy despite the reboot of this tech to be in consumer hands hitting a decade. More so in south Africa although I’ve recently noticed it’s becoming a more and more sought-after technology locally. Ten years after the fact it’s still difficult to sell not only because of the price but the experimental indie content. Out of all the VR titles for consumers (games) I know of only one which had a full, well established and experienced development studio behind it. HL Alyx and even Valve was ready for massive failure. Other than that it’s mostly VR updates for titles originally meant to be 2d, social platforms and indie VR games.



I’m starting this thread as a general VR Q&A. For people who’d like to know more and people who’d like to share their experiences and setups for this stuff.
 
I have fond memories of the early to mid-90’s, when LCD shutter glasses and Head Mounted Displays that needed a vise and counterweight to stay in place were going to make VR the next big thing. All this on your Silicon Graphics workstation. Fun times!

It looks like this gets rebooted every 10-15 years.
 
cguy said:
I have fond memories of the early to mid-90’s, when LCD shutter glasses and Head Mounted Displays that needed a vise and counterweight to stay in place were going to make VR the next big thing. All this on your Silicon Graphics workstation. Fun times!

It looks like this gets rebooted every 10-15 years.
Click to expand...

2020 alone sold 68 million headsets where the projected number of VR owners in 2018 was 171 million. I do believe it's kicking off quite heavily.

VR in the 90's had no application whatsoever that is worth while. In my opinion we're only reaching the computer performance requirements around now. Nausea inducing frame rates, inaccurate IO and tracking technology plus even today we don't know how VR is suppose to be. But give the technology to more and more people and creative concepts comes out of it.
 
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The tech has come a long way, but it's still not easy enough to use. You have to choose between either too many cables, crappy setup and calibration, lack of quality games, lack of other use cases, wireless but inferior tech etc.

But as long as the tech keeps improving we might get somewhere someday.
 
Moosedrool said:
2020 alone sold 68 million headsets where the projected number of VR owners in 2018 was 171 million. I do believe it's kicking off quite heavily.

VR in the 90's had no application whatsoever that is worth while. In my opinion we're only reaching the computer performance requirement's around now. Nausea inducing frame rates, inaccurate IO and tracking technology plus even today we don't know how VR is suppose to be. But give the technology to more and more people and creative concepts comes out of it.
Click to expand...
I’m still looking forward to it. There’s so much potential. Not sure that there’s a killer app for it quite yet though.
 
cguy said:
I’m still looking forward to it. There’s so much potential. Not sure that there’s a killer app for it quite yet though.
Click to expand...

For games HL alyx is the king. When playing you get the feeling that normal 2d fps gams are dull now.

I hate VRChat's guts but I see where the social apps are going and use it regardless.

The concept is stunning but it's buggy as hell and could perform much better with professionally optimised code. Since lockdown started the average amount of people online in VRC exceeds 10000. There's always random people to talk too. VR veterans, 3d modellers, animators, random people, weabos, furries and alcoholics. It appears that only now some moderation is kicking in because it can be seriously out of control.
 
animal531 said:
The tech has come a long way, but it's still not easy enough to use. You have to choose between either too many cables, crappy setup and calibration, lack of quality games, lack of other use cases, wireless but inferior tech etc.

But as long as the tech keeps improving we might get somewhere someday.
Click to expand...

The guys using Quest and virtual desktop are apparently having a blast. High Fps and full resolution streaming directly to the headset wirelessly.

I still prefer the cable on my Vive but also have to say 1 sturdy cable connecting the vive pro to the PC doesn't bother me at all.
 
When last shopping for a VR headset I just found that it seemed double the price in South Africa, and we don't seem to have many vendors selling it. It's like we just haven't caught up to the rest of the world as far as VR is concerned. And people locally seem to have F all idea about it. So I never ended up getting one.

Probably logistics mostly to blame. Can't exactly return defective headsets to manufacturer and our market isn't big enough to run any viable business out of it.

Ordering directly from Amazon seems the cheapest way for us (At least for a Quest 2), but for the wait time and the risk :/
 
Moosedrool said:
The guys using Quest and virtual desktop are apparently having a blast. High Fps and full resolution streaming directly to the headset wirelessly.

I still prefer the cable on my Vive but also have to say 1 sturdy cable connecting the vive pro to the PC doesn't bother me at all.
Click to expand...

Quest2 + virtual desktop is magical. I'm now itching to buy a wifi6 compatible router but even with an 866mbps connection I have no issues with streaming quality, I'd say it's actually superior to the wired quality. I think the tech has come far enough and it's cheap enough that it can be considered a viable mainstream option. Quest2 is the game-changer, and I also expect the next gen PS5 VR headset to be seriously great.
 
Moosedrool said:
For games HL alyx is the king. When playing you get the feeling that normal 2d fps gams are dull now.

I hate VRChat's guts but I see where the social apps are going and use it regardless.

The concept is stunning but it's buggy as hell and could perform much better with professionally optimised code. Since lockdown started the average amount of people online in VRC exceeds 10000. There's always random people to talk too. VR veterans, 3d modellers, animators, random people, weabos, furries and alcoholics. It appears that only now some moderation is kicking in because it can be seriously out of control.
Click to expand...

I prefer Bigscreen, no ridiculous avatars and fewer children. And it's fun to do a mystery science theatre type of thing.
 
Just got myself a quest 2
I don't have a pc to connect it to yet, but even standalone it's great fun. Beat sabre rocks, and some of the immerse video stuff is an awesome to escape a bit from this hotel room.

It's not perfect but it's a lot better than I expected. Really looking forward to hooking up to Fs2020!
 
cerebus said:
I take it you're gonna get a beast of a PC?
Click to expand...
No, waiting for my gaming PC to get here. It's in a container. It will need a new gfx card, but it kinda needed that anyway.
It's a ryzen 5 3600 with 32GB, should be enough with an rdna2 card when I get one...
 
cerebus said:
Quest2 + virtual desktop is magical. I'm now itching to buy a wifi6 compatible router but even with an 866mbps connection I have no issues with streaming quality, I'd say it's actually superior to the wired quality. I think the tech has come far enough and it's cheap enough that it can be considered a viable mainstream option. Quest2 is the game-changer, and I also expect the next gen PS5 VR headset to be seriously great.
Click to expand...

I'm not hat convinced with console VR. The whole make it work for you concept is removed unless people can develop lightweight VR addons for the PS5.

I user OVR advanced settings and OVR Toolkit as an example.
 
Moosedrool said:
I'm not hat convinced with console VR. The whole make it work for you concept is removed unless people can develop lightweight VR addons for the PS5.

I user OVR advanced settings and OVR Toolkit as an example.
Click to expand...

I think when it comes to mainstreaming VR it needs to get onto the consoles. Most people would be happy with something they can just plug in and play. I also like screwing around with VR in virtual desktop and stuff like Vorpx but it's not for everyone.
 
Hmm, not sure where to put this but kinda interesting seeing the mocap suit she's using and some of the other stuff. Kinda rambly but whatever, she starts talking about the suit at around 08:30:00.


Lol...and this is her...
 
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