Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

news.ycombinator.com

81–90 of 112 posts

Re: Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

#81
I got my Vive in batch one. I played it for a while and loved it but ended up selling because I couldn't justify the cost for the amount of time I used it.

While the current version is fun the low resolution is limiting. FPS games are nearly impossible because anything in the distance is only represented by a few pixels.

I will buy room scale VR again when the price comes down and the resolution goes up.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

#82

Both Oculus and Vive have been shelved after 1-2 weeks of use. Played some of the launch titles, Adrift was amazing, the steam VR workshop was nice, some of the creative stuff was pretty darn cool. But "hardcore" PC gaming on them is just god damn awful once you get pass the "omg it's so fucking cool in in awe" period. They are heavy, comfort levels aren't there, sweat is an issue especially in the summer, they put s…

Most of those problems sound related to early software implementations. E.g. There are ways to "switch to 3rd person views, zoom and pan the camera or detach it" in comfortable ways. The easiest is having a virtual screen (or portal) but not the only one.

Some other problems relate to game play versus screen/mouse users, which I think it's sort of missing the point.

The sweat problem would be easily resolved with a "soldering mask" solution, like PSVR. Some have modded their Vives that way. And I agree the angle could be better, as the resolution.

But hey, it's definitely a gen 1 product and GPUs just started to have features that allow improvements in hardware that don't tax GPUs so much (such as viewport multicast).

Re: Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

#83

I got my Vive in batch one. I played it for a while and loved it but ended up selling because I couldn't justify the cost for the amount of time I used it. While the current version is fun the low resolution is limiting. FPS games are nearly impossible because anything in the distance is only represented by a few pixels. I will buy room scale VR again when the price comes down and the resolution goes up.

Try 1.7+ supersampling with a 1080 some time. The difference is notable, esp with the current batch of VR games that can't use MSAA. I think it has enough resolution for games, just not enough for text to replace a screen.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

#84
post #77

Former oculus owner here. I wear eye glasses and it's just a giant hassle. Ended up giving it to a friend. The times that I got it up and running and having fun could be counted on one hand. Most of the use I got out of it was introducing friends to VR for the first time. Everyone thought "cool!" No one asked for me to pull it out a 2nd time.

The Vive is much more glasses-friendly. Also having hands in the virtual world is a whole different experience.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

#85

Still? God no, that was twenty-five years ago. Oh wait - Oculus. You're talking about all this new stuff that's coming up and might actually make VR work this time? No, I haven't gotten back into it again, yet. Still waiting to see if it's actually going to take off.

Apples and oranges. 25 years ago we didn't have 4000+ GFLOPS GPUs. No 90 hz, no low persistence, no 90+ deg FoV, no high enough resolution, no absolute positional tracking... at least for a sub-1000$ device (expensive ones had a couple of those features). And until this year 2016, there was no actual, released games where the VR user had hands (other than tech demos) with the Vive (or leap motion or razer hydra which sort of work with SteamVR too).

It's like being a kid wanting to have a car, then realizing you need to be 18 and to have a job, so all you had was a toy car.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

#86
post #84
post #77

Former oculus owner here. I wear eye glasses and it's just a giant hassle. Ended up giving it to a friend. The times that I got it up and running and having fun could be counted on one hand. Most of the use I got out of it was introducing friends to VR for the first time. Everyone thought "cool!" No one asked for me to pull it out a 2nd time.

The Vive is much more glasses-friendly. Also having hands in the virtual world is a whole different experience.

Cool. I definitely want to try one. Especially if the eye annoyance is less.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

#87

Wow, lots of shelfers. Only two people in here talking about Raw Data, really? The games are starting to mature beyond games. I would never part with mine because to me it's the cheapest/fastest form of travel. I look for content daily and try to test something new every night. Of course, I'm an aspiring VR developer. Since nobody's talking about porn, please allow this burner account to speak up for it. I'm talking…

Shelfer here.. porn is what keeps it on the nearby shelf.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

#88
post #50
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also possible that there is no killer app, and the whole thing just stays niche, like 3D movies or Second Life.

I can see it staying niche just because of the fact that any new advance makes the thing more expensive. It's like boating, if you have one they're great fun... super useful, but they're money pits. I think VR is going to be a money pit for a while. Each additional step of immersion linearly increases the price of VR. If it could actually fake the signals sent to your brain, whatever that means... maybe it would be p…

gvs put electrical signal to your brain to make you feel that you are moving. It looks scary to me though.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still play with VR actively?

#89
I love trying out all the cool new stuff coming out but most of my actual playtime is spent in multiplayer experiences like Rec Room, QuiVR, and Hover Junkers.

A lot of stuff is free right now which is awesome for consumers. Social games like Rec Room practically have to be free and that team seems to be positioning themselves well to be the go to social experience. It's so strange, where the hell are all the big players?

I think you can still get your VR game on Steam with basically anything these days so if you have the chops I would say it's well worth it to put a prototype out there to see if it sticks. Stuff like https://github.com/thestonefox/SteamVR_Unity_Toolkit makes it really easy to get started. Everyone is starved for content and many of us would pay $5-$10 for a short or bare bones experience if it's done well.

Post reply on HN