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Oculus Rift S

oculus.com

81–90 of 272 posts

Re: Oculus Rift S

#81
Quick question about Oculus setup: do you need to install some proprietary drivers, register on Facebook, run some additional "launcher" software to play games on Steam?

Re: Oculus Rift S

#82

I've used a Vive once (a guy at work brought one in). Little sensors at the corners of the room, headset, hand grips. It was really neat. How does this rank next to Vive? I've been thinking of getting one (my kids would love the 3-d "drawing" app I tried). I have a good PC, should I be looking at getting the Rift S? A Vive? Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

It's hard to recommend either.

The Vive/CV1 have lower resolution, as they are older devices. They are equivalent or better in all other aspects (the Vive has an OEM wireless solution using WiGig, but is isn't as cheap as I'd like).

The Rift S has higher resolution and therefore less screen-door effect, which is a MASSSIVE deal. Despite the following criticism, resolution does make the choice genuinely hard. There's nothing else special about it, unless you intend to have a mobile VR setup. The supposed benefit of inside-out tracking is the setup complexity, but one hour once-off is a substantial cost to pay for substantially inferior technology. My fireplace can interfere with the lighthouses: you get yanked right out of the experience when controller tracking is lost, it is awful.

There's also the Pimax, if you don't mind looking ridiculous and having a pretty heavy device strapped to your face.

My best recommendation is that VR is like furniture. You have to try it before buying it. Try and find a store that has demos of the devices and see which compromises you prefer. Spend at least 30 min in each. Just keep the setup time of the Vive and CV1 in mind (it's not hard, just time consuming). The CV1 also devours USB2 ports.

Re: Oculus Rift S

#83
post #59

I would love to trade all these monitors for a virtual workstation. Every time there's new VR tech I hope that it's possible. 1280x1440 is definitely an improvement. I'm patient.

The weight is a big factor - even if you use the headset while lying on a couch, after an hour your face will look like raccoon's.

Re: Oculus Rift S

#84

I've used a Vive once (a guy at work brought one in). Little sensors at the corners of the room, headset, hand grips. It was really neat. How does this rank next to Vive? I've been thinking of getting one (my kids would love the 3-d "drawing" app I tried). I have a good PC, should I be looking at getting the Rift S? A Vive? Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

I worked in a VR lab at my university for a year before graduating so I got to experiment with a bunch of the current headsets (no Rift S though since it was just announced obviously). My personal take away is if you are going for the maximum immersion, have space and the money, go with the Vive or Vive Pro. The Rift (likely applies to Rift S as well since they are so similar) was more comfortable than the Vive for m…

The https://www.vive.com/us/vive-deluxe-audio-strap/ makes a significant difference in the comfort of the Vive. But, it's still not at comfortable as the Rift because of the momentum caused by the front weight.

Between the cost and the PSVR-style hard headstrap (big improvement in comfort) I'd recommend the Rift-S strongly for consumers even though the Vive Pro is preferable for researchers.

Re: Oculus Rift S

#85
post #3

Higher resolution and built in tracking and only 400. Probably going to buy. Someone convince me not to

Is there actually any software compelling enough to make the hardware worth the expense? After the wave of interest that followed the release of the original Rift petered out, most developers seem to have dropped VR like a hot rock...

If you like playing Poker, PokerStars VR is a blast. It's free (There's not even an option to pay money, and you only play with fake money)

I've spent over 100 hours in it. Having the player interaction makes it so fun. Desktop online poker just feels like playing with bots.

Re: Oculus Rift S

#86
post #71
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They clearly want to push their more casual all-in-one headsets and don't care much about the enthusiasts and gamers that helped get Oculus off the ground in the first place. I'm a little surprised they have taken this route. Especially with someone like John Carmack for a CTO.

Carmack’s interest at Oculus seems to have always been low-end VR. He wrote the SDK for the Gear VR.

I think he is like a demoscene coder; he enjoys pushing limited hardware beyond its supposed limits.

Re: Oculus Rift S

#87
post #54
post #42

One of the biggest barriers to consumer adoption of VR seems to be the cost. Is there a reason why it doesn't make sense for the manufacturers to do a subscription service? Seems like everything from phones and consoles to game streaming subscriptions is the trend (and makes sense). If nothing else, it can help increase distribution and awareness -- at the end of the day, more people using the devices is probably gon…

I doubt if there's a strong market for VR even if a great headset was $50. Do people who are not enthusiasts really want to immerse themselves like this? A good chunk of the population doesn't seem interested even in game consoles. I imagine a subset of them are interested in VR gaming. Outside of VR gaming, there's little mainstream content designed for VR.

Potentially the audience for VR could be bigger than the audience for consoles as it opens up entire categories of non-gaming applications. Experiential, narrative, educational, social etc.

I've had very positive responses to VR from people that have never had any interest in traditional gaming.

Of course - whether this interest could be translated to purchase is a different question. Ease of use and cost would help as would a wide and diverse library of mainstream content.

I think a good stepping stone would be pervasive VR in schools, libraries, galleries etc. to get people accustomed to the medium.

Re: Oculus Rift S

#88

If money is not an issue and you like cockpit games then currently the pimaxvr 4k is the best. Highest fov and highest resolution.

The Pimax 5K+ is winning all of the image sharpness reviews. The Pimax software is not winning any awards so far though.

Re: Oculus Rift S

#89
post #47

They really phoned it in on this one. No physical IPD adjustment, an 80hz LCD rather than the 90hz OLED, a very marginal resolution increase to 1280×1440 (which is still less than the $200 WMR headset I bought almost two years ago), and no FOV increase. The move to inside-out tracking means a more convenient setup, but it will lose tracking when you put your hands behind you (like shooting a bow, which just about rui…

> Why can't someone release a decent gen 2 headset with the upgrades that everyone has been wanting.

Seriously. If anyone "should" be the one to be pushing things forward it's Oculus. Yet they seem dead set on bringing this to the masses, rather than releasing a "PRO" headset.

The money may be in the masses, but it sure feels like a big FU from oculus for them to seemingly abandon the pro consumer.

Re: Oculus Rift S

#90
post #40

For those with VR headsets of any kind: how often are you using it? Are we there yet with VR? If not, is it the hardware, the content, or both? For now, I'd define "there" as at least 0.5 * time spent on console or PC gaming per week.

It really depends on what kind of games you like. From my perspective we've been "there" for almost two years now. I spend a lot of time in Echo Arena and Beat Saber, occasionally Rec Room and various single player experiences.

From a mainstream perspective though, I'm still not sure. I think the Rift S gets us a lot closer with its emphasis on comfort and ease-of-use, and it's definitely a viable consumer product, but I think there may still be a ways to go before we start seeing _real_ mainstream adoption.

The Quest on the other hand, I think has a real chance at being a smash hit. The fact that you don't need a PC to use it is going to be huge for more casual consumers, both for economic reasons (no need for an expensive PC) and ease of use. I expect it'll be a big first step towards pushing VR into the mainstream.

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