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My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

nathanlippi.com

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Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#41

Post by rolandr »

pmarreck wrote: post #39

Has anyone solved the ventilation problem for headsets yet? I seem to be convinced that the right light-absorbent baffles that still allow air through are possible, but no one seems to have attempted this in a product

I didn’t really believe it would work until I tried it, but having a fan blowing on you at high speed works to cool your whole body, including inside the headset. I no longer experience fogging of lenses or sweat dripping down into my eyes, which previously would become a problem after 15 minutes of intense activity. An added bonus is that the breeze can give you a sense of which direction you’re facing.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#42

Post by kitsunesoba »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #37
kitsunesoba wrote: post #17

One thing that’s good to point out to anybody looking to get into VR for fitness is that Beat Saber becomes radically more challenging when playing custom community-made maps instead of the stock/DLC maps. The higher difficulty community maps require a lot of speed, precision, and stamina, and I’m only beginning to be able to play them decently after a few months of practice. It’s almost an entirely different game. U…

Where's the best way to get started with these community mods. I have: 1. A Quest 2 2. A PC with an RTX 20XX graphics card (usually running Linux, but can boot into Windows 10) and USB C port 3. Beat Saber (standalone version) I guess I need: 4. A long USB C cable (or the official one)? 5. Beat Saber for PC (best to buy on Oculus or Steam?) 6. Some instructions for finding, installing and using these community mods.…

That PC should be more than adequate.

I wouldn’t personally recommend the official link cable — it’s expensive, and in my case it was flaky. I’m currently using a cable made by Cable Matters[0] that works well.

Most people buy the Steam version, though either can work. I personally lean more towards Steam so if I change headsets to something non-Facebook (like Valve’s rumored upcoming quest competitor), I can still play Beat Saber without a second purchase or weird hacks.

For installing mods, ModAssistant[1] has worked well for me. It’s pretty foolproof; the “standard” mods are pre-selected for installation by default, so for a minimal setup just open ModAssistant, point it at your Beat Saber installation, and install the standard mod set. From there you can search and install custom maps in-game.

I don’t have too many other useful links for you, but r/beatsaber on Reddit is pretty active and good for asking questions that haven’t already been covered by that subreddit’s wiki.

[0]: https://www.cablematters.com/blog/Virtual-Reality/oculus-que...

[1]: https://github.com/Assistant/ModAssistant

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#43

Post by adenta »

blhack wrote: post #38

I recently (today!) started playing vzfit, which is a bicycle simulator. You get in an exercise bike (with a cadence tracker, which is a device thag measures pedal movement) and ride through 3D environments via google street view. It’s really, really cool. Also, best saber is great for getting a little sweaty. So is holopoint.

Consider checking out Holofit. When I tried both 18 months ago, Holofit was leaps and bounds better, and I still use it daily.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#44

Post by acemarke »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #37
kitsunesoba wrote: post #17

One thing that’s good to point out to anybody looking to get into VR for fitness is that Beat Saber becomes radically more challenging when playing custom community-made maps instead of the stock/DLC maps. The higher difficulty community maps require a lot of speed, precision, and stamina, and I’m only beginning to be able to play them decently after a few months of practice. It’s almost an entirely different game. U…

Where's the best way to get started with these community mods. I have: 1. A Quest 2 2. A PC with an RTX 20XX graphics card (usually running Linux, but can boot into Windows 10) and USB C port 3. Beat Saber (standalone version) I guess I need: 4. A long USB C cable (or the official one)? 5. Beat Saber for PC (best to buy on Oculus or Steam?) 6. Some instructions for finding, installing and using these community mods.…

The Quest 2 works as-is - you can mod it. See these resources:

- Quest dev mode instructions: https://uploadvr.com/sideloading-quest-how-to/

- BeatSaber custom modding instructions: https://bsaber.com/oculus-quest-custom-songs/

- Custom community BeatSaber songs: https://bsaber.com

- AI-generated maps from any uploaded MP3: https://beatsage.com/

BeatSage's results are hit and miss. I've uploaded a dozen of my favorite trance songs - some turned out completely unplayable, several actually worked out pretty well.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#45

Post by CobaltFire »

Freaken wrote: post #4

I do pretty much the same thing. I own a Quest 2 and I play Pistol whip, Thrill of the fight and Moon rider (a free VR game which is played in the browser where you need to hit blocks with your hands synced to music). The only issue I have with Thrill of the fight is that when I get into it, I hit hard, but find no resistance as I would hitting a punching bad or sparring with someone, so my elbow tends to overextend…

I was gifted a punching rig for exactly this type of workout a few years ago. You’ll find them around a few types of gyms sometimes (MMA, Military). It’s similar to what was mentioned elsewhere (elastic wrapped around body) except as an actual rig that is adjustable for resistance and reach.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#46

Post by makeitdouble »

pmarreck wrote: post #39

Has anyone solved the ventilation problem for headsets yet? I seem to be convinced that the right light-absorbent baffles that still allow air through are possible, but no one seems to have attempted this in a product

There are face interfaces with the ventilation holes set above that don’t leak light. Must be the hole angles, the ones I use seem to be fine (can’t provide links, they come from a random vendor on Aliexpress).

I believe the versons with fans also don’t leak light.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#47

Post by blhack »

adenta wrote: post #43
blhack wrote: post #38

I recently (today!) started playing vzfit, which is a bicycle simulator. You get in an exercise bike (with a cadence tracker, which is a device thag measures pedal movement) and ride through 3D environments via google street view. It’s really, really cool. Also, best saber is great for getting a little sweaty. So is holopoint.

Consider checking out Holofit. When I tried both 18 months ago, Holofit was leaps and bounds better, and I still use it daily.

I will check that out, thank you!

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#48

Post by nsxwolf »

I can't get into VR boxing. I have both Thrill of the Fight and Rocky. It never feels like you're really landing any punches. You're basically shadow boxing, which can really hurt your shoulders if you don't know what you're doing. I'm surprised we don't hear more complaints of injuries.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#49

Post by invalidator »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #17

One thing that’s good to point out to anybody looking to get into VR for fitness is that Beat Saber becomes radically more challenging when playing custom community-made maps instead of the stock/DLC maps. The higher difficulty community maps require a lot of speed, precision, and stamina, and I’m only beginning to be able to play them decently after a few months of practice. It’s almost an entirely different game. U…

I'm several months into using Beat Saber as an exercise routine. Yes, add-on maps are a necessity, not just for the challenge, but also to keep things interesting.

I don't find high difficulty levels to be great exercise. I can keep up fine, but I get lulled into using little wrist flicks instead of sweeping arcs.

The best tracks for me are ones which aren't technically challenging. Instead, I get my whole body into it - dancing the whole time, stepping to the side so I can take a wide swing, shakin' my butt to the groove... That all gets my heart pounding, and works a much wider range of muscles. I've also turned the HUD off so I don't focus on my score, instead loosening up and having a good time.

The Claws mod also helps me a lot. You only get about half the range of the normal sabers so you have to move your arms farther to reach the blocks. It also makes you use a wider range of muscles, which has stopped some of the RSI I was feeling from too many wrist flicks earlier.

It's not perfect exercise. I could feel my body improve a lot early on, but then it plateaued and I don't see an easy way to push it much farther. However, I'm happy with where it's gotten me, and I intend to keep with it for the foreseeable future. It's fun, and it's convenient so I have no problem doing it for 45 minutes every day, and those are valuable attributes.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#50

Post by tluyben2 »

foolfoolz wrote: post #15

the most outlandish thing about this post is waking up at 5:30am to work

Been starting work at 5 am (which is now where I live) for a few years now. I was usually the person who would check in for work around 11 am the past 30 years. That was a bit of a mistake in hindsight; my body and mind like this early time far more; I get far more from my day now that my focused coding time ends around 11 instead of starts and the rest of the day I get to do mostly hobbies (including VR workouts). Somehow, in the past 30 years, including when I got up around 8, I missed about 3 hours of very valuable focus time which I was not possible to get for some reason until getting up when the rooster starts crowing (we have a rooster and it's doing that now).

I have to continue during the weekend (obviously as it is Sunday now) or I move out of the rhythm but that works fine too.

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