3334

There’s also no evidence that they can focus up close, and there’s no way of the cow telling you if it was in focus anyway. Of course it’s ridiculous, but it’s entirely within the scope of possible futures.

3335

It’s like the Matrix, but for cows.

3336

The moootrix. Where they can learn Kung Moo at the milking machine.

3337

I discovered today that I can actually play about 30% of songs on Beat Saber on Expert+. The Imagine Dragons songs were surprisingly helpful for getting to that point, since their Expert tracks feature lots of crossover patterns to practice and start to recognize. Also started holding the controllers palm up which makes the double-saber side-to-side swings (or really any outward saber swing) much more fluid.

3338

The Oculus (Quest) Store are being so bad. It seems they know people will get 3-4 games when they buy it in Thanksgiving and Christmas so they prefer to maintain the full prices for now.

At least they gave me a $5 coupon. Check your emails.

3339

I returned to the Dojo in Vader Immortal EpI. I find it a bit ridiculous, in how mostly it doesn’t test your skill with the saber, but how accurately you listen the sound cues and turn quickly to face the enemies in 360º. Maybe I should try the 180º mode.

3340

No deals on the Quest, sadly. I’m gonna wait until one shows up or HL1.5 is about to release.

3341

Since my wife and son are taking over the new Index, I found a good use for my alienware r5 lappy that hasn’t seen much use. at least I get to use my computer. It is freaking awesome though, my 9 year old son is addicted to eleven table tennis… he was playing online with some high ranked guy, and he was really nice and spent about an hour teaching him how to play… so cool.

3342

I mean, I think the data is solidly on Spencer’s side here. As that Forbes article mentions, based on the most recent sales data from 2019, PSVR has about a 4% attach rate within the overall PS4 install base.

He’s factually incorrect, in so far as that 4% means millions of people have indeed bought VR headsets (and I think overall PC VR headset sales are something like 13 million?), but 4% is a drop in the bucket when determining what to focus on next generation. And that’s if you even assume that all of that 4% are thrilled with their PSVR purchase, and would do so again.

Sony themselves have acknowledged previously that PSVR sales didn’t meet their internal expectations. If they go all-in on VR again next generation, it’ll probably be more a function of already having millions in hardware and software invested in that space, than being bullish on the future of VR as a medium.

The only caveat I’d offer, is that if were Spencer, I’d simply open up Scarlett to PC VR headsets, and see what happens. DirectX already has a DirectVR API bundled with it, so it wouldn’t require much. However, maybe that’s something you talk about in 2021, versus muddling your launch messaging for Scarlett in 2020.

I’ve seen some talk online about how this is Microsoft missing out on “the future” or something, but I wonder how many people said that about Sony not offering their own version of Kinect with the PS4. Not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, but I completely understand Microsoft wanting to do their own version of the back-to-basics “4 The Players” messaging Sony did post-PS3.

EDIT: I just looked up Kinect sales data - Microsoft sold 24 million of them through 2012.

3343

I don’t even want them to put out a headset per se, but it would be nice and arguably commercially sensible for them to make the console VR-ready, a la SteamVR.

3344

This is a game that I imagine would really benefit from the high refresh of Index. I struggled with it on the Rift S because the ball moved too far between frames at 80hz, it was not easy for me to track.

3345

Nothing technically stopping them from doing that later, if VR turns a corner next gen in terms of popularity.

3346

Yup, I tried it last night on the laptop at 90hz, and I could tell a real difference. At 120hz w/ the 2080ti, it’s silky smooth. I played for about an hour last night, I maxed out the paddle grip and I could do a forehand loop from under the table, really fun.

3347

I have to say the Beat Saber campaign is surprisingly decent. This type of game focused on a simple (but well made) arcade experience is hard to make a campaign for, but here the use of modifiers to mix things up is particularly good. It isn’t innovative, the idea of putting modifiers on top of a repetitive game to make a campaign is old, but it works well here, as I said.
Some levels can be about reaching a high score in an otherwise somewhat easy track, so you have to make use you get the most of each block (cutting them well), in another it matters much less how good is the cut but you are focused on not making mistakes as they don’t look at your score but you can’t make more than 1 or 2 errors, in others you are introduced to the concept of disappearing arrows, in others it’s turn into a ‘free style’ as the entire level is made of ‘point’ blocks, in other levels you may play a known songs, but with a speed modified.
For a game that it’s fundamentally the same trick over and over (cutting blocks that come to you with a song), they get a good mileage with these little variances.

3348

I find the ‘minimal movement’ ones quite difficult!

3349

Agreed, the Beat Saber campaign is good, but once you’ve completed it, there are still hundreds of hours of game play just trying to move up the leader boards and beat songs on higher difficulties.

3350

I bought Final Assault on Oculus this weekend as it’s on sale for $20 right now. Neat little RTS game like Command/Conquer. There’s a campaign mode where you take turns with the AI, moving your piece(s) on a hexagonal board, fighting battles each time you try to take their space or they take yours. It’s pretty good so far, and my Quest (via Link) seems to handle it really well, even with dozens of little units running around. Each side has a base in a battle, with soldiers regularly issuing out along set lines, like a MOBA. You can add to that with different transport vehicles, or spawn different types of types, aircraft, etc. Pretty solid in my experience so far.

3351

So, here’s an observation I recently made regarding the difference between the Quest and the Vive.

We had a Vive long before we bought a Quest. When we did get a Quest, the first thing I got for it was Beat Saber, which I love on the Vive, but I wanted to be able to play it anywhere, as I was using it for a while for a daily workout. I was so impressed with its performance on the Quest, I basically stopped playing it entirely on the Vive.

Recently, we had houseguests, and they were playing a bunch of stuff on the Vive, so I decided to load up Beat Saber - I wanted to try out the most recent update, which I hadn’t installed on the Quest yet as I had a bunch of custom songs on it via Sidequest/BeatSaver, and I assumed the update would break them.

I played a few of my usual favorites, played them on normal where I usually S rank them. On the Vive, first try on both, I got SS rank… first time I’ve SS ranked anything.

My husband commented that the tracking on the Quest is likely not quite as good as the Vive, and even though it’s not really discernible while you’re actually playing it, it’s clearly enough to affect your score and ranking.

I’m not sure how I feel about that. I love the Quest and its convenience and comfort, and it doesn’t make me enjoy Beat Saber any less, but I wonder how it could be affecting other games and I don’t even realize it.

3352

It could be you were just having a good night. I just grabbed my Quest and tried out Pop/Stars on Normal. Had no problem getting an SS. And then tried Crystallize (one of the most difficult stock songs) and again got SS with no issues.

There also was an update to Beat Saber at the end of August that improved angle detection when determining score, and it was definitely easier to get a higher score after the update. If you haven’t updated your Quest in awhile that might be it too.

3353

Aha, I did wonder whether perhaps that was a thing. As I mentioned, I have not, in fact, updated my Quest copy of Beat Saber recently. (I’ve currently been declining the update when it asks upon launch.) I guess when I get around to updating, I’ll check again. Thanks for the info!