990 euros really is one expensive cable. Does Monster make it?
lol fixed it.
I’m going to comment how unimpressed I’m with Boneworks. I will praise the attempt of doing a game experiment/prototype to do a full physics based experience, of going farther than other people have tried and being bold, but as a finished game… ugh. First I will say I haven’t finished it, I’m around 2:04 in this video.
Literally for every cool moment or idea with the physics system, I have seen 3 other moments where it wasn’t working as it should or it was super mega janky. You see, it has the big problem of the physics engine being exactly as glitchy as other physics engine in games in the last 10 years. In the first minutes I got stuck my hand on a locker geometry. Or seen boxes flying around because the collision system glitched, etc. In general terms, praising Boneworks as the role model for future VR interaction, where things work like in real life, is hilarious as right now, it’s the prime example of how a bad idea is. Almost every action that should be easy and trivial in real life is an enormous pain in the game. Moving objects with precision, turning objects in place without moving their location, moving objects while also walking without hitting anything on the sides, controlling how extremes of something long is touching the ground, it’s all a bothersome pain in the ass, when not a Sisyphean task. Maybe people actually mean the role model of future VR interaction is the idea shown here, not the implementation. But right now, it isn’t good at all.
A separate section has to be put for the idea of doing full body collision physics, up to your feet, despite the reality of the game only tracking your hands and head, and putting puzzles or obstacles where and what your feet are doing is important. Great idea, yep…
edit: Oh, the control themselves are not at good as they should. This is only a feeling, but I think the game was designed for Index controller first, and it shows, if you don’t have them. I had more problems with the controls than with most other VR games, with moving when I didn’t want to or how comfortable taking or throwing stuff, and I suspect it’s because I don’t have the Index.
Now, unto the game itself, you have the story, the puzzles and the action. There isn’t a lot of story in reality, it’s the fairly typical ‘implied worldbuilding in lore bits distributed through the environment’, with a fair share of ‘let’s make it obscure to disguise the fact there isn’t a lot there’. It uses a ‘VR world in VR game’ setting where things seem to have turned wrong ™ and well, it isn’t very interesting. It’s all an excuse to have levels looking like they look, with textures like protoypes in a 3d level editor. The puzzles are perhaps the most interesting part of the game, there are few smart bits or are well mixed with environment exploration and I like how they have alternative ways of solving them, usually one through ‘brute force’ climbing stuff or using more advanced physics and another the ‘intended’ way. Although let’s be honest, I think they did it like that because they knew they always needed something to fall back on as shit is glitchy af, as explained.
The action is pretty meh. The work in the weapons, how they handle in VR, how they sound, etc is good, but combat is more than the weapons themselves. It lacks in enemy variety, the encounter design is nothing to write home about, the basic enemy design (nullbody) isn’t very fun to fight against in terms of hit reaction or face expressions, and the AI is mediocre to bad, with pathfinding issues where the enemies get fairly close and then stop near a corner never advancing.
Oh, at least it has a nice sound design, reminiscent of the Half life series.
Eleven TT is now out on the Quest, I recommend it. It’s both cross-buy (Rift/Quest) and cross-play (every platform).
It seems I solved my Oculus Link woes, without having to buy the 90€ cable. The usb active cable I was using before was the one to blame, the new one I received today (CableCreation brand) works much better. It seems to power up the Quest with less electricity than the other ones as it’s draining a bit faster, but that’s a small price to pay for something that, you know, works as intended.
Even the usb-c L-shaper connector works now with that cable.
So, question that’s on-topic but not directly related to immediate discussion:
If I were looking to get a stand-alone VR device right now (ie, not the Rift, due to connection to PC) what’s my main criteria? Certainly eyeing the Go and the Quest…I assume the Quest is worth the extra money? Should I be looking at something else?
The go is on its way out and is only really useful for playing “movies” (VR porn). Quest is the way to go, but they’ve been out of stock for months. I’d buy one if I could find it at MSRP. As is, I guess I’m gonna skip HL2.5 for awhile.
K, that’s pretty much what I thought. I had the Galaxy VR setup back in the day and the kids loved it, but never had anything with actual hand controls. Might be a purchase in the near future.
If you can find one for $400, let me know!
100x yes. It’s the difference between running on a treadmill watching a movie of a trail and actually running on a trail. I brought my Quest to a gathering of friends last weekend, and everyone immediately loved it. Even my gf, who is very prone to motion sickness, played Beat Saber and loved it. It, more than the Rift and Index, is the future of VR. You put it on, push the power button, and you’re in the VR environment. It just works–no fiddling with cables or PC software or lighthouse stations or whatever.
The Go with the 3 dof tracking is ‘half a VR device’, the Quest is a full one, with proper 6 dof tracking.
There is a bit of stock on Amazon … for a premium.
People reselling at a steep markup, yes.
I started playing around with my Quest + Link yesterday and noticed that the tracking seemed worse than it does while natively using the Quest.
I don’t think it was really latency either. It just seems like when staying absolutely still, my vision wobbles around a little bit as if the camera tracking becomes less precise.
Reminded me of when I used to use a PSVR before I sold it.
Anyone else have this issue?
Is possible it was your lighting. I play in my livingroom in the evening, and if I forget to turn the lamps on as the sun goes down, the tracking gradually gets worse and worse. Also, if I have the lamps near my couch on, but not the lamp by the window, one of my hands (near the couch) will track worse than the other (near the window.) Is it possible when you’re using the link cable, you’re in a different location with different lighting than usual?
Nah that’s not it. I tried switching back and forth in the exact same lighting conditions last night.
That’s even in Oculus Home, not in a game?
I will try to pay attention tomorrow, to see if I notice the same.
To be honest, since I got the Link I’ve been playing mostly pc games, not Quest games, with my Quest. I wonder if I should have bought a Rift S, then, with better comfort, better visual clarity on the screen, and better latency/visuals than using Link.
Yesterday night I lost my Internet connection on home, so I decided to play some VR games I had installed already on the pc.
I couldn’t. The Oculus Home showed a nice grey box in the middle of my fov, without any message (I supect it should have shown an error message complaining of no internet but the message itself also failed? lol). There was no way close it and it was permanent, it wouldn’t mind what I launched on my system, the box would be ‘always on top’. GG Facebook.
Oh, by the way, the other day I tried a hockey game, Pick-up League Hockey, and I was impressed with the good work on the intuitive handling of the stick and the feeling of skating. Pity it’s clearly an indie thing done by 2 guys and it’s not feature complete. There was a dead mp lobby, and a practice mode where there was no AI to play against.
We have several teams developing in VR in our senior production class, and other teams at different levels working with it as well. An interesting issue that is becoming more important for us is sterilizing headsets. There are precious few methods apparently that actually work against stuff like COVID-19 or related coronaviruses. The best we found? A $14,000 UV sterilization box that does the job on a headset in like a minute or so. But at that price, uh, probably not. There are wipes and stuff which we use, but I’ve been told they don’t do much in the current situation.
I’ve been told alcohol acts against coronavirus type of viruses, including covid-19.