VR - Is it really going to be a success? Or, thanks Time for starting a discussion!

The Vive Pro was tempting because the extra resolution would be nice for flight sims.

But then I read about SteamVR tracking 2.0 coming at the end of the year and better controllers in the works. So not really wanting to sink $300 on the mediocre Vive controllers and old tracking tech.

What’s the big benefit of the 2.0 stuff?

Any rumors of a higher-res Rift?

Oculus have said in the past they’re not interested in incremental hardware releases that bump up a spec or two. The next Rift will have a bunch of new tech.

Unknown if that’s still the plan though… I think the stand-alone wireless unit is still the focus this year so probably not hear much more until after that’s out.

The Go has foveated rendering, so presumably the next Rift proper will too.

Yeah the Go is fixed foveated, the hope would be that next Rift has eye tracking on top of that!

Given Oculus owns an eye tracking company and has patented some tech, it’s a strong possibility. :)

VR is enough of a success in gaming that the next step in the technology is will be hitting the market soon. Everything gets labeled a fad when the tech is new. Cars were considered a fad, telephones, airplanes, TV, personal computers, cell phones etc, etc, ad nauseum. VR is the future and not just for gaming. It’s already being used for medical procedures and many other industries are beginning to adopt it. I doubt its going away.

In my opinion it is a smashing success. What @Editer posted goes for me as well. It puzzles me that VR isn’t making Ace Combat a huge runaway smash hit on PSVR. VR does lend itself better (at least in my experience/opinion) to slower flight tho, the majestic gyrations of an Il-2 as you line up another attack run with it or the way elite:dangerous moves in warp.

I think we’ll be getting a Vive Pro for some work we are doing on a VR flight trainer.

The current Vive is really excellent, but the pro’s upped resolution will make reading gauges easier.

forgive me father i have sinned.

what is your sin my son?

envy father, i have been envious in my heart and soul.

Too soon to call in my opinion, but a new generation of hardware certainly bodes well. If they get all the kinks worked out I’m sure I’ll get a VR headset at some point. I think they really need to work out the interface stuff and create some software that actually excites me though.

The hardware demand is still pretty steep. Headset already costs a bunch, and then Skyrim VR recommends a 1070. With miners pushing up the price? Yikes.

Maybe in a few years when both graphic card and VR hardware come down in price I’ll jump on board, but right now it is still enthusiast territory.

I think a fundamental problem or barrier to mainstream appeal is that it’s an isolating, solitary experience in the room. I keep thinking it would be fun to have friends over for a VR party but the reality is that it’s too much of a pain to take turns and resize for different head shapes. (At least the new style of head strap makes that slightly easier.)

My daughters are 14 and 8 and I’ve resorted to doing VR with them only occasionally and one at a time. Otherwise they get impatient and start bickering because they can’t really do it together.

But give us multiple wireless headsets together in one room, inside one game or experience? HELL, YES!

Maybe Nintendo can figure this one out.

I’d expect Nintendo to do what Sony was doing with Playroom, where one player is in VR and the others are interacting with them on the TV, or another example something like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.

It’s a good approach, but needs more fleshed out games

Sure, that’s okay for a while, these party-game type things when there’s only one headset in the room. But that’s like going to an amusement park with 5 friends; one gets on a rollercoaster and then facetimes with the remaining four down on the ground.

I just don’t know why you’d expect Nintendo to figure something else out, when what I posted is exactly the approach they took with Wii U multiscreen games, and even going back to the Gamecube/GBA integration with Pac-Man Vs.

I’m just looking down the road a bit further to numerous, lightweight, affordable headsets together in one room. Nintendo knows how to turn new technology into family/consumer appeal. (They also know how to fail spectacularly at doing so.)

Got my Vive Pro today!

Setup was a breeze. Just had to plug everything in and pair the controllers.

And, exactly as one might imagine, the higher resolution does not disappoint! It looks really, really great. If the first-gen HMD was like looking through a bucket, this is more like looking through a barrel. You can still get the blurry, concentric circle thing if you move your eyes way off center. But even then, it’s less apparent as a problem and the sweet spot is a lot more generous.

It’s a handsome piece of tech. Snug and comfy and the weight of the thing feels nicely balanced on the noggin. I’m not sold on the foam on the back of the head… makes it a little less smooth to put on and take off but it does help with comfort. Volume adjustment on the left headphone is a nice feature although I wish it was on the right side.

So far, I’ve poked around with Space Pirate Trainer, The Lab, and the Vive home environment. I love higher-res upgrades because it makes EVERY DAMN THING YOU OWN look better. Picking up and investigating objects up close is downright astonishing. The Blu will no longer start for some reason but that’s the only problem I’ve encountered.

I tried some web browsing and Netflix 4K titles in Virtual Desktop. Text looks fantastic and so do all the colorful fishies.

I’m hoping I can get in the neighborhood of $200-250 on Ebay for my first-gen headset with the deluxe audio strap and a new foam pad thrown in. (If anyone’s interested, shoot me a PM!) That would bring the cost down to something a lot more reasonable. But I love it already. Might even be a good excuse to try Fallout 4.

I saw one YouTube flightsimmer review the Vice Pro and he said you could finally read the text on cockpit multi function displays which is a huge deal. Still $800 for the headset only is too much money but the way these things have been dripping in price means I probably won’t have to wait long until it drops a few hundred smackeroos and includthe hand held controllers.

What gpu are you using to drive it?

GTX 980Ti… got the new PC about two years ago to power my first Vive headset.