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Is there a fun VR gaming thing that isn't for hardcore gamers?

You'll know it's ready for the big time when Apple's mass-market headest comes out.
Their augmented reality software and hardware (as seen on the latest ipads pro) allows for seamless integration with the real world, including occlusion by foreground objects. Current rumours say there'll be a $3,000 developer version first in 2022.
 
You're clearly well clued up on this but tech tends to incubate for surprising lengths of time before the right conditions for it to "pop" at which time growth is exponential. I'd say VR is right at the start of the hockey stick phase.

Tech doesn't tend to "go away and come back again" as you put it
It won't go away. That was the wrong phrase. It'll just hover around stagnation, with slight growth, until technology catches up to our expectations.
I actually wanted and expected VR to be far further progressed at this stage, but VR takes massive processing power, and Moore's law has all but petered out, so until we find some new technology, I can't see there being any great leaps in VR.
 
It won't go away. That was the wrong phrase. It'll just hover around stagnation, with slight growth, until technology catches up to our expectations.
I actually wanted and expected VR to be far further progressed at this stage, but VR takes massive processing power, and Moore's law has all but petered out, so until we find some new technology, I can't see there being any great leaps in VR.

What specific things were you expecting out of interest? I found completely untethered VR with in-built roomscale tracking pretty impressive on something costing less than smartphone, and the controller tracking and just general convenience exceeded my expectations. My fear of heights has been more of an issue than anything, but that can't really be considered a criticism.
We've moved to the point of a 300 quid headset rivalling a £1000 headset with a fair burden in terms of setup requirement and the additional cost of a powerful PC (and often gubbins like base stations that needed setting up etc.), and this seems to have largely happened in a couple of years. Also, processors are still moving in terms of energy efficiency (and hence all the gubbins you need to put around them), if not massively ramping up at the upper end of available power, and the former makes quite a big difference in a device small enough to wear on your face.

My expectations were probably formed by the 90s attempts with the horrible refresh rate and associated motion sickness tbf.

The Apple thing is imo likely to be an elitist project in terms of sheer expense, but any real innovations will be copied quickly enough.

Games-wise, there are quite a few that have a Nintendo-ey look, so I can see where the Wii comparison comes from.
 
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What specific things were you expecting out of interest?
In short, I was expecting a much more realistic experience at this stage, with much smaller headsets that encompassed VR, AR and MR. Better frame rates, better head tracking and close to zero latency.
And better games.
 
In short, I was expecting a much more realistic experience at this stage, with much smaller headsets that encompassed VR, AR and MR. Better frame rates, better head tracking and close to zero latency.
And better games.

I've found the 90 fps to be fine and no head tracking issues or significant latency aside from the VoIP sometimes having a slight delay. AR and MR - yeah, I wasn't necessarily expecting anything on a timeline, but they've been muttering and not delivering stuff for some time. I don't know which kind of game you had in mind that you wanted to be on VR. There are poker games, but I haven't seen any bridge tbf.
 
It won't go away. That was the wrong phrase. It'll just hover around stagnation, with slight growth, until technology catches up to our expectations.
I actually wanted and expected VR to be far further progressed at this stage, but VR takes massive processing power, and Moore's law has all but petered out, so until we find some new technology, I can't see there being any great leaps in VR.

Couple more twists of Moore's law and it'll be there in terms of processing power for full immersion. Atm though it's certainly good enough to "break out" though, like the first iphones without multitasking etc
 
What specific things were you expecting out of interest? I found completely untethered VR with in-built roomscale tracking pretty impressive on something costing less than smartphone, and the controller tracking and just general convenience exceeded my expectations. My fear of heights has been more of an issue than anything, but that can't really be considered a criticism.
We've moved to the point of a 300 quid headset rivalling a £1000 headset with a fair burden in terms of setup requirement and the additional cost of a powerful PC (and often gubbins like base stations that needed setting up etc.), and this seems to have largely happened in a couple of years. Also, processors are still moving in terms of energy efficiency (and hence all the gubbins you need to put around them), if not massively ramping up at the upper end of available power, and the former makes quite a big difference in a device small enough to wear on your face.

My expectations were probably formed by the 90s attempts with the horrible refresh rate and associated motion sickness tbf.

The Apple thing is imo likely to be an elitist project in terms of sheer expense, but any real innovations will be copied quickly enough.

Games-wise, there are quite a few that have a Nintendo-ey look, so I can see where the Wii comparison comes from.

John Cormack (Quake, Doom, coder) has done a proper good job with Quest 2, especially with Covid

I've found the 90 fps to be fine and no head tracking issues or significant latency aside from the VoIP sometimes having a slight delay. AR and MR - yeah, I wasn't necessarily expecting anything on a timeline, but they've been muttering and not delivering stuff for some time. I don't know which kind of game you had in mind that you wanted to be on VR. There are poker games, but I haven't seen any bridge tbf.

120Hz is nearing software release, although only some games will support it
 
Couple more twists of Moore's law and it'll be there in terms of processing power for full immersion. Atm though it's certainly good enough to "break out" though, like the first iphones without multitasking etc

I’m not sure what you mean by “full immersion” (Gorn is too immersive if anything, but that’s not a processing power thing).
Also, as Saul said earlier, Moore’s Law is likely on its last crank, if not crapped out already.
 
In short, I was expecting a much more realistic experience at this stage, with much smaller headsets that encompassed VR, AR and MR. Better frame rates, better head tracking and close to zero latency.
And better games.

It's games that have stopped me pulling the trigger. I got a Daydream very cheap on ebay, clearly the resolution needed to be higher that close to the eye, but it's the content more then anything.

I guess it's a chicken and egg thing. You aren't going to throw GTA money at something whilst there isn't the user base. I'm hoping all these things bubbling along will mean if/when Sony have another go at it with PS5 then we are a little bit closer.
 
I’m not sure what you mean by “full immersion” (Gorn is too immersive if anything, but that’s not a processing power thing).
Also, as Saul said earlier, Moore’s Law is likely on its last crank, if not crapped out already.

I know it's getting pretty tough to go smaller than 5nm but there's other methods for upping the count. ARM/RISC SOCs, replacing silicon with other materials. There's plenty of innovation coming
 
It's games that have stopped me pulling the trigger. I got a Daydream very cheap on ebay, clearly the resolution needed to be higher that close to the eye, but it's the content more then anything.

A Daydream you say. Did you also try the cardboard version? :D

I have something similar that I found in a pound shop (somewhat mis-named since it cost about 6 quid). Found just one half-decent game which could be played with a Bluetooth game controller.

We’re comparing rather different things here.

Re: the PS5 headset, that is a year or two away. The PS4 attempt was apparently ok though I never had a go on it. I was surprised how Sony didn’t really bother to market it properly. My mate had one and the hassle of being wired added to the hasslesome nature of controllers and tracking seemed to put him off after a bit.

See further above for whether anyone is throwing “GTA money” in VR’s direction (silly amounts of money being thrown at a company that just does a single game that is mostly for kids).
 
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Your perception in identifying the three kinds of games that exist is uncanny.
I thought I only listed two?
While I tend to gravitate to the 'beat the beat' and 'parappa' or Wii type games, I'm more interested in immersive world VR. Just seems quite far out. . . .but if it's just like the lawnmower man playing Starfox then I'm going to do a barrel roll and sit it out for a bit.
 
I thought I only listed two?
While I tend to gravitate to the 'beat the beat' and 'parappa' or Wii type games, I'm more interested in immersive world VR. Just seems quite far out. . . .but if it's just like the lawnmower man playing Starfox then I'm going to do a barrel roll and sit it out for a bit.

I counted GTA and 'walkabout world games' as two.
I think the Walking Dead game is open world (available on a heap of VR formats) and is highly regarded according to reviews (I might buy in a few weeks).

There are heaps of "free movement in the world" games, but that's different technically to "open world", obviously.

I got really into Population One, which gives you the run of a city, but it's not one where you go around picking up quests and side missions etc. iyswim. It certainly counts on the "doing stuff you can't do in real life" scale, and the games are pretty quick if you don't have hours to spare.

OrbusVR: Reborn is an open-world MMORPG.

I have so many part-played open-world games on the PS4 at the moment that I haven't really sought them out in VR.
 
I counted GTA and 'walkabout world games' as two.
I think the Walking Dead game is open world (available on a heap of VR formats) and is highly regarded according to reviews (I might buy in a few weeks).

There are heaps of "free movement in the world" games, but that's different technically to "open world", obviously.

I got really into Population One, which gives you the run of a city, but it's not one where you go around picking up quests and side missions etc. iyswim. It certainly counts on the "doing stuff you can't do in real life" scale, and the games are pretty quick if you don't have hours to spare.

OrbusVR: Reborn is an open-world MMORPG.

I have so many part-played open-world games on the PS4 at the moment that I haven't really sought them out in VR.

I don't want to fight zombies, and I don't want to go on long quests. I will look into population one. Never played on line so it might be a bit weird, but I'm not buying two headsets for such a folly.
Short is good. Just want to piss about for a bit. Do a couple of laps and punch something. GTA sounds fun, but I never really liked doing any of the actual game stuff. Boring.
I remember liking something called the getaway where you could drive around London. There was a couple of levels that were fun, but once you did them you couldn't go back. Super annoying, I just wanted to play through the easy ones again and again running through tube trains and having some kind of easy mode targeting so that I was a sure shot superhero.
 
In terms of punching something, Thrill Of The Fight is an ace boxing simulator. Most exhausting thing I’ve found on the platform by some distance. Or Gorn if you’re up for some evisceration.
 
In terms of punching something, Thrill Of The Fight is an ace boxing simulator. Most exhausting thing I’ve found on the platform by some distance. Or Gorn if you’re up for some evisceration.

I think the wish fulfilment of me being super amazing and able to beat up anything is what I am after. I feel like I'd still probably get thrashed by a computer person in an actual fighting game. Gorn sounds a bit Star Treky.
 
I think the wish fulfilment of me being super amazing and able to beat up anything is what I am after. I feel like I'd still probably get thrashed by a computer person in an actual fighting game. Gorn sounds a bit Star Treky.

Nah, Gorn is more a tongue in cheek “gladiator simulator”. If you want to rip a guy’s head off with your bare hands it’s the way to go. Or extract a heart with a sword. Or smash someone into a heap of massive wooden spikes with a huge warhammer. My current technique when faced with multiple opponents is to chop their feet off to immobilise them (though they’ll try to keep coming at you on stumps). The enemy characters use “virtual muscles” rather than the game using traditional animation, which adds to the hilarity when you have partially dismembered them.

It puts you in touch with a side of yourself that is a little disturbing. Also, make sure there is nothing fragile anywhere near your playspace. Too much immersion at times.
 
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I’m not sure what you mean by “full immersion” (Gorn is too immersive if anything, but that’s not a processing power thing).
Also, as Saul said earlier, Moore’s Law is likely on its last crank, if not crapped out already.

Just bought that Gorn game. So silly.

Does it get more "involved" or can i expect the same? I'm up to around the bow-n-arrow introduction. Have got my leg-chopping technique down pat
 
Just bought that Gorn game. So silly.

Does it get more "involved" or can i expect the same? I'm up to around the bow-n-arrow introduction. Have got my leg-chopping technique down pat

Different weapons, some different and hilarious enemies etc. but yeah, as far as I've got in the game it's all about the slash and bash.
It's very therapeutic after a day at work.

I bought Pistol Whip yesterday - feeling a bit beaten up today. It's the most "legs and core" game I've found so far.
 
Different weapons, some different and hilarious enemies etc. but yeah, as far as I've got in the game it's all about the slash and bash.
It's very therapeutic after a day at work.

I bought Pistol Whip yesterday - feeling a bit beaten up today. It's the most "legs and core" game I've found so far.

I'll stick with it. They trotted out some of the giants which was fun.


Pistol Whip looks pretty good. I've been playing Pavlov on SideQuest which gives me a shooting fix
 
Pistol Whip looks pretty good. I've been playing Pavlov on SideQuest which gives me a shooting fix

Pistol Whip is more like Beat Saber meets Equilibrium (the film). For a “shooting” shooting fix, Pavlov is definitely the way. I don’t usually do online shooters but made an exception for Population: One.
 
How much of an improvement over the Oculus Go is the Quest 2?

I got really tired of the Go getting really hot and running slow to the point where I ended up selling it. Also it was dead heavy to wear.
 
How much of an improvement over the Oculus Go is the Quest 2?

I got really tired of the Go getting really hot and running slow to the point where I ended up selling it. Also it was dead heavy to wear.
The experience is much better. 6 degrees of freedom instead of 3, so you can really move around instead of just looking in different directions.; much better for motion sickness. Improved resolution, properly tracked controllers, better graphics. More comfy by all reports, although it weighs the same.
 
How do you buy the games?

Within the store on the headset - like buying games for your phone.
Or you can buy games for PC and play them over a link cable or network.

There are also a couple of ways of "side-loading" games outside the store.
But for anything involving paid games, I've just used the main store.
 
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