Be Excellent To Each Other

Do you play with a controller? Would feel very strange and disconnected to me.

I do. But I don't have a wheel

I can't play Elite with a controller either. If I don't have the input device that is replicated in VR I'm taken out of the immersion.

It's probably my inner psycho coming to the fore, but this looks ridiculously good fun.

Windows Mixed Reality news!

In the next major update, Microsoft have relented to common sense and made a few changes. Here are the highlights:

* We will now be able to launch Steam games directly from the WMR environment. No longer is there an extra step involving navigating a virtual desktop with the motion controllers
* Pressing the "Windows" key on the controllers will no longer dump you back to the WMR Cliffhouse/Skyloft, but will instead pause your game and bring up a simple menu with the option of going back to the full WMR interface or using...
* The Flashlight. This is similar to the Chaperone system on the Vive whereby you can have a peek at your surroundings using the front facing cameras on the headset. Great for checking one something without having to haul the whole mask off.

Positives!

Ooh, that flashlight is clever.

Do you have a PC VR headset?
Do you have no money?
Do you hate yourself?

Boy, do I have the game for you

https://store.steampowered.com/app/9230 ... et_Swords/



I take no responsibility should you try it out and get a massive headache/virus/clown.

Last night I manually installed the latest Windows Build on the VR box to get the new WMR features. Simply being able to launch Steam VR games without having to trawl through a virtual desktop is a *gamechanging* development. So much faff removed at a stroke. Combined with the little context menu that appears when you press the windows key (it previously dumped you back to the cliffhouse interface regardless of game status) I actually think this is usuable, viable platform.

The flashlight feature, where you can see your realworld surroundings without removing the headset, is actually a little bit strange. Going from a bright, colourful 3D game to a flat, B&W rendering of your room is really disconcerting. Useful though, especially when reaching for a beer

Would anyone be interested enough in trying it for me to bring it to the cottage? I don't have as many games as Dave and there's a fair bit of replication.

I’d be mildly interested because sometimes I wonder if a PCVR headset is in my future. But it’s a lot to ask you to pack/unpack so don’t feel you have to just for me.

It shouldn't be too taxing. I'll see how well it copes with being offline tonight

I wonder this as well. The PSVR setup is more than 'good enough' for the price I paid, but it definitely feels compromised and based on my (admittedly limited) experience of decent PC setups I'd like some of that action.

Obviously I'd need to upgrade my PC for that (currently i5-7400, 8GB RAM, GTX 1060 6GB) but that's not necessarily my biggest worry. It's more the inherent variability of PC gaming.

VR necessarily brings a certain amount of extra annoyance over normal gaming in terms of calibration and whatnot. The PSVR setup minimises that which I appreciate, it's pretty much plug and play.

The latest Tomb Raider game ran badly initially in my PC and took some fucking around to tame. The idea of marrying that general level of specific per-game config to the whole VR concept fills me with an amount of horror.

I do genuinely love me some VR, but it's currently very much an adjunct to 'normal' gaming and if I spent a whole load of cash just to buy myself even more time dicking around in menus rather than actually playing games then I fear that would just kill the entire thing for me.

If I had a PC with VR, some decent driving and flying sims and all the stuff then I would never be seen again.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... gLNEvD_BwE

$99 headset only

That's oddly cheap, what's the catch?

No controllers, headset only, not sure how much it would be to buy the controllers separately. On a quick google, that doesn't even seem possible, but it must be.

What Trooper said. You can buy the controller's direct from Dell I believe, but headset only still works with a lot of games.

Yeah, it seems the controllers are £100 each: https://www.medion.com/lenovoservicesho ... w&x=53&y=8

Huh, actually apparently the controller are universal so you can buy them from any manufacturer and they'll work with any headset. They're still hard to find but you can get a Dell pair for $100 in the US at least:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-visor ... l=nosplash

Just tried Beat Saber with some custom songs.

Man, it is so much better when you’re listening to a track that you actually know.

Oh can you do that?

It’s not officially supported but yep. Search for BeatSaberModManager and install that, and it puts a “BeatSaver” option on the main menu in game which lets you download them.

Seems to be a reasonable selection so far and it’ll only get better I guess.

Gangnam Style is quite fun.

Ah so you can't just import any song and it'll create a note highway for it.

No. That would be rubbish. There’s a lot of art in creating note tracks. There’s one game that does this — Audiotron, I think? — and it’s not very good.

Audiosurf? Obviously I'd hoped the technology had got better since then.

It’s a tough problem. I think you’d need machine learning to really make a dent. There’s probably a good PhD thesis in it.

Audioshield.

It does a decent job, but the automatic ones are noticeably easier and more repetitive

No, Audiosurf.

Vib Ribbon on the PS1 doors this. Not sure how good it wa though as the pre installed tracks seemed to be a random mishmash of buttons too.

Also audioshield. Which is vr

Yeah I've heard of it. But Audiosurf is the old game that you could originally do it in.

Through work I can get one of these, with controllers, for £100. That's a no brainer, right?

I would.

I did. I figure I'll be happier with the current limitations of VR with a £100 price point versus my previous adventures at a £600 price point for the rift and the vive!

Do you have Bluetooth on your computer?

I do, not sure if it is 4.0 though, but I'll get a dongle if need be

edit : 4.1 apparently...

Lenovo thingy. It works, it works well in the main. The image quality is every bit as good as the Rift or the Vive when it comes to optics, screendoor etc... i.e. is passably usable.

WMR direct stuff runs really well, using Steam VR is a juddery mess, but apparently that is just steam vr itself, once you get into a game it's fine. I'm downloading a game now to try. I only have a 960, so not expecting amazing performance, but I never had a problem with the same graphics card when using the Vive or the Rift before.

All in all VR is just as I remembered it from a couple of years ago, a fun toy to muck around with, but not much more than that.

You’re not playing the right games!

Yeah, going into a game is a lot better. A bit of a performance hit compared to the Vive in steam, as there is the extra overlay to go through, but it all works fine when you are in the game.

I'll pick up beat saber and superhot over xmas, as I have a week off. What else should I get then?

Have you got the latest Windows version? 1809 I think? It makes a big difference to WMR and cuts out the need to use steam vr directly as you can add shortcuts to the cliff house.

No idea, I shall investigate.

1803? Looks like that doesn't get activated for update until you plug in a WMR headset. It said I was all up to date until I hit refresh, and suddenly 1803 was available.

Once you've installed 1803, you should go for 1809 as well. Lucky you!

No wonder it was running like poop

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/hel ... te-history

1809 currently has a block on it, so i'm not getting it automagically!

Look at the date. Christmas may be two weeks closer than you think it is.

December 1st, upgrade block in place.

Won't let me update to it via built in windows update, or the downloadable update assistant, says i'm all up to date at 1803.

I think I got it before the HORRENDOUS WORLD SHAKING BUGS were discovered. Sorry bud. 1803 is an improvement as well.

You should also enable the beta channel for both SteamVR and "Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR" as they're frequently updated.

Oh and disabling SteamVR 'Home' just gives you a nice empty void to interact with instead of the overly laggy house environment.

Stupid me, only reading the bit at the top.

Though it does read a bit like it will block upgrade for those specific things, if you're being blocked then not.

Looks like I can open the desktop and open a game from a desktop link in 1803 at least, so I can skip steamVR that way.

I've done some more reading on blogs from people who know shit. 1809 is no longer being pushed (only 2% of windows machines are currently running it), might be pushed again at the start of december.
Worst case if it isn't here by xmas I can download the iso, and re-install windows with it, which is a bit extreme but it's the only way to install it at the moment it seems.

Disclaimer right at the start - I have no idea what hardware they used.

But, in the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, for a euro you can go for an 8 minute VR tour that reconstructs the palace from c.13th-c.17th, from the position you're standing in, in front of some ruined walls (which are indoors, so not freezing cold). It's really excellent - turn around wherever you like, watch buildings growing, being destroyed by fire and being rebuilt as time passes. I was glad of heeding the advice to hold the handles on the console, as, early on, it takes you up 30 feet in the air (and then further), and if you look down, seeing nothing at all under where your feet should be is quite disconcerting. Great use of it.

Is it enough to make the whole thing useful? I know nothing. But as a niche, great.