Be Excellent To Each Other

I really like the look of the Oculus Quest as well. Standalone. Battery powered. Inside-out tracking. Self contained.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/26/1790 ... e-shipping

Could see it rapidly being left behind in terms of graphical power though, without a nice beefy PC pushing pixels to it.

I can’t justify upgrading. I know I’ve put 1,000 hours into iRacing using my Rift, but I barely use it at all now.

Quest is the same price as the rift s, with a better screen and no need for an external pc. Sure it won't be as powerful as a pc that drives a rift s, but no wires is a huge draw. Quest seems like a better buy to me!

Yeah, Quest is the one I'm interested in.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/ ... y/.compact

Hands on with the rift s.

TL;Dr, compared to the rift it's better in some respects and worse in others, not worth updating if you have a rift already.

SPEAKING OF HALO STRAPS...

I added an over-the-top strap from

https://www.studioformcreative.com/

to my Lenovo Explorer and it's made a noticeable difference to comfort. I can have the whole thing looser and tilted further up the back of my head now, bringing the lenses closer to my eyes. Win!

Be aware though, in addition to $27 being already pretty steep for a strip of soft fabric with some velcro on the end, the fact that it ships from New Zealand means you might get stung for import duty.

https://www.reddit.com/r/vive_vr/commen ... h=93c79e55

Hands on with the Quest.

TL;DR it's great, buy it.

Will do.

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/valve_index/

Another player enters the game...

From that picture, inside out tracking and manual IPD adjustment. Do we know anything else?

Lightbox capabilities too, so the inside out cameras are interesting.

Oculus Quest and Rift S now available for pre-order, shipping May 21st.

I've switched my Quest pre-order from GAME.co.uk to the official Oculus pre-order system so that I know I'll get it at the earliest time rather than whenever GAME get hold of 'em.

I can't find it in myself to care about the Quest because it'll be so underpowered by definition. It just seems so much like the VR experiences which involve sticking your phone into a headset. The cables involved aren't even close to being enough of an annoyance to justify the massive drop in rendering power for me basically.

Whereas I despise the cables and they're one of the main reasons I never use my PSVR

If it didn't have the full 6 DoF tracking + tracked controllers, I'd agree - but with them, this is a game changer IMO.

I had a quick look at google and it seems 4.2 million psvr sets have been sold and 92 million ps4s, so uptake is 5%

Not sure this really belongs in here as it's not really PC VR (although you need a PC to do this) - enterprising modders have already figured out how to get custom songs into Beat Saber on the Oculus Quest.

Tutorial here - I already had Android SDK installed so a lot of it I could skip, but it seems to be a pretty comprehensive set of instructions!

I tried playing some SteamVR games on my Quest (via Virtual Desktop*) yesterday, most notably Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades.

I expected it to be really poor, with noticeable latency on video and input, but there was no appreciable difference (to my eyes at least) from just playing on the Rift.

* Virtual desktop, bought through Oculus Quest store, and then sideloaded into the Quest with sideQuest to enable the PCVR streaming feature.

The new Vive consumer grade headset sounds like a fucking lovely bit of kit:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/12/htc ... -hands-on/

Still way too rich for my blood at $699 (plus the attendant PC upgrade I'd need) but I'm glad they're seeing enough of a market to continue iterating.

I thought HTC were on their knees in their hardware division, surprised that they are still pushing at it.

Interesting that they've pretty much ripped off the Oculus Touch controllers wholesale for this headset. Not sure there's enough of a difference between this and the Rift S to justify the additional cost, though.

It's a shame that they've gone for the halo strap. I thought the Vive's original headstrap was a big plus and the deluxe audio strap in particular was excellent.

Tbf, the original vive controllers, while they tracked well, are awful from a janitorial point of view.

They're really difficult to clean with a mop?

Usability

I've just spunked all my Christmas money on a Rift S. The extra resolution over PSVR is nice but it's nothing revelatory, although the tracking and touch controllers are a decent improvment. Mostly got it because I really want to get into some racing and flying in VR and the Playstation just doesn't deliver on those fronts. So far I've been playing IL2 Sturmovik and it's bloody amazing, I'll get an iRacing subscription as soon as I rearrange things to get my wheel up here.

Any other PC only VR essentials?

Beat Saber with actual recognisable songs. Unless the PS version can do that now?

and Blade and Sorcery

Cheers, I keep seeing Blade and Sorcery on the store, I'll check it out. Gorn is half price on Steam right now too, might get that.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/vr-b ... le_index_6

Humble Bundle looks good. Gorn, Budget Cuts, Space Pirate Trainer on the $10 level. $11.50 will get you Superhot VR

Bearing in mind that Budget Cuts alone is currently £23, that's a pretty sweet deal

Oh yeah. Cheers, all over that!

I don't even have a PCVR (at the moment) and I bought that.

So that bargain game will end up costing you how much to play?

Been playing a bit of Assetto Corsa this week. Some kind soul has created 50 miles of B roads modelled on some actual roads in Yorkshire. Blasting around the lanes in an LMP1 is ace fun.

Sounds awesome. Got a link?

Also: I've got Steam codes for GORN, Space Pirate Trainer and Superhot VR going spare if anyone is interested

I’d be interested in GORN. thanks.

PM sent

That looks ace, reminds me of Woodhead Pass between Manchester and Sheffield

That game? Effectively nothing. Half-Life: Alyx, the PC VR exclusive out next month? Well, let’s see.

Any recommendations for casual VR driving games? The Boy wants Mario Kart

PC VR fans! Aircar is a free game where you fly around a Blade Runner type futuristic city in the rain. Your craft is some kind of VTOL hovering thing. You know in Space Pirate Trainer there's a ship behind you when you're shooting? Aircar is what happens when you get in that ship. There's no plot or combat but it's very cool with lots to explore and nice controls with an xbox style pad. It's got full 3d movement and any amount of roll made me sick as a dog as per usual, but someone with better VR legs than mine and an interest in flight games should check it out.

And I should mention again, it's free!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1073390/Aircar/

Nice, ta!

Quest first impressions:

(1) it really shows PSVR up as being a first-gen product. In particular, the controllers are light-years ahead. Vastly improved tracking accuracy, a more intuitive button layout, and the side-mounted grip buttons are killer. It feels way more natural to pick things up and put them down.
(1a) The VR image itself is nicer too. Noticeably higher resolution. The dashboard is good and the out-of-box experience is very well designed.
(1b) the "guardian" system (draw a line on the floor, the headset pops up an overlaid grid when you approach it - so you don't bump into stuff) is intuitive and works really well. Again, it really shows the PSVR up as being much more primitive.

(2) Truly wireless VR is amazing. Being able to play Beat Saber with no risk of getting tangled in the cord is very freeing.

(3) Some nits:
(3a) light leakage around the nose area.
(3b) not as comfotable as the PSVR's halo strap, plus it's a little front-heavy, as it has a battery and full Android device in there.
(3c) battery life is ample but could be more... 2-3 hours or so. Long enough for a decent session but no longer.

I don't mind this so much, although I bought a silicone face cover thing just so I didn't sweat into the fabric (noice)


You can strap a suitably-sized powerbank to the rear strap and this balances the weight a little more, while giving the added benefit of longer session times.

I've not done it myself though, just because I lack the necessary skills to do it properly without breaking something.

Got my Quest up and running as my PC headset today, and other than it asking me to enable Oculus Link in the headset every time I connect it up to the PC, it's great.

Only tried Tetris Effect and a bit of mucking about in Home with it at the moment, but I've already disconnected and packed away my Rift.

It’s definitely still in beta. I’ve had some glitches, usually caused by it getting stuck in some weird state, usually requiring either killing stuff in task manager or restating the Pc, the Quest, or both. But yeah - by and large it’s great and I don’t regret getting the Quest rather than the Rift S at all.

Gaz and Doc, 64 or 128?

128 for me. Not that I'm really using anything close to 64, though.