Vapourware VR: Finally worth it?

[J1M]

Someone I know has recently been advocating VR. I had assumed this fad would burn out due to lack of software. I've been leaning towards an ultra-wide monitor instead.

What does the Codex think? Does VR have any killer apps?

 

[Spectacle]

VR is here to stay, there's hundreds of VR games on steam alone. But the current generation of hardware has some serious limitations, we can see the potential is there but not quite here yet. So if you're not excited about VR I'd get the ultra-wide monitor now and instead look at buying into VR when the next generation of hardware rolls in.

 

[J1M]

VR is here to stay, there's hundreds of VR games on steam alone. But the current generation of hardware has some serious limitations, we can see the potential is there but not quite here yet. So if you're not excited about VR I'd get the ultra-wide monitor now and instead look at buying into VR when the next generation of hardware rolls in.

Like mobile? Or for realsies?

 

[Falksi]

VR is going to be MASSIVE any time soon. Just ask the 90's.........

 

[A horse of course]

I have an HTC Vive and the answer is basically no. It's still too fiddly, it STILL doesn't have a so-called "killer app", and the most popular games are overpriced gimmick titles that most people might enjoy in short bursts. I don't regret buying it as it definitely has its moments of immersion both in the obvious situations (horror games), and also general puzzle and adventure games where you can just sort of amble through the world looking at the sunlight passing through the leaves above you. It's also VERY good for pornography. For example, the fact that there are at least 2-3 videos with August Ames from before her death proves the value of VR as preserving our cultural heritage for future generations.

I'd say the point at which (slightly more) casual players should jump in is when we get wireless (already in the next major Vive upgrade) and a significant reduction in screen-door effect.

 

[ItsChon]

VR is for beta males that are so fucking shit at real life, they try and cope by inventing a new one for themselves. This is the RPG Codex, so I assume RPG's are our favorite games. Name a single fucking RPG ever, that would have been enhanced by VR. Unless you can take it to the movie levels of extreme, which is pretty much impossible in our lifetimes, VR will always be gay.

 

[Bigg Boss]

Not yet.

 

[unfairlight]

Fuck no. Beyond the gimmick, what the fuck are you going to play on it besides your dick? VR porn is the only god damn thing that would be worth it.

 

[A horse of course]

Fuck no. Beyond the gimmick, what the fuck are you going to play on it besides your dick? VR porn is the only god damn thing that would be worth it.

Sometimes VR porn is too immersive though. For example, I was watching a threesome recently where your gf is sucking your dick whilst her BFF plays with herself. I kept looking at the BFF because she had better tits than my gf, but then when I looked down at my gf, the way she looked at me suggested that I had hurt her feelings and devalued her. I felt guilty for about 20m afterwards.

 

[unfairlight]

Interesting, thanks for the insight.

 

[laclongquan]

an hour with two healthy sluts is my caveat. Safety first, dontcherknow~

 

[Mexi]

VR is going to be MASSIVE any time soon. Just ask the 90's.........

 

[Jigawatt]

I hope VR is not a fad or I'll have to get a real job

 

[markec]

VR is here to stay.

 

[unfairlight]

Oh that's an Illusion game. I enjoyed one of their fine titles by the name Honey Select before.

 

[Zarniwoop]

VR is the new 3D TV.

Anyone remember 3D tvs?

All the rage a few years ago, the NEW SHIT everyone had to have?

Didn't think so.

 

[Dexter]

Always great to hear people who obviously never tried and know nothing about something telling everyone else what that something is "like" while pretending to have any knowledge about either of these things.

Anyway, there were various threads about this with serious answers:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/rift-vive-vr-general.109448/
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/enlighten-me-about-vr-gear-bros.120936/

VR was worth it since it got out of the "Development Kit" stage, there's plenty to play (likely not going to catch up with everything if you're prone to large Backlogs with normal games) although there's no huge time-waster MMO/Open World or Online game that you'll probably play for hundreds of hours, but at this point it's probably worth it to just wait for Gen2 some time in 2019/20 for a better/more streamlined overall experience, improved tech/resolution and the new controllers.

As to what's "worth it", I personally don't really like the "ultra-wide" 21:9 gaming monitors and prefer gaming a on large 4K TV. Depending on what you already use it might not be much of an improvement. VR is an entirely new experience and a huge step up in immersiveness.

 

[Fargus]

 

[Norfleet]

Why is it that when people record the VR version of something, it looks mostly like a regular game, but when you actually use it for real, the entire thing is distorted, ghosty, and doubled?

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

It's not quite there yet. Too expensive, too cumbersome, and low quality.
Even if they fix all of these issues, I still don't see it replacing monitors any time soon, at least not for most applications.
That said, for some things VR is great: Flight sims, racing games, some people like it for horror games, some say porn is great. And then there's the potential beyond that, like virtual shopping malls and shit like that.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Always great to hear people who obviously never tried and know nothing about something telling everyone else what that something is "like" while pretending to have any knowledge about either of these things.

Anyway, there were various threads about this with serious answers:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/rift-vive-vr-general.109448/
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/enlighten-me-about-vr-gear-bros.120936/

VR was worth it since it got out of the "Development Kit" stage, there's plenty to play (likely not going to catch up with everything if you're prone to large Backlogs with normal games) although there's no huge time-waster MMO/Open World or Online game that you'll probably play for hundreds of hours, but at this point it's probably worth it to just wait for Gen2 some time in 2019/20 for a better/more streamlined overall experience, improved tech/resolution and the new controllers.

As to what's "worth it", I personally don't really like the "ultra-wide" 21:9 gaming monitors and prefer gaming a on large 4K TV. Depending on what you already use it might not be much of an improvement. VR is an entirely new experience and a huge step up in immersiveness.

Don't worry, no one will judge you for wasting vast amounts of money on a fad that will be forgotten soon. Its what we do here, being an RPG site.

No need to rationalise your shitty purchasing decisions by pretending it's The New Shit™ or The Next Best Thing™ or All The Cool Kids Buy Ridiculous Goggles And Shit Nowadays™.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Massive coper rating me butthurt

 

[Swampy_Merkin]

racing games

Really? Tell me more...

 

[Correct_Carlo]

I'd say the point at which (slightly more) casual players should jump in is when we get wireless (already in the next major Vive upgrade) and a significant reduction in screen-door effect.

I've already got wireless and it works perfectly. You can get the TPCast wireless adapter for 300 on Amazon. It makes the whole experience way better as you aren't constantly worrying about chords.

That said, I rarely use the Vive. Even wireless, it's still frustrating as it's on the cusp of being an awesome product, but there are still too many burdens with the interface. Once they make "gloved" controllers that allow you to move your fingers and upgrade the screen quality it will be a truly revolutionary product, but at the moment I think it's only worth the money if you have a lot of money to blow and are primarily interested in it as a novelty.

The absolute best game I've played with it is "Superhot: VR," which I'd say is a killer app. You quickly realize that VR games have to be short and designed to function within the size of a room to work very well, and Superhot is exactly that. And the "time only moving when you move" gimmick and general gunplay work very well in VR. I genuinely felt like I was in the Matrix at times, which was awesome. However, most other games I've played are pretty gimmicky and I haven't encountered anything that I would play seriously as a game, as opposed to just being a 20 minute diversion before uninstalling it. You absolutely will not be using a Vive to play games for hours at a time like you do with monitor based games. The experience just isn't designed for that. Long form games like "Skyrim" and "Fallout" are so maddeningly frustrating to put up with the interface bullshit that I could never imagine playing them for 40 hours straight. Also, I was never a person that's ever gotten motion sickness from anything, but any game where you move around will make you want to vomit after 20 minutes. And the alternative (teleporting around) feels really unnatural to me, which puts me off playing most games that weren't designed to be room scale--especially games that weren't originally designed for VR (Which isn't to say all conversions are terrible. "LA Noir" was really well done just because Rockstar basically cut out all the stuff that wouldn't work and redesigned the rest of the game's interface from the ground up. Payday 2 also works fairly well, as while there's movement, most of the game is centered around stopping at various points to fight off waves of enemies).

As to non-gaming uses, that's been a big disappointment too. I was super excited when I got the Vive to use movie theater apps to watch massive IMAX sized movies, but the video quality is still bad enough that I couldn't imagine watching a whole movie in it without getting a headache. A computer monitor looks 1,000 times better.

I don't mean to shit all over it. If you have the money, I think it's a unique enough experience to be worth getting. It just feels like 1st gen technology in every aspect. I'd say by 3rd gen, they will have most of the kinks worked out and at that point it will be massive.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Why is it that when people record the VR version of something, it looks mostly like a regular game, but when you actually use it for real, the entire thing is distorted, ghosty, and doubled?

Because even though the games can be fairly high rez, the quality of the monitors isn't as high as a conventional monitor. Also, you view the monitors through lenses that magnify them and give them more depth, which distorts the image slightly. Right now the image quality is the biggest reason why I wouldn't recommend everyone run out and get one. It's just not there yet. Even if you increase the resolution, text will still be fuzzy and you will still have a certain amount of screen door effect. There are 4k VR goggles made by other companies, but I've read that they aren't much of an improvement because you need very, very, high FPS/refresh rates with VR goggles to prevent ghosting and make motion convincing. So I think we will have to wait for a 3rd gen redesign from the ground up for it to get good.