The VR Thread - We all know what you really use it for.

[CreamyHerman’s]

So I just got a HP Mixed reality headset and I'm liking it so far, if not for a annoying bug that I had to recently reinstall Windows for.

That got me thinking: do any of y'all use VR? if so, what do you use it for? If not, are ya planning on doing so?

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

It sounds like fun, but I can't justify the expense for the headset (not to mention looking like a dickhead wearing said headset) for what little use I'll probably get out of it.

Not saying my mind can't be changed on it, though.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

vr looks like a useless gimmick to me tbh

never got the hype around it. wearing big ass screen glasses just seems super uncomfortable, and from what i've seen so far the motion controls are a mess that is simply inferior to classic keyboard + mouse.

Augmented reality on the other hand, could be really big.

 

[Crichax]

I will most likely never buy a VR headset. If I do decide to play a game like VRChat, I can just use a good ol' monitor like always.

 

[CreamyHerman’s]

vr looks like a useless gimmick to me tbh

never got the hype around it. wearing big ass screen glasses just seems super uncomfortable, and from what i've seen so far the motion controls are a mess that is simply inferior to classic keyboard + mouse.

Oh I was skeptical too, but they had a sale going at MC in the states. And man watching a YouTube video in VR... It felt like I was watching a big screen.

 

[Recoil]

Resident evil 7 in VR is an experience that should be had. Everything's the right size, you're convinced you're there on a deep, lizard brain level.

 

[CreamyHerman’s]

Resident evil 7 in VR is an experience that should be had. Everything's the right size, you're convinced you're there on a deep, lizard brain level.

I tried the far from home vr game. Damn I felt like I was scaling buildings in manhattan

 

[YourMommasBackstory]

i play in VR when i visit my friend who owns VR headset. Very impressive thing, i like beat saber and Superhot feels much cooler in VR, yeah. But it's not something i'll get for myself: even after small playtime my eyes hurt. My friends are ok even after long playsessions, so maybe the problem in me, i dunno.

 

[Dom Cruise]

When will we have programmable virtual reality?

 

[CivilianOfTheFandomWars]

It’s just not developed enough or accessible enough to be worth it yet. I think the Quest is a step in the right direction, and if they figure out how to make a fully self contained VR headset that can run super well, then it could basically be like a console.
I slapped together a decently functional Oculus Go/Xbox controller thing that let me play games like Subnatica and VRChat pretty well. I also went to one of those VR arcades that had full-body tracking and that was pretty dope. If it was cheap and easy enough, I would like to have one of my own.
I know it’s kind of silly, but I love stuff like VRChat. It’s a place where a bunch of weebs just have a fucking blast together.
Like, last time I played two Pokémon were having a metal guitar playoff, a cat girl with the voice of a Russian man was drunk as fuck, and a Lamenters Marine was playing mandolin. It’s just madness and it’s fun for that.

 

[WhoBusTank69]

It's being held back by shitty controllers and a lack of confident/competent developers.
Currently it is seen as a gimmick, though with enough R&D(why can't these shit companies running mobile games put Billy's dad's money towards useful shit for once?) it could be a very worthwhile technological investment. The problem is mainly with those looking past peripherals and instead towards USB cords slotted into your spinal cord so you can waste away in a closet a la the movie Surrogates but with Second Life.
There's also people looking for Augmented Reality via Google Glass / smartphones that instead layer shit over the outside world but that's boring as shit and has the potential to be increasingly annoying so that idea can get thrown in the trash.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

When VR works, it's fucking amazing, When it doesn't it's kind of awkward and janky, and not in a good way. I really should break out the VR headset again and play Subnautica on it because I feel if anything is going to really wow me it's going to be a game capable of immersive fear of the unknown even on a normal monitor.

 

[nosemouth]

Play Tetris Effect

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

A thought about VR.

There are two types of images VR can display right now, video and realtime rendering. Video sucks and makes less and less sense. It is limited by compression and resolution, a 3840x2160(4k) hemispheric video can be viewed with something like a HTC Rift that has a 2560x1440 resolution. The Rift will display parts of the video frame and those parts will be lower resolution than the headsets display and in addition to that the image needs some transformation which distorts it. Bad times for those with good eyes.
It also requires a high bitrate because compression artifacts will be a hundred times more visible and a high framerate in additions to that, resulting in a file that is insanely largely yet not all that good while also being limited to headtracking.

Ok, I'm actually going somewhere with this.

Realtime rendering on the other hand can render directly at a native resolution and take care of the transform/warping at the same time. It is also uncompressed frames and at 1440p that's like ~660MB per second at 60fps, far beyond what video can do.

So my thought is, what if they were combined, video and realtime rendering? Like AR in a headset or invertered AR in a way. A person in a hallway can be broken down into two parts where Unreal can render a really good looking hallway and the person is video filmed with a VR/stereoscopic camera and placed into that scene, making the video smaller and the overall quality would be higher while allowing movement for the player/viewer.
All the usual tricks of rendering can then be used on the video character and the environment or it can be superimposed on a mesh like some VR LA Noir technology.

A bit like this except not made in Unity half a decade ago.

Why would it be done this way? I don't know but I would like to see someone try it.

 

[CreamyHerman’s]

A thought about VR.

There are two types of images VR can display right now, video and realtime rendering. Video sucks and makes less and less sense. It is limited by compression and resolution, a 3840x2160(4k) hemispheric video can be viewed with something like a HTC Rift that has a 2560x1440 resolution. The Rift will display parts of the video frame and those parts will be lower resolution than the headsets display and in addition to that the image needs some transformation which distorts it. Bad times for those with good eyes.
It also requires a high bitrate because compression artifacts will be a hundred times more visible and a high framerate in additions to that, resulting in a file that is insanely largely yet not all that good while also being limited to headtracking.

Ok, I'm actually going somewhere with this.

Realtime rendering on the other hand can render directly at a native resolution and take care of the transform/warping at the same time. It is also uncompressed frames and at 1440p that's like ~660MB per second at 60fps, far beyond what video can do.

So my thought is, what if they were combined, video and realtime rendering? Like AR in a headset or invertered AR in a way. A person in a hallway can be broken down into two parts where Unreal can render a really good looking hallway and the person is video filmed with a VR/stereoscopic camera and placed into that scene, making the video smaller and the overall quality would be higher while allowing movement for the player/viewer.
All the usual tricks of rendering can then be used on the video character and the environment or it can be superimposed on a mesh like some VR LA Noir technology.

A bit like this except not made in Unity half a decade ago.
View attachment 897875

Why would it be done this way? I don't know but I would like to see someone try it.

I think the biggest pitfall to that would be how to maintain that illusion through interaction. I've been playing Robo Recall and I can grab just about anything in that game. If it was a part movie, that illusion would be shattered... Though I can see it being used for horror games and mystery games.

 

[Tanner Glass]

i play in VR when i visit my friend who owns VR headset. Very impressive thing, i like beat saber and Superhot feels much cooler in VR, yeah. But it's not something i'll get for myself: even after small playtime my eyes hurt. My friends are ok even after long playsessions, so maybe the problem in me, i dunno.

Being in VR is something you build up a tolerance to the more you do it.

I early adopted VR (Roomscale) and it's pretty cool in specific applications - but there really isn't much to do in that space and I wouldn't recommend it over anything else if you're strictly looking for video game entertainment value (or maybe I'd recommend it over an XBOX 1).

There's some setup and troubleshooting invovled, Roomscale needs a fair amount of space that may not be easy for everyone (30 square feet minimum and some games can use up to 144 square feet) and a used 1st generation HTC Vive costs like $400 still, but there are some really cool games for it and other things for it.

I honestly think the future of VR is going to be outside of gaming, though - it will probably start seeing use as a way to see experiences (sports games, concerts, movies, shows, whatever) live without actually having to go there - it could really revolutionize the way we watch those things.
Imagine getting a 360 view from the front row of a UFC fight (they can put you in the announce booth and you can hear the commentary as if you were literally sitting next to Joe Rogan).

 

[Julias_Seizure]

Theres a couple games that are really good in VR like firewall, skyrim, RE7. Best use for it though if you have roommates is to fuck with them while theyre using it, like when theyre playing RE7 wait for them to take a hit in game then whack them at the exact same time and watch them freak the fuck out

 

[MrJokerRager]

I wonder what the actual people behind them look like.

 

[Vapewizard]

I get motion sickness pretty easily so I don't see myself getting a VR headset, but I find it fascinating to see how much progress they're making with this stuff lately. My favourite streamer got a valve index and you can definitely see the improvements with Half life alyx compared to some older VR titles.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I wonder what the actual people behind them look like.

The first one have some male movement/mannerisms to it.