Re: VR still on the rise?

On 12/31/2024 7:35 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Mon, 30 Dec 2024 16:07:02 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:

The Oculous my daughter still plays Beat Saber off and on, I think I
fired it up once last month.
>
It's still got a long way to go tech and game wise.  It doesn't really
work well for interacting with anything that has solidity.  Swing a
sword - your character does it as fast as you do, and you can blenderize
NPCs, and your hand/ weapon just passes through or slides across.
>
I suppose it works better for ranged FPS, but moving around is
disconcerting and unnatural compared to kbm or PC controller.
>
It's getting better, but it'll probably be another 10 years until until
it's tried again, and I still don't see it being miniturized enough
then.  Maybe in 20.  If I make it to 75 maybe I'll see good VR.
>
On the other hand there's too many people it doesn't work well for - me
with vertigo, and motion sickness, people who don't have true 3d vision
doesn't do anything for etc.

  For me, the biggest reasons I never purchased a VR device are
a) price
b) compatibility/control
 Price is the big one (and given my looseness with my games and
hardware purchases, may surprise you that it's something I balk at).
But it's not so much an affordability issue as a "will I actually use
this thing after I buy it". If it's cheap enough (or I've confidence
that it will get some use), I'll throw down cash. I'll pop $50 for a
game even if I assume it'll only get a single play-through. I'll drop
$700 on a video-card because I figure it'll get used for several
years.
 I've no confidence with VR in either case. Every time I've used one, I
walked away feeling it's a gimmick, and that if I purchased one, it
would quickly end up on a shelf next to my SteamLink or joystick-
with-HOTAS or any of the other nonsense gaming hardware I've
accumulated. But even THEN I'd buy one if the price wasn't so
outrageous. I'd get a Valve Index if it were under $50 USD. But a full
kit-out is $1000 and that's just a bit much for a gimcrack
dust-collector. And I think that's a major consideration for most
users, especially since you also need a powerful PC to get the maximum
result. Get a capable device down to the price of a game, and everyone
will buy one. But when even the cheapest, shittiest Meta headset costs
upwards of $300, it's not going to catch on.

I think the Meta price is good, maybe even $500 as a console competitor.   I got mine for free though, I certainly wouldn't have bought it knowing my vertigo issues, when I tried a friend's VR device of some years ago.

 Which brings me to the second problem: compatibility issues and who
controls the back-end. For instance, while I may not be in the
majority in this, I _absolutely_ won't have anything to do with
Facebook, so that rules out the Meta Quest/Oculus lines.

As people have shown with all the shenanigans of big names, gamers don't care about who's making their games.
Supposedly it's easier for the Oculous to be used on the PC with steam since the last time I tried it, I keep intending to try it with something like Fallout, Skyrim, or Half-Life VR which look pretty cool, but really I don't have enough interest in the VR, and I know Half-Life would trigger my vertigo way too much as even the 2d does.

Notice what I didn't put on the list as all that important to me? HOW
WELL IT WORKS. As I've indicated, right now, I don't think VR works
that well. It doesn't really solve a problem and it comes with a lot
of downsides.

It solves the problem of not feeling you're actually in a different place, or in the game.  At least partially.  The downsides though, yeah I'm not sure the downsides are worth it.  If you're one of the lucky (few?) people who aren't affected by any of the downsides perhaps.

But I'd buy a device despite all that just for the
novelty and in hopes of encouraging hardware- and software-developers
to keep working at the problem. I'm not against adding another gimmick
to my collection. I just don't want to pay a premium for it.

In that case I'd say get a Meta Quest 2 or 3.  I've certainly got retail value out of it, and way more than used (2 seems to be around $180)

So yeah, I'd get a VR headset even though I know its uncomfortable to
use for long periods, scarily isolates me from the world, doesn't
offer up as-sharp visuals, and works poorly with my fucked-up eyes.

There's the reason not to get it.  F'd up eyes may make it not work for you.

I'd still get one despite all that. _If_ the price were right, and I
could use it confidently with my existing library of games.

Confidence, no.
--
-Justisaur
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