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I've seen it everyone. The future of the Gaming medium that once felt so far away is actually in my hands two-fold now, and I can firmly say that I am a true believer in the technology and future that is Virtual Reality.

Over the past couple weeks I have dabbled with my newly purchased Oculus Rift, demo'd the HTC Vive, and just bought the PlayStation VR headset only hours ago. I have seen many new worlds, many new experiences both gimmicky and extraordinary, and ive only gotten motion sickness from one truly awfully built indie game on the Oculus market.

When we look at VR from the outside, we see a big dumb block strapped to someones face. It looks off putting, silly, and almost ineffective in creating an immersive experience. It is so utterly difficult to truly put into words what putting on the headset does to your brain. How it tricks you and makes you feel bigger, smaller, more fearful, more cautious, more prone to reaction as if your body is truly there in that experience. But I'm here to tell you, from my own experiences that VR is truly astounding.

We are only in the first stages, and these first stages are crucial to the growth and development of new wondrous types of experiences. Things are clunky right now, much like the first generation of games were. This is a new generational leap that we have to be patient, understanding, and excited about. But I promise you, it is so worth getting excited about.

I can promise that I will personally be reviewing a multitude of VR titles beginning now in order to share what it's like and try to put into words the different style of entertainment VR brings. It's going to be a weird awkward journey, and it's going to change the way I think about writing things as well, but excites me just as much.

I wanted to make this post to also open it up to any questions that anyone would like to ask about both headsets, which I will compile into an answer block here on this front page post. I feel like people still have so many things they want to know that they don't get the answers to through simple YouTube videos, and I'd love to try and help convince you, or even settle your opinion on what you think about VR.

Feel free to ask me absolutely anything, and look forward to seeing some reviews on stuff! I may even try to review the Headsets themselves considering I've never forayed into hardware reviews before!

Q. Hows Oculus compared to PSVR in terms of visual quality?

I can safely say so far, that the PS VR is a very nice system and has some cool experiences right out of the gate, but it does look very inferior to the Oculus in terms of visual quality. It's not a large gap, but it is a noticeable gap. Almost akin to Wii games compared to 360/PS3 games but not as bad as that. Images are sometimes blurry, and text is almost never sharp and easy to read which can be a hassle. Text on the Oculus looks a little cloudy but it's nowhere near as bad as the visual quality of the PSVR text. The plus side is that although the quality of images takes a slight hit, the framerate is stable, and i've noticed no chopping or stuttering in any experiences I've demo'd so far.

Q. How do glasses feel with the unit?
I actually wear glasses myself so I know your fear. I can wear my glasses in BOTH headsets comfortably for the most part. I've found that the Oculus easily overlays my glasses and does not shove them against my face or put pressure near my ears and is incredibly comfortable.

The PSVR is a slightly different story. When I wear my glasses with it, my frames are pretty much shoved up against the lenses which is slightly irritating at times. There is no way to adjust the focal point of the lenses like you can on the Oculus, so there is no easy means of adjusting for this slight discomfort. I can play relatively well with my glasses on in PSVR but do find myself readjusting every now and again to try and refocus my vision for better clarity with my glasses on.

I've never experienced any fogging of the lenses in the time I've had both headsets on, and I feel I get enough airflow coming through the, "mask," of the headset when I am using it.

 

[xtheman]

I have 2 gear VR ( the one that uses a Samsung S7) that i got for free. (With purchase of every phone. At the same time the place I bought it from was giving out a free S7 if you buy an S7. I registered both of them on the website and got 2 free gear VR and a free phone )

I enjoyed using one of them (other is still in box). Watching Netflix was fine and looks good. (Way better then my TV in my room. My PC monitor is almost bigger than that)

As for the games I bought one game. It was called Anshar Wars 2. It was a fun game but gave me a headache cause i had to move my head around to move the spaceship.

I haven't touched it in a while. But i might soon.

vr porn was great

 

[KingVamp]

I have 2 gear VR ( the one that uses a Samsung S7) that i got for free. (With purchase of every phone. At the same time the place I bought it from was giving out a free S7 if you buy an S7. I registered both of them on the website and got 2 free gear VR and a free phone )

I enjoyed using one of them (other is still in box). Watching Netflix was fine and looks good. (Way better then my TV in my room. My PC monitor is almost bigger than that)

As for the games I bought one game. It was called Anshar Wars 2. It was a fun game but gave me a headache cause i had to move my head around to move the spaceship.

I haven't touched it in a while. But i might soon.

vr porn was great

Try Fantasy VR. Think it is a short, but nice demo.

 

[SAIYAN48]

Have you played the Job Simulator on the Vive? It's really fun!

 

[xtheman]

Try Fantasy VR. Think it is a short, but nice demo.

I will check it out.

 

[chavosaur]

"Well, back in my day we didn't play video games. We only had our imagination to use and we liked it that way!"

I got an Android headset and play with it a little. Playing in VR just isn't the same as playing in 3D, let alone flat 2D screens.

The only thing that really bothered me was the heat. Not the weight, the visuals, or fit, but the heat was cutting down my play time of testing out VR apps.

Which one does better when it came to heat?
Can't you describe the FOV when actually using both headsets?

The PSVR squishes a little more to my face, which makes things a little hotter when it comes to longer periods of play. It isn't by much but it is slightly noticable. I don't think I've encountered any heat problems I can recall with my Oculus.

The FOV on the Oculus is better, not significantly, but it is noticeable. I can see a bit more on screen at one time with the Oculus than I can with PSVR, particularly because the PSVR headset is very finnicky about recentering itself. It tends to ruin the FOV at times because it thinks i'm too close to the camera or too far. Once again, it does not happen incredibly often but it has happened enough to be a slight issue.

Have you played the Job Simulator on the Vive? It's really fun!

I have, it was the first thing I demo'd! It's on PSVR as well now, but is not as fun unfortunately as there is no room scale tracking so you find yourself stationary more often than you'd like to be.

 

[Veho]

What I want to know is, is there integration with existing, not natively VR, titles, and how well and natural does it feel, or is it terrible?

"Well, back in my day we didn't play video games. We only had our imagination to use and we liked it that way!"

Let's not get carried away, now. Let's just agree that gaming peaked when we were kids, and every new development since is a gimmicky fad that will never catch on.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

The main question I have is how non-VR games feel when using the headset? Both the Oculus and the PSVR. I'm mostly curious as to how it feels having a screen strapped to your face vs using a monitor/TV, whether even non-VR games feel more "immersive" than VR games etc.

 

[Seriel]

Not particulary a fan of the idea of strapping a headset to my face to play a game.
I also have glasses, and a left eye that barely works (cant see 3d and all that stuff) so I don't think it would be the best experience.

Gimme VR like in SAO however and i'll go out and buy one straight away (although that kind of technology would take ages to come about, if anyone even bothered)

My point is that having a headset strapped to your face just seems like it would ruin immersion.
Haven't used one myself however.

 

[chavosaur]

What I want to know is, is there integration with existing, not natively VR, titles, and how well and natural does it feel, or is it terrible?

If you mean games that had no VR mode originally and then added one later, I can give some insight into that actually. Rise of The Tomb Raider added in a Manor exploration mode for PSVR that allows you to find clues and other things within the manor in VR. I can say that originally using the "teleportation mode" where you use the triggers to choose a spot to warp to so that you dont have to move freely, was done pretty well.

Afterwards however, when I went into free roam which allowed me to use the control stick in my hand for movement and my head for camera movement, the experience got incredibly nauseous incredibly fast. I could immediately tell they did not originally build the VR game to accommodate that kind of movement naturally, and I left that experience feeling almost significant vertigo. The movements were jerky and uncomfortable, and going down stairs or changing heights in general was incredibly confusing to my mind when playing. It was like trying to force sensation of descent that were not actually happening, and that was really sickening in a way.

That was the only game so far that seemed to tack on a VR mode that I've tried that had an experience like that, but I certainly have not tried enough games yet to fully answer the question.

I will say that Minecraft in VR on Oculus felt perfectly fine in VR. Aside from getting stuck in water, (that was a nightmare for my camera,) the game felt very smooth and after a little bit of retraining my brain to not need the second stick and instead using my head for camera control in slow movements much like in the physical world, I found the experience incredibly enjoyable and it didn't feel bad at all. The movements were a lot smoother and it felt like more time was taken to make the experience less taxing on you.

The main question I have is how non-VR games feel when using the headset? Both the Oculus and the PSVR. I'm mostly curious as to how it feels having a screen strapped to your face vs using a monitor/TV, whether even non-VR games feel more "immersive" than VR games etc.

So the PSVR boasts of a Cinema mode that allows you to play your PS4 games within the headset.

To put it bluntly, it's useless in its current state. Basically what happens is you can see the game within a closed off space that is literally just pitch black ether around you. The game will be right in front of you as you look forward and correlates to position the headset is pointing towards the PS Camera. So imagine seeing a widescreen game right in front of you in decent clarity, in the middle of a dark abyss of nothingness. It's weird, uncomfortable, and pretty much just pointless to use right now.

In the Oculus and the Vive, they take a lot more measures to make experiences like that make a little more sense and look and feel better. In the Oculus for example, if I want to watch videos I have on my facebook feed or have saved on my hard drive, it places me in an actual Cinema setting with a big screen. I can actually move myself to different, "rows of seats," which allows me to see what i'm watching from different angles and different positions. It also helps not being stuck in a literal abyss, which almost makes things a little more natural feeling. The clarity of the Oculus is also stronger than it was on PSVR which made it a plus.

I can say the same for the Vive as well, in similar applications and in Steams Picture mode that I demo'd I was able to play Half life within a little virtual gaming room that felt perfectly immersive and comfortable. Screen clarity was good and the adjustable positioning of the game once again felt nice and comfy. There's some great immersion to watching things and playing things like this in this, "cinematic," mode but one of the huge complaints I have that is a problem for all the headsets across the board is the clarity of Text.

If I were to show you this wall of text in a game in VR right now, even if its a cinema game or a video with subtitles, the text will look slightly blurry every single time. Text rendering in VR is a very prudent issue right now, so I wouldn't plan on playing any RPG's in cinema mode anytime soon.

I don't think it's a bad way to play games or especially watch videos, but it needs some work in the text department before I could come close to recommending it for all the time use.

 

[Noctosphere]

can you tell me if games MUST be compatible with vr to use headset or if the game only needs to be stereoscopic compatible?
for example, Rise of the tomb raider is compatible with stereoscopic images, does that mean i can use vr headset to play it?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I know what you mean, I've demoed a couple VR headsets and displaying text isn't their strong suit (though the Galaxy Gear VR thing actually wasn't too bad, text-wise).

It's a shame the PSVR doesn't have more of an "environment" to it when playing non-VR games, you'd think that'd be something they'd try to focus on since there's so little VR content around. Ah well.

 

[osaka35]

People. Want to know the reason VR is going to stick around this time? VR porn. It's brilliant.

Oh the games are fun too.

 

[specht]

It definitely does not excite me, although I'll probably get a VR headset at some point. Having a headset strapped to my face just isn't my idea of relaxing, I don't need a physical illusion of being "in the game" to be, well, "in the game", so to speak - I have my imagination for that. Everything I hear about VR sends ripples down memory lane, because it's the same shit I've been hearing about 3D and other assorted nonsense. All I want from my gaming experience is to sit down with a comfortable controller and play a good game.

It's not for everyone and I admit after a few months of owning a Vive it does sometimes feel like a chore to move the table and chair in my room and strap on the headset (though this part seems to be better with PSVR's head mount). Though there's usually something new on Steam every week that draws me back in.

The thing about VR is that it's more of an active recreational experience. Kinect and Wii were trying to do the same with regular games but ultimately failed to bridge the gap between the software and our bodies. I don't put on my headset to veg out and play Zelda or Uncharted for a couple hours, I put it on to play a round of Poolnation VR or mess around with the newest guns and attachments in the weekly update for Hotdogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades. It's by no means just a replacement for a monitor, maybe except for racing or flight games.

 

[Foxi4]

It's not for everyone and I admit after a few months of owning a Vive it does sometimes feel like a chore to move the table and chair in my room and strap on the headset (though this part seems to be better with PSVR's head mount). Though there's usually something new on Steam every week that draws me back in.

The thing about VR is that it's more of an active recreational experience. Kinect and Wii were trying to do the same with regular games but ultimately failed to bridge the gap between the software and our bodies. I don't put on my headset to veg out and play Zelda or Uncharted for a couple hours, I put it on to play a round of Poolnation VR or mess around with the newest guns and attachments in the weekly update for Hotdogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades. It's by no means just a replacement for a monitor, maybe except for racing or flight games.

This is exactly how I see it. The technology doesn't really "redefine" gaming, it's just a different way to look at and control them. The Kinect was actually pretty successful, all things considered - definitely did better than the Kinect 2.0 is doing now, it's not getting nearly enough love. As for the Wii, I personally loved the Wii Remote and its legacy continues with the Hydra and other VR remotes. My only complaint was that it was connected to a grossly underpowered system, otherwise it was a nearly perfect controller for me. I really don't get all the hate it receives, it was genuinely well-designed.

 

[Lucar]

Everyone is forgetting: VR fetish porn and normal porn ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

It's coming.

 

[specht]

This is exactly how I see it. The technology doesn't really "redefine" gaming, it's just a different way to look at and control them. The Kinect was actually pretty successful, all things considered - definitely did better than the Kinect 2.0 is doing now, it's not getting nearly enough love. As for the Wii, I personally loved the Wii Remote and its legacy continues with the Hydra and other VR remotes. My only complaint was that it was connected to a grossly underpowered system, otherwise it was a nearly perfect controller for me. I really don't get all the hate it receives, it was genuinely well-designed.

I agree that Kinect and the Wiimote did work well in a lot of cases. I'd sooner use the Wii pointer to navigate menus even on the newest consoles than a controller. I was more saying that they still felt like you were batting from the stands watching some dude on the field match your moves rather than standing on home plate.

3D and motion controls have mostly been used with traditional games on a monitor, because that's what people had and used at the time (not to mention the processing power needed to display 2 HD images and the latency requirements). But when you mix them together with a HMD they become essential forms of i/o and greatly increase immersion. I think what will truly make VR stand out from 3DTV and other fads of the last decade or so are the games and apps designed purely for the medium.

 

[Foxi4]

I agree that Kinect and the Wiimote did work well in a lot of cases. I'd sooner use the Wii pointer to navigate menus even on the newest consoles than a controller. I was more saying that they still felt like you were batting from the stands watching some dude on the field match your moves rather than standing on home plate.

3D and motion controls have mostly been used with traditional games on a monitor, because that's what people had and used at the time (not to mention the processing power needed to display 2 HD images and the latency requirements). But when you mix them together with a HMD they become essential forms of i/o and greatly increase immersion. I think what will truly make VR stand out from 3DTV and other fads of the last decade or so are the games and apps designed purely for the medium.

I don't think remotes are the future when it comes to VR - the future is gloves. If someone designed a glove with proper actuators that would both transfer movement accurately into the system *and* provide resistance to simulate touch and shapes, the necessity of a physical controller would vanish altogether and you could manipulate huds and virtual controllers with much higher accuracy than with the Kinect.

 

[specht]

I don't think remotes are the future when it comes to VR - the future is gloves. If someone designed a glove with proper actuators that would both transfer movement accurately into the system *and* provide resistance to simulate touch and shapes, the necessity of a physical controller would vanish altogether and you could manipulate huds and virtual controllers with much higher accuracy than with the Kinect.

True enough, once we have some tracked exoskeletons for our fingers there would be no need for a controller outside of perhaps movement. Even then you could probably point to a spot and snap your fingers to teleport.

 

[Xzi]

Put it on, sitting in the sofa and playing some SNES emulator, while someone else watches the TV...

Bruh

http://store.steampowered.com/app/465780/

I don't think remotes are the future when it comes to VR - the future is gloves. If someone designed a glove with proper actuators that would both transfer movement accurately into the system *and* provide resistance to simulate touch and shapes, the necessity of a physical controller would vanish altogether and you could manipulate huds and virtual controllers with much higher accuracy than with the Kinect.

I think gloves only get you halfway there, which is why Touch is designed in a handheld, "glove"-like shape, but also facilitates buttons and analog sticks. Same deal with the new Vive beta controllers, they wrap around the hands, but they also give you buttons and a touchpad, for interactions with games outside of typically first-person genres.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

One I've been wrestling with for a while - What do you think about Hololens, and other efforts to improve augmented reality? Do you think it could play nicely alongside VR (indeed there's a lot of similar technology, especially in the realm of sensors), and even if not, which do you think might be better for gaming in the long-run and why?

Personally I am hoping it'll be something in-between, and that we'll get to a point where AR can be deployed in a fashion which doesn't feel gimmicky (Right now every AR game I have tried feels like a glorified demo, but then so far I feel the same way about most SteamVR offerings!). In terms of non-gaming applications AR seems immensely useful - especially to service professionals - and I can't wait to see how VR is applied in that domain.
I can't wait to see where it all leads, and hope maybe it'll be a bandwagon in which some of us can play a part!