Tempy's Virtual Reality AMA
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!
question and answer block said:
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.