So...uhhh....no topics on VR?

[kali o.]

No one has bit the bullet? Last few days I have been pretty tempted to order Vive but keep putting it off. Feels a little like beta vs vhs or bluray vs hddvd.

My personal feeling is Vive has the best chance to succeed since it launches with motion control, has room scale capability and has valve behind it. Oculus seems like it is just playing catch up with its staggered launch and features.

[Shrinweck]

It's not something I'm terribly interested in at the moment.

I hope it succeeds though. So it can get much, much cheaper.

[Eric]

VR is missing a killer app to make me take the plunge. I bought a Nintendo 64 for nothing more then Mario 64 back in the day. I'm waiting for that one awesome looking VR game that'll make embrace the platform.

[kali o.]

VR porn isnt a killer app?

Submitted my order for Vive just now. Gotta wait till May before I get it though.

[Shrinweck]

I was discussing VR porn with some people and we concluded (none of us having tried it) that it would likely mostly be POV stuff and get repetitive.

I had the thought that VR porn could be pretty big with fetishes where consumers are willing to pay a premium, though.

[Eric]

VR porn isnt a killer app?

Submitted my order for Vive just now. Gotta wait till May before I get it though.

Lol, I legit can't tell if you're serious, because I can't name a reason outside porn perhaps that would justify the purchase atm.

[ManaMan]

Shit son, I was VR gaming decades ago.

[Julius Seeker]

I'm hopeful something interesting will come out of it. Motion control VR sounds like a must, and it would be awesome.

Although AR with motion control has yet to catch, and it seems like it should be both a much easier sell and a much more useful platform for a wider variety of applications.

Anyone remember the ill fated Sega VR helmet?

[Eric]

I mean it seems cool, but it takes up a great deal of space.

https://gfycat.com/LateWavyIndianskimmer

[kali o.]

I am sure most people can free up 6 x 6 space. Obviously more would be better. I wasnt completely joking about the porn either...i mean look, i would take a stable full of 20 something sex androids to fuck my brains out till my dick stops working and take care of the home over the responsibilities of a monogamous relationship. So the sooner we get there, the better. Ill financially support the baby steps in tech

[Shellie]

I feel about VR the same way I feel about the Wii and other motion controlled gimmicks.

It has it's place, but for me, only in a group/party like setting. Not for zoning out playing some games on the couch/pc. Maybe I'm just old

[Julius Seeker]

I would be terrified using VR during a party. You're effectively blindfolded, except worse because of sensory usage. I can see a lot of ways this goes in a regretful direction with drunk people around.

[Shrinweck]

I definitely dislike the idea of covering my eyes and ears (if speakers aren't handy) around other people. At a party with close friends that'd be fine but in public or around people you don't know well enough to trust it seems like a really great way to have Bad Things Happen.

[kali o.]

Yeah, headmounted VR seems like an individual experience. Now if it ever gets to the point where there is holodeck VR, sure, party it up.

I am buying into the hype of this gen VR. Everyone says what is available, is mind blowing, even if there is no "killer app" yet. Maybe I will be disappointed, but I hope not. And really, $1200 isn't much of a cost in the scope of things, considering I already had a capable pc. And if people buy it, you cheap bastards can buy the better headset next year

[Replay]

I have sampled some local VR rigs. Immersiveness is very much a feature of the app in question.

VR headsets hooked up to really nice, next-gen existing games immerse tremendously with the aim-with-your-head, lookaround-type features. What has underwhelmed me are the some of the native "immersive environment" apps for VR, which are like three-generations-ago slideshows. I watch people with little experience in computer graphics sit around and literally fall out of their chairs at these things, but I hardly flinched, myself - the one I sat through in its entirety was just a glorified slideshow with pixelated and awful Atari Jaguar-like graphics.

If you have a great PC that can run existing high-end Steam games at highest-graphic-quality settings, the Vive will probably take you to another world. (I'm thinking of Mirror's Edge/Remember Me in full immersive VR; it would be mindblowing - probably also vertigo-inducing and intensely overstimulatory at first.)

Hopefully more games will design themselves natively for things like Vive/Oculus in the future and really enable smart-headset tech to flourish. When it doesn't look like $1500 Google Glass and $3500 Microsoft Hololens are going to even try to make it to a real mass consumer level, smart headwear for the masses needs to progress somewhere.

[Replay]

Basically my limited experience with them says:

Yes to VR being awesome *with* existing AAA 3d games *using* the headset-swivel to replace left-stick look functionality, using a traditional gamepad for all other controls. (I actually wish I *could* justify dropping nearly a grand on something like that right now, but my discretionary income is going towards work tools and not play this year.)

No to VR being awesome on the basis of VR apps alone. The true-VR apps seem to underwhelm and there's nothing I know of in that space that smells AAA yet, so to speak, though that could easily change. That industry needs a few years to get its foothold and bearings and learn how to be AAA; AAA computer graphics apps of any kind require several years to develop these days.

It's a toy for the highest of the high end right now, best for people with lots of cash who want an exclusive thrill to de-stress/relax/overstimulate/any combination of the three - in my opinion requiring running in tandem substantial next-gen hardware of some kind (a high-end gaming PC or next-gen console) to really deliver a AAA experience.

Perfect for you, really.

[Zeus]

The biggest problem with VR is it needs to be hands on. You can't just show pics or videos and expect people to get excited over it. And nowadays, where online shopping and researching has become the norm for so many purchasing things, people ain't being exposed to the benefits of the tech on top of the fact it don't have any killer apps.

[ManaMan]

I think the biggest hurdle is people really don't like wearing a mask over their heads or blocking their vision. May be some evolutionary thing (need to be able to see the sabertooth tiger coming). I don't think people would have trouble with holodecks.

[Eric]

I for one am looking forward to doing Dead Space 2's needle in the eye scene in VR.

[kali o.]

[bovine]

FINALLY someone found a use for the novint falcon

[kali o.]

Thing finally shipped -- should arrive today. We will see if it lives up to the hype.

[ManaMan]

Thing finally shipped -- should arrive today. We will see if it lives up to the hype.

The VR sex suit?

[kali o.]

No, but I can buy the novint falcon later and build one

In all seriousness - it is pretty fucking amazing. The sense of scale is shocking and moving around in your own little holodeck is something you need to experience.

That said, there are definitely issues (screendoor effect, blurry text, iffy resolution, tracking issues, wires galore).

Wait for the price to come down and tech to improve....but you WILL eventually be gaming in VR (even if it's just to play a traditional controller game on a virtual IMAX screen).