Big Year for VR in 2016 but which one to wait for?

[Brendan Little]

Hey guys,

So I'm going to take the plunge this year and buy a VR unit once they are released. had it in my head last year it would be the Oculus Rift consumer unit but now I'm not sure with the release of others. The HTC Steam one looks like the one to go for if you read online reviews but there is others coming out that might work well. Being that I play a wide variety of games and mostly use Steam as my UI I would think the HTC one is possibly the one to go for but interested in opinions of what you guys think. Main games are things like AC, flight sims etc. but as will anything like these purchases, you get excited and don't see the wood from the trees so second, third and forth opinions are always good to see what you guys are thinking or waiting for.

Thanks
Brendan

 

[AussieStig]

Hey mate, I would say if at all possible, try before you buy. So if you can be patient, you could wait for the releases and then the subsequent reviews. Then decide which one suits your requirements the best.

Cheers AussieStig

 

[Brendan Little]

Not sure where I would test them out, I am definitely going to wait a month or two, see what the reviews are like and go from there. In my mind the Steam version is ahead, and I was actually waiting to pre order a Rift until I read a full review etc. a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm unsure! Its going to be an interesting time to see what gets supported. Actually downloaded my first Steam VR game when Elite: Dangerous was in the sale be complete accident really. If Steam support is going to be like that then thats great.

Also a question I don't seem to get an answer to is the switching between the VR headset and normal monitors for different games. Is it going to be a pain of unplugging and plugging back in all the time to get it to switch and will it be a restart every time? Have twin GTX960 cards so I have the output space, but its if the software and hardware are clever enough to open and close outputs and reconfigure itself all the time or if you are expected to play none VR games in the headset all the time.

 

[Keith Joyce]

Does the GTX960 handle VR ok?

 

[Brendan Little]

Believe 1 GTX970 is the benchmark and i've got two GTX960 in SLi so think it should be enough grunt to do it as they are the 4GB versions also.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Not buying in on the hype (yet). I'll first patiently wait until the RIft and competitors have released their products. Currently I think they are all overpriced as with all new hardware that is released.

Sticking to a good old monitor for a while

 

[Brendan Little]

I got a spare piggy bank doing nothing so I'm not too worried as long as they arent over £400-500 notes. I will wait to see what they do in the first quarter maybe to see how it goes but if one meets my requirements (easy setup and use with a good percentage of games) then i'll take the plunge.

Just bought a Clubsport v3 pedals and T500rs so gonna be back on the RD GT3 grid soon Bram!

 

[Rodent]

Veeeery tempted to jump on a Oculus pre-order tonight but I'm a bit worried about them not supporting DX9. Vive supposedly does but I hear it will be more expensive and since I'll use the kit mostly for racing, having that lighthouse room experience doesn't interest me in the least. First world problems but still, argh.

 

[AussieStig]

€699,00 excluding shipping costs, ''''ouch'''' I will hang on to my DK2 for a little longer and play AC offline if need be. This is more than double the cost of my DK2 new. I wonder if it will be twice as good then? I guess 2 billion dollars wasn't enough for Oculus and Co!

Cheers AussieStig

 

[Moxley6969]

Oculus F'd up and priced themselves out of MANY people's pockets......Too bad, im sure the vive will take Note on the thread comments that are currently brewing.

 

[Rodent]

Sure makes the wait for the Vive comparisons all the more bearable. Silver lining and all that. =)

 

[DayGlow]

This gen I think will work well with race sims. From what I've read/watched the resolution isn't high enough for flight sims. You can't read the hud and spring distant targets is an issue.

Will probably need 4K per eye for it to be usable for flying.

 

[Rodent]

I'm blessed by only ever digging out my hotas to play ELITE, and that was apparently very playable on the DK2, CV1/Vive will probably handle it without any problems. For racing coming from a single 27" with an Edtracker I'm more then used to sacrificing bits here and there so it'll do fine. But yeah I imagine the DCS crowd is pickier then me. =)

 

[Alexj]

I pre-orderd a rift on behalf of a friend, should be here around April. Will be interesting to give it a try, never tried one of those before. I'm personally not convinced about the whole thing, seems abit over the top the whole thing. But I may be wrong, who knows.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I pre-orderd a rift on behalf of a friend, should be here around April. Will be interesting to give it a try, never tried one of those before. I'm personally not convinced about the whole thing, seems abit over the top the whole thing. But I may be wrong, who knows.

I tried it at the Assetto Corsa Press Event, it was amazing. Of course, it's not perfect (and it should be better when the customer version is released). But it gave a much more close to life feel.

 

[Alexj]

The friend I pre-orderd for had the DK2, it was amazing 3 times then he sold it. I belive that it is amazing the first times, but in the long haul I still belive in a tripple screen setup as for now, I think 4k per eye is neccecery since the screens are so close to you, but hey, I haven't tried yet so I might be more off then a unicorn on a tricycle and think it is absolutely amazing.

 

[pixeljetstream]

Indeed, the second generation will be more interesting. Higher resolution, and by the time they come out the graphics cards will also have made another jump or two. And game developers have had a longer time with something more "final".

Yes that "amazing" factor... however not sure you'd play for hours with them in their current state. Tripple screen seems much more comfortable for that.

 

[Dennis]

I couldn't resist

Your Oculus Rift is expected to ship in April 2016.

But I also own a DK2 since its release and tested the CV1 at Gamescom this year, so I know what I'm getting into^^

For a long time I thought the Rift was mostly a really cool gimmick like triple screens (back then I was testing it with rF2, R3E, AC and iRacing and especially iR was a lot of fun).

It only really clicked with me after the direct mode improvements in SDK7.

For the first time the Rift could completely "trick" my brain into thinking that I'm actually sitting in a race car - as in, you are physically sitting in the cockpit. All head and body movements felt natural.
It blew my mind so much that I promptly crashed in the first corner while checking out some dials on the dashboard of my LMP1

But to get to that state you need a game with the latest SDK (only pcars has that atm) and you may never drop below the 90 FPS threshold or the immersion will stop immediately.

The downside of having experienced actual "virtual reality" is that using normal monitors just feels pretty blunt now in comparison (I tried super FOV setups a couple of times, really immersive but doesn't come close). It's probably similar to going back to a keyboard after having raced with a decent wheel for some time.

graphics cards will also have made another jump or two

The CPU is the limiting factor for probably 99% of the games (Edit: when using a Rift) thanks to Microsoft having a monopoly on PC gaming for so long and not really improving DirectX. You need the best single core performance you can get, which limits you to Intel CPUs for most games.

For example an overclocked I7 5820K is required (at least!) when using DK2 to run a full grid on all tracks in pcars. If there are no major changes in the final SDK version this will probably not change.

So I can also understand everyone who is not getting VR for at least another year or two.

 

[James Robertson]

Bought a developer kit a while back and used it on Pcars for a few hours. It was fun being able to stick you head over the side of the f1 car and examine the wheels and road surface but it was let down really badly by the poor image resolution. I was really disappointed with it to be honest. Sold it on eBay the same day I got it......and I confidently predict that many other people will be doing the same. Some people might like it but it wasn't for me.

I honestly think Mark Zuckerberg has just flushed billions down the toilet.

All the Occulus YouTube videos with open mouthed people yelling, screaming and falling over need to be taken with a massive pinch of salt.

 

[Colin Knowles]

Day 1 - Playstation VR for me

I agree this new technology is not for everyone right now but I'm sure the principles of the tech are here to stay long term

4k, 8k & 16k displays are all part of the VR journey in the coming years and i for one am very excited not just for games but for all kinds of new ideas yet to be seen

Btw If you think the Oculus is expensive wait till HTC-vive release their price

Playstation may not be the best technically out of the big three but it has the know how and the track record to kick start the first steps of virtual reality

First production car I believe the ford model T from 1908