VR the champions of the world?

[mapuc]

Have a few questions

1. You have on several occasions mentioned 100W powerbank
Question: Do you have some kind of fixing to fasten it to the headset ?

2. Do you have to swing the golf club hard, as you mentioned in another game thread ?

I have a room where I can play golf. It's my kitchen where I have 2X2 square meter free space.

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Have a few questions

1. You have on several occasions mentioned 100W powerbank
Question: Do you have some kind of fixing to fasten it to the headset ?

2. Do you have to swing the golf club hard, as you mentioned in another game thread ?

I have a room where I can play golf. It's my kitchen where I have 2X2 square meter free space.

Markus

The powerbank is not strapped to the headset. I use a 1m wire to connect headset with powerbank, I carry the latter in a belt pouch on my hip (if I use it, whcih is not always the case). If I sit, I place the battery loosely beside me on the couch or table, again with the wire. I linked to the items I use, at Amazon, in an earlier post.



The Golf club attachement I now use, is 55cm long. - The playing area I move around inside, is around 2.50x2.30, if need be one axis could be "extended" by 1m if I play table tennis for example and must jump to the left and right, far away fromm the table, to save a ball; one corner of that normal playing area however is covered by one edge of my bed, at knee height. But I swing above it, dont touch it. I play Tennis and Squash games with a racket attachment that "extents " my right arm by around 13cm. So, in my space, I have no problems. If your 2x2 meters however are solid walls or furniture, then - I would get something shorter than my Golf club attachment. Or play with just controllers.



I also mark the center of my playing area with a hand-sized round tile that I place on the carpet. I can feel it with my foot and then know that I'm "safe" and can stretch my arms out in all directions and swing my bat attacks without breaking anything. I don't use the mask's virtual guardian system.



The Golf club I use is designed to mimic the weight distribution and feeling of mass when swinging a real golf club. And yes, I swing it with all my power, thats why I have sometimes muscle problems currently, I am still not used to it. To copy the grip and holding of a real golf club allows you to exactly use the same grip, stand and swing movement of your whole body. That is needed to get realistic reach and precision.


My club weighs around 530 gr with controller attached, but it is shorter than a golf club. I read the maximum weight for heavy golf clubs is around 480gr for the biog things, the shorter irons obviously are lighter. The higher weight at the tip is needed to bring the shorter attachement club to same club head speed when swinging like swinging a real, long golf club. I can take off a 70gr weight, however, and then additionally can tailor it further in 10gr intervals to vary weight in another 90gr range, so with controller attached I could make that club as light as 370gr. But you loose stability in swinging, and thus precision in that way. It becomes more "gamey".



There are severla companies, all from the US it seems, who produce good attachmentes made of good, solid materials (stay away fom plastioc stuff from asia). Some of these are lighter, and shorter than mine. Mine already is the shortened version of the default model, which is I think around one hand's width longer. I would have preferred that, but saw possible conflict with my spacing at home.



And yes you have to swing that golf club with all your power. However, you can cheat in the callibration where the computer measures your swing three times, and then adds virtual power to it to give you, with the power you invested, the range for every iron that it should have according to the table. Swing with 50% of the power of Tiger Woods, but get the range of his shots nevertehless, so to speak. Experts will want to tune the software to mimic the ranges they get with every club in real life. My power supplementation is 7% for driver and then goes down to 4% with the shortest iron, the lob wedge. This way I can reach the beginning of the fairway from back tee even on holes where the fairway is critically far away from the tees, and if the gap between both could be a sand or water obstacle, then, well, then this sucks. With at least a clean shot I can bridge at least these long distance traps, since else they could turn into showstoppers. The game says the driver has a range of 279m, without any callibration I can drive the ball from Tee just 180-210m, by my own power. With the way I tweaked it, I can get up to 220, 230m in flight, and then some more rolling. I wnat it "realiostic. I am not Tiger Woods or Arnold Palmer, you know, just a newbie trying to survive out there on the fairway. The simulation aspect is priority for me, not to pretend I am some pro player that I am certainly not.



You can test Golf+ first with the default controller, then you see how you move around in your flat and how much "space reserve" you have, but 2mx2m is sharp, really. I known however that there are players doing it with that, and I did it myself too, with the Rift and on cable headset. Other games benefit from the passthrough mode: mixed reality. I play table tennis with the table set up in the wall and on the balcony of my room, I see the surroundings in real, just with the overlay of the table, or my boxing opponent. Other sports game often use "portals through which the virtual reality of the game gets displayed, the portal itself however is placed and treated like an item of our real world, a screen. That works very well, you have seen it in videos I posted. Golf however does not have that.



I would not have the space to place a billoard table in my living room. But now I do, I place it on top of my existing furniture.



You just have to try and then see if you can figure it out, Markus. Just again and again sitting on your head and forming thoughts why it maybe could not work will get you nowhere. Get one set, test it, see what it does for you and how you react to it, and if you dont like it, give it back, via Amazon no problem (14 days). And there is much more good stuff for a VR headset than just golf. Cinemas, for example.

[em2nought]

You could Über the St. Andrews realism by standing in your shower while you played.

[Skybird]

Is "singing while golfing" mandatory at St. Andrews?
Imagine this, flocks of golfers on the course, all howling and yelling while making their strokes, and their partners holding shower handgrips over them.
Typically British. Eccentrics.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Skybird

and their partners holding shower handgrips over them.

In the states, most of our shower heads project from higher up the tile and rain down on us. We don't need a shower buddy to hold "anything" for us.

[Skybird]

Markus,
alternative club attachments:

40 cm long, cant say anything on the weight and swinging feel. But it is a popular model and cheaper than DeadEyeVR. Its light, 172gr without controller (~130gr) say sone feedback.


Two more alternatives:


This one has a formdiable grip but lacks weight. I have it, know it from practice. But it is short. Its an early model by DeadEyeVR, and still available.



And this one is the club I now use. It comes in two versions, the normal verison is the one shown in the video, there is also a shortened version which is my choice, it is around 53cm. The standard version is 74cm, thats 21cm more.


Can't you find a bigger play space?

A note on deadEyeVR, their products are probably at the top of the quality list, but their service is not. I did three orders, anbd ion allc ases had to remind them later on to actually process the order, then they logge dit into the shipping company'S system - and did not bring in the parcel for another week, then it took 10-12 days for shipping additonally to the 1 week wasted and one week waiting time - and this they call premmier or express shipping and price it heftily. Four emails never got replied to, a criticisim I voice dat the end wa snot answered, and the total costs with shipping and customs doubled the item price of 90 coins, I had to pay twice as mjuch, almost. That is hefty and not many in Europe are eccentric enough to do it, I assume. But with the club itself I am now totally happy, its fantastic. So: product great, price hefty, service lousy. For American customers it is significantly cheaper, though not really "cheap".

Yezro might be the best alternative to DeadEyeVR out there.


But if you want a short solution, its the small DeadeyeVR DriVR or the Sunlaki.Both are short. But both are also very light.


Your choice. I recommend to test Golf with controller first, due to your spacing problem. Do not buy cheaper plastic items from China, people say they tend to break - and often. In the end you muist not play it as hardcore simualtion as I try to do, but can set up the game that it becomes more forgiving and gamer-friendly. Its still a fantastic experience then. Just the results and ratings loose comparability then. The tournaments they do online all are played on relatively high, sim-heavy settings.

[mapuc]

Thank you for your input Marc.

I'm not going to buy stuff like the DeadEyeVR together with the Quest 3 directly. First I'm going to get (forgot the word) with the set first.

As said before there's 4 things I'm going to buy beside the Quest 3.

1. chargeable batteries 3500 mAH or more
2. This powerbank
3. This anti-sweat stuff(forgot it's name)
4. This cable who shall go from the powerbank to the headset.

Markus

[Skybird]

By 1. you probably mean a headstrap replacement with integrated battery. Good.

With the powerbank in 2. I would wait, just in case you do not like the headset and want to return it. You have the 2nd battery in the headset repalcement, and Amazon would deliver such things quickly if need be.

The cloth mask in 3, good idea, and no huge financial investment. If you have none: a small ventilator I would rate even more important. It helps tremendously, also against warmth-induced nausea.

The cable in 4. you obviously need for the powerbank in 2. - if you get it.

For orientation: when I play 18 holes in Golf+ I need around 80 minutes. Usually that empties half of the combined battery for the headset and the headstrap together. Battery consumption can drastically vary with different software, however.


P.S.
a powerbank is a great emergency and repair light if used with one of these tiny LED lights that get plugged into a USB port. Its not wrong to have two or three such powerbanks at home, as emergency reserves. The light lasts forever. Some have the size of small or big USB sticks, and are extremely bright. They come in cold and warm white. You can alo put them into a cellphone charger that goes into a wall mount, if there is power but just no light in the place where light is needed.

[mapuc]

Ohh I meant to exchange the batteries who came with the controllers to these 3500 mAH and then use the Powerbank to the headset.

Don't like it..By reading all your positive words about it and all the videos I've seen, there's no doubt that I'm going to love it.

The only thing I fear is motion sickness That I can't use it even after some weeks or month due to motion sickness.

I'll give it some time to get my brain adjust to this Virtual Reality-I remember you once said this would take 1-2 weeks or something like that

I have a conservatory/wintergarten and there I have around
4 to 5X4 to 5 square meter free space. This can't be used during late autumn, winter and early spring.

Markus

[Skybird]

Great show, it leaves just one question: is it immersive?

It is also an illustration of the long version of the DeadeyeVR DriVR Elite club, of which I use the shorter version. If you have the space both vertically and horizontally, I would recommend this over any other. Mind you, it is 70 cm long. In rooms with a standard 2.40m ceiling, this can be a problem.




Mind you, he plays at Topgolf Vegas, which is a graphically modern addition to the game, but also at the courses "Alpine" and "Castle Links". "Alpine" and "Cliffs" are very old maps that are not represenattive for the DLC courses, whcih offer far greate rlooks and better detail, I think Cliffs was the first course they did many years ago in the old game that still had a different title back then. Castles is okay and has a nice mood, but again is nopt on par with the DLC's visual quality. So do not judge the game by the looks in this video. Its a first impression video, he meanwhile seems to have gotten at least St. Andrews, I read somewhere.

[Skybird]

This guy made just three videos so far, but all three of them give some profound explanations and hint at good training options. The ball directon indicator was completely new to me.

[Skybird]

SteamLink and Virtual Desktop - which one is better?

[Skybird]

The Steam Link app for Quest 3 has matured. When it was released, firts it did not even keep theloink reliably, and corruoted the flow of the game after 20-3ß seocnds. But now I have tested it with it srecent build, due to the Nordschleife in Assetto corsa Competzione beign released (many, many laps logged sincethen... : ) , and what should I say: woth my archaic gfx biard and olf system (almost 7 years) it ran the Schleife without a single crash.
However, due to the enormous demand and the high pixel load and the need to additonally cualcoate the wireless link, the sim runs absolutely playable, but not completely smooth as silk. I also had to reduce the cars on track to 16. But by the end of the day: it works, and suprisingly reliable, the limitations are due to my overaged hardware, its a fossile by now, but still does what I throw at it in work and jobload. (Even the gfx bioard is 6.5 years runnign now, I was used of seeing them smoking up every 3 years or so).



I tested it with other games as well, it works, and is the most comfortable way to play PC Steam games in the Quest. It takes Steam running on PC as it usually does in the background anyway, and downloading and running the Steam Link app on the Quest. You end up in the same Steam VR Home screen you get when attaching a PC-cable-linked headset like my G2 to the PC, but why would i want to do that anymore? The image in the Quest is so much better.



The only hickup is that after I finish playing a game this way, I am best advised to not end it inside the game optiosn, but to shut down Stema Link app comletel yand if need be, restart it. I oftn wofund that if leaving the game but retrnign to the Steam home end up in corrupted stability of the Stema App itself. Well, no big deal.


The same sort of app is offered for XBox abonements. I do not know that since I do not own an XBox, but if that works as good as the Steam app, then it must be fantastic for XBox players.

[Skybird]

Strange things are going on in my living room!




The net is practically where the glass of the window and door is, half the table stands on the balcony.




Same, part of the table stands on the balcony. To move around the table, I would grab the handle on the sides and simply turn the table, or drag it to another position. Simple as nose poking. Align the table height with the surface of a real table or any solid structure, and you can even lean on it.




When you run left and right on the baseline, the window follows. I prefer to play in full VR fopr better immersion, however, this mixed reality solution (Meta calls it "Passthrough mode") works, and it works well.




Cybrix, which gets the better the more advanced the levels you reach, a mix of squash and breakout. It uses a quite big window into the VR.




Racket Ball. I use the mixed reality mode only to align the playing area wiht real world boundaries, then switch to full VR for better immersion. The cabin inside which you play limit your and ball movement to the rear and sides - with glass walls - anyway, so once aligned, mixed reality is no longer essential for security.




The Thrill of the Fight. From second highest of four difficulty levels on it really is a serious, sweat-driving workout, below that level its tame, even boring (Youtube videos usually do nto do it any justice, always film low level opponents that just stand still and take the beating). The ring will be tailored in size and in such a way that it fits best into your defined guardian cage inside Meta'S space setup. The bigger your guardian cage, the more to real size the ring will grow. Theoretically, if you have the space, you can chase him through most of your living room - or let him chasing you... Or you have an intimate infight with only 1.5x1.5 meters of ring size.


When hitting and kicking things in VR, situational awareness for your real world surrounding is of paramount importance. Never forget where you really are. I place a marker on the floor, right on the centrepoint of my playing space that I could feel with my feet. That way I know that I stand where I am safe, no matter how wild I swing or making a step to any side. Also, frequently zeroing your position via button on the right controller is important.

The screenshots do not do it all justice, and the perspective is slightly distorted, compared to what you see in the headset. But belie it: mixed reality in the Quest 3 works incredibly well. The game in question must have the option for it hard-coded into it, you cannot play just evertyhing in mixed reality mode.

[Skybird]

This app from the applab (=early access, in development) is chess in mixed reality squared, so to speak.

Look closely. You can have both colours' pieces fully virtual. But then you can also have your own real pieces on a real board, the Quest then will recognise if you move these - and project virtual pieces of your human or AI opponent onto that virtuaol board. That way, you have full haptic feedback from playing with real pieces on a real board.

It is a bit like with VR apps for piano playing where key marking get projected onto the real, material keys.

Nice! Half material, half virtual. But note that the feature currently is experimental and does not yet work reliably.