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Old 11-07-17, 02:45 PM   #16
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Lol ! A great analogy!

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Old 11-24-17, 10:19 AM   #17
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Almost one week with VR now, time for a sitrep and assessment.

It has blown the top of my skull up and high into the air.

Its not as if there are no visual setbacks. Due to the current technical implementation, some disadvantages cannot be aovided: the grapjhcis are somewhat blurry, think of it as an oldfashioned CRT TV and you with your nose close to the screen, then you get an idea of wehat it is about. The further and deeper you look into the distance of VR space, the blurrier it becomes, ion close vicinity, say up to three meters, it is pretty much clear, and some titles put more techncial emphasis on making graphcis in close vicinty sharper, than others. You always wear a ski mask: the outer rims of your viewing field are blocked, but not much, at top and bottom one finger wide, at the sides two finger wide.

Does all this limit the joy? For me, not at all. The mask effect I am not aware of anymore since minute two of my VR exploration. The blurriness is somethign one gets used to, in some games it is more apparent, on others less.

The Oculus introduction and then the first demo with the small flying robot, were moments of pure magic like I have not felt for many, many years. I probably grinned all the time like an idiot, babbling stupid words like "Das is' nicht wahr!" and "Verdammte Scheiße!" and repeating them endlessly, for more variation in prose my brain had no reserves left to produce, it was too occupied with processing what the headset fed in signals via the eyes. I then, ten minutes later, tried Google Earth in VR. And it was then when the first contact with the virtual world really became overwhelming. I was speechless, and felt that my emotional control was starting to get shaken. I could not belie it, the visual impression was absolutel overwhelming and - well, yes, overwhelming, there is no better word for it. I was floating in space, and this big orb that Earth is was floating before my eyes and I was levitating in empty space and stars and the milky way around me - then zooming in to Florence and seeing it laid out under my eyes like the 3D landscape of a model railway landscape of unlimited proportions, and this little god that I suddenly had turned into, flying and moving and handling it all like he wanted - it started to become too much. Not due to nausea, and still have not suffered a single minute from it, but my emotional reaction became more and more intense. All this beauty around me! Unbelievable!

I then zoomed to Neuschwanstein Castle, and here used the function of Streetview, suddenly standing in the inner yard of the castle that surrounded me as a true 360° panorama, and all the people stood around me, and I turned and it was as if I were there. I had to stop here and give it a break, my emotioins went on a rollercoaster ride. System overload, my inner system shut down and took a break.

Guys, this is madness.

Since then, I only made as intense and overwhelming new experiences with VR, no matter what I tried. The tracks in Assetto Corsa and now sitting inside the car and watchigng my alter ego behind the wheel, it is a completely new ball game, the tracks have nothing to do with those I remember from screen. That cars in a distance are hazy and blurry, it just does not matter that much, when they get closer, all the stunning detail in stereoscopic 3D becomes apparent, you race in the middle of the pack, you see and think you feel the car shakign and rollign around you, you scratch off paint from others and look scared out of the window, you naturall turn your head towards turn apex or to watch the mirrors - its super-hot stuff, the devil pales in envy. With the even more detailed tracks in Raceroom, it became even better. Yesterday i did the Nordschleife, trying to kill my new rig and push it into maximum fans acitivity (a fail, btw. ) by driving with almost 100 cars. The noise! the sights! The experience! You see, all external cameras, TV cameras, car body cameras, they are still there - just in 3D. You want to reach out and touch it. Its unbelievable.

What also impresses me, is how they solved latency. There is none you can note. I love to play Eleven Table Tennis, and you depend on the game releasing your movements and reactions in zero time. And as far as human perception is concerned - it does. The movements I do are natural, and like in reality, the game - to me, while I play - is like the real thing, they physics are excellent and absolutely convincing. After 30 minutes of excercising , I am wet with sweat, breathing a bit heavier than before. Its unbelievable how good this game is in catching the real thing. I also saw Racket Fury, which is better in presentation, but a bit lighter in AI and physics, still: also a very good table tennis game. Just that Eleven is as hardcore as it can get, gameplay- and physics-wise.

This morning I installed Battle for Stalingrad. I have not set up the controls and did not tune the game, I just went into a quick mission and let the autopilot fly and fight. Holy cow, once again I was kicked out of reality. They did an excellent job, a most excellent job in recreating the cockpits in 3D, and making all the instruments readable, and easily so, and the blurriness of distant planes also got toned down, but I recommend to play with labels on in VR. I expected the experience to be unusable, due to the open space and huge distance and the blurriness this implies. Somehow they managed to significantly tone it down. Like with racing before, flying now is a completely new ballgame.

Point is, the scaling of objects in stereoscopic 3D gives you the impression to be different, bigger, than you are used to know things from 2D screen. a screen does not transport the informaton for the eye that gives you a correct idea of how big and massive objects actually are. It was like this in my race sims, and it was like this in Sturmovik Stalingrad as well. The tracks in race sims appear to be flat and even, even the laserscanned bumby and steep ones. on a screen, you just do not become aware of it. with the Vr headset on, you deal with a new world and are stunned of how steep it goes up and down on the N ordschlweife, and how uneven the track is.

There are many free programs to be tried, demos and small games, I tried Robo recall, like somebody recommended, and indeed it is good fun and shows some really nasty humour, and it is a nice pistols and rifles shooter in the streets of Robo City. A good demonstrator.

I already own Dirt Rally, like the other racing sims, so I get VR for it free, I just need to tune the options and settings a bit. The experience of driving rally I had already. It was the most intense driving of them all! And the world looks fantastic.

My rig is a monster, and no matter what I throw at it, it happily digests it, and the Rift gives me 90 frames all the time. You can get away with less frames and then some software solution to extrapolate additional frames, but this comes at the cost of a.) being less precise, and more important: b.) increasing the risk of nausea. Whe you consider to try VR, keep this in mind. You can get away with a less beefy system and lower specs than I have, but you may be faced with a price.

Also, nausea risk increases in games that have the player moving at high speeds, and then looking to the side instead of ahead. For your first test, you may want to chose a more slow, gentle animation experience, or something where you can stay steady.

I just got Alien Isolation in steam sales today. Somewhere out there, there is a - working! - 3D patch for it, indeed it has her basic 3D interface build in, but the producer never officially pushed it to release in development, since they did not sell enough units of the game and thus development was considered uneconomical. Not much must be said about the game and its survival mode, its truly creepy. Now that I have a first hand impression of what 3D does regarding me teleporting INTO as game world, I am not eager to check out the manual installation needed for this patch.

As I said already in the Subnautica thread, this is another marvel in 3D VR. The beauty to be seen is incredible ,you must not play the game, just go into god mode and then dive away as far as your heart lets you - and as deep. The feel of pressure in the wide open blue, is intense as well. I feel very intense excitement when diving in this game. At night, it looks breathtaking. Its a SciFi game after akll, and the flora and fauna is an alien one.

A word on the manufacturing quality of the Rift. The visuals are said to be the best amongst all currently available headsets. And I do not complain about visuals and electronics, but about the face rim with foam that they provided, it is cheap, shabby, and did not fit my face at all, my nose's breath streamed back into the mask and the result was not just fogging, but it simply became really wet inside. Very bad. For this price, even at reduced price, the manufcaturing quality is shabby. The foam also started to unpick at the sleeves, where skin might be a bit rough due to shaving having left some stopples of hair. I replaced the face frame with an external product which again is not too good in manufacturing quality considering its too high price, but it has at least a plastic leather skin on the foam, and a piece of cloth to be put on top of that, and important: the fit is suiting my face much better. Hygienics can become problematic, since you tend to sweat when wearing this masks, they become warm, and if you play something like table tennis, you sweat due to the "sports".

My glasses were not a problem to be worn in the mask, but be aware they say here is a limit how wide glasses cna be, not every frame may fit into the mask. Anyway, I ordered lens-lab lenses that get attached to the mask, so that I do no need to wear the glasses at all.

On the cables, they again saved money ion the wrong plac, they are the very lowest minimum only. At the same time, be advised that if you extent them, you enter dangerous terrain already if extensions are longer than 2m, also, not all brands of cakbveols may work with the Oculus Rift. The Rift needs longer cables by default, and a stronger signal amplifier would be appreciated as well.

The runnign software is too obstzrusive, for my taste, coming to life whenever oyu just touch or move the Rift on the table. There is no switch to turn the hardware off, it is always on - stupid, and they said they designed it intentionally so, which is even more stupid.

Its no bad kit, I do not say he image quality ois bad, it isn't. What I say is that they save dmoneys in the wroing places, and that the cable length is too short, and the face frame is too bad - on these things the Rift is overpriced. However, the Vive currrently costs twice as much, more or less.

Virtual Desktop is a must have tool, it projects the PC desktop before your eyes and let you handle it without needing to take off the mask. Its like sitting before a huge movie screen in the cinema. There are severla programs doing this, but VD is said to have the best player for 360° videos, which are another highly fascinating thing. You sit in an open bus and drive through the streets of Havannah, a fluid, smooth movie that is projected on the inner side of a sphere surrounding you from all sides, and yourself hanging in the centre of the sphere. Dolphin diving, parachute jumping, and many touristic introduction videos - very nice!

Programmign games for 3D, is costly, and the first heavy weight in business, CCD who did Eve Valkyrie for 3D on Playstation, already has withdrawn completely again. With games like Skyrim and Fallout coming to 3D, the ultimate fate of VR is still open nevertheless, but I do not take it for granted that it will be a success story - in gaming. Some games' content are nice for VR implementation, some other content does not go well together with VR. However, one must see the other fields where VR can be used, and I gave some example, while not having mentioned others. The possibilities are immense, and fascinating, and technology will improve. Just increasing the pixel in displays will not do the trick, since you need more calculation power in your PC s well.

I think, all in all, this time VR has come to stay. But it will not necessarily be the game genre that pushes it forward. Could be - but must not be. There are tradeoffs in visual quality that you currently have to live with, but I found myself getting overwhelmed and flattened by the compensation. I love VR, and I love it with big passion - just took me one minute.

One minute.

P.S.
The nausea problem is a brain training thing. You can train yourself to form greater tolerance for it. If you are faced by this problem, due to lacking monitor time, do not give it up immediately, but come back next day, but have a calmer and shorter session, and then slowly extend length and intensity of your sessions, from day to day. Most, amost all people seem to agree that this way you can train your brain to adapt to VR. Me, playing a lot and doing a lot of things on PC, has not had a single nausea attack so far. However, if yiur hardware is lacking, no brain trian can compensate for that.

And if somebody knows how to get Stellarium for VR (named Starsight, I think) without needing to file in a Google+ account, please let me know.

Elite can be had for Steam sale price currently, think I go after it. I'm on a frenzy currently.
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Old 11-26-17, 04:52 PM   #18
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Worth to be considered: Oculus sensors are hackable webcams.

https://uploadvr.com/hackable-webcam...nsor-be-aware/

Cover them if you do not use them. Like you put a stripe on the webcam in your notebook, too.

Meanwheile, I have used VR in ETS2, which works remarkably well and brings the cockpit interior to real life, and Dirt Rally, whcih maybe is the visually bets looking VR experience amongst allk racing sims I use. It is spectacular, especially if oyu limit viewing range due to bad wetaher or use tracks of limited viewiign range (woods, many turns, landscqape bliockign vision). The image of VR masks is much blurrier than what you see on monitors, and the further you look into the virtual space and at a distance, the blurrier it becomes. Thats why you want to switch off things like "anti-alias" and "depth of field", and that's why VR works the better the more limited viewing distances are in any game.

Also, a wonderful, a truly amazing free demo is avialable from the Oculus Home repository: Air Car, which sits you into a flying air car like you know from Blade Runner, and have you you flying over a futuristic nightly as you kniow it also form the movie. You can manouver freely, and it is all you can do, there is no "game". But doing this alone is already fascination, and a very intense experience. Considering this is free, I absolutely recommend to try this demo, it is perfect for introducing visitors to VR as well. - Not to be mistaken with Blade Runner Mind Lab, another free demo there is.

In early access at steam,, there is a tennis game as well, this time the real big field game, not table tennis. It still is under development, and I wonder how they manage to get correct grip and runnign up and dopwn the line is beign implemented when you play this in your living room, but I keep an eye on this, though currently from a distance.

Sports Bar is a blown up surrounding for an older Billiard game. The Billiard poart is solid, but simple, actually I got this for another oncluded game, that is air hockey, a thing I know from rfal lfie, and that I played excesi8svely and with greta passion when I was at university. I must say the impkementaiuton of it in this pckage, is very good, it plays like I recall it from back then. Since that was what I was after, I rate this package a success buy.

And I found another quite good table tennis game, Racket Fury. It is a bit lighter in soorts and physics than Eleven Table Tennis, but it is superior in presentaiton and grahics. Set in a futuristic ambience, you playx against robtos that are depicted and animated in full, you canj chose to have a more forgiving arcade game mode where the ball is magicallyy attracted to the table even if you slam it like crazy, and it has some nice naimations to effects, smash ball energy, and flight oaths, all can be switched on and off. Eleven is the more hardcore, and if you want t5o play table tennis seriously in Vr, whcih i absolteuly beioevew is possible, it is the superior choice, but Racket Fury also is a very good, solid representation of the sports, and more accessible and suotable for occasional and party gaming. Its non-arcade mode is quite realistic. Recommended.

Finally, another free demo that comes as part of the Oculus Home domain, that is Mission ISS. It has three advantages that makes it perfect as a demo: it is educating on the ISS, it looks and feels great, and it is slow moving while having you revolving aroudn all three axis, showing you what full VR really means. The station can be explored both form within and the outside. It'S free, and so trying it out is a no-brainer.
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Old 12-09-17, 09:31 PM   #19
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Ridley Scotts company RSA announced they are working on a VR game "Alien Covenant". Their early attempt of turnign "The Martian" into a brief game, was not really cheered about by players, so I halt my applaus.

Alien Isolation in VR - is horror. I do not say more than that it really tests your nervous costume. It gives me the creeps. Feels very intense, I appreciate it somewhat, but do not really enjoy it.

Rumours are consolidating that 2018 first 4K headsets will come out, amongst them a HTC set, and a crowdfunded Chinese set by Pixma. But what I read of the latter, sounds dubious so far, I would take it with a grain of salt. They even talk about 8K displays - with crowdfunding of just 100 thousand as a goal, and super frames of up to 140-180 Hz and a latency below 12 ms, via software accessing both Steam and HTC shops and Oculus Home...? I believe it when I see it. And it remains to be seen what PC hardware, namely graphics boards, will make of such headsets.

I have made good experiences with The Golf Club meanwhile, and Sprts Bar, which I would recommend to all of you wanting to gather in a social media sytel in a virtual bar, noit kust chatting, but also playing several typical bar games togetherk the host cna even set up his preferred Jukebox mix and music videos. It has still some bugs here and there, but the core elements work very well and likely. It allos platforms combined: HTC, Oculus, Playstation. Up to I think 12 players in one room, and some bots. The implementaiton of pool is well done with the AI, so is shuffleboard and Air Hockey. Darts needs to get used to. Chain reaction is a nice reaction automat, and there also are chess and checkerb oards (wiothout AI, to be used by two human players), and some ball-throwing thing that I did not know, plus many non-seriosu gimmicks. Want to form a lobby with your friends? This one is a nice way to do it.

I focus on racing now, but have tested VR in Elite as well, unfortunately, while the cockpit experience is great, the game has such an alienating access and lack of default-delivered documentation and needs to be set up with so compley a menu, that it has killed my enjoyment quite rapidly. It loois and feels great, yes, but nevertheless Braben has managed to ruin it, in my opinion. What was he thinking. And then the business model - micrortansactions like in Raceroom. What was he thinking, what only was he just thinking. Not pleasant to be played with Touch controllers. Cannot recommend this one.

I tested and refunded X Rebirtgh VR as well, whcih is brandnew. It uses Vulcan gfx engien and looks nice, but once again this stupdi compoany has placed a messed-.up release, they sjt did not learn from their msitakes in 2014, but somewhat repwat it.The steering is vilating the standards of al flightsimming just for the sake of making it different - and worse. Cannot recommend this either, I filed a requestr for refund, and got it.

I travelled the Grand Canyon for - beolpeive it - 2 and a half hours. Google Earth is my big love affair and beside Assetto corsa and Raceroom the thing I use VR most for.

I wait for sales to start further exmaination of Holoball and Battlezone.

First Person Tennis I also strongly recommend, if hitting balls with your handstick is what you are looking for. Eleven Table Tennis oprves to last much loigner thna just for a few days, I play it regularly, and I enjoy it. Subnautica got a new graphics update just two days ago.

Aerofly FS2 is on my cnsideraiton list, but I just cannot get mayslef embarking on it. My fglying times indeed seem to be over, somewhat. It is said to have a superior VR experience and indeed has fanatastic visuals, but on ly in the day, its areas of high detail are phto scenery, more or less. Their switzerland addon was the basis of the first Aerofly title, I know it. Its a Flightsim LIGHT, and looks awesome -durign the day. But no life, no complexity, no interactive scenery, only rudimentary cockpit functionality. I assume this becomes uninteresting rather quickly. Thats why I keep my money.

I think I skip on DCS VR, I imagine it is much more work to set it up and then flying it (I knew it in the last) as if I am willing to inverst that much time and effort anymore. Yes, my flying times feel like being over.

All in all it is indeed like I anticipated weeks ago before the new rig arrived. VR is the nonplusultra for racing sims already now. A natural combination. If racing is your thing, you owe it to yourself to forget triple screens and to plot course for VR. Several light-sports games work very well, too.
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Old 12-10-17, 09:38 AM   #20
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An image example of screen qualities. It shows what 4K would mean for image quality compared to the HTC and Oculus current displays.

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/018...gif-q=50&q=92&

Illustration from Pimax.

P.S.

It seems direct link does not work. Try this page, the second (animated) illustration in the text, pretty much at the top.

https://vr-world.com/htc-vive-2-neue...splay-samsung/
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Old 12-10-17, 11:37 AM   #21
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A nice video giving an overlook on Vr and flight simming: games, tools, experience quality.



Seems to be more advanced than I noticed so far.
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Old 12-28-17, 04:29 PM   #22
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First test done today with VR and X-Plane 11. Sitting myself into the cockpit of a Boeing 737, I ended up being slightly disoriented (despite knowing the stuff from PMDG's 737) and just thinking "Wowh. This thing is huge. Wowh."

Its not perfect, but already overwhelming enough. Probably the so far best implementation of VR into a hardcore flightsim. The handlig concept is superb.

Compared to FSX, XP11 seems to be a thing fo give some and take some. Pewrsonally for me, airprort sceneries are most important, and this is where XP11 must let FSX go uzp and away. Even the additional 3rd party commercial products for international hubs for both sims see FSX outclassing XP11. Default scneery and weather and nighttime lights and colours however are all points scored for XP11.

If you have VR and ask whetehr or not to go with XP11 to get flight simming aboard your flightsim collection in VR, stop thinking, and start buying. Its a no-brainer.

And my beautioful new system can handle it at smooth frames with most graohics options maxed out or at least in the upper quarter of the settings.

Rumour says PMDG plans to continue and finish the running 2 projects, then start converting their NGX for XP11, for which they alreaedy released a DC-6, which could have been a testing balloon for them to see how it is to code within this new environment of XP. However, I do not await the NGX or the also rumoured 777 any time soon. Probably not next year (2018). Hopefully 2019.
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Old 07-09-18, 09:18 AM   #23
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Its been half a year with VR for me now. The initial fever has toned down a bit, but I am still extremely happy with it. The starting curiosity also has adapted to a more laid back style again, and beside my initial main interests Assetto Corsa and Raceroom, I now use it frequently and very often for Google Earth as well as Eleven Table Tennis.

I cannot recommend Eleven much enough. It is a superb, physically most exact simulation of the sports. I just came in from the garden where I played the last half an hour real world table tennis with the son of one family living in this house. It was the first time I have played the real thing since my schooldays, which are over 30 years ago. And it felt like what i did the past weeks and months, 4 or 5 days per week for half an hour in VR. It worked the same, the swinging and effect worked the same, it was all and everything the same. If you go VR, get this little gem, it is superb. The young man did not believe me when telling him I had not played TT for over 30 years. Actually, he is right. I feel as if I play it every day. And I have dramatically improved, last but not least due to its trainign options allowing me to train just one special strike and situation at a time. IMO, this is one of the best games avaikalble for VR. It scores maximum points in the category of "simulating its object".

Another famous table tennis game is Racket, but I must "warn" against itr. Its presentation is better, yes, and it offers more candy like animated robo-opponents and futuristic environments, but what counts is the ball physics and the paddle physics, and while for itself it works, regarding the pyhsics and realism Eleven imo plays it into the ground: far superior, just that. If realism is what you want: Eleven trumps Racket.

I also found A-10 VR. This is no flight sim at all, I do not kow where they got the title. Its a space pistolero shooter with two different laser pistols, and you have to defend your position against incoming UFOs that may split into multiple targets if hit, or explode once they slowly had managed to drift to your position and contacting your "body". The graphics are quite abstract, but match the setting very well. This is no new game idea, not at all. What makes this title so splendid that I recommend it, is the virtuous perfection by which it works. A-10 presents htis game idea in an imo excellent execution that raises the difficulty comfortably, but constantly, until you finally gte overwhelmed. If you test it, make sure you understand that the training mode is designed to not raise the challenge, but to stay at a low pace. Mayn people overlook this and then rate the game on basis of this boring, dull gameplay. Those who found out later and played again with the real game modes and difficulty, immediately skyrocketed their ratings. A-10 does not sound like much, but it is a hell of a good shooting game, really. 360° arena around you. I just love it.

The pinball tables by ZEN, Flipper FX 2 VR, are a mixed bag, some of them play nice and well, others are a bit dull, but the visual presentation is always very good. If pinball is your game, this comes recommended, even more since finally they have implemented proper controller support. Finally. Thje tables are not too simple, but could offer some more complexity nevertheless, for my taste. All in all: Good stuff. The VR makes the tables and palying them areally new experience - and your ball control will benefit from it, believe me.

Fallout 4 which came for HTC only, was greeted with mixed reactions, there seems to be some design flaws in it and some quesitonable design decisions which made this release one that trails behind its expectations. But Skyrim! This classic works VERY well, and is probably one of the very, very best games available for VR currently. Show me any better one: status July 2018. If the controversy about Fallout 4 VR held you back, rest assured: your concern is not valid when it comes to Skyrim. It works. And it is a blast. All DLCs included. It even can be modded.

I occasionally have some fun with some swinging done in First Person Tennis, which is still in developement, its not perfect, but surprisngly good, the concept works well enough. If you want to tennis a bit, go for it, you hardly will consider it to be a mistake. Its fun, really, thoguh not as sophisticated as Eleven table tennis. However, make sure you play NOT at simplified physics model, but the realistic one. Ands beware your funiture. this is one of the VR games that indeed is "dangerous".

The Golf Club VR is a nice Golf game. I do not play it much, got it more for a sense of "completeness" (a computer is no computer as long as it has no chess and no golf game installed). It seems to be quite realistic on the physis side, and surprisingly the swinging and the height callbration works indeed very well.

I tried some other, minor stuff as well, but nothing too serious there. Also Elite , but the VR game for me has the same problem like the standard version of it: the new player is left too alone with too much fiddling around with the controls. I just cannot get immersed enough to dive deeper into it. Technically/visually, Elite in VR is one of the most impressive games available for VR currently. David Braben really wastes a big opportunity with this title, since years. Its not as if peope did not let him know.

Needless to say: in racing games, VR works at its very best, this - and Google Earth and Streetview - is what VR was made for, as far as games are concerned. Assetto Corsa and Raceroom are no games any longer - they are experiences.

-----

Have I missed any major new VR game over the last 6 months that scores big time and is stunningly well-done? Any tips, secret recommendations, whispered titles traded under the table?
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Old 07-20-18, 05:23 PM   #24
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I just tested the demo for Racket NX. We have a new must-have for the list of VR games!

Its a mix of Arkanoid, Squash and Racketball, played under a hex-plated 360° dome. There are several game modes and multiplayer, and although they want a room setting, my two sensors and a 2x2m playing arena worked perfectly well.

They got this game absolutely right, evertyhing in it, the physics of the energy ball, the way you can add spin and slice, and hitting the ball has something in it that gives amazing satisfaction. If you add power to your hits, let the bat snap around your wrist so that it kicks the thing like a whip, it gives you a feeling and a result that you become addicted to in no time. The game was in Early Access since 2016 and has just been fully released some days ago, and they apparently used this lot of time to really finetune things and get every little detail of the game mechanics right.

Superb VR game, excellent, I'm hyped! This is no doubt one of the best VR games out there currently. It also is a fantastic demonstrator for the potential of VR.

Free demo available, test it, 350 MB at Steam. I will buy and download the full version tomorrow, currently with a 25% discount (15 Euros).




P.S. There is a couple of good sports games out there that really can get your blood moving faster and get you sweating and fogging your headset. BoxVR, Racket Fury, Eleven Table Tennis, Thrill of the Fight, First Person Tennis and now Racket NX all count to this category. I did martial arts for the better part of my life but stopped training over ten years ago, so I know what real sports of this kind is, I also played a bit of Tennis when I was young, really, just a little bit, Boris Becker hype and all that LOL. I do not say these kind of VR games are full substitutes for a real workout, but lets be fair to what they try to be: they really are better than no sports at all.
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Old 08-31-18, 06:57 AM   #25
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Vr needs a strong hardware and headsets usually are on the more expensive side of things. Thats why many thought that consoles, namely the PS4 by Sony with its sufficient console power and affordably priced headset would be able to boost the VR mission.


Sony now released official numbers. They said so far 3 million headsets and 22 million VR titles for Playstation 4 have been sold.


I think that is not desastrous, but also not really "good".



Main problem imo remains that there are too few good VR titles that adapt very well to the medium, its typical strengths and weaknesses. Myself, I am still happy, since I use it mainly for race driving. And race sims and VR are made for reach other - perfect combo. Evertyhing falls into the right place with this combination. The other top hit for me remains to be Google Earth.
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Old 10-30-18, 09:40 AM   #26
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If your final exams for vomitting diploma are close and you feel you still need to train a little bit in order to pass the graduation spitting, No Limits 2 in VR is a good practicing opportunity to help you vomitting so creatively that even the most sceptical tutors will be impressed by your spraying skills. Happy spouting!







This is a 360° video so you can move the viewing angle around.


The thing has a very complex but competent editor which they claim is being used by real world companies to plan and design new coasters. Here is where the real focus of the title resides, I think: doing new tracks, since riding a rollercoaster is not really "gameplay". Some people go into the basement ands buiold model railroads, others sit down and build rollercoaster, jedem Tierchen sein Pläsierchen. Workshop support is available if picking the Standard version at Steam. They have two versions. The Pro version can only be had at the producer's website. Free demo with three full tracks available, but editor is not functional. The tutorials can be red, however, I think.
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Old 10-30-18, 09:45 AM   #27
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The new Assetto Corsa Competizione got VR as well two weeks ago, second release in their Early Access program. The sim is benchmarking the genre, and the VR already is very good although i have often read the Unreal 4 engine is anything but easy to use for VR. The resulting immersion is overwhelming. When ACC is complete at the end of Q1 2019, it will sweep the floor with all the competing racing titles. Fact!
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Old 10-30-18, 09:11 PM   #28
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Tried Tango Park in No Limits earlier this evening. A terrible, a good experience. That machine I tried, was no coaster, I do not know how they are called, but it was the first time that I got extremely nauseous in VR, and I felt sick for all evening long. It was even better and worse, becasue I took the riude at night, and the scnery helf many colourful light effects that contrast in Vr heavily and accentuate the angular speeds and rotation. I even did not went to bed, because I still feel sea-sick, hours later.

Here the diabolic thing can be seen from 0:45 until 2:00. If you want to maximise-impress your guests with your new VR kit - here is your oppotunity. Just have a bucket ready.



I tell you, you must try this!

What a glorious beast. Usually I am not vulnerable to VR nausea at all. Not at all.

However, This video shows what beautiful stuff can be done if modders unleash their magic and go seriously into it. Its just a piece of beauty.

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Old 11-24-18, 06:31 AM   #29
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I disoverd a new and old game, that is because I forgot about it since I saw it in VR in Novembre last year. ETS2. I mean I playe dit already before and since logn time, since I find it a most relaxing and pleasant experience, comparable to The Hunter, but last year I just quickly checked whether or not I could get it working under VR, and then forgot about it. It not only works, but it works marvelously well.The cabin feeling is insanely immersive, the cockpit detials and fantastic mirrors blend nicely with the environment, the flowing traffic, the sights and views of weather and night-day-cycle, the enchanting landscape chnages...


I also finally took the time to tune my new wheel and pedals correctly for the sim, and with the new physics of version 1.33, the driving delivers me a very convincing and believable illusion of the relalthing and of correct physical behaviour - up to level that I emotioanlly react to the game and "live" the feeling of being all alone in the weather, or enjoying the feel of truckigj down that road. Not many games acchieve that emotional reaction.


There is a lot of writing and complaining about ETS2 working bad in VR and that is has massive performance issues. I cannot confirm that, but then i have a very powerful rig, I use no mods and I don'T drive online (pointless in ETS2, imo), for me it works always smooth and without any issues at all even in rush hour jams and lots of cars around. I have not one issue with ETS in VR, none. The visual quality when looking at the virtual distance, is not different than in other racing games and games, and for itself is nice by the standards of today'S VR.



The new areas they have added lately, Scandinavia,France and Italy, also look most beautiful, surpassing by far the level of details and atmpshere in the graohcis if the game as it was released many years ago. Much new stuff has replaced old incarnations since then, sunliht, and lights of cars at night have been repalced, amongst many other things. The baltic states, the region around St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad Southern Finland are about to follow in one or two weeks.



If you have not tried ETS while you have VR, do it now. Its an outstanding experience to showcase VR, imo. It has blwon new life into this sim for me, and I am looking forward to to once again some trucking over the dark time of the year.


I do not know but can only imagine that ATS would work nice and beautiful in VR as well.
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Old 11-24-18, 07:54 AM   #30
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Thanks for the detailed descriptions.I tried VR in Sweden and yeah, it was really amazing. I am pretty sure I will suffer nausea all the time though, I couldn't play more than 15 minutes of Half-Life without getting sick.
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