VR the champions of the world?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

You mentioned batteries earlier.

What type of batteries do you use and how many mah. do they have.

The strongest chargeble batteries I found on the web have 5200 mah.
but only 1.2 V.

Markus

I use these, and I prescribed these for my Mum, too. You need one batterie per controller. So two batteries in use, two in reserve. As I said, they hold for one week or longer, and I use the headset a lot.

Normal batteries you can also use, but the costs will maybe add up over the months.

https://www.amazon.de/Kratax-Wiedera...s%2C76&sr=8-17

Mind you again, you must calculate for external batteries for the headset, too, the internal battery will not last for long. Either a headstrap with battery in it, or an external powerbank that is high in capacity and discharge power, and a fast USB cable. Many people ignore that, do not know it: the cable must support the high consumption rate, too. Powerbanks of same capacity cna vary in discharging power. Usually that is no problem. With the Quest 3, I found awareness of these factors to be critical.

But I would wait with that until you have had the headset for a few days and checked that your brain can get used ot it without giving you motion sickness. If that is the case, train yourself, like my Mum did (it works). No fast-moving games in the beginning, and not long use per day, then slowly increasing the usage per day. Important is to do it every day, its better than to do it every couple of days and then longer sessions, that does not work too well. People are different, some are prone to it, some are not, one never knows in advance for sure. The problem is less prevalent with a quality headset like the Quest 3, and with games that have good VR optimization. But it can be trained away, the brain just needs the opportunity to get used to it.

This is not to discourage you - try it, and you will see how it is for you. If you bought with a trustworthy trader or Amazon (!), you can give it back within a certain timeframe anyway.


We use these:

https://www.amazon.de/UGREEN-Ladekab...73&sr=8-9&th=1
(note this is a 100W cable)

https://www.amazon.de/INIU-25000mAh-...ps%2C94&sr=8-3

With a "slower" powerbank it could be that the headset nevertheless discharges, just slower than without external battery. One such battery usually gets me over the day's use. I only rarely use the battery in the Elite headstrap, its of similiar capacity like the internal battery and so doubles the headset'S default working time. But the powerbank has I think around 5x as much capacity, it lasts for hours. I carry it in a small pouch on my belt. The cable is 1m.

Power is an issue with the Quest 3, its is very hungry. Thats why they even slowed it down a bit - it so far runs not with its full power unleashed. Many do not know this! Means: it can be hacked to become even better - and slightly warmer. And that bwould not even be ov erclocking in the meanign of going beyoind standard values. The headset is currently operating with the brakes slightly applied. The problem is the standing time of the internal battery. One can handle this issue, and easily. One just needs to know it.

[Skybird]

These two should get you started.

Two general tips for a start:
1. never expose the inner main lenses to direct sunlight. They then work like burning glasses and burn the LCD display inside.
2. On the left side, the power buitton that also manually acitvates standby mode, sits directly above the tiny left side lense. Do not mistake the two with the mask on your face, you may damage the lense if you mistake it for the button and press it heavily, wondering why ther eis no reaction.

Okay, two more tips.
3. In case you get the Meta Elite headstrap with integrated 2nd battery (maybe there are better options from external developers), keep on mind that that external battery discharges when you swithc off the headset and let it sit for a day with bthe battery plugged in to the USB port. You will lose 20% of power per day that way. Unplug the battery instead, it then keepos its charge for a long time.
4.Like all lithoum betteries, these and powerbanks do niot like beign completely dpelrted or fully charged up. It extends the lognevity of thes ebatteriues over their life cycle if one operates then within a 20%-80% range, like it is recommended for laptops, tablets and smartphones as well. Especially fully charging means additonal stress for the separator layer in the battery. Can be easily avoided! I charge my powerbank and headset to not more than 78-82%. Once the mask is at that range, a plugged-in powerbank will orughly keep it at that level for longer time. Some games, like shadow boxing, i play without external battery , however, do gain better freedom of movement. But then these sessions never last too long anyway...

Okay, for starters:








First users enjoy two free apps that come with the Quest 3 and that are meant and designed to demonstrate the handling and the possibilities. They all impress. The Quest 3 comes with "First Steps", "First Encounters" (demonstrating MR), and "First Hand" demonstrating hand tracking, the Quest 3 can operate with just bare hands, without contorllers). However I would also recommend to get "First Contact" for free from the app store, which was the similar demonstrator for the Rift 1 years ago. Its still actual and state of the art, and is very enjoyable and charming. First Contact and First Encounter are the two demos you maybe want to keep to impress the occasional visitor or guest, the other two you check out once and then can deinstall to save a little bit of storage. First Hand I did not even play to the end. - All these apps are for free, no hooks and no traps.

[Skybird]

I reiterate: handtracking and passthrough (=mixed reality) wants good light conditions, then it works very well, telling from my own experience.

[mapuc]

I'm starting to get very nervous, it's so much to have in mind.

Though more videos I watch though more uncertain I become.

I am going to buy a set and I am going to buy these two sport-equipment to these two sport game-Golf+ and Tennis

While watching a YT video about games I came to a game where you fly an American fighter plane in the Pacific during WWII where each operation starts and ends on a carrier that game looked very interesting.

I'm also thinking about going 3D on my ETS 2 if possible.

And I'm going to follow your rules about playing a few minutes each time the first week or so and then adding some minutes to my gameplay time.
This to avoid motion sickness.

I'm also looking forward to watch movies, which should be something special.

Markus

[mapuc]

When watching people play VR games on their set, like Quest 2 or 3 one can't help thinking about older computers and their graphic.

An average game on VR have about 5 GB.

Even here the progress towards top notch graphic is an ongoing process. The first VR's graphic was much to wish for.

How well will a VR NPC-person look like in 5 or 10 years from now ?

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I'm starting to get very nervous, it's so much to have in mind.
Though more videos I watch though more uncertain I become.

Dont worry. Prepare in stages. One or two days before the set arrives, install the app in your tablet/smartphone. Then you must not do it on "installation day". Watch that Meta video again one day before arrival, and make mental notes on the sequence of steps. The Quest also will guide you through the process, live. Really, its not to be worried about, i did it twice, and it worked both times smooth and free of problems.

I am going to buy a set and I am going to buy these two sport-equipment to these two sport game-Golf+ and Tennis.

Wait with the tennis grip, no matter whether you mean table tennis or real tennis, it is nice to have, but not essential. Test the game you have on mind before. I play First Person Tennis with controller only and cannot complain. Eleven Table Tennis I use an adapter, yes.But even wothout it is one of the Must-Have titles. It simply the best sports game - the best simulation of a real sport - ever created so far: with and without adpater grip. Dont thrtow your money away too easily. Check in steps, and then decide. Its easy to spend a fortune on VR. But it is not necessary.


The decisive tool to have is the golf adapter, this one makes an undeniably stellar difference. If you want to play Golf, get it. The DeadEye VR adapters are probably the best in town, that company's DriVR 3 Pro is the one I use, its 10 cm shorter than the newer DriVR Elite. Check your playing room's free space.

While watching a YT video about games I came to a game where you fly an American fighter plane in the Pacific during WWII where each operation starts and ends on a carrier that game looked very interesting.

I think I know which one you mean, I have it. My tip would be to go with the WW1 game in that series, the planes' speeds suit the limited air spaces dimensions better. There is also a modern air warfare game in that series, but peopel complained that all stuff in that, fighters and helicpters alike, fly more or less the same. But the WW1 and WW2 games are not bad, though not super-realistic. Arcade meets reasonably profound pyhsics. My tipm would be: bookmark it on the wishlist, and wait for a sale.

Once you have established a working PC-Quest link and Virtual Desktop installed, consider to get VTOL for PC on Steam, its a flightsim developed for VR from had to toe, and it shows it, and its brilliant, feels like the best of Microprose sims transported to the present. But first you must be sure your PC actually can handle both the game and the Quest - link you said the shop owner recommended you to expect not too much, or not?!

I'm also thinking about going 3D on my ETS 2 if possible.

Again, dont forget what the shop owner told you on your PC. Note that we now speak about a non-native game for Quest, a PC title. Your PC must be such that it can run both ETS2 well and then the additional workload of mirroring the visual results of that into the headset. Cant give you advice, you just must try it out. But make it a lower point on your list of to-dos with the new toy you get.

You want to test whether your PC handles Google Earth mirrored into the Quest. If so, you are in for something big. Its a must have combo. Else you must reduce the experience to just Streetview (works in Quest autonomously).

And I'm going to follow your rules about playing a few minutes each time the first week or so and then adding some minutes to my gameplay time.
This to avoid motion sickness.

Maybe you find out you are not prone at all. At first, its sufficient if you react if you realise you start to feel uncomfrotable. Because if you ignore it for too long, it gets worse and worse - and then can last for hours after you stopped playing. Just try it out and wait and see what happens. You will find out soon enough. If you start to feel not well - stop. Thats all. If you do not feel ill, there is no need to stop playing. - Myself, I can play in Vr for hours, everything, and dont get ill.

I'm also looking forward to watch movies, which should be something special.

It is! One of my favourite uses in VR.The apps you want to check out for that are Virtual Desktop (which is anyway a musthave, in my opinion, an dfor me the easiest and most reliable way to connect the headset to the PC without any problems, and with sound), and BigScreen. Both give oyu severla cinema halls to choose from.:
Virtual Desktop I use to watch from disc. You launch he app in Quest 3, you launch the partner app on PC. The VD screen from the PC then repalkces the n atiuve VD interfac ein the headset - you see the desktop form the PC in the headset then, and what surrounding you have depends on the mods for environments oyu have previously misntaled on PC via Steam Workshop. The movie from disc you then handle the same way you would as if you would watch it on PC and your monitor, the controlelrs only repalce the mouse as entry device. - Ask me again when you are there, I talk you through the process. Its not difficult, really, its not difficult.

BigScreen is my choice to watch Youtube videos. It features several environments which huge movie screens. Youtube is easier to handle with this than with the dedicated Youtube VR app that is also avialable. The latter is quite rudimentary only, and anything but attractive to use. - Note,. quest knows two youtuvbe appa, one for normal 2D youtube, and one named Youtube VR. You want the latter to be installed (for free) in the Quest, of you want any of ther two at all.



Note that normal 2D videos no matter thweir resolution, 180°, and 360° videos are three very different types of movies. The bigger the screen, the better it is if the camera they were shot in had extrneely high reosltuion. HD pushed to 360° is quite blurry. 12K in 360°, as one example, is a revelation.


You can and must not plan everythign in advance, I woudl reocmnmend to just relax and let thigns come to you, and then you dela with them one by one and at your personal pace. Dont talk yourself into frustration early.


I will remind you of some good apps to check out once you are set up. I am quite convinced there are options that you so far do not even imagine. Like my Mum, she admnitted some days ago that there are so many things to do with the Quest that she never could have imagined it before. Keep on mind, the Meta apps tore has a return policy similair to that of Steam. You can give back amboght game, within 14 days, and if nto haviugn playe dit for longbe rthan 2 hours. stay below those 2 hours., clearly so, and you are save. I have tested and given back 4 or 5 games, and got confirmation within 2-4 days.

Also this, note that the Meta account and any Facebook account you may or may not have, are independent from each other now, they are no longer linked. They lost a legal battle against the EU, and have given up that former policy.

Also note if you installed and start a new title and it asks for permission to access camera and microphone, you best allow it, else your mixed reality may not work, and other people you link to maybe cannot hear you.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

When watching people play VR games on their set, like Quest 2 or 3 one can't help thinking about older computers and their graphic.

An average game on VR have about 5 GB.

Even here the progress towards top notch graphic is an ongoing process. The first VR's graphic was much to wish for.

How well will a VR NPC-person look like in 5 or 10 years from now ?

Markus

I know the Rift 1 from 2017, and the G2 from two years ago, and the Quest 3 from now. Comparing the Rift to the Quest 3 is a mindblowing experience. - Heck, was the Rift 1 blurry, and that monumental screendoor effect.... And yet, back then we thought it was great.


The better is the enemy of the good.

[mapuc]

Thank you Marc

I'm going to tell you when I got the Quest 3 and from there we take the advice in steps.

Markus

[Skybird]

I am here if you need me.

[Skybird]

Oooops, I just learned this, and I think for at least some people its a biggie: on the Quest 3 you can play all XBox games via XBox game pass.

[Skybird]

Some very interesting and much requested improvements are coming with the new Quest 3 firmware update.




And I have completely missed that the Decembre update added a new playing location which is my new favourite, an ordinary sports hall. The tournament arena I used before had this low-temperature charme of an only blue colour palette, but this place is covered with warm red-brownish paint and surfaces, from brickstones and woods. It looks very nice in the real game. My new favourite.

[mapuc]

I'm watching some game videos to see how it may look like and what games there is.

In one of these video the man talked about motion sickness in the end of his video and I have taken notice of what he said.

"- If you start to feel dizzy stop playing right now do not think you can overcome it by continue playing- Instead you will suffer from this sickness all day. Better to take 30 or 45 or an hours rest before playing again. If the motion sickness come back after a few minutes play then decrease the minutes you play per day and slowly increase go up in minutes"

It is taken from memory

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I'm watching some game videos to see how it may look like and what games there is.

In one of these video the man talked about motion sickness in the end of his video and I have taken notice of what he said.

"- If you start to feel dizzy stop playing right now do not think you can overcome it by continue playing- Instead you will suffer from this sickness all day. Better to take 30 or 45 or an hours rest before playing again. If the motion sickness come back after a few minutes play then decrease the minutes you play per day and slowly increase go up in minutes"

It is taken from memory

Markus

Like I said.

If you start feeling motionsick, immediately stop, do not carry on. Else it will get worse - andn then will last much beyond the time when you stopped. Somewhere in this thread, earlier, I told of what happened to me when I once tried a fairground attraction in VR, one of these killer caroussel things that rotated me along all three space axis (the developer has taken it out of this software sicne then, so I seem to not have been alone). I stopped and felt nothing, initially. But an hour later after that I became so sick hat I could not stand, sit or lay on the ground,but all the world was coinstantly spiralling aorund me, i was constantly revolving aorudn my body axis and could not keep balance, fell of my feet, spiralling on and on, and when being on all four, I rolled over and over, a sif I hjad a neural desease, it was heel, it realyl was, and I felt like needing to vomit all the time,l and couldn'T, it was beyond my will and control to stop rolling, and I felt sick as a dog, so sick like the first - and only - time I got thoroughly drunk and probably had a mild or not so mild alcohol intoxication as a stupid teen.

However, this is, I think a very rare an d very extreme example. I woudl have called the emergcny, if I would have been able to get top and operate the telophone, but I couldn't. It was hell, and it lasted I think 3, 4 hours.

This is not to scare you, Markus, and most people never feel it this worse as I did on that day. Just saiyng what the man in that video says: if you feel it creeping on you, stop immediately, you cannot overcome it by trying to outlast it - it only will outlast YOU. And the longer you go on beyond the early indications, the worse the price you have to pay later on. Even if it comes with a delay. Its better to stop immediately. And next day coming back, and then from day to day increase the playing interval slightly. The brain adapts. The brain can learn to get used to it. The brain will learn to compensa for the initial contradicting signals from eyes and the inner ear.

It also helps to start it with gentle applicaitons. They often get rated in three or four comfort levels, this means mostly the speed of visual action takign place. If you start with a dogfighting simualötion or a SciFi Lightbike race in Tron, that would nto be wise - better tsrat with somehtign where oyu are slowly moving only - or stationary. Billiard would be good. Wander. Golf+. Walkabout Minigolf. A board game like Catan. At the end of this: Eleven. - Then go to a title like Cybrix where you can just stand still and only play with your arms, since the paddles in both hands left and right can reach the walls of your playing arena. Then go to Pickleball One and use the training options in it, it has many, and when it is with ball machines, the machine will shoot the ball to your position - you must not run to the ball - you can afford to stand still, and there is no visual teleportation. And only when this works without causing discomfort, I would consider things that include more visual and speeds movement.

You can often switch movement to either automovement - the computer "moves" you and you see it - or teleportation where the movement is skipepd and you get teleprted to the endposoitionb of that movement in a split of a second. This is meant to help people beign sensitive to motion sickness. Turnign in place to eithe rside cna be done in either smooth, constant mvomeent, or in definable turns of 30° or 45°, the latter works against motion sickness. Finally ther eoften is the option that on movement the field of vison gets reduced - you get a telkesocpe view, so to speak, the field of vision is narrowed by blackness at the periphery of your field of vision, this also helps people to counter motion sickness.

My Mum is 75, totally unexperienced woth computer work or games. She elarned to adapt to VR sinc elast autumn. Intially she stayed not longer than half an hour. A few days she played virtual pool - almost 8 hours long, all night through. 75. Seventy-five. She now plays Cybrix, a mix of breakout and squash. Today I introduced her to Pickleball. She kills for it! And she has deactivated all visual aids as described above.

Dont let yourself get scared away. Try it, you just do not know how you react to it as long as you have not tried it. If you bought it via Amazon, there is no problem in returning it if you find after a week or so that you cannot tolerate it, no matter what you try.

Do not try early on 2D PC games via PC-Quest link . Games and frmarates must be optimised to reduce the risk of nausea and moption sickness. You see, I can play raicng games in VR for hours, and I have no problems, I am completely invulnerable to it. But if I play The Hunter on the big movie screen, that wlaking and head shaking when moving makes me sick quite soon. Its not meant to be played like this. On other occaisons it may work, however - I play Wreckfest this way, on the big moviescreen, via Virtual Desktop - and it is fantastic, a completely new game. One must test out what works for oneself, and what not.

Stop making endless plans and endlessly thinking about what could go wrong. Do it - and see what happens. If all else fails, return the headset. Amazon is absolutely no problem, within the return period.


Edit:
And sicne you asked about that flightsim game, this is the WW1 verison that I mentioned, it got better rewiews, and I agree on their reasons. But for hjeaven'S sake - for the reasons I just explained dont try this at the very start of your journey with the Q3, leave it for some later time.

[Skybird]

This must be supercool - if you have the space for it. Its for Quest 3, too, the video is old, and for the Q3 they give a minimum space of 10x10 meters.

[mapuc]

I want to place an order right now-However I have to wait until my annual statement have arrived which is in the beginning of March and I don't know if I have to pay more tax or if I get a refund.

My annual Dentist is approaching too which is in the end of February.

I have decided to buy the one with 128 GB. I don't think 512 is needed-Can always upgrade in the future

After having watched some videos and reading your comments which made me both nervous but also very eager to own a Quest 3.

Markus