VR gaming is still pretty niche and expensive if you want a truly good experience. There also haven’t really been any major advancements in the space since the Valve Index almost six years ago.
Inside out tracking is still not where it needs to be and the base stations for outside in tracking are cumbersome.
Additionally, for the full promise of VR gaming to be realized you really need accurate full body tracking to include full hand tracking, a compact, easily stowable, but accurate omnidirectional treadmill, and some way to do all of the tracking without the need for base stations.
And all of that needs to be standardized across the industry.
I too enjoy VR gaming, but there’s been basically no movement in the VR space in a long time, and to most people VR is a novelty at best. Unless someone gives us a decade’s worth of advancement inside of a year or two, I expect modern VR will go the way of the virtual boy. Only to be revived again in 20-30 years.
The issue is it takes too much effort to play vs normal gaming unless you are able to dedicate a room to it. For people in areas where housing costs are low enough that you can afford a big house, or for people who are single and don’t have other people in the house to cater to, this might be fine. But for most people, a good VR session involves moving shit out of the way, strapping on a helmet, putting wrist straps on and figuring out whether you want to do that blind after putting the helmet on or trying to put the helmet on with things in your hands, then playing in a specific area so you don’t kick your coffee table (and hope your dog doesn’t walk in front of you while you are walking).
Contrast that to picking up a controller while sitting down.
If the awesome games were there to make the extra effort worth it, then fine. But there just aren’t the great games yet. I have a VR system and haven’t put it on in months because I just don’t care enough. It has become a novelty.
I play most of my games sitting down. VTOL VR, Derail Valley, whole suite of driving games (OK, I have a special simrig for these), IETD, Uboat, KSP. Even Skyrim VR and Alyx are perfectly comfortable sitting down.
The only game I find that roomscale is s must is Blade and Sorcery
Flying in Project Wingman and dodging a missile only to physically look up and see the thing narrowly missing my canopy is the moment burned into my brain that VR was worth every penny I’d spent to get a quest 2 on sale and hook it up to my PC
One of the greatest moments for me was when I played a transport mission in VTOL VR, there was long flight, it was night IRL, and I fell asleep a little. Then I woke up shortly after, not any more aware that I was playing a game, and was genuinely puzzled why and where am I flying and how I got there xD
Quest 3 can launch straight into passthrough mode, most games can be played standing or sitting in place (I play in a regular sized living room without moving anything around). It’s actually quicker and easier for me to play in VR than boot up my gaming rig.
I posted the article mostly for discussion, I personally have had a great time play AC: Nexus VR lately. But it does feel like the market is in a bit of a weird place right now as Meta/Apple are both pushing AR and non-gaming use cases, when the only thing these headsets have really been shown to be superior at is playing games.
apple and meta are not the benchmark. If anything, we should probably look more at valve with their Deckard, and other specialized companies like Meganex and BSB.
I bitterly regret getting Q3 that turned out to be a downgrade from old Vive Pro, but sadly missed the return date. I just gave it to kids to play because I refuse to touch that crap with horrible black levels and lens glare.
I personally feel like the Quest 3 is the most comfortable headset I’ve ever owned (previously owned the CV1 and the Quest 1) and that for me trumps all of its issues with the lens/display setup.
I am desperate for Valve to succeed and really shake up the market but I think they’ll continue to make headsets that cost over $1K and just aren’t palatable to a wider audience. Hopefully Deckard is at the very least good enough to justify that price. I certainly have more faith in them after loving the Steam Deck.
Geez man, sorry to hear that. I found Q3 with original strap to be unbearably uncomfortable. Had Rift S, Index and Vive Pro (still have it, and all of them are heavenly bliss compared to that torture machine that q3 is
Needed to ditch the original strap and put the Bobo M3 strap on it, but once that was done it was the first time I was able to use VR with no weight on my cheekbones. Wildly changed how I felt about it as it was suddenly so comfortable I could use it for hours without discomfort.
Screw you! I enjoy VR gaming a lot, and there’s nothing “failed” about it.
But yeah, if your VR experience doesn’t go any further than metaverse, then yeah, it failed hard.
Learn a bit about upcoming headsets though, you might be surprised
VR gaming is still pretty niche and expensive if you want a truly good experience. There also haven’t really been any major advancements in the space since the Valve Index almost six years ago.
Inside out tracking is still not where it needs to be and the base stations for outside in tracking are cumbersome.
Additionally, for the full promise of VR gaming to be realized you really need accurate full body tracking to include full hand tracking, a compact, easily stowable, but accurate omnidirectional treadmill, and some way to do all of the tracking without the need for base stations.
And all of that needs to be standardized across the industry.
I too enjoy VR gaming, but there’s been basically no movement in the VR space in a long time, and to most people VR is a novelty at best. Unless someone gives us a decade’s worth of advancement inside of a year or two, I expect modern VR will go the way of the virtual boy. Only to be revived again in 20-30 years.
BSB? Meganex? Pimax? There are more
VR world is not restricted to valve and meta.
The issue is it takes too much effort to play vs normal gaming unless you are able to dedicate a room to it. For people in areas where housing costs are low enough that you can afford a big house, or for people who are single and don’t have other people in the house to cater to, this might be fine. But for most people, a good VR session involves moving shit out of the way, strapping on a helmet, putting wrist straps on and figuring out whether you want to do that blind after putting the helmet on or trying to put the helmet on with things in your hands, then playing in a specific area so you don’t kick your coffee table (and hope your dog doesn’t walk in front of you while you are walking).
Contrast that to picking up a controller while sitting down.
If the awesome games were there to make the extra effort worth it, then fine. But there just aren’t the great games yet. I have a VR system and haven’t put it on in months because I just don’t care enough. It has become a novelty.
I play most of my games sitting down. VTOL VR, Derail Valley, whole suite of driving games (OK, I have a special simrig for these), IETD, Uboat, KSP. Even Skyrim VR and Alyx are perfectly comfortable sitting down.
The only game I find that roomscale is s must is Blade and Sorcery
Flying in Project Wingman and dodging a missile only to physically look up and see the thing narrowly missing my canopy is the moment burned into my brain that VR was worth every penny I’d spent to get a quest 2 on sale and hook it up to my PC
Fully seated experience
Yup.
One of the greatest moments for me was when I played a transport mission in VTOL VR, there was long flight, it was night IRL, and I fell asleep a little. Then I woke up shortly after, not any more aware that I was playing a game, and was genuinely puzzled why and where am I flying and how I got there xD
Quest 3 can launch straight into passthrough mode, most games can be played standing or sitting in place (I play in a regular sized living room without moving anything around). It’s actually quicker and easier for me to play in VR than boot up my gaming rig.
I posted the article mostly for discussion, I personally have had a great time play AC: Nexus VR lately. But it does feel like the market is in a bit of a weird place right now as Meta/Apple are both pushing AR and non-gaming use cases, when the only thing these headsets have really been shown to be superior at is playing games.
apple and meta are not the benchmark. If anything, we should probably look more at valve with their Deckard, and other specialized companies like Meganex and BSB.
I bitterly regret getting Q3 that turned out to be a downgrade from old Vive Pro, but sadly missed the return date. I just gave it to kids to play because I refuse to touch that crap with horrible black levels and lens glare.
I personally feel like the Quest 3 is the most comfortable headset I’ve ever owned (previously owned the CV1 and the Quest 1) and that for me trumps all of its issues with the lens/display setup.
I am desperate for Valve to succeed and really shake up the market but I think they’ll continue to make headsets that cost over $1K and just aren’t palatable to a wider audience. Hopefully Deckard is at the very least good enough to justify that price. I certainly have more faith in them after loving the Steam Deck.
Geez man, sorry to hear that. I found Q3 with original strap to be unbearably uncomfortable. Had Rift S, Index and Vive Pro (still have it, and all of them are heavenly bliss compared to that torture machine that q3 is
Needed to ditch the original strap and put the Bobo M3 strap on it, but once that was done it was the first time I was able to use VR with no weight on my cheekbones. Wildly changed how I felt about it as it was suddenly so comfortable I could use it for hours without discomfort.
I think mine is S3 (with fan and battery). It definitely made it better, but still not that close to HTC