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This might end up coming across as an advertisement, but I swear I'm just an excited nerd having fun with his new toy. I had a bunch of overtime pay come in and splurged on an HTC Vive, one of the two main VR gaming headsets out there. (along with the Oculus Rift. Honorable mention goes to the Samsung GearVR) It was a tough choice, the Rift is lighter, $200 cheaper, and many say that its image is a bit better because the lenses are better and the slightly smaller screen (?) gets better pixels per inch, or something. However, I went with the Vive because the Rift lacks two things at launch that I think were big mistakes: motion controllers and room-scale tracking. For now, Oculus games will be seated experiences with an Xbox controller. They plan to release some controllers with motion tracking at some point, but the Vive has its "Lighthouse" technology that tracks both the headset and the two hand contollers moving through a room with some pretty impressive accuracy. You can toss controllers from one hand to another while looking at only their virtual images, it's that responsive and accurate. You could probably juggle them... but I can't juggle in real life so I'm not about to try.
It's really hard to get across just how cool that makes things. So I recorded a video of me playing Space Pirate Trainer, one of the top-rated VR games at the moment.
Even this doesn't really get across the feeling, but it helps. Notice how I move around to dodge incoming attacks, a couple times hitting the deck (and a couple times falling on my ass!) Still getting the hang of the game, the gun sights don't seem to quite line up right with my eyes. (barrel angle is adjustable but I swear it's always too low from my perspective. maybe some of you gun nuts would be pros at this ) Also, the actual gameplay is much smoother and sharper than the video: the headset runs at 90fps but this recording is only 30fps with lower resolution. All of these motions are accurate to what I was doing in the room. (the slow-mo is a game feature when you're shot at, which makes those Matrix dodges possible)
So anyone else VR gaming yet? Have any good recommendations? Space Pirate Trainer is definitely great. I've also heard great things about Audioshield and Hover Junkers, and I'm dying to try out Elite: Dangerous.
For anyone interested in the Vive, definitely do your research. It takes a fairly beefy graphics card: minimum recommended spec is an Nvidia GTX 970. The good news is that Nvidia is launching its 10xx line shortly which apparently has dramatically better VR capabilities, so adequate VR power may be found for even cheaper soon. I'm thinking the GTX 1060 will outdo the 970 in terms of VR performance and be comfortably priced. That said, it's always a good idea to check out benchmarks before buying a graphics card. (the GTX1060 isn't even announced yet, much less benchmarked)
Additionally, room-scale VR requires, well, a room. You don't need a ton of space, but a 6x6' area would be a minimum. Maximum size spec is 15x15'. And there's two sensors you need to be able to mount somewhere above your head in a stable location. (it comes with mounts you can screw into a wall, or some people just put them on top of sturdy bookshelves) Wobbly mounts are bad: the motors in the sensors spin pretty fast and vibration will mess with tracking accuracy. They need to be high enough that your head doesn't block line of sight between the two sensor stations, as that will screw with tracking.
It's really hard to get across just how cool that makes things. So I recorded a video of me playing Space Pirate Trainer, one of the top-rated VR games at the moment.
Even this doesn't really get across the feeling, but it helps. Notice how I move around to dodge incoming attacks, a couple times hitting the deck (and a couple times falling on my ass!) Still getting the hang of the game, the gun sights don't seem to quite line up right with my eyes. (barrel angle is adjustable but I swear it's always too low from my perspective. maybe some of you gun nuts would be pros at this ) Also, the actual gameplay is much smoother and sharper than the video: the headset runs at 90fps but this recording is only 30fps with lower resolution. All of these motions are accurate to what I was doing in the room. (the slow-mo is a game feature when you're shot at, which makes those Matrix dodges possible)
So anyone else VR gaming yet? Have any good recommendations? Space Pirate Trainer is definitely great. I've also heard great things about Audioshield and Hover Junkers, and I'm dying to try out Elite: Dangerous.
For anyone interested in the Vive, definitely do your research. It takes a fairly beefy graphics card: minimum recommended spec is an Nvidia GTX 970. The good news is that Nvidia is launching its 10xx line shortly which apparently has dramatically better VR capabilities, so adequate VR power may be found for even cheaper soon. I'm thinking the GTX 1060 will outdo the 970 in terms of VR performance and be comfortably priced. That said, it's always a good idea to check out benchmarks before buying a graphics card. (the GTX1060 isn't even announced yet, much less benchmarked)
Additionally, room-scale VR requires, well, a room. You don't need a ton of space, but a 6x6' area would be a minimum. Maximum size spec is 15x15'. And there's two sensors you need to be able to mount somewhere above your head in a stable location. (it comes with mounts you can screw into a wall, or some people just put them on top of sturdy bookshelves) Wobbly mounts are bad: the motors in the sensors spin pretty fast and vibration will mess with tracking accuracy. They need to be high enough that your head doesn't block line of sight between the two sensor stations, as that will screw with tracking.
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