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VR overhyped?

Anonymous
Not applicable
I am a huge fan and have been following and spreading the word of vr and oculus obsessively since John Carmack showed off the duct tape prototype at quakecon.

I whole heartedly believe vr to be part of gaming's future.

I have had my rift 2 weeks now, being on holiday I have been able to invest a lot of time into gaming, testing and building things in unreal engine 4 for the rift.

I have been lucky to be immune to all forms of sim sickess, but I have also never experienced presence or even deep immersion on the dk2.
my previous experience with vr before the dk2 was with dactyl nightmare as a young boy.

so here's my problem... I know the current rift is a developer hardware platform and people will say not to judge it because of that, and while I agree I am not judging it against a consumer platform but rather the hype from all sources about it.
Also bear in mind dev kit or not its still the most sophisticated and affordable vr experience consumers have been able to get their hands on.

so why does it just feel like a low resolution 3d monitor strapped to my face?
I cant begin to recount the years of reading about "users feeling like they were transported to another place" with the dk1 let alone dk2... the youtube videos and reaction compilations...

why don't I get any of that? I have an open mind, a powerful computer and not unrealistic expectations from the hardware... but not once has it even fooled an iota of my brain... which is likely why I get no sim sickness.

the resolution is way too low for me perhaps? I don't even think 1440p will cut it.
the fov is much lower than people would have you believe... it's less "a window to another world" and more like looking at something through a toilet paper tube covered in fine mesh.

is it fun to use regardless? absolutely for the 3d and head tracking alone yes.
It does not induce presence for me however,the immersion is increased but the trade off in resolution and visibility aren't really worth it.

Tldr: do you think people in the media and industry hyped the rift? or are you blown away and its simply me who is not affected by it?
110 REPLIES 110

Anonymous
Not applicable
I think it may be a tiny bit over-hyped, but it certainly is worthy of quite a bit of it.

I do admit the FOV is a little lower than I expected when I bought my DK1 over a year ago, but the effect is strong. I have definitely felt as though I was in the game world, and with the DK2 it is even easier to get that feeling.

I believe 1440p will be enough for the gaming market, even if it isn't ideal.

NegativeCamber
Honored Guest
The resolution and FOV will be higher in CV1................

Anonymous
Not applicable
as an obsessive fan of vr I do know that cv1 will be loads better with brendan iribe going on record saying that screen door is invisible for cv1, but I am expressly comparing hype for the dk2 to the dk2.

Kzero
Honored Guest
I think immersion is best when you can "lose yourself" in a game or demo. There's been plenty of times outside of VR, that i've gotten lost in the game, and don't notice how intense i'm playing or looking at what's on screen. Over time, your focus shuts out any outside influence, letting you get immersed.

That being said, I can also see where you're coming from. The FOV is a bit less than expected and the SDE is pronounced if you're thinking about it too much. For me, once I put on the Rift, the headtracking is working perfectly, and with the right controls and setting...any technical or aesthetic issues the DK2 has, disappears. Hopefully you find your perfect game, and your sweet spot so that you can experience really good presence 😛

Axulus
Honored Guest
How can it feel like a monitor strapped to your face when there is positional tracking for the head? This makes a _huge_ difference, in comparison to a 3d monitor. Additionally, I don't get the same sense of depth and scale with a 3d monitor as I do on the Rift. The sense of depth and scale, combined with head-tracking, is what provides the illusion that you are staring at a movie theater sized screen in the VR players or to see the immense size of the Sun in Titans of Space, for example.

Also, if you really are immune to sim sickness - have you tried Cyberspace? Did you really not feel anything from that experience?

blanes
Rising Star
Yeah I listened to Michael Abrash's talk on Presence yesterday and my 1st thought was that you definately have to have the right app/game for YOU ... that is a game or whatever that you can get totally wrapped in despite VR or 3D.

For me that is car racing and even without having ever tried DK1 or 2 yet I know once I get hooked up with Project Cars I am gonna be totally immmersed because that happens to me now with 3Dvision.

So unless you have a passion for some game or application maybe that never happens because boredom or lack of interest in the real world won't change by making it into a virtual reality no matter how good the tech. :ugeek:

Wilkin
Honored Guest
Hm, in some cases it is like you say - a screen strapped to your face, I have that feeling in skyrim with vorpx and a few others.

And then there is Elite dangerous - I feel presence there, after a while I completely forget that I have this hmd on, I feel like I AM sitting in the cockpit, I do not care so much about the screendoor-effect there, because it is so immersive - mostly because of the lack of lag and the low persistence, the cockpit just looks real and there. 🙂

The screendoor effect is annoying yes, but I do have my hopes up that this problem will be solved in the CV1, I do not think that a higher resolution panel with solve it alone, there will have to be some kind of filter I guess.

noquarter
Honored Guest
It is all about software - nothing else!

WirlWind
Honored Guest
I'm not a scientist or anything, but sounds to me like your brain may just be conditioned to it and thus is less jaw-dropping an experience than other people who haven't had the same experiences with past VR as you have (I seem to recall you mentioning in another thread that you used to run a VR setup commercially or something?).

Personally, I've been gaming for so many years and so many hours in those years that I think my brain has been conditioned against normal games and, as such, I don't get sucked into RPG's like I used to. Hell, I struggle to stay in open world games for longer than 3 hours. Then again, that might also just be because I'm a cynical bastard who has realized that any missions in RPG's are essentially the same 5 things over and over again.

Thankfully, I seem to have managed to slot into an era where the VR thing was pretty down-played (born in 1987) and so I never really got to try anything and thus have zero expectations. I'm hoping my brain will be one of those "I'm crying because this is the future" types and not a jerk who is like "Ok, this is dumb... She literally just asked you to go and get 10 bear arses..."