Yep, I'm back again. Anyone miss me? Nope? Thought not! Anyone remember me? Phew, I'm safe then

Anyway, if anyone does remember me, you'll know that when I first got my HMD (Vive - don't shoot me), I had a tiny space and could pretty much only play seated games.
I now have a much larger space - just over 2 metres square, and as such, I've been able to finally sample room scale over the past few weeks. And, in a nutshell, it's awesome. I was never convinced about it before I got my Vive - always thought I'd simply play sitting down, but as soon as I got my Vive and started using it, I knew I needed more space.
The feeling of immersion is hard to put into words. I was playing Island 359 the other day. There was a packing crate standing next to me, and without thinking, I went to lean against it... and fell over. Just being able to walk around (granted, in a limited fashion) is so liberating and adds so much to a game. Hearing a monster/dinosaur/zombie coming up behind you, spinning round and offing it... way more satisfying than doing it to an on-screen enemy. Having a weapon fired at you and being able to dodge or duck out of the way. It's just... FUN.
I've heard a few people criticise the teleport method of moving around in a game, but for this generation of VR (and until houses are built with purpose made LARGE VR rooms), it's probably the best compromise we're going to get. And, as a bonus, it's pretty good at not causing motion sickness either

Not having a go at Rift owners here at all, but motion controllers also add a lot to the game. The sooner you guys get Touch, the better (genuine question here - I'm totally out of the loop with things Oculus - has Touch been given a release date/price yet?). Moving around and aiming with a joypad is absolutely blown out of the water by moving around and using a torch/gun/knife/bow and arrow.
Honestly, if you haven't got enough room for at least limited room scale, knock down a wall or something. You won't regret it!
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System Specs: ASUS NVIDIA RTX 3090 TUF GAMING OC 24GB , i9 9900K CPU, 16 GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 10 64 Bit OS.
Maybe someone can clarify.
With roomscale there's lots of potential for rotational movement where hands and controllers could become obscured by the body, so the two sensor set up means it can see and track your hands (and head) no matter where you turn.
That's my basic understanding of it.
System Specs: ASUS NVIDIA RTX 3090 TUF GAMING OC 24GB , i9 9900K CPU, 16 GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 10 64 Bit OS.
Me, personally, I like having the option of doing both, whenever I feel like it.
Even with ~2mx2m and standing in the center, I still managed to bang and almost damage a controller into some furniture by bending forward to extend my reach in a sword fight, so I'm aiming to go out of my way to extend it to ~2.1mx2.1m (by purchasing a smaller desk). And again that's just for a standing 360° experience, and not for walking around a room.
Thing is just the standing 360° experience in ~2mx2m is great (and just enough if I don't bend forward with my arm streched out), and once you add a solution to the locomotion issue (and the headset cable), of which teleportation is only one example, then you don't need any more room then that.
Also I placed a small round rug in my room so I can feel where the center is, without having to use Chaperone's distracting visual queues (because in a ~2mx2m 360° standing space chaperone tends to activate too often).
As for Touch, it should be announced during Oculus Connect 3 (October 5th-7th), and until then the rumor mill says ~199$ and November the 21st : In the meantime I'm using 2011 Razer Hydra controllers which are wired (meaning I get 180° each side rather then full 360°, which works out better for managing the headset cable flawlessly anyway), which are shorter then the HTC Vive wands (suggesting I'd need a ~2.2mx2.2m space to be able to use HTC Vive wands, which would require throwing out even more furniture ^^ ).
The upside of making room for hand controllers, is that my room never felt so big : I wouldn't want to change it back to what it was
PS : To state the obvious, the smaller you are (arm span), the less space you need. Basically stand in the middle of your space, try touching something by bending forward, and if there's a big enough safety margin (add an extra ~0.1m for HTC Vive wands) in every direction you're good
PPS : From my personal experience walking starts around ~1.5mx2.5m (~2mx2.5m is more often suggested), while facing a specific direction (so not really full 360°, more like you can either only walk forward and back a bit, either only strafe sideways a bit, but for doing both without risking to bang your controllers you'd need at least 2.5mx2.5m, depending on your size).
Like others have mention Onward is the go to game for the VIVE now, no teleportation, and awesome gameplay (like Counter-Strike). After playing it, all other VIVE games really feel gimmicky (looking at you wave-base shooters!)
I believe teleportation is holding back VR, dev need to stop being afraid using traditional locomotion (meaning stick or trackpad). You get use to everything, I can run around full-speed using a stick in VR without getting one ounce of motion sickness...sure it took some getting used to, but free movement is way better then teleportation.
I don't own a VIVE, my friend does and it took a lot of convincing on my part to get my friend to buy Onward, because he only experienced teleportation games so far, he was worried he would get sick and didn't want to buy it...That's what I mean when I say it's holding back VR, how many people will hold up buying game because they feel "safer" teleporting around.
He finally caved and now it's the best game he ever played after getting used to a bit of dizziness...
Teleportation needs to go, or at least always give 2 options of movement
Also, you never really run in that game. The movement is fairly slow...which is probably how they try to keep it from getting too intense.
Also You can sprint in the game, at a realistic pace. you aren't flying around the map like call of duty, but I would not call it slow. You aren't stuck at crawling speed. The slow pace comes more from the way people play then actual game limitations.
EDIT - here are some threads that corroborates that
https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4zyxv3/onward_worried_about_the_touchpad_locomotion/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/50z8aw/how_is_onward_not_giving_me_any_locomotion/
So basically room scale is extremely immersive and all of its applications suck.
The only room scale you really need to get 90% of the benefits is standing room plus about an arm size radius of space in all directions. That gives you a full 360 range of motion with motion controllers, plus a bit of space for ducking and dodging and side stepping.
EDIT - pretty much what everyone is going to be doing with touch, just with slightly more space then a 2ft x 2ft or 3 ft by 3ft standing box.
Enough space to stretch out your arms 360° starts at 6.5ft x 6.5ft.
If you want to be able to both bend over and stretch your arms out, a bit more then that.
And that's without side stepping : Add ~1 ft by sidestep.
But basically, at 6.5ft x 6.5ft you have what you need to get rid of teleportation, lean sideways, jump and crouch, without worrying about stretching your arms out as long as you don't also bend over in the same direction.
Less space then that and you'll be banging your hand controllers into things, and have to learn not to fully stretch your arms out. More space then that and you can bend over more and/or start moving your feet (instead of only being able to duck and lean sideways) : That's for someone ~6 ft tall.
Where does room scale and teleportation fit in : Nowhere really, unless the game is designed to fit entirely in the size of your room (like Hover Junkers), or is designed around the concept of only teleporting instead of walking (like Jeeboman). Using teleportation for room scale in a room that's too small, or for walking, is what doesn't work, room scale should fit in a room and teleportation should be used for teleporting (not as an alternative method for walking).
I thought roomscale was a gimmick too. Until I got my grubby hands on my Vive and experienced (very limited, due to space) standing games. Having now been lucky enough to try it, I would say that it's no less gimmicky than motion controllers or even the whole concept of a VR headset. Like it or not, it's a big plus point for VR gaming (IMO of course). Yes, locomotion is an issue, but that's not the fault of the technology, more that most of us simply don't have a large enough roomspace to be able to freely move around. Sorry, but (again, IMO) motion controls add a hell of a lot to most VR games. Being able to aim, grab, throw etc add a new dimension of reality that a joypad simply doesn't come close providing.
@Shadowmask72
Nope, not tried Raw Data yet, but have heard good things so am eager to give it a try! Unfortunately, I have someone staying with me for a few weeks, so my VR space is temporarily occupied by a bed, but I'll definitely be trying that one
@Viswar
You can never have enough space. My current space is just over 2 metres square and I'd say that's adequate. However, much more than a pace in any direction (I'm 6'4 so have long legs!) and chaperone rears its ugly (but hugely necessary) head. For walking around, nope, not really enough space, but once you get used to the limits of chaperone and your area, it's not much of an issue, to me at least.
@Cyril
Your rug idea is a good one. Of course, I have chaperone to keep me from ramming into things (never yet come close to damaging anything, although I suspect that's more luck than anything else!). A rug might help a little, even with chaperone.
@maxpare79
Onward is another game I'm very keen to try. However, I am quite prone to motion sickness, so I'm a little wary. Plus, my roomspace is a bit small to 'rush around' in. I'll have to look into this one a bit more
Roomscale = gimmick
VR inputs = awesome
Roomscale != VR inputs
Roomscale != awesome
fixed