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Why Steam VR?

xavier4or
Explorer
Newbie question here - I see several discussion wrt Steam VR games - but trying to figure out what are the advantages?  Are there unique VR games available via Steam that you can't get via Oculus store?

I checked a few of the popular ones and they seemed to be listed both in Oculus store and Steam.

Thanks!
59 REPLIES 59

kzintzi
Trustee
when I see people complain about OH not having <insert Steam feature here>, I remember the multitude of people who constantly complained about the lack of <insert Steam feature here> when Steam was younger.. it took them years to make Steam what it is now, Oculus have had 18 months and who wants to just replicate what Valve did?? we'd end up with ReSteam or some other thing.

Anecdotally any of the games I've bought in Steam and then moved to the OH version have worked better in OH than Steam - the SteamVR wrapper seems to do something weird.
Though you are more than slightly incoherent, I agree with you Madam,
a plum is a terrible thing to do to a nostril.

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

kzintzi said:

when I see people complain about OH not having <insert Steam feature here>, I remember the multitude of people who constantly complained about the lack of <insert Steam feature here> when Steam was younger.. it took them years to make Steam what it is now, Oculus have had 18 months and who wants to just replicate what Valve did?? we'd end up with ReSteam or some other thing.

Anecdotally any of the games I've bought in Steam and then moved to the OH version have worked better in OH than Steam - the SteamVR wrapper seems to do something weird.


I first noticed that Steam VR was clunky when I began trying to play Pillars of Eternity in the Steam VR theater last year. At first I was all gitty like a schoolgirl at the opportunity to play my standard Flat games in a VR space. But then performance issues would happen after awhile, along with random game crashes.

The issues were subtle at first, and increased over time. Both in terms of ongoing gameplay (resource leaks) and after each major Steam update.

I gave up 2D gaming in VR eventually. Sometimes I will load up BigScreens in OH to test things out. But I prefer Virtual Desktop which I currently own in Steam. I don't use it for gaming anymore though; just for demo'ing to family, friends, and colleagues the ability to have our Desktop floating around a VR environment.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Tbh Oculus did a fantastic job just getting the online infrastructure in place for Oculus Home on launch day. I've been quite impressed with what they've done so far in so little time.

edmg
Trustee
Personally, I've rebought some Steam games I own on Oculus Home, just to avoid having to use Steam. That's less of an issue now I can launch them from Oculus Home anyway, but it still leaves the extra layer of SteamVR in the middle.

BadDanME
Expert Protege
Seeing the progress even in those few months I´m "in" now, I have no doubt, that OH will become better and better in short time. It took Steam years to be, where they are now. All the others got the comfort to pick the stuff, people liked and leave out stuff people disliked over the years in steam. You can see this in Origin and Uplay. And same will happen in Oculus Home. 

nangu
Expert Protege

xavier4or said:

Newbie question here - I see several discussion wrt Steam VR games - but trying to figure out what are the advantages?  Are there unique VR games available via Steam that you can't get via Oculus store?

I checked a few of the popular ones and they seemed to be listed both in Oculus store and Steam.

Thanks!


Why not? It's another choice. More choices are better IMO.

You have Oculus exclusives on the Oculus Store, and you can grab very good games on Steam which are not in Oculus Store, so get them both. For games which are on both stores, you can buy them based on price/promotion, or on the store you like to use more.

As a side note, if you are a flight/racing sim kind of player, the better titles are on Steam. If you like "AAA like" quality games, the Oculus sponsored ones are the best.

Fri13
Protege
Just to drop my 2 cents here: The Steam is suffering from the VR titles saturation, that ain't great at all. They are like third grade technology testing demos for internal testing of the idea, never suppose to be released to public. 

Yet there are many other great ones that ain't in the Oculus Store either. 

The main problem I see is that when someone goes and filters Steam with VR titles, they see too big numbers for availability for that there is worth to even check out. It is like early Apple vs Google app store competition which one has thousands and tens of thousands of apps, like you really would be there to get all them to be used!

MariusPolonius
Heroic Explorer
Baloney from fanboys.
List of Free stuff that's worth checking out on Steam, unavailable on OH:
Accounting
Fantasynth
The Lab
War Robots VR
MSI Electric City
Mars 2030 (kind of. They just gave away 10.000 keys, so I got it for free)
The Ranger: Lost Tribe
Trials on Tatooine
Lucky Night: Texas Hold'em VR
The Red Stare
The Wave VR (beta)
Belko VR: An Escape Room Experiment
Surgeon Simulator VR: Meet The Medic
list goes on

Paid content, unavailable on OH
Serious Sam VR The First Encounter
Serious Sam VR The Second Encounter
2017
A-Tech Cybernetic
Aeon
VR The Diner Duo
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades 
Sairento
Left-Hand Path     
Operation Warcade
Audioshield
Ghost Town Mine Ride & Shootin' Gallery
GORN
To the Top

That's what I am aware of, off top of my head, who know how much more!
So, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. "Proof is in the pudding"

Anonymous
Not applicable
Baloney..? It is an undeniable fact that the quality of the majority of VR games on Steam is worse than the quality of the majority of VR games in the Oculus Store. It isn't an exaggeration to say that more than 90% of the VR titles available on Steam are complete steaming turds.

There are of course some fantastic VR games available on Steam, and some on there exclusively, but any developer with any sense that has a game that meets the Oculus Standards will at some point Submit their game to Oculus for a place there. It really isn't rocket surgery tbh.

Javelin396
Adventurer
i will say however the silver lining of all the stuff being released on vr on steam on a daily basis at least gets me somewhat excited to check it consistently for any hidden gems. whereas with oculus store i kinda have the idea in my head that they're gonna release  may be one or two major titles a month. in that sense, my anticipation for upcoming titles between the two different outlets is sort of in a tandem that i can appreciate