Oculus Quest VR headset / game system is a lot of fun

[Sunny]

I have a new hobby I suppose, and that is playing around in virtual reality with the Oculus Quest. Here is a recent article about it: https://newatlas.com/vr/oculus-quest-review-wireless-vr/

Gotta say, it is a lot of fun.

• Though it is hard to tell by watching video reviews or people paying games, it really is an immersive experience. Your stomach lurches if you step over a cliff
• Some of the games are fairly active, others not so much. But between BoxVR, Beat Saber, and Thrill of The fight I've been getting some cardio going that is fun
• First negative is some of the games are short. Perhaps only 2-3 hours of gameplay. But others are much more than that.
• Second negative: Don't expect 4k TV resolution picture quality. Maybe VHS. But the immersion of being in the game or app completely outweights this
• If you are a gamer, it feels like you are in the game system itself

There are a lot of VR headsets out there, but the Quest is nice as it is stand alone. You need nothing other than the headset and two controllers (hand tracking is supposed to be coming too). You can if you want hook the Quest up to a VR ready PC to play PC VR or Steam VR games, but then you of coruse need a PC.

Just thought I'd share in case anyone else happened to be on the system and was enjoying it as much as we are.

 

[njhowie]

I've balked at purchasing VR equipment over the years. I'm waiting until there are Holodeck type apps (maybe a first person Leisure Suit Larry ) available. I want to go on a virtual vacation for a day or two, where it would be fully immersive without ever leaving my house.

 

[Sunny]

Might be a a little while before we have that type of Star Trek experience.

 

[ER Eddie]

I had a PSVR for a while. It wasn't for me in the long run, but I found it very interesting, and I'm glad I had the experience. One of the best experiences I had was playing Skyrim in VR. I'd played Skyrim twice before, but playing it in VR was very different. The graphics didn't compare, but there was a very weird, immersive sense of actually being there, rather than looking at it on the screen. It's a difficult experience to describe to people who haven't used VR.

The reasons I stopped VR were 1) some motion sickness, so that sessions of longer than about 30 minutes would leave me feeling woozy; 2) the Move controllers used with PSVR were not designed with VR in mind, so controlling your character's movement felt counter-intuitive and pulled me out of the experience; 3) restricted library of games -- most of them were walking sims, puzzles, simple shooters or racers, stuff I'm not really interested in; 4) strapping on the headset with the wires felt a bit cumbersome; and 5) I felt a little of that stigma about VR, like I was indulging in something that was anti-social or solipsistic. I don't think that's true, but I did feel it.

PS5 will be coming out later this year, and it'll have a new version of VR. I'm curious about what sort of improvements they will make.

I didn't realize the Oculus Quest was standalone. That's interesting.

I've balked at purchasing VR equipment over the years. I'm waiting until there are Holodeck type apps (maybe a first person Leisure Suit Larry ) available. I want to go on a virtual vacation for a day or two, where it would be fully immersive without ever leaving my house.

lol at Leisure Suit Larry.

 

[zinger1457]

How do the VR headsets that use your phone compare to the standalone Oculus? They certainly are a lot cheaper.

 

[Dalmore]

Skyrim in a VR headset sounds like an amazing experience. I might have to check into that.

 

[Sunny]

How do the VR headsets that use your phone compare to the standalone Oculus? They certainly are a lot cheaper.

I’ve not tried one, but by reviews not super well. If you have a VR capable PC (so a gaming PC with good graphics card) then getting something like the new Valve Index and installing VR sensors on your ceilings is the best you can get. Oculus also has the Rift if you want cabled to a PC for better graphics, but the wireless of the Quest is really a big selling point.

 

[Sunny]

Skyrim in a VR headset sounds like an amazing experience. I might have to check into that.

I signed up for Shadow tech’s gaming pc in the cloud service, takes them 3-4 weeks to catch up to orders. But when I get my credentials I am going to try Skyrim on the Quest wireless to a cloud gaming PC. Supposedly this method works well for 90% of the games out there, but the other 10% the latency can get in the way as it is 30-40ms of latency vs the 20s a local hookup would be.

I’ve never played Skyrim but thought this would be an interesting way to give it a try.

 

[ER Eddie]

How do the VR headsets that use your phone compare to the standalone Oculus? They certainly are a lot cheaper.

I can't speak to the Oculus Quest, but I tried Google Cardboard with a cellphone, and I didn't find it impressive or immersive at all. I thought it was very crude and unconvincing. My experience with PSVR (which is not a high-end VR unit by any means) was leagues beyond that.

 

[Sunny]

PS5 will be coming out later this year, and it'll have a new version of VR. I'm curious about what sort of improvements they will make.

You should take another look. I know for the upcoming Half-Life VR game lots of people are looking forward to (and buying valve VR units for) the PS VR isn't supported. I'd guess it'd be a big jump up if there is a newer VR coming out for the next PS, so I bet you'd see some differences.

 

[ER Eddie]

You should take another look. I know for the upcoming Half-Life VR game lots of people are looking forward to (and buying valve VR units for) the PS VR isn't supported. I'd guess it'd be a big jump up if there is a newer VR coming out for the next PS, so I bet you'd see some differences.

I don't know much about Valve's VR unit. I generally avoid PC gaming, just because I'm a console gamer, and that's how I've always been. It's unfortunate that Alyx isn't coming to PSVR, but oh well. I can't see spending $1000 for Valve's kit + Alyx, just to play a single game that probably runs about 10 hours (I'm guessing; most VR games are on the short side).

I do have hopes for significant improvements in PSVR with the PS5. This time around, they will have a chance to bake the VR hardware directly into the console, whereas they didn't do that with PS4 (which created various problems). They will also have movement controllers that are specifically designed for VR use, whereas with PS4 they jury-rigged the Move controllers to do it after the fact, which didn't work out very well.

PSVR is the market leader in VR, despite its limitations. Something like 5 million units out there -- just a small fraction of the PS4 install base, but still a lot of people. The library is still lacking from my perspective, but then I tend to like larger and more narrative-driven games, rather than the type that are popular on VR.

 

[Sunny]

Yeah, I've been surprised at the people buying VR just to play Alyx. Didn't make sense to me. Not sure I'd want to isntall the sensors in my ceilings and stuff too. Plus I don't have a strong PC gaming system. Hence the stand-alone, $500 Quest.

Though I do look forward to trying the Shadow virtual PC in a cloud, not just for PC VR games but also to maybe play come PC games I've missed since switching to a mac several years ago. I wouldnt mind a console video game system, but my last was a Sega Genesis, so it has been awhile.