VR kit

Lozzy15

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Hey guys n gals,

With the announcement of Half Life: Alyx (Finally a new HL game!!!!) being a VR only game, naturally I've been looking at VR kits, more so the Valve Index kit. From what I've seen it looks pretty awesome with the finger tracking and adjustable field of view. But the price is mad compared to what else is out there.

Anyone else got a VR kit? What have you got and would you recommend it?

On the back of this announcement I've got all digits crossed for the possibility of valve learning to finally count to 3! Not holding my breath however.
 

Legojon

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I don't want to put you off. Cause VR is awesome tech. I had an occulus, loved it but ultimately had to sell it cause of the motion sickness. I've never got motion sick in my life before. Not in the car, rollercoasters, jumping off cliffs spinning (snowboard).

But oculus did a right job on me. I tried everything. I had a 2.5x2.5 area with cable winch above my head. I walked on the spot to add motion. Turned physically as opposed to using the stick.

My advice is try a system out first. For at least 30 mins. I know eg overclockers in Stoke has a demo rig. There's a vr gaming place in bham. I'm sure there must be others.
 

Lozzy15

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Cheers for the reply. I've never had motion sickness so it wasn't even a thought but since you've mentioned it and that you never get it I'll find somewhere I can have a play at it first to see how it goes.

How did your rig handle it? I've got a pretty good setup so it's not a major concern, but I'd want the refresh rate as high as possible to make it smooth so hopefully the hardware I've got will run it OK should I get the kit.
 

Peller

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I've got peasant spec PSVR and I find it impressive but I do feel a bit funky after playing racing games like Gran Turismo.
 
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Legojon

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Also be careful to try a game like Arizona sunshine (something with free movement). I tried a couple of demos before buying. But they didn't have free movement. I believe this was intentional to not have people vomiting.

I did enjoy beat saber and boxing. As you never turn it's fine. But dead effect and Arizona sunshine had me on my knees and out of action for the whole day.

I have a 4ghz i5, 16gb ram and a 1080gtx. Didn't have any performance issues at all.
 
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The Daily Meme

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Friend of mine has the HTC VIVE for PC. In all honesty it is great, the games are limited so far, but even the most simple games are so immursive becasue of the VR. He has Fallout, some CS rip off, Gorn amongst others.
My favourite one so far is like a "matirx game" with sort of stick men. I forget what its called, but there are missions as if you are james bond or something and time moves when you move. Meaning you can dodge bullts, catch weapons etc. Its really good fun.

EDIT: i would add for this one, youneed a space of at least 4m x 4m to set up the "play area" otherwise you will hit walls. In terms of PC hardware, his pc isnt that premium, he has a high spec graphics card and a mid spec processor. I can find out the exact details if you want but essentially gear that would otherwise allow you to run fairly high graphics intensive games on normal settings.

 

The Daily Meme

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Friend of mine has the HTC VIVE for PC. In all honesty it is great, the games are limited so far, but even the most simple games are so immursive becasue of the VR. He has Fallout, some CS rip off, Gorn amongst others.
My favourite one so far is like a "matirx game" with sort of stick men. I forget what its called, but there are missions as if you are james bond or something and time moves when you move. Meaning you can dodge bullts, catch weapons etc. Its really good fun.

EDIT: i would add for this one, youneed a space of at least 4m x 4m to set up the "play area" otherwise you will hit walls. In terms of PC hardware, his pc isnt that premium, he has a high spec graphics card and a mid spec processor. I can find out the exact details if you want but essentially gear that would otherwise allow you to run fairly high graphics intensive games on normal settings.



Also ELite Dangerous in VR seriously changes the way you play the game. Wouldn't recomend taking it in to multiplayer though.
 

Lozzy15

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Thanks for the detailed feedback. I've checked out those games you mentioned, Elite Dangerous is currently 75% off with the steam sale so I've snapped it up! That Superhot one looks good too, but it's currently not as cheap as I'd like to pay at the moment so I'll sticky it for a future purchase.

I've gone ahead and ordered a Index kit, I had a go on a friends PS VR and got along with it OK in terms of motion sickness so that worry is minimal for now.

I've got a custom built laptop with very good specs, I've checked out the minimum specs needed for Index, Half life: Alyx and other games and it beats the recommended specs on most I've found so hopefully I'll have no issues there.

The space needed could be an issue as I don't have a huge living room, I'll probably be able to get around 3mx3m of space when I shift the furniture around. I've been looking at omni-directional treadmills. Some are crazy expensive i.e £25k!! But I've seen some people have made there own using wood with a slippery surface so you can walk/run on the spot for around £20 - 30 so I'm going to do some more research on that idea and if it works with the Index base stations. Not sure they pick up tracking with you just moving on the spot, however I've seen people using trackers that attach to you legs and they seemed to work well from the video's I've watched so it's definitely an idea once I've settled in with the basics.
 

The Daily Meme

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Thanks for the detailed feedback. I've checked out those games you mentioned, Elite Dangerous is currently 75% off with the steam sale so I've snapped it up! That Superhot one looks good too, but it's currently not as cheap as I'd like to pay at the moment so I'll sticky it for a future purchase.

I've gone ahead and ordered a Index kit, I had a go on a friends PS VR and got along with it OK in terms of motion sickness so that worry is minimal for now.

I've got a custom built laptop with very good specs, I've checked out the minimum specs needed for Index, Half life: Alyx and other games and it beats the recommended specs on most I've found so hopefully I'll have no issues there.

The space needed could be an issue as I don't have a huge living room, I'll probably be able to get around 3mx3m of space when I shift the furniture around. I've been looking at omni-directional treadmills. Some are crazy expensive i.e £25k!! But I've seen some people have made there own using wood with a slippery surface so you can walk/run on the spot for around £20 - 30 so I'm going to do some more research on that idea and if it works with the Index base stations. Not sure they pick up tracking with you just moving on the spot, however I've seen people using trackers that attach to you legs and they seemed to work well from the video's I've watched so it's definitely an idea once I've settled in with the basics.
Elite dangerous is good because you play entirely from the cockpit of your ship so there is no motion sickness really. I like it in VR because a lot of the controls aren’t hot keys on a keyboard. You access them from within the HUD in the ship cockpit so playing in VR makes so much more immersive because you can look around and use your hands. My mate also has a HOTAS set up for when he plays.

The super hot one also puts you in set locations so there isn’t much moving around.

the Gorn one though gets a bit funky because as well as being able to move about the play area, you can move with the controls on the sticks. Takes some getting used to. Gorn also takes a surprising amount of processing power. It might seem simple and low polygon graphics but it still lags ocaisionally I think because of the amount of blood and limbs that end up flying about the screen.

I’ll find out the other program he has. It’s great because it’s one game that has loads of mini games. There is an archery tower defence game within it which is pretty cool.

EDIT: as for the price of VR games. They are all very expensive for what they are at the moment which is why my mate doesn’t have many. But there are a lot of games like Skyrim, Elite Dangerous and Fallout that have added VR retrospectively. Whilst the VR isn’t perfect, it does make certain aspects of the game more enjoyable, but at the same time, when those games weren’t being designed around being for VR they have issues ocaisionally. I know fallout and Skyrim both have issues.
There is a guy on YouTube that did a video of VR fallout that was quite funny. Think it was zero punctuation.

also, the counter strike rip off is quite good. The guns and things require you to load magazine and **** the working parts of guns to realise which adds another level of realism to a not very realistic game. I could never get on with the scopes though.
 

Legojon

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also, the counter strike rip off is quite good. The guns and things require you to load magazine and **** the working parts of guns to realise which adds another level of realism to a not very realistic game. I could never get on with the scopes though.

Not the same, but on robo recall you can literally juggle ammo clips you don't have the inventory space to carry.
 

BadBoy03

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We have the HTC vive & valve index. Both brilliant, although the index is a huge improvement & works perfectly for every vr need. Would recommend highly! Never had a big issue with motion sickness & can play Pavlov, Skyrim, gorn etc fine.
 

Lozzy15

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I've had the Index for about a month now and absolutely loving it. We've had a quiet few night shifts at work these last few days so I took it in and set it up in the conference room where we had plenty of space to move about. I rigged the wires to the roof with my pulley system to keep the cables out of the way. I work on a shift with 12 people in total and 10 of them tried it out. Everyone of them loved it and a couple are seriously considering buying one of their own now!

The most surprising thing I found was the older lads I work with (55 - 65) found it the most fun and were on it the most competing with each other in a bow and arrow game. I guess with the generation they grew up with, such a thing was never even considered when they were younger. Everyone's got achy arms and shoulders now though!

Been looking at Boneworks, from the reviews and video's I've seen it looks impressive so will be getting that for it next I think.
 
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BadBoy03

A Mk1 Is For Life, Not Just For Fun
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Index imo seems to have the boxes ticked, very comfortable compared to the vive. We have boneworks & the whole family enjoy it. It allows you to experience the physics in VR & have fun with it. It is a good test before half-life Alyx comes out. Good times ahead :)
 
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