Trying to justify spending £600 on a VR headset

I'm struggling to play anything on a monitor after getting the Rift.

I'm not hugely into roomscale (knees, back) but if I can spin in my seat with Touch and a controller, cool.

Driving games like Asetto Corsa, Dirt Rally, Project Cars, there's space games like Elite, Adrift, and underwater adventure (Subnautica) - a lot to choose from even now. It wil only get better.

If you're sitting on the fence and can't justify the entry price (you need a good 3D card and processor too) - then hang back a bit. But I had a great entry experience with my 3770K and a 780GTX. Worked fine.

Or bite the bullet and get into VR - if you waiti too long we'll laugh and ask what took you so long :D
 
I bought both a 4K monitor and the rift. I've been on the rift since Friday and right now I'm on the 4K monitor. IMO, the rift is where it's at, as the size of everything is not obvious in 4K. Even doing a CEOS run on the 4K versus rift doesn't compare. Except for the galaxy map, you need to learn it in VR. I believe flying is much easier in the rift to, since everything is scaled nicely.

Oh and going into the SRV is AWESOME!!!! Especially, when you go to turret mode!!! Amazing!!! I stopped what I was doing for a while so I could do skirmish missions, so fun now.
 
OP, you say you have a PC that can run VR, do you have one that can run it well?.
The difference in visual quality between been able to run it, and been able to run it with good gfx settings can be considerable.
That said, if you can find somewhere that demo's the head sets go and try them.
I got my rift in May and I've only played using my 4k monitor once since, and that was ...uninspiring.
The only downside is that my wife and daughter now laugh at me and occasionally sneak up on me when I'm playing;)
 
I got the rift with only one game in mind, elite, i don't play any other games with it and i will never be able to play this game on a regular monitor again.
But you should consider what else you have to invest in, after getting the rift. I had to get a HOTAS after i bought the rift, needed the buttons at my fingertips, now i only remove the headset to search for system names on the keyboard.
As for justifying it... I did massive amounts of overtime at work to be able to afford it. so was it worth the overtime? Yes, every single sweaty hour!
 
I love playing Elite in VR (Vive), and despite the technical resolution and engine limitations, it works well for me, BUT as a gainfully employed, happily married (and hoping to remain so) father of small children - it's just too darn immersive.

If I power up the lighthouses, velcro my HOTAS to the arms of my chair and strap on the HMD and headphones, I know that I'm out of contact with reality for at least the next hour, which is about all the spare time I ever have at the moment. When I was playing with a monitor and EDTracker at least I knew when someone comes in looking for money or a missing lunchbox or quality time; with the mask on, I'm entirely cocooned from all that. So often I don't start up Elite for that hour at all.

I know it comes across as a bit like a Tim Dowling column, but consider your situation and whether your £600 investment will be able to get the intensive use it deserves.
 
It's not our job to "try to justify" your purchase of an Oculus Rift. Only you can answer the question "can I afford this thing"?

But I'll tell you this, from personal experience. I came from the other direction: had a rift first, and the tech demos and some of the games were cool. . . but it wasn't something I really used for more than an hour or so a day, more to get used to it than anything.

Then I bought Elite : Dangerous.

My wife is ready to divorce me, my kid wants to know why the rift ranks higher than him in the hierarchy of the family. Twelve hour days? Oh, more than I'd care to admit. I'm actually surprised I don't have permanent "O" face.

I tried to play it on my 4k monitor once. I can't understand how it's playable for ANYONE on a monitor. . even if it were with three 21:9 screens.

It is NOT the same game in VR. When you have your cockpit around you, the full visibility from the front windows, the side windows. . . man. . the view from the courier and the FDL. . . .

No. . I don't need to help you justify your potential purchase. I need to find a way to justify being sucked into a virtual world so amazing I am chained to it every single chance I get.

And the best part is, if you can get one locally, and you REALLY REALLY hate it . . . . you can ALWAYS USE THE RETURN POLICY.

But you won't.

--Sen

I have had a similar experience to this. I had a 4K monitor, and thought Elite was amazing. Then I bought a Rift... Even on a 4 K monitor Elite now looks dull, flat and lifeless.

The Rift changes the whole gaming experience from playing to "being". You actually feel like you're sat in the cockpit. With a HOTAS arranged like the in-game pilot even your arm movements and body position matches. It is immersion on a whole new level.

Basically, if you can afford it, buy it! If you can't, then save up for it and buy it when you can, it will forever change the way you play Elite.
 
I want one. This isn't germane to your post in any way, really, except that if I had a PC that could run it and I had £600 spare I would not hesitate to buy an OR and say 'goodbye outside world'.
 
Do any stores nearby offer demos?

VR isn't for some people - and it's just impossible to describe.

As Munial has said, John Lewis on Oxford St are offering demos.

Take heed from my cautionary tale tho' and make damn sure you book an appointment before going in to avoid disappointment ..

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/292119-A-tale-of-bitter-disappointment-utter-excitement-and-a-rash-purchase

P.S. as far as "justifying" the purchase - I'm not sure you can. It's a purchase of the heart. Any way you cut it, £550 is a LOT of money to spend on a bit of kit that's primarily for playing games on. I think if you try and justify buying one you're going to fail. On the other hand we could all be dead tomorrow and what's life for if not for having some fun while we can. If (and it's a big IF) you can afford one, and you really want one more than anything else of similar cost, and getting one isn't going to put you in debt or ruin your marriage or jeopardise your kids future or anything like that, then maybe, just maybe, you should do it.
 
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So I have Elite, I have a comp that can run VR and now I am having a very hard time convincing myself to pay for a VR headset. It seems like a heck of a lot of money for basically the one actual game that isnt a tech demo - which all the others seem to be.

1. If you really love Elite, are going to play it for a long time because you know it's the game you will play as it really is your thing, then a VR system is worth every cent.

2. If you have the feeling that the repetetive gameplay might bore you within the next couple of months, then I would not go for it if it's a big investment for you.

I play Elite with the RIFT and I totally love it. But the basic game apprears very boring to me. It's too repetitive. Nothing to do.
 
4k looks great, beautiful, but I've noticed people get in the habit of intrinsically linking immersion to screen resolution. Those who really enjoy VR don't.
 
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I love playing Elite in VR (Vive), and despite the technical resolution and engine limitations, it works well for me, BUT as a gainfully employed, happily married (and hoping to remain so) father of small children - it's just too darn immersive.

If I power up the lighthouses, velcro my HOTAS to the arms of my chair and strap on the HMD and headphones, I know that I'm out of contact with reality for at least the next hour, which is about all the spare time I ever have at the moment. When I was playing with a monitor and EDTracker at least I knew when someone comes in looking for money or a missing lunchbox or quality time; with the mask on, I'm entirely cocooned from all that. So often I don't start up Elite for that hour at all.

I know it comes across as a bit like a Tim Dowling column, but consider your situation and whether your £600 investment will be able to get the intensive use it deserves.

Oh man ... it's so great to see someone else put this into words. THIS is the single biggest reason I've hesitated so long before ordering my Oculus (which should be arriving later this week). I know my wife isn't 100% enamoured with my addiction to this game. Most of the time it's fine but occasionally, when she's walking past my desk as I'm waggling my joystick with my "space hat" (TrackIR cap) on, I catch here eye and think uh oh ... time to stop playing now. When I'm immersed in VR-land a) I'm going to look like even more of a than I do now b) I'm not going to pick up on these important visual clues that trouble may be brewing!

Like I say, it's why I hesitated so long ... I cracked in the end tho. Time will tell how it's gonna pan out. Has anyone invented a "chaperone system" that can detect frosty glares yet? :p
 
The picture quality in VR is not as good as 4k but the experience is so much better,
Its the difference between watching your favourite band on a 4k tv or actually being in the stadium a few rows back. The atmosphere is everything even if you cant see quite as much.
Try one and you will buy one.
 
4k looks great, beautiful, but I've noticed people get in the habit of intrinsically linking immersion to screen resolution. Those who really enjoy VR don't.

I dunno about resolution = immersion, just the opposite for me. The CV1 is extremely immersive, but looks like total dog doo-doo, even on an OC 1080 with VR Ultra/ SS 2+. For me Elite: Dangerous is a gorgeous game, and I rarely play in VR anymore because it just looks terrible (completely subjective, I know). Do I miss the scale? Absolutely! But I'll take gorgeous over scale at this point.

On a sidenote, I find many parts of Elite: Dangerous to be mind-numbingly boring and must be played with Netflix or a another game going on on the side. In VR, that turns into a lot of thumb twiddling when I could be multi-tasking.
 
I dunno about resolution = immersion, just the opposite for me. The CV1 is extremely immersive, but looks like total dog doo-doo, even on an OC 1080 with VR Ultra/ SS 2+. For me Elite: Dangerous is a gorgeous game, and I rarely play in VR anymore because it just looks terrible (completely subjective, I know). Do I miss the scale? Absolutely! But I'll take gorgeous over scale at this point.
.

You're agreeing with me, I think.

<--- Obviously one of the VR crowd.
 
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Yeah....I guess so :D Unless some people link graphical fidelity to immersion. I guess 'immersion' is pretty subjective in of its self.


That's what I'm saying, often the 4k screen crowd link game immersion to resolution, whereas those of us that really enjoy VR clearly don't have that hangup
 
That's what I'm saying, often the 4k screen crowd link game immersion to resolution, whereas those of us that really enjoy VR clearly don't have that hangup

Sounds like opposite sides of the same immersion coin. /shrug
 
Food for thought! I originally bought a 32" 1080p monitor and thought ED looked like crap on it. I thought something was wrong with my graphics card. I returned that monitor for my 4K and everything was looking beautiful again. What I notice in Oculus on Ultra is that I see the graphics at the 1080p resolution! Meaning, things are not as clear as I would like them.
 
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