VR is about to get serious

I don’t trust Microsoft in the consumer space (outside of Xbox). They’ve released and killed too many consumer products recently

Windows phone (after numerous failed reboots)
Microsoft band and band 2
Zune
And hot off the press, they just scrapped their music service
 
Good to see some better resolution - I didn't see any refresh figures for the full res, perhaps I missed it.
A that res though, you're going to need a 1080GTX or Ti and probably run at no supersampling. Although you may not really need SS.

Will be interesting to see the hands-on reviews when they come in.
 
4 different branded headsets that are in essence the same thing, little confusing/obnoxious. I'm also wondering if the increased res is there for the increased fov, which is nice, but means pixels per inch won't be improved. If anything I think they're too late to the party, at this point if I don't have a headset and I've got $500 burning a hole in my pocket I'd at least wait to see how the pimax goes before making a decision.
 

This is different. MS is only providing framework support for a standard. They do not make the devices. As other API and vendors also adapt to that standard (Vive, OpenVR - and hopefully Oculus) it can only help create an even healthier environment for AR/VR to flourish. Heck, Even is MS was going to ignore it's own store down the road (Games Live anyone) the seeds have been planted and those devices will become as ubiquitous as the mouse.
 
They don't need base stations like my Vive, and they have a higher res than the Vive. Then again you can buy a HP laptop for pretty much the cost of Windows 10 Home so it's not like they're wanting to make a profit on the headsets, but rather to push sales in other areas.
 
And only five thousand dollars (or roughly ten times the price of the competition). Or about the value of an exceptionally high end laptop.
 
I still don't fully get it. Do they get room scale with the built in camera's? (and is that any good?) Are they compatible with touch controllers or the upcoming knuckle controllers?
 
I don’t trust Microsoft in the consumer space (outside of Xbox). They’ve released and killed too many consumer products recently

Windows phone (after numerous failed reboots)
Microsoft band and band 2
Zune
And hot off the press, they just scrapped their music service

Don't forget the Bing success story :)
 
To be honest for the success of VR, I think PlayStation VR will be it. Don't get me wrong I wont ever use one, but soon millions will be. That will drive the VR development in the right direction. Mass market and on lower grade hardware will force the industry to re think how it applies VR to the console market in turn driving more affordable teach for us PCMR types.
 
I don’t trust Microsoft in the consumer space (outside of Xbox). They’ve released and killed too many consumer products recently

Windows phone (after numerous failed reboots)
Microsoft band and band 2
Zune
And hot off the press, they just scrapped their music service

They had a music service? I had no idea.

But in this case I don't think it will hurt. They are just building in the software into the windows platform and not actually building the hardware. At these early stages of VR I think it can help since they plan on supporting steam VR. Some of the big developers are reluctant to create games for VR because of the small user base. If this helps increase the user base we might get more developers on board.
 
They had a music service? I had no idea.

But in this case I don't think it will hurt. They are just building in the software into the windows platform and not actually building the hardware. At these early stages of VR I think it can help since they plan on supporting steam VR. Some of the big developers are reluctant to create games for VR because of the small user base. If this helps increase the user base we might get more developers on board.

I remain skeptical. Have you seen the windows app store .. it's not exactly bustling with content - I've not even downloaded a new app since I installed my system and got the 'basics'

Game bar was supposed to do the opposite and actually made people drop frames (I've turned it off)

The fact that this has steamVR support is what is stopping it from being a total dud, hopefully the controllers are also SteamVR compatible as well (and not just the headset) otherwise ...
 
To be honest for the success of VR, I think PlayStation VR will be it. Don't get me wrong I wont ever use one, but soon millions will be. That will drive the VR development in the right direction. Mass market and on lower grade hardware will force the industry to re think how it applies VR to the console market in turn driving more affordable teach for us PCMR types.

I do like the PSVR - its really awesome at 'pick up and play' casual VR. The only downside with it is that the move controllers are total crap. I get why they did it to keep costs down, but they really need to put out a better room-scale solution to the re purposed PS camera and PS3 move controllers.

Oh that, and the fact that you can't have a PS4-Pro only version of a VR game .. which is probably why we'll never see Elite on the PSVR - mind you it would not be that good anyway. I tried it with trinus and found that the low resolution of the panels (they're the lowest of all the VR headsets) just make it really hard to read text in what is quite a text-heavy game.
 
Last edited:
I do like the PSVR - its really awesome at 'pick up and play' casual VR. The only downside with it is that the move controllers are total crap. I get why they did it to keep costs down, but they really need to put out a better room-scale solution to the re purposed PS camera and PS3 move controllers.

Oh that, and the fact that you can't have a PS4-Pro only version of a VR game .. which is probably why we'll never see Elite on the PSVR - mind you it would not be that good anyway. I tried it with trinus and found that the low resolution of the panels (they're the lowest of all the VR headsets) just make it really hard to read text in what is quite a text-heavy game.




Or they could just start by adding a thumbstick to the moves, it would already make a huge distance. I have the Farpoint/AIM bunble and control is fenomonal.
My collection of psvr games is pretty big (bought a lot during the honeymoon period ;) ) but the 2 games I always com back to are Dirt and Farpoint ( the link is the controllers here, Dirt with a good wheel and shifter, Farpoint with the aim)
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom