It's VR crunch time commanders, and I need your help !

rootsrat

Volunteer Moderator
@MadMike / Alec,

I'm curious as to what these "walk around" games are that Rootsrat believes makes the Vive a better choice if you are into them. I love the room scale stuff but cannot find anything on Steam of that nature that is either not available on Oculus Home or doesn't work for the Rift if purchased from Steam.

See my post above yours, we must have been posting in the same time :)
 
@MadMike / Alec,

I'm curious as to what these "walk around" games are that Rootsrat believes makes the Vive a better choice if you are into them. I love the room scale stuff but cannot find anything on Steam of that nature that is either not available on Oculus Home or doesn't work for the Rift if purchased from Steam.

I cant help there as i dont necessarily agree with him
Conceptually vive has better tracking for large areas (>4m x 4m) but i dont have such an area so have not experienced this myself
practically vive has easier to set up tracking if you do not have a lot of usb 3 bandwidth and if you do not want usb cables coming from your pc.

but... in my experience now i have got my 3 sensor rift VR set up, i believe in my use case of "only" 3m x 3m, my rift can do everything a 3x3m vive set up can do every bit as well as the vive.

That said, rootsrat has his view, i have mine, over all i think we agree on most points so there is probably not much to be gained by nitpicking over the little things.....

so i was just trying to list the games on steam, not on oculus store, which imo are must haves for all VR users.

edit.... i DO have an example where vive wins however!..... (tho please bear in mind this is me being light hearted and am not looking to start an argument)

https://www.roadtovr.com/new-alien-multiplayer-vr-experience-development-fox-next/

something like the above can ONLY be done on either a standalone VR unit or with a vive and a pc on a backpack on your person....... this would not work with constellation really... its kind of an edge case use however ;)
 
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See my post above yours, we must have been posting in the same time :)

some nice stuff there for me to check out... thanks.... some of it is on oculus store too however ;)
(infact iirc pinballFX2 was an oculus part funded title which was on oculus store before steam!)
 
I have Oculus, but tried Vive for few days.

If I was to buy a headset now I would buy Oculus.

For me touch controllers are way better than the ones in Vive
It is bit lighter
I like the headphones built in.
It is much cheaper

Room scale tracking is better in Vive, but I am OK to sacrifice that for the rest.

The news that Fallout 4, Doom VR and Skyrim VR will come to Vive initialy (or only) may be important, so being Oculus owner I am not happy about that, but keep my fingers crossed.

Having said that I think we may be seeing new headsets at the end of 2018, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to wait till then (again, the Oculus is £399 now, this is the price one can actually spend on gadget that will not be used too much)

I think software available now for both devices is the biggest problem, just few good games you are done with in 10 hours or so (Robo Recall), and then waiting for something new.

Game I use it mainly for is Elite, but again only for surface scanning, the rest for me is too blurry compared to flat screen, also lots of stuff I do requires second screen and the notepad, so VR will not do :)
 
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I can recommend:

Castle Must be Mine - http://store.steampowered.com/app/542770/Castle_Must_Be_Mine/ - AMAZING tower defence type of game. Really, I didn't think it'd be so much fun. While I don't usually get early access games, this one is already fully playable, all they do now is add more levels. Can't recommend this enough.
Cloudlands Minigolf - http://store.steampowered.com/app/425720/Cloudlands__VR_Minigolf/ - not much to say - mini golf, lots of fun!
Cowbots and Aliens - http://store.steampowered.com/app/517670/Cowbots_and_Aliens/ - comic-style multiplayer shooter. Funny and entertaning. Grab any item and throw it at your opponent, hide behind tables, barrels, window shutters (as in physically crouch or lean). Lots of fun!
Holo Ball - http://store.steampowered.com/app/457320/HoloBall/ - basically, single player Pong in VR. I treat this as my daily workout, it can get you VERY sweaty and the AI snarky remarks makes you want to kick his bottom :D
Pinball FX2 - http://store.steampowered.com/app/547590/Pinball_FX2_VR/- very well made game. Technically you can play it seated, but have you ever seen seated pinball?
Sairento VR - http://store.steampowered.com/app/555880/Sairento_VR/ - Another Early Acccess I've invested in and didn't regret it one bit. You're basically a cyber-ninja. Use guns and katanas, jump in slow-mo, decimating your enemies from the air... Intense and fun!

Now the below are more "experiences", but still fun!

Allumette - http://store.steampowered.com/app/460850/Allumette/ - An interpretation of H.C. Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Match Girl". Beautiful animated movie that shows you what you can achieve in VR with right filming techniques. Love it! The kids will love it too!
The VR museum of fine art - http://store.steampowered.com/app/515020/The_VR_Museum_of_Fine_Art/ - I love art - and this allowed me to see Mona Lisa up close :) Love it!
A night cafe - http://store.steampowered.com/app/482390/The_Night_Cafe_A_VR_Tribute_to_Vincent_Van_Gogh/ - tribute to Van Gogh
Destinations VR - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/02/03/destinations-vr-review/ - I don't really care about that one, but it has one AWESOME feature - a bit of virtual Mars, composed entirely of the photos sent by the Curiosity rover. This had my jaw on the floor. I was stood in my living room, thinking to my self, "Man, I am in my living room, but I am on MARS. On a different PLANET and it's REAL!". Seriously. Get it just for that short experience. What a time to be alive!

Cheers appreciate that. I'll 100% check out some of those.

I already own Cloudlands and it works fine on my Rift, it's a cool little game. Pinball FX2, A Night Cafe & Allumette are also all available on Oculus Home. I love Pinball FX2 btw - great little game, and no - I can't imagine playing seated :). Reminds me actually I need to knock up some sort of Pinball controller (likely Arduino based) but I wanted an analog plunger which I couldn't find at a reasonable price last time I looked.

Sairento VR does sound interesting indeed.

Looking at the list it appears (to me) that all of those titles are either available on the Rift or are Rift compatible including full room scale support...
 
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Happy Rift owner here :)

Elite in Rift is my fav by far, but Eve Valkyrie isn't bad. Adr1ft is very cool too (no touch support)

Touch is awesome - Robo Recall is a blast as is the demo First Contact

I also purchased the third sensor for better room scale coverage and it came with the USB extension cable and recommendation to plug it into a usb 2.0 port - worked great and eliminated a small dead zone.
 
@MadMike / Alec,

I'm curious as to what these "walk around" games are that Rootsrat believes makes the Vive a better choice if you are into them. I love the room scale stuff but cannot find anything on Steam of that nature that is either not available on Oculus Home or doesn't work for the Rift if purchased from Steam.

Irrespective of Vive/Rift I don't really have space in the room where my PC is for these true roomscale games where you do much more than move your hands around, turn around and step to the side occasionally. Funnily enough in ED I have got out of the chair, walked around the back, laid down on the floor to look out the side windows and things like that. With some of the art/creative things like Tilt Brush, Blocks, Oculus Medium, Quill and Fantastic Contraption (the latter of which I haven't tried) it's nice to be able to walk around the thing you're creating and work on it from different angles. This has all worked fine for me in Oculus with two sensors (except I have occasionally lost tracking when my back is to the sensors which I have either side of my desk, or when I'm working with my hands right down on the floor). Actually, the only thing where I had real problems interacting with the experience was the Robot Repair thing in Valve's The Lab (where you have to repair one of the Portal robots). The robot was so big that I barely had enough space to actually move around it and I had to keep teleporting a few feet to get away from it. I suspect I may have similar difficulties with Fantastic Contraption. Isn't there also a game where you're a spy or somesuch and have to clamber over and under trip wires and lasers and things? Is that "I expect you to die"?
 
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Isn't there also a game where you're a spy or somesuch and have to clamber over and under trip wires and lasers and things? Is that "I expect you to die"?

"Expect to die" is sitting experience. The one I moved most was The Climbed but it involves arms only :)
Rick and Morty VR does force you to move sometimes, I had couple of problems because I could not reach the place I had to and I have lots of room in front of my PC.
 
All the games up to now are proof of concept tech demos. Some do bring very good experiences, like Robo Recall

With the release this year of Wilsons Heart, Bridge Crew, Mages Tale and the phenomenal Lone Echo, we are starting to peel away development practice and see just how the VR medium can change gaming.

I can't believe how many Oculus owners haven't mentioned Lone Echo. The AAA campaign and multi player experience takes us to a new level, and will leave you hoping that Frontier can deliver something like this for us...
 
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All the games up to now are proof of concept tech demos. Some do bring very good experiences, like Robo Recall

With the release this year of Wilsons Heart, Bridge Crew, Mages Tale and the phenomenal Lone Echo, we are starting to peel away development practice and see just how the VR medium can change gaming.

I can't believe how many Oculus owners haven't mentioned Lone Echo. The AAA campaign and multi player experience takes us to a new level, and will leave you hoping that Frontier can deliver something like this for us...

Yes, Lone Echo is THE game. I certainly enjoy Robo Recall, PC, and ED, but they are essentially normal games with a VR option, Lone Echo is the first real game that thinks of VR from the ground up, and leaves behind many of the old gaming tropes.
 
I can't believe how many Oculus owners haven't mentioned Lone Echo. The AAA campaign and multi player experience takes us to a new level, and will leave you hoping that Frontier can deliver something like this for us...

Well, I started to wait, the thing is I buy quickly, then finish the game in 2 hours, then I realise I would make much more sense to wait few months when it is on offer and gives me better value for 2 hours of gameplay.

So I did not buy Startrek Bridge and Lone Echo because I try to be reasonable :)
 
I can't believe how many Oculus owners haven't mentioned Lone Echo. The AAA campaign and multi player experience takes us to a new level, and will leave you hoping that Frontier can deliver something like this for us...

Slightly OT but can I ask a quick question about Lone Echo. So I tried Echo Arena at the weekend and the one thing I struggled with a bit was turning around. The tutorial has a lot of stuff about moving forwards and boosting forwards and stopping which was all fine but the first time I went into the arena and flew past the frisbee I then kinda looked over my shoulder at it slowly disappearing behind me and thought errr ... now what? I could of course physically turn around but I don't really like doing that because a) I don't have a 3rd sensor and b) end up with the cable wrapped around me. And I did find that you can push left and right on one of thumbsticks to turn around in increments but that felt a bit naff to me. Given how everyone is raving about the Lone Echo control model and how natural it is I figured maybe I'd missed something?
 
Story line for Lone echo is easily five+ hours long.
And that's if you blast through it.

Can easily spend more than a eight hours on a full play through if you try for all the secondary objectives.

Unlike games like robo recall I feel like going back for more.
Finished it twice so far and just started a third playthorugh.

You can enable smooth turning in the options as well as pitch and roll in settings.
 
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Well, I started to wait, the thing is I buy quickly, then finish the game in 2 hours, then I realise I would make much more sense to wait few months when it is on offer and gives me better value for 2 hours of gameplay.

So I did not buy Startrek Bridge and Lone Echo because I try to be reasonable :)
I hear ya. Up until now, that was the game content. Rest assured Lone Echo is a full campaign, 10-15 hours. Play in chucks, enjoy the journey. I was going to wait, but once the review started coming in I could help it. It's pretty much the must have...plus all proceeds go to support VR :)
 
Slightly OT but can I ask a quick question about Lone Echo. So I tried Echo Arena at the weekend and the one thing I struggled with a bit was turning around. The tutorial has a lot of stuff about moving forwards and boosting forwards and stopping which was all fine but the first time I went into the arena and flew past the frisbee I then kinda looked over my shoulder at it slowly disappearing behind me and thought errr ... now what? I could of course physically turn around but I don't really like doing that because a) I don't have a 3rd sensor and b) end up with the cable wrapped around me. And I did find that you can push left and right on one of thumbsticks to turn around in increments but that felt a bit naff to me. Given how everyone is raving about the Lone Echo control model and how natural it is I figured maybe I'd missed something?
I also don't have a 3rd sensor and use the incremental rotation. I think there's an option for continuous rotation, but I'm scared that will get barfy.

The campaign builds movement skills over time so you get used to it.
 
I hear ya. Up until now, that was the game content. Rest assured Lone Echo is a full campaign, 10-15 hours. Play in chucks, enjoy the journey. I was going to wait, but once the review started coming in I could help it. It's pretty much the must have...plus all proceeds go to support VR :)

I finished the campaign this weekend and it probably took about 8 hours. I took my time but didn't do every single side quest. I plan on playing it again soon as I thought it was amazing and the next time I will finish everything. You make a good point about the importance of supporting VR. VR is still in its early stages and a lot of developers are hesitant to jump in because the user base is still small and they need to make money for there effort. If all us VR users are reluctant to spend any money on the games until they are on sale or cheap, VR will just fade and die because it will lack support from the developers. If some of the game like fallout 4 really end up being Vive exclusive I thing it will be a shame and a huge mistake for the industry. The equipment isn't cheap and it is an industry that is struggling to get started as it is, so if you start fracturing the already limited pool of players with exclusives it is just going to turn of potential buyers from getting into VR. Nobody wants to spend $400 - $800 on a VR setup only to find out they can only play certain VR games.
 
( will buy the Lone Echo tonight :) )

Bought and played for an hour, fantastic game. I will go as slow as possible to enjoy it for longer :)
 
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no one has mentioned this so far so I'm going to step in. If you like combat and flying airplanes then try warthunder (in sim mode not arcade ). It is my second goto game next to elite and absolutely love it. I am real pilot in real life and can tell you it is the closest thing to feel like flying you can get in your living room. Gajin have done fantastic job for VR in the sense of getting smooth gameplay with great fps. Others such as Il2 and DCS not so much.
 
no one has mentioned this so far so I'm going to step in. If you like combat and flying airplanes then try warthunder (in sim mode not arcade ). It is my second goto game next to elite and absolutely love it. I am real pilot in real life and can tell you it is the closest thing to feel like flying you can get in your living room. Gajin have done fantastic job for VR in the sense of getting smooth gameplay with great fps. Others such as Il2 and DCS not so much.

Thanks for posting, I have been thinking about trying a flight sim.
 
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