While I wouldn't consider running the original PSVR on PC, the new one could be quite an appealing alternative to Oculus and Index if it works.
Looks like there's already a third-party app to get the original PSVR working with PC, so fingers crossed they update it to support the new model too.
I've already mentioned it in the "What are we playing?" thread, but the combo of Dirt Rally 2.0, VR and a steering wheel is amazing. The difference to playing on a gamepad reminds me of when the Touch controllers first came out and you could interact with stuff by reaching out and grabbing it, seeing your hands where you knew them to be.
Had a similar experience with Elite Dangerous and my HOTAS set-up, only amplified by the fact the the stick in the Elite Dangerous cockpit was very closely modelled on the stick I have, the Saitek X52 Pro.
But I eventually went back to using TrackIR instead of VR, as it provided much of the same experience, but without the reduced resolution.
What are you doing for shifting? Automatic? Flippers? Stick shift?Originally Posted by Thirith
Automatic. I could use the flippers that the wheel has, but I've never shifted manually in any game. I'm already finding it more than difficult enough just to concentrate on steering, accelerating and braking. If I had to take my hands off the steering wheel to do another thing, my brain might break (or should that be 'brake'?).
Out of curiosity, are you using pedals as well?
Yeah, though obviously just gas and brake.
I've never played Dirt Rally with automatic shifting, but I'm fairly sure that it slows you down quite a bit. It's the same with some driving assists (ABS, traction/stability control) - they do make the driving easier, but you don't get the full potential out of your car with them enabled. Maybe if you've never ever shifted manually it takes a lot of effort to learn it now, but it could be worth the effort, especially if you think that you'll be playing Dirt Rally a lot. On the other hand, if you don't care about being super competitive, you should just do whatever's the most fun for you.
Hitman 3 (and therefore Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2 (2018) are coming to VR (and to Steam) on 20 January.
While I'm not a huge fan of the game as such (I've played the non-VR version before, but it never really clicked for me), I am enjoying Resident Evil 4 VR. More than anything else, though, it's making me wonder what other classic games could translate to VR quite well and be non-demanding enough to work on a Quest 2. I'm thinking of games such as System Shock 2 (I believe a VR version is in the works) or even Thief. Obviously there won't be many of these, but I nonetheless love the idea of bringing classics to VR, if done well, as it is in the case of RE4.
Also, I'm really glad I returned to Hellblade VR. While I understand that most people want VR to be predominantly first-person games, there are cool, interesting things that a third-person game can do in VR, and Hellblade definitely does.
Has anyone here played No Man's Sky in VR? I've been wanting to get back to it, but that game is painfully badly optimised for VR. I can pretty much do whatever I wish with the settings, the game still runs like a pig with all four legs cut off. It's also very obviously not designed for standing play - which in concrete terms means that the game has one fixed forward orientation that does not correspond to the player's orientation if they phyiscally turn.
If this game had received just a bit more TLC for the VR version, it'd be a great space tourism simulator. I would love to hang out on these weird, colourful worlds. But as it is, it's only playable with a lot of goodwill. I'm sure there would be some tweaks I could do, but whatever I've found online is either highly convoluted or very specific to whatever hardware and headset you're using. :-/
I briefly checked out the Outer Wilds VR mod and was really impressed at how well it works. They've tweaked the controls and put certain functions on your body in ways that shame some games that are natively VR. Movement is smooth locomotion, which would probably make it a no-no for some people, and I could also imagine flying around being hard on some players' stomachs, but this is still a very impressive accomplishment - and seeing these environments in VR and getting a much better sense of scale is quite breathtaking. I don't necessarily think I'd play the whole game like this, but I might go and check out every world just to get a sense of them in VR.
Look at thiiiiiisssssss
Free mod, coming Q3 2022. I've been meaning to replay Alyx, might just wait for this instead.
Ooh, nice! Will have to check this out.
I've not really watched much VR video so far; most of them were relatively low-res and fuzzy, and while you can look around yourself, it's not real 3D obviously. This isn't Blade Runner and you can't move your head to look around things, which also means that while turning around to look at things is fine, the image doesn't react to the small head movements you usually make, so there's something of a disconnect that there isn't with regular 3D environments in VR.
Having said that, though, The Soloist VR, a two-part documentary about Alex Honnold (the rock climber featured in the award-winning film Free Solo), is a great use of VR video. The placement of the cameras gives you a great view of Honnold's climbing prowess, but you also get a good sense of scale. It's not done in a sensationalist way, but it doesn't need to: seeing the guy hanging from a rock hundreds of metres up a mountain, with nothing below him other than the ground that would smash him to bits should he slip, and another hundred metres yet to climb, has an impact without the filmmakers adding anything.
As far as I can tell, this is only available on Oculus TV (if it's still called that - for all I know, it might now be Meta TV), and I don't know if that can be accessed e.g. via Revive. The Soloist is split into two half-hour videos, and I've only watched half of it so far, but it's well worth checking out if you can.
Edit: It looks like this video can only be viewed on Quest 2, which sucks.
Last edited by Thirith; 4th May 2022 at 04:06.
Praydog's Resident Evil VR mod now supports RE7 and RE8, and from the videos I've seen I get the impression it's better than many a native VR game, including motion controls.
The mod can be downloaded here: https://github.com/praydog/REFramework/releases
What is smooth locomotion? A quick google search isn't very informative. I can imagine Outer Wilds would be a great candidate for VR in general given how well it portrays scale even in 2D.
Smooth locomotion means that when you walk, it's much like in an FPS - you press the stick in that direction and you move smoothly. Since you're not moving for real, though, this is something that can make people uncomfortable in VR, which is why many VR games offer teleportation movement, where you basically jump from one place to the next, often with a fade out and fade in effect.
Right, that makes sense. I've still never had the chance to try VR -- I doubt a GTX1060 would be good for it -- though hopefully I will once PSVR2 is released.
I think henke ran VR on something like a GTX1060 for a while. With the games that came out around the time the original Oculus Rift came out, you should fare okay with such a GPU.
On a different note: I've been playing a fair bit of RE4VR recently, not least because I want to finish the bugger (I like it, but I don't love it). I did find out that throwing grenades is a great way of breaking hanging lamps. At first I thought it was in the game, but then I realised there wasn't anything around that I could've broken by accident. Ah well.
I have a GTX1070, which works well enough for most VR.
Has there been anything exciting in VR this year, new games or otherwise? I feel like the scene is a bit dead, and I haven't touched my headset in over 6 months. Seems like there should be a lot more new games for the Quest 2, but I haven't heard much hype.
There are a bunch of interesting games coming up, mainly Quest 2 versions of PCVR games, such as Bonelab and Into the Radius. I'm also hearing very good things about Green Hell, which seems to exist as a Quest 2 version.
However, for me the exciting stuff has been the work coming out of the modding community: polished mods for games such as Outer Wilds, Firewatch, the Resident Evil games, Deep Rock Galactic, Half-Life 2, that seem to be better at the VR experience than a fair number of official ports. The guy who did the Firewatch mod is now working on something for Shipbreakers. Also, if I understood properly, the community is about to release some kind of framework mod that is basically "VorpX but better" and that will work for all DX11 games. There's a lot going on there, it's just not as visible as big game releases.
Another one coming out soon, as far as I know: Moss 2.
Also GTFO, Valheim, Subnautica, Mechwarrior 5, and Deep Rock Galactic. Lately I've been putting a lot of time into MW5 in VR and it's a really great experience; fun enough to overlook the QoL nitpicks.
There's also a community project in the works to allow minimal-configuration VR for any UE4 game, which I'm excited about.
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