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PC VR - Hardware, Software, Recommendations & Discussion Thread

Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Twinguistics said:
Dumb vr question incoming in 3...2...1...


Does each game showing what I'm seeing on my laptop screen not cost processing power? In guessing it doesn't as it's just mirroring the headset?

If not, can I disable having the second screen to boost performance?
Click to expand...
Usually it just mirrors the left eye's or the right eye's view as desktop view (so many VR FPS videos showing the left eye on a righty player so you never see the sights/scopes when they aim, I hate it, lol), if not then they should generally have it in the game options somewhere, something about a desktop spectator view or similar...

Either way it has to be a game option, you can't change an universal setting or anything afaik (though separately you can enable/disable SteamVR's desktop left/right/combined eye view) so if some developer fucked up and ruins performance rendering something altogether different on your PC than in the headset it's on them...
 
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Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
store.steampowered.com

Crunch Element - Enemy breaching, barricade rework, and a new explosive item! - Steam News

Hello everyone! Things have been busy as the most pressing roadmap items were being tackled. Enjoy this new update which includes many fixes, but also some exciting additions such as enemy breaching, the new impact grenade, and more! Check it out now on the default branch. Features - Added the...
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
I didn't see that coming, I guess that makes the EE worth it over normal + SS2Tool/mods.


 
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Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Steam's 2020 saw VR game sales go up 32% year on year (and another 39% if they include Alyx, I'm not sure why they wouldn't or what the deal is with this part) and a fairly impresssive 1.7 million new/first time VR users, among other stats found in here:
steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Steamworks Development :: Steam - 2020 Year in Review

A review of the more noteworthy updates, features, and events that happened last year on Steam.
steamcommunity.com steamcommunity.com
na.panasonic.com

VR Glasses

New and stylish experience of the virtual world
na.panasonic.com na.panasonic.com
 
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Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
developer.oculus.com

Multi-User Accounts and App Sharing Coming Soon

Next month, we are rolling out two of the most requested features from our VR community: Multi-User accounts, the ability for multiple accounts to log into a single headset; and App Sharing, the ability to share apps with others on the shared device.
developer.oculus.com developer.oculus.com
store.steampowered.com

IronWolf VR - Early Access 1.17.0.0 - Destroyer Subsystem Targetting & Streamer Camera - Steam News

This update allows the destroyer gun room operator to target specific subsystems on the enemy using the subsystem targeting computer, the health of each subsystem is shown on the main panel of this device. Disabling the engines or powerplant of the enemy will render them unable to move until...
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
synthridersvr.com

Enter a neon future with "Synthwave Essentials 2" featuring Muse! - Synth Riders

Enter a neon future with "Synthwave Essentials 2" featuring Muse and incredible Synthwave classics!
synthridersvr.com synthridersvr.com


 
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T

Twinguistics

Member
I just got the 646 best score on the song legend on beat saber on hard difficulty. How'd I manage to do that? I've not really played much (maybe ten hours) and have done that track maybe ten times. I played with the fast song and ghost notes multiplier and, yeah, no 646.

Is there something I'm missing? Perhaps all the good players don't upload their scores as the scoresaber mod prevents it? I'm yet to mod the game but I will.

Maybe I just fluked some good cuts?
 
Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
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MarlboroRed

MarlboroRed

Member
I appreciate what you do here Alexios Alexios , but I really wish this was a thread for discussion of all things VR, such as the Quest 2 thread is. I feel like you are making this more difficult than it has to be here when me and others have to go through pages of news and updates in order to find the occasional genuine reply.

Seems like tomorrow is shaping up to be the day I finally put my feet into virtual reality for the first time, after years of pushing it off either due to the hardware still being in its infancy, a lack of interesting games or simply not deep enough pockets. My reverb g2 is on the way here already, and depending on how much I like the controllers I will order the Index Knuckles and some Lighthouses as well in the future.

I'm so pumped. First VR game will be HL: Alyx. I kinda wish I could skip setting up and adjusting the headset/controllers so I could boot it up completely blind, but I don't think that will be possible. Gonna have to spend at least a short amount of time making sure everything is working.
 
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Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Yep, better do some random crap in The Lab first (or whatever WMR has as first entry/tutorial stuff, it's not accessible with other kits so no clue what MS has) so you can be comfortable and not fumble around, maybe see if you can get comfortable with free locomotion rather than just go with the teleportation default, etc.

With Oculus Rift the setup process was also a first tutorial that taught all the basic controls (except locomotion but then it dropped you in your Oculus "home" which did that) but the process probably isn't quite as smooth with other brands, or at least I've never checked exactly how it goes when people set those up from 0.
 
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MarlboroRed

MarlboroRed

Member
Al3x1s said:
Yep, better do some random crap in The Lab first (or whatever WMR has as first entry/tutorial stuff, it's not accessible with other kits so no clue what MS has) so you can be comfortable and not fumble around, maybe see if you can get comfortable with free locomotion rather than just go with the teleportation default, etc.

With Oculus Rift the setup process was also a first tutorial that taught all the basic controls (except locomotion but then it dropped you in your Oculus "home" which did that) but the process probably isn't quite as smooth with other brands, or at least I've never checked exactly how it goes when people set those up from 0.
Click to expand...
I was hoping to use the Aperture Hand Lab to set things up. I saw the first couple minutes of it and the humor hit me up pretty good. But it seems like that requires the Knuckles Controllers to properly advance the game..
 
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Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
I think they added controller presets for other controllers but I've not tried it since. The Lab should be fine, it's mini games like archery and other stuff and/or just messing around with physics objects in the hub (I think they also made the hands more physical like in Hand Lab in a later update so they affect stuff/stop at walls etc.).

Who knows, maybe MS itself has a pretty good setup method and tutorial stuff to get started with, the Windows 10 Mixed Reality portal is ever elusive to me as it doesn't work with other brands (pretty lame tbh, from what I've seen in images they have a promising desktop VR view and other stuff for example that could be handy).
 
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MarlboroRed

MarlboroRed

Member
Al3x1s said:
I think they added controller presets for other controllers but I've not tried it since. The Lab should be fine, it's mini games like archery and other stuff and/or just messing around with physics objects in the hub (I think they also made the hands physical like in Hand Lab in a later update so they affect stuff/stop at walls etc.).
Click to expand...
Sounds good. The download is only like a couple hundred megs for the Hand Lab. I will install both, try the Hand Lab first and if I cant properly play it with the Reverb Controllers I'll try the Lab instead.

I mean, I really only need it to set up the headset. Once that is done I'll head straight into Alyx :messenger_smiling_hearts:
 
Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!


Nvidia finally addressing VR issues with a first hotfix, more work should follow (to allow monitoring soft).

NVIDIA Support

nvidia.custhelp.com nvidia.custhelp.com
This should be great, rumblings of a full Half-Life: Alyx campaign with new characters and environment types based on Goldeneye 007 (weirdly adapted to Half-Life lore I guess?).


 
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Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
store.steampowered.com

SURV1V3 - January update! - Steam News

Santa Carla is getting even better! Have fun with the new launches in Survival mode!
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
www.kickstarter.com

Update 33: Update #33: It’s 2021. Welcome To The Future! · Firmament

Hello Backers! Before we dive in, just a heads up that the last bit of news involves new art and a minor reveal (not in any way a spoiler, tho!), so if you're striving to have as little context as possible prior to playing the game, you'll want to skip the last item in this update. We hope this...
www.kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com
www.bloomberg.com

Apple’s First Headset to Be Niche Precursor to Eventual AR Glasses

The company’s first major new product category since the Apple Watch faces development hurdles.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com




 
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Vlodril

Vlodril

Member
Got the Reverb G2 and i got to say the jump in quality as far as the visual goes is immense. Coming from the rift s and quest 2 (which i tried for a bit then promptly sold) westworld is really really clean. Letters you can read and character models. Really happy with it.

Not so happy with me having to put my monitors in "native" (windows sees my 4k tv as 1080p native and my 75hz monitor as 60) to get the g2 to actually run otherwise i am getting the 1-8 error. Hopefully that gets fixed soon.

I am also having some issues with steam vr. Alyx had some texture issues and trying to run the home for steam vr got infinite loading. I only tried once though so we ll see. I did install the hotfix.
 
MarlboroRed

MarlboroRed

Member
Vlodril said:
Got the Reverb G2 and i got to say the jump in quality as far as the visual goes is immense. Coming from the rift s and quest 2 (which i tried for a bit then promptly sold) westworld is really really clean. Letters you can read and character models. Really happy with it.

Not so happy with me having to put my monitors in "native" (windows sees my 4k tv as 1080p native and my 75hz monitor as 60) to get the g2 to actually run otherwise i am getting the 1-8 error. Hopefully that gets fixed soon.

I am also having some issues with steam vr. Alyx had some texture issues and trying to run the home for steam vr got infinite loading. I only tried once though so we ll see. I did install the hotfix.
Click to expand...
My Reverb G2 also arrived today, finally! I actually moved apartments today, so I couldn't check it out yet. I already set up everything to be ready to go and am about to dive in later this evening. I'm somewhat anxious about it, but I'm sure that will pass quickly once I put on the glasses.

Also, are there any vr-software recommendations you guys have? Must have apps and such..
 
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Vlodril

Vlodril

Member
I would like
MarlboroRed said:
My Reverb G2 also arrived today, finally! I actually moved apartments today, so I couldn't check it out yet. I already set up everything to be ready to go and am about to dive in later this evening. I'm somewhat anxious about it, but I'm sure that will pass quickly once I put on the glasses.

Also, are there any vr-software recommendations you guys have? Must have apps and such..
Click to expand...
I would like to know that as well. I have been mainly doing gaming but i am interested in some viewer for movies / tv shows.
 
Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
DeoVR seemed alright enough for plain VR video viewing and there's Bigscreen for something more elaborate.

Some popular creation software is only on Oculus like Quill and Medium but there's also Google's Tilt Brush.

Some popular social apps are RecRoom, NeosVR, VRChat or even PokerStars VR (and Bigscreen).

Lots of experiences, movies, concerts, visual novels, docus, just environments, or whatever.

People also fancy stuff like Google Earth VR and fitness apps like FitXR/BoxVR.

Stuff like Eleven Table Tennis I guess tread the line between game and more.

Edit: oh hey, Road to VR just got this creation software stuff article up.
www.roadtovr.com

12 Tools for Painting, Sculpting, & Animating in VR

www.roadtovr.com www.roadtovr.com
This upcoming thingie is relevant too.


For something like this above, that exists already, try here: https://www.youtube.com/c/42tones/videos
 
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Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
A couple more short teaser videos from that Days of Heroes: D-Day VR thingie seen in an earlier post here
store.steampowered.com

Dash Dash World - Patch 2.5 - Virtual Desktop support, Unisex customization, Fanatec T150 support - Steam News

Patch 2.5.0 Release Notes [Features] - Revise Valve Index sensitivity and Pressure for grip - Polish character creation (Gender cards, new 8 Presets per gender, 3D Character preview) - Loading flow improvement - Unisex customization - New preset for Fanatec steering wheel (Swap drift & Acc from...
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com

Dev Update | January 2021

What have we been working on? Questing, we are still finishing up some core designs on the questing system. Lots of bug squishing! UI upgrades for several key features. Labyrinth changes: fixed load time issues, enemies seeing through walls, added collectibles, and much more! New enemy...
www.unlitgames.com www.unlitgames.com




 
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MarlboroRed

MarlboroRed

Member
Finally found the time to try out the Reverb G2 yesterday, and VR in general for that matter. My feelings are somewhat mixed about it..

On one hand: It's fucking amazing. Like, once you pushed through setting it up, managed the interoperability between WMR and SteamVR and have it not crash constantly, it's straight up the future. No questions about it. I tried SuperHot and Alyx, since I couldn't get the Lab to go past the Loading Screen.

Seeing someone point a gun at you, dodging it on instinct, only to be able to follow the bullets trajectory as it flies by you is something that simply has to be experienced. You don't get it from watching someone do that on a flat screen. You have to experience it. I think SuperHot will become my go-to title to showcase VR to friends and family.

But on the other hand, the software side of things between SteamVR and WMR is an absolute nightmare to deal with, and I feel the necessity to have it run seperately in addition to SteamVR puts a lot of stress on my computer that could be avoided. I experienced a lot of crashes when I first tried the Reverb G2, but I think I mostly resolved these issues. Half Life Alyx does crash occasionally, but I think thats because SteamVR runs it automatically at 100% SS on my rig, and the native resolution of the Reverb is already pretty high. Increasing it beyond 100% SS will crash most titles so far, I guess my GPU is hitting its limits in terms of VRAM and my CPU in terms of temperature (though I reapplied thermal paste and adjusted the CPU fan settings in BIOS, which seemed to fix the heat issues).

I consider my understanding of computers to be at least above average, and it's been a real struggle for me fixing it all up to where it runs okay-ish now. I don't see the average consumer being able to do the same, so I have a newfound appreciation for out-of-the-box VR sets like the Quest 2, which I think will be the way to go forward for mainstream consumer VR, at least as long as there is no PSVR2 or Xbox VR.

But yeah, I myself am hooked. And hyped. This turned out to be the new frontier I was hoping for, and I can't wait to try out more VR games.
 
Buggy Loop

Buggy Loop

Member
Just wanted to say, mad props Alexios Alexios for updating this thread with so much news.

happy jonathan tucker GIF by Kingdom on Audience
 
namekuseijin

namekuseijin

Banned
MarlboroRed said:
Seeing someone point a gun at you, dodging it on instinct, only to be able to follow the bullets trajectory as it flies by you is something that simply has to be experienced. You don't get it from watching someone do that on a flat screen. You have to experience it.
Click to expand...

exactly

no matter how much enthusiasm we show for it, you need to that red pill by yourself to understand what makes VR so damn amazing to the point that made many of us so obsessed with it
MarlboroRed said:
But on the other hand, the software side of things between SteamVR and WMR is an absolute nightmare to deal with
Click to expand...

yes, that's why pcvr will never be as popular as Quest or psvr - flawless and painless user experience that just works
 
MarlboroRed

MarlboroRed

Member
namekuseijin said:
yes, that's why pcvr will never be as popular as Quest or psvr - flawless and painless user experience that just works
Click to expand...
Exactly. PCVR will remain a niche for enthusiasts. The Quest, PSVR and (if rumors are true) Apple will be the ones who bring VR to the masses.


One thing that surprised me was that I had little to no issues adjusting to VR. There was no motion sickness, and the controls felt natural to me. I actually felt more motion sick after I was done playing than during my session. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

I also tried out DeoVR as recommended by Alexios Alexios . It's pretty close to a cinema experience, actually. I can see myself watching more movies/tv series in VR in the future. Gonna check out BigScreen later on as well.
 
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T

Twinguistics

Member
Been reading the last few posts - agree on the props to Alexis for the content, I read every postv and always pleased to see a new one.

Marlboro - me too man, no vr sickness here either. You read the quest thread and it sounds as if you need a sick bucket at the ready for weeks but nah.

Re pcvr being niche, yeah I guess so but pc gaming itself is kinda niche now. I'm rubbish with computers and, to my surprise, the rift I got a Christmas works well and has given me little hassle.

My gaming laptop does crash a lot though, has done since I got it last year, and it does so in vr too. What does yours do? Mine just locks up completely (with no audio) and I have to do hard reboot as nothing works. I've tried some basic troubleshooting but can't figure it out -like I said, I'm a noob at pc gaming and only had one since last march.
 
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Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
To be fair WMR is the least common option (idk why, it simplified setup before Rift S and often was cheap, Odyssey/+ for half price was crazy but Rift/Vive eclipsed it in sales) and seemed abandoned before G2 which is not even standard WMR so it makes sense you had more trouble, hopefully it's smooth sailing from now on.

Niche or not it's where the content's at (and at its best) as far as I'm concerned, cables be damned, I've never tripped or anything, you learn to go around (and you can always attempt wireless PC with Quest if you have the house setup for it or splurge for a Vive Pro HMD + wireless adapter + Index controllers or something).

People say the same about PC in general after all but we know it's not niche (if you don't add up all consoles & Switch together PC gaming's bigger even as a market, never mind for the gamers who just care to play what/how they like whether what they played sold more/less or not).

But yep it's good to see it get the console treatment, it only means more games for everyone on any VR platform after all (even if the odd paid exclusive sucks to miss, personally I prefer to not miss awesome indie stuff that pave the way and of course AAA stuff like Lone Echo & Alyx).

Honestly I think if Oculus don't improve a lot they will be left in the dust if more actual gaming companies make their own similarly stand alone devices as the tech becomes more widespread. They haven't done so great on the store/software output side hence PC VR gamers using Steam save for an exclusive or two.

But they did get it so right with their hand controllers the first time and it's almost become the standard design by now, save for prototype tech like Index controllers that have to attempt different form factors to accomodate that. Every other company seems to have copied their already successful design for a reason.

Wireless is the future for all platforms of course, Quest just happened to do it first (for an affordable price and the concessions that come with that, unlike the HTC wireless adapter mentioned earlier), thanks to fans at that when it comes to PC connectivity, still no official solution that's deemed lagless enough by its masters.

Edit: oh you're probably able to at least disable the Steam VR Home area or perhaps the equivalent WMR one to ensure you're not running all stuff at once, just as I've disabled the Oculus Home and the Steam VR Home too, it's not like I visit either area nowadays. But yeah you're still going through two apis/backends or whatever.
 
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Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
btw rip to hugh hancock, the left-hand path dev

so many valuable lessons learned from that game, knowledge will be carried forward
 
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T

Twinguistics

Member
Hey Tesseract, I know you're an awesome battle royale player - you played population one yet and, if so, what's your take on it? I didn't know you played VR.

I've not played pop one but I've got my eye on it, hence the question.
 
namekuseijin

namekuseijin

Banned


he has commented on this before. I think real Matrix will be here before they actually make headsets slim enough. You may be fully immersed in a conscious dream while lying down or walk with open eyes and see things not there (like HUD or AR). Hell, CCP will be able to have even complete control over their citizens and imperial subjects and employ torture with pain without actual physical procedures and at a distance.

VR is all good while games, but will take a turn for the worst once gamefying the real world is widespread and such BCI as well
 
Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
I posted the twitter clip of System Shock 2's VR work but missed this detailed update showing visual and other upgrades. Hopefully it also makes VR viable for more KEX games!
www.kickstarter.com

Update 76: January Update · System Shock

Welcome back, Hackers! We at Nightdive hope you had a great holiday season! Now for some news. PC pre-orders will open near the end of February on Steam, GOG, and the Epic Game Store. This will be accompanied by the release of our final demo which will include the medical level, cyberspace...
www.kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com
blog.mozvr.com

A New Year, A New Hubs

An updated look & feel for Hubs, with an all-new user interface, is now live. Just over two years ago, we introduced a preview release of Hubs [https://blog.mozvr.com/introducing-hubs-a-new-way-to-get-together-online/]. Our hope was to bring people together to create, socialize and collaborate...
blog.mozvr.com


 
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Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
I hope they eventually get back to the FPS Echo Combat part, sure it was way less popular than the sporty Echo Arena side but it's paid DLC and they've yet to make it free or port it to Quest to help its numbers!


 
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