Lately I have been arguing with myself (yes I talk to myself, so what) about getting into VR. I have had a few options on buying a used Vibe or Rift but passed because I just cannot decide if it is worth it. Worth the trouble of putting on an uncomfortable headset that might give me a headache, or might make me run to the thrown upchucking all the way. I just don't know.

Now I have a line on a new Rift for under 500 bucks and the debate begins again to rage inside my throbbing head (so I get a headache just thinking about getting a VR, lol).

So tell me,,why bother,,should I bother,, will I be happy for ever after or will I just leave it sitting on a desk gathering dust.

I'm waiting for the next version of VR that will have better resolution with no "screen door effects".

I also considered it briefly but my interest would be for flight sims only (I have zero interest in the rash of VR titles that are currently flooding the market) and I really don't see how that would be possible without a full HOTAS set-up. How do you guys flying VR cope with that anyway?

Go for it, play around with it for a month or two. If you don't like it, or not well enough after getting used to it, sell it on. Just don't set it aside and forget about it while the value drops.

I've been in the same boat as you, Warbirds. I even promised myself to get the 2nd gen VR, so just be patient and don't get the 1st gen. Check out my thread to see my "adventure."

Personally, I made the purchase of a Vive after being able to demo both Vive and Rift at local stores. I like the Vive headset but I'll admit the Oculus Touch controllers felt better in my hands. If I can have the Touch and pair it with the Vive, that's the best combo! I like the Vive headset as it's more comfy, there's less nosegap, and the lens are better. I didn't like the Rift because the earphones were "meh" (I use my own anyway), the nosegap was clear-as-day, and the headset only has about a mm or two of "sweet spot" otherwise the image goes blurry... in other words, the lenses weren't ideal.

I knew coming in that I couldn't use VR with my flightsim-of-choice which is BMS. People report awesome results with DCS but I've yet to try it. The issue with resolution, screendoor effect, and lack of sim support all influenced my decision to avoid the Rift. I knew that most of my "value" will be coming from other games, so the room-scale capability of the Vive (out of the box!!) was a big factor in my decision. Sure, Rift can do it, but you'll want/need a third sensor to get good tracking. If you were to get a Rift plus Touch Controllers (which comes with a 2nd sensor) plus a third sensor, you'd have spent more than just getting a Vive. So cost plus headset issues cited above basically ruled out the Rift.

So now that my mini-review is over, let me tackle your questions:
1. headache, nausea -- I had the same concerns as you. I also used to always struggle when using a two-eyepiece microscope as the image would not "center" no matter what inter-pupillary distance setting I would use. This is why being able to demo one or both headsets is a big plus. I was able to play a few games, check out the fit on my head, etc. I don't have a headache with it but some games (rollercoaster stuff) do make me feel sick. I just played Elite Dangerous as well and trying to read my chat box while my ship is being moved out of the hangar made me feel sick. So I just don't do rollercoaster stuff or read text while the "background" is moving. While I don't have this issue when playing on the screen, I guess it's the "you're in there" nature of VR that makes it bad enough for me to feel sick.

The one issue I constantly have with the VR headset though is that it gets WARM! I guess moving about has something to do with it; I didn't have as much an issue with playing Elite.

2. why bother -- the VR experiences... going to the mountains in The Lab, Google Earth VR, The Brookhaven Experiment (and the accurate tracking of the handsets!), watching the wife scream as SHE plays The Brookhaven Experiment, watching the kids go berserk on Longbow in The Lab... basically anything that makes anyone go "whoa!! this is so cool!!" We even have The Blu which is just a VR experience... no game mechanics, nothing to do, just watch. The Whale Encounter was cool but I was skeptical of the Luminous Abyss, after all, what can you see in the dark depths? Boy, was I wrong!

Personally, the mountains in The Lab, "being there" in Google Earth VR, and The Blu perfectly showcases what VR can offer. I go on Google Maps a lot, I love plotting the route to my next hospital shift, I love getting lost then trying to figure out where I went via Google Maps... when going to a new place, I try streetview so that I know when I'm there because it'll be familiar, heck, I've even gotten to the point of figuring out where certain "to let" or "for sale" houses are by going to streetview to find the house, then zoom back out to evaluate its backyard size, location with respect to traffic and local schools and shops, etc. Even then, even with all those things I do on Google Maps and streetview, Google Earth VR still took my breath away.

I just spent a few hours last night playing Elite Dangerous, and being able to "feel" the size of a ship's cockpit, being able to track targets with 1:1 head tracking, and seeing stars and planets "full size" made the experience different, new, and exciting. And this is me coming from a 3x 27" screen setup with TrackIR.



Bottom line -- will it be worth it for you? For me, the purchase was well worth the asking price. The Vive went on sale on Black Friday to Cyber Monday, but I didn't get it then. I slept on it, did my research, tried out other things, even tried messing with the controllers to see how accurate it was or when it'll lose track. When the Vive went on sale again on Boxing day, I knew I wanted it and I knew why I wanted it. In fact, I was lucky that it went on sale; I'd have gotten it at full price even if it didn't go on sale. So will it be worth it for you? Only you can answer that depending on your needs/preferences/expectations.

If I'd have gotten a VR headset just for use on BMS, it'll be a waste of money.

Hope that helps!!

Well, after having a Rift since last April, I could never go back to sim flying on a flat screen, at least not by choice. It does have it's challenges but those are overwhelmingly outweighed by the good points.

If you get the Rift, it is not a huge problem seeing your keyboard etc. You just glance down over your nose and there is just enough of a gap to see what you need to see. It might sound like a distraction, but the gap is completely invisible when looking naturally ahead.

Resolution isn't 4K, but I think it is an overemphasized problem. You learn to adapt and it really doesn't look at all bad.

The sense of being in an actual cockpit is AMAZING. When I first got my Rift I spent quite a bit of time just sitting in the various cockpits and soaking it all in. You get a real sense of scale. Switches etc just jump out at you. The DCS MiG15 cockpit, for example, feels cramped and cluttered. Peering around the side of the gunsight, you can see how it is bolted onto the glare shield - with 3D bolts! They were there from the start of course, but the small details just leap out at you in VR.

The head tracking is phenomenal. 1:1 and silky smooth. You can't even compare the experience to that of using a Track-IR (and I loved my Track-IR). Even in a brightly lit room the tracking is smooth. 1:1 head movement makes looking around very natural. Unlike with the Track-IR, clicking on small cockpit controls with the mouse is pretty easy because the cursor is much more stable.

The next generation of headsets will inevitably be better, but how long are you going to wait to experience this? I now regret not jumping on the VR bandwagon with the Rift DK2. Flying with the Rift is the closest experience I have had to flying a real aircraft short of a professional sim or actually going flying.

Friend of mine got the Vive.

Looking at the current titles I play, the only real sense would be my two racing sims. I can't see how they would handle 3rd Person/OTS games, and most FPS shooters will still get released for a while without separate head/arms/feet controls.

Obviously we now get new "VR-only" titles that make full use of the concept, but they seem pretty casual to me. So either you have a bunch of flight, race and space sims, or you aren't hot on legacy titles.

For racing, I might eventually grab triples. That would give me the same 45� left/right view I really need, and also work for more classical games.

I used to mess with voice control around 15 years ago.

It worked very well (and mind you this was freeware!) - only reason I stopped was because of the need (at least back then) to use headphones. Main speakers would screw up the voice recognition.

But for VR I'd take that headphone limitation in a heartbeat (if that's still even a problem today).

Not tried it but it seems that Onward is getting really good reviews plus having to manually do your own reloads and healing looks cool. No more "just press a button!"


linky

With mods, people are playing Skyrim and Fallout 4 on VR as well.

+1

Screen door effect is there, but only really noticeable (to me at least) when you look for it. Higher resolution will also require very high GPU muscle if you are going to maintain a high frame rate.

I do agree with Paul here 100%. When I first tried the Vive, I could see the screendoor effect very well. But once you start playing, you don't really "see" it. The VR experience of "being there" just tramples all over the screendoor effect issue. Go demo Google Earth VR and see if you'd be bothered by the screendoor effect --- I'd wager you'd be too busy picking you jaw up off the floor!

Ice, you really should fire up DCS in VR. It's an entirely different experience.

I tried that demo with cardboard and my Galaxy S6 (1440x2560 px). I wasn't that impressed by it.

I have no pressing reason whatsoever to buy a VR device at this point. I'd rather wait for the next gen versions and see how they compare to first gen, in quality, price and available software products.

By the time next gen VR devices will be available (my assumption is around mid-2018), I'm certain there will also be sufficiently high-end GPUs available as well.

I don't doubt it at all for one second, Paul!! If Google Earth VR and Elite and The Blu is enough for a jaw-dropping experience, I'm pretty sure DCS will be too!
Now that you said that, I do miss plinking tanks on my Warthog. And playing "chicken" with a Shilka. If what I read is correct, BMPs are still lethal enough to be fun as well!



What controls did you have on the S6 for moving about? While an S6 may have decent res, IME, it's the lenses in the headset that make all the difference. That, and 1:1 tracking. I doubt that the experience on a �7 cardboard and a �700 VR headset is the same.



Sure. There's also no pressing reason to go to Disneyland or Vegas, but when you do, you'd still consider it money well spent...
I do lament the lack of BMS support (shut up Paul!! ) but one of the plugin developers have said that getting BMS to work is a high priority for them so things are looking up!

I too have to agree with Paul on the screen door effect, from a slightly different experience.

I had a projector in the early 2000's that had this. Normally I wouldn't sit too close to the image, but for flightsims I would get far closer to it - to the point where my entire field of view was filled.

I am talking about "screen door effect" on a ten foot image at 800 x 600 resolution with my face only 4 feet away.

You just couldn't see the effect unless you were looking for it or were still in the menus.

The immersion factor (which at least in terms of filling your field of view was probably very nearly equivalent to VR) simply dominated over it, to an extreme.

Of course cardboard can't compete with Rift/Vive level of quality, but it can give one an idea of what to expect. I also have tried both Rift versions (developer and consumer), and while they are quite impressive, IMO they are not "there" just yet, for me.



So another argument for waiting just a little bit longer, then...

Actually, I have been to both Vegas and Disneyland (Anaheim), and I didn't really think it was money well spent. I don't regret having been there (even though I did prefer Universal Studios to Disneyland), but I didn't come back thinking "wow, that was sooo worth it!". Now, had I gambled and won at one of the Casinos, my verdict might have been different...

Just be glad that you weren't dragged by a significant other to go see a Celine Dion concert.

Ugh. Yeah, you bet I am. Celine Dion is more deadly than the Gom Jabbar. She can kill with a (sung) word.

I guess this is what is being referred to by this wedding ceremony vow: "in times of sickness and in times of health, in times of joy and in times of sorrow".

Fair enough... but again, being "there" or not depends on your needs/wants/expectations. It may be "there" for some flight sims (DCS) but not for others (BMS). VR of today being "worth it" is very subjective. I will say though that if the Oculus was all I had to demo stuff on, I wouldn't have pulled the trigger on VR.



Well just imagine going to Vegas, you know the score, you've done your research, you've set your expectations, and then BAM!! You gambled for lolz and won big time! That's how I feel about VR now. I thought I knew what to expect, I thought I knew how it'll feel, then BAM!! Google Earth VR #%&*$#-slaps me and my jaw drops. Even with 3x 27" monitors and TrackIR and a good long run with Elite Dangerous, playing it again on VR sets a new definition of "being there." BAM! Slapped again and I need a few moments to find my jaw, looking through the nosegap, to pick it up and attach it again.