Sell me on VR. let’s say this is a mind blowingly perfect launch. Somehow Valve sells the thing for like $600 and meets demand, anything you’d wanna do in VR is possible with this. What would that $600 get me? The only stuff I really see online that’s hype for VR is:
HL: Alyx
Beat Saber
And… 3D/VR porn videos.
Aside from those, what else am i missing out on by not having a VR headset? The tech seems super cool but I don’t hear praises sung for any other VR games than those two (and the half-joking suggestion that it’s just jackoff goggles). People talk about VRChat but I don’t think I’m interested in a positional audio chatroom with random people’s vtuber models and none of the friends i do voice chat with would rather be doing so in a virtual space.
Am i genuinely missing something? People seem really hyped for the Frame, it can’t just be for two games and a chatroom and porn, right? The ARM translation layer is really cool but that’s cool because it’ll benefit phones and tablets and SBCs more than the actual VR headset. I can see why you’d rather have a Frame than its competitors: no Facebook, works on-device or as a PC accessory, price point maybe, etc. But what are people doing with their Quests and Indexes and Vives and PSVRs already?
What is holding VR back “as a platform” in my opinion is one killer game, some MMO virtual world like World of Warcraft that fully optimized for VR seated gaming.
Resolution is still a bit too low to replace monitors, but the frame might be high enough now, but I suspect it takes at least 4k per eye, but it might be 8k minimum. The threshold to really replace screens would be huge. The eye tracking of the frame is also a huge leap forward, not only for performance but more for unique interfaces.
What is also missing is some kind of “VR armchair” with inbuild split keyboard and quick way to switch to a pointing device like mouse or VR controller. There is no good “desktop” or shell interface. You can’t easily pull up some txt or browser window if you want to look up something for the game you’re playing, you’re kind of “trapped” which is a real issue imho. Also something like a multitouch floor mat before the VR armchair to slide your feet and “walk” to move around. And a shelf behind your backrest to pull the headset from and put it back easily without having to mess around much. There is a convenience hurdle to VR headsets.
What is missing is really content / apps and a few hardware advancements and sort of the furniture. AI does have the potential to upscale old movies and tv shows into some kind of 3D parallax format. Like a better quality than we’ve seen so far. Also of course realtime animated photorealistic AI porn that reacts to your voice with cyberdildonics.
The potential is there but requires investment, both for the corporations and the users. But such investments could partially be offset. Imagine your work from home, but instead of sitting before a screen you put on goggles and sit in a virtual office and people can just walk by to organize (or scoot by with the foot mat movement lol). With the right software environment you could fully combine both upsides of office and remote work. And you could do this in a small windowless “pod cubicle too” since you’ll be wearing headset and won’t use papers.
Elite Dangerous’s VR mode will blow your nuts off provided you have several dozen - several hundred hours in the game AND you have a HOTAS. The original Boneworks was also quite good.
Hotdogs Horseshoes and Handgrenades and Space Pirate Trainer are great, along with the Museum of Other Realities. Other than those, VR has been trapped in amber since about 2021.
I have an index and will continue to dust it off occasionally. VR kinda died as valve stopped publishing and Facebook did…well… Everything it did.
The hype does kind of die out since it’s a bit inconvenient to get it going vs just sitting on your couch. I have not played my quest 2 in a while, but when I was I would add to your list:
11 table tennis (great ping pong. Still prefer the real thing but it scratches the itch if you just want to play and no one to play with)
Demeo (board game. It’s a bit limited in levels but it was great to keep in touch with my brothers who both live in different states.)
Thrill of the Fight (look up boxing videos first to know how to correctly throw a punch, then try to apply that here. Surprisingly good workout shadow boxing a virtual opponent. You are just like “okay maybe I will play one round, not get too into it” and the next thing you know you are pouring sweat trying to win)
Real VR fishing (just nice backgrounds while doing essentially nothing with probably a bit too much action of fishing)
3D or 360 videos (however you can get them to play): it’s kind of cool that I had a (really low quality) video feed at my wedding. Someone set up a small 360 camera and I can drop back in and feel like a mouse at the table at the reception. I also wanted to rewatch Avatar in it too but I never got around to it.
I can’t speak to most other VR uses, but I have played Walkabout Mini Golf by Mighty Coconut almost weekly for almost 5 years now.
The courses are great and they still release new ones almost every month. The game is good alone, but it’s GREAT with 2-7 friends.
Honorable mention goes to the “I Expect You to Die” game series - kind of escape-room situations where you are in various life-threatening situations and the scene restarts each time you die (which is frequently).
Sell me on VR. let’s say this is a mind blowingly perfect launch. Somehow Valve sells the thing for like $600 and meets demand, anything you’d wanna do in VR is possible with this. What would that $600 get me? The only stuff I really see online that’s hype for VR is:
HL: Alyx
Beat Saber
And… 3D/VR porn videos.
Aside from those, what else am i missing out on by not having a VR headset? The tech seems super cool but I don’t hear praises sung for any other VR games than those two (and the half-joking suggestion that it’s just jackoff goggles). People talk about VRChat but I don’t think I’m interested in a positional audio chatroom with random people’s vtuber models and none of the friends i do voice chat with would rather be doing so in a virtual space.
Am i genuinely missing something? People seem really hyped for the Frame, it can’t just be for two games and a chatroom and porn, right? The ARM translation layer is really cool but that’s cool because it’ll benefit phones and tablets and SBCs more than the actual VR headset. I can see why you’d rather have a Frame than its competitors: no Facebook, works on-device or as a PC accessory, price point maybe, etc. But what are people doing with their Quests and Indexes and Vives and PSVRs already?
You’re forgetting Superhot VR and Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenade (1 and 2).
What is holding VR back “as a platform” in my opinion is one killer game, some MMO virtual world like World of Warcraft that fully optimized for VR seated gaming.
Resolution is still a bit too low to replace monitors, but the frame might be high enough now, but I suspect it takes at least 4k per eye, but it might be 8k minimum. The threshold to really replace screens would be huge. The eye tracking of the frame is also a huge leap forward, not only for performance but more for unique interfaces.
What is also missing is some kind of “VR armchair” with inbuild split keyboard and quick way to switch to a pointing device like mouse or VR controller. There is no good “desktop” or shell interface. You can’t easily pull up some txt or browser window if you want to look up something for the game you’re playing, you’re kind of “trapped” which is a real issue imho. Also something like a multitouch floor mat before the VR armchair to slide your feet and “walk” to move around. And a shelf behind your backrest to pull the headset from and put it back easily without having to mess around much. There is a convenience hurdle to VR headsets.
What is missing is really content / apps and a few hardware advancements and sort of the furniture. AI does have the potential to upscale old movies and tv shows into some kind of 3D parallax format. Like a better quality than we’ve seen so far. Also of course realtime animated photorealistic AI porn that reacts to your voice with cyberdildonics.
The potential is there but requires investment, both for the corporations and the users. But such investments could partially be offset. Imagine your work from home, but instead of sitting before a screen you put on goggles and sit in a virtual office and people can just walk by to organize (or scoot by with the foot mat movement lol). With the right software environment you could fully combine both upsides of office and remote work. And you could do this in a small windowless “pod cubicle too” since you’ll be wearing headset and won’t use papers.
Resident Evil is really cool in VR; have to look down and align iron sights. Racing Sims are also cool in VR.
Elite Dangerous’s VR mode will blow your nuts off provided you have several dozen - several hundred hours in the game AND you have a HOTAS. The original Boneworks was also quite good.
Hotdogs Horseshoes and Handgrenades and Space Pirate Trainer are great, along with the Museum of Other Realities. Other than those, VR has been trapped in amber since about 2021.
I have an index and will continue to dust it off occasionally. VR kinda died as valve stopped publishing and Facebook did…well… Everything it did.
Any game that is in first person and sitting somewhere has a big VR community: flight sims, combat flight sims, racing sims etc.
The hype does kind of die out since it’s a bit inconvenient to get it going vs just sitting on your couch. I have not played my quest 2 in a while, but when I was I would add to your list: 11 table tennis (great ping pong. Still prefer the real thing but it scratches the itch if you just want to play and no one to play with)
Demeo (board game. It’s a bit limited in levels but it was great to keep in touch with my brothers who both live in different states.)
Thrill of the Fight (look up boxing videos first to know how to correctly throw a punch, then try to apply that here. Surprisingly good workout shadow boxing a virtual opponent. You are just like “okay maybe I will play one round, not get too into it” and the next thing you know you are pouring sweat trying to win)
Real VR fishing (just nice backgrounds while doing essentially nothing with probably a bit too much action of fishing)
3D or 360 videos (however you can get them to play): it’s kind of cool that I had a (really low quality) video feed at my wedding. Someone set up a small 360 camera and I can drop back in and feel like a mouse at the table at the reception. I also wanted to rewatch Avatar in it too but I never got around to it.
Also super hot VR and space pirate trainer. Titans of space was cool to see how vast space really is.
That’s about all I’ve got. Still excited for the steam frame. Been missing trying half half alyx since Facebook trashed oculus.
Boneworks is pretty sweet too.
Most pc games have VR mods? Skyrim VR with real time swings? Superhot? Any racing game, or any tank, aviation Mil sim ?
I can’t speak to most other VR uses, but I have played Walkabout Mini Golf by Mighty Coconut almost weekly for almost 5 years now. The courses are great and they still release new ones almost every month. The game is good alone, but it’s GREAT with 2-7 friends. Honorable mention goes to the “I Expect You to Die” game series - kind of escape-room situations where you are in various life-threatening situations and the scene restarts each time you die (which is frequently).