Virtual & Mixed Reality Experiences

[Nick]

I'm honestly not sure if any of you are into VR or if this is still too niche, but I just wanted a thread for it anyway.

I feel like now more than ever, VR is seeing a lot of investment between the recently released Pico 4, Meta Quest Pro and the upcoming Playstation VR 2, Vive XR Elite, Pimax, DecaGear 1 (Standalone SteamVR), and Meta Quest 3 all coming in 2023. On top of that, VR is seeing more and more intensive games both graphically and story wise and this next generation of VR headsets and the upgraded software inside of them should only help push forward more and more with Apple jumping into the mix with an AR headset in a few months supposedly. The passthrough mode on a lot of these newer devices is really allowing for some great AR experiences.

VR is fun for Arcade and workout style games such as Pistol Whip, Beat Saber, and SuperHot, but it's also extremely fun for story intensive games with a vast world to explore like The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and dResident Evil 4 VR. Now are the graphics great on that TWD game? Absolutely not! It's about at a PS2 level if we're being honest. But the game is so good and gameplay so fun that I literally forgot about the graphics or just didn't care while playing. Of course my primary headset is the Quest 2, so a standalone headset is going to have worse graphics anyway than one that is connected to a highly powered PC or to a PS5. Of course I don't care because I don't want to have to deal with wires.

Half-Life: Alyx is an example of how great a game in VR can look:


Red Matter 2 is as well:


Either way, we'll see where things go. Right now, I find it to be an intriguing technology that has a lot of promise going forward. There's a Batman VR game coming from the team that made the Iron Man VR game. PlayStation has put in a mandate in that all first party titles try to build games so that they can be played in VR as well. PS VR 2 is also getting Horizon: Call of the Mountain and No Man's Sky as exclusives and bringing Resident Evil Village to VR.

Bigger titles from known franchises like these are probably key to making VR more mainstream in most peoples eyes. 2023 will see the release of more known IP titles in Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghostlord, Assassin's Creed: Nexus, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas VR, Alien: Isolation VR, and Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom. One of the more highly anticipated VR titles of the year imo is an original title called Behemoth from the team that created The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. Here's a cinematic trailer for PS VR:

 

[MrBlonde]

I have the Meta Quest 2 and use it often synced up to my PC to use the GPU for extra graphics power and have a couple recommendations:

1. Star Wars Squadrons: it was actually made as a VR game that got converted to standard format, and it's great to sit in cockpits of iconic ships and take out other players or AI enemies.
2. Among Us VR. It's Among Us, in VR. Same art style, but all first person, so it's really scary who you turn your back on.
3. Payday 2. The creators made the full game in VR as a free DLC, so it's the same game I love, but a lot more immersive and exhausting. Best FPS experience I had but I haven't tried Half Life yet.

 

[Nick]

I have the Meta Quest 2 and use it often synced up to my PC to use the GPU for extra graphics power and have a couple recommendations:

1. Star Wars Squadrons: it was actually made as a VR game that got converted to standard format, and it's great to sit in cockpits of iconic ships and take out other players or AI enemies.
2. Among Us VR. It's Among Us, in VR. Same art style, but all first person, so it's really scary who you turn your back on.
3. Payday 2. The creators made the full game in VR as a free DLC, so it's the same game I love, but a lot more immersive and exhausting. Best FPS experience I had but I haven't tried Half Life yet.

I have yet to play Squadrons in VR (I did know it was made for VR, I believe when Sony rolled out the first PS VR or so, correct?). I'll get to it one of these days. Have you played Bonelab and if so what are your thoughts? It seems to be a very controversial game so far with many loving it and many seeing it as a Boneworks DLC. The price is still pretty high for a VR game so i'm gonna wait on that game for a bit.

I do have Among Us VR and it's certainly fun if you have friends to play with or if you can luck into a good lobby. I tend to like smooth turning motion in VR rather than turning at fixed points though so that does bother me a bit, although I haven't looked into the settings much to see if there's a way that this can be changed. I know it can be changed in certain games. Among Us also has a lot of added content coming to the game this year so the game has a lot of life ahead of it. I like playing VR standing up, but this is just a great seated experience that can be frightening with surround sound audio - I have the soundcore wireless earbuds and they enhance every game and there's no lag as there's a dongle that plugs into the side of the Quest 2 along with a passthrough port so you can charge or have a link cable plugged in at the same time.

As far as the future, i'll probably wait a year or so to decide what headset to buy next. I automatically lean towards the Quest 3 given my library is primarily on there and the only other option i'd consider is the PSVR 2 only because they're going to have quite a few higher end exclusives. If Sony can put out a Spider-Man game in VR, I think i'd probably have to grab it just for that.

 

[Nick]

The PSVR 2 was demoed to some influencers at CES and it looks really good... but based on the controller tracking problems that have been talked about, I wish that the controllers were like the Meta Quest Pro controllers where they have tracking cameras built into the controllers, but honestly, that's my only concern so far.

 

[Jerroddragon]

MY issues with VR is its just another thing I have to upgrade like a phone/game system every 5ish or less years.

Who has that kinda money now of days to for a new Mac/PC, new game system, new phone and vacations plus VR? Like seeing Facebook cutting support for the gen one and Sony not making PSVR 2 being able to play older games makes me not want to invest in these at all

 

[AvoidTIMtation]

I've been a VR enthusiast since the original Oculus Rift development kit was released. The amount of money I've spent on Headsets and software over the years is egregious LOL

Currently using the Quest 2 and Quest Pro (buyers remorse on this one), the PSVR2 is preordered.

Here are some of my favorites:
Superhot
Beat Saber
Moss
Iron Man VR
Job and Vacation Simulator
Astrobot (PSVR)

Out of everything I've done in VR, Google Earth VR is still probably my favorite.

 

[Nick]

I've been a VR enthusiast since the original Oculus Rift development kit was released. The amount of money I've spent on Headsets and software over the years is egregious LOL

Currently using the Quest 2 and Quest Pro (buyers remorse on this one), the PSVR2 is preordered.

Here are some of my favorites:
Superhot
Beat Saber
Moss
Iron Man VR
Job and Vacation Simulator
Astrobot (PSVR)

Out of everything I've done in VR, Google Earth VR is still probably my favorite.

When I play, I usually use Beat Saber/Pistol Whip to warm up in VR and get some movement/exercise in. Pistol Whip specifically will have me profusely sweating if I play for too lol.

I have a solid room scale space to play around in for games such as SuperHot where you can lose all sense of where you are in the room.

Lately after I play a bit of Beat Saber or some Pistol Whip, I’ll jump into something more relaxing. Of course I’ve been playing S&S lately which can be relaxing but is also really chaotic at times.

I assume Moss is a fun little title like that, although being in third person in VR does seem a tad odd to me. I bought it when it was on sale but have yet to play it. I was close to buying IM VR when it came to Quest and was on sale but I let that slip by. Is it worth the $39.99 price point or should I wait?

MY issues with VR is its just another thing I have to upgrade like a phone/game system every 5ish or less years.

Who has that kinda money now of days to for a new Mac/PC, new game system, new phone and vacations plus VR? Like seeing Facebook cutting support for the gen one and Sony not making PSVR 2 being able to play older games makes me not want to invest in these at all

PSVR lasted 7 years though. It was outdated extremely by the end, but still worked fine and got new games. I expect PSVR 2 to last into the PS6 gen.

 

[Nick]

The more I see on the PSVR 2 the more I’m tempted to buy it. Finally real, proper games for VR with Horizon: Call Of The Mountain, fully built VR versions of Gran Turismo 7, Resident Evil Village, and No Man’s Sky, plus graphically enhanced versions of existing titles like Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge, Moss, Pistol Whip, etc.

The eye tracking, adaptive triggers on top of controller haptics, and haptics inside of the headset along with great graphical power (most devs are reporting that their games are running better on PSVR 2 than on a 3090 PC). I’m not a fan of the cord, but It’s a necessary evil to get the graphical power this thing has.

 

[Nick]

Just finished playing through Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy's Edge and the initial game before Last Call DLC is sort of short (but fun), however the Last Call DLC is a rare DLC that I would almost argue is better than the actual game and does a great job at making this a full experience. Had the DLC not been available, i'd probably have been let down by how short it was, but it ended up being a lengthly campaign overall if you include the DLC as a part of the campaign (and honestly, I think the DLC was longer than the game itself without DLC).

The graphics in this game (while sort of rough around the edges if you wanted to nitpick in some spots) were really good and I can only imagine that the "Enhanced Edition" for PSVR 2's 4K capability will only improve upon it and clean up some of the rough spots that honestly were probably more due to the Quest's limitations than the game itself. Overall I had a ton of fun with it.

 

[Grabnar]

Just finished playing through Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy's Edge and the initial game before Last Call DLC is sort of short (but fun), however the Last Call DLC is a rare DLC that I would almost argue is better than the actual game and does a great job at making this a full experience. Had the DLC not been available, i'd probably have been let down by how short it was, but it ended up being a lengthly campaign overall if you include the DLC as a part of the campaign (and honestly, I think the DLC was longer than the game itself without DLC).

The graphics in this game (while sort of rough around the edges if you wanted to nitpick in some spots) were really good and I can only imagine that the "Enhanced Edition" for PSVR 2's 4K capability will only improve upon it and clean up some of the rough spots that honestly were probably more due to the Quest's limitations than the game itself. Overall I had a ton of fun with it.

I'll let you know what the Enhanced Edition is like when my PSVR2 comes in today

 

[Nick]

I'll let you know what the Enhanced Edition is like when my PSVR2 comes in today

Let me know your thoughts on the PSVR2 as well!

I really want to get one, I’m just unsure if now’s the time since the only major exclusive games are Gran Torismo 7 and Horizon: Call of the Mountain. And while both of those look great, I’d buy it immediately had Half Life: Alyx been in this launch lineup. Hopefully Sony can work with Valve to get it on PSVR2 eventually since there’s no doubt the headset can handle it.

 

[Nick]

So a few things here....

Currently been sinking hours of time into Iron Man VR on Quest. Love that this game actually has some decent meat to it unlike the majority of VR games you'll find out there in the Quest Store. It's a game i'm only halfway through (about to start Chapter 7) and i've put a not insignificant amount of time in for the game so far, so i'm happy with it and definitely worth it at the $30 I paid using one of the Oculus 25% off codes. Fun game, weird that it was made as a PSVR exclusive for PS4 and now it's essentially a Quest exclusive. I guess with Meta owning Camoflaj now, not much there's not much Playstation can do about that since Meta probably doesn't care about giving the PSVR version an update for PSVR2.

Second, I was going to wait to get a PSVR 2. However. TWD: Saints & Sinners 2 released on PSVR2 this week and watching side by sides of the visuals is no contest. It's honestly amazing they got such a good looking game to even work on the Quest 2, but it's very obvious the Quest 2 is at the end of it's life cycle even if we didn't know a Quest 3 was coming. It can't keep up anymore. I plan to continue using my Quest 2 well past Quest 3 launch as a mobile headset for fitness and the like, but the S&S comparisons really made it clear to me that the Quest 2 was not a viable option for bigger games if I the PSVR2 can run the same games and was on the fence about getting it anyway.

The one thing i've been hearing slight complaints about when it comes to PSVR2 is the reprojection. If we get a PS5 Pro or something that can natively run games at full 90/120 fps on the headset without the need for reprojection, i'd definitely be willing to sell my current console to buy a more powerful one and one that would make PSVR2 games run without that issue that some have.

 

[Grabnar]

@Nick

Sorry, work's been rough this week!

The PSVR 2 is great, it's streets ahead of the PSVR 1 and substantially better than the Vive which is the only other point of comparison I have.

Overall I love it and haven't had any real complaints. I've been playing a lot of Pavlov, still haven't tried Horizon: CotM, but SWGEEE is great. There's some slight mura effect with the OLEDs, but it's not too bad.

 

[Nick]

@Nick

Sorry, work's been rough this week!

The PSVR 2 is great, it's streets ahead of the PSVR 1 and substantially better than the Vive which is the only other point of comparison I have.

Overall I love it and haven't had any real complaints. I've been playing a lot of Pavlov, still haven't tried Horizon: CotM, but SWGEEE is great. There's some slight mura effect with the OLEDs, but it's not too bad.

Glad you enjoy it and glad to hear mostly solid things. Mine is coming Tuesday. The main negatives I’ve heard is the mura effect like you mentioned and also the small sweet spot that it has. The controllers also seem poorly designed for attracting the largest VR audience as possible since the Halo being on the bottom of the controller means people with big hands have difficulty using these. Shouldn’t be an issue for me though so I’m not worried there.

Games I’m looking forward to most are probably Call of The Mountain (even though much of the game seems to be The Climb Horizon edition), Resident Evil: Village, Gran Turismo 7, Switchback VR, and then eventually Crossfire: Sierra Squad, Hubris, Behemoth and Low-Fi. All except Behemoth is an either an exclusive or shared with PCVR only, already making the headset have a lot of worth in year one since only Behemoth is a game that’s coming to Quest 2.

 

[Nick]

So some quick thoughts on my time in the headset so far over the past week...

Overall, PSVR2 is a game changer in some ways and a tad disappointing in others. For example, the headset and controller haptics along with the eye tracking tech make it so going back to the Quest 2 is something I have to adjust myself to in a way now as i'm expecting that haptic feedback. Horizon: CotM unsurprisingly showcases this off the best. As someone who has never played wired VR before this, the cable absolutely doesn't bother me and in fact the headset feels lighter than a Quest as the weight is faar better distributed.

As for negatives, I'm not done with Call of the Mountain yet and knowing that it was basically a climbing sim with some battles definitely better prepared my expectations for it and overall they've been met. But for why I bring it up - i've had to modify the settings to extreme lengths because there's just so much motion blur with smooth turning. Similarly, i've noticed the same sort of thing in Gran Torismo 7, which is a game that certainly has me wanting a wheel setup with the VR mode because it's just so good.

Also, the sweet spot is super tight. Once you can adjust your IPD correctly and get the headset to the right position it looks really good for the most part, especially in a game that takes place during the day like Call of the Mountain. However, i've notcied when the screen goes darker that's when I pick up on the Mura/screen door effect most so it has me worried for how Resident Evil Village will look in VR once I get to it. I was hoping for trophy support for the game since I haven't actually played it flatscreen, but i'm not going to wait too long if trophies aren't there when i'm ready to play. TWD: S&S PSVR2 version looks amazing... thinking of picking up a PS4 copy of the game since it has a free update for PSVR2.

 

[Nick]

Meta Quest 3 announced. Apple’s headset expected to be announced at WWDC23 on June 6.


Assassins Creed: Nexus finally confirmed for VR and will be out later this year. Full reveal at Ubisoft Forward.


Asgard’s Wrath 2 looks great. A 60 hour game which is absolutely unheard of for a VR game and the fact that they are fitting all of this on a standalone headset is insane. This game looks console quality tbh.


Stranger Things VR coming this fall. You play as Vecna.


Vampire: The Masquerade looks pretty interesting:


Add on Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghostlord, The 7th Guest (remastered for VR), Bulletstorm VR and the announcement of Arizona Sunshine 2 at the PlayStation Showcase and the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase actually was pretty decent this year. Also the Quest 3 being fully backwards compatible is a big thumbs up.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Does VR hurt your eyes?

 

[Nick]

Does VR hurt your eyes?

As far as do your eyes actually hurt while using it? Everyone is different, but normally everything is fine. The main thing, as with staring at any screen (TV, phone, laptop, etc), your eyes can get fatigued. In that case I just end my gaming session, wash my face off (since VR face and sweat are common after a play session), and move on.

 

[Lucky Planet]

As far as do your eyes actually hurt while using it? Everyone is different, but normally everything is fine. The main thing, as with staring at any screen (TV, phone, laptop, etc), your eyes can get fatigued. In that case I just end my gaming session, wash my face off (since VR face and sweat are common after a play session), and move on.

Do you need eye drops after using VR??

 

[Nick]

Do you need eye drops after using VR??

Myself? no. Im only one person though.