Anyone into Oculus?

[Chautauquas]

I just bought the virtual-reality system for $300 and spent another $60 on games. I bought the table tennis game, one called Cubism where you have to figure out how to fit geometric shapes into a box, and an excellent game called The Climb 2, which involves, well, climbing. Climbing a skyscraper, a canyon wall, the Alps, etc. When I first climbed the skyscraper looking down was a little too real and frightening. I let out a gasp and dropped to my knees, causing much laughter among family members who were watching, but got accustomed to the heights after a while and was soon climbing at a pretty fast rate. As you progress through the game the difficulty level increases and I think you can unlock additional gear. The Climb 2 is so much fun that I've spent very little time trying the other games I bought.

I'm interested in hearing what others think of Oculus and would like to know what games you've tried.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. I have an Oculus Quest 2 ... I bought it to play Half Life - Alyx

Which is f***ing amazing. It does, however, require a relatively high-end computer to play, it doesn't run on the headset alone, it's much too advanced graphically. I can stream it wirelessly to the headset though with Virtual Desktop (no cable) so that's nice. But it was a hack/not officially supported.

The only other game I've played is called Moss. Super cute 3D platformer. I think it also requires a PC but not 100% on that.

I also have the Walking Dead Saints and Sinners game but I only just started it, been meaning to get back to it.

I'm hoping games will come out soon for the headset (sans PC) that actually utilize the additional power of the Quest 2. ATM all the games coming out basically look the same on Quest 1 and 2 which is a bummer cause the 2 is considerably more powerful. The reduced screen door effect on the 2 is the only real difference.

I know there's two ping-pong games, which one did you get?

[Chautauquas]

2. The one called Eleven

I also bought the Quest2, which I didn't know anything about until my daughter recommended it. She works at an advertising agency in Seattle that's handling the account for FB.

The ping-pong game I bought is Eleven. I haven't played it much yet and haven't taken the time to figure out what settings will work best for me. My initial impression is that it's difficult to hold the controller so the paddle is at the proper angle to hit the ball accurately, especially when using backhand. That may be easily adjusted in the settings, and I think you can also buy adaptive gear that attaches to the controller.

So far I have just the three games I mentioned. The ping-pong games was $20 and I think it's probably worth it. The Cubism game was only $10 but I may uninstall it because I found it difficult as hell once I got beyond the first couple of levels. The Climb2 was $30 and it's the one I'm focused on for now. Really enjoying it. Well worth the price imo.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

4. I'm not gonna spoil the end of the game, but...

Wasn't that finale just freaking fantastic?

And the after-credits scene too? I literally (yes, literally) screamed in excitement at that scene.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. I've played through it 3 times :)

And YES!!!

It was very cool. Now let's hope it's not another 13 years before HL3.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

7. You have me beat by one playthrough.

I've played it twice. I think I need to clear out my living room and run it again. I have a 2070 now so I should be able to nudge the details up slightly.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

8. 2070 Super here, think I played on 2nd highest preset

Seemed to struggle a bit on the very highest one though. What'd you play it on originally? I've tried it on my Lappie with a 1050ti, and that was a chug-fest even on Low. Playable though.

I really wish there was more clarity at a distance in the headset in Alyx. The picture I see on my monitor is SUPER clear looking but in the VR, things that are close up (like the gloves) look AMAZING, but stuff in the distance is blurrier than I'd like. I don't know that even a 3090 would fix that either. I also don't know if it isn't maybe my eyesight, which ain't great.

Which VR you using?

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

9. I had a 1070 originally.

My CPU/motherboard is at least 5 years old, though, so that's due for an upgrade.

I couldn't set it to the highest setting without stuttering. And I think it ran smoothest on the lower settings (which means no packing peanuts remain from the crates you can smash - they explode from the smashed crate but vanish)

I ran it on the Original Vive with Index controllers I purchased separately a while before HL:A was even announced. (Imagine my surprise when the game showed up in my library without me having to do anything.)

It was Distant-Blur-City-17™ for me. Looking to get an Index eventually once the headset gets back in stock.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

10. Yeah well unfortunately I know for sure a 2070 won't do much to fix the distance blur

Even with a new CPU/chipset.

Mine is an AMD 570 board with 3600X and fast ram (14-14-14 at 3200Mhz, good stuff) which is no slouch.

That blur seems to be baked into the game honestly, I would imagine in exchange for letting stuff up close look really freaking good.

An Index (and esp. the controllers) would be sweet, but I don't play VR enough to justify the price. I used original Quest for 2 plays then sold it on CL and bought a Quest 2 for the third.

Big difference was way less screen door effect on the 2, and also it's lighter. Quest 1 had nicer fit and finish though, and the overall 'view' seemed bigger. Quest 2 it's more noticeable that your looking through a round porthole, on the 1 the portal seemed bigger and hence the edge of the porthole was at the very edges of your view, making it less noticeable.

Anyways ... being that was the first VR game I ever played, it's kinda spoiled me. Nothing else really compares that I've tried since. Which is admittedly not that much.

[Ohio Joe]

3. I've been avoiding these things...

Two reasons... 1 - I wear glasses. I've tried on a few different ones and none of them have gone even close to good when wearing glasses. 2 - As I'm getting older, I find I am developing vertigo... It's not terrible but I suspect a VR headset would trigger it.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

6. I wear glasses to read but don't need them for VR

I see okay at 6 feet away which I've read is the focal point in VR, but if you don't then you'd probably need them.

AFA vertigo goes that's going to vary a lot on the game and its locomotion method. Some games you can play sitting down and you don't have to move much (imagine like a VR Chess game for instance).