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I had a go at the SteamVR/HTC Vive

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A friend of mine shelled out the $1400 or so plus the grunty PC needed to drive the HTC Vive through Steam VR.

I've never ever used VR before or seen an Occulus or anything, but I have to say I was impressed as I kinda knew what to expect, but it's not the same as just being in it.


First off, I didn't know how you knew how to not run into objects in your house, turns out there's external sensors you mount in the room to track you, plus during the Vive configuration you can scan around you and set boundaries that show up like a wall from Tron when you venture too far.


Secondly, the hand controllers are vital, I think VR isn't nearly as playable or immersive without them, almost pointless but to watch tech demos or use a racing sim chair in their place.


I spent a little time in it, tried racing, and a few other things, but what stood out to me was the shooters, Space Pirates and Raw Data are the two games - youtube them to see what I mean.

Holy shit you can physically move and dodge incoming projectiles, use a shield in one hand, gun in another.

The other game has you manually smashing fresh clips into your pistol to reload, you can also use a katana.


It was really surreal to actually lift your hand up to inspect it and move around to check out your gun right in your face, im convinced in another ~5 years, we will have huge multiplayer VR shooters like CoD VR or something and it will be amazing.


I personally don't think they're worth the money at the moment, VR is only just blowing up and there's heaps of work and games to come yet, also it's very expensive and hard to drive, even though it's pretty damn impressive.


Has anyone else used the Vive yet?

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I've tried it a few times. A friend owns a Vive, and we have a VR lab at work. I agree, the Vive controllers are amazing. The perfect 1:1 mapping to the physical controller is awesome. For me Minecraft was the most interesting, because you legit get terrified at being near cliffs.

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Less than that - Star Marine, the FPS segment of Star Citizen is entering public Alpha by next year, and that is both massively MP, and supports VR.


Haven't tried it myself, but I would love to. Apparently even the rest of the Alpha atm is jaw-dropping.

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I've got a Rift for my sim rig setup and it absolutely pwns. I'm not saying this in a Rift v Vive war as I tried the Vive on my PC (thanks to a mate) before I got my Rift and they're much of a muchness. Sitting in an already close replication of a car, as far as seat and quality controllers go AND THEN adding VR is brilliant. The 3D allows , I believe, for faster lap times, and the feeling of brushing against walls and running right up against the ground is amazing. In Euro Truck it's also brilliant in it's own way, as now the entire cabin of the truck comes to life... and more. It's hard to quantify in words in a forum.


At my recent 40th birthday I had a bunch of friends over, friends who aren't gamers. I told them about this and they were very skeptical, "I'm not a gamer. I just can't do the controllers" etc. I couldn't pry them off my simrig all night.


From my own experience, the way interaction happens in VR with FPS's, and generally with games where you aren't seated, is at best a gimmick that can only be done for a short period of time. I'm not saying it'll never be suited, but at the moment it just provide the same immersion that driving/flying games do. (Or rollercoaster demos do with little kids :))

Edited by kikz

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Its a pity hardware sales For Rift and Vive have tanked according to steam.





I dont see this as the end for VR it just means that early adopters with machines capable of running PC VR have adopted.

On PC VR is a tad nich , one needs a powerful machine and some tech savvy to get it working right.

And buying the kit is not cheap especially If one needs to upgrade their PC.


Like I said I don't think this is the end of PC VR it will lag till mid range grafx cards become a bit more able, AMDs new Polaris

looks like significantly lowering the price barrier to adequate power for PC VR and Nvidia will I hope also contest the mid range

bang for buck market space.

Another thing holding it back on PC is a dearth of content , which is held back by low adoption rates of the hardware.


VR is as hard a sell as is gaming in 4k and HDR both VR and the High End TVs have to be seen in person to be appreciated and understood.

So for now PC VR will grow slowly, as unlikely as it may seem I believe that PSVR will be the driver of VR adoption by the masses.

Its good for everyone not just Sony if many people become exposed to VR not all of them will be wanting the PlayStation when their interest in

VR is piqued, I think more than a few will start looking around at what is in the marketplace.

Shuhei Yoshida once said " We are glad there are others also promoting VR A rising tide lifts all the boats."


There is at this time 40 million PS4s in the wild all of witch are able to run PSVR there are many games in development the head set is comfortable

and easy to use.

PSVR is not out of reach price wise, if the launch goes as planned a lot of people will be exposed to VR.


IF first and third party games sell well It will encourage more developers.

Yes of course PSVR is not quite as good in Rez as PC but the immersion and presence in the Virtual space is more than good enough to get

people interested.


Edited by Waltish

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