Who's playing VR games with the Oculus Rift? I need some advice.

Hi there ATS gaming people, and not gaming people (to each their own),

I'm giving serious thought to forking out some precious dough to buy a VR gaming rig ($1,500), Oculus Rift ($430) and HOTAS ($150), in particular to play DCS World combat flight simulator (who are about to release their 2.5 branch merge, along with the F/A 18C Hornet and the Straight of Hormuz, with fully rendered cities like Dubai), while at the same time waiting and prepaing for Robert Space Industries (RSI) to drop Squadron 42 as a pretext to a 2018 Q1 release of Star Citizen 3.0 Alpha,

robertsspaceindustries.com...

Which by 2019 (I never thought I'd be saying such dates as only a year off) in the form of 3.1 and 3.2, is going to be well, absolutely extraordinary.

The Rift (and Vive) has been out for over a year now, and I'm very curious about the experience of others, as well as advice from VR gaming heads to those who think it's absurd to spend part of one's life moving pixals around in a fake annimated reality.

I've looked at the VR game offerings and some of them look interesting and fascinating, but knowing full well the kind of investment of time and energy that's involved in learning and playing these games, I'm only interested in the highest fidelity experience, which I feel will exist in DCS World and Star Citizen.

I want to give up smoking for the new year (will vape for a while as a long term smoker) and am looking for a new hobby basically, to give me something to do and focus on and this type of gaming technology is like the wildest imaginings of my childhood come true. I even used to talk about it as a kid -"Imagine some day when they'll have these virtual reality headsets where you'll be able to fly a fighter jet or a spaceship, and when you turn your head, you'll be able to see your wingman, and communicate with them". People looked at me like I must have been smoking something, and I probably was.

What do you think and would you have any advice to offer or pointers having already blazed this VR trail?

Also, I must confess that i have a concern, even as a Christian believer and a highly addictive personality..

What kind of impact might this have on the unfolding of my life's journey if part of that life is spent devoted to hammering out a new settlement and trade route in a simulated universe, albeit one with a vast community of millions of people with whom to interact and conspire?

Can the money produced in Star Citizen be converted back to regular money does anyone know?

What do think about this type of gaming as a hobby?

I still have a regular day job and I don't plan on being in VR world like all the time, but it will be a lot of the time I'm sure.

Would anyone like to disaude me from this course?

Would God be upset with me do you think for living in part in a virtual world?

I don't know what to do, whether to dive in and become an F/A 18C Hornet fighter pilote and Super Hornet Tracker spaceship pilot (among other roles), or get another life.

That said, I don't think I can resist the urge to give this a try. Wrestling a bit with whether it could be a sin, although I've probably done other worse things.

What'ya think ATS?

VR or no VR?

And if so, do you have any advice or recommendations to make the experience more enjoyable and less frustrating?

Thank you.

Best regards,

Ankh

I guess if it helped me to quit smoking by giving me plenty to do to keep busy in the evenings, that it wouldn't be such a bad thing so long as I keep my wits about myself with regards to not letting it take over my life. Maybe limit game time to no more than 2 hours at a time or something.

It looks just so interesting and exciting.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I own an modulus rift playing on an alienware 17 R4. I must say that it's been incredible for me and my 2 boys. There are quite a few games and experiences on oculus. It really blew my mind how real it seems to be. Some of my favorite games are vr gun club, lone echo, super hot, and arizona sunshine. I can easliy waste an entire day on it. Its totally worth it. Giving up smoking will easily finance a rig for you. May I suggest doing sometbing else with your mouth when you crave like brushing your teath or candy. Best wishes!

a reply to: AnkhMorpork
My advice?
They're all neat but save your money for now.
Just as when the first Nintendo home console came about, and the Playstation, and XBox etc...
These all appear wowing at first, that is their job as products being sold by companies.
But give it just a few more years (PS2 was WAY better than its predecessor, PS3 WAY better than that, and so on), this trend will apply heavily to VR, and while $500 will now only buy you a mid-low setup, $600 in 4 years will buy something better than the most advanced of anything that exists before it.

The very same discussion was had between myself and my brother-in-law as he pondered investing in solar panels for his new home.
By the time they start paying themselves off, 10 years or so, the efficiency, cost and new options will kick that purchase so far down the line of obsolescence it would seem comical.

a reply to: AmericanFatman


Cool. Thanks. Just a fun thing to do every now and again. That's the way I was looking at it. Will look at getting a fake cigarette along with the vaping.

I find when I'm really into something or typing out an idea, that I forget to smoke, so the same principal should apply to the VR gaming.

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL


I understand, but for the flight simming, there's really nothing like it from everything that I've read and researched.

Might slow me down in terms of some of the rapid reaction combat situations, but it's not that bad apparently, and you can look down through the nose area and partially see the keyboard for shortcuts.

Price vs. capability wise, I'm aware of development time. Basically, will be waiting about 2 years for Oculus (Facebook has a lot of money for development) to go 8 K or 4K per eye, with a wider field of view, while keeping the price point lower than the Pimax one in development right now.

So while you're right that in 2-4 years, it will really be impressive, it is already and at 430.00 bucks for the Rift, imho, that's in the realm of affordable.

I expect it to take me about a year to learn how to fly the F/A 18 Hornet in DCS, so I might as well get into it and buy a kick ass gaming machine, also reasonably priced, given that in 1990 I paid 4K for a PC with only 25 megs of RAM..

Check that re: Star Citizen's release of Squadron 42 and the 3.0 persistent universe (PU) of Star Citizen itself.

On Christmas, they are simply going to be streaming a demo of the single player Squadron 42 featuring actors like Gary Oldman and Mark Hamill, and outlining the final steps to release which i would expect by the end of Q1 2018, in near simultaneity with the broader Alpha release of 3.0. 2018 will be the year of broad based public testing of Star Citizen. 3.1 will then probably release Christmas of 2018 or the spring of 2019. It will then be haralded as the greatest computer video game ever made. The pressure is growing on them to get something out and debugged. They HAVE to release sometime in 2018, and get 3.1 out the following year after all the bugs are worked out and the game play (what you DO) and available missions fall into place after which it's off to the races, with over 2,000,000 and growing players or citizens. Will it be dog eat dog or more collaborative? I think people will want to get along to go along, rather than try to kill you or choose to be an outlaw, on who's head large bounties will be affixed.

Once this thing goes live, trust me on this my ATS friends - Kansas, she's going bye bye.

So I figure might as well get ahead of the curve.

While there's no "winning" in the game, as it continues to develop, something's going to take place in the gaming world and the world of MMO gaming, that's never happened before.

Elite Dangerous, where nothing much happens will be absurd by comparison, and will everything in the X box and PS2 and their VR setup, which still has the look and feel of yesterday's games.

Many people think that Star Citizen is a scam, and if they don't release in 2018, then there's going to be an outcry over the going on 200 million dollars that they've raised, the biggest crowd funding campaign in history. That was back in 2012 with 2014 and '15 release promises, then 2016 passed, then 2017. Some say it will never come out, but I've become a believer from what I've seen and know that a launch of Star Citizen 3.0 Alpha is going to come out in the spring, along with DCS World 2.5.

For VR, those two things alone are worth the price of the gaming rig and Oculus Rift, but when Star Citizen does come out at last, it's going to blow everyone's mind where it's more like being in a CGI movie than playing a video game of some kind in a persistent universe where everyone and your own life and goods and friends, allies, and enemies, matter. The players themselves will then shape the lore of the game moving forward. Crazy.

Here's my strategy for Star Citizen.

Learn to fight and win. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Recruit people to a cause and a larger, overarching idea, like mining and protecting and hauling minerals and other cargo. from point A, an asteroid, to point B, a planet called Terra (a fully rendered Super Earth), while working deals on the homeworld of a futuristic Earth, the center of United Empire of Earth or UEE.

Both on Earth, either in New York, Moscow or Shanghai and on Terra, which is rumored to be starting to take over from Earth as the new center of trade, all manufacturing and trade deals will take place, which presumes the possibility of a middle man and broker, and a diplomat of sorts and someone who either has the goods or knows where to get them and who to call within the game.

I'll make another thread about this particular "game" Star Citizen, as not everyone has heard about it or is aware of what it's attempting to achieve. It's just breathtaking in its scope, and I think it's coming soon.

Game on!

Ankh

originally posted by: AmericanFatman
a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I own an modulus rift playing on an alienware 17 R4. I must say that it's been incredible for me and my 2 boys. There are quite a few games and experiences on oculus. It really blew my mind how real it seems to be. Some of my favorite games are vr gun club, lone echo, super hot, and arizona sunshine. I can easliy waste an entire day on it. Its totally worth it. Giving up smoking will easily finance a rig for you. May I suggest doing sometbing else with your mouth when you crave like brushing your teath or candy. Best wishes!

Ahhh Daaaaaaayum it.. You even got me drooling for one lol.. meeerh!

Always wanted one.. tried the google cardboard with my samsung thing, was ok. not immersed though. I am guessing those rigs are a bit more immersive !!

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Would God be upset with me do you think for living in part in a virtual world?

No. Neither God nor Odin concern themselves with our personal desires. (existant or not)

But, there is a potential market for this technology, a big one. I like that you're exploring this and i wish you well.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork I am holding out for the HoloLens!!! But I may also get the Rift. I have some vr crap that I got during secret Santa last year and it works fine if you like looking at nothing lol

a reply to: Allaroundyou


That looks interesting but not what I'd call fully immersive VR.

I think it will get interesting when the Pimax 8K comes out at around 1000.00. The wider field apparently makes a huge difference in the sense of immersion, with only the slightest screen door effect, almost unnoticeable.

This will propel Facebook who owns Oculus Rift to go to town developing an 8K (4K/eye) with the same width in field of view, and without any screen door effect, for half the price.

Then, in a few years, they'll go to 16K and what you'll see will be iris level resolution, without even a hint of pixalization.

Therefore, now's the time to dive in.

Just need to pull together a little more dough and then I'm going to splurge on it. I'll order it on the 15th and it, the destop gaming machine or rig as they call it, will arrive along with the Rift a couple of days later.

I'll return later on and let ya'll know how it goes..

Here's what DCS looks like (same in VR)

Here's a better view and sense for what it looks like and will in VR. Behold the new Harrier Jump Jet.

Those were bad examples.

This, is what it looks like now and will with the release of 2.5 which is to be released within "weeks" not months.

Ive had a massive blast with my oculus.

Star Citizen is still far from release. Elite Dangerous already supports VR and there you have the entire milkyway. Roam around in our own galaxy instead of a fictional one. Highly recommended.



Will probably get for ps4 as well. Ace Combat in VR looks intense.

a reply to: Jungian


Thank you. That's very helpful.

In ED, can you land on planets and moons? Are there places to go other than space?

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

There is a cheaper alternative you might want to consider? there's a handful of manufactures making windows VR which will also runs things like steam. Windows are calling it mixed reality and companies like Dell HP and Acer are making units.

a link to microsofts VR/mixed relaity page

I hope this helps.