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BPX043: Virtual Horizon

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    #16
    Room scale VR is something I'm mixed on. The main issue is that whether you are wireless or wired makes minimal difference as does having a bare living room to play in, whilst it's certainly a bit more immersive to be able to lean around a corner or duck behind cover you're still limited by real space. Say you shoot the enemy around the corner by ducking in and out of cover, you step out and before you is a corridor - you can't run down it though, not without breaking your helmet and face against the front window of your home. It means every physical experience is a half-way house compromise mixture of real enactment and traditional controls.

    Added tech tries to minimise this but still hits practical limits and this is stuff that VR can never get around so forever limits what the home experience can deliver. The same comes from the practical aspect of playing a game for a while and then getting to the point where you just want to sit down for a bit but too often the experience of transitioning between the two play styles is convoluted and flawed when really seated play should be the default given it's the access point experience.

    I do wonder if that's part of the reason why there's so much silence to even successful content like Astrobot. Everyone who plays it loves it and reviews were glowing but it seems not to be held up as as much of a beacon for the tech as it deserves to be and I wonder if it's a bit like Tearaway. Tearaway was a great showcase for building a game around the capabilities of the Vita but despite that there seemed to be little appetite for more experiences like that. I'm curious if Alyx will be the same, where it is lauded for exploiting the tech more than any other VR title but the demand for more experiences like it are lowkey because players casually lean back to more passive experiences.

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      #17
      I haven’t tried room scale VR in the home. I agree there are obvious issues around inadvertently tripping over coffee tables, stomping on the dog, pistol whipping your wife etc while battling the forces of Mordor or whatever it might be.

      However - in a specially designed environment, it can be amazing. I’m not sure if anyone else has sampled The Void, but it’s absolutely incredible. You move around a 3D space designed to match with what the headset is showing you, and it’s incredibly convincing. I did the Star Wars one with mates and was blown away.

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        #18
        If i ever get a lottery win, one room in my house will be dedicated to vr with not only the most cutting edge pc vr setup i can build but also have climate and fan controls to ramp up the immersion. A room so large it will allow me to set the roomscale boundary to allow movement well within without the threat of twatting yourself on anything.

        Back in ghetto land i sit on my bed and stick the fan on in front of me when i play ultrawings & wipeout omega collection on psvr lol

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          #19
          Coming off the experience of PSVR last year to trying Cosmos it's quite surprising how close Sony got it on the first pass. It's lower res but one of the issues that the headsets have failed to move very far with is the 'sweet spot' meaning the outer edges of the image remain blurred to an extent and also that it's still just like looking through fishing goggles, the field of view is incredibly far off being where it needs to be which means those cheap PSVR bundles really are good value and indicative examples of the headset experience across the board. The key difference with the PC option is the more advanced motion controls.

          I'm still early in getting my head around the Cosmos but so far the tracking is nowhere near what the complaints have it as being, I've not really had much issue with it at all and I'm playing in a less than brilliantly lit living room at 11pm at night. Drawing your own play boundaries seems to work well too and it's very good at remembering the geographical dimensions of the play area so if you step out of it and walk away then return it has remembered exactly where you should be standing rather than losing its tracking. The other catch though with PCVR is the over reliance on standing experiences. Given Sony can't really come in with a mega expensive headset option for PSVR2 I feel they should take their time as I think the risk is very real that they might deliver an upgraded version that underwhelms by not advancing the tech enough on the older headset. Full Index costs about a grand and I think the only thing I'm currently really missing out on is the finger tracking controls which, if I'm being honest, I get little sense I'm missing out much on and certainly not for the sake of controllers that cost well over £200.

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            #20
            I'm lucky enough to have 14ft x 14ft here in the attic. It's perfect for most of Skyrim's interiors. I can just about reach the far corner before the cable starts to strain. I've got a big rug down in the middle so that I can get crazy and not even have to worry about the chaperone bounds appearing. That's another thing... Standing on a rug in Skyrim and then reaching down to actually touch it with my fingers. I need to get some candles/incense next.

            The Lab's mountain view demo thing is crazy with the window open and the wind blowing in. It's sensory overload. It made my near 70 year-old father-in-law piss his pants.

            I just need more than a handful of games which are made exclusively for VR.

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              #21
              Dave, let's get real, it isn't Skyrim you've got on the VR headset when you're 'getting crazy' on the rug in your love loft...

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                #22
                14ftx14ft would be immense, with all the kids stuff around I'm just about able to carve out the minimum space required to not clobber myself on something. I'm trying to reach out and grab a cup in a game meanwhile Dave is all...

                https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AbsoluteChillyIberianlynx-mobile.mp4

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                  #23
                  Just in time for Alyx, HTC have announced three additional models of Vive Cosmos

                  Half-Life: Alyx is just over a month away, and those looking to step into the heady world of VR gaming have a new range…


                  Vive Cosmos Play

                  An entry level version featuring 4 camera based inside out tracking in the faceplate

                  Vive Cosmos Elite
                  Higher End version featuring the original models 6 camera inside out tracking plus two base stations

                  Vive Cosmos XR
                  A mixed reality iteration of the headset aimed as a development tool

                  Displays are the same across all models. Preorders go up on 24 February with prices not set for all models but:

                  Vive Cosmos - £699
                  Vive Cosmos Elite - £899

                  So shouldn't be hard to pry the likely figures for the other two from that.



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