Virtual Reality

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 3:48 pm

I have a friend who got Star Trek: Bridge Crew and loves it. It's a VR game where you are one of four crew on the bridge of a Starfleet vessel. Available on all 3 major platforms (Playstation 4, Vive, and Oculus Rift).

The game is intended to be multiplayer with a player at each of the captain, tactical, engineer, and helm positions. You can play single player as the captain with AI flunkies at the other stations. There is a short campaign, a series of standalone missions, and set of missions on the original Enterprise ("1701, no bloody A, B, C, or D"). The 1701 is much harder because you don't have "modern" holographic controls and displays but instead have to work the old-style switches you see in the original series.

Soooo.. I bought a VR for my Playstation. And I like it. And my wife likes it too, but happens to be allergic to the rubber light shield so that's a bummer. Looking for a temp solution until somebody makes a silicone version.

Sony just announced new several VR games at E3, among them a VR version of Skyrim. One of the other platforms is getting Fallout 4. So, serious games rather than overhyped tech demos. Developers are still feeling their way around the VR space but I think it's got a solid foothold this time. Sony alone has sold over a million PSVR units.

What do you guys think? Anybody got a VR setup?

Atheist · Post by **Atheist** » Wed Jun 14, 2017 6:09 pm

Yeah, I have a Vive. Love it.

But it's been gathering a bit of dust. Waiting for FO4 to come out. Looking forward to that one.

The vive is an incredible piece of tech. It's not perfect... but it's pretty damn amazing.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Thu Jun 15, 2017 8:24 am

Remember how many times someone tried to sell a "pad" solution? There have been many attempts; I think the earliest I remember was the Apple Newton. All failed, until the iPad, and now different pads are everywhere.

VR has been much the same way. There have been many times someone tried to do it, then along comes the Rift, and right on its heels the Vive and PSVR and I think a couple more smaller ones. And they're selling! Undoubtedly there will be many more improvements, but I think the critical threshold has finally been reached. Or... it's a fad.

Sharpster · Post by **Sharpster** » Wed Jun 21, 2017 12:31 pm

I was watching a twitch stream the other day and the streamer had a virtual club you could hang out in if you had VR. (I assume it was a steam app or something). There were different mini games like connect four arcade game, a pool table etc. around the "clubhouse". You could even walk to one side of the room where their were a bunch of sofas and watch his live twitch stream on the wall as if it were being projected from an overhead projector. VR is neat.

How is it with prolonged use? Wife gets motion sick easily.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:46 am

Mine does too, but haven't had any real problems so far. We've only played it sitting down, and nothing freaky like a roller coaster demo.

Extended use is fine, at least with my psvr, but quite possible you have to "work up" to longer periods to let your eyes & brain figure things out. So far only one demo / experience has given me any headache / nausea issues - they all seem to be different. Lots of variables, from refresh speed to FOV to the types of motion the game uses, and the subtle cues they are still figuring out.
I also showed my folks this past weekend. They're both over 70, and they both didn't get motion sick.

We had to drive about 50 miles to a place where we knew a demo would be, in order to try it out before buying. But it worked pretty well.

Starmage21 · Post by **Starmage21** » Fri Jun 23, 2017 7:24 pm

I played Elite: Dangerous in VR once and it was fucking spectacular! That said, first-person games like Fallout 4 or Skyrim dont really impress me much and I'll keep playing them the normal way.

I'll switch to VR once they figure out a way to do it Shadowrun or The Matrix style.