So George, the oculus support dude that has been emailing me said he has sent in the request to ask to see if it's ok for me to be sent an HDMI. What authorization?! What the fuck, oculus is not a faint company, get off your ass and go down the hall and grab me an HDMI cable, put it in a fucking box and send it to me!!!!!!

Can't you use a normal HDMI cable or is it some special propriety cable?

My impressions of the Rift were not positive for the most part and all the concerns I had from the initial announcement of all the headsets stand.

(1) Even though this belonged to my buddy, putting on the headset you are greeted by an unpleasant warmth and moisture from sweat, condensation and warm air-exhales from the last user's nostrils... Ew. View was partially obscured because...

(2) The set, no matter how much you adjust it (and you HAVE to adjust it) just doesn't sit naturally on your face. My nose was almost entirely IN the headset! Breathing out from your nose results in fogging the screens within.

(3) It's a very picky piece of hardware... unless you sit it precisely in a certain position, your view will be blurry.

(4) When your view ISN'T blurry, it looks as if you are viewing the world through a screen-door. The pixels in the display are distractingly noticeable. Takes away from the experience.

(5) The headtracking is nice, but it messes with your balance, equilibrium and puts a lot of strain on you and your neck, as does constantly having to stand. The kind of shape my spine is in right now... I will not be able to enjoy this kind of technology AT ALL any time soon.

(6) The way it tricks your body and mind feels unnatural and unpleasant; not only was I constantly trying to "right" my balance when it was unnecessary...

(7) There's a definite threshold to how much stimulation your eyes, body and brain can take before it starts to make you get sick. There was one futuristic, Call of Duty-like demo I tried where you are running down a street: bullets, rockets, debris are flying, then a car gets blown up and flies over your head... You see the street passing you by and pass through the bodies of your allies as you approach a hostile mech. It was WAAAY too much. I had to quit at that point, as it was NOT pleasant.

[8] I see potential, as the sense of vertigo is very real and the soothing aspects work well. I saw such things as a futurisitic city from a girder high above it that brought to mind something you see out of BioShock and I was floating down a river in a boat and attending a sort of shamanistic ritual... all of those were cool... but, the VR experience needs to be slow, metered and measured properly or it becomes a headache-inducing, nausea-fest.

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All in all, I can't see this being applied to the quality of games we have at the moment for a good three or four years.

This is going to be the PC and PS4 version of the Wii U controller. It'll gather some interest at first, but developers are going to have to put such time, effort, research and care into every last detail, they're not going to want to spend the time or money after the initial excitement dies down.

I can see Facebook and other maybe travel-related applications becoming big... and, of course, porn... but for gamers? Nope.

gamingeek said:

Why isn't the thing wireless? Is it just a power issue or is it the video signal too? Both wired?

If it'd be wireless it'd be akin to placing your head inside a microwave.  

Thank you Leo. Are you sure you adjusted the headset right cause all that sounds like it could have been fixed. There are straps so that the headset stays firm on your head and doesn't lean down on your nose. All the weight is supposed to be on the back of the head. Yes it can be a bit specific to find the spot where it's not blurry but once you set it it shouldn't wobble unless you are really moving the head all over. The straps on the side should be tight, the strap on the head right to hold it up and the big plastic thing in the back low on the back of your head. Oculus should be comfortable.

That said the rest is right and it effects everyone differently. I have felt some neck fatigue when using it for long periods of time and I have no neck pain. Screw door is very apparent. Motion sickness will effect everyone differently but when it does hit it can really mess you up, I had a small headache for about a day after one bad trip.

But when it works it's great. Did you try luckys tale? That's a very relaxing easy VR experience and it's a good game.

travo said:

Are there any Pilotwings VR type games?  That would be awesome to use a jet pack or skydive in VR.  Nintendo, you ready for VR?

That would be great.

robio said:

By the way, did you get approved for that new HDMI cable that you needed?

It arrived today without them telling me they sent it.

And there is an oculus sale with a pilotwings like jetpack game! So I bought it and its a lot of fun. You have explore mode where you fly around looking for secrets and mission mode which is fly through rings, and shoot bad guys, even fight bosses. Really fun game, its called Omega Agent.

gamingeek said:

We need a VR Porn update from Vader.

Do you use it, or have you reverted to regular old porn?

Mix and match. There is now a whole cosplay vr porn website, lol. I have seen some of the trailers. Porn needs to get into the superhero business cause they are always more faithful to the comics.

I have had PSVR for a week and did just get two moves so that I may try out PSVR version of full motion gaming. Hardware wise the helmet feels great, I love that it leaves your hair alone without some giant strap on the top of your head like rift. The screendoor effect I feel might be a little worse than rift, also the gap on the nose area is bigger so light comes in more. Still it's sturdy, has volume control built in and just feels better.


The move is well the move. Works well enough but any time you get behind yourself it loses tracking. Touch works better with the two camera (I don't have the third one) setup and allows for some behind use and way better tracking. The move is not shaped like a gun so gun games feel odd with it.


I have an OG PS4 so the resolution is not great. I have raw data on PC (970gtx) so I could compare the demo disc on psvr to it, yikes, jaggie city. Also they limit how movement works so that you are always front facing, necessary for PSVR. Move is not as accurate as move so it hurts the experience a bit. That said the game still works and it is a great example of full scale full motion VR gaming.


The star of the show is of course Astro Bot. Now I am not as impressed by the whole being inside a platformer and looking around thing because I did it all with Lucky's Tale years ago. I am impressed with the mastery of how each level introduces something new. A new mechanic, clever situations, amazing controller motion moves. The level design is masterful and they do use the VR ability to look all around to its fullest. In the end though it's how good of a platformer it is that matters, VR or not, it's Nintendo quality so far.


My next favorite is Until Dawn Rush of blood. Taking a theme park shooting ride and making a game of it, genius. Plus it gives the player a perfect reason to sit forward, I feel like I'm in a ride. The shooting isn't the best cause again the move is awkward with guns but screw it, it's all so well done. This is an example of a cool idea executed to perfection.


Now I'm a big RE fan, shocking I know. I hated that I couldn't play RE7 in VR. I have beaten it a ton of times, but I bought it again to finally play it the right way. HOLY SHIT. At first you need to get used to the crappy resolution but once in the dark house it works, the immersion is out of this world. I was shaking holding the controller and I knew what was coming! When Margarette gets close, ahhhh. Best of all it's a full fledged AAA game working perfectly in VR. I need more of this. I have tried skyrim before, works great but I can't see myself spending 100 hours in it. RE7 works because it was designed with VR in mind, they do things to invade your personal space, it's brilliant.


Other stuff like Rez in VR is neat. I have yet to try rigz or moss for any extended time. I'm excited for Moss cause I loved chronos which was another third person action adventure game, they work amazingly well in VR.


I'm happy with my purchase so far. It won't replace rift as my go to VR but in terms of exclusives it's pretty awesome.

Dvader said:

Beat Saber is the real deal. I have this on rift and it's the best rhythm game since guitar hero/rock band, except you are the instrument. You stand in the middle of the room, with a lightsaber in each hand and chop up blocks that fly at you with arrows on them on the direction of the cut. Obstacles also show up so you have to jump side to side and duck. It's super intense and an amazing workout. There are tons of YouTube videos on it so you can see what it's like. On PC it has custom songs so you can find most everything.

Custom songs? Can you just use your own songs, as in Audiosurf?

P.S.