The Oculus Summer Sale finally gave me the courage to pick up a VR system. In Canada, where the Oculus, with touch and two sensors (something that their website doesn’t highlight very well), is currently $550 CDN and the Vive is $1100 to $1200 CDN, it feels like the former dropped into impulse buy territory, especially as a game development tool. More on that in the coming days or weeks (I hope).
I played around with it over the weekend, mostly Robo Recall, Lucky’s Tale, and Valve’s The Lab. I was a bit surprised at how virtual objects (like GLaDOS and the Robo Recall robots) getting into your personal space feels slightly intimidating. More accurately, I am a bit surprised how effective the “layer of glass” effect that a traditional computer game, on a computer monitor, isolates you from what’s going on. I know this was a hot topic a couple years ago, but I didn’t experience it at the time. Now I did. It could be very useful for expressing ideas…
From a technical side, it’s a bit annoying setting up the sensors. They were a bit picky until I figured out what they were trying to do, and I would probably want a third sensor at some point for when I turn around. Setting up the back end of the play area perimeter is annoying when you’re trying to move your body around to not block the sensor.
Also, the extra USB devices pushes my system to about the limit, showing me a few notifications of my USB hard drive dropping and reconnecting at times. I’ve heard that many people install add-in cards for extra USB ports (if they don’t have a high-end processor platform). That could be useful.
I recommend a Renesas PCI-e
I recommend a Renesas PCI-e controller if you’re going to get an addon card. They are widely compatible and most capture devices also like them, if you’re in need of something like that.
Thanks for the advice!
Thanks for the advice!
Look for info on the Oculus
Look for info on the Oculus support due before ordering. This is the card they are currently recommending: https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Superspeed-Ports-PCI-Expansion/dp/B00B6ZCNGM
Some of the ones with more ports actually have a small hub onboard do they are worse. And not all can properly delivery power.
And if you haven’t tried it yet I recommend Superhot VR. It’s one of my favorite VR games.
congratz !
i was about to
congratz !
i was about to pull the trigger on it too when the deal came out.
under 500$ VR is sure more compelling, but i’d rather have something using valve’s tech, i would be sure that wherever they are headed it would still be gaming focused, because with facebook ( or oculus), it sure doesn’t feel like it at times.
I did the same thing, but I
I did the same thing, but I mainly bought it for car racing Sims. Then I tried a few other applications that let you dump CAD object and google sketching files to view in 3D . Very impressive.
Echo one also very cool as the touch controller movement, pretty much replicates being in space.
“Also, the extra USB devices
“Also, the extra USB devices pushes my system to about the limit, showing me a few notifications of my USB hard drive dropping and reconnecting at times. I’ve heard that many people install add-in cards for extra USB ports (if they don’t have a high-end processor platform). That could be useful.”
If you have a Z170/Z270 chipset, then you just need a driver update. If you have an older board (Z97) then you may need to kill off any motherboard-mounted 3rd party USB controllers that are messing with things. If you have an even older board (or any pre-Ryzen AMD board), then and only then is when adding PCIe USB host controller cards makes sense (though upgrading to a more recent board makes more sense). There is absolutely zero reason to add a PCIe USB host controller if you have Z170/Z270, you’re just adding an extra headache to avoid fixing a solvable problem.
How much time did they take
How much time did they take to ship? Just ordered mine, I’m from Canada as well and was wondering when I might get it.
I bought it on Amazon. The
I bought it on Amazon. The one-day shipping was pretty cheap, so I ordered it on Wednesday evening and got it on Friday.
For ~$399 USD I found the
For ~$399 USD I found the Oculus Riff with Touch controllers difficult to pass up on as well. Overall I’m not disappointed but I strongly suspect that the HTC Vive is the better product. Especially so since third-parties are licensing their lighthouse tech for other upcoming HMD products.
My Oculus + Touch order came in two different boxes rather then one. I am also interested in installing a third or possibly fourth sensor but I will likely save it for when I have a bigger play space to work with. I’m currently using an Intel HEDT platform based on:
Intel Core i7 5820K
Asus X99-A
Gigbyte GTX 1060
32GB DDR4
ThunderboltEX 3 card (Thunderbolt 3 + USB 3.1 Type A)
It plays games fairly well typically and seems fine for VR. The motherboard has 6 rear USB 3.0 ports and 4 rear USB 2.0. There are two additional headers for 4 or more USB 3.0 ports.
It was my understanding that currently (unless updated) additional sensors (beyond two) should be setup using USB 2.0 not USB 3.0. So an additional USB 3.0 add-in card is likely pointless unless you want to try moving some none Oculus USB devices to USB 3.0 ports you don’t have.
I too suspect that any such issues are likely driver or BIOS related.
Anyway, Robo Recall is a blast to play!!! Lucky’s Tale isn’t really for me. Valve’s The Lab is fun but feels like a truncated tech demo. Echo Arena is fun and a great feebee!
I want to try Gunheart, Lone Echo and Star Trek Bridge Crew.