Zepp Twofist
Member
They have dropped at least one patch that massively improved VR since then.
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HTC Vive Launch Thread -- Computer, activate holodeck
- Thread starter taco543
- Start date
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They have dropped at least one patch that massively improved VR since then.
Sleeping Lesson
Member
Ok cool. I'm really glad I went back and finished A Chair in a Room, so maybe this will be another great experience I rediscover.
Is the Climbey demo running really poorly for anyone here? It can only run with reprojection on for me and I can really feel it. Especially with the type of game that this is, I feel that it needs to be running at 90fps at all times to get the most out of the experience.
OC'd GTX 1080
i5 6600K
OC'd GTX 1080
i5 6600K
Zalusithix
Member
Got around to playing with GravLab tonight. I'd recommend it to anybody that enjoyed Water Bears and doesn't mind the Early Access aspect. It's basically half puzzle game and half Rube Goldberg simulator. The later levels where you can have balls shooting all around you are great, and if the last currently available level is a prelude of things to come, then the levels are going to get damn big. It took me about 3 hours to make my way through the currently available content, but that's with missing bonus objectives in some levels.
I didn't have any performance issues back when I played it, and I'm rather sensitive to reprojection artifacts when I can see my hands. Granted the game is getting updated rather often, so things could have changed on the demo since I played.
Edit:
Oh, and had an odd situation today where one of my controllers wouldn't track. It'd turn on and connect, but the icon remained dark. There was no pulsing icon for attempting to get a tracking lock or anything. Going by the tooltip, SteamVR seemingly treated it as being in hibernation or something, and was telling me to move it - which obviously didn't work. Turning it off via right clicking on the icon and back on again didn't help. Nor did re-pairing it. In the end I had to perform a reboot of the headset, and then everything was golden.
I didn't have any performance issues back when I played it, and I'm rather sensitive to reprojection artifacts when I can see my hands. Granted the game is getting updated rather often, so things could have changed on the demo since I played.
Edit:
Oh, and had an odd situation today where one of my controllers wouldn't track. It'd turn on and connect, but the icon remained dark. There was no pulsing icon for attempting to get a tracking lock or anything. Going by the tooltip, SteamVR seemingly treated it as being in hibernation or something, and was telling me to move it - which obviously didn't work. Turning it off via right clicking on the icon and back on again didn't help. Nor did re-pairing it. In the end I had to perform a reboot of the headset, and then everything was golden.
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
For sure, just hope perf is optimized more for full release.
Ghost Town Mine Ride is legit. Picked it up based on all the positive feedback, it really captures that Disney cart ride feel with carnival style shooting gallery targets everywhere. Decently spooky as well. The cart ride itself would make for good demo material to first timers, though the on foot sections don't use teleport (which is understandable for script heavy horror). For the price it's well worth it, really well done.
Well, that sounds like a glowing recommendation to me, loved Water Bears.
Well, I think I settled on 170 screen percentage, in-game AA (which is TAA) off, but I don't remember the other settings. Wait, I can just look in the ini:Here I am again asking what settings you use, because of similar rig
Code:
[Solus]
VSync=False
ShadowQuality=2
EffectsQuality=2
ViewQuality=1
ScreenSize=170
AA=FalseI'm going to grab those settings as well. Been a PC gamer most my life, so I play around with settings all the time, but with VR, I just want things to work and not play around with settings.
Shimmering (and reprojection) have been my biggest issues with Solus Project, so looking forward to testing it again.
Shimmering (and reprojection) have been my biggest issues with Solus Project, so looking forward to testing it again.
Sadly, it still shimmers at 170, and it does reproject depending on the scene. (Normally not in caves but often outside).
Hell, it still shimmers at 200. It's really a worst-case shimmering scenario with some of the intense high-frequency specular lighting
It's my biggest issue with the game.
Luckily, it also has some absolutely staggering visuals. When you get out of a cave and see another huge island in the light of dusk, or when there is a special weather condition like the meteor showers it's quite amazing.
Hell, it still shimmers at 200. It's really a worst-case shimmering scenario with some of the intense high-frequency specular lighting
It's my biggest issue with the game.
Luckily, it also has some absolutely staggering visuals. When you get out of a cave and see another huge island in the light of dusk, or when there is a special weather condition like the meteor showers it's quite amazing.
Ha! You'd hate to play Project Cars the way I have it set up.
I guess I'm kind of used to it coming from the DK1 days, but can definitely understand why anyone would be driven insane by them. Flaws like those are exacerbated in VR.
Ghost Town is a lot better than I thought it would be, even though I had decent hope for it. Runs fairly well, has decent atmosphere and manages to be fun even outside of the mine cart. I'm complete chicken shit when it comes to VR horror so I didn't finish the last level 😱. Considering the fact that it takes me several minutes to get the courage to move a few feet in the game I'd say it was definitely worth the money for me lol
I also picked up the tower defense traffic jam game. I don't know how deep it gets later but it was pretty fun sitting on the floor and placing turrets and watching it play out like toys battling. It has a very cute art style if a little simplistic. But it really does feel like playing with/watching toys. Worth the few bucks I paid for that alone.
Edit: Evil Robot Traffic Jam is the name of the game.
Yeah, I hate shimmer/pixel crawling, etc. It is one of the reasons I got 1080 - so I can brute-force supersample to get rid of shimmering
I am currently playing Life is Strange with 8x SGSSAA, that's more pixels than native 4K. Looks good
(and runs at 60fps)Yeah, I hate shimmer/pixel crawling, etc. It is one of the reasons I got 1080 - so I can brute-force supersample to get rid of shimmering
I am currently playing Life is Strange with 8x SGSSAA, that's more pixels than native 4K. Looks good
Damn Gina
How'd you get that dual camera view in Unity?
That's not a Unity view, that's just the standard SteamVR desktop mirror.
Ohhhh. Do compiled Unity VR builds not display a screen on the desktop by default?
Zalusithix
Member
It's not as polished as Water Bears obviously being in EA, but I'm sure you expected that.
Unlike Water Bears though, it's not a pure puzzler. Water bears had some level of engineering, but everything worked exactly how you expected it to all the time. You could pre-plan the solution, implement it, and have it working the first time. GravLab, on the other hand, has positioning quirks due to being physics based, free-form, and involving a large space. Just knowing on a high level what you want doesn't solve the level; you actually have to make it work, and ideally work with the fewest pieces as possible. Small changes in the placement alignment of any one piece can result in large differences in the resultant ball vectors. Getting exactly the behavior that you want can take some time, and modifying one piece early in a chain can cause the behavior further down to break completely.
Error also builds up as the chain gets longer. Balls (not all are actually true spheres) don't follow exactly the same path. Small changes from how they land, touch another ball, etc. accumulate over time and getting anything remotely consistent after going through multiple launches is a challenge. You get penalized in your score by balls that go off course, but at the same time you get penalized for every extra piece you use.
Of course you can just ignore the score and go full Rube Goldberg. Use the resultant error to your advantage and have balls taking multiple paths all over, then reconverge them and such. Between the sensor, redirection, and gravity reversal parts, you could create some crazy flows. That's actually what I plan on doing tonight.
I've really enjoyed physics-based puzzles before (I was heavily into Armadillo Run, to the extent of hosting its "official" tournaments for years), so that sounds good to me.
Is there any kind of leaderboard?
Is there any kind of leaderboard?
They do, I'm sure I had some reason to record the video that way but I don't recall it right now
Zalusithix
Member
Yep, there's a global leaderboard and a friends one. Global works, but I can't vouch for how the friends one functions. I don't have many Steam friends, let alone any with a Vive, yet somebody (the dev?) shows up on it on certain levels. I imagine they'll be wiped after it exits EA.
Edit:
Also worth noting that not all the available parts are usable in every level, and some aren't even used in any of them. (At least as player placable parts.) There's a lot more that the dev can do with the game before it exits EA. There's also a level creation mode (though it's buggy), so I have high hopes the community will create some interesting stuff eventually independent of the actual official levels.
Edit:
Also worth noting that not all the available parts are usable in every level, and some aren't even used in any of them. (At least as player placable parts.) There's a lot more that the dev can do with the game before it exits EA. There's also a level creation mode (though it's buggy), so I have high hopes the community will create some interesting stuff eventually independent of the actual official levels.
I liked the option to be in first person or play from on high. Had potential, I'd liked to have seen where it went.
It's always first person actually, I just get on top of one of the cube towers I built at some points in the video. As for seeing where it goes, I'd also have liked to. Maybe I can get back to it at some point.
Add me, I'd like having more scores to compare to in VR games other than the insanely competitive global leaderboards
Zalusithix
Member
Add me, I'd like having more scores to compare to in VR games other than the insanely competitive global leaderboards
Done. Though in this case, there's not much difference between my score and the global tops (at least as of last night) in most of the levels. Not too many people playing it, and the scoring system could use some work IMO.
That said, I understand not wanting to compete with global leaderboards in general. It's one of the reasons I never really bothered with any of the popular stuff in Audioshield. I preferred to just go about my own collection and be pleasantly surprised when I found people using the same obscure songs lol.
Zalusithix
Member
Anybody else try doing a Steam VR screenshot lately? It's broken on my end - just creates a white image. First noticed it in Climbey and thought it might just be a one off issue, but the same thing happens in GravLab. Might be related to the new beta.
Not that it's really needed in GravLab as it's one of the games where you can spawn a virtual camera to take pictures with. (Should have used it the other day.) Amusingly enough the dev didn't think to despawn any existing cameras when a new one is created. Only the last one created actually controls the viewport, but all existing ones continue to update their viewfinders. In that respect the bug is almost a feature as it'd allow you to monitor a remote location while you work on something else.
That and you can get an endless mirror sort of thing going.
Not that it's really needed in GravLab as it's one of the games where you can spawn a virtual camera to take pictures with. (Should have used it the other day.) Amusingly enough the dev didn't think to despawn any existing cameras when a new one is created. Only the last one created actually controls the viewport, but all existing ones continue to update their viewfinders. In that respect the bug is almost a feature as it'd allow you to monitor a remote location while you work on something else.
That and you can get an endless mirror sort of thing going.
Not a fan of the bloom sort of effect though.
superNESjoe
Member
I need a new graphics card to use the Vive I'm buying this week, but since the Vive is so expensive I can't go crazy on the card.
I'm thinking a GTX 1060. Any suggestions? Seems like the 1060 will work great for VR and give me excellent 1080p high/ultra gaming for a couple years.
I'm thinking a GTX 1060. Any suggestions? Seems like the 1060 will work great for VR and give me excellent 1080p high/ultra gaming for a couple years.
Zalusithix
Member
The 1060 (6GB version) will work. It's a bit better than the 970 which was the original baseline for VR. Of course more is always better from both an image quality and not falling into reprojection standpoint. If possible, I'd spring for the 1070 if you plan on keeping it for a couple of years, but the 1060 should suffice if that's out of the cards. You'll just have to err on the safe side when it comes to graphics settings on the more demanding VR games.
Whatever you do, don't go with AMD. Async reprojection doesn't work with them right now in OpenVR, and history will probably repeat itself whenever Valve gets around to implementing their version of ASW.
This game needs an OT asap. I really can't believe how well done the entire thing is. Presentation comes across as a mix between Disney rides "It's a Small World", "Splash Mountain" and some kind of steampunk hell. It controls great, sports impressive visuals with an art style that lends itself well to VR's limited resolution HMDs, and is SO DAMN SCARY.
I can't stress this enough. If you're looking for the perfect Halloween VR title, this is it.
"Ghost Town Mine Ride" is basically the Vive's ultra condensed version of "Rush of Blood"
https://youtu.be/BV9hI26A3Tw
http://store.steampowered.com/app/459010/agecheck
I can't stress this enough. If you're looking for the perfect Halloween VR title, this is it.
"Ghost Town Mine Ride" is basically the Vive's ultra condensed version of "Rush of Blood"
https://youtu.be/BV9hI26A3Tw
http://store.steampowered.com/app/459010/agecheck
Organ Quarter sounds good. Has meat walls and a free pre-alpha demo.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/544510/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/544510/
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
I think you could finish it without much issue, the being out of the cart certainly makes things seem more vulnerable but the nature of the spooks doesn't change much, also that same scream sample repeated over and over kind of neutered the effectiveness for me but as with all horror ymmv. That first half is pretty brilliant though pacing wise and making you feel like you're on some "Small World"/haunted house ride. I was thinking about it throughout the day and wanting to go back it was so much fun.
It's interesting how since DK1 I've gone from trying everything horror related to it tweaking my primal fear/lizard brain to such an extent that for awhile certain demos I could barely take more than a few steps forward into darkened areas, like it was seriously a flight response being triggered. Now somehow I'm back again to trying any and everything and enjoying the hell out of it, but the fear of moving through dark spaces is still there to an extent.
Dreadhalls remains the gold standard for that anticipatory "when is some crazy shit gonna jump out and get me" fear as you navigate the various levels. The fact that the layout is randomized, has a varied menagerie of creatures and beasties each with their own rules (like can't make sustained eye contact with one), and utilizes a semi dynamic spook system based on where your gaze is focused makes it one of the scariest things I've ever played. I hope the dev gets on with finishing the Vive port, room scale with that is gonna give people a mighty shakin.
edit: Heh, see I'm not the only one that made the Small World ride comparison. I can see Disney getting in on the VR+physical ride fusion for sure. VR everywhere!
I tried the demo yesterday and while it had some nice Silent Hill vibes to the atmosphere I couldn't progress past the second area where you have to collect a cube to slot it into a door. Every time I'd try to reach out to grab it the camera pulled me back out of reach. Will give it another try later to see if it was a one time bug or something.
Yes, I think the new beta broke it.
I noticed since I tried to take some screenshots of the incredibly disturbing parts of the Halls of Oppression in The Solus Project.
Looks like you'd need pretty strong VR Legs for that one - lots of camera movement?
Looking for VR sale recommendations and impression! What I got so far.
Vanishing of Ethan Carter VR
Brookhaven
Chair in a Room
Euclidean
Fruit Ninja VR
Vanishing Realms
Also need some more VR peeps on my poor Austrian friendslist
Vanishing of Ethan Carter VR
Brookhaven
Chair in a Room
Euclidean
Fruit Ninja VR
Vanishing Realms
Also need some more VR peeps on my poor Austrian friendslist
Zalusithix
Member
Wait, hold up here... You were complaining about performance issues before with Climbey, but were using a render target multiplier, and a high one at that. Wouldn't that have been the first thing you turned down/disabled? =P Super sampling is always going to have a significant detrimental effect on performance.
I actually forgot that I even changed the value. I thought it was at the default settings, until I decided to pop up the config yesterday and noticed that it was at 2.0. The default value is 1.0 right?
Tried Climbey and it was great. I totally feel the height of the levels and falling off a high point really feels like you're falling in real life. The first time it happened I freaked out a little. Although it's not perfect, I really like the controls and hope more games use and refine it in the future. I think Onward has a similar control system.
Veritigo_X
Member
Looking for VR sale recommendations and impression! What I got so far.
Vanishing of Ethan Carter VR
Brookhaven
Chair in a Room
Euclidean
Fruit Ninja VR
Vanishing Realms
Also need some more VR peeps on my poor Austrian friendslist
Space Pirate Trainer is on sale for $12 and is my new favorite Vive game. I wrote it off at first as "just a wave shooter" but I can't stop playing it now. When bullets get close to you time slows down so you end up doing these crazy Matrix moves to dodge bullets. It's a blast to play with friends because everyone looks super ridiculous.
Final Approach is $10 now (60% off) and really fun too. It's basically like a 3D Flight Control but you're a giant air traffic controller towering over an airport directing flights with your hands. There are also small first person mini-games where you warp down to the ground level to put out fires, repair stuff, scare birds away. It's cool watching planes you just directed landing right next to you.
ShadowSoldier89
Member
anyone found 3rd person games they really like? I really want to play something like an RTS (even if its RTS-lite) but I'm not sure what is there. Out of Ammo is the name i've seen that most. Anyone played it, how is it? Any others to look at?
Zalusithix
Member
Yeah, the default is 1.0. You were pushing 4x as many pixels, so no wonder you were experiencing performance issues. Performance issues aside, I'm sure everything looked great at least.
On the topic of Climbey though, it's good to know that you got the sense of height. For me it's been the best game/experience for that. Other games put you up high, but don't actually make you fall. You might see the distance, but knowing it has no consequence reduces the impact. Knowing that you can (and will) fall in Climbey ups the anxiety. It's amplified by your view height being tied to your hands. The small up and down motions from your hands help sell the illusion that you can fall at any time. Ironically when combined with the somewhat janky nature of the game (EA and all), when it fails to register a grab and you start falling, it really triggers an "oh shit!" reaction as you flail upwards to try and regain your hold. (And in my case more often than not results in knocking the controller into the ceiling lol.)
The game honestly made me feel sorry for Mario. Jumping from platform to floating platform. Crossing thin beams. Dealing with moving platforms that can require jumping/crouching while riding them. Do that stuff in a traditional game and it's no big deal; you never think twice about it. Get faced with those situations in VR and it can be rather daunting. Even when your mind accepts that you can't die, it is still far more imposing.
Edit:
Not third person, but there's Cosmic Trip.
Ya it definitely did, everything was super sharp on 2.0
One thing I feel that can be done to up that sense of height is to include a really low floor on all levels instead of just empty space. There are a number of levels where if you fall, you wont land on any blocks and will just fall into the empty abyss below. This is where it doesnt feel scary anymore because there's nothing relative to me where I can see the rate of my descent and trick my brain into thinking Im falling. If you had a base floor on all levels that was really low(say 200 feet below the lowest point of all levels) that feeling of anxiety and fear of falling will be with you no matter where you are in a level, rather than it only kicking in if you will end up landing on a block.
I actually wish all VR games that have a sense of height do this instead of just adding a static background.
Yeah, the default is 1.0. You were pushing 4x as many pixels, so no wonder you were experiencing performance issues. Performance issues aside, I'm sure everything looked great at least.
On the topic of Climbey though, it's good to know that you got the sense of height. For me it's been the best game/experience for that. Other games put you up high, but don't actually make you fall. You might see the distance, but knowing it has no consequence reduces the impact. Knowing that you can (and will) fall in Climbey ups the anxiety. It's amplified by your view height being tied to your hands. The small up and down motions from your hands help sell the illusion that you can fall at any time. Ironically when combined with the somewhat janky nature of the game (EA and all), when it fails to register a grab and you start falling, it really triggers an "oh shit!" reaction as you flail upwards to try and regain your hold. (And in my case more often than not results in knocking the controller into the ceiling lol.)
The game honestly made me feel sorry for Mario. Jumping from platform to floating platform. Crossing thin beams. Dealing with moving platforms that can require jumping/crouching while riding them. Do that stuff in a traditional game and it's no big deal; you never think twice about it. Get faced with those situations in VR and it can be rather daunting. Even when your mind accepts that you can't die, it is still far more imposing.
One thing I feel that can be done to up that sense of height is to include a really low floor on all levels instead of just empty space. There are a number of levels where if you fall, you wont land on any blocks and will just fall into the empty abyss below. This is where it doesnt feel scary anymore because there's nothing relative to me where I can see the rate of my descent and trick my brain into thinking Im falling. If you had a base floor on all levels that was really low(say 200 feet below the lowest point of all levels) that feeling of anxiety and fear of falling will be with you no matter where you are in a level, rather than it only kicking in if you will end up landing on a block.
I actually wish all VR games that have a sense of height do this instead of just adding a static background.
Chronos (which apparently works via Revive) is probably still my favorite VR game.
After a day with my Vive VR I was a bit un-impressed. Some of the games were fun definitely but would be the type of games I play for 10 mins and never return to. That was pretty disappointing.
Island 359 seemed very fun but that a bit of "early access" jank.
Elite Dangerous was nice but I don't have the patience for that game, even when playing it before without VR. Just not my game.
The Solus Project is definitely fun but, has some jank to it also but something I could play for long periods.
Project Cars was a nice test (tried the new free version) but I suck at racing games. Could barely control it.
Space Pirate trainer was fun, my brother had more fun out of it but again it's a game I wouldn't play much (mainly due to my limited room space).
The main issue was, after about 10 minutes with those games, I wouldn't say I feel sick but I become EXTREMELY over-heated to the point where I feel like I am massively burning up. Anyone else experience this?
Now for a big positive.
Today I bought Subnautica. WOW. It was an amazing experience. I always always wanted to explore the deep depths of underwater and this blew my mind. The first time I hit the water and started exploring was amazing. I'm going to pour so so many hours into this.
All in all, I have a 14 day refund policy and I'm unsure if I want to send it back yet or keep it. Some parts have been disappointing and others have been amazing. Maybe if I overcome the massive overheating of my body issue then I can do something with it.
Island 359 seemed very fun but that a bit of "early access" jank.
Elite Dangerous was nice but I don't have the patience for that game, even when playing it before without VR. Just not my game.
The Solus Project is definitely fun but, has some jank to it also but something I could play for long periods.
Project Cars was a nice test (tried the new free version) but I suck at racing games. Could barely control it.
Space Pirate trainer was fun, my brother had more fun out of it but again it's a game I wouldn't play much (mainly due to my limited room space).
The main issue was, after about 10 minutes with those games, I wouldn't say I feel sick but I become EXTREMELY over-heated to the point where I feel like I am massively burning up. Anyone else experience this?
Now for a big positive.
Today I bought Subnautica. WOW. It was an amazing experience. I always always wanted to explore the deep depths of underwater and this blew my mind. The first time I hit the water and started exploring was amazing. I'm going to pour so so many hours into this.
All in all, I have a 14 day refund policy and I'm unsure if I want to send it back yet or keep it. Some parts have been disappointing and others have been amazing. Maybe if I overcome the massive overheating of my body issue then I can do something with it.
Zalusithix
Member
Ya it definitely did, everything was super sharp on 2.0
One thing I feel that can be done to up that sense of height is to include a really low floor on all levels instead of just empty space. There are a number of levels where if you fall, you wont land on any blocks and will just fall into the empty abyss below. This is where it doesnt feel scary anymore because there's nothing relative to me where I can see the rate of my descent and trick my brain into thinking Im falling. If you had a base floor on all levels that was really low(say 200 feet below the lowest point of all levels) that feeling of anxiety and fear of falling will be with you no matter where you are in a level, rather than it only kicking in if you will end up landing on a block.
I actually wish all VR games that have a sense of height do this instead of just adding a static background.
The issue is that you don't die ever when falling if you land on a platform (by design). So just any floor under you wouldn't work. You'd land there and never be able to go anywhere after. To remedy that issue, they added spikes in a recent update, so that might end up replacing empty space in level design at some point. It'll have the same effect (death/respawn), but will give depth perception. I expect open space will still be used at times, but having the option is good.
They've also recently tweaked the way slopes work to allow even non-ice surfaces to force you to slide down them which should aid in the platforming difficulty.
Edit:
The first issue you should have really known about going into things. Most everything out there for VR right now is smaller experiences where you have to enjoy the experience enough to replay them. Similar to the arcade days of yore. I mean 10 minutes seems like an exaggeration, but most games have a few hours of unique content at best before replay value is factored in. Thankfully I find VR makes for great replays. The skill factor is high, and you find yourself getting better each time as muscle memory is formed.
As to your second issue... Are you out of shape? VR - particularly VR with tracked controllers is active gaming. You will be using muscles and enduring fatigue with games that require movement. If you're out of shape, that can cause you to quickly work up a sweat. Alternatively you're just playing in a hot environment or have an abnormally high body temperature.
ShadowSoldier89
Member
thats that 3rd person action game right? I havent tried anything revive yet
yup, my crude pitch is that it's kinda like a more mechanically streamlined Souls game but with vaguely Resident Evil/Onimusha style puzzles scattered through it (to go along with the fixed camera angles, even). Pretty tough on Hard mode and was extremely up my alley.
You just sold me on that. Still know nothing about revive yet, seems worth it.
ShadowSoldier89
Member
yea nto quite what I was thinking, but at the same time it does look really neat. Not going to grab it now, but will keep my eye on it until early access ends
OnionPowder
Member
You should definitely try out Please, Don't Touch Anything VR
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