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Oculus Rift Launch Thread: Ballpark 2016

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Reading this glasses discussion combined with the complete ineptness Oculus has shown this entire launch...

I'm seriously thinking of canceling and just getting a Vive.

The fact that they have made me think about it is concerning in itself.

I was driving the hype train and now I am just a passenger and I think I may be on the wrong train.
 

Compsiox

Banned
What's weird is that some people with 26 and hire received the 1-3 week email while some in the 24-25 range did not.

It's all over the place. I have heard that people had 25 in the order number and didn't place an order until 15 minutes past the hour. I can't figure it out.

There's no order. I'd bet on it.
 

Haint

Member
I think it is probably up to the developer to do that. It is possible to offer Oculus keys to users from other sources; the Windlands dev for example has a form you can fill out for an Oculus version of Windlands if you bought the Steam version, which like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter isn't even strictly a VR game. But the latter dev is not only not doing that but charging for VR support being added back over to Steam as a $10 DLC. I think Frontier also allows you to grab an Oculus key for E:D owners through their account page.

Seems like Oculus does offer the tools to offer that kind of cross-buy, at least. Can't imagine it would be harder for an app in the GearVR store than one sold in Steam.

Where'd you see that about Ethan Carter selling VR DLC? As of yesterday their CM on Steam is still telling people to shove it and rebuy the $30 Oculus version at full price. Scumbag developer, wouldn't support them with a penny.
 

Soi-Fong

Member
Reading this glasses discussion combined with the complete ineptness Oculus has shown this entire launch...

I'm seriously thinking of canceling and just getting a Vive.

I mentioned the glasses problem here before in GAF, but nobody believed me since UploadVR and other outlets mentioned glasses worked fine in the Rift.

Mentioned this in another thread, but like I said nobody believed me.

I can tell the folks here who are four-eyed like me, you guys will love the Vive more. The Rift has absolutely no room for glasses inside while the Vive does. The Vive Pre we have at the studio is just comfy as heck.

I can tell you guys though that glasses users have nothing to worry about in the Vive as there's plenty of room inside.
 

Soi-Fong

Member
Noooooo..... I swear, if mine has any bullshit issues like that, it's going to be immediately sent back.

This "halo" effect is present in both the Rift and the Vive. I think people keep forgetting that this is a side-effect of using fresnel lenses which both headsets incorporated into their optics.
 

mario_O

Member
Wow, just tried Lucky's Tale with my DK2 and it's freaking amazing. Mario 64 VR. Couldn't stop smiling. And it's free! Downloading Elite now.

Anyone know how to get rid of the message "dk2 unsupported and your pc doesn't meet..."? really annoying.
 

Riptwo

Member
Wow, just tried Lucky's Tale with my DK2 and it's freaking amazing. Mario 64 VR. Couldn't stop smiling. And it's free! Downloading Elite now.

Anyone know how to get rid of the message "dk2 unsupported and your pc doesn't meet..."? really annoying.
I don't think that there's a way to get rid of the message other than to edit your registry, which seems like overkill. I'm hoping that they let you acknowledge and dismiss it in a later release!
 
The weak launch lineup, delayed shipping, lower-than-expected FOV, and now this lens artifact have really put a damper on my launch excitement. Vive can't get here soon enough.
 

Enordash

Member
Oculus should have really set the launch date at April 4th and just surprised Kickstarter backers with theirs "early". I think a lot of the general saltiness around this launch would have been avoided.

I really need to step away from all of the impressions and just wait to try stuff for myself. I'm derailing my own hype train here.

The weak launch lineup, delayed shipping, lower-than-expected FOV, and now this lens artifact have really put a damper on my launch excitement. Vive can't get here soon enough.

I wouldn't go expecting the Vive to be perfect in every way though. Don't want to disappoint yourself through two launches!
 
The weak launch lineup, delayed shipping, lower-than-expected FOV, and now this lens artifact have really put a damper on my launch excitement. Vive can't get here soon enough.

So let's get this straight, the Rift was billed as 110 FOV before launch, but the reality is it's actually 100 right? Seen a few reviews state 100.....what happened from then till now? Did Oculus overstate the FOV?
 
I wouldn't go expecting the Vive to be perfect in every way though. Don't want to disappoint yourself through two launches!
Totally, but I feel like the Vive is more of a known quantity at least.
Are you still getting the Rift and did you pick a game?

Here this narrows down the games for Vive or Rift

http://store.steampowered.com/searc...by=_ASC&category2=31&vrsupport=101,102&page=1

I am definitely still getting a Rift! I choose 5089!

So let's get this straight, the Rift was billed as 110 FOV before launch, but the reality is it's actually 100 right? Seen a few reviews state 100.....what happened from then till now? Did Oculus overstate the FOV?
As I understand it FOV is not quite as straight forward as those numbers imply, but generally it seems smaller than we have been led to believe. Oculus has been cagey when talking about FOV, but they did say it was greater than the DK2 which appears to not be true.
 
Cross poast.

I've got my Kickstarter Rift at home and spent a good part of yesterday evening playing a bunch of the different games. I don't have the financial resources to try everything as Giant Bomb did, but I'm happy with my purchases, which at this moment are (including free stuff):

Herobound: Spirit Champion, Chronos, Lucky's Tale, Eve Valkyrie, Weird alien planet things with a name I forget, Ethan Carter and Pinball FX2.

All of these feel like proper games, although I can't talk about amount of content other than in the case of Pinball FX2 (three tables for $15 is a bit steeper than you'd pay normally, but they've clearly had more work done on them) as I only played each of these for half an hour or so.

Spirit Champion I rebought, because I have it and love it on Gear VR. It's an old school style Legend of Zelda type of game that plays out in miniature rooms infront of you. At a smooth 90hz with positional tracking it's even better.

Chronos I spent way too long just wandering around the first few rooms looking at everything (and listening to everything, the storm sounded amazing), can't really comment on gameplay yet.

Lucky's Tale is awesome. It would probably still be awesome if it wasn't in VR, but it wouldn't be equally awesome. VR adds a lot to a game like this and I think most people who haven't played it don't get that. Lucky feels real. He subtly reacts to you. The art style looks way better in VR and at 90 fps the game controls brilliantly well. It's one of the best Mario knock offs I've played in a long long time, and everything about it is great. Best 3D platformer I have played in ages. Probably my favorite since 3D Land (3D world just didn't do it for me)... and it might surpass that as the difficulty ramps up and things presumably get crazier.

Eve Valkyrie I wasn't expecting much of. The beta didn't really click for me, but I liked the intro missions I played. I'm probably going to be disappointed by the amount of single player content in it, but it didn't cost me anything so it's not a big deal. I will try the multiplayer when I feel a little less terrible at it. It looks great and controls well though.

Ethan Carter. Oh, Ethan Carter. How beautiful you are in VR. Not everyone will get on with stick driven locomotion, but Ethan Carter is going to make those that can't jealous of those that can. It is beautiful. I haven't finished the first two puzzles yet, but wandering around in that starting forest, over the rundown bridge towards the area down by the water, it's everything I imagined (non room scale) VR games to be. Some hall marks of it not having been originally designed for VR remain (I almost fell over on the bridge trying to avoid some of the massive holes in it, that aren't really holes), and to really appreciate the visuals (display at 130%) you need just a shade more horsepower than I have to avoid occasional drops... but the cost of lower rendering resolution is for me greater than the occasional small stutter here, as it kills the details of the individual leaves and blades of grass. I've never played this past the first two puzzles before, because I knew it was coming to VR. I'm looking forwards to spending more time in this world.

Weird alien planet thing is surprisingly engaging. I will be visiting the space forest today to see how varied the content is and if it will keep me coming back. Space fishing was fun. The creatures were bizarre and interesting to look at, and I enjoy the teleportation system and the small scale overview of the world you can pull up. Biggest issue is that it's a bit patronizing. It's a very cool game though, that definitely feels like something that leans into VR really well.

Pinball FX2 I am going to play the shit out of in VR. I've always preferred Pinball Arcade to Pinball FX2. I didn't like how fantastical the FX2 tables tend to be with all sorts of things that couldn't be done on a real table... but when the cabinet is in front of you and feels like a real cabinet it no longer feels fake, but instead it feels like the most expensive high end pinball table you've ever played on. The sound design really works in VR too, with the sound really feeling like it's coming from the speakers on the cabinet and the audio of the ball rolling around and bouncing off things feeling just right. Of all the things I played, this felt the most like really being there. It was super cool. NB: I love pinball.

I'm still excited for whatever is next. I am all over Edge of Nowhere when that launches next month still and I plan on picking up some more games when they drop...

But now more than ever I want Touch motion controls, and the wait for them to launch is going to be harder than I originally envisioned.
 
Totally, but I feel like the Vive is more of a known quantity at least.


I am definitely still getting a Rift! I choose 5089!


As I understand it FOV is not quite as straight forward as those numbers imply, but generally it seems smaller than we have been led to believe. Oculus has been cagey when talking about FOV, but they did say it was greater than the DK2 which appears to not be true.

I can only tell you that the highlighted has not been my experience. FOV didn't feel like a step down from the DK2 at all. There could be all sorts of reasons for that, I know, but having used multiple HMDs, I have zero complaints about the FOV in the Rift.
 
What is up with this "launch"? They aren't even beginning to ship preorders until tomorrow, two days after the official launch date. This doesn't make sense.

Shipping logistics are hard, but good lord, this is a nigh graphics card-caliber paper launch.
 

Compsiox

Banned
Totally, but I feel like the Vive is more of a known quantity at least.


I am definitely still getting a Rift! I choose 5089!

You know what unless you really want that game you can just wait until April. Didn't realize quality games weren't on sale.

Just say the word tho and I'll get it!
 

Cimarron

Member
Has there been any talk on actually how many Rifts were shipped yesterday? It seems like an abysmal amount. Is there a comprehensive list of Rift games that been released that are compatible with DK2? I would hate to buy something and not have it work at all.
 

Exuro

Member
Has there been any talk on actually how many Rifts were shipped yesterday? It seems like an abysmal amount. Is there a comprehensive list of Rift games that been released that are compatible with DK2? I would hate to buy something and not have it work at all.
It was just for kickstart backers, which is partly to blame for disappointing impressions, and I think there were something like 7k of those sent out. Wednesday actual preorders should be going out.

Correction: It was only some US Kickstarter backers, not even all of them.

Only some US backers? That's pretty terrible then. Explains why there's only a few impressions out there.
 
What is up with this "launch"? They aren't even beginning to ship preorders until tomorrow, two days after the official launch date. This doesn't make sense.

Shipping logistics are hard, but good lord, this is a nigh graphics card-caliber paper launch.

It's a shit launch. I don't think a credit card has been charged yet and the product is launched.
 
It was just for kickstart backers, which is partly to blame for disappointing impressions, and I think there were something like 7k of those sent out. Wednesday actual preorders should be going out.

Correction: It was only some US Kickstarter backers, not even all of them.
 

LaneDS

Member
Cross poast.

I've got my Kickstarter Rift at home and spent a good part of yesterday evening playing a bunch of the different games. I don't have the financial resources to try everything as Giant Bomb did, but I'm happy with my purchases, which at this moment are (including free stuff):

Herobound: Spirit Champion, Chronos, Lucky's Tale, Eve Valkyrie, Weird alien planet things with a name I forget, Ethan Carter and Pinball FX2.

All of these feel like proper games, although I can't talk about amount of content other than in the case of Pinball FX2 (three tables for $15 is a bit steeper than you'd pay normally, but they've clearly had more work done on them) as I only played each of these for half an hour or so.

Spirit Champion I rebought, because I have it and love it on Gear VR. It's an old school style Legend of Zelda type of game that plays out in miniature rooms infront of you. At a smooth 90hz with positional tracking it's even better.

Chronos I spent way too long just wandering around the first few rooms looking at everything (and listening to everything, the storm sounded amazing), can't really comment on gameplay yet.

Lucky's Tale is awesome. It would probably still be awesome if it wasn't in VR, but it wouldn't be equally awesome. VR adds a lot to a game like this and I think most people who haven't played it don't get that. Lucky feels real. He subtly reacts to you. The art style looks way better in VR and at 90 fps the game controls brilliantly well. It's one of the best Mario knock offs I've played in a long long time, and everything about it is great. Best 3D platformer I have played in ages. Probably my favorite since 3D Land (3D world just didn't do it for me)... and it might surpass that as the difficulty ramps up and things presumably get crazier.

Eve Valkyrie I wasn't expecting much of. The beta didn't really click for me, but I liked the intro missions I played. I'm probably going to be disappointed by the amount of single player content in it, but it didn't cost me anything so it's not a big deal. I will try the multiplayer when I feel a little less terrible at it. It looks great and controls well though.

Ethan Carter. Oh, Ethan Carter. How beautiful you are in VR. Not everyone will get on with stick driven locomotion, but Ethan Carter is going to make those that can't jealous of those that can. It is beautiful. I haven't finished the first two puzzles yet, but wandering around in that starting forest, over the rundown bridge towards the area down by the water, it's everything I imagined (non room scale) VR games to be. Some hall marks of it not having been originally designed for VR remain (I almost fell over on the bridge trying to avoid some of the massive holes in it, that aren't really holes), and to really appreciate the visuals (display at 130%) you need just a shade more horsepower than I have to avoid occasional drops... but the cost of lower rendering resolution is for me greater than the occasional small stutter here, as it kills the details of the individual leaves and blades of grass. I've never played this past the first two puzzles before, because I knew it was coming to VR. I'm looking forwards to spending more time in this world.

Weird alien planet thing is surprisingly engaging. I will be visiting the space forest today to see how varied the content is and if it will keep me coming back. Space fishing was fun. The creatures were bizarre and interesting to look at, and I enjoy the teleportation system and the small scale overview of the world you can pull up. Biggest issue is that it's a bit patronizing. It's a very cool game though, that definitely feels like something that leans into VR really well.

Pinball FX2 I am going to play the shit out of in VR. I've always preferred Pinball Arcade to Pinball FX2. I didn't like how fantastical the FX2 tables tend to be with all sorts of things that couldn't be done on a real table... but when the cabinet is in front of you and feels like a real cabinet it no longer feels fake, but instead it feels like the most expensive high end pinball table you've ever played on. The sound design really works in VR too, with the sound really feeling like it's coming from the speakers on the cabinet and the audio of the ball rolling around and bouncing off things feeling just right. Of all the things I played, this felt the most like really being there. It was super cool. NB: I love pinball.

I'm still excited for whatever is next. I am all over Edge of Nowhere when that launches next month still and I plan on picking up some more games when they drop...

But now more than ever I want Touch motion controls, and the wait for them to launch is going to be harder than I originally envisioned.

Thanks for the write-up. Curious to hear your Chronos impressions once you play more of that.
 

Coverly

Member
Mine is tracking to arrive on friday. Originally I got no shipping notice so yesterday I created a trouble ticket with oculus and in about two hrs I got a process and shipping confirmation.

Has anyone tried the rift with vorpx? I'm more interested in playing old classics like bioshock or skyrim in vr, maybe even the division.
 

Alexlf

Member
I can only tell you that the highlighted has not been my experience. FOV didn't feel like a step down from the DK2 at all. There could be all sorts of reasons for that, I know, but having used multiple HMDs, I have zero complaints about the FOV in the Rift.

I think people are misunderstanding the FOV picture that was posted. The FOV shown is if your eyes are physically flat against the lenses, which obviously doesn't happen in reality. FOV measured from a cm or two out will be much more telling as per the actual experience. And I bet with the new lenses will make it better than the DK2 was.
 

viveks86

Member
Nice impressions, man!

Probably my favorite since 3D Land (3D world just didn't do it for me)... and it might surpass that as the difficulty ramps up and things presumably get crazier.

Apparently that's where the game falls short. It never gets challenging enough, according to reviews I've seen. But otherwise, it seems like this is the best new game in the launch lineup. Totally lost any interest I had in Adr1ft.

Ethan Carter

I really wish they had more tunable settings. Resolution scaling alone is a bit disappointing. I wonder if we can still directly tweak INI files like the original game.

Any plans of getting project cars?
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
Mine is tracking to arrive on friday. Originally I got no shipping notice so yesterday I created a trouble ticket with oculus and in about two hrs I got a process and shipping confirmation.

Has anyone tried the rift with vorpx? I'm more interested in playing old classics like bioshock or skyrim in vr, maybe even the division.

Kickstarter backer?
 

p2535748

Member
I spent a few hours with this last night, here's some basic impressions:

I think the headset itself is very good. The FOV might be smaller than the DK2, but that's not how it feels. I was using the DK2 up until a couple of weeks ago, and I don't notice a step down. The lens distortion/flare stuff is noticeable, but it's really only distracting for me with white-on-black menu stuff. IN games, it hasn't been an issue (though this might be a factor of which games I playing).

I played Chronos, Lucky's Tale, and some Eve. Of the three, Lucky's Tale is my current favorite. It's nothing super novel, and yeah it could be done outside of VR, but it looks good and plays well, and the VR does add to it.

Chronos is interesting, and might be the best actual game of the launch, but I only played 20-30 minutes of it, so I'm not far enough in. I'm not sure how I feel about the fixed camera stuff. I can understand the reasons for the decision, but it causes occasional problems in terms of being able to see obstacles or enemies that I don't like.

Eve looks good, but I really prefer Elite (I've played a lot of that on my DK2, but haven't tried it with the CV1 yet). It feels sort of shallow.

I want to try more third person, table-top style stuff, which surprises me. Before I got this, I thought I'd primarily enjoy it for cockpit style stuff, but Lucky's Tale and some of the stuff GB showed off really got me interested in the games where it looks like you're controlling miniatures.

I've got a Vive coming next week (hopefully), which will be great because I do think motion controls and room scale will add a whole new dimension to this, and can't wait to try that out.
 
Nice impressions, man!



Apparently that's where the game falls short. It never gets challenging enough, according to reviews I've seen. But otherwise, it seems like this is the best new game in the launch lineup. Totally lost any interest I had in Adr1ft.



I really wish they had more tunable settings. Resolution scaling alone is a bit disappointing. I wonder if we can still directly tweak INI files like the original game.

Any plans of getting project cars?


I really doubt it. The game is using photogrammettry heavily. i cant wait to try it too.
 
Nobody has played Technolust? Looks like the best launch title, Cyberpunk VR adventure. Shame it hasn't been showcased along with the other launch titles.
 

BrettWeir

Member
These are great impressions. Thanks for posting them.

I just pre-ordered a Vive, just in case things don't work out with the Rift. The whole glasses not fitting well thing will more than likely be a huge deal breaker for me. The good thing is that Vive won't even ship until May, so I have a little bit of time to gather impressions. If it's not for me, I'll sell on eBay and go forward with the Vive.

Crossing fingers that Oculus gets their shit together and starts actually shipping to paying customers this week.
 
Nobody has played Technolust? Looks like the best launch title, Cyberpunk VR adventure. Shame it hasn't been showcased along with the other launch titles.
I don't think it's available to buy from Oculus Home just yet. They've only sent keys to backers or people who preordered.
 

alexbull_uk

Member
Mine is tracking to arrive on friday. Originally I got no shipping notice so yesterday I created a trouble ticket with oculus and in about two hrs I got a process and shipping confirmation.

Has anyone tried the rift with vorpx? I'm more interested in playing old classics like bioshock or skyrim in vr, maybe even the division.

vorpx hasn't been updated to work with the CV1 yet, but it should be "soon".
 

viveks86

Member
pCARS update for anyone interested:

Hey guys, It's going pretty crazy over here in "get all this stuff done and out there" land, and I wish I had solid answers for you on all your questions, but I don't. Here's what we have so far:

The version we released on the Oculus Store is the base Project CARS game plus all DLC up to this point. We will patch it up to full GOTY version for free once the final DLC is live. So what you buy/get on Oculus Store is the full GOTY version.

What we are pushing for is to give Oculus Store keys to those customers who's purchased the same on Steam. So, if you've either purchased the base game and all DLC, or you buy the upcoming GOTY version on Steam, then you will get a complimentary key for the Oculus Store version. The final call is with our publisher, but we feel that this is a very fair scenario and expect that they will agree.

We don't know yet the exact logistics of how we'll manage to verify the required purchases, but are working on it with Valve, and pushing as much as we can so that we can have it all in place as soon as possible. This has been ongoing for months, so not something we just left to the last minute. Now that it's all 'live', I expect us to have a wrap-up very soon on this.

As far as the game on Steam goes - We will be patching it up to the same level, feature and bug fixes wise, as the Oculus Store level. This will take a little time obviously as there's a lot to port back over, test, etc. The work we've put into the VR support has been extensive. We've had a sub-team working on this for a few months to ensure that it's a proper, polished VR experience in all aspects. So don't feel too bad if you're tempted to support the team by buying it again on Oculus Store if you can't wait for the Steam update.

I will post updates to the above as and when we receive them.

...And yes, shadows are fully working, and pretty darn sweet if I say so myself.

And for those still not seeing shadows on a DK2 (Oculus store version):

And the answer to my own question is that the shadows are fully supported with DK2. Near camera clip plane value in Virtual settings menu (NearZ in oculussettings.xml) affects shadows in cockpit. The default 0.045 is too high. Changing that to 0.005 fixed the problem and the shadows are now visible in all views. It may not be the best figure in the long run since the small values were supposed to cause problems with textures in older versions of pCARS.

Too high value such as 0.200 removed the shadows from external views too, so the effect of NearZ is not limited just to internal cams. But anyways, I think I'm off to virtual wonderland now.
 
Nice impressions, man!



Apparently that's where the game falls short. It never gets challenging enough, according to reviews I've seen. But otherwise, it seems like this is the best new game in the launch lineup. Totally lost any interest I had in Adr1ft.



I really wish they had more tunable settings. Resolution scaling alone is a bit disappointing. I wonder if we can still directly tweak INI files like the original game.

Any plans of getting project cars?

I plan on waiting to see if my Steam versions of Assetta Corsa and Dirt Rally get updated for CV1 first. I also lost interest in Adr1ft. Ethan Carter fills its spot of a pretty fps game very well.

Shame to hear about Lucky, and when I play Chronos more I will share my thoughts. Still hoping to get some more funds to pick up a couple more things in the next day or two.
 
I spent a few hours with this last night, here's some basic impressions:

I think the headset itself is very good. The FOV might be smaller than the DK2, but that's not how it feels. I was using the DK2 up until a couple of weeks ago, and I don't notice a step down. The lens distortion/flare stuff is noticeable, but it's really only distracting for me with white-on-black menu stuff. IN games, it hasn't been an issue (though this might be a factor of which games I playing).

I played Chronos, Lucky's Tale, and some Eve. Of the three, Lucky's Tale is my current favorite. It's nothing super novel, and yeah it could be done outside of VR, but it looks good and plays well, and the VR does add to it.

Chronos is interesting, and might be the best actual game of the launch, but I only played 20-30 minutes of it, so I'm not far enough in. I'm not sure how I feel about the fixed camera stuff. I can understand the reasons for the decision, but it causes occasional problems in terms of being able to see obstacles or enemies that I don't like.

Eve looks good, but I really prefer Elite (I've played a lot of that on my DK2, but haven't tried it with the CV1 yet). It feels sort of shallow.

I want to try more third person, table-top style stuff, which surprises me. Before I got this, I thought I'd primarily enjoy it for cockpit style stuff, but Lucky's Tale and some of the stuff GB showed off really got me interested in the games where it looks like you're controlling miniatures.

I've got a Vive coming next week (hopefully), which will be great because I do think motion controls and room scale will add a whole new dimension to this, and can't wait to try that out.

Can you please make a mini review of the hud and text readability in Elite when you play it ?

Thanks.
 
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