Was vaguely interested in buying this, but I note that it still requires Origin to play. So... nah.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 were great when I played them years ago on the PS3. Fond memories. And if EA ever comes to their senses and ditch their useless launcher (at least when bought on Steam), I'll be throwing money at them again for titles like this.

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Quoting: drlamb

Quoting: LordDaveTheKindI would definitely buy and play it, if I wasn't kind of sensitive to horror and gore :sick:

Horror isn't my thing either. How I ever completed Amnesia the dark descent in High school I'll never understand. Much like Amnesia Rebirth isn't as scary as TDD, REVIII is not as scary as REVII. I could barely stomach 30 minutes in REVII and yet I've played hours of REVIII on Stadia. It is a really easy horror game with some jump scares thrown in to keep you on your toes.

If Google wasn't giving away a free Stadia Premiere edition with REVIII I likely would've ordered it on Steam. Hopefully an FOV slider gets added to all platforms soon.

The FOV is brutal. I was getting slightly queasy watching FuryForge playing it on Twitch. Lovely looking game too, such a shame it's like watching it through a telescope.

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I love that this is playable straight out of the box now (presumably), but I just went to take a look on Steam and not only is it a cool £65, it's also hampered by Denuvo DRM. I can stomach the former, but I don't buy anything related to the latter, so it's a no from me.

Game looks great too, although I've watched a couple of Twitch streams on it and while it's very pretty, everyone's main complaint is that it's trivially easy. I wonder if they'll add in a hard mode after you complete the game, perhaps?

But as long as it has Denuvo, I ain't touching it.

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I really love the look of this, but waiting another year will feel like torture. I'm sure you'll cover it via a release article and when you do, it's an insta-buy for me!

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Quoting: PiddlyDYou're on the initial "wow" of it - but the practical realities of it mean that unless you have an entire room to basically dedicate to VR gaming - it is too much of a hassle currently - especially when the novelty of the games wear off.

I had a friend try to sell me on it several years ago. I bought a boatload of retro FPGA devices instead with the money I would have spent on VR.

Personally, I think VR is the 3D TV of PC gaming. It initially impresses, but after a while, you'll find that traditional gaming is still far more convenient, accessible, affordable, and enjoyable.

Maybe for some, but certainly not for me. I'm well over the wow-period, but I still love VR. You don't need a big room at all. I have a tiny place space and still managed Alyx without any bother.

In fact, the three games I play most now in "standing" VR are Beat Sabre, BoxVR and more recently Groove Gunner - and all three are literally "just stand, no movement at all". So they're very well suited to tiny spaces.

The other type of VR, my favourite, I think, is "sitting VR", which is what I use for Elite, Overload and Automobilista 2 (although I've hardly played the latter because it's too realistic a game to be played on a gamepad... it really needs a wheel).

Sitting VR is incredible. I don't even use the Index controllers - just mouse+kbd while wearing the headset. But it's incredible. Truly can't be overstated how much better cockpit games are in VR. You couldn't even say it's 1000x better - it's way more, a completely new, just amazing experience altogether.

Still agree with a lot of the naysayers though. And this puts the lie to your 3D TV analogy - VR isn't a replacement for my monitor and probably never will be. Whereas 3D TV was a layer on top of a normal TV, VR is a completely new way of playing, interacting with and experiencing your games.

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Quoting: Beamboom

Quoting: scaine

Quoting: orochi_kyoIt is a matter of time the converts get bored of preaching this new uncomfortable new belief to get back to their old religion. Happens almost every time.

Are you seriously comparing a next generational, niche, and groundbreaking technology (VR) to gaming on the go (mobile) and claiming that mobile gaming is the future?

Whenever the topic is VR there's always guys like these who for some reason have this urge to "call us out" for being so wrong and disillusioned. It's even unclear to me why they are so eager to tell us, but I have come to the conclusion that it simply must be plain old envy kicking in.

I just leave them be. They only tend to get more extreme if their opinions are challenged in a dialogue.

To be fair, it's pretty easy to become quite passionate about VR and get all fired up by it, claiming that it will change the world... so it's easy to see why some people want to counter that a bit. We're eager to shout about it from the rooftops, so they're eager to note that they're not "buying the coolaid". Fair enough, really. We're both right, from our own perspectives.

I'd love it to change the world, but as Liam notes in his article, it'll need to be cheaper, lighter and ideally wireless, before it can make serious inroads. And even when it does, it'll still be tied to a powerful PC.

But think in terms of decades and it does get quite exciting, I reckon. The first PCs back in the early 90's were like fridges and had the processing power of an overpriced calculator. Thirty years later, we carry super-computers in our pockets and the battery lasts nearly 3 days.

VR will evolve more slowly, being niche, but it's still exciting to think that this kind of technology might become truly wireless, affordable and as light as a pair of glasses within our lifetimes.

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Quoting: orochi_kyoOne of the oldest selling arguments used in the market is when the salesman or saleswoman tells you if you heard people don't like this or that is because they didn't try it and if they did they didn't try it enough.

Again Liam used it here.
It seems people who don't like pasta are because they haven't eaten enough quantity of pasta.
Or People who don't like Baseball is because they haven't played enough hours.
Or if people do not like this product is because they haven't used it enough.

Despite VR is expensive it is not hard to find a mall or a videogame store without VR devices in an exhibition, so I think maybe, just maybe, people actually tried enough, and even if they like they see it as some sort of device one would be using for a few days then going back to easier to access experiences, not talking about money, but the fact that taking a cellphone/joystick in your hands is WAY EASIER than strapping things to your hands or head.

So maybe people had their VR time and they found it doesn't worth 1000$ plus a good enough PC yet, even if this thing gets as low as 100$, playing on mobile will still be easier. At least in mobile gaming, Linux is the world leader.

The future of gaming? It is already here, it is mobile gaming.

It is a matter of time the converts get bored of preaching this new uncomfortable new belief to get back to their old religion. Happens almost every time.

Have a good day.

Are you seriously comparing a next generational, niche, and groundbreaking technology (VR) to gaming on the go (mobile) and claiming that mobile gaming is the future?

You don't like VR. Got that loud and clear. And sure, "gaming for the masses" is cheaper, more accessible and will generate more revenue. No arguments there.

But enjoying this absolutely cutting edge technology isn't about being accessible, or cheap. It's about experiencing something entirely new, things that literally cannot be experienced without high resolution, high FPS, low latency headsets with precise head tracking and hand tracking (and even finger tracking).

It's all the more laughable to me personally, since I've tried very hard to enjoy mobile gaming over the years and yet I find it a poor quality substitute every time. Even the rare cases where it works, it works better when it's NOT mobile: Kingdom Rush games are better on PC, and The Room games are better in VR. Sure, I can enjoy those games on the bus on my mobile, but I'd rather be playing them differently. Mobile gaming is convenience crossed with compromise. It has its place, and for many, it's all they care about, and that's fine.

That's not what this article is about.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyI am kind of interested in VR . . . I'm mostly curious about the idea of boxing or swordplay games where you're, you know, pretty much really doing that stuff.

But the games I actually play now I'm not sure would really be changed much by VR. Like, I'm not sure Stellaris or Civilization would be a lot different in VR.

I think Moss really showcases what tactical/2D games could be in VR - that skyhigh view, intuitive control, combined with an absolute flood of information all around you, and instead of clicking to see that information, you simply glance over to where it lives... that's pretty cool.

But I agree - is it cool enough to entice you to put the headset on, turn on the lighthouses, and set up your audio just to play in VR? I have my doubts. The chances would go up significantly if it were designed for VR from the outset, I think though.

VR has two ace features - immersion and tactile interaction. If the game makes use of those, VR is absolutely stunning. But just translating an FPS game, or a strategy game from 2D to VR... that will leave most people cold.

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Quoting: Beamboom

Quoting: scaineFinally, Liam, yeah, starting Pulseaudio often fixes crackling, but sometimes it doesn't for me. Rare, but on those occasions, I found that stopping SteamVR, then doing a systemctl --user restart pulseaudio
...will do the trick (although you'll probably have to re-select the HMD sound output again).

Interestingly enough, I do not recognise what you guys talk about here as a general issue. There's been single games where I've had audio issues, but those are few and far between and in those case I've also had severe performance issues.
And I'm thinking, could that have something to do with me having configured my system for low latency audio production?

I am running the low-latency kernel, and have elevated my priority in regards to real time scheduling. No idea if that can be of relevance at ALL, but it MIGHT be worth testing:

You will need to edit
the /etc/security/limits.conf file and add:

@audio - rtprio 90
@audio - nice -10
@audio - memlock 500000
And add your user to the audio group. You may want to tune the numerical values, but the most important point here is to grant realtime priviledges to your account.

Could be, but given that I've had audio crackling on Mint (I used the Low-Latency mainline kernel for that), Manjaro (standard kernel) and now PopOS (I'm on mainline, but normal, not low-latency), I'm guessing it's something deeper.

One clue - I also sometimes experience it with just my Bluetooth headset. I use it all day, it gets low on battery, I switch it off to recharge it, move my sound output back to my speaker - boom, crackling. It very rarely occurs the other way too - everything is fine, I power on my headset to use it, it connects and instantly everything is crackling/echoing.

So I think it's something to do with audio outputs that appear/disappear. The audio output on the Index literally doesn't exist until you run SteamVR, for example. Similarly, my Bluetooth speakers will come/go as I switch them on/off.

Wild, wild guessing though. I should probably dig into the logs to see if I can pin it down a bit.

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For the lighthouses switching on/off, I recommend you follow my little guide on the GOL forums: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/4609

I just click a button on my dash and it toggles them on/off, within about 1 second of the click. Once every few months, it can fail to toggle properly, but that's easily fixed by simply powering them off/on at the plug to get the naughty lighthouse back in sync.

Do I still play in VR after 6 months? Definitely, although mainly in cockpit mode these days - Elite, Automobilista, or Overload. It definitely feels like a slight chore to set up the room... although I bought BoxVR for some exercise, and Liam has gotten me back into playing Groove Gunner by shaming me on Discord! :grin:

Someone mentioned how amazing Elite is, but suggested you need a HOTAS. I guess that would help, but as a touch typist, I just play with mouse/keyboard and it's still an incredible experience. Like, jaw-dropping. Boosting around the outside of a carrier, or station, while looking through the upper canopy of your starship... it's just... well, clearly indescribable! :grin: A proper joystick+HOTAS would be amazing, but it's just money money money, innit!

Corben, if you have that headset issue, I also suggest you try simply unplugging the HMD using its quick release plug. Plugging it back in and restarting SteamVR seems to fix any issues I have with the headset. But tbh, I've only had HMD issues... twice? Maybe?

Finally, Liam, yeah, starting Pulseaudio often fixes crackling, but sometimes it doesn't for me. Rare, but on those occasions, I found that stopping SteamVR, then doing a systemctl --user restart pulseaudio
...will do the trick (although you'll probably have to re-select the HMD sound output again).

It'll be nice when these little issues, and the others you mention in the article, are actually addressed, because they do genuinely present a small barrier to that "can I be bothered setting it all up" factor that can see you just playing something else instead!

But a year in (for me) and I still love VR.

"No ragrets"

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