I made a deal with my son on getting all A's through middle school and it looks like he is going to make it. He has decided his prize is an Oculus Quest VR.

I am a bit skeptical. I understand you are required to have a Bookface account, which we don't allow him to currently have and I'm not particularly interested in letting him have one.

Also are there a lot of games for this? Is it something be will care about for a month then ignore it?

Amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

I got one Quest2 for one of my boys for graduating high school (in a few months) with honors.
This has to be one of the coolest gaming experiences I’ve ever had. I was playing a sword game and was convinced that I was in a coliseum fighting the bad guys.

Something else cool is that you can WiFi it to another PC so that others can watch on the monitor what the player is seeing.

Re: Facebook. Don’t worry about that. We just created him a completely bogus account just for gaming. Facebook wants access to your ‘friends’ so it can try to find other players to compete against. Whatever, nothing to worry about with a bogus account. We tied to to a bogus GMail as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
... Oculus Quest VR.

I am a bit skeptical. I understand you are required to have a Bookface account, ...

No surprise there: Oculus is owned by Facebook.

Given Facebook's history, a wouldn't have a device produced under their aegis in my home.

Does it require a PC or is it a stand alone machine

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
Does it require a PC or is it a stand alone machine

I asked my son and he said it is designed to be like a “standalone Xbox”. You can stream the video to a PC if you want to, but a PC is not required.

Thank you!

It is 100% stand alone and and that is the biggest selling point and a game changer.

It is absolutely amazing but at the end of the day VR will always be an ancillary experience.

There are some great games. Gun Club VR is fun, Arizona Sunshine is great. Robo Recall is awesome. Fun to both shoot, grab, throw and tear stuff off robots. There are more but those are my high points.

Aside from games some of the VR video is cool, there is a killer app that is basically VR google earth and it’s amazing to plop yourself places or go to places you’ve lived and set different dates to see how it’s changed etc.

Again it will always be a side experience but what it does it does well.

Keep in mind the certain type of “movement” in games may require an acclimation period or cause motion sickness. I DONT get motion sickness but early on even I got a little queasy it’s because you are “moving” but your brain is like how come out legs are not working and it gets a little weird.

Also best advice I can give and say it with me now. “THE TABLE IS NOT THERE!! THE TABLE IS NOT THERE!!! THE TABLE IS NOT THERE!!!!” Trust me on this. You play a game of virtual pool or ping ping pong you best keep this phrase in your head.

Bought a Quest for my kid about 6 months ago. The only bad part is the facebook account.. Just set up a fake one. Make it realistic though, as in a plausible name and background account because I read that if Facebook catches it and deletes it, you're boned on that account if you have any game purchases or whatever through it. SO basically a. make up a fake email account, then use the fake email to make a fake facebook account if you really don't want facebook to easily keep tabs on the account.

As for the hardware, there are two ways of using it.
A. as a standalone VR game or entertainment headset.
B. As a input/output device hooked up to a PC.

The benefits of A are that you can play VR games/movies anywhere at any time. No computer attachment is needed as long as the built in wifi can connect to the Internet. You can watch Netflix, play downloadable Oculus games, etc. The only issue is that the battery life is only going to be a couple hours as without plugging it into a charger.

The benefits of B are that if you have a gaming PC, you can play those fancy-graphics Tier-1 VR PC games through the headset too. When hooked to the PC and the software installed the headset becomes like a special 3d VR monitor and input device. To use it with the PC, you simply need to buy a high-quality long USB C cable (You don't have to buy the expensive Oculus branded one albeit, it is a NICE cable and most likely to just work). Supposedly you can connect it to the PC strictly through wifi too with some work, but the output quality and lag will not be as nice as a directly connect PC because of the more limited bandwidth. The other benefit is that by being connected to the PC through USB, it is always charging so the battery doesn't run out.

The only slight negatives of the initial hardware are in my opinion: a. the ear speakers are just "OK" sounding b. the stretchy headband isn't great, especially if multiple people are going to be using it since it doesn't adjust easy.

Also watching a movie IN A MOVIE THEATER from your couch is kinda cool. Not something you want to do often but amazing how your brain will be absolutely convinced you are in a theater. Until you try to put your drink in the chair holder.....that’s not really there.

Pardon the slight thread drift, but it's a question I've always wanted to ask... how the heck can you see anything that close to your face? I know my eyes haven't been able to focus on anything that close in a long, long, long time, and even when they would, there was considerable eye strain.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
Pardon the slight thread drift, but it's a question I've always wanted to ask... how the heck can you see anything that close to your face? I know my eyes haven't been able to focus on anything that close in a long, long, long time, and even when they would, there was considerable eye strain.

The mask plays a 360 degree trick on your brain. The perspective is really quite amazing.

I recently bought a QUest 2 and love it. I have the PSVR and its also a good device but going cordless is a great upgrade and the ability to move without wires is fantastic. The game library is pretty good and they run sales pretty regularly. As well, traveling with it is far easier as there is way less crap to tote around vs the PSVR. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. Just be aware a quest 3 may be on the horizon but I haven't really looked into the difference.

I have the 64GB version and it seems like plenty of space but it is not upgradeable to you are stuck with the memory you choose. Again I have plenty of space with 64gb and I have a few games loaded up at once.

I too hate Facebook and don't have one however I created a burner account, if I can do it I'm sure your kid can. This way when they get breached or spill my data for money its none of my actual stuff. Highly recommended.

quote:

I have the 64GB version and it seems like plenty of space but it is not upgradeable to you are stuck with the memory you choose. Again I have plenty of space with 64gb and I have a few games loaded up at once.

This is the version I got my son. He actually recommended NOT spending the extra money and said he’d wait to spend the big money after the next generation of hardware comes out. We have the “Oculus 2” which just came out in Oct 2020.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:


The mask plays a 360 degree trick on your brain. The perspective is really quite amazing.

But the screen is still inches from your eyes. I just keep picturing a very blurry virtual world. lol

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
Pardon the slight thread drift, but it's a question I've always wanted to ask... how the heck can you see anything that close to your face? I know my eyes haven't been able to focus on anything that close in a long, long, long time, and even when they would, there was considerable eye strain.

The lenses in the goggles shift the focal point out in the distance. You’re not focused 1 inch in front of your eyes. I get eye strain reading on my computer all day but absolutely no eye strain after a 4 hour vr session. And yes, motion sickness is a problem at first.

Yep, you get over the motion sickness after a playthrough or two. Just don't do what I did, first time in VR, I chased a tiefighter in loops around a capital ship. I didn't puke but I thought long and hard about it. Ease into your first few and you should be fine.

Storage capacity wise remember you can upload and download to your headset so unless you want to play 80 games all at once I don't see a lot of use unless you are on a road trip with limited access to wifi or games get bigger in size. Standard game size is 2-5gb.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:


The mask plays a 360 degree trick on your brain. The perspective is really quite amazing.

But the screen is still inches from your eyes. I just keep picturing a very blurry virtual world. lol

I get where you are coming from and it makes little sense from the outside looking in. Once you try it you realize that the way the images are displayed are small enough and create depth of field that your brain is fooled instantly. Think View Master SORT OF. that presented images directly up to your eyes and you saw them fine.

And by fooled when I say “THE TABLE IS NOT THERE!!!” I mean it. I have seen numerous folks take a tumble when they lean on a table or wall or whatever that is not there. These are smart, normal, common sense having adults and they KNOW none of it is real but the brain at least subconsciously doesn’t. It’s really amazing.

Robo recall is a good example. The first time I played I just kept looking around at the massive cityscape around me. Or looking down from a high building and staying away from the edge.

I remember EARLY VR in the way back and I never enjoyed it. Now with wireless devices it’s kinda amazing. Again, ancillary and you don’t want to spend HOURS in VR but for short experiences it’s awesome.

Just remember “THE TABLE IS NOT THERE!!!!” . Truth be told I’ve personally never leaned on the table but I have “leaned on the wall” for cover and has a small stumble.

Also the reason many VR games/experiences use “teleport” as a method of movement or default to it is that your brain handles “warping” from point to point and simply looking around far better then the more “normal FPS movement”. The motion sickness comes from your brain thinking “hey wait a minute we are walking/moving but my feet’s aren’t moving and my inner ear isn’t swishing SOMETHING IS WRONG!!! .

For most folks it’s just an acclimation period. For others they HAVE to use teleport mechanics or they will get sick.

The whole illusion of it is extremely interesting and it really drives home how your brain subconsciously works to fill in gaps or problems. It’s like that reading test where words are missing letters but your brain compensates instantly. Similar in VR when you are holding a “sword” or “pistol”. Your brain sort of instantly goes “ok I have gun”. It doesn’t feel like a gun, weigh like a gun but by God you have a gun. (Now of course this can’t be used for practical training or instruction beyond sort of an interactive viewing of how a firearm functions but from a sheer fun standpoint, by god you are going full John Wick/John Woo.

Two handed weapons like rifles tend to break the illusion though mostly due to the lack of a shoulder mounting sensation.