I received my vive last friday and just want to share my first impressions here because I think VR could be relevant for Battlescape in the future.
Setup:
The initial setup is quite a hassle, there are endless baggies with cables in the vive box, but alsmost every cable is used. Once I finished placing the lighthouses and plugging in the hmd the rest went really smooth though. The software is quite good.
Comfort:
The headset is quite heavy, even with perfect strap adjustments you still feel in pressing on your face and pulling you down a bit. At first I thought the abscense of integrated audio is not a big deal, but it honestly would be easier to use with it.
Visual quality:
The fov is at first a little dissappointing if you use VR the first time, but thats quickly forgotten. The resolution is acceptable, in “the lab” the resolution is not something you have to complain about, but when using elite dangerous you will wish it was more pixels. The screendoor effect is still there, but it is not bothersome in most situations. Then there is the glare from the fresnel lenses, it is never a problem and only really noticeable in elite dangerous, but its really no problem.
Tracking:
Roomscale is freaking amazing, I can’t believe oculus didn’t think this was a priority. It makes all the difference, the ability to crouch and look at the ground up close or walk trough your space is mindblowing. The tracking is really solid, even with my less than perfect sensor placement I have fantastic results. The controllers are absolutly neccessary for good VR gaming that doesnt involve driving or flying.
Gameplay:
Everything I played so far in VR was amazing, I would even say that VR roomscale gaming isn’t even gaming, its more virtual activities. Flying spaceships, jets or driving cars is really incredible in VR, once I tried it I can’t really go back to driving on a screen, there is no comparison - its just that immersive.
Side effects:
The first timenI played VR a long time I had to get used to reality again, I was afraid I would bump into stuff because in VR you can obviously walk through things.
Conclusion:
VR is not just a gimmic like 3dTV, it definitly will be a big part of gaming, I don’t think it will replace traditional gaming, playing Rainbow Six Siege with mouse and keyboard still has its merits. But for any type of cockpit simulation users will probably all prefer playing in VR, this difference in fun is comparable to playing project cars with keyboard instead of force feedback driving wheel.
I hope the Battlescape devs will strongly consider integrating OpenVr into Battlescape once the userbase is bigger. As far as know the rift sold over 300.000 units, most games that aren’t complete shit are already considered must haves to most VR users.