Virtual Reality Headsets

[MarkB]

The Oculus Rift is extremely popular with players of Elite Dangerous, which fully supports VR headsets. Those who've made the change say that the difference in the experience makes it pretty much impossible to go back to playing it on a conventional monitor.

It's still a very expensive option - aside from the headset itself, you need a top-of-the-line PC to run it, and since you won't be able to see the keyboard you're pretty much obliged to invest in a HOTAS (joystick-and-throttle) set-up as well - but today's top-of-the-line PC is next year's standard gaming rig, so it will only become more affordable.

 

[Cergorach]

but today's top-of-the-line PC is next year's standard gaming rig

I wish...
Let's say that a GTX980 was top of the line in September 2014 (going with a Titan X is when you have to much money), today that card is still €500+. Nine months later the GTX980Ti was released (today still €700), but it did increase performance to about 20%-35%, which is quite extreme imho (most advances aren't that drastic, that soon). The problem here is that I honestly don't know how much better it performs when looking at VR. The Oculus needs 90fps, not on average, minimum (to mitigate the puking). No video card in production can do that on high/ultra settings with modern games. You don't want to turn down the resolution, need a minimum of 90fps, that means you need to down the settings, don't know how far or how well modern cards handle that.

According to the wikipedia page there currently 85+ games available that are compatible with the dev version of the Rift, that's a LOT for a product that was made for developers. If your using third party tools like VorpX, that goes to 150+ with many extremely popular PC titles. When the Oculus releases, expect a ratrace of devs making their games compatible with the VR products.

Games like Elite: Dangerous have it, but Star Citizen is currently not that interested because they already made off with your millions... Every other spacesim game is going to have to compete with Elite: Dangerous, they better have VR support. The same goes for just about every other genre in PC gaming that benefits from a VR headset.

 

[trappedslider]

I've tried it at a museum expo. Great stuff that gives a whole new visual experience.

I can't see it going mainstream for TV/film watching. One head set per person instead of one TV for everyone? Nope. Plus I like to be able to see people's face when I make sarcastic remarks. Google's cardboard is an interesting concept. It turn your phone into a VR head set. It could make short vids accessable to the general public and make it more mainstream. But I can't see it more mainstream than that.

I do see gamers using it. Gaming is more of a solo thing and this actually adds to the gaming experience.

You left out the porn industry, that will bring in users as well

 

[Cergorach]

You left out the porn industry, that will bring in users as well

Ding! Ding! Ding! Or should that be: Dong!

 

[Vagabond234]

It looks like two top dogs for now - Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. But Apple is coming in too and so is Playstation. Microsoft has Hololens. The future is looking bright!

 

[Jhaelen]

Hololens is purely AR, not VR. Vive is indeed currently the strongest competitor for the Rift. We'll see which turns out to be the best...

 

[CapnZapp]

Since both are essentially at version 1 right now, none?