HTC Vive

[Donkey]

So in a fit of drunken profligacy back in April I may just have bought myself an HTC Vive. Without telling the wife. Anyway, it turned up the other day and ... God's Cock! It is *AMAZEBALLS*. I have temporarily set it up in the living room so I am currently away from HOTAS, pedals etc... and therefore have not tried DCS. But I have tried a number of the free titles that come with it, aswell as having a little jaunt around the cockpit of my Vulture in ED. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most amazing thing I have come across in PC gaming in years. Yes, the resolution is a bit meh when you compare to the 1080p+ screens we are all used to nowadays, and yes, there is a bit of a screen-door effect. But that all kind of pales into insignificance. You are *in* the game. It is truly amazing.

I'll have a pop at DCS over the next few days and let you know how it feels - but I expect great things!

[Bunny]

I keep telling myself, next gen, just wait for the next gen

Tell me, how well can you make out controls and dials?

[Goat]

Keep talking... the suspense is killing me.....

[Donkey]

Next gen will be better in terms of resolution, granted - but you may well be waiting a while. And you'll still be tethered to the PC for at least another couple of revisions given the amount of info that has to be sent to the HMD.

So, dials etc. Not tried DCS yet (plan to do that at the weekend) so I can't tell you with regards to an aircraft cockpit - but the few youtubers who have tried it out report that dials are pretty good and legible. ED has a known issue with text being fuzzy and various other blurring issues in the Vive when compared to the Rift - but that's apparantly going to be fixed in ED 2.1. Having said that, when I was walking(!) around my Vulture cockpit last night I found it easy enough to read everything.

The best exepriences I have had with it so far are: Tilt brush (which is just brilliant), The Blu (enormous Blue Whale! That made the missus shriek I can tell you.. !) and Vanishing Realms (Alpha game in steam, I got to fight a skeleton last night. In a dungeon. With a sword. I'm pretty sure I shat myself a little bit.) Oh, and Minecraft. That's pretty awesome in VR.

I know Colander is currently working on Rift integration for CloD, and I am hoping he will do it in OpenVR as it then *should* be cross compatible with the Vive. If / when he does it CloD is going to be jaw-dropping. Provided the dials are legible.

[Geordie]

I'm wanting to try this when I get a vive.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/450540/

[Goat]

I just can't believe you have enough self control to not say ”fuck work today... I'll live in the VR for the next 16 hours.”

Which GPU do you have?

[Donkey]

I was tempted, believe me... But then again I was tempted to say "fuck work" before the Vive turned up too.

I'm running 2 GTX 970s in SLI.

[Kondor]

Hell, if I bought ~€1000 worth of gaming device without getting CO/ wife's permission, no blue whale would help me...

[Donkey]

Ah well, she doesn't actually know how much it cost and is (hopefully) not interested enough to look it up.*




*If ever I stop posting on the forums and turning up for campaigns you will know that she finally did look it up. Along with all of the other "cheap" stuff I've snuck in over the years...

[Donkey]

Ok, so I finally got to try out my Vive with FSX, DCS and ED this evening. It's brilliant, immersive and jaw dropping ... but, if I am honest, the resolution is not high enough to really (really) wow. Sure, everything is more than playable - but you have to lean in to really make out the instruments without any issues. Having said all that, it's a hell of an experience and it really *is* like flying a real aircraft (including spatial disorientation and feeling a bit sick...). I flew into one of the old airports I did some of my PPL flights out of years ago and I was there, really there. With bad eyesight.

I do not regret buying it, it is amazing. But flight sims could really do with a few more pixels and less screen-door effect.