I don't know if any of you guys are interested in VR headsets or maybe own them or want to own one so I'll keep this relatively short. If you have questions I can answer I will certainly do so. I had been following the progress of Oculus for several years before the name even started being circulated and was really hyped up for it and then Zuckerberg came along and dropped a billion dollars to buy Oculus. I pretty much hate Zuckerberg/Facebook so at that point I was pretty damn disappointed because I refuse to give Zuckerberg a dime. If I could have 1 round in the Octagon with anyone, I might choose Mark Zuckerberg.
Luckily HTC Vive came along and bailed me out, at a cost of $799. (Vive released in India at a cost of U.S. $1,440 per unit)
Its pricey but the Vive is currently the top of the heap in terms of Gen 1 headsets. They are currently working on their Gen 2 which will be wireless, can't wait for that but sucks having to purchase a new one every one or two years to keep up. I have a feeling if these headsets survive into the future they are going to be like iphones and I'm going to be talking about the Gen 7's someday. Anyhow, when you purchase a Vive it comes with a headset, 2 rechargeable controllers, 2 lighthouses, and all cords you will need. When you first open the Vive it seems a bit complicated but its really not bad if you keep some key things in mind.
The first thing is you need to be able to set up a room-scale experience meaning if your computer is in an 8X8 room filled with shit you are not going to be able to function properly. There is an option to configure it for seated only but you will be very limited in which games you can select. Oculus came to the party unprepared and HTC really beat them to the punch on the room-scale experience. The Oculus didn't even release with controllers, it was seated with keyboard and mouse only. They have since been forced to upgrade in a hurry to provide a more complete experience.
Lighthouses
It comes with 2 lighthouses that look like this.
These lighthouses are what track your movement through the play area that you set up. Its a bit scary when you start reading about all the problems people have had with the proper set up on these lighthouses because if they aren't set up correctly then the Vive will not function correctly. They need to be mounted on the wall at around 7 feet high, slightly angled down to the play area. Some people complained they mounted them, then they weren't in the correct position so they had to move and remount them and they filled the room with holes, similar to filling a room with uppercuts. One solution people have come up with is to mount them on cheap tripods so they can be easily moved around.
Instead, I opted to go with the wall mount system, brackets included, that looks like this.
The lighthouses have a view angle of about 120 degrees and they have to be able to see each other in order to communicate. They don't have to be direct facing each other but that 120 degree cone has to overlap somewhat so they can communicate to one another. A basic room set up for these lighthouses would look like this.
If you are considering a Vive set up, here are some important things to plan out first.
1. Do you have enough space? Usually a minimum would be around 2X2 meters, bare minimum. I use a play area of 3 meters by 3.5 meters.
2. The lighthouses need to be mounted at a height of at least 6 feet or more or plan to buy 2 tripods to mount them to. I use the wall mounting brackets it came with.
3. Each lighthouse needs to be near a wall outlet so it can be plugged in and so you need to plan for that problem if the place you are mounting the lighthouses doesn't have the proper outlets.
4. The lighthouses communicate wirelessly but if you are having trouble getting them to sync then Vive provides a long cord to hardwire them together. Luckily I didn't have to do that.
You will also have a hub to connect everything that is two sided.
In the photo above, the right side connects to your computer, the left side connects to your headset. The connections are pretty straightforward and easy to understand. The left side is actually just one cord with 3 connectors and it goes directly to the headset. The right side is a power supply and 2 USB's that go to the computer.
This would get exceptionally long so I'm not going to cover some of the things like headset controls for focus, software, front facing camera, etc. If anyone has questions I'll try to answer those. What I do want to talk about though is the sorry ass state of the games that have been released. Since the release of these headsets in early 2016 there have been hundreds of VR titles released and 99% of them are complete shit.
Designers are throwing $5 and $10 VR games on the table left and right and most of them consist of wave shooters where you stand in one place and shoot as many of whatever it is that is the enemy until you die. You play for 30 minutes then you never play again. They are complete ass, do not buy them.
I have compiled what I believe to be the 5 most complete and awesome VR experiences currently available. In no particular order.
1. Arizona Sunshine - Zombie Apocalypse game - Currently $39.99
2. Obduction - Successor to Myst - Originally Oculus only, now available on Vive - Currently $29.99
3. A Chair in a Room, Greenwater - Horror genre - Currently $24.99
4. The Gallery, Call of the Starseed - Has a Bioshock vibe - Currently $19.99 (Was supposed to be episodic, not sure when Episode 2 is coming, if ever.)
5. The Works of Mercy - Psycho kidnaps family, forces you to kill - Not yet Released, Expected 2017
I've included the full 6 minute gameplay video they released. It looks very interesting.
That only covers the bare minimum. If any of you guys have questions about the set up, settings, software, hardware, or just the overall experience I will answer what I can. I also have purposely left out the various kinds of locomotion that designers are using.
