got a new vr headset this week and have been really enjoying seeing what's going on in the world of PC VR even though it's honestly kind of dire outside a few games.
setup: i've had an HTC vive for a while, which when it was released was Pretty Good, but has aged horribly1 and a few years ago i upgraded the controllers with a set of valve index controllers2 which made a huge difference in ergonomics, but i still couldn't really play flight simulators since the resolution made it impossible to read text.
fast forward to now: the hp reverb g2, which in flight sim communities is regarded as The Best Option is cheaper than the meta quest 2 for unclear reasons, and enough people have tried to do mixed VR setups that the process is pretty well documented. so i pulled the trigger on it, it came in tuesday, and after some brief issues with the index controllers tracking just slightly to the right of their actual location, everything has worked fucking perfectly. i can read everything! it rules! WMR is kinda bad but steamvr still works well and is necessary for the index controllers anyway!
but also: PC VR is absolutely in a dire state. beatsaber remains great3, vrchat continues to be Wild and getting some really nice technical improvements4, and beyond that it's like. there's a bunch of assorted shooters that, in some ways, feel like tech demos, and in other ways are extremely just Not For Me5. but the top singleplayer and multiplayer are pretty much the same as they were five years ago. not ideal! it feels like all the development is going towards the quest, which is fair, but it's still kind of a bummer.
anyway lmk if you wanna hang out in vrchat. i'm there, i'm gonna actually finish my mds-bestbuy world, it's gonna be great
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screen door effect is awful, the controllers are the least ergonomic shit imaginable, it is currently destined to sit on my desk and provide tracking connections for the index controllers
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a cool thing about steam VR is that you can pretty freely mix and match bits from the ecosystem, so the index controllers worked flawlessly since i already had tracking base stations
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my second favorite exercise is flailing wildly while anime OPs blast in the background
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i finally got SDK access which has been fucking great. catch me online making mizuki date from the hit video game ai: the somnium files - nirvana initiative do orange justice
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notable exceptions are half-life alyx, which i played a few years ago and loved, and the half-life 2 vr mod, which i am playing right now and is a bizarre experience that i'm really enjoying. oh also the outer wilds vr mod rules.
