Oculus (Meta) Quest 2

[Zimmerframe]

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I was really into computers .. and then computer games. Rather worryingly, I just worked out that the games thing probably started about 38 years ago, which might call for a beer whilst my brain contemplates that.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to play with a friends development Oculus Rift and play around with several development games. I have to say, this really stuck with me as it was bloody good fun, very sweaty and a bit damaging to several items of furniture (it was a dev unit).

Now, you can get an Oculus Quest - which is all combined (sadly needs an evil Facebook account and I don't do Facebook) - in Cabin land there is no super computer PC with a Graphics card which could double as a home heater.

Anyway, this does look like it could be fun, but as a mad man who spends most of his time cutting and splitting wood at the moment, I'm trying to work out if I'll actually use it, or will I have grown out of it ? Anyone got one ? Use one ?

EDIT : was even more boring before edit ..

 

[Zimmerframe]

Well ... it's winter .. lockdown's seem to come and go .... Virtual life it is !!

After it didn't come yesterday because they couldn't find me .. I took a break from wood splitting and wondered upto the farm .. it arrived 2 minutes later ! Lady luck was shining today ..

Looks cool ..

You stick the app on your phone and then bluetooth to that (it does that fortunately, so it's not like the shimano hardship).. Stick the thing on your head - take it off again to pull the black battery savers out of the handsets .. stick it on again .. pick up your controllers - which is really freaky as it knows where they are as you look around for them , so you can pick them up without actually seeing them .. Set your IPD (move the lenses apart to fit your eye width). Connect to wifi using a giant virtual keyboard .. then let it update ..

Once that's done .. Get back on your phone and select a game .. I've gone for Superhot as that's the demo game I played years ago ..

Stick it back on and your in some virtual setup world where you set the floor height .. draw a safe area out with an augmented reality display (real and pretend overlaid) .. then you're in your virtual home with big screen to set things up ... where you can also search and buy games ..

Then, take the dog for a walk as he's a bit confused by your weird, arm out, zombie roamings and that's the limit of your attention span

Edit : some tips ..

First, go into settings and device, select hands and enable hand tracking ..

You can then browse around the settings and surf the net, without the controllers - just your hands .. pinch to click and pinch and hold to scroll ..

Then scroll down to experimental ..

Enable double tap pass through ..

So if you want to see outside of virtual quickly , just double tap the left or right of the unit and you can see !

If you don't like a game you've bought, and you've played less than 2 hours and it's less than 2 weeks since you bought it, you can go on the phone app, select the game, click "request refund"

 

[Beezerk]

I had a go on one in Oz last year, played a boxing game which was really good, then tried that walking the plank thing and absolutely shit myself ????
Impressive stuff, I'll get one for my PS5 when next gen comes out for it.

 

[Nicho]

After it didn't come yesterday

I am not surprised it came late if the couriers there deliver things by tractor.

 

[Zimmerframe]

I am not surprised it came late if the couriers there deliver things by tractor.

That was express delivery ! Normally it comes by cow, with the milk.

It's -8 here (forecast -2) so used that as an excuse to avoid log splitting for an hour ..

Popped into Virtual land ! Tried the "tutorial" .. it said 2 hours so I was avoiding it, but 20 minutes gets you through !

WOW ! It's NUTS ! To be able to look around in every direction and see screen is just weird. Higher definition, clearer and no motion sickness so far with higher refresh rates - all compared to the dev Rift version - and no need for a fancy PC (though you can use it with that too).

The hand tracking, with and without the controllers is incredible. point, punch, grab, move. It's just quirky how accurately it tracks (I wonder if there's a bike frame spray and sanding game.....) . Pick up a table tennis bat, and a ball, bounce them around .. Pick up a virtual remote and fly a virtual blimp .. put a cartridge into a virtual console game and then play shooting things with virtual guns which you pick up, hold, point ... it's just weird !!

Was about the head out and chop wood but noticed, typing this, that my hands have temporarily miss aligned from my head so better have a cup of tea first as I'm not yet safe for the real world ..

 

[Zimmerframe]

Well .. we're a couple of weeks in to the weird VR world of Quest 2 ..

I hoping there will be some more VR muppets here at some point to help with game choice !!

I'm a big believer in that you can get a huge amount from life by just doing more and pushing yourself. MTB is one of those things.

It also makes things like VR gaming a little harder to adjust to I think. We're used to 100% real life adrenaline rush, fun, exploring, learning, controlling, reacting, "multiplayer" experiences and then all the behind the scenes knobbing about with upgrades and choosing new crap which generally won't make any difference whatsoever - but it's part of it !

VR gaming is that, but different - it's not real for starters ! It's way cheaper and unless you play outside, which I'm considering as then you can play "roomscale" - then the weather doesn't affect it.

Game wise, I've always been a gamer, but haven't had time for the last 10 years or so.

Superhot VR is great .. but the main game I was through in a couple of hours if that.

Contractors looked like it would be cool, but felt clumsy and like a 2000's third person game which had been modded for 1st person.

Vader Immortal has great graphics and the vertigo from ladder climbing is excellent. But the "Puzzles"? are just opening doors and aren't puzzles but are just there to get you to interact with the story. Really is nicely presented, but its basically you in a star wars spin off for 30 minutes .. yes .. then it's done. The light saber dojo is fun, but the setups not accurate for re-bounding blaster fire - it's more for kids I guess ... younger kids !

The actual system is truly incredible .. You do feel like you're standing and moving in a 360 degree world .. huge screens of youtube is like watching youtube in the cinema. emtbforums through the browser is just enormous !

Struggling to find games which are captivating/value for the short attention span oap adrenaline junkie though ...

 

[Zimmerframe]

Uhmmm ....

The more time that goes by the more this is looking like a steaming pile of crap

The system is great, the hand control, the motion controllers, the visual system, the tracking ... Even the fact that they squeeze all of that into a self contained unit. OK, the graphics are nothing like a high end PC and connecting that to the headset, but it's basically a cheap android phone with two weird screens and lots of clever bits attached.

However, the games just seem to be severely lacking. The movement systems are generally jerky, crap, unnatural - it's like dropping back 20 years when we entered the zone of expensive crap games with pretty graphics but awful game play. Maybe it's just carried on from there.

Whilst the system seems to track the hands perfectly, and some games like Superhot track your movements and hands, aiming and so on perfectly, other games you might as well just flop about pissed and you'd probably progress the same as half the games seem more interested in just carrying you through a story rather than actually having any skills or ability.

If being a bumbling inept moron and being rewarded for it is your thing .. this could be for you !

There must be more than one decent game on this damned thing ! - though even finding them is a hellish experience due to abysmal choice and recommendation systems, absolutely crap demo systems and search routines which are entirely pointless. I can only guess that after suckyberg got involved looking at how unintuitive the whole setup is.... and then sacked the guy who created it (Probably because he complained that it sucked).

Finding relevant reviews is virtually impossible because everyone just sucks it up to facebook so they get the chance to do more reviews.

Cleaning Mud off tyres is starting to look far more captivating ..

 

[Rahr85]

Beat Saber. It's the most fun indoor aerobic activity possible.

I dabbled in VR but pc based with the rift during lockdown last year. Between beat saber and racing sims (using a wheel + pedals) it was awesome. The only real benefit a quest would have had for me would be no wire getting in the way during beat saber.

I couldn't do any game that requires the controllers to move you around, motion sickness kicks in hard. Proper room scale would be good but i never had the space to do it properly.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Beat Saber. It's the most fun indoor aerobic activity possible.

I've been considering Beat Saber. I discounted it at the start as I just thought it was some dancing game It looks pretty cool.


I was toying with Pistol Whip too and set that downloading this morning .. just had a quick go .. by default you have one gun but it has a semi auto aim to make life easy. Found an option "Dead Eye" where there's no auto aim and you get penalty's for missing ... seemed really really hard !! BRILLIANT !

 

[Rahr85]

I think beat saber shines best on the pc because of the modding community and the ability to just add hundreds of your own choice of music. There's even some fairly clever AI that can generate a map (results vary) from youtube videos. Beat Sage: Custom Beat Saber Level Generator

But it's still good on the quest and the 360 maps must be more fun without worrying about getting all tangled up.

 

[Zimmerframe]

how’s that virtual porn for ya Zimmerframe?? I bet it’s nice to feel like there’s really a 30cm phallic thing at your reach. He he he

I'm a bit old school and boring, if I did try virtual porn, I'd go for the one where there was boobies and things. But don't let me put you off enjoying what works for you.

Actually, it would probably be virtual trail rides, but I can pretend to myself ...

 

[Zimmerframe]

I think beat saber shines best on the pc because of the modding community and the ability to just add hundreds of your own choice of music. There's even some fairly clever AI that can generate a map (results vary) from youtube videos. Beat Sage: Custom Beat Saber Level Generator

But it's still good on the quest and the 360 maps must be more fun without worrying about getting all tangled up.

Just had another quick go on Pistol Whip . Turned on two guns and turned off the dead eye once I noticed the score is based on how accurate you were, so the auto aim helps knock out the targets but doesn't just mean you make a perfect shot. Was fun and hard, both as a challenge and physically with moving around to dodge bullets, pillars and so on.

Will give Beat Sabre a go over the weekend when I get a spare moment - sounds like a good recommendation !!!

 

[Zimmerframe]

I was looking at the Steam VR the other week.

I haven’t played games much in 6 or so years. Me and all the sniper instructors used to play arma. It’s a military gaming engine and what’swesome is the bullet drop is calibrated for each weapon system/bullet. So for those of us who have military Ammo/weapons memorized it’s pretty fun and quick to smoke some dudes at distance.

You can use the Quest 2 with a PC and Steam VR, I think the rift is being discontinued as the Quest 2 does the same. The Graphics look amazing using a Quest 2 with a PC.

There's a game called "Onward" on Quest & Steam. I've not tried it as I can't be bothered investing the time in getting into the game at the moment to be honest, I'm a bit out off because "contractors" was so crap The movement system looks a bit lacking on Onward, but I guess you get used to it.

It looks pretty cool though.

 

[SquireRides]

Dunno if it runs on the Quest, but Alyx was the first VR game I played that made me think yaaaaaaaays this is what VR is all about. Until then the most fun i had with my Dell WMR headset was Google Earth and Steam's VR Lab.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Dunno if it runs on the Quest, but Alyx

Sadly not directly at the moment .. that would be on my list as an old fan of Half Life. Needs a PC to run on still .

 

[Jackware]

After reading this thread, this appeared in my YT suggestions...

 

[Zimmerframe]

Yup, I'm still in VR .. not like you other old school gamers on your weird antique flat TV screens ...

Sorry @Rahr85 - still haven't got round to trying beat saber ! Maybe this weekend !

Did download "The Thrill of the Fight" yesterday out of curiosity. Had good consistent reviews and for €9.99 felt like I couldn't go wrong for a play about. Simple cartoony graphics but fun and weirdly challenging !

Basically a boxing game. There's a training area with a heavy bag, slam man and speedball which are pretty effective for a quick workout

Had a couple of fights .. You need to setup quite a big area, I might play outside next to avoid smashing the house to bits. Each time I come out of it the rug I've put down as my play zone looks like it's had the dog running and sliding on it as it's normally halfway across the room.

Here's a quick clip starting at the beginning of a fight .. (not me). It's knackering !

Thrill of the fight

 

[Zimmerframe]

The Thrill of the fight should come with a health warning. My Shoulders, Triceps and Side obliques are absolutely wrecked.

You can check your stats after a fight .. I seem to box like I mountain bike ... Determined but crap.

After my last fight I'd thrown 184 punches in 3 two minute rounds with 24% causing effective "damage".

My opponent had thrown 62 punches with 84% effective damage. B4stard.

I think this is available on steam too for PC .. Very effective for a workout !

Obviously no good for flat screeners.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Highly recommend the Thrill of the fight for workouts. It's exhausting .. got the crap knocked out of me this morning on it ..

A game called "Crashland" was recently released. Checked all the 1 and 2 star reviews and they were all people saying it was too hard ! Perfect !

God it's hard ! Why didn't any one say it was this hard !

It's taken me a week and several dozen goes to clear level 1 (well, level 2 as level one is just an intro).

Checked the global rankings for my score ... Top FIVE !!!!!!

Top Five Worst - in the whole world I guess that's the top bottom 5 then ? I'm trying to be positive ..

It's intense. Lots of sweaty palms !!!

 

[Zimmerframe]

The billy no mates thread continues ....

Purchased a new head support - more like a bike helmet with a rotating tensioner and a solid frame that sits round the back of your head. The standard straps don't feel like they keep it in place enough in the boxing game. Also bought a silicon cover which goes over the standard foam. Much more comfortable as it spreads over a larger area. Also means the boxing sweat can now be wiped off rather than leaving the foam a soppy mess until it dries ..

Just downloaded a couple of App lab games - these are games which are not fully complete yet - but the impatient can play them ..

Warplanes : ww1 fighters : have to jump to about 30 seconds for some gameplay ..

Warplanes: WW1 Fighters on Meta Quest | Quest VR games

Become a pilot! Immerse in WW1 aerial combat like never before in a captivating VR experience. ● Fully customizable flight models – from arcade to simulation based on aerodynamics. ● Additional options affecting gameplay – enabling manual takeoffs and landing, aggressive AI, disabling HUD and...

www.oculus.com

and "The Fight" - can't find any youtube. You can click play in the top box for some in game video :

The Fight on Meta Quest | Quest VR games

The Fight is VR fighting game, where you can fight as a boxer or a street fighter against various opponents.

www.oculus.com

 

[Jackware]

The billy no mates thread continues ....

Purchased a new head support - more like a bike helmet with a rotating tensioner and a solid frame that sits round the back of your head. The standard straps don't feel like they keep it in place enough in the boxing game. Also bought a silicon cover which goes over the standard foam. Much more comfortable as it spreads over a larger area. Also means the boxing sweat can now be wiped off rather than leaving the foam a soppy mess until it dries ..

View attachment 55420

Just downloaded a couple of App lab games - these are games which are not fully complete yet - but the impatient can play them ..

Warplanes : ww1 fighters : have to jump to about 30 seconds for some gameplay ..

Warplanes: WW1 Fighters on Meta Quest | Quest VR games

Become a pilot! Immerse in WW1 aerial combat like never before in a captivating VR experience. ● Fully customizable flight models – from arcade to simulation based on aerodynamics. ● Additional options affecting gameplay – enabling manual takeoffs and landing, aggressive AI, disabling HUD and...

www.oculus.com

and "The Fight" - can't find any youtube. You can click play in the top box for some in game video :

The Fight on Meta Quest | Quest VR games

The Fight is VR fighting game, where you can fight as a boxer or a street fighter against various opponents.

www.oculus.com

Watching that WW1 flight game reminded me why I don't play them - hours of jinxing about trying to catch the bast@rds. Now I enjoy the camaraderie of other gamers flying and fighting ineptly instead. These guys are hilarious to watch and listen to;

https://www.youtube.com/user/botimegaming

 

[Zimmerframe]

Watching that WW1 flight game reminded me why I don't play them - hours of jinxing about trying to catch the bast@rds. Now I enjoy the camaraderie of other gamers flying and fighting ineptly instead. These guys are hilarious to watch and listen to;

https://www.youtube.com/user/botimegaming

That was very amusing !

Just tried the plane game .. did my mission .. landed ... feel pretty sick !

 

[Tonybro]

VR, you want Elite: Dangerous and Microsoft's new Flight Simulator 2020...

 

[Zimmerframe]

@Zimmerframe
Which VR headset should I get?

mom not getting FB for anything or anyone no matter how hot SHE is!!!

mods, don’t change it to he!!

I don't think you're ready for virtual reality, you're struggling with the normal reality

Yup, I hate facebook, but you need a facebook account to setup the Oculus Quest 2. So I set one up with minimum info and run it up in an incognito tab. Though in fairness, once you've created an account, you don't need to run up facebook so it's not too intrusive.

Do you already have a Gaming PC ? Or playstation ? Sony are due to release a new VR setup for the PS5 which should be quite good. Not sure if it will be wireless or not though :

Why PSVR 2 Could Still Be Wireless

A wireless PSVR 2 headset could still be on the cards. Let’s walk you through why. We were all relieved last month when, at long last, Sony confirmed it would indeed be making a new VR headset for the PS5 (which, to be clear, isn’t officially named PSVR

uploadvr.com

At the moment I think Oculus still make the Rift to connect to PC, but I think they're ending that as people can just connect the Quest to a PC instead - so why make two.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Which VR headset should I get?

Well, if you're not going to answer my questions, I'll have to customise my answer to your forum profile : (it says you should get the oculus quest 2)

How to watch VR porn: Everything you need to know

The gear and the sites you need for the best experience.

mashable.com

 

[Zimmerframe]

OK. I know. I'm the only saddo with one on here ..

But in case anyone is having problems with Tracking / Guardian not working. Turning itself off / disabling.

Not sure if this is a result of an Oculus update or an Android Bluetooth driver update but after punching a dresser, which hurt a lot, I thought I'd better investigate. Eventually traced to bluetooth on the phone. Disable it and tracking works again on the Quest. Enable it and you get random dropouts and random floor height changes. Mine dropped out mid game and so I lost the guardian and had no idea I was about to punch something in the real world.

 

[Rahr85]

If i didn't have the rift i'd have a quest.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Dusted the Quest off from it's hibernation now that the evenings are longer .. maybe I'm no longer the only sad person on the forum ....

Had a stack of updates on the existing games all of which seem to have improved graphics quality, game play, frame rate and so on. Pistol whip has a new campaign which is really cool.

Medal of Honour - above and beyond finally was released for the Quest 2 a couple of days ago. Installed, it's large - 41gb - though that's tiny compared to the PC version which is about 170gb. Quite impressive they've even manage to make it work really considering the Quest2 is basically an android phone. I figured I'd never buy enough games to need the 256gb model so bought the base 64gb model (the base model is now 128gb). So to stick MOH on I'll need to delete a few things. This means you lose your saved positions, high scores etc - but they're a bit like Strava KOM's and routes so who cares. Quest is shortly switching to cloud saving, so you will be able to delete then re-install games and not lose your data (some games do already).

The Multiplayer looks good :


Graphics comparison with PC : (obviously a huge loss of detail and things like smoke/trees due to graphical processor limitations)

 

[Zimmerframe]

Another recent multiplayer release is Space Pirate Trainer DX. This is full arena/room scale - so you need a lot of space to play it as you're moving around - it's a bit like painball but without the bruising ...


Probably almost as amusing to sit back with a beer watching other people playing as it is to play itself ..

 

[sunstoner]

Weve literally just bought this for our 13yr old daughter for Xmas. A good Xmas prezzie I hope what with metaverses about to arrive upon us.....