VR Gaming - Oculus Rift, Playstation VR, HTC Vive

I'm as skeptical as you are and not expecting to be blown away by the Index at all so we'll see. It looks like mine is going to ship this week so I'll give you a no bullshit review sometime soon.

just got my fedex notice, kit arrives Saturday

I got the kit set up over the weekend, then realized that all of my VR games are on the Oculus platform, not Steam. I have one game on Steam for VR, Batman Arkham VR. I tried it out and it didn't seem like much of a game but it had some cool environments to look at.

The first thing I noticed with the Index is the increased resolution. It is definitely sharper, less pixelated than my other four VR sets. This is a good thing, but it still isn't good enough. I think 4k per eye is going to be a needed improvement for true 2 Gen headsets, hopefully 8k per eye for 3 Gen sets.

140hz refresh - I have it set for that, things seem smooth, but I can't really tell any "holy shit" difference from 90hz. Or maybe my brain can subliminally, who knows.

Comfort, weight, cord, all seem just ok, comparable to various rift sets. The headphones are superior though, they really nailed it with the sound on this thing.

Controllers are good, responsive, comfortable, light. They did a good job on these.

Tracking - not a big fan of the lighthouses, they emit an annoying high pitched whine and I get some tracking jitter sometimes when one of the station is blocked by my body. This is probably my fault for mounting one high and one low, I may drill a hole and mount both high up.

God rays, they suck. I still get white blurry rays off the lenses. This is one of the most annoying issues. It happens on most or all of my sets though, not just the Index.

This is a good kit. I don't have buyers remorse. I'm glad I got it but there is no way this is 2 Gen setup, I'll be buying the next main Rift standalone release when it comes out.

I just got a new PC, its good enough for a good VR set up. I was thinking of getting the HTC Cosmos, but I dont have much space in my current living set up, so im not trying to have to set up cameras etc. So Im thinking of getting a Samsung Odyssey +. Its going for 500$ but I saw people saying they got some for 250$ on sale? ANy advice as to where I could get the best price on one, and should I even bother with the Samsung offering?

Regular Cosmos doesn't come with lighthouses and apparently has quite poor tracking. Have not personally tried it but most reviews advise the Cosmos Elite instead (which comes with lighthouses and also comes with the Vive wands, which are well supported)

I own the Vive and the Vive Pro but I'd probably go for the Valve Index if I was buying today. The lighthouse tracking is really the gold standard and the index controllers are a step up in technology from the first generation designs, not to mention they have Valve's backing so they will probably become the standard controller in the coming years. If you want to future proof it, definitely get a lighthouse setup (so Index, Cosmos Elite, or Vive Pro). Corona seems to have hit the Valve production line hard though, at least in Europe all of their stuff is on backorder (I have the index controllers on order, they're estimating 8+ weeks to deliver)

If you can get the space to use roomscale I would recommend it. You're selling yourself short if you use it seated only, standing and moving your arms freely to interact with things adds so much to the experience. You don't really need a huge amount of space, if you have a 7x7' space clear floor to ceiling that will suffice. More is nice but not essential, you don't really walk around much in VR. If you can take a half step in each direction and swing your arms around without hitting anything you are usually fine.

I smacked my ceiling fan lights alot this past week.

I can recommend Thrill of the Fight if anyone's looking for an indoor workout in these times. It's a pretty small game and not something you're going to play for hours and hours but it's cheap and wailing on a virtual punching bag is surprisingly good excercise. I played it for maybe 20 minutes yesterday and I was sweating like a pig, and my shoulders have been sore all day today.

After beating HL:Alyx I bought Subnautica and it has been a great VR experience. Almost done with that, have Fallout 4 VR up next.

I want to check out boneworks again but that game made me sick as fuck.

Half Life: Alyx needs to be on everyone's list now, that should be the game to beat.

Definitely get Google Earth VR, it's probably the title I have the most time in. Fun to just fly around the world and check places out with the streetview feature (stick the orb on your left hand over your head) which lets you see 360° photos from the streetview cars, as well as pictures random people have taken. Many are crappy low res but there's the occasional gem. Best of all it's free.

SkyrimVR is pretty decent now that the mods have beaten some of the stupid out of it (mostly the default interface which is godawful for VR). Must haves are VRIK player avatar which lets you actually draw and holster a weapon, select spells with gestures etc, and SkyUI. SkyrimVR subreddit has all the details.

Also check out some the steamVR environments, they're all free and can be pretty cool, some have minigames. To start, just get some of the higher rated ones, but I'd recommend the English Church, Valve Lobby, WoW Stormwind and Mos Eisley Cantina in particular.

So I spent 3,000$ to play Half Life Alyx.

Was worth it.

I got a MSI gs 75 Stealth and a Samsung odyssey plus and it runs like a fucking dream.

Truly an incredible game, and an even more incredible gaming experience. The graphics and atmosphere are genuinely amazing. The possibilities are endless, just think of all of the awesome experiences they could craft? Vietnam shooter, jungle atomsphere, napalm explosions, sneaking melee kills on viet cong. They could do a fantasy type game with spell casting and exploration of sick environments. I cant wait to see what they develop over next couple years.