VR discussion: Oculus Rift, Vive, Morpheus and more! (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

Went to BB to buy Batman and they had a bunch of VR units sitting on a table right by the front of the store. Stock wasn't very limited, it seems. The headset arrived from Amazon a little later.

I thought setup was pretty straightforward and the extra processing unit fits well enough into my min-HT setup. The headset is BIG so I'm going to need to find a place for it.

A couple questions for you guys out there. Do you "need" to press the rear head strap button to open the thing up? In my experience, it just releases the little knob that tightens in the back but isn't really needed to open the thing up. Also, do some games seem exceptionally blurry, especially up close? I can't see detail in Batman's gloves or read a single thing that I try to hold up to my face. I used the thing that helps you set the position of the headset by reading the text (it's in the PS button quick menu) but some things in games still seem blurry. I'm thinking it might be the focus position of the games is set too far away.

Overall, the VR works very well. I see pretty much no jitteriness in my hands, thought the headset did float a teeny tiny bit in Batman once. Loving the immersion and a couple experiences (beginning of London Heist and Batman) are really immersive, like you feel the people there with you.

 

[Tino]

Games are definitely a bit blurry sometimes. Also can't read text. Inherent to the hardware limitations I would assume.

Like I said I wish the resolution was better and clearer. But I wasn't expecting a perfect experience. What I got was a "great" experience.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I have read that there is a PS VR calibration in the Settings menu that is pretty thorough that helps with this. It calibrates each of the LEDs on the headset as well as calibrating to the distance between the center of each of your eyes, which helps make the image in the headset clearer for you (but only you; each person playing will need to do this to make it perfect for them). I have to try that later today and see if it helps.

Some blurriness makes sense and I can definitely tell that some games are setting an ideal focus distance that may be affecting the experience. For example, in Batman the stuff at the outer fringe of your field of view is blurred until you turn your head and look directly at it, but I'm not sure this is a method of saving processor power to focus on the image right in front of you or if this is a way to force people to use their head to look instead of just their eyes, making the VR nausea thing reduced. Either way, I can usually read text that "seems" about 5-6 feet away clearly but not anything less than a couple feet away in some games.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

I have read that there is a PS VR calibration in the Settings menu that is pretty thorough that helps with this. It calibrates each of the LEDs on the headset as well as calibrating to the distance between the center of each of your eyes, which helps make the image in the headset clearer for you (but only you; each person playing will need to do this to make it perfect for them). I have to try that later today and see if it helps.

Some blurriness makes sense and I can definitely tell that some games are setting an ideal focus distance that may be affecting the experience. For example, in Batman the stuff at the outer fringe of your field of view is blurred until you turn your head and look directly at it, but I'm not sure this is a method of saving processor power to focus on the image right in front of you or if this is a way to force people to use their head to look instead of just their eyes, making the VR nausea thing reduced. Either way, I can usually read text that "seems" about 5-6 feet away clearly but not anything less than a couple feet away in some games.

I was wondering if there was some kind of calibration option. I'll have to check out the settings menu.

I think the edge blurriness is a hardware thing, not a software. I was playing Driveclub last night, and noticed text around the edge of my field of vision would be blurry until I looked at it in the center of the screen.

As far as the button on the back, I think it just releases the lock that the tightening wheel sets when you turn it. If you don't ever turn the wheel, then you can pull out on the back anytime without needing to press the button.

 

[Tino]

I cannot find the calibration menu other than the basic one.

 

[Tino]

Found it

In the settings menu go to devices and then PlayStation VR.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I did the Settings calibration and I'm not sure it made much of a difference. That said, I noticed that text and objects really close to my face aren't super clear, which seems more like a hardware/software thing, like maybe the games need to be made with this in mind to make it work. Either way, I haven't HAD to read much of anything.

Played "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes" for a few rounds with a friend tonight. Lots of fun but would need to spend like 3 hours straight with a few people playing to get a lot out of it.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I finished a first run through Batman and am now going back to get the Riddler trophies. The game is pretty much perfect, honestly. Some stuff felt wonky, mostly due to the technical issues with PSVR, but the experience was top notch. It was very short, maybe an hour and a half since I tried to do everything and look at everything, but it was amazing. If anyone here has PSVR, I recommend it. Rumor has it that it will be on PC once the exclusivity period ends (March?) so I suggest people grab it then for Oculus or Vive, too.

I have only gotten a few hours of time with my VR headset so far. Busy weekend and full-time job, plus planning for a big party this weekend. Even with the issues I still find it amazing.

 

[Tino]

Morgan

Are you experiencing any drift issues?

While playing Rush Of Blood the field of vision severely drifts left. Many online have complained similarly with other games also.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I don't see or experience drift, but I do sometimes get headset jitter. I would say "drift" is when the headset's calibration goes off and is no longer looking at the right "center" point, whereas jitter is when it temporarily seems to be moving on its on while I'm standing still. The only time I see the jitter, though, is when I hold a Move controller too close to the headset and the camera tracking goes off for a second. I could probably fix that by mounting the camera above my TV instead of under it, but that's not happening for various reasons.

I've mostly played Batman and a lot of that was standing, so if there was drift then I wouldn't possible notice it since I'm moving around in place already. But for sitting games it would be very noticeable.

 

[Derrik Draven]

I highly recommend getting the dedicated stand for the VR unit. It has 2 built in charging bases for 2 move controllers, and another one for the Dual Shock controller, and it makes for a nice place to hang the VR unit itself. Was definitely a good purchase instead of just laying all this stuff around, like I'd usually do. Think it was about $40.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I considered it, but its $50 and I already have enough cables and places to charge all the controllers. Plus the stand is kind of big and occupies more space out in the open than I'd like. It's kind of bad enough that the headset is already so big.

I have a coffee table where the top lifts up and there are two little storage areas underneath, so the controllers fit in there. Or I just leave them connected to the console to charge.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Morgan

Are you experiencing any drift issues?

While playing Rush Of Blood the field of vision severely drifts left. Many online have complained similarly with other games also.

I have the drift issues. Kind of comes and goes, but it's definitely there. At first I tried all kinds of different setup and calibration methods but none worked. Then I read online about it being a real issue, so I've just kind of dealt with it. Hoping they officially acknowledge that it's an issue, and come out with a fix soon.

 

[Tino]

If they don't, back it goes to Best Buy.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Check your room for reflective surfaces, open windows, the camera looking directly at lights, etc. There's a bunch of FAQs online that have ideas on what to fix. The other thing is check how high the camera is off the ground and whether or not you are blocking part of the headset when moving, since that might create the floatiness. Worst case, contact Sony and they may replace your unit.

 

[Tino]

Did all that. Still drifts. If no fix is coming I'll replace it at BB within the 45 day window.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Setup and calibration has nothing to do with the drift issue. It's an inherent problem in either the hardware or software. IGN reported they had 2 diffrent sets with the drift issue. Lots of people are reporting it. It's obviously a problem, and the only question is how long until Sony actually acknowledges it and offers a fix.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

If it's inherent, then why are so few people experiencing it? The closest to drift that I've experience was watching my DS4 slowly think it was rotating over the course of about 30 minutes while playing Robot Rescue in Playroom VR. The headset drift or stutter has always been because of me blocking the camera by accident.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

"Inherent" may not be the right word. It could be a widespread defect.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

"Inherent" may not be the right word. It could be a widespread defect.

Yeah, maybe I used the wrong word, but I wouldn't say that 'so few' people are experiencing it. There's a crap-ton of reddit users that are experiencing it, and like I said earlier, IGN, a major videogame newssite has it on 2 of their headsets, and even has a wiki page set up for it. After I experienced it, and googled it, I was flooded with results of people discussing it.

Based on what I've read it seems like a rather large issue. Hell, even with our incredibly tiny sample size here in this thread, we've already got 2 people experiencing it.