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VR Headset or 42ish inch 4k?

E

Elf_Boy

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I am hoping to speak with people who have experienced both.

I currently have (well see below) 5760*1080. 4k would drop my left to right world by 1/3 and increase top to bottom by 100%. Pretty nifty.

I've see the VR games demoed here and there. I dont have a spare room.

I would like to be able to play my reg games in VR maybe? Do existing MMO / Fantasy / RPG games work with Oculus / Vive.

It is just a big flat thing like a virtual giant screen? Or can you walk around Orgrimmar, GW2, BDO, etc?

Thank you for any insights and information.
 
Existing MMO / Fantasy / RPG games don't work natively with VR. Yes, there are hacks, but the games really need to be designed with VR in mind as to their control interfaces, locomotion, menu systems, etc. Yes, you can play them "inside" VR using various apps so that they appear on a large screen, but doing so is like playing them on a big monitor - I.E. There's nothing 3D about the games, you're just watching/playing it on a virtual screen inside of VR. Also, the screen resolution you are going to be playing them at inside of VR is going to be much lower than resolutions you are going to be used to using a good gaming monitor.

My advice, skip gen one VR if you are into those types of games - wait a good year or two until natively supported games are designed from the ground up to really take advantage of VR. Bethesda (Fallout 4) just announced they are supporting VR full up next year. Other major players will be announcing this year as well... Should be quite a few good choices around in another year or so. Right now, there's only really one VR game along these lines (Chronos) that has gotten good reviews.

VR s crazy cool, but really only for sim type games right now as well as games designed with VR in mind from the start. (Hover Junkers for example). Don't get me wrong, VR and the games you are after are coming, it's just that they are a good year or more out still and would really benefit from gen two VR hardware and time for developers to become accustomed to programming with VR in mind.
 
Thinking further...

It seems to me that the VR headsets, as they stand, should be able to simulate a 3D tv/monitor.

Even that in a Big Picture type mode could be pretty nifty for me...

Controls could still be problematic I suppose.

Have any of the vendors implemented anything like this?
 
Yes. Both Virtual Desktop and BigScreen both can do this in VR right now, but they don't simulate a 3D monitor, they simulate a 2D monitor within a 3D virtual world, where your game appears on the 2D screen. And again, the resolution of the "in VR" simulated tv/monitor is going to be much lower than what you are used to on a good gaming monitor. Sort of like watching at DVD levels of resolution. It will work, but it is going to be a bit sub-optimal and things like small text aren't going to be very readable, especially when you are used to a 1080p or better gaming monitor. That's why I feel it will take at least one more generation of VR HMD development to get the tech to a level where the game play resolution will fully support and run MMO / Fantasy / RPG type genre of games as they currently exist. Given another year or two of development, these kind of games, developed to really take advantage of VR both in concept and in interface will really shine... and the tech advancement of the HMD's and needed graphics card tech to drive them will also help.

Trust me, if you want to get a VR headset like the Vive or the Rift right now to play your existing MMO / Fantasy / RPG games on a virtual monitor inside of VR, you'll be rather disappointed unless you ok with stepping back quite a bit in resolution. There are quite a few really cool made for VR games out there already, but most that really "wow" right now are sims and games that don't require lots of dense graphics/text on the screen in high resolution.
 
I just bought a 43" 4k monitor and I already own a Oculus Rift. I can say I am STRONGLY happier with my 4k monitor. I mean it's not even close. There's just not much to do on the rift yet and virtual desktop or big screen is kind of cool but not great because the perceived resolution is so low. Is it cool to play on a 100" screen? Yea. Is it cool when I tell you it's a 720p 100" TV? Eh... suddenly less cool.
 
It's comparing apples to oranges, really. VR is resolution-limited at the moment, so if you want maximum sharpness, go with the monitor. VR is a completely different experience altogether, it's not really a monitor replacement (although technically it can be, but it's not ideal).
 
IMO Vive > 4K
That said I've been doing 4K for close to 18 months now. I think vive is a fundamental change in the way I game. 4K is nifty and I really liked it -- but honestly, the vive is just a quantum leap forward in interacting with other worlds.
 
4k is like having a stationary bike and viewing the scenery in front of you on a really nice screen as you pedal. With the Vive, you are on that bike and feel like you are actually outside riding it, but the world has strangely dropped in resolution a bit and you don't feel the wind in your face or the inertia on your body as you make turns.

Again, it's hard to put into words - VR is a very different animal when it comes to a computer display in that your brain is getting visual inputs that are comparable to those it would be getting if you were somewhere else entirely.

Once VR resolution gets up to the 4K per eye range (most likely a good 4-5 years off still), then I could see it becoming the only visual interface you would want or need with a PC.
 
How long until it can replace a monitor for heavy business/text based usage? Gen 2 perhaps?
 
wyem said:
How long until it can replace a monitor for heavy business/text based usage? Gen 2 perhaps?
Click to expand...

Maybe... if Gen 2 VR incorporates foveated rendering/eye tracking tech and doubles the screen resolution per eye. But that's a pretty tall order for Gen 2. I think its a safer bet with Gen 3, and that's most likely a good 4-5 years away still. By then, yes, I'd say it could probably replace a monitor for heavy duty business and gaming use - especially if the form factor gets a lot lighter and more like a pair of oversized sunglasses vs. today's heavier goggles.
 
Supercharged_Z06 said:
VR s crazy cool, but really only for sim type games right now as well as games designed with VR in mind from the start. (Hover Junkers for example). Don't get me wrong, VR and the games you are after are coming, it's just that they are a good year or more out still and would really benefit from gen two VR hardware and time for developers to become accustomed to programming with VR in mind.
Click to expand...

That really sums it up for me, i was in a sitituation similar to OP (but with 3x27in 1080p) and went with a rift because the main reason i'm running triple head is racing games which are fairly decent on a HMD. I did try a 4k monitor and returned it due to chroma/refresh rate issues but i could try it out enough to know the rift was a better option for what i wanted. Ultimately the tech is cool and all but you have to focus on what you actually want to use it to play - It made sense for me but might not for you until more support comes around.

Supercharged_Z06 said:
Maybe... if Gen 2 VR incorporates foveated rendering/eye tracking tech and doubles the screen resolution per eye. But that's a pretty tall order for Gen 2. I think its a safer bet with Gen 3, and that's most likely a good 4-5 years away still. By then, yes, I'd say it could probably replace a monitor for heavy duty business and gaming use - especially if the form factor gets a lot lighter and more like a pair of oversized sunglasses vs. today's heavier goggles.
Click to expand...

Again Supercharged_Z06 saying what i'm thinking :p I was guesstimating that sufficient resolution, tracking and the gpu tech needed to power it as a true display replacement will be around 2018 at the minimum and only if VR takes off and gets a big push. Resolution needs to go way up and running 3-4 virtual 16:9 desktops has me spinning around in my chair to actually see it all - it's in no way mature enough for regular productivity.
 
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