The VR thread!

[K888D]

I get everything you saying and completely agree about latency and Wireless transmission, heck I even have trouble streaming a 720p video into the next room over my WiFi network, so god knows how a VR would cope over wireless.

However, Trinus VR have a USB tether function where you use a cable to make the connection, they recommend this for best results. The second best method they recommend is connecting your phone directly to the PC with AC WiFi connection without using a router (use your phone as hotspot). Both of these methods I assume help to reduce latency.

From my brief experience last night there were moments where it felt good and latency didn't seem too bad, I was using USB tether, but my main issue was stuttering which I think was down to the underpowered CPU being the bottleneck.

People were sketpical at first that Mobile VR could deliver an immersive experience full stop, but from my experience it definitely works, teh Gear VR is awesome. The only thing missing is the brute force of a Gaming PC to power the experience.

This guy on YouTube seems really impressed with the Trinus VR setup, but he has invested allot of time into setting it all up with different apps for all the bits and pieces to make the complete VR system:


Nolo VR adds the room scale element to the setup building on top of the VR streaming apps already available. This guy posted a brief hands on with it and has good things to say, although its just the subjective opinion of 1 guy:

 

[Kmpkt]

Yeah I've been trying to wrap my head around how they plan to do wireless for VR at higher pixel densities too. Currently the Vive and Rift are something like 1080p while Lucky Palmer himself has been quoted as saying the baseline for really good VR is like 8K. I don't know how they plan to scale up bandwidth by 16 times without baking your brain.

 

[EdZ]

Even with USB tethering, you still have the issue of encoding and decoding latency (and USB2 has an awfully small bandwidth available). A direct WiFi connection isn't all that much better than one via a router: you avid contention with other devices on the same network, but it does nothing for contention with other devices using the same band (be that 2.4GHz or 5GHz), and the spectrum pretty much anywhere other than far from human habitation is already very crowded.

Mobile VR can indeed work well (as evidenced by GearVR and Daydream), but only local rendering can currently deliver acceptable latency.

 

[Kmpkt]

Just bit on the new Rift+Touch promo. Anyone else taken the leap and care to tell me what games are worth playing etc? Also is there any other requisite hardware I should be buying?

 

[Ionrent]

 

 

[grumpyrobin]

I feel like VR headsets should be qualcom based windows machines that have their own stand alone 3d desktop environment that can take direct input from a pc rig as well, (no latency wirelessly in the future).

 

[EdZ]

New Just bit on the new Rift+Touch promo. Anyone else taken the leap and care to tell me what games are worth playing etc? Also is there any other requisite hardware I should be buying?

There's all the free pack-in stuff, and also (in no particular order): Superhot, Chronos, Windlands, Darknet, Please Don't Touch anything, Damaged Core, Technolust, Obduction, Proton Pulse, Minecraft, Thumper, Lone Echo, House of the Dying Sun (SteamVR only), Elite Dangerous.
If you like flight sims or driving sims, then the a HOTAS or wheel + pedal setup are huge benefits for immersion there.

I'm not sure if the bundle has the extension cables but these work fine.

All the additional sensors come with 5m active USB extension cables, but almost any decent active USB extension cable will work for nearly arbitrary distances (or decent passive extensions for a metre or two). Extending the HMD itself is more tricky, the included combined HDMI + USB cable is already using an active cable tuning IC and operating near the limit of the HDMI signal spec, so an extension that works just fine for normal HDMI may not work.