Virtual Reality Escape from Reality for a Couple Hours

[LoneRanger]

The PlayStation 4 (PS4) and PlayStation VR accessory (PSVR) are coming in handy lately. Bought them together back in late 2017. Have enjoyed computer games since 1981 when I was majoring in Computer Science at Purdue University. Still remember one of my CS 101 projects: develop a rudimentary text based adventure game called "Wumpus" using the programming language Pascal. Workload, immaturity, and college life in general would eventually see me wash out of comp sci and graduate with a BS in an unrelated field but my fascination with computers, gadgets, and to a lesser degree gaming, would remain with me for life. Holiday season 2017 I'd bought a PS4 and PSVR for my son and daughter-in-law as a gift. Upon opening the PS4, chuckling, they informed me that they'd bought one themselves about a week prior. Oh well. But they didn't have the virtual reality headset, the PlayStation VR or "PSVR" as it's abbreviated, so that was still a hit. In the time following I'd stopped by their apartment and had the opportunity to try out the VR. It was mind blowing. I still had the PS4 new in the box with plans to refund it after the post-holiday refund rush subsided a bit. With prompting from my fiancée, I kept it instead of refunding it and bought a PlayStation VR to go with it and the rest is history. My fiancée had pointed out that if I kept the PS4 my son and I could do multiplayer online for some father son competition and fun, etc. So far we've partnered up on the bridge of a starship in Star Trek Bridge Crew, teamed with others for team vs team tactical offense/defense as armed contractors in Firewall: Zero Hour, and co-op'd together as squad partners in Bravo Team (military shooter). Lately, with more time at home in the evenings and weekend, I've rolled my rig back out and downloaded a few new VR games from the PlayStation Store to pass the time. It beats vegging out watching TV. It's really quite immersive and when in the headset the full 360 3D simulation of actually being there full spatial directional 3D sound (things behind you sound like they're behind you) the stress and anxieties of the day are gone and you're in a different reality. I've pretty much only ever used it for VR, although my former fiancée now my wife plays Tetris on it in regular PlayStation mode on the TV from time to time. It's not for everyone, VR can cause spatial disorientation and motion sickness/nausea as your brain tries to reconcile the incoming visual/aural stimuli of, for instance, of driving a road racer 100mph through a mountain twisty course against 8 opponents (Driveclub VR) vs. being seated motionless in a chair without the real world stimuli to match up. Or moving about swinging a battle ax at an opponent near a ledge on a stone bridge over a river during a melee fight ... while standing stationary in your living room (Skyrim VR). Most folks adapt and get their "VR" legs while some don't and pull the headset off in fright almost hurling it across the room (my wife during a 3D VR 360 skydiving video on Youtube VR). In summary, in certain aspects, I've clearly still not grown up and the VR headset is a great way to extinguish the anxieties of the day, from time to time.

 

[Aredeeem]

In summary, I agree with the former.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Thanks for sharing that. Very cool.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Play what?

 

[JohnG]

I seem to see this in a LOT of young people today. You don't state your age, but young to me can go back pretty far since I'm close to 70. An example is my neighbors son, 53 years old and retired from the Coast Guard. Most of his day is taken up sitting at the dining room table with a headset on, playing "something" on the laptop. Not really knocking this activity. I've had my share of hours on a PC myself. Beat DOOM for that matter years ago! Lost interest long ago however, but always wonder why some do not.

 

[Lolvoguy]

Get used to it. This is going to be our new reality (insert 90s Demolition Man-Bullock and Stallone intimate scene reference).

 

[bdcardinal]

I actually have a PSVR that I haven't even taken out of the box yet. I have been on vacation but supposedly I will be essential when I get back to work even though the shop has been dead. I might bring it in or else use it for the iRacing setup I am making.

 

[LoneRanger]

Originally Posted by JohnG

I seem to see this in a LOT of young people today. You don't state your age, but young to me can go back pretty far since I'm close to 70. An example is my neighbors son, 53 years old and retired from the Coast Guard. Most of his day is taken up sitting at the dining room table with a headset on, playing "something" on the laptop. Not really knocking this activity. I've had my share of hours on a PC myself. Beat DOOM for that matter years ago! Lost interest long ago however, but always wonder why some do not.

I'm 56, although there are hints in the post Course work of CS 201* in 1981. Freshman level course. 18 years old at the time. Extrapolates back to a birth year of 1963. Thanks for saying 50's is young though, doesn't always feel that way !! * 101 in orig post was a typo, freshman comp sci at Purdue was CS 201 back then. There was a remedial freshman course for dumber students, CS 490. No idea why courses were numbered that way.

 

[LoneRanger]

Originally Posted by JohnG

Lost interest long ago however, but always wonder why some do not.

Wanted to respond to this observation separately, since it bears similar for my own experience. I did lose interest quite some time ago in messing with stuff like MS flight sim, Call of Duty (PC version), etc. Last PC gaming I did was Call of Duty 4 multiplayer team death matches which was a a stress vent after work in the evenings once in a while with co-workers, we would team together and do death matches against other groups online. It was quite fun at the time. But like you, interest eventually waned. It was solely the VR experience in 2017 that sucked me back in, but we're talking a couple hrs week, in streaks, is all. Hadn't picked it up and used it in a while before recent events found me at home more in off time. It is quite different than regular gaming. It is an actual alternate reality, you're in a virtual 3D space 360 all around objects appear same as real life. Scale can be off slightly at times depending on how good of a job the devs did with the game, but if there's say, a doorway in a shooter game, you can move up to it and use it for cover and dimensionally and proximity wise it is like you're actually at a doorway. Leaning in the chair or if standing, you can lean in and out of cover, etc. Games like Firewall: Zero Hour and Bravo Team are actually not bad as casual tactical simulations. Everything is scaled 1:1 to be life size, but as mentioned, scale accuracy does vary by title. A good example for this forum to yield an idea of the virtual accuracy is the game Driveclub VR. You have access to a bunch of vehicles, from Mini Cooper up through super cars from BMW, Ferrari, McClaren and many in between. While i don't own any of the included cars for real, and so cannot vet the accuracy of scale and modeling, they feel and look about right. So for instance in the BMW M5 for example, if you turn your head and look back you are looking at the back seat and out rear window and as you move your gaze from front to back it's same as what the effect is in reality, you sweep around the cabin and the full interior smooth pans 120fps near to photo real graphic wise, and in full dimensional 3D so for instance the shift lever is appears as though you can reach down and grasp it. Steering wheel is properly scaled 3D dimensional in front of you, and your virtual hands are on it (two black leather gloves). The simulation of spatial dimension is so good that it is like actually being there. That which is described above is what got me into it. It's a toy of course, and toys have their place. Still fun, though, and an engaging way to pass time when other options are limited.

 

[Brybo86]

So are we making a BITOG clan for COD warzone fortnite/destiny?

 

[Cujet]

My wife is a PC gamer, the vast majority are Steam games. She has a pretty good i9 9900Kf and 2080 graphics computer. But she does not have s VR setup. I'm looking into the "Valve, Index" setup. However, it seems like a 2 month wait to get the hardware. She really wants to play "Half Life Alyx", as she LOVED the old Half Life games. But Alyx requires VR and the time to have the equipment is now.