2020-04-03 - VR games

recently a friend of mine bought Oculus VR. i had a chance to play with it briefly. i must say i'm impresses with the progress in the area. last time i had VR headset on (around 2014) graphics looked terrible and fun was… well there was not much fun out of it. things have progressed a lot since then. yes, the field of view is still fairly limited, but still – this time i was impressed.

games have also progressed. half-life: alyx was recently released¹⁾ – the best match for VR i have ever seen/heard of. with half-life's physics engine, this makes a great match for VR. what is limited and (judging from game play recordings – i have not had a chance to play myself) kinda awkward is moving around. obviously with VR googles on, you cannot move around a lot, as your room is limited in size. ;) in “alyx” it is solved so that you point where you want to move, and just “jump in there”. so forget about classic movements like going backwards while firing at the enemy or strife-and-shoot trick. maybe i'm just a creature of habit, but i guess i'd miss that a lot…

so VR is best when you can sit (or at least stand still) and just move head/arms around. i am still wondering why there is no flight simulator for that platform? you sit (in the cockpit) and move rudders/throttle (and fire, if this would be a fighter(jet)). sounds like a perfect match! moving head around is very important there and really awkward with keyboard and/or mouse – VR would solve this making it a really realistic experience!