VAMatt said: I must confess that I have no played Skyrim VR. So, I can't speak to that game specifically. But, I have been playing around with VR since Rift DK2, and have used every major system since. For me, resolution is the biggest problem, or possibly tied for biggest with the lack of wireless connectivity. Its what makes VR a novelty in my house. Aside from gaming, I think a great use of VR will be watching live sporting events. I watched a live boxing match a couple of years ago on Gear VR. It was by far the best VR experience I've had. But, even with something like boxing, which takes place in a small ring, the resolution was a big drawback. I watched live golf a while later, and the resolution ruined it - couldn't follow the ball. These were both Gear VR experiences, which are not on the same level as those that the more advanced system can provide. But, to my eyes, even the Vive and Rift don't have what it takes to make VR an everyday use technology just yet. |
Gaming doesn't need as high a resolution as for sports, although sports worked fine before on 14" sd tvs. Heck I found an old vhs tape with a boxing match on it half a year ago, 240i, still perfectly watchable! Watching video on a VR headset is a huge step back anyway. The only recording that is somewhat watchable is the Joshua Bell VR experience that goes the extra mile by simulating a 3D environment made with a whole bunch of HD video streams mixed together. The standard so called 4K 360 videos just look bad. 4K over 360 degrees only leaves half HD in your fov at any time. 8K 360 video start to fully use the headset resolution and can still be improved with down sampling.
PSVR is much better than DK2 and Gear VR, but yes the effective resolution more resembles 480p when spread over 110 fov. It's a big step back after getting used to 1080p and 4K. Yet Xenoblade on the Wii worked fine not that long ago!
It depends on the game ofcourse. The resolution is perfectly fine for SuperHot VR and RE7 where the action is mostly close quarters. Skyrim VR in towns and dungeons is no problem. Outdoors you notice how muddy it is when you look in the distance. Probably for the better with all the pop up. Better hardware and foveated rendering will fix that.
I will keep watching tv on tv, yet have been playing mostly in VR since the psvr launch. I was just playing some more SMO on tv and I keep getting annoyed with how limited the fov and depth perception are and the constant struggle with the camera because of that. Windlands is far superior as a platformer, the expert challenges were a ton of fun to beat. I'm not looking forward to any hard platforming sequences in SMO.