"In order to experience the niftiness of VR, you’ve got to be willing to put up with some persistent low- and mid-grade physical discomfort. It starts with the headset, which is comfortable at first but after 20 or 30 minutes will begin to push into your face. It gets warmer over time, as well, and after playing for an hour or so I’m acutely aware of the fact that I have a heat-radiating piece of electronic gear strapped to my face."
"I usually have to take breaks from Rift games well before I would if I were playing on a monitor. Usually, my eyes start to ache and I can feel the headset digging into my face."
"In part, that’s because VR games are active and can be exhausting. There’s the physical toll of the headset on your face, as well as how the game can leave you feeling a bit woozy or disoriented. Most games require a screen-break in between sessions."
Thanks for a more honest "warts and all" review. It makes a change from the gushing glorified infomercials elsewhere. You
really need to play around with one for a whole day as there are a whole swathe of effects (Motion Sickness, Vergence-Accommodation Conflict, headset discomfort, earphone discomfort, heat build-up, spectacles, eye fatigue, light bleed around the nose, grid persistence issues, screen door effect, general fatigue, etc) that are entirely personally variable.
I tested a friend's Rift for a whole day and came away with very mixed feelings. I had no motion sickness but suffered from "Vergence-Accommodation Conflict". This is where your eyes work to both focus and converge on a point in space (Accommodation-Convergence Reflex). Since the focus / converge distance is the same, your brain learns to "couple" the two responses together (Vergence-Accommodation Coupling). Headsets completely break that natural reflex as your eyes will be focal locked to only one distance which is constant (and no different to a fixed distance 2D monitor) whilst your brain has an opposing instinct of variable distance convergence based on muscle memory when "tricked" with the 3D effect. This isn't motion sickness but is something else that involves you fighting against your eye muscles "muscle memory" that normally contract / relax to focus on variable depth (in real life) which in VR aren't moving as they should be as they display depth is just as "flat" as a 2D monitor. The result is increased eye fatigue, irritation and a general sense of "
this doesn't feel right".
I hope salesmen are going to be honest and admit that 15mins in a store demo unit is nowhere near enough to be sure you'll be "issue free" or at least are willing to give a no quibble 7-day refund. Yes 20min VR tech demo's look & feel cool, but even after 45-60mins there's simply no way I could use one for PC gaming for anywhere near the same time I can use any monitor, and I never had any motion sickness at all.
It's certainly intriguing, but the part of the article that had me saying "nope," is the "Most of the launch games wouldn't be noteworthy if they weren't in VR," statement.
Agreed. Right now we're in the middle of the "
hype-train for the sake of showing off a new toy to friends" novelty phase. It's what comes after that counts. There's been a load of "what if" hype of what's possible and review double standards (giving VR 'games' a pass on things that would fail on 2D games just because) without any actual discussion of what actually makes a better game once the "novelty honeymoon phase" has worn off. So far all some VR owners are obsessed about is showing off tech demo's to other people instead of actually using it for any serious gaming.
