Dell Visor - What have I done!?

[AndyCalling]

OK, so against all sanity I went and bought a Dell Visor. I have a number of concerns and thought you folks might be able to provide useful comment. Firstly, I've gone and bet on MS AGAIN. Obviously a risky move. This is consumer focussed stuff right now and we know MS are swiftly backing away from the consumer market. Chances of MS withholding support and strangling the VR side, or pushing it towards primarily enterprise development, or just dropping it from the OS in year or two is worrying. I can see Steam simply pulling out if MS beggar them about as usual, since they have the Vive to sell. What's the chances this will last? Is this VR thing worth doing? Is it a good experience or a faddy thing like 3D TV? Never tried it, don't know anyone who has. I will be using it standing/sitting as I don't have a nice big open gaming room, just a little flat. Will that be good enough? Will it make me sick? Are there any good games? I could have bought an Oculus with controllers for the same money, should I have done that and given MS the heave ho? Was the Dell variant the way to go? Basically, have I just spent a small fortune on some empty hype that won't be supported and doesn't compare well to the competition, or am I to expect the next big thing? I can still cancel. Thoughts from you expert consumers would be welcome, especially if you've done the VR thing yourself or are about to.

 

[anon(7929613)]

I like these mixed reality headsets but if sales figure is anything less than a trillion units per year, Microsoft's shareholders will not be happy and Microsoft will gleefully kill it. Still, is a worthy buy.

 

[AndyCalling]

I comfort myself by thinking that MS are outsourcing the hardware for this, but it will heavily depend on MS supporting the software end and competing for exclusive games (hate that, but exclusives seems to be the thing for VR at the moment). We all know that MS has an appalling history with such support. I've seen even less advertising than I did for mobile which doesn't indicate much confidence from MS. I guess that might change come the 17th (release day). Perhaps I should cancel and get an Oculus?

 

[fdruid]

To me its clear that the oculus is an old technology. It doesn't do anything a lot better than these WMR headsets. But the Dell and the rest have inside-out tracking. Means you don't have to set up a sensor perimeter with pillars or hang sensors from the wall to have tracking. And that is a major leap in the industry.

Support should be good, and let's face it, a unified standard is what will take this tech forward. Oculus and Vive are not the way, this WMR thing is a way out and the best solution for users.

I'm going to get the Dell Visor too. I've tried Oculus once (the experience was bad), and the Vive (the experience was good and sold me to VR).

Regarding sickness, I got really sick with the Oculus demo. I was seated and it was a rollercoaster sim. Bad choice.

I tried a standing zombie game with the Vive, it was flawless and didn't get sick. I've heard that there's a bigger chance of getting sick with games where you're sitting. The human body is wired like that, though its worse for some people.

So you shouldn't be worried. It's a wonderful experience, and it's going to grow a lot in the next few years. And with your headset you'll be able to enjoy it.

 

[AndyCalling]

Well, hoping you're right. Thanks for the background. I can still return it for 15 days if I don't open it, and I can't get to the depot till Thursday so I'll be able to see the initial customer response. Let's hope we see Steam access on day 1 or close, as there have been conflicting reports on that. Otherwise it may be fairly Cliff's House for a bit.

Note that WC now has a Mixed Reality forum. Come post.