I have had my Oculus Quest 2 for about a year now. It has given me countless joy and taken up much of my time.
I bought the headset for gaming, which was my primary use in the beginning. And I enjoyed it for the most part.
It was a brand new gaming experience, especially for shooters and flight simulators. The reloading, aiming, firing and movement was just so much more realistic and immersive.
However, the graphics were mostly bad, compared to PC versions. The gaming content was no match either. Worst of all, motion sickness always kicked in after some time.
Therefore, once I started using the headset for movies, it quickly became the preferred option for me.
It could simulate the cinema so well, just with complete control on what to play, screen size, cinema theme, pause, backward/forward etc etc.
However, I have never given up on VR gaming completely. I would take up the headset and start playing from time to time.
I did sweat and feel tired, which was the excuse I gave myself for getting the headset in the first place.
The problem was that I always felt more tired than I should be, e.g. comparing with similar amount of pure physical activities. Sometimes, I felt that affected my energy level.
So I have decided to put a stop to VR gaming for now.
My alternative would then be flat-screen gaming. It would be hard for me to go back to the shooters after VR, but strategy games should do.
And every single time, I loved the emersion, despite all the problems, like clarity, moisture after like half an hour, etc.
And the little moments that jumped in now and then were particularly satisfying.
For example, I was struggling with different ways of holding the gun (controller) for better aiming and suddenly I got into a position I felt comfortable and familiar with.
And then it came to me that that was exactly how I held a real rifle in the live-fire range in Canada.
At that time, I was struggling with different awkward positions trying to look through the iron sight and line up the target.
A veteran saw that and came to me, telling me to put the rifle stock against my shoulder and move my head forward along the stock until I could see through the sight, instead of trying to bend my neck sideways like an idiot to press my cheek against the gun.
That worked and I had a good time.
That moment was particularly satisfying for me, not only because it brought back fond memories, but also because this VR thing was so much closer to how things really worked.
I would have never got that experience no matter how much I play flat-screen shooters.
Furthermore, I am also exploring new things, like videos and social interactions.
They are all largely fun and the experiences are remarkable.
I encountered none of the worries which I had anticipated.
When I ordered, I worried about whether my glasses would fit and whether my glasses would scratch the headset lenses.
To my surprise, they were no problem at all.
My glasses could just fit into the headset and with the glass spacer provided in the package, my glasses were quite some distance away from the lenses.
So I just started using it, instead of waiting for the rubber spacer which I had originally planed.
But anyway, I guess we would stop caring soon enough after the first time…haha
Being able to see the VR world as I moved and interact with objects by physically moving my hands, as opposed to click some buttons on keyboard felt superb!
And I was really surprised how well the tracking was, evening the movement.
When I walked in the real world, I moved in the VR world.
Man! At that point, I really wanted a big house.
But mostly, I needed to use the controller to move around. Otherwise, I would keeping hitting the walls…
Also, bear in the mind that this was just the “starters”, like some “first contract” to introduce me to how things would work in VR.
I have not gone into the serious gaming yet. That would be another separate post.
I would very often dirty my classes just by putting on the headset, because the glasses got squeezed and touched my eyebrow etc.
Sweeting would make that so much worse.
So after some play time, even in air-conditioned rooms, I usually had blurry pictures, sometimes to a point that I could not tell a person from a pillar. And I would be emptying a whole mag on a pillar while the enemy came up on me from behind.
I guess I would probably need to get some prescription inserts if I really want to make this work.
The another problem is motion sickness.
After playing games or even watching some videos, I just do not feel comfortable, especially in the stomach.
But I have not given up yet. I guess it would take some getting used to.
