Hey, does anyone have some good resources to look into setting up VR at my house? is it prohibitively expensive? Do I need one of those big wireframe box things that we have at noisebridge? How involved is the process of setting it up?
X-post from Slack
for a home setup I recommend following these steps
What type of computer do you have?
A.) Laptop
CPU > i7-7650
RAM > 8GB
Graphics Card > Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 max Q
Storage > 256 GB SSD
B.) Desktop
CPU > i5-7400
RAM > 8GB
Graphics Card > Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 3GB model
Storage > 256 GB SSD
C.) If your system is not better than these specs then you will need to choose the oculus Quest as your headset and can skip to step 2.
Choose your headset (only discussing currently available headsets that can be bought new). (for old headsets bought secondhand please do a lot of research as there are many opinions out there)
| headset | cost | pros | cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valve index | 999 | - High frame rate - Big FOV - Best controllers - Great audio |
- Expensive - Must have Lighthouses |
| Oculus Quest | 399 | - Standalone headset no computer needed - Easy room setup - No outside tracker - Decent controllers |
- Really Low refresh rate - Tether mode (link cable) not all that stable - Small storage amount - Limited library without link cable - Short battery life - Meh head strap |
| Oculus Rift S | 399 | - Full PC connection - No outside trackers - Decent controllers |
- Low refresh rate - Meh head strap |
| Vive Pro | 899+349* | - Can be run wirelessly* - Can use index controllers |
- Expensive - Must have Lighthouses - Bad controllers |
| Vive Pro Eye | 1599+349* | - Can be run wirelessly* - Can use index controllers - Has eye tracking built in |
- Expensive - Must have Lighthouses - Bad controllers |
| Vive Cosmos Elite | 899+349* | - Can be run wirelessly* - Can use index controllers |
- Expensive - Must have Lighthouses - Bad controllers |
| HP Reverb WMR | 639 | - High res - No outside trackers |
- Meh controllers - bad tracking |
| Samsung Odyssey+ WMR | 479 | - High res - No outside trackers - often has 200 dollar discount |
- Meh controllers - bad tracking |
Decide on your space. For decent VR gaming and experiences you should always do room scale as many games
A.) Clear area- you want at least a 6 foot by 6 foot area, but 10 x 10 is much better. You do not want anything you can trip on or slip on inside the space, and you shoud be very careful of anything outside the area as well (move any delacate items, put something soft over any hard corners, etc.)
Set up VR
A.) Set up your tracking units (only applies to valve index and vive pro, skip this step if not using one of those headsets.) The can be wall mounted, pole mounted, tripod mounted etc.
If your room has normal height ceilings (<12 feet) and you don’t want to wall mount the trackers I recommend getting something like this.
And then using a camera clamp to mount the tracker to the pole. The camera clamp I use are these.
You can also use a lighting tripod if you have high ceilings, I recommend these.
B.) follow setup instructions from the device maker.
C.) test the setup, make sure you don’t bump into anything while in your VR space.
Get some games and experiences (some of these are restricted to specific devices)
A.) Good starting games and experiences
Tiltbrush
Beat Saber
Google earth VR
Fruit ninja VR
Job simulator
Superhot VR
VRchat
NEXTVR
Thumper
B.) Good middle of the road games and experiences
Eagle Flight
Pavlov VR
Project Cars
Rick and Morty Virtual Rick-ality
The Talos Principle VR
Audica
Pistol Whip
C.) Good after you get used to VR
Half Life Alyx
Boneworks
Fallout 4 VR
Skyrim VR
Robo recall
Raw Data
Mod. Some of these games and experiences can be played on unsupported headsets through sideloading the games. And some games can be modded as well. Look around the internet for these.
ENJOY