I haven’t built a gaming PC for over fifteen years; I defected to PlayStation in '08 when the constant upgrading got too expensive to really justify, but now I’m looking to come crawling back.
I am finding it easy enough to find build ideas for very capable (and expensive) machines but I am that out of touch with “what’s good” that I no longer have any idea of what would be “good enough” (to play most modern games at “high” settings and at 60fps).
Basically, I would like help in avoiding an attempt at going back to my old ways and building some kind of pie in the sky setup like this:
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
CPU fan NZXT Kraken 360 RGB
MB Asus Prime X670E-Pro WiFi 6E
GPU Gigabyte Aero GeForce RTX 4090 24GB
RAM G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series 64GB DDR5-6000
SSD Samsung 990 Pro 2TB
PSU Corsair RM1000x Shift 1000 W
Perhaps the could serve as a starting point - what could you cut from the above build and what would you substitute?
The main thing you’ll want to look for is resolution/pixel density and the refresh rate of the headset. bonus if it can support foveated rendering. I have the Reverb G2 which has a very high display resolution but is only 90hz, for some it’s just not good enough. I find it okay, but it being WMR is an issue for my wants, which is the Index Knuckles. The hand tracking just feels so good and is worth it for the games that utilize it - they’re also just more comfortable than the stock G2 controllers are. It’s a mixedVR setup I run, but it works with most of the games I’ve played (quite a few VR titles)
If there were a SteamVR headset that were consistent $349 on sale with the specs of the G2… alas.
Games wise I would look at the ~5 popular genres, which would be flight simming/racing, in-VR but not VR games (Tetris effect, Moose Life, KOTH emulators in VR), rhythm based (highly recommend pistol whip), and your action games, shooter and swordsy.
Some solid overall games Duck Season, Boneworks (or Bonelab, now. These 3 are all made by the same people), Superhot VR, REZ Infinite, Stride, Pavlov VR, Arkade, Naked Sun, King Kaiju, Holoball. If you like zombies, Arizona Sunshine and Saints & Sinners (Walking Dead) are fun. Bandit Point is a pretty good tower defence ish, and hyper psychic gauntlets is a little more laid back but still fun, though maybe on a sale, along with Vertical Shift. Can’t not mention Blade & Sorcery, Gorn, Half-Life Alyx, pretty much sacrelidge. There’s also a few asynchronous games, Phasmophobia but also Vox Machinae I learned recently as well as Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes - particularly great for 3+ friends. Sim and arcade sim styles VR Regatta, VTolVR, V-Racer Hoverbike, Star Wars Squadrons, Elite Dangerous.
If you like creative hobbies I also recommend any music based program, Paradiddle for drumming, VInyl Reality for DJing (your own music on a hard drive), SynthVR for an extensive modular synth, Electronauts is more scaled back but with more than synths in mind. Vermillion for painting in VR and OpenBrush for VR paintings. There’s SculptrVR as well.
I mentioned Pistol Whip which is basically musical John wick simulator - there’s also beatsaber which everyone recommends but it’s always $30 and honestly, its pretty mediocre… imo of course, lol. It’s strength is the insane amount of user content but I found myself enjoying almost every single variation of BS. There’s audioshield, synth riders, and against which of them was my least favorite. Of them all though, PW just keeps me coming back for more - but they’re all fun.
Finally for games - on PC there’s a number of emulated VR games like Metroid Prime or Mario Sunshine that are worth trying. Indie Weird VR games are usually the best ones. Oh, and there are games that are more experiences than they are games, sometimes this is good, sometimes it’s a scam. I’d say the barometer is somewhere along the lines of Hellblade Senua Sacrifice VR - good experience if you know what you’re getting into, better than flat. VR meditation or drug trip experience - eh, less so. Subnautica is also worth a shot.
Anyway, you won’t be able to play many of these on console VR but I’m sure some are around. If you ever do foray into VR I recommend checking out some games, the general genres you encounter and see if they’re for you. VR is in a bit of a weird space right now but there are still lots of awesome games, it’s just a matter of measuring which era they’re from and how developed they were. 2016 Vive games aren’t always bad, but they aren’t always fleshed out. That doesn’t mean that 2020 VR games are any better, though… lol.
The last thing I’ll mention for real is programs to integrate things into VR, you can turn many games into 3D-like games with VorpX or mods, but it can take some finagling (and money sometimes). VorpX is ok. I’m more interested though in overlays, as that allows you to bring panels into VR. My favorite thing during lockdown was setting up Elite Dangerous, running SCRCPY to mirror my phone on my PC, and that window captured with XSOverlay (or OVR Toolkit). Let’s you have your phone in VR. Pop up another window for streaming and maybe one more for discord and baby we are living in the year 3000 in 2020 - VR space flight simming with floating windows for phone, media, and social… those were the days… stupid real life.
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With anything in line of that build; a VR headset. Although I’d wait until the Deckard is officially announced/released before actually buying.
I’ve never actually tried VR; a friend has offered to let me try their console VR at the end of the week so I’ll be taking notes.
The main thing you’ll want to look for is resolution/pixel density and the refresh rate of the headset. bonus if it can support foveated rendering. I have the Reverb G2 which has a very high display resolution but is only 90hz, for some it’s just not good enough. I find it okay, but it being WMR is an issue for my wants, which is the Index Knuckles. The hand tracking just feels so good and is worth it for the games that utilize it - they’re also just more comfortable than the stock G2 controllers are. It’s a mixedVR setup I run, but it works with most of the games I’ve played (quite a few VR titles)
If there were a SteamVR headset that were consistent $349 on sale with the specs of the G2… alas.
Games wise I would look at the ~5 popular genres, which would be flight simming/racing, in-VR but not VR games (Tetris effect, Moose Life, KOTH emulators in VR), rhythm based (highly recommend pistol whip), and your action games, shooter and swordsy.
Some solid overall games Duck Season, Boneworks (or Bonelab, now. These 3 are all made by the same people), Superhot VR, REZ Infinite, Stride, Pavlov VR, Arkade, Naked Sun, King Kaiju, Holoball. If you like zombies, Arizona Sunshine and Saints & Sinners (Walking Dead) are fun. Bandit Point is a pretty good tower defence ish, and hyper psychic gauntlets is a little more laid back but still fun, though maybe on a sale, along with Vertical Shift. Can’t not mention Blade & Sorcery, Gorn, Half-Life Alyx, pretty much sacrelidge. There’s also a few asynchronous games, Phasmophobia but also Vox Machinae I learned recently as well as Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes - particularly great for 3+ friends. Sim and arcade sim styles VR Regatta, VTolVR, V-Racer Hoverbike, Star Wars Squadrons, Elite Dangerous.
If you like creative hobbies I also recommend any music based program, Paradiddle for drumming, VInyl Reality for DJing (your own music on a hard drive), SynthVR for an extensive modular synth, Electronauts is more scaled back but with more than synths in mind. Vermillion for painting in VR and OpenBrush for VR paintings. There’s SculptrVR as well.
I mentioned Pistol Whip which is basically musical John wick simulator - there’s also beatsaber which everyone recommends but it’s always $30 and honestly, its pretty mediocre… imo of course, lol. It’s strength is the insane amount of user content but I found myself enjoying almost every single variation of BS. There’s audioshield, synth riders, and against which of them was my least favorite. Of them all though, PW just keeps me coming back for more - but they’re all fun.
Finally for games - on PC there’s a number of emulated VR games like Metroid Prime or Mario Sunshine that are worth trying. Indie Weird VR games are usually the best ones. Oh, and there are games that are more experiences than they are games, sometimes this is good, sometimes it’s a scam. I’d say the barometer is somewhere along the lines of Hellblade Senua Sacrifice VR - good experience if you know what you’re getting into, better than flat. VR meditation or drug trip experience - eh, less so. Subnautica is also worth a shot.
Anyway, you won’t be able to play many of these on console VR but I’m sure some are around. If you ever do foray into VR I recommend checking out some games, the general genres you encounter and see if they’re for you. VR is in a bit of a weird space right now but there are still lots of awesome games, it’s just a matter of measuring which era they’re from and how developed they were. 2016 Vive games aren’t always bad, but they aren’t always fleshed out. That doesn’t mean that 2020 VR games are any better, though… lol.
The last thing I’ll mention for real is programs to integrate things into VR, you can turn many games into 3D-like games with VorpX or mods, but it can take some finagling (and money sometimes). VorpX is ok. I’m more interested though in overlays, as that allows you to bring panels into VR. My favorite thing during lockdown was setting up Elite Dangerous, running SCRCPY to mirror my phone on my PC, and that window captured with XSOverlay (or OVR Toolkit). Let’s you have your phone in VR. Pop up another window for streaming and maybe one more for discord and baby we are living in the year 3000 in 2020 - VR space flight simming with floating windows for phone, media, and social… those were the days… stupid real life.