I had a look at a couple of Moss things on Youtube. It did look fun.
I gave in and bought Myst. Does feel very weird being in an environment that's so familiar as a 2D/3D game. The textures etc. hold up fairly well, although they're not in the same league as Obduction (or probably a shedload of other games I haven't played yet).
Is this the stock game run through some VR code converter?
Not sure. The Steam version has supposedly been redone from the ground up, but I have my doubts. It had a major port onto the Unreal engine a while back and I think that's the basis of what we have here. Some parts have definitely been remade and/or remodelled, but most of it looks pretty similar. It's good on the Oculus, but apparently better on Steam. That isn't surprising given that the Oculus version has to fit into the disk space on the headset, whereas Steam has whatever is on your desktop.
TBH I didn't know there was a Steam version or I'd have gone for that (or the GOG version in a year or so which will probably be £1.99)
Oh, and it seems the video has gone in favour of CGI people. God alone knows why.
OK, my unsolicited review of the Oculus Quest 2.
1) It's not a comfortable thing to wear. There's no denying it. It has an unforgiving canvas strap that isn't easy to adjust and once it's on you soon realise that around a pound of plastic wrapped electronics is hanging off your forehead. My son 3D-printed me a sort of cap/cup thing that clips to the back of the strap and redistributes the strain a bit. I also invested in a squishy pvc cover for the edge that sits over nose, eyes, forehead and this is a vast improvement on the fabric affair that the Quest 2 is fitted with.
2) Biggest disappointment I suppose: the optics. There's limited adjustment for eye-width (3 positions) and no focus adjustment at all. An insert is provided for spectacle wearers, which clips under the nose/eye/forehead pad (I use this without specs as I find otherwise the lenses are uncomfortably close to my eyes/eye-lashes. Loads of people do, apparently). Things are kind of fuzzy. There's a sweet-spot directly ahead, but the further you move from this, the worse it gets. Don't get me wrong - it's not terrible. I understand that all VR headsets, especially those that use fresnel lenses, are prone to this. It does detract from the immersive feeling in a game, though. The natural thing to do in a landcape is to glance around. With this headset, if you want optimum sharpness you have to move your head. And small movements have a big impact. I find myself reseating the headset every so often, to re-center it relative to my eyes. The one thought that sums this up: built to a price.
3) Biggest plus: when the planets align it's brilliant fun and none of the above is a problem. There's something completely magical about almost being fooled into putting a controller down on a virtual table, or wandering up to examine a door surround that's so real you could carve your name on it. I've played through Myst and parts of Obduction, and I'm two thirds through Down the Rabbit Hole. I've watched loads of online content and stuff supplied with the Quest 2. I really like the way that I don't get 'lost' in a VR environment in the same way that's so easy in a 2D or even 3D gaming landscape.
4) My conclusion is that this is great for gaming and similar immersive content. I think that if VR had been a thing in the noughties, then adventure games would probably have had a second wind in a way that never quite happened. VR movies? There are a few that are really cool, but they tend to be carefully produced and they absolutely MUST be high def (4K or 8K). Otherwise there are literally thousands of 180 and 360 degree "immersive" videos out there that don't really cut the mustard. Years back when you went to the cinema you got two feature films. Later, when money was tight, this became one feature film plus a shorter low budget effort, often a "comedy" or a "documentary". I wondered where all those shorts went until I investigated VR online. There are apps to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime etc and a Big Screen app for online or local movies, but for me this is only likely to be an occasional thing because faced with a stationary screen and a pound and a half of plastic on my head, those optical shortcomings are a drag.
5) The Facebook thing: hmm, yes. That's another story.
"I really like the way that I don't get 'lost' in a VR environment in the same way that's so easy in a 2D or even 3D gaming landscape."
Not understanding this.
Especially in adventure type games, but basically any game where you wander around some environment, there are things you do in one place, part of a puzzle maybe, where you think - Ah, I have to go back to that other place. With me that's too often followed by - How the fuck do I get there? All I'm saying is that the VR environment feels easier to navigate.
Have you looked into prescription lenses? I’ve heard great things about them, but don’t really need to try myself.
I don't think it's my eyesight that causes issues. I'm long-sighted so I only wear glasses for reading and other close up stuff. If I'm looking at bright text or still images on the headset, it's as sharp as it can be in the central region. For instance when the Oculus symbol appears during boot up I can see every pixel. It's just that off-axis it's not so brilliant. I'm completely certain that's down to choices about the type and quality of the optics (and the resolution and type of screen, obviously). Perhaps I need to drop a few £k on a Varjo device.
That said, I'm very happy with the few games I've played so far.
...also, I just read my post at
42785.21 Yeah, pretty mangled English. What I meant to say was that even though I don't wear glasses with the headset, I use the insert/spacer provided for glasses. This is because without it I find the headset's lenses are uncomfortably close (on account of my lovely long sexy eyelashes).
Oh, and in that post I should have said that the wifi connection via the virtual desktop app is pretty cool. All the games and performance of a proper gaming PC, but in another room without trailing cables etc.
EDITED: 19 Jul 2021 12:04 by WILLIAMA
Oh I see! I think most of the things I play on it require me to concentrate pretty hard on what’s in the centre of my vision so I don’t tend to notice the off-axis stuff once I’ve started playing, it’s just a mild distraction beforehand.
So, my daughter is staying for a week. I gave her the Oculus to play with. Me and Mrs WilliamA are watching telly with Florence doing whatever. Suddenly she says "Yeah....High Five" and I say, "Did you just High Five a mouse?" and she says "Yes".
EDITED: 26 Jul 2021 09:45 by WILLIAMA
Yeah, that has the absolutely familiar feel of dealing with Facebook or any similar-size corporation. The only permitted contact is by methods they decide on which allow you to ask questions that they dictate. If they then fuck up, you have NO route. Of course you can always sent actual mail to one of their corporate addresses. If that then goes wrong then you're into the game of "who can afford more lawyers?".
Amazon, for instance, used to have a phone-back service to deal with problems that slipped through their "pre-determined question/answer" web pages. Gone now.
He doesn't have much more to say on Twitter. Must keep an eye on it to see how it goes.
It sounds like FB suspended the hijacked account, he's cleared out of FB and considers the matter closed.
So Myst VR is available on GOG now (waves vaguely at previous posts in the thread) but not at the £2 or thereabouts that I envisaged. It's actually the same price as Steam. Give it a few months though.