The next big thing in gaming:

There has always been questions of what will happen next in gaming and what will be the next big thing that changes gaming forever. People have always debated it being whatever they thought sounded the best, however now we have VR, virtual reality.

Virtual reality is the new big thing, it works through a headset that covers your eyes and sometimes ears, so you can’t see or hear anything that isn’t in the headset. VR allows you to feel fully immersed in a game; truly like you are in the game, well that’s the aim at least.

I won’t talk about the lower end VR headsets, I just don’t think they are even worth looking at. Due to the lower price the components of the headsets are considerably worse, this means that they can’t be used for gaming in the same way as the few at the top.

Capabilities:

How strong are the machines at this point; you might be wondering. Well, they are nothing to spectacular at this point, however they are getting better at quite a fast rate.
So what are the capabilities?

A Humans field of view is about 180 degrees and depending on what you go for VRs field of view is between 100−120 degrees.
2k resolution
90−120Hz
Latency 18−22ms

This is all the main information you need to no, it is the range of specs across the main VR brands. So what do these figures actually mean?

The field of view only effects immersion, so the lower the field of view the more blank space on each side.

Having 2k resolution means it will look relatively similar to your average TV.

A refresh rate of 90−120Hz means that it can draw 90−120 images per second, its basically the same as frames per second (FPS).

Then latency is essentially your ping, which is how fast an input takes to be completed, for example; if I click to jump in game the character will jump within 18−22ms(milliseconds).

Pricing:

If you want to get a virtual reality headset for gaming it isn’t going to be cheap, the three options you really have are; The Oculus rift, The HTC vive and The PlayStation VR.

The cheapest of the three is PlayStation VR at £349.99

Then the Oculus at £549.00

Last and most expensive the HTC at £769.99

So alone the headsets cost a lot of money. On top of these cost you will need a console or a PC to use it with which adds another chunk off about £250 for a console (plus the cost of the consoles required add-ons) For PC it will cost closer to £500.

With all of the requirements needed you are looking at spending at least £800 so it really isn’t cheap, keep in mind that there still isn’t many games out with VR capability that aren’t arcade type games. Similarly to when the likes of Xbox kinect first came out.

One step forward and two steps back:

Virtual reality is still by all means in its early stages there is a lot more to come in the future, however at this point the machines don’t feel like you are gaming on the most modern Tec.
Even though you may feel more immersed in the game at the same time it sort of feels like you are playing an old game, due to the lacking specs. The headsets themselves also still need some work done as well, at this point in time they are quite heavy with two of the main VR headsets; the oculus rift and the HTC vive weighing 380g and 555g, so it’s not the best for longer gaming sessions.

One of the main points of virtual reality gaming as I said is immersion which still has a way to go. When using VR you only see the game, but you still have to use a controller while playing, which is something that you don’t really forget you’re holding. They also have big wires attached to the back which can easily get in the way of you playing, and if you get and arm or leg tangled it doesn’t really make you feel like you’re in the game.

I think that VR machines are a lot of fun, they are something a bit different that anyone can enjoy playing for a while, however I think it is something that after the initial hype wares of they will just be put to once side occasionally picked up to show someone for a few minutes.

All of this is why I don’t think VR headsets are worth buying at this point in time, they are still in their infancy as far as technology goes. However once they have been out for at least a few more years and the companies work on removing issues whilst fine tuning the product they will definitely being something a lot more people will love.

What are your thoughts on VR and what do you think it needs to be better for gaming? comment below