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Glossary:Virtual reality headset

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Revision as of 04:56, 29 January 2020 by Marioysikax (talk | contribs) (→‎Compatibility layers: Adding OpenComposite.)
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Graphics and video

Resolutions

Video settings

Hardware

For a list of games, see List of VR games.

General information

Virtual Reality on Wikipedia
Virtual Reality headset on Wikipedia

Key points

Virtual reality (VR in short) means simulated enviroment experienced by user, with PC gaming, this means usage of virtual reality headset with games. This replaces monitor as window for the game and places the player inside the game instead.

General

Current standards that are being utilized by the games are following:

Currently compatibility is up to what standard the game is utilizing and what headsets the standard supports. With compatibility layers, it is possible to make game use another standard or headset to work with another standard, but compatibility is not always quaranteed.

OpenXR is standardization effort to fix this fragmentation. Stable version was released in July 29, 2019, meaning adaptation will take for a while

Software

Official software

SteamVR

Steam is required to install the software, however Steam is not required to run SteamVR.

Oculus

Oculus or Facebook account is required.

Mixed Reality Portal

Windows 10 is required.

OSVR HDK

Natively supports SteamVR.

Compatibility layers

Revive

Open source.
Compatibility layer to play Oculus games using SteamVR compatible headset.
Supports OpenXR but can can also be used in combination of other compatibility layers e.g. WMR for SteamVR to play Oculus games.

OpenComposite

Open source.
Compatibility layer to play SteamVR (aka OpenVR) games with Oculus headsets.
Altough SteamVR already has support for Oculus headsets, this can provide better performance and compatibility on top of eliminating need to install Steam and downloading gigabytes of data required by SteamVR.

Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR

Free.
Compatibility layer to use any Windows Mixed Reality headset with SteamVR.

RiftCat VRidge

Shareware.
Allows utilizing mobile VR headsets as SteamVR compatible headset.

Trinus

Shareware.
Allows using Google Cardboard, Daydream or PlayStation VR headset as SteamVR compatible headset.

VR drivers

VR drivers mean software which can take games designed to be played with traditional monitor and make them playable with VR headsets, including stereoscopic vision and head movement.

vorpX

Commercial.
See vorpX page for list of game support.

Vireio Perception

Currently only games using DirectX 9 are supported.
Has not been updated since 2016, no compatibility with newer headsets.

Other software

OpenVR Advanced Settings Overlay

Adds additional settings into the SteamVR environment that allows you to change aspects of games and SteamVR to your liking and convenience.

OpenVR-InputEmulator

ChaperoneTweak

Allows you to adjust the chaperone boundaries in SteamVR, as well as the available playspace.

Play Area

Game should always adjust the playing area based on headset and room setup process automatically. Some games offer choises to change between differend kind of play areas, but usually this is determined by virtual reality headset setup process and changing it e.g. from room-scale to standing might require re-setup.
Games which require room-scale might not be playable with standing or seated setups, however games requiring seated should always work with all setups.
If games do not offer or detect play area correctly, there can be issues e.g. being able to clip outside intented areas like helmet character is wearing or seeing chaperone when playing game seated near or outside room-scale area.

Seated

Common with games made for regular monitors having VR mode or using VR drivers, racing games, etc.
This is the basic level of support and all headsets should support at least this play area. This is also only supported play area with something like google cardboard.
Heads spacial movement is completely disabled in this mode as in you can look around, but you cannot move your heads position from its current position, alternatively extremely limited. Position is usually centered when game is launched and can be re-centered if it drifts from headset overlay.
Games usually prefer keyboard and mouse or controller for the gameplay, motion controllers can be supported but overall interactivity with them is also limited.

Standing

More common with games made specifically for VR and games which utilize motion controllers.
Usually featured in more higher end headsets with some level of spacial tracking. Allows rotational movement, crouching and sometimes small amount of spacial movement, but generally player is assumed to not leave single spot.
Allows generally wider range of movement with head inside the virtual reality space and usually requires motion controllers to be used.

Room-Scale

Overall really similar to standing experience, but on top of everything you can physically move around in the virtual space. Requirements for space vary, but for SteamVR smallest area is at least 1.5m*2m.
Utilizes features like chaperone, virtual boundry to tell where real life boundries are or camera passtrough so that when physically moving in virtual space you won't get out of real life bounds.

List of VR headsets and peripherals

SteamVR

Oculus

Windows Mixed Reality

Open Source VR

Sony Playstation

Mobile


References