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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • Yeah, when I first started VR back with my DK2, I could only wear that about 2 hours at a time. Over the years, not sure how much of it was me adapting to it and how much was VR headsets and aftermarket mods getting better, but I can and often do, spend 16 hours a day in VR now.

    VR has replaced almost every screen in my life. I watch TV and movies on it, I play my traditional computer games on it(flat or 3D or fully converted to 3rd or 1st person VR), as well as my native VR games. With recent headsets being able to fully bring the real world back in and blend it with the VR perfectly, I just socialize equally with the people that are actually in the same room as me, as well as people who just -seem- like they are in the same room as me. The only screen it hasn’t replaced yet is my phone, some people and companies had made some inroads into incorporating phone stuff in VR, but that didn’t really take off. And also I still make sure I can see the real TV everyone else can see when hanging out with my family. So I can be involved in the conversation around what we/they are watching. And yes, the Quest 3 can see TV screens clearly in passthrough, previous headsets struggled there. I can even read the closed captioning.

    To me and my family, it just feels normal now, my sister is also pretty much at the same point. I got her to try it a couple years ago when she was upset that certain games she wanted to play from the couch or recliner didn’t look or run well on her Steam Deck. I was like, you have an amazing computer, you could be playing those games at 4k and not have to be looking down at your hands if you just try it in VR like I do. So she did try, and she has never gone back. She uses my Quest pro, I use a Quest 3, I only modded the pro for about 8 hours runtime, since the controllers were only 8 hours anyway. But since she is mostly using it for PC games, she is generally using an xbox controller. So she just plugs the headset into a charger at her seat. Because 8 hours wasn’t enough.

    Ok, well that has veered off topic, sorry.


  • I really hope, and should probably assume, this is a joke post. But I feel like even though it must be, I’m gonna fall for the bait, as the character you have presented yourself as would have missed out on so much. But I’m gonna explain it in what is hopefully a worthwhile read so it’s not a waste.

    The reason a RealD 3D movie is so bright and blurry without the glasses on is that the scenes for both eyes are projected at the canvas. The light from both images is polarized to perpendicular angles with each other. The glasses have different polarization for each eye that only let in the light from the image intended for that eye. So with the glasses on, it will not only be back down to the correct brightness, but will be 3D instead of blurry, as each eye is only seeing one image now. A properly shot image from exactly far enough away from the other eyes view point, so as to seem as though you saw the scene with your own eyes to start with.


  • Yeah, one of the nice things about it was that not only was it proper 3D, but it was a showcase of how 3D could and should be done. If anyone didn’t watch it in 3D in the theaters, the only other option for seeing it as intended is VR now.

    I’m in the camp of people that has watched it and the second one multiple times. Made sure to catch them in theater first, I rarely bother to see movies in theater. But at home I watch them in my VR theater in perfect 3D, the visuals are actually better in my setup(4k raw videofile on Virtual Desktop, tuned to the exact size and distance I want the screen to be), the sound isn’t quite what a theater would do, but mostly cuz I don’t actually like how “big” they go with the sound at theaters. I’d rather it feel like I’m there, than being so over the top. My audio at home doesn’t have to drown out a crowd of people.

    I think the whole experience in VR is better than theater, the movie presents better at a reasonable volume and soundstage.






  • Quest 2 and the other headsets of that generation were the turning point. That was when you could finally do a good looking 1080p screen in VR. Quest pro and Quest 3 are about equivalent to 1440p in actual pixels at a comfortable field of view, but in perceived clarity they are as good as 4k. Mainly the pancake lenses helped, VR has always been able to show more digital clarity than the physical equivalent in pixels on a real screen, since it’s got that free temporal antialiasing from your micromovements of your head/neck. But the old lenses really robbed alot of that potential clarity.

    I for sure wouldn’t spend the money on a vision pro, and not just because I don’t have anything else from the apple ecosystem to use it with. That is just too high of a price for a household object to me. A 500 dollar headset and 3000 dollar PC would be a way better use of money.

    But I’m glad the vision pro exists. I think Apple getting involved in something helps normal people see it as a real thing finally. I do think the vision pro is worth the price it costs in the sense that there isn’t alot of mark up there. The tech they put in there is roughly in that ballpark, but I agree that it isn’t quite good enough to replace a desktop, and there isn’t a huge need for a VR headset that replaces a laptop. I certainly will stick to 500 dollar headsets as they steadily approach that same power level. Honestly, at the rate mobile chipset upgrades go, it’s like 3 years behind laptop power at any given point. Not a huge wait.

    A Quest 3 is already in a pretty good place compute power wise. Games already look pretty good, it can stream incredibly high quality video, and having the equivalent of multiple 4k screens all within that relatively tiny price point, hard to compete. But competing is important, and I do hope vision pro does well enough to keep it’s line going. I do like that they made sure there was an official source for 3D movies for the vision pro. I like watching 3D movies in VR, but there was no easy source currently still. You have to get them yourself, whether by playing or ripping the disk on a pc, or streaming them in low quality unofficial apps, or by just straight up illegally downloading them. There was no official store front for real high quality 3d movies in VR yet.

    I wonder if they have any future plans for whatever apple would end up calling PCVR. It’s not just for much better looking games, there are also useful apps that benefit from real computer power instead of laptop power.

    I am also not a big fan of “bespoke” headsets. Any of the ones that try to make it only fit one person best. Even the most uncomfortable headsets are able to be a comfortable 8 hour general use headset for less than 100 dollars of after market mods. VR headsets should be for sharing, especially at those kinds of prices. I think more awareness of the aftermarket and third party scene should be a goal.

    Like the smartphone market, VR headsets have alot of options for customization, and alot of those options make a huge difference for very little cost. I’ve got a huge head, basically the biggest most VR headsets can even support, and I also share my headsets with pretty much everyone I know, including my nieces and nephews, one of which actually had a head size below the minimum when she started. We just put a sweatband on her before the headset and she was good.

    With a halo strap and swappable battery system, Quest 2 and 3 were good to go for hours on everyone I had try it. Quest 1 actually didn’t need anything for comfort other than a counterweight, so I added a 10k mah battery to it, an anker slim. Immediately bringing it to 8 hours of comfortable run time. The pro only needed a new forehead piece, so I got one that was cloth covered memory foam, and then put that same anker slim on it. Speaking of the Quest pro, it was hard enough to spend 1000 dollars on a VR headset. But the eye and face tracking were nice, I still use that one for social VR stuff. But the Quest 3 for anything else.

    I basically live in VR, I come out to eat and sleep, and most of the time when I leave the house. Not every time, sometimes I bring the headset with me. But I’m not technically in VR most of the time, I’m in mixed reality. I am certainly what people would call a VR evangelist, I do get any of the people that express interest to try it. I know there is a very good chance my VR demo is likely the best one they have ever gotten, mostly cuz it’s often the first, but also because it’s actually pretty hard to keep in mind all the best practices of doing VR demos.

    I’ve gotten pretty good at giving impromptu demos to strangers. I always have sanitary covers in my VR bag. And I can eyeball their head size and pupil distance and pick the most likely experience for them. Though I do still let it be their choice, just with my recommendation. And once they are in the headset I do confirm the fit and pupil distance. But having them pre-set pretty close really cuts down on the more uncomfortable parts where a stranger has to be really close to them. And if the fit and clarity are close enough, I can completely skip that even. You don’t need perfect in a modern headset for it to blow their mind.


  • I mean, the rest of us have had proper VR headsets for ten years. Lots of “normal” people in VR now. Mixed reality headsets barely get in the way of socializing with other people in your room, while adding socializing with people not in your room.

    It’s about the same as socializing with someone watching TV or playing a videogame on a TV or computer monitor. Even without seeing their game/app/document/show it’s pretty easy to determine on sight if they are currently too engaged to properly hold a conversation.

    Doing work in VR is about the same as outside of VR, but with the possibility for less distractions and a more organized work area. There are no longer any tradeoffs in modern headsets now that they rival the clarity of a comfortably positioned monitor or TV. And can display many such virtual screens wherever you want them to be.

    But, those possibilities don’t mean you -have to- shut yourself off, how much you want to be distracted by outside stuff is entirely up to you and the people around you. If you prefer to be interrupted, as many people with family do, it’s just as possible to keep your work space contained to a single screen and to work with the outside world pouring in at all times.

    As for gaming, you have every option. You don’t have to only play games where you are physically partaking in the adventure. But you have the option to when it’s the right kind of gaming for that situation. You also have the option of sitting on your living room recliner with the rest of the family watching TV or a movie or playing a game, and you have an additional virtual screen beside the real TV with your work or game or different TV show on it. And with non-apple headsets, each member of your family can financially reasonably have the same option. One family shared screen to socialize with, and one personal screen. And before you ask, yes there are parental controls for VR headsets.

    While the minimum age for VR has legally been 13 for most of the past 10 years, it has recently reduced to 10. Though many people started their kids as early as 4-5 years old, and those kids are perfectly healthy teenagers now. As with all other digital content, it’s best to know what they are actually doing in VR. You have a range of options all the way down to literally seeing the video feed of their headset in real time, or as minimally invasive as just seeing what programs they are launching/playing. For younger kids, it’s best to not play anything online. Not only for them, but for the rest of us, lol.

    And for people that have been in VR 8 hours a day for 10 years now, there have been no negative health issues. And actually compared to people who spend 8 hours a day watching TV or playing traditional videogames on a screen, the VR users are significantly better off on average. While that is only the extreme of 8 hours a day, it illustrates the point most effectively. Spending less time doing any is generally better, but the subset of VR players that spend most of their time in active games were better off than the average person that spent less time doing any. Because obviously just sitting for long periods of time is the main problem. But there were no detriments to vision in the VR players, which makes sense as, if anything it is again possible to be more healthy to our eyes in VR than staring at any other screen.





  • Liquid is incompressible.

    Compressing a gas to nearly 100x it’s natural density is going to dramatically increase it’s temperature. In simplified mechanics, you can basically think of it like all the energy that makes it the temperature it is naturally will still be there when it is 1% of it’s original size. So all that energy is “overlapping” and adding together to make it’s new temperature based on there being 100x as much energy in each place now. Even if it started at 10 degrees Kelvin, assuming a linear gain, it would be 1000 degrees Kelvin after compressing.

    Of course all of that is super simplified and not the “real” math or mechanics in all their complexity. But it should help illustrate why it would not be possible or a good time.

    And that is only the temperature half of it. Compressing an area to 100 atmospheres, which I’m presuming would be the level of pressure necessary to get that gas (or a safer slightly less dense one) to the needed density range, would also be pretty dangerous if not immediately fatal to the human. Again that level of pressure is assuming a linear gain, I don’t know for sure if it would be linear.

    So even if you manage to find something you could breathe, you wouldn’t be able to at that level of pressure. You would need to be wearing a suit that can be pressurized and breathing from something that isn’t feeling that pressure. Which completely defeats the whole point of choosing a medium to be immersed in that doesn’t require a suit or tank like being in water does.

    It is however, theoretically possible to breathe liquids. Just incredibly uncomfortable for humans. There are humans that have survived it in experiments. After an initial adjustment period where your brain is certain you are drowning for a few minutes, eventually you are able to over ride that when you don’t die. Then you can hang out for a bit not dying despite it seeming like you should be… and then when you are done breathing liquid, the terrible part starts, you have to get the remaining liquid out of your lungs so there is room to put air in them again. As much as the rest is not great, transitioning back to air was universally considered the worst part of the experiment.



  • Hmm, that could be RAM or VideoRAM. Test lowering individual settings like texture quality or anti-aliasing to diagnose which. I forget if cyberpunk specifically has settings for view distance or LoD, those could also be worth a try if so. Just lower them one notch, one at a time, and see if any of them made a notable difference in that specific stuttering.

    Ooh, shadows, and more specifically ambient occlusion. Two other very good areas to test. Those both would also be at heaviest demand when rotating the camera. Also if the game has object based motion blur, personally I prefer that off anyway performance increase or not, but in this case it could be another culprit, hope it turns out you don’t like it too. Basically comes down to if you want your games to look like they were filmed with a camera, instead of something you are seeing first-hand.


  • What type of stutters? They may not be videocard related; ram, hard drive and processor are more likely to cause big stutters than a videocard. Videocard stutters will be microstutters rarely more than a couple dropped frames in a row. There can also be network based stutters, but they are unlikely in a game like cyberpunk.

    Even more uncommon, but If it’s a constant pervasive stutter that doesnt get worse or better, do a clean uninstall of your videocard drivers and your display drivers and get the most recent known-good versions of each.