Getting A New Device I have finally decided to take the plunge. No not into a lake or the stock market, but into VR. I knew nothing about VR, I was probably the most ignorant computer savvy person when it came to this. By the way I will mention what VR stands for even though just about everyone knows it. VR is Virtual Reality. All I knew was using a good version of it made you feel like you were really in the situation it depicted. For example, there is a game out there which lets you be Spiderman and swing from building to building and make you actually feel like you are high in the air. It is not for the faint of heart. It is amazing to me how someone’s brain can be fooled into thinking they are on the edge of a skyscraper and looking down even though they know it isn’t real and it still makes them scared of the height. I decided this would be just the thing for me since I do have time on my hands and it would give me a chance to take museum tours and such without leaving my chair. I always loved this kind of thing and spent many a day in the New York Museum of Natural History among the dinosaurs, gem stones and different civilizations showed there. So how does one know which VR system is the best for them? When you know nothing about them you have to talk to people who know and do some research on the internet and that is just what I did. What I found out really surprised me. There may be more expensive VR headsets, but the most expensive one I saw was about $1500. There were also some real cheapies made from cardboard. Since I knew nothing about the differences I began to dig and found out the very cheap ones used your cell phone for the display. Knowing nothing about this I asked one of my sons and he told me he had one like that and it was okay but you had to use the phones lens. That was not for me being an older person and not having the greatest vision. He also told me he thought it was good until he used an Oculus which was such a leap on display technology, he bought one. He purchased the Oculus Rift S. He loves it, but if you are thinking about buying it, it is no longer in production and has been replaced by the Oculus Quest 2. I learned something about this which surprised me again. I didn’t know in order to use an Oculus VR you need a Facebook account. It turns out Oculus is a brand of Facebook Technologies, LLC. This means if you quit Facebook, you now have just a brick. The brain is a funny thing since it is so easy to trick. I remember going on Soaring at Disney World. I really felt like I was flying through the sky even though I knew it wasn’t real, but I couldn’t convince my brain of that. In a way it was virtual reality, just presented using a different method. I have to imagine as we get more information about certain planets it will become a possibility; we will be able to walk on planets like Mars or even stroll across the moon. Just imagine if we find life and that becomes included in the VR presentation. VR headsets come with different amounts of memory and resolution. I really don’t know from personal experience how much is necessary for a cool virtual experience so I began to check it out. I found an interesting article which stated no storage was required if you streamed from your computer. The Quest 2 can be attached to your computer with the proper cable if you have the right port. On the other hand, if you want to take the headset away from the computer than you will be relying on the storage capacity to load things into it and in that case many people are saying 256 gigs is a necessity. Contrary to this idea is what one user said. He loaded only 69 gigs of software onto it in 18 months. It looks to me as if the 64 gig version of the Quest 2 would be good enough for most of us. I am not just saying this about the Quest 2, but for any of the VR sets. So, how much resolution do you need for the best experience? The Oculus Quest 2 has a resolution of 1832 X 1920 per eye which is said to be really good for a realistic display and refreshes at 90 Hz. It was rated as the best bargain for the money, but there are other choices out there. The HTC was rated as the best of the best. The Daily News site tested five VR sets. The Quest 2, HTC Vive Cosmos Elite, Sony Playstation VR, HTC Vive Pro Eye and Oculus Rift S. The Sony was rated the best for console gaming, HTC Vive Pro Eye and Oculus Rift S also had high ratings, but the Rift S is now discontinued. One of the main problems is most are very expensive and you have to consider if you can even tell the difference in the experience. Another thing to take into consideration is if you wear glasses will they all be comfortable. The HTC Vive Cosmos Elite is about $1300. This is about $900 more than an Oculus Quest 3 with 256 gigs of memory. It is said to have better control and will recognize movement behind your head. Oculus will not recognize movement behind your back in any area. Many say the sound is also better. The combined resolution is 2880 X 1700. This means 1440 X 1600 per eye. Will any of this make that big a difference? I guess this depends on the person. In my case the Oculus Quest 3 is certainly good enough for me. The base price for the Sony Playstation VR is about $650. It sports an OLED display but doesn’t work with a PC. If you don’t own a Playstation, you will have to add that to the price. The resolution is 1080P. The last VR set reviewed was the HTC Vive Pro Eye which cost about $800. It had the same resolution as the HTC Vive Cosmos Elite. The bottom line is I would check out the amount of memory, the refresh rate, the resolution, if the VR can be used with a computer, how much a useful version will be with everything you need added, if you wear glasses will it be comfortable and then the reviews. Only then would I decide on what to purchase.
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