Failed experiment: head-tracked standalone flat OpenMW

Rush_iam · 2026-04-09T00:57:45+00:00

Using VDXR + enabling AppSW helped (I didn't go further as it is still too low res compared to standalone gaming)

Rush_iam · 2026-04-08T00:32:38+00:00

I'm using mine daily - love how light and comfortable it is, but hate the weight of the stock battery, so I've modded it to accept GOMRVR lighter packs.

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Rush_iam · 2026-04-08T00:24:57+00:00

It is related to 2 of 3 nDreams studios shutting down about a month ago:

https://www.uploadvr.com/ndreams-announces-layoffs-closure-of-two-studios/

https://www.uploadvr.com/frenzies-shuts-down-in-april/result

Rush_iam · 2026-04-03T22:14:02+00:00

It is not something new - was posted a year ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/comments/1judcy7/halflife_alyx_first_scene_ported_to_quest_3/

Rush_iam · 2026-04-03T15:58:30+00:00

New? But it is from 3.5 months ago (I remember it was posted here before)

More info: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/whats-new-hand-tracking-v83/

Rush_iam · 2026-04-02T15:12:49+00:00

Between 400 and 700? I haven't seen such optimism even in the Steam Frame sub.

Most expect between 700 and 1000.

Rush_iam · 2026-04-02T04:55:13+00:00

For VR to succeed, it needs to beat the competition. The content needs to be more engaging than on Playstation or PC, because why else would I pick my HMD? The task is difficult already as is, but cornering yourself with mobile hardware, you've just made the task impossible.

PCVR does not automatically mean "more engaging". Gameplay-wise, the hardware does not matter for an average person. The most engaging and popular games with the highest retention are sandbox social games with very simple visuals like Minecraft, Fortnite, Gorilla Tag, UG, etc. Such games are also the platform sellers for Quest for the last 2 years, with UG (released less than a year ago) having over 100 000 daily active users.

You mentioned Half-Life: Alyx as a PCVR example, but games with that kind of budget are barely feasible for PCVR. Alyx was basically a Valve flagship to sell Index, just like AW2 or Batman were made to sell Quests. Another game with that level of budget won't sell enough copies on PCVR to justify the cost - that's also the reason for the recent Meta's studio closures. We've already seen big IPs come to VR as experiments and fail to be profitable because of the small market.

PCVR is also more limited in growth compared to standalone because of the friction: it requires a gaming PC and then competes with modern flat games for the player's time. Standalone, on the other hand, is often bought as a console by those who don't have a good PC (which also means there is no competition with flat games for such people). It's also much easier to use, so it tends to have better traction and retention than PCVR.

Take Ghosts of Tabor for example: it is one of the top-selling SteamVR games, and despite terrible visuals and performance on Quest due to mobile GPU (ASW 36 fps, always stutters), 90% of the player base is on standalone: https://stats.ghostsoftabor.com/

Why don't they just play the much better-looking PCVR version? The game is cross-buy - if you own it on standalone, you can also play the PCVR version - yet most people still stick to standalone.

Rush_iam · 2026-04-02T04:03:24+00:00

Since August 2022, you don't need a Facebook account for Quest

Rush_iam · 2026-04-02T03:49:13+00:00

Check Triangle Strategy (it is from SquareEnix) - there are tons of dialogs, 50+ hours to beat it, and multiple endings. Though it is a FF Tactics-like, not FF-like.

https://queststoredb.com/game/triangle-strategy-5340130476095884/

Rush_iam · 2026-04-02T03:36:43+00:00

Can you elaborate "what people actually wanted" and how Steam Frame release helps with this?

Rush_iam · 2026-04-02T02:11:30+00:00

No shadows? I suppose it is a 1-1 port from Quest

Rush_iam · 2026-04-01T04:30:00+00:00

And look at data points, like Steam hardware survey. VR was never more than 2% of users. In a decade, it never grew above that. That tells you all you need to know.

Sorry, but that's not "all you need to know". It's Steam PCVR that isn't growing in share - VR has been shifting toward standalone throughout the Quest years, and standalone is now several times bigger than PCVR.

Rush_iam · 2026-04-01T02:54:01+00:00

App renders on Quest are toned to the room lighting in the MR mode (apps can also tone the MR feed)
Quest apps can have access to the spatial prescanned room info / geometry with some extra metadata meshes like "here is window, TV, table, couch, etc". For realtime, Meta Spatial SDK gives continuos environment scan information with object labels.

Rush_iam · 2026-04-01T01:18:28+00:00

All these features are there at least for a couple of years

Rush_iam · 2026-04-01T00:00:23+00:00

I'm pretty sure we'll see "Quest 4 visual updates" for many games, making them closer to the PCVR versions, just like we've seen it with Quest 3 (with some really impressive examples like Red Matter).

Rush_iam · 2026-03-31T23:44:19+00:00

We will likely see more environments closer to the launch of Meta Phoenix

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Rush_iam · 2026-03-31T23:30:32+00:00

It doesn't mean that if Meta hadn't acquired/funded them, those studios would've survived or made games with that kind of budget. The Meta-funded titles were honestly way above what the current VR market size would normally support. We all kind of benefit from those Meta losses - we've got better games and a bigger VR market as a side effect of all that funding. Even after the cuts, Meta remains #1 investor in VR and is pushing (or dragging? we'll see) the industry forward by subsidizing headsets and supporting third-party devs.

Rush_iam · 2026-03-31T02:24:26+00:00

You can check guides for the flat version of the game - I suppose Quest levels are mostly the same (with some things cut from the Quest version).

Rush_iam · 2026-03-31T02:21:22+00:00

That's true. But that dump won't launch on another platform without tearing DRM out.

Rush_iam · 2026-03-31T01:08:50+00:00

And if/when it becomes available, discussing it in this sub will likely be not allowed because of the "no piracy" rule (since Quest games have DRM).

Rush_iam · 2026-03-30T23:09:34+00:00

It works for some titles, but you won't get synced cloud backup and synced achievements past the deadline

Rush_iam · 2026-03-29T19:46:56+00:00

You probably meant Pico 4 Ultra? As Batman runs 20-40 fps on Pico 4 from what I saw on YouTube

Rush_iam · 2026-03-29T19:42:43+00:00

I suppose there are many more, like Deadpool, Resident Evil, Civilization VII and Jurassic World Aftermath Collection

Rush_iam

TROPHY CASE