Give VR sim-racing a try (Assetto Corsa), if it strikes your fancy, at all. It’s a downright miraculous experience (especially with a wheel) and THE greatest thing I’ve experienced in VR. I literally learned to drive a manual in Assetto Corsa before going and driving a real manual Porsche race car.
Oh yeah, I’ve played pretty much everything over the past 10 years in VR. In your same vein, I would recommend Elite: Dangerous. I played it for about 3 years with just mouse and keyboard, then another 3 years with stick and throttle, I still never got quite as good at combat on stick and throttle, but the game was more enjoyable to play overall that way. I haven’t tried the expansion yet. When it came out, it didn’t run great in VR, and part of its features weren’t VR capable. It should run good in VR now, but I don’t think they plan to bring the on-foot stuff to VR.
The base game without the expansion is still fine to play. And with the expansion, the on-foot stuff will just be played on a virtual flatscreen instead, still fine, better than not having access to it, I suppose. But I just kept holding out, hoping it would be integrated with the rest of the otherwise amazing VR experience the game is. If I play the game again, I’ll probably just buy it. I still haven’t tried it since Quest 3 and my new computer upgrade. It’ll probably re-blow my mind.
I have a basic HOTAS for when I reassemble my VR setup and Elite: Dangerous is definitely on my list.
Space Engine in VR, though not really a game, gave me existential terror in a way I imagine Elite: Dangerous might. Accidentally sending yourself zipping through the vastness of space and right up beside a accurate-scale star rocked me in a way I thought an “educational” app never could.
I think it won’t be quite as existential, despite how well they make it all feel rooted in reality, it’s still pretty easy to keep in mind that it is a videogame. And with default settings and leaving “flight assist” on, the space ships handle more like planes. You can always disable flight assist, or have it on a toggle, or “disable when button held” setup too. Or, enable when held, if you want to be free flying most of the time, but still have a “stop” button when you want to cancel out your inertia, or more accurately match it with your current frame of reference.
Basically, by default, you don’t have to think about your frame of reference. The fact that it is a videogame basically takes care of that. It’s a convenient way to hide that the instance you are in is faking(incredibly accurately) everything else that is not in your current frame of reference. Despite space travel feeling pretty seamless, it’s just cuz they hide the load screens and instance transfers as just part of navigating space. Any time you are unable to touch the controls, that is a load screen. Even if it otherwise looks the same, most notably when entering or exiting a planets frame of reference and switching between the “space” graphics of the planet to the “terrain” graphics. When approaching a planets gravity well, you basically do an uncontrolled glide that transitions you from space appropriate speeds to surface appropriate speed. That speed transition is the loading screen.
Probably the only thing that might give a similar sense of existential dread for a few seconds is if you jump to a binary star system at a time when the star you aren’t jumping to just happens to be in the same direction you just jumped in from. It will look as though you flew through that star. The odds are pretty low, even full time explorers rarely see it, but it is something that can happen.
I really want to get into it and have for years and you only confirm it. Unfortunately, I only got my HOTAS after I sold my VR headset, so I need to get it all back.
Most people still play it on a monitor, but yeah, it’s great in VR. There can be a bit of a learning curve on monitor. Kind of like the difference learning to drive rally on a monitor versus learning in VR, you can just tell when everything is going right without having to train yourself to notice little signs, you just feel it intuitively. Having said that, I still recommend going through all the training, and when you are done the training, stay with the free beginner sudewinder for a while. Make sure you can afford your first ship a few times over before you upgrade, so you have a cushion if there is anything important to learn.
You don’t have to be good at elite for it to be fun. And you won’t be good at it for a while. But you will eventually be good at it, and it will be all the more fun then. The first time you slip an agile ship into dock in a smooth motion, amazing feeling.
It really is. Everyone should try it. I’ve done it for hundreds of hours and still think, “THIS IS THE FUTURE,” every time I do it.
I was too intimidated to try iRacing, but hope to. I drove thousands of miles on the night-time Tokyo interstate/Shutoko map (mod for Assetto Corsa) by itself. Often in the rain with the mod that allowed me to control my Spotify from inside the car.
Sold my rig when I moved, but hope to rebuild it even better ASAP. It certainly isn’t cheap, but my first rig was very DIY (including two-directional physics output to my seat via SimHub, which added even more to immersion, only cost $75-$100 to add a basic version) and I was able to cobble it all together for under $1,000 by waiting for deals, etc…
Give VR sim-racing a try (Assetto Corsa), if it strikes your fancy, at all. It’s a downright miraculous experience (especially with a wheel) and THE greatest thing I’ve experienced in VR. I literally learned to drive a manual in Assetto Corsa before going and driving a real manual Porsche race car.
Flight Simulator in VR is also very impressive.
Oh yeah, I’ve played pretty much everything over the past 10 years in VR. In your same vein, I would recommend Elite: Dangerous. I played it for about 3 years with just mouse and keyboard, then another 3 years with stick and throttle, I still never got quite as good at combat on stick and throttle, but the game was more enjoyable to play overall that way. I haven’t tried the expansion yet. When it came out, it didn’t run great in VR, and part of its features weren’t VR capable. It should run good in VR now, but I don’t think they plan to bring the on-foot stuff to VR.
The base game without the expansion is still fine to play. And with the expansion, the on-foot stuff will just be played on a virtual flatscreen instead, still fine, better than not having access to it, I suppose. But I just kept holding out, hoping it would be integrated with the rest of the otherwise amazing VR experience the game is. If I play the game again, I’ll probably just buy it. I still haven’t tried it since Quest 3 and my new computer upgrade. It’ll probably re-blow my mind.
I have a basic HOTAS for when I reassemble my VR setup and Elite: Dangerous is definitely on my list.
Space Engine in VR, though not really a game, gave me existential terror in a way I imagine Elite: Dangerous might. Accidentally sending yourself zipping through the vastness of space and right up beside a accurate-scale star rocked me in a way I thought an “educational” app never could.
I think it won’t be quite as existential, despite how well they make it all feel rooted in reality, it’s still pretty easy to keep in mind that it is a videogame. And with default settings and leaving “flight assist” on, the space ships handle more like planes. You can always disable flight assist, or have it on a toggle, or “disable when button held” setup too. Or, enable when held, if you want to be free flying most of the time, but still have a “stop” button when you want to cancel out your inertia, or more accurately match it with your current frame of reference.
Basically, by default, you don’t have to think about your frame of reference. The fact that it is a videogame basically takes care of that. It’s a convenient way to hide that the instance you are in is faking(incredibly accurately) everything else that is not in your current frame of reference. Despite space travel feeling pretty seamless, it’s just cuz they hide the load screens and instance transfers as just part of navigating space. Any time you are unable to touch the controls, that is a load screen. Even if it otherwise looks the same, most notably when entering or exiting a planets frame of reference and switching between the “space” graphics of the planet to the “terrain” graphics. When approaching a planets gravity well, you basically do an uncontrolled glide that transitions you from space appropriate speeds to surface appropriate speed. That speed transition is the loading screen.
Probably the only thing that might give a similar sense of existential dread for a few seconds is if you jump to a binary star system at a time when the star you aren’t jumping to just happens to be in the same direction you just jumped in from. It will look as though you flew through that star. The odds are pretty low, even full time explorers rarely see it, but it is something that can happen.
I really want to get into it and have for years and you only confirm it. Unfortunately, I only got my HOTAS after I sold my VR headset, so I need to get it all back.
Most people still play it on a monitor, but yeah, it’s great in VR. There can be a bit of a learning curve on monitor. Kind of like the difference learning to drive rally on a monitor versus learning in VR, you can just tell when everything is going right without having to train yourself to notice little signs, you just feel it intuitively. Having said that, I still recommend going through all the training, and when you are done the training, stay with the free beginner sudewinder for a while. Make sure you can afford your first ship a few times over before you upgrade, so you have a cushion if there is anything important to learn.
You don’t have to be good at elite for it to be fun. And you won’t be good at it for a while. But you will eventually be good at it, and it will be all the more fun then. The first time you slip an agile ship into dock in a smooth motion, amazing feeling.
IRacing with VR and a rig is literally the best video game experience out there.
But boy is my wallet angry at me
It really is. Everyone should try it. I’ve done it for hundreds of hours and still think, “THIS IS THE FUTURE,” every time I do it.
I was too intimidated to try iRacing, but hope to. I drove thousands of miles on the night-time Tokyo interstate/Shutoko map (mod for Assetto Corsa) by itself. Often in the rain with the mod that allowed me to control my Spotify from inside the car.
Sold my rig when I moved, but hope to rebuild it even better ASAP. It certainly isn’t cheap, but my first rig was very DIY (including two-directional physics output to my seat via SimHub, which added even more to immersion, only cost $75-$100 to add a basic version) and I was able to cobble it all together for under $1,000 by waiting for deals, etc…
I should probably get some hours in on shutoko revival, now that Genki is making a new Tokyo extreme racer.