However I disagree with this:

> However maintaining a gaming rig is another issue entirely. I frequently have to spend 20-30 minutes getting the sound to work correctly after windows updates, iTunes updates, vive updates, steam updates, etc etc. It's almost comical and I wonder if this is an indication of the PC gaming tool-chain issues, or something as simple as Steams VR software is shit. And honestly I don't care, I just want it to work.

I have no idea how that could happen to you, if you have super exotic hardware or if steam vr doesn't work.

I maintain 3 "gaming" computers, and they basically never have issues. The "everything need to auto update once a week" is getting boring pretty fast sure, but nothing gets broken; sound, video, gsync, keyboard/mouse, network ... It's actually quite impressive how reliable all of it is. Hell, ever since moving to networked laser printers even the scanning/printing chain doesn't fail randomly anymore.

Compared to even ten years ago in the late XP days, windows and the modern drivers available for it have become incredibly reliable.

This has been exacerbated for me because initially I only allocated ~20GB for the Windows boot partition, which is plenty for Ubuntu but apparently nowhere near enough for Windows. Even at ~30GB, I have to do things to reduce the amount of space Windows uses (like disable hibernation, manually compact WinSxS, etc) so that those big named updates can complete.

In short: Windows is too high maintenance for infrequent use.

[0]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-specifica...

I didn't check the minimum requirements, but if I had I would have been even more annoyed when 20GB wasn't enough to complete updates.

Yes! I have two machines I use for VR stuff, and I face this every time I come back to VR! I even have the full hard drive allocated, not just a 20GB partition.

Ouch! Watch out for the coming Win10 fall update (October). It might brick your setup, as it needs (supposedly) minimum 20 GB free space.

Note/disclaimer: Not sure how true this is, couldn't validate it personally. That said, I'll definitely ensure all of my Win10 system boot partitions have at least 30 GB free space.

If you used a gaming console the same way you are using your main computer (booting it into a separate OS for most the time, until you all of a sudden wanted to play a game) you might also find that there's updates waiting to apply, and some games require the OS update before they'll play, etc.

Plus, there's a bug in the installer that requires a full re-download.

That was just for the OS. He obviously has a separate data partition to install games on (unless he only likes retro 8bit type games).

Personally I think they've really nailed this.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/w...

This was not my experience at all with Alienware. I'll never buy anything from them again (yes I know they're part of Dell now)

Anyway, I maintain that this part of your experience is anecdotal and not representative of the general experience.

- Wouldn’t turn on. Took me a few times plugging both headsets in to realize I was pressing volume not power.

- couldn’t connect my controller. Thought maybe I had grabbed the wrong one but it turned out to be a dead battery

- Oculus Venues needed an update. Did that

- then it asks for my FB login. Take the headset off, get my phone

- turns out it’s a new phone, need to reinstall the Oculus app. Wait for that to download

- Connect my FB account via the browser

- now Venues loads, needs me to watch a Terms of Use video. Watch it. Nothing happens.

- hit the < button, the only identifiable option, it just takes me back to the Venues menu

- click into Connect again, watch the Don’t Be An Asshole video again. Still can’t move past it in any obvious way. Press all the buttons repeatedly

- close and restart Venues. No change. Give up

Total waste of 30 minutes.

I'll take the Leaf, or better yet, do what I've done with VR so far: wait.

So you turn on your computer, wait half a minute to half an hour for Steam to update, then try to launch anything (like a game) and it too has to update, so now you're just standing in the middle of your room, controller in hand, waiting for another 20 minute download. ...god, is steam downloading something else now? Okay, take off the helmet, fix steam and the three things that crashed while you were in purgatory, put the helmet back on, restart ...everything use the fraction of a percent of the UI that HTC devoted to selecting something from your library, and then your gtg.

Famous first words: "you just"

I am on Windows 7 though

The only gripe I have with this is that, I assume, the controllers would stop working outside of camera FOV. It sounds like minor gripe, but it typically becomes frustrating for someone who is used to full-fidelity room-scale.

For anyone interested check out videos of people using Oculus Medium, something as insanely complicated and fiddly as 3D sculpting becomes instantly natural when you interact with both hands in 3D instead of a mouse or pen in 2D.

Installing Nvidia drivers will usually set the default sound device to HDMI for your main display instead of restoring the previous default. So, it's possible to end up juggling 3-5 audio outputs after a driver update - on board, on board headphones, Vive USB, Vive HDMI, and main monitor HDMI.

I run a little Powershell script after those updates that returns everything to my settings and disable all the telemetry services/tasks, but there are a bunch of free utilities that makes audio device switching easy - Ear Trumpet, Audio Switcher, and a few others.

Also, for whatever reason, sometimes Steam just needs to be relaunched for SteamVR to work properly after a Stream client update. Very rarely I'll need to reboot for things to work properly (if the base stations don't wake up).

Finally, I strongly recommend uninstalling the advanced open VR program that's often recommended in old tips and tricks sites (it's very outdated and known to cause problems now) and run a round of "verify game integrity" on SteamVR and all Valve VR entries (from inside Stream library, right click menu).

Oh, and finally, finally, laptops/pre-built PCs will usually have some driver updater/maintenance utility adding a layer of annoyances on top of all this.

I love my Vive, but I have to admit that there can be some annoyances. OTOH, I had just as many issues with the GearVR (an Oculus product) and solutions basically boiled down to hoping it would be addressed in an update or allowing 7 constantly running background processes.

You're in a nice groove where this stuff is pretty easy to manage, but to a lot of people this stuff is an exasperating pain in the butt.

Realistically, though, most of these aren't VR problems as much as they're general PC gaming problems with Nvidia and Steam. I accept that price for the flexibility I get in return.

Contrast that to having no control over the various background processes and apps always loaded in memory when using a GearVR, though. Like most consumer-friendly tech, it just works until it doesn't. Then there are only three solutions possible: reboot phone, uninstall updates and reinstall them, and hope the bug is addressed in the next update, whenever that will be. (I'm assuming Oculus with lock down the OS similar to what Samsung does with Android, which means major compromises if you want to try rooting it.)

I do realize I'm in the minority that spends a few hours fixing or working around a problem, rather than shelve the unit and play update roulette in random short increments. But, with VR still in its infancy, are we/they really ready for those types of consumers? I mean, there is a severe lack of standards across the board, making handholding really difficult. Everyone threw up their hands at tablet UIs and decided to just make them bigger phones and I'd hate to see VR suffer the same fate of being dragged down by the lowest common denominator.

These are issues that occur rarely. I have less troubles using my PC than some friends do with their consoles.

It helps that Steam truly does update things in the background, and that it is possible to bandwidth throttle updates.

In comparison, a rarely played console will want to potentially spent hours on updates.

A PC has advantages because it is most likely used daily, so the updates have already happened in the background.

Honestly, both consoles and PCs are about an equal pain to keep running now days. PCs have gotten better over the years, and consoles got worse, and they have kind of met in the middle.

Occasionally I've kept Firefox tabs open four 3 weeks or something "feels a little off" so I restart more than the once a month necessary to install Windows updates, but other than that, I feel confident that I can hit the VR button on steam and have the dashboard in the helmet ready to boot a game by the time I've put the strap on.

My absolute worst experience was a game crashing VR over and over in one spot and a restart fixing it

I am looking forward to this but also a much more streamlined future iteration that will still let me take advantage of my PC power.

... or, I could run some long cables. Out of interest, how long are the cables in your setup, and how well does it work?

I don't use my setup for VR, but I've got my gaming rig in the office extended to the living room TV.

USB and HDMI over 30 meters, with one active USB hub/HDMI extender connecting two 15 meter cables in the middle. The HDMI extender needed some fine-tuning, but after that everything just works as it should. Just need to remember to turn the hub/extender off when not in use or else it's quite a pointless electricity drain.

Tho I'm not sure how well a setup like that would work for VR, with latency being such an important issue and the VR setup introducing even more cable length to it all.

Looks like you need VFIO. My Windows 10 LTSB VM state gets reset on shutdown unless I commit changes.

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/29093986/How-do-y...

Share the booty. Yo ho ho!

md5: e39ea2af41b3710682fe3bbdac35ec9a

Maybe VR is the problem in this instance?

The hardware in the OC Quest is probably some kind of Nvidia Tegra style SoC, at least that's what I'd expect in terms of performance out of it. Ideally, I'd want the future of VR to be in eye candy popping UHD with super high refresh rates, tho I doubt mobile computing will be up for that task in the next decade.

I was hoping for them to announce a higher dpi, wider fov unit for use with Elite Dangerous and DCS World. Alas, I shall keep on waiting. 95hz 3440x1440 34" 21:9 curved monitor with TrackIR is pretty good meanwhile.

Still pretty cool for the few games that support it but not VR

If your plan with this is sitting or standing VR, well, the HTC Vive already supports that configuration as well.

you sound like you should be a console gamer. Cheap(er) and simple is what they do/market. And PS4 has PSVR too.