Has anyone tried a Samsung Gear VR 2?

[Morat]

I've just got one  with an s7 which I got for a decent deal because the s8 is due soon.

I have to say it's pretty amazing. The head tracking is spot on and  while the visuals are fairly low rent they do a good job but of creating that "immersion" the journos are all wibbling about.

I'd like to post some screenshots but I honestly think you have to try one before it makes any kind of sense.

[bryn]

I've just been given a cheaper clone version, but don't have any good ideas on what to watch with it!  What are you viewing, and what app(s) did you have to install on your phone to get it to work?

Bryn

[Morat]

Well the gear is for Samsung and comes with software from oculus which provides a curated selection. I had a go with a cardboard equivalent last year using trinus gyre to try PC games  in VR but the head tracking was very poor.

The gear has additional sensors which improve the head tracking. It's still spherical instead of 6 degrees of freedom but it is very accurate indeed. There's also a track pad.  Home and back buttons and a volume rocker.

What phone are you using?

[bryn]

I'm using a Nexus 4.

Sounds as if your Gear is a lot more sophisticated than my plastic equivalent of the Cardboard.

Bryn

[pcolbeck]

Pcolbeck junior has the whole Occulus Rift rig with the headset and the hand controllers. It's rather impressive but very spendy. Mind you he is doing Interactive Media for his degree and is developing an application using the Occulus Rift for his dissertation/final project so probably its a good investment for him.
Makes me slightly queasy using it though (probably an inner ear thing the same as sea sickness).

[Kim]

Makes me slightly queasy using it though (probably an inner ear thing the same as sea sickness).

I think that's a show-stopper for some people.  I can't play FPS games for the same reason.  Well, I can, but it's a straight choice between using a small window and not really having a sense of orientation in the virtual world (which is hopeless for gaming), or doing it properly and having to stop after half an hour due to travel sickness.  It's like trying to read on a moving vehicle.

I've not tried a modern VR system, but Google Cardboard gives me eyestrain.  Seems to be a glasses-wearer thing, and presumably solvable with better optics.

[Morat]

I received an unexpected Christmas bonus which would have just about stretched to an Oculus Rift but I decided to be more sensible and upgrade my phone (which turned out to be a saving) and spend £62 on the Gear VR.

Apart from Cheapness, the Gear has higher resolution but smaller but still perfectly acceptable viewing angle. The resolution (2k across the whole screen) is only acceptable. It's a bit like watching youtube in 480p on a huge monitor. I think I'd be dissapointed if I spent hundreds on a Rift or Vive for half the resolution.

Head tracking is amazing and yes, there are a few more bits on the Gear which promote it above Cardboard/Plastic Cardboard headsets. It has a trackpad, home, back and volume buttons and more gyros.

The main difference between Gear and the higher end stuff is that there is no room space tracking. You sit still and the device only recognises changes in rotation and elevation - this is probably for the best if you're at all queasy!

There are hacks around to stream content from your PC to a Gear but I haven't explored them yet. I did that with a Plastic Cardboard and a Note 3 with some success (I managed to get Elite Dangerous working quite well) but the resolution was poor and the head tracking drifted so much that it was quite useless after a few minutes. Flying around spacestations and planets was incredible - even if the clarity dropped from Pin sharp 4k on the monitor to murky 1080p on the Note 3.

On the whole, I'd recommend giving this a try. VR generated on your phone is the cheapest way into the field and gives impressive results.

Kim. As for glasses, Gear VR basically says no. You need contacts, unfortunately. The lenses are really close to your face.

Also, there is evidence of greater susceptibility to Motion Sickness in these situations for women https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16018346 but I also dimly recall that there are still options out there for addressing this. I think this is the article I was thinking about:
https://qz.com/192874/is-the-oculus-rift-designed-to-be-sexist/

[Morat]

I was being quizzed by my five year old today about "That new box" which the Gear VR lives in. He has a nose for techy toys, that one.
Eventually I caved, ignored the warnings about being 13 or over and strapped it on the little guy's head. He's in a very strong dinosaur phase right now so I ran the Apatasaurus demo. He was absolutely thrilled.

(click to show/hide)

There's a 2D video of it here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e6rC1HapMI
with an annoying reaction. The VR version is much much better.

[Valiant]

Anyone else find that the Oculus software seems to need updating almost daily?

[Morat]

Pretty much, yes.