Bsimracing Sim Racing Resources and News for the racing enthousiast.
Empty Box is back with an interesting Talk & Drive video regarding the pros and cons of racing in VR.
Taking into account that a random “VR vs Screens” discussion can easily result in a fanboy war without any regard for the facts, I have found this latest Empty Box Talk & Drive session pretty much in line with my own experiences. Being an early VR adopter myself, I can relate to just about every argument made in this video.
It’s no doubt that from an immersion perspective, VR is awesome. However, my own preferences, the current technical limitations, and the lack of room awareness and comfort, often make me decide to just race on screens. As a result, my Valve Index has become more of an ornament on the wall. When I am honest to myself, I often come up with excuses for not having to use it and revert to either doing other stuff or race on screens.
Also, while VR headsets are very affordable these days, it’s often forgotten that it will require a relatively expensive PC to power a decent VR setup, and that in many cases it will require some knowledge, and regular tweaking to get the best out of it.
Some of my friends have sold their screens, and now have to rely on VR. As expected, these friends fiercely defend the superiority of a VR HMD. On the other side of the fence, friends who have kept a screen setup alongside their VR setup, tend to use screens for most of their sim racing sessions.
That brings us to the ultimate question. Is the amazing immersion factor of VR worth giving up all the comfort, the graphical quality and high fidelity of a screen based sim racing setup?
Feel free to share your personal view in the comments.
