Also, if this is arm and it has steam in it, that means we can finally run steam on arm, which means we can finally install steam "natively" on android Linux, specially now that we have the terminal app on android 16.
Can't wait for graphical acceleration to be fully merged to the terminal app and we have Linux running on android with near native performance and steam.
And it's not out, it was "revealed" today with "early 2026" estimate for availability. No price yet.
The headset isn't being released until early 2026.
It's not out, just announced.
And then there are the racing sims. I find these are such an immersive experience it reaches an uncanny-valley type feeling for me, where my body is expecting G-forces that never come, or gets confused with the steering wheel not being the exact same size as my eyes are seeing. It's great though, and definitely recommended if you enjoy cars at all.
I used to do a lot of GoKarting at a local course before the Pandemic, and VR racing is the single most immersive video game experience that you can have. The only thing you are missing is the physical exertion and G-Forces. Even the feel of the helmet and reduced field of view is emulated by the headset. Even cheap wheels have force feedback, and you can feel the weight shifting around. You can intuitively glance around for situational awareness. If you have experience, you will naturally fall into the look at where you want to go style of skid recovery, and you will feel the tires about to skid and feel in the wheel when they line back up with your vector of motion. It all transfers so well, even real race car drivers enjoy it.
You can feel your body freak out when you hit a wall at 200mph because you misjudged the distance because you're not a real racecar driver.
Driving an open cockpit car like an old F1 car is insane. You feel like you are just hanging out in the open air. I guess we didn't have survival instincts back then.
If you have a few thousand extra dollars, you can even fix the lack of physical exertion and G-Forces!
Shooting games are super fun too because it feels rewarding to be good at actually aiming, rather than stupid mouse twitches I have never been that good at. Also because Pavlov VR mods let me play Halo 1 Blood Gulch for real and that's magic.
VR Chat is also a pretty incredible experience. When the pandemic first hit, I actually spent several weekends clubbing in VR Chat clubs.
My partner also likes that I can't actually die in VR, though sometimes I still close my eyes just before an impact.
I believe sim flight people would have the same opinions on that side of simming too. It's a uniquely ideal situation for VR. Seated with full tactile controls.
You play James Bond, except that for various silly reasons you find yourself stationary, and you have psychic powers to reach far away stuff because, again, stationary. "They've trapped Bond in a bathysphere!" "You're in a car in a jet ful of poisonous gas that's going to explode!" Each level will kill you quickly and hilariously over and over until you figure out a sequence of steps to survive.
"I Expect You To Die" is a very funny game. Great for when you have spectators too, everyone can pitch in with ideas for the person playing to try.
This guy on X gave me some suggestions of top tier VR games:
Hubris, Into The Radius, Wanderer, Blade & Sorcery, RE4 Remake, Modded Skyrim VR, Modded Minecraft, Vertigo 2, Arken Age, Half Life 1 & 2 VR, UNDERDOGS, Hitman VR, Pixel Ripped Series, Walking Dead, Propagation Paradise Hotel
Euro and American Truck Simulator still have VR support and it's more fun and satisfying than it should be.
Load up Google Earth VR, plop yourself in front of your childhood home and feel more than you expected.
If you like modern air combat: VTOL VR and DCS. If you like WW2 fighter combat, IL-2 Sturmovik.
Hotdogs Horseshoes and Handgrenades for the ultimate American Freedom simulator.
Project Wingman for Ace Combat 7 in VR. Star Wars Squadrons is fully playable in VR. War thunder has VR
BeamNG has unofficial VR
Rec Room if you want to get absolutely schooled by 13 year olds at laser tag and paintball and other games.
Hyperbolica is an exploring and puzzle game about non-euclidean space, where walking in a straight line doesn't work like you expect and apparently it has VR
Pulsar Lost Colony is a game about being a star trek captain with your friends and also can be played without VR.
Phasmaphobia is a game about getting the shit scared out of you and you can do it in VR if you do not fear death
An upcoming game about "Be an artemis astronaut". There was also one to explore a Google Earth style of the ISS. Also Kerbal Space Program at one time had a VR mod.
I bought a Bigscreen Beyond 2 + 5090 gpu basically just to play DCS (Digital Combat Simulator, a flight sim with full fidelity figher jets that you can even fly in PvP multiplayer) and it's the coolest thing VR has to offer for me. All my relatives and friends who tried it were stunned too.
https://replay.beatleader.com/?scoreId=20010657
:D
One of my friends also has a KAT Walk C2 and I've played Skyrim VR on that. It takes a bit to get used to but it's a lot of fun.
I would prefer batteries in machine, too; but this does have some sustainability and repairability (by not needing it) advantages.
I think you're mixing up the controller and headset batteries. The controllers use AA batteries and should last for potentially months of use.
The headset itself uses a rechargeable 21.6 Wh Li-ion battery with 45W charging over USB-C.
Cost is about 10x that of their non-rechargeable brethren, but obviously there's return on that investment.
I doubt this would be a dealbreaker for most people, but it's a choice that will provide a consistent small annoyance for users.
I would hazard a guess that the battery in the controller will have a life measured in weeks if not months.
I'm not trying to sell you on these in particular, it's just that I am struggling to find "non-German" results. Go search for them on ebay or a local store.
While a brand new device could employ something more apt? Even say something larger which can store more energy, dunno. It just feel off to still have AA batteries (which are generally not rechargeable) in a new product in 2025 which is not targeted to elderlies.
>AA batteries (which are generally not rechargeable)
I can't recall the last time I saw single use batteries in use, except maybe in a brand new remote control bundled with a TV, which was quickly swapped for rechargable. I don't even think of this most months, from where I'm siting I can see my battery chager and there's two sets of AA and a set of AAA sitting on there fully charged, ready to go. I think I paid $12 for the charger in 2008, very low barrier to entry.
Also I would recommend switching to the IKEA rechargeable batteries which are supposedly the same thing except cheaper.
Realistically though if the cover for the battery is nice to remove/insert then it wouldn't surprise me if having a battery charging station and hot pairs of batteries to swap out is actually the nicer usability option vs cording or dock downtime (if you leave them sitting on the couch with a low charge then need to charge halfway through).
Also if the stand is also a charger then the hot-swap is mostly a non-issue. Playing with this for more than X hours should not be the default usage.
I just buy rechargeable batteries and keep a charger nearby. When batteries die, they come out and straight into the charger. Always ready to go.
Eh, I don't use it for augmented reality a TON, but there are some fun apps that my kids and I like to use that use the passthrough for augmented reality... one is a virtual aquarium thing where you can draw 'windows' on your wall that become a window to the ocean, with things swimming around. It is pretty cool.
I mostly use it, though, for short term moving around things, like to pick up something in the real world or to figure out where I am. I guess that can work in monotone, but it really feels cool in full color.