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Will the limitations of the Vive hold it back from true greatness?

VR grateful it exists

Will the limitations of the Vive hold it back from true greatness?
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Opposable Games kindly invited me to come and check out its Vive, a HTC-designed virtual reality headset that comes complete with a pair of Wii-style wand controllers.

It's an excellent piece of kit, to say the least, that produces some breathtaking experiences like a VR version of Portal, a fully-fledged painting game in which you can produce a 3D work of art, and a deep sea diving game where you come face to face with an enormous (and terrifying) whale.

That being said, it does suffer from many of the same limitations as other VR devices and a few of its own to boot.

Here's a few reasons why I think the Vive will be held back from true greatness.

Grainy visuals

Every VR device I've tried so far has suffered from the same issue - grainy visuals.

In the era of 4K, Retina displays, and QHD, seeing each individual pixel on a VR display is unappealing.

Don't get me wrong, these devices are capable of producing some fantastic visuals that will leave you awestruck. But the grainy and pixelated display does ruin the immersion.

The wires

Okay, so this is a tricky one to remedy but when you're trying to navigate a virtual environment and are unable to see the real world around you the last thing you want to be doing is trying to avoid tripping over a bunch of wires.

I got myself tangled in them several times which, again, broke the immersion.

You're limited to a single space

In a smart move, the Vive tracks how much space you have in your room and creates barriers to prevent you from walking into a wall. The problem is, that space is all games have to work with so you're locked into a single room in most cases.

This could be remedied by using elevators, moving platforms, or teleportation to bring you to another location without but it does feels very limiting and probably rules out a few genres from working entirely.

Objects behave as if you're not there

If you want to see something genuinely immersion-breaking, try walking straight through an object in a VR game.

I was allowed to do this several times without issue, with the most alarming case being when I was unintentionally punched in the stomach by a robot in Portal VR.

To me, virtual reality has to be held to a much higher standard of immersion than a regular game so attention to detail is paramount. The Vive doesn't quite live up to that standard - yet.

Chris James
Chris James
A footy game fanatic and experienced editor of numerous computing and game titles, lively Chris is up for anything - including running Steel Media! (Madman!)