Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday July 17 2020, @12:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the wishful-thinking dept.

I had an experience with an HTC Vive a couple of years ago, and I'm now considering getting the hardware required to do proper VR.
Obviously, I'd like to play games, but I'm also interested in visualising data (in particular I see that VTK supports OpenVR).

So I was wondering whether anyone in the community here has succeeded in getting this to work under linux, and if they can comment on the hardware required.
I'd be grateful for any insights.

As I understand it, it's best to get 120FPS, otherwise the brain doesn't like it.
I see that system76 has a "thelio major" desktop that can handle a range of NVIDIA cards, but I honestly don't know which would be the minimum that still gets me reasonable performance.
Is it important to have a lot of memory, a lot of cores?
Will I be able to change the level of detail in games to gain in FPS?
Right now it looks to me like I'd need more than 3000 euros for the whole thing (computer+htc vive).
My wife may not approve.

In any case, with the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus in the winter, I'm under the impression a working VR system would be a reasonable addition to the "don't go crazy" activities around the house.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Marand on Saturday July 18 2020, @01:59AM

    by Marand (1081) on Saturday July 18 2020, @01:59AM (#1023180) Journal

    It's not an either/or situation, maintaining a dedicated Windows machine can waste your hardware and your time, and running GPU passthrough doesn't have to be a painful multi-day ordeal to get started. I built my system with GPU passthrough in mind in much the same way that one generally shops for Linux-compatible parts, so when the time came to set up a passthrough-enabled VM it only took me about half an hour of extra time and I've barely had to touch it in the couple years since.

    For that extra half hour of work I have a more powerful main system, I don't have wasted resources sitting in a corner waiting to be booted for the occasional game, and most importantly I don't have a lump of a Windows PC wasting physical space and generating extra unnecessary heat.

    It's been a great setup and was well worth the little bit of extra effort (compared to a dedicated machine or dual-boot) for me.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2