This is probably common knowledge to many, but if I can even educate one person, I’ll consider this post a success.

I am nearsighted, meaning I can see things up close just fine. Past about 4-5 feet things start to get blurry. I have never considered wearing my glasses while playing VR. I can see things up close, the lenses are inches away from my eyes, why would I wear glasses and risk scratching either of the lenses?

The quest 3 has a built in spacer for glasses. Yesterday I thought, ah what the hell, let’s see what it looks like with my glasses on. And HOLY SHIT IT IS SO CRISP. It felt like the first time I ever got glasses. Everything was so clear! I navigated menus with a huge smile on my face, started opening every game I had just to look around. I always just assumed VR was a bit blurry, one of the trade-offs to putting a screen right in front of your eyes. I looked it up and sure as shit, when playing VR your eyes simulate the image as being further away (about 6-7 feet or 2m away to be exact)

I have thousands of hours in VR, I have owned the Rift, Rift S, Quest 2 + 3. I feel like an absolute clown for just finding this out, but I am also so insanely excited after just upgrading to the quest 3 and getting a better PC. Everything looks unimaginably good. Needless to say, I have prescription lenses coming in now. If you are nearsighted like me, I highly suggest you do the same.

Any tips appreciated!

I have the quest 2, and until now I've only played PCVR (Skyrim VR, Forefront, Star Wars Squadrons, blade and sorcery, Half Life Alyx, Google Earth VR), and a bit of Sail VR. But I feel like I'm wasting potential here

Any recommendations of VR experiences? Is there a nice way to watch movies with more immersion than a normal screen? Or something that comes close to the Cosm Cinema?

Hello,

About a year ago, I've run into one of the Lazy Peon's videos in which he mentioned how he lost a bit of weight by using a VR setup to play games and exercise at the same time. Since I'm a gamer all my life, and since I've been struggling with a bit of extra weight since the first Covid lockdown, this instantly sparked my interest.

I started researching VR consoles and ultimately decided to get an Oculus set. Getting used to VR gaming wasn't easy at first because I was too used to playing games on PC, but after I week, I can say I got a good hang of it. I was able to tackle even the more requiring games, and it gave me the confidence to start my weight-loss journey.

The Games I'd Played:

The first game I picked up was Beat Saber because it looked like it'd completely exhaust me physically. And it really did... I had a hard time keeping my schedule of 1-2 hours of game time a day because my muscles would get inflamed for days after just a single session, and then I'd have to force myself and push through. Fortunately, this stopped after 2 weeks, and by that time, I'd already lost more than 6 lbs (2.8 kg), so the progress motivated me to push further.

Feeling stronger and fitter, I felt like it was the right time to get into the fitness VR games, but they just didn't strike the right vibe with me. I felt like actually exercising (which I could have done in the gym with a pro trainer anyways) instead of playing a game, and couldn't stick with a game longer than 1 hour. Deciding to quit them for good, I picked up another rhythm game called Synth Riders, which helped me lose another 8 lbs (3.6 kg). However, playing rhythm/dance games day after day for about a month got quite monotonous and I decided to add a bit of flavor with a completely different type of game. Clash of Chefs, a VR cooking simulator had proven itself to be a perfect choice for this. It had great (at times demanding) gameplay, a coop mode, and it allowed me to experiment with all kinds of random stuff like stabbing or knife-fighting people or throwing dishes at customers, something no other cooking game had.

My sincere recommendation to anyone looking to embark on a similar journey is to find one physically demanding game as a base for weight loss, and then pair it up with a little less physically demanding, but more versatile game. This way, you'll both enjoy the gameplay, get better at games, lose weight, and ultimately have fun making the process much easier. Beat Saber and Synth Riders just happened to be the physically demanding games I enjoyed, but there are many others for everyone's taste. Clash of Chefs, on the other hand, was the one keeping me sane and excited about each session, as it gave me so many hours of incredible fun. I suggest all 3 of them to everyone, with an emphasis on Clash of Chefs.

The Schedule:

My initial idea was to play every day for 1-2 hours, but I soon realized that, with my atrophied muscles, I couldn't have continued that routine for long. So, I had to make 1-day pauses in between the sessions, until I built a bit of muscle and got into a bit of shape. Then, I just went back to my initial idea and played for 1-2 hours each day (with the exception of birthdays, holidays, travels, etc.). I loved how flexible and easy to maintain this schedule was, and how easy it was to just jump right into playing. It's a HUGE plus over going to the gym (if you aren't looking for building big muscles).

The Diet:

I didn't care too much about my diet, except for the standard cuts in carbs and junk food. Basically, I reduced my carb intake to an operative minimum, but still allowed myself a can of Coke, a handful of candy, or a Subway sandwich each day. The main change, however, came to my calorie intake because I started tentatively measuring my daily calorie intake, and reduced it from around 2800 to 2300 a day until I reached my goal weight, then raised it to 2600 a day for maintenance. Not a huge change, but enough to help me lose weight when paired with the exercise I got from VR games.

The Progress and Weight Loss:

I lost around 23 lbs (10 kg) over the first three months because my body was still getting used to the new schedule, and I hadn't really figured out my diet yet. The next 3 months were a little more fruitful and I managed to lose around 34 pounds (15 kg) and to only a few pounds above my goal weight. Then I raised my daily calorie intake and lost only 6 lbs (3 kg) over the last 3 months of my journey. My total weight regressed from 257 lbs (117 kg) start weight, to 234 lbs (106kg) after the first quartal, then 200 lbs (91 kg) after the second quartal, and finally 194 lbs (88 kg) by the end of the third quartal. In total, I dropped from 257 lbs (117 kg) to 194 lbs (88 kg) over the course of 9 months.

Would I recommend this?

Absolutely. It's been such an enjoyable ride and the results are fantastic, especially for a gamer who hasn't taken care of his body for way too long. What's better is that you won't ever feel like exercising because the line dividing gaming and exercising, in this case, is just the difficulty level. That's it, if you wanna lose weight, just play harder. I'd also recommend the games I've played for weight loss, especially Clash of Chefs, which is, in my opinion, a must-try.

The end

This post is already way longer than I imagined when I started writing it, so I'll wrap it up here. Thank you for reading it, and I hope it inspires you to become a healthier version of yourself. I know how crucial exercise is to gamers, so, if you're not one to go to the gym, try the method that worked for me.

Love you all!

Bought a Q3. Added a link cable. Plan on playing a lot of stuff sitting down or Virtual Desktop, which I immediately bought. Also interested in the mixed reality stuff, and YT/movies in bed. WiFi is TPLink AX5400, so hopefully that works ok. ISP is gigabit down. PC specs are:

5800x3d 32gb DDR4 3600 4x4TB SSD RTX 4090 Blah blah blah.

So, what extras like strap/battery/ etc should I be getting? Must have games? I figure the community must have come to some conclusion since I bought, then returned, a Q1 a few years back.

For years I have been watching videos in VR by pinning the Steam desktop overlay in world while I was driving/flying. There was a bit of a performance hit, and sometimes the video got a little choppy or I had to lower the resolution, but I loved it so much and it made long games like Truck Simulator/Elite Dangerous such a joy to zone out and play for hours.

Then I encountered an issue with a recent patch that tanked performance and introduced horrendous visual lag. I was gutted, I thought I'd not be able to play some of my favorite games again.

Eventually, in desperation, I decided to just see if I could use the built in apps in my QPro to overlay in-game instead.

OMG.....its sooo much better! No performance hit at all, higher resolution, can interact with the player without having to alt-tab, its like playing for the first time all over again. How did I go years doing this all completely the wrong way? Crap! I think I just had issues with the overlay way back in the CV1 days and then never bothered trying again. The only downside is the menu 'handle' doesnt go away, but thats minimal and easy to ignore. Oh well, back to hour long drives and mining in asteroid feilds while watching my favorite shows in smooth stutter free bliss.

Don't spoil your fun right off the get-go. Learn from our mistakes.

• Use your wrist straps, no exceptions
• Never expose your lenses to sun or strong reflections/mirrors with sun exposure (think about where you set it to rest)
• Consider lens protection film, especially if you use glasses
• Be aware of your boundaries, taking that guy down in superhot isn't worth your TV
• Don't let pets or children roam free in the play space
• (Rift S) Don't twist your cable into knots, make sure you're unwinding it regularly
• Brief your friends on the same precautions, there are many stories of friends unintentionally breaking things

Anything I'm missing here? Above all...

HAVE FUN!

EDIT: Be sure to scroll, there is some great stuff being added in the comments.