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Huntn

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Yep--I'm ordering VisionPro as soon as the open up orders. I am so excited. I have believed in the magic of VR ever since playing that Batman sim on playstation.
VR is truly amazing. I was blown away by my first game, Lone Echo. You are there…

0B726370-3DB2-49F2-9939-627A5CBF0593.jpeg
 

Spaceboi Scaphandre

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Either, both, the question is VR vs Traditional controller input for any complex game.

Well that's easy then. In VR just put your equipment on you. Your inventory can be a backpack that's on your back that you pull off. Holstered weapons are to your side and on your shoulder. Ammo can be in a pack on your pelvis with grenades on your chest. Adds immersion and a skeuomorphic simple solution to managing an inventory and equipment in VR.

VR is truly amazing. I was blown away by my first game, Lone Echo. You are there…


You need to play Half Life Alyx.
 
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Huntn

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Well that's easy then. In VR just put your equipment on you. Your inventory can be a backpack that's on your back that you pull off. Holstered weapons are to your side and on your shoulder. Ammo can be in a pack on your pelvis with grenades on your chest. Adds immersion and a skeuomorphic simple solution to managing an inventory and equipment in VR.



You need to play Half Life Alyx.
If you have the equivalent of 3 weapons in your backpack, reaching over your shoulder, you still have to designate which one you want, somehow. I started HLA but petered out on it. I acknowledge that VR is amazing, but having to equip myself to play it is a hinderance. 🤔
 

Spaceboi Scaphandre

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If you have the equivalent of 3 weapons in your backpack, reaching over your shoulder, you still have to designate which one you want, somehow.

Which is easy by just putting what weapon you want where. My shotgun, over my left shoulder. My baseball bat, over my right shoulder. My side has my revolver. And an extra weapon as a just in case attached to my backpack.
 

Spaceboi Scaphandre

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And you can see what you are reaching for behind your head?

Yeah. VR is all about immersion after all, putting you into the game. VR isn't complicated lol. Anything you'd interact with an object in real life, you do in VR (unless said game doesn't have interactable objects, which would be lame because it's so satisfying just knocking stuff over with your own hands or finding something when picking stuff up, which is why Half Life Alyx was designed around doing that.)

Which btw, there's collision mods for Skyrim VR so what your hand touches interacts with objects, as by default only your body does that, not your hands.
 
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Spaceboi Scaphandre

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With all the Skyrim discussion I feel like UpIsNotJump would be appropriate right about now



(I still have PTSD of that damn Beacon)
 
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Huntn

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The Misty Mountains
HH- High Hothgard up there 2.jpg
High Hothgard, it's up there?​

Plot Spoiler

I made what I consider to be a dreadful miscalculation joining the Stormcloaks early. Dreadful because to fix probably cost me 20 hrs of game play, but it bothers me enough I’m rolling the game back.

Yes the Thanor working with Imperials tried to kill me, but in the mean time, I’ve gotten established in Whiterun, bought a house there, picked up a follower there, joined the Companions there, adopted a girl there, and Whiterun is a primo location, where I don‘t want to see the people killed and be on the wrong side of the this part of the story. Some might call the Jarl of Whiterun an Imperial lackey, but he’s more reasonable than the Jarl of Windhelm who is a Nord Supremicist and I just happen to be a Briton. The elves that live in Windhelm are second class citizens.

WH-Jarl Windhelm Audience.jpg
Jarl of Windhelm Audience: "Will you help me kick out these damned interlopers?"
"Ah....uhm"​

The somewhat amusing aspect is that I knew all of this. What I had forgotten after 10 years (when I first played it) was that the choice of allegiance (Stormcloak vs Imperial) is basically the primary binary choice in the game and I did not think I would care, choosing a different side, but in the end, I did end up caring, silly me. ;)

The thing is whether you pick, Storm cloak or Imperial, from the questing standpoint, this is almost an aside from your character’s journey as Dragonborn. The Jarl of Whiterun is allied with the Imperials so it’s not as if you’ve just picked outsiders over the locals. After your dealings with Arcano, the Thanor representative at Winterhold College, you realize who the real threat in this setting is.

I researched it, apparantly at some point, you can roll the allegiance choice back via the console, but I must be beyond that point, and resetting the associated quest (the Jagged Crown) did not fix it. Once you hand this crown over to one side or the other, rolling back the game seems to be the only way to correct it.

What I did not try, which might work, but unverified would be to join the Stormcloaks, get the crown, but instead give it to the Imperials, if that choice is offered… but I’d still have to roll back the story, then I’d be considered a traitor in the Stormcloak eyes, because in that circumstance I’ve sworn allegiance to them, then double crossed them. 🤔
 
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Spaceboi Scaphandre

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The last thing I want to see are little VR controllers waving about in the scene. :D

There's a mod for that to make it so it's always hands if you want immersion. There's another mod that fully renders your body, but I don't use it because I'd rather not have my body render because I play seated and usually with VR games that have fully rendered bodies have some funny jank moments. Boneworks is a great example as sometimes my arm got stuck in objects and twisted in ways real arms aren't supposed to go. It's why Valve decided not to have arms in Half Life Alyx. Plus VR arms are a nightmare to code.

My opinion: Unless you're wearing a haptic suit, you don't need a rendered body in VR
 
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maflynn

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I made what I consider to be a dreadful miscalculation joining the Stormcloaks early. Dreadful because to fix probably cost me 20 hrs of game play, but it bothers me enough I’m rolling the game back.
I've played and replayed Skyrim too many times to count, and I think I only joined that faction once. For what ever reason I seem to enjoy siding with the imperials. Just how I'm wired I suppose.

I don't know if I'm wanting to do a playthrough at this stage given the imminent release of Starfield but I'm leaning towards that, especially since this is a holiday weekend and I'll have more time on my hand
 
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Huntn

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I've played and replayed Skyrim too many times to count, and I think I only joined that faction once. For what ever reason I seem to enjoy siding with the imperials. Just how I'm wired I suppose.

I don't know if I'm wanting to do a playthrough at this stage given the imminent release of Starfield but I'm leaning towards that, especially since this is a holiday weekend and I'll have more time on my hand
Since I preordered Phantom Liberty, my plan is to play Skyrim though Sept, then at some point jump into Phantom Liberty, and then Starfield.

Last night I was lost for a while in the Riften Ratway sewers, and later got stuck in Forelhost, an abandoned castle up on a mountain, South East of Riften, fighting Dragon Cultists. There is a puzzle gate there. It was 1am local, so I made a save and will try to figure it out today with help. ;)

This feels like a huge dungeon with some challenging fights. Thank goodness I have a follower and I can summon atronachs to share the load. The follower died once in combat, and I killed her once, as there is friendly fire and some close quarter fights. I even got to watch a animation of me running my sword though her. :( At that point the choice is roll back to previous save or use consol magic to resurrect her. I prefer the consol.

In the vicinity is also a Dawnguard quest, I’m at the map quest marker, but damned if I can find the ”reported to be” cave entrance with 2 torches marking it.. Dawnguard Tower is well off to the East… 🤔

One thing I’ll add are that the dragon fights so far have been underwhelming, at least from my contribution. Sometimes they almost seem to just die on their own. 🤔
 
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Huntn

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There is so much going on in this story. First you find out you are Dragonborn, so you have your calling. As important, is the Imperial-Stormcloak conflict. Equally important is the College of Winterhold if you have magic aspirations. There is Merida a Daedric Princess, equivalent to a God speaks to you wanting you to cleanse the land of necromancer walking undead abominations, and then there is the Dawnguard, vampire hunters, which I believe originally was a DLC, tons of side quests, and the biggest beautiful dungeons I’ve had the pleasure to play.

I guess you could just run with one of the stories, Dragonborn’s is the main quest line, but I like moving most of them along. And for this, fast travel imo is a must, and survival mode is out, unless you want to be “more realistic” and constantly be hoofing it from one end of the region to the other, which is quite large. I might just give this a try, avoiding fast travel or doing less of it. There are times, I find something I want to store for me or a follower, and that’s back in Whiterun for right now, that I’m calling home base, and I don’t want to hoof it back there just for that reason, hence fast travel. What the Mages Guild really needs is a teleportation spell. :D

For immersion purposes, you can ride the roads. I picked up a horse, put some Elvin armor on it and ride in style, while my poor follower, Lydia has to sprint behind me to keep up. There is no doubling up on the horse, but there is a mod called “Simple Mounted Followers“ that will allow her to mount a spare horse that I own. I’ll be installing that tonight.

EE040BA0-A765-40F7-8FAD-3E44AB640C56.jpeg


When you look at the map you might swear it is 100 miles across, but a size quoted online is 37 square km, 18 square mile-ish, not counting the dungeons. I have always been impressed with how they seem to magically compress the landscape but make it look much larger than it really is. Anyway I enjoy exploring, there is a fort, a ruin, or a dungeon, seemingly around every corner.

I have zero interest in the thieves guild, but i might do part of the Dark Brotherhood, to get a horse, and will definitely complete the College of Winterhold quest line.

I’m liking the magic tank build. I’ve got a devoted follower who keeps me company but short on conversation. 😑 (This is becoming more of a characteristic in the newer games, talkative companions.) For battle, I can conjure a variety of atronachs, soon I’ll be able to conjure duel atronachs, and personally I have my bound weapon, soon to be weapons, for melee slashing and running through, :) and I’m wearing heavy armor. It does not protect against magic, so I’m looking into ways to beef up my gear’s magic resistance. It’s an eye opener when you run into an opponent who can off you in a couple of magic strikes. 😳
 
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maflynn

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I'm trying to decide whether to play Skyrim on the PC or the PS5. I don't play with mods. Do I want to play on my desk with keyboard/mouse or in the comfort of my recliner in a large screen tv but deal with playing the game with controller
 
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salamanderjuice

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I'm trying to decide whether to play Skyrim on the PC or the PS5. I don't play with mods. Do I want to play on my desk with keyboard/mouse or in the comfort of my recliner in a large screen tv but deal with playing the game with controller
I don't think there's really much benefit to KB/M in Skyrim. Even with Oblivion they did stuff like limit the number of hotkeys you could use to match what the 360 controller supported. Its not really a precision aiming required game anyways.
 

Huntn

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I'm trying to decide whether to play Skyrim on the PC or the PS5. I don't play with mods. Do I want to play on my desk with keyboard/mouse or in the comfort of my recliner in a large screen tv but deal with playing the game with controller
Ok on my PC keyboard mouse setup, I have 8 favorites numbered 1-8. I hit Q to show all my favorites and the ones I assigned the numbers to. If I pick any designated favorite, it goes in my left hand.

If it is numbered 1-8, I have a gaming mouse with 12 buttons on the side, so for them, I just hit a number. Don’t have to freeze the action.

Selecting a weapon/spell with an input (number) without stopping the game is the most immersive. Having to freeze the action, to make several selections sometines happens if I want to buff myself with multiple potions, works, is a reprieve from dieing ;), but is anti-immersive, so the less you have to freeze the action to make configuration changes the better, IMO.

I even have macros via Razer software, that assigns/puts the proper spell/weapon in the desired hand. If not for those, I’d have to make 3 key inputs because when you select one thing, it by default goes in your left hand. If you hit it twice, it moves to your righ hand (duel wielding), but if you want shield in your left hand, and a spell or weapon in your right hand, you have to make 3 key entires.

If I want my shield in my left hand and my bound sword in my right hand, I hit 7,7,8, which selects the sword left hand, second 7 moves it to the right hand (technically duel wielding) and 8 for the shield in the left hand, which btw can’t be put in the right hand, for whatever reason. I think it’s because you always stand with your left side angled forward, where you would need to have a shield.

So for this case, an assigned macro hits 7,7,8 with one key input and most importantly the action is not stopped to do this. Nothing feels more immersive as when you arm yourself while walking along, as a shield and sword/spell appears. To produce your bound sword, you have a blue glow in your hand, press the assigned button to conjure it, your character raises their arm slightly, seems to flex as a ball increases in intensity and with a whoosh, a blue glowing blade appears. Awesome! 😘

So after all that, how does a controller stand up, for arming yourself? :D
 
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maflynn

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I don't think there's really much benefit to KB/M in Skyrim
I find weapon selection, aiming and shooting to be more accurate on keyboard/mouse. The mouse allows for very minute and accurate movement. I love hitting F5 for quick save, that's gotten me out of some situations.
 
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Huntn

macrumors Core
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May 5, 2008
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The Misty Mountains
I find weapon selection, aiming and shooting to be more accurate on keyboard/mouse. The mouse allows for very minute and accurate movement. I love hitting F5 for quick save, that's gotten me out of some situations.
Especially when you are trying to hit a distant slightly moving target with you bow and arrow… My first game with a controller was Halo X-box and I just hated how imprecise its controls were, and that feeling continues to this day. 😳
 

maflynn

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slightly moving target with you bow and arrow
Yup, I prefer the bow and arrow and sneaking in Skyrim.

So installed Skyrim on both the PS5 and PC. I got as far as the Embershard mine (the first mine right after you escape) on both the PS5 and PC. I found an odd lag with the PS5 where I killed someone and they'd freeze and not move for about 1 or 2 seconds. The animation of falling or dying seemed to hang.

On the PC, its easier to see since the monitor is much closer, the aforementioned precise controls, though I have this odd issue of the weapon sound not coming. Whether its an iron sword swinging or the bow pulling back and the arrow flying.

I think I'll stick with the PC, but I'm going to google how to fix the sound issue. I get all the other sounds, just not weapon sounds
 
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Huntn

macrumors Core
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The Misty Mountains
Yup, I prefer the bow and arrow and sneaking in Skyrim.

So installed Skyrim on both the PS5 and PC. I got as far as the Embershard mine (the first mine right after you escape) on both the PS5 and PC. I found an odd lag with the PS5 where I killed someone and they'd freeze and not move for about 1 or 2 seconds. The animation of falling or dying seemed to hang.

On the PC, its easier to see since the monitor is much closer, the aforementioned precise controls, though I have this odd issue of the weapon sound not coming. Whether its an iron sword swinging or the bow pulling back and the arrow flying.

I think I'll stick with the PC, but I'm going to google how to fix the sound issue. I get all the other sounds, just not weapon sounds
Skyrim Special Edition? I just had to ask as I had a former version of the game still on my PC, listed in my Steam library. I’ve no issue with my sound. I assume you are on Steam, you could try a file integrity check.
 
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Queen6

macrumors G4
I'm trying to decide whether to play Skyrim on the PC or the PS5. I don't play with mods. Do I want to play on my desk with keyboard/mouse or in the comfort of my recliner in a large screen tv but deal with playing the game with controller
KB & mouse, only use the controller for the odd old emulated console game that only supports a controller. Skyrim like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, is a black hole for mods :cool: I tend to avoid ones that impact the gameplay as I like to play as intended with better graphics barring Radiophobia 3 which is challenging S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mod focusing primarily on combat realism and immersion.

There's just something rewarding about taking a 20 year old game to this level and still being able to play as the original dev's intended on both PC & M1 Mac...

Q-6
 
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Queen6

macrumors G4
Especially when you are trying to hit a distant slightly moving target with you bow and arrow… My first game with a controller was Halo X-box and I just hated how imprecise its controls were, and that feeling continues to this day. 😳
Combat Evolved Spartan Edition solved that offering the OG experience updated for modern PC systems. Sadly all too close to the retail game and has subsequently been delisted from the major mod sites. Flying too close to the sun and all :( Pity as was the most accurate and comprehensive HALO CE game ever produced.

Q-6
 
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maflynn

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Skyrim Special Edition?
Yeah, SE

While not a show stopper, its a bit of a annoyance. Still, I actually transitioned over to the PS5, and did the first major quest (golden claw and dragon stone) and I totally forgot the size, depth of skyrim's quests. Took me a while to get through that one dungeon, it was great.
 
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