WINDOWS MIXED REALITY ON TEST
The headsets, the games, the experience
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When Facebook bought Oculus Rift for $2 billion back in 2014, I suspect it set off familiar “we’ve missed the boat” ripples in the Microsoft boardroom. While January 2015 saw the announcement of its futuristic HoloLens, it took a further two-anda-half years before consumers could enter Microsoft’s virtual realm: Windows Mixed Reality (WMR).
It’s a bit of a shame, then, that the launch was more of a pfftt than an explosion. WMR was released as part of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update in October 2017, when Microsoft also announced “a range” of Windows Mixed Reality headsets. It was easier to grab Lord Lucan for a chat than to get hold of a headset to test, though, and when it came to content it was all jam tomorrow.
That jam looked very tempting indeed, though, with the promise of support for Steam VR games to accompany the native VR apps and games that would surely arrive soon in the Windows Store. We waited. And waited. The jam began to look crusty.
Over the “holiday” period of late 2017, however, things started to change. The headsets arrived, even if we Brits only have access to four compared to five in the US (Samsung introduced a high-end version, equipped with an OLED rather than LCD screens, to partner its Windows laptops, but these aren’t sold in the UK). As promised, Steam added support for WMR. And, slowly, more apps and games started dripping into the Windows Store.
Now, with the scent of spring in the 2018 air, it’s time to ask whether we should be taking Windows Mixed Reality seriously. In this in-depth review, we not only look at the WMR experience, but assesss the four available headsets, plus a PC and laptop that are perfect for VR.
First steps
This brings some obvious questions: what is Windows Mixed Reality anyway? How does it differ from virtual reality and augmented reality? What does it offer over Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive?
In many ways, it’s identical to both of those offerings. Right now, unless you can afford a HoloLens ( see p53) along with your second Learjet, Windows Mixed Reality is virtual reality within a Microsoft environment. It is, in fact, a Windows Store app like any other. It’s just that
this particular app requires the use of an approved WMR headset ( see p54).
These are all based on a reference Microsoft design. The colours and contours may be different, but fundamentally all four headsets are more like identical quadruplets than brothers. It’s just that they’re wearing different clothing.
So they all share the same core ingredients. That’s a pair of circular, 90Hz 1,440 x 1,400 LCD panels (one for each eye); HDMI inputs; a 3.5mm jack for connecting earphones; an adjustable headstrap; and a flip-up mechanism, so you can check your real-life environs without unstrapping the headset.
Plug any of these devices into a USB 3 port and HDMI output, and the WMR app will start. Or at least, that’s the theory. Your computer will need to be running the Fall Creators Update of Windows 10, and you may find you need to unplug your chosen headset a couple of times to persuade it to be recognised. You’ll also need to pair the Bluetooth controllers ( see above
right) with your system. Assuming success, you’ll be asked whether you want the “full” experience, where you can walk around, or a sitting-down version – with the former obviously being preferable. On selection, you’re asked to walk around the available space you have to play in, to create a virtual boundary. During play, a wireframe wall will appear whenever you step too close.
The headset experience
With all the headsets being based on the same Microsoft design, it’s no surprise that the experience of wearing them is almost identical.
They all include enough space to accommodate glasses, which I wore throughout testing. You might expect things to get uncomfortable, but I found it was possible to wear the lightest headsets (from Acer and Lenovo) for half an hour without really noticing them. The only annoyances were pressure on my nose, which meant I occasionally had to fiddle with the headset to make it comfortable, and that sometimes my glasses were pushed down so text looked out of focus.
The big plus of WMR headsets, compared to the Vive or Oculus Rift, is
“Unless you can afford a HoloLens along with your second Learjet, WMR is virtual reality within a Microsoft environment”
that you don’t need external sensors to avoid bumping into objects in your room. Along with the boundary area you set up, a pair of low-resolution cameras keep a look-out for obstacles (it’s called “inside out tracking” in VR parlance). Naturally, you’re also bound by wires, but a generous 4m cable means you can have a large rectangular area to work within. All the currently available headsets include a 3.5mm jack for adding your own earphones or headphones (the latter should slip easily over the top strap), with the promise of spatial awareness via sound – but I never found this to be very effective.
Cliff House
With your headset on, and your real-world boundary set, the Mixed Reality app takes you through a couple of basic orientation steps – for example, introducing the controllermounted buttons that you use to fire weapons, select objects and activate controls in VR apps. Then you’ll hear the tweeting of birds: you have arrived in Cliff House.
I think of this as a Windows desktop translated into 3D, because you can place shortcuts (say, for the Edge browser or Windows Store) in a similar way to how Windows has always worked. It’s much slicker, though, and also offers options to add decorations, objets d’art and weird “live” holograms such as mime artists.
It’s a polished offering, but it won’t be long before you grow bored and wonder what else you can do in Windows Mixed Reality other than explore your virtual home.
What to do
Thankfully, there’s an easy way to find out. Pressing the Windows button on either controller – usefully, you can glance down and “see” the controllers in the virtual world – will bring up a menu for shortcuts such as Edge, Cortana and Skype. The one we’re interested in here, though, is the Windows Store, because this is the gateway to the Microsoft-sanctioned VR activities on offer.
Browse through the available Mixed Reality apps – there’s a separate category within the store – and you can download them directly (or, if you prefer, via the Windows Store in its normal guise). Once installed, you can add a shortcut to your house and click on it. And then, rather surreally, the Cliff House world will fade to black, as a new 3D environment appears.
Exactly what this is depends on the app you choose. For instance, Galaxy Explorer – made by Microsoft – places you in the midst of space. A short demo helps you place Earth as your home, and then you’re considered ready to explore this weird galaxy in which we live. You can shoot off to Alpha Centauri, for instance, and see planets spinning in front of you while a narrator provides an overview of what we know.
The majority of the apps aren’t as slick, however. For example, there’s an app called Walk the World, which promises that you can “explore anywhere in the world” using OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps and Google Maps. It’s clunky, though, with the one current review describing it as the “poor man’s Google Maps VR”.
At least Walk the World is free. Many cost over £10 for no discernible reason, with few offering a trial option so you can check whether they’re worth the price. And because Windows Mixed Reality is yet to hit the big time in terms of numbers, you’ll be extremely fortunate if you can find any reviews from buyers.
To start with, then, you may find yourself watching one of the free short 360-degree animations. For example, Asteroids! VR is a cute 11-minute tale of aliens struggling to avoid asteroids in deep space. Or there’s The Rose and I, which allows you to explore the lonely moon where she resides.
And, naturally, there are games. I’ve shared a couple of my favourites from the Windows Store in 3 starter games for Windows Mixed Reality ( see right), but, with rare exceptions, the same caveat applies about needing to pay before you find out how good a game is. Which is why the inclusion of Steam is such good news.
Steamy Windows
If you have a couple of minutes to while away, check the available VR games from the Windows Store. Then check what’s available on Steam. You’ll soon realise why it’s such good news that you can download and run games directly from Steam that will work on your Windows Mixed Reality headset.
I would be lying, though, if I suggested it was a seamless
experience. Assuming you have a Steam account, and the software already on your system, you now need to download “Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR” via Steam itself. After installing it, you’ll then need to run the Windows Mixed Reality environment as normal, and then load the game. Even then it won’t always work and you’ll need to restart WMR.
It’s a pain, but it’s worth jumping through the hoops to gain access to the games. If the game supports Windows Mixed Reality – and the vast majority do, as indicated by a small Windows icon – then you should be able to run them without fuss. The sole exception I found was LA Noire:
The VR Files, which I couldn’t persuade to run. Microsoft has much to thank Oculus Rift and HTC for: it’s inherited a ready-made VR gaming platform.
Valve also appears keen to make the experience slicker, with a couple of bugs fixed via an update during the time I was conducting this review. I particularly like the way it has built a virtual extension to Cliff House, where you’re transported when you load SteamVR for Windows from within Microsoft’s environment. From here you can check out all your downloaded Steam games.
Need for speed?
One thing that distinguishes Windows Mixed Reality from Oculus Rift and HTC is that Microsoft has lowered the bar when it comes to PC requirements. You don’t even need a dedicated graphics card to take advantage: if your computer can run the notterribly-demanding Cliff House environment at 60fps then it will be deemed to pass muster. You can test it for yourself by downloading the Windows Mixed Reality PC Check from the Windows Store.
Not unusually for Microsoft, it then muddies the waters by creating a class of Windows Mixed Reality Ultra. You’ll need a discrete graphics chip for this, because it must be able to run a VR environment at 90fps – while 60fps should be enough to avoid nausea, the increase to 90fps adds certainty.
Really, though, you’re not going to have a pleasant VR life unless your computer can hit the green “Ready” mark in the SteamVR Performance Test (downloadable from Steam). For example, our PC Specialist system ( see
p56), with a desktop GeForce GTX 1060 equipped with 6GB of RAM, hit 7.9 in the test – that equates to a “High” quality rating. The Scan laptop managed a “Very High” 11 while the Surface Book 2 15in, with its mobile GeForce GTX 1060, was deemed “Ready” with a High rating of 7.
So how much speed you need will depend on how demanding the apps you use are. As with any “normal” demanding 3D game, you’ll need a fast pairing of processor and graphics chip to get the most enjoyable experience. The difference here is that frame rates are never sacrificed, so image quality is dropped instead.
Is WMR ready for the mainstream?
Despite the many pluses, I fear for the future of Windows Mixed Reality. Microsoft is sending out mixed signals to developers, with blogs focusing on the HoloLens rather than the WMR environment for consumers. Indeed, you have to search quite hard to find much talk about WMR on Microsoft’s websites as a whole.
This makes me suspect WMR will fade into the background in time, but what it has done is given the big PC makers – Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung – a foothold in the consumer VR world, which until now was dominated by HTC and Oculus. (It’s worth distinguishing consumer from corporate here, because HP in particular has created VR-focused workstations for some time.)
In doing so, it’s also driven down prices. The Oculus Rift is now £399, as is the HTC Vive, and I look forward to seeing what price (and how good) the HTC Vive Pro will be when that’s released later this year.
The question then becomes whether WMR is ready for the mainstream, and whether it’s worth forking out somewhere between £300 and £400 for any sort of headset.
I certainly wouldn’t pay £400. If you look on the Microsoft Store at any one time (or head to Amazon) then you’re likely to find a headset on offer. And, as my mini-reviews of headsets overleaf shows, there’s little to choose between them.
In actual reality, if you buy now you’ll be an early adopter – with all that entails. First-generation hardware that’s likely to be improved, probably within the year; an uncertain future for Windows Mixed Reality as a platform; a thin, albeit growing, selection of things to do with the new product from the Windows Store.
But, on the other side, you’re an early adopter. You’ll get to play with a developing platform as it grows, and due to the compatibility with Steam you can gain access to the latest games as they’re released. Worth a £300 gamble? I’m virtually certain the answer is yes.