Finally got to test the game with my Rift CV1 - and to my great amazement, the game supports native Oculus drivers!
That means my 10 year old son can play the game, as I do not allow him to use his glasses inside the Index - also Index is nearly twice the weight of the CV1.
Interestingly, some night levels (Australia) looked way too bright using oled, so these may have been designed for lcd. Some other night levels like Antarctica did look better with oled.
As sites like RoadToVR and UpLoadVR seem to focus more and more on lowest-end VR, none of these sites have reviewed Kayak VR - which is a great shame. Kayak VR may be the most impressive VR experience this year. Fortunately, other sites have reviewed the game:
THE VR GRID: 9/10
Quote: "I think just about any VR enthusiast will easily lose more than a few hours just checking out each setting and trying to master the art of VR Kayaking. What makes this so great is that it’s also an easy title to show off as there is minimal VR experience needed to hop in and start paddling wherever you want to go. Kayak Vr: Mirage nails what it feels like to kayak on a river or ocean and the fact it’s the most realistic looking game I have ever seen across any VR platform has me recommending this to anyone interested in seeing what modern day VR is capable of."
https://www.thevrgrid.com/kayak-vr-mirage/
TRY HARD GUIDES: 9/10
Quote: "Overall, Kayak VR: Mirage is a beautiful game that manages to create a kayaking simulator that feels like you’re actually paddling through scenic locations. Not only is it a peaceful way to relax, but your arms will certainly get a workout the longer you play. While the game might be a little light on content at the moment, that is sure to improve as the devs continue to support it post-launch."
https://tryhardguides.com/kayak-vr-mirage-review/
GAMING NEXUS: 9/10
Quote: "Kayak VR: Mirage delivers one of the most realistic VR experiences I’ve seen, setting a new benchmark for visual fidelity and water physics. The four environments in the game feel like real places, and the control over your vessel is perhaps the best simulation I’ve experienced. While racing is available (and will appeal to many), simply exploring the environments is amazingly rewarding. Some technical issues mar the experience somewhat, but this is still a game that every person with the tech to run it should buy immediately. "
https://www.gamingnexus.com/Article/7632/Kayak-VR-Mirage/
More reviews here and average rating of 87% - but some reviews are in Spanish and French:
https://vrgamecritic.com/game/kayak-vr-mirage
Btw, the game has nice ultramersion textures - and to show the extreme quality put into this game/sim, you many have to look at the little things. Like leaves:
Some levels may have millions of leaves which may go unnoticed, but see the awesome details when getting close!
More leaves with nice details
The Kayak - note the details in the leather, looks like 4k ultramersion textures to me. The Kayak has many tiny surface scratches and imperfections making it look real
See the reflections in the water - in full color. Green trees and blue sky being correctly reflected
There are also some hidden missions/quests inside the game - like this turtle wanting to get back to open waters - you can push it with the kayak or the paddle:
The animal life is a great touch, there are fish in the water and here are some birds flying high in the sky:
This image is not taken by me, but it looked great - the tip of the iceberg, lol:
I'll let me son try it later today and see if he likes it.
RuneSR2 Ya, Kayak VR is a fun little Kayak sim. Looks and works great with my Q2/rtx3090 wireless with Air Link. Best thing for me is that it's now on VivePort Infinity. Saved me another aud$30, lol! Looks a little better with my OG Vive Pro (Etsy lens mod and Index controllers) thanks to their AMOLED screens and my rtx3090's ability to get +200% SteamVR % visuals but not significant enough for me to want to lose the freedom of wireless. Cheers.
I'm probably wasting tons of money by not getting Viveport Infinity, lol. I still think the Vive Pro with Index controllers may be the best options for many games. Oled really makes a difference in the dark games. For now I prefer only to switch between 2 PCVR hmds, 3 would be crowded, lol.
Still love when devs support native Oculus drivers ensuring optimal performance for most users.
I thoroughly tested the game with the CV1, ss 2.0 being the sweet spot with maxed out in-game settings (no MSAA, but AA = On). And yes, Index does look significantly better in the day maps due to higher res, more subpixels and the fov, but users of CV1 still get an absolutely awesome experience, also the bass and music is great with the CV1 speakers. I had no problems enjoying the game with the CV1 - some colors still look more deep with oled.
Maybe I could do ss 2.2 or 2.3, but 2.0 looks great due to the image sharpening, and ss 2.5 seemed to provide slightly too much shimmering due to the sharpening, this is a rare limitation with ss 2.5, I've only seen it in very few games.
Fun still to use the old CV1, and it still provides mind-blowingly great experiences.
If you're into Lost Ember VR, that game is extremely blurry using Index, but looks great using CV1, would be interesting to hear how that game works with Vive Pro and Quest 2. Lost Ember VR also supports native Oculus drivers for optimal performance - it's more like a walking simulator, not more stressful than kayaking 😉
Btw, if Kayak VR is in VivePort Store, then I do not understand why this game is not in the Rift Store. Lost Ember VR should be in the Rift Store too, it's totally an Oculus game. Unless Meta has stopped updating the Rift Store - it's now 26 days since new content arrived in the Rift Store, in the meantime tons of new Rift-supported games and apps have arrived on Steam.
Ya, oled really helps a lot with games like this, esp. in night and stormy scenes. Looks absolutely fantastic with my VP1! I really hope someone comes out with micro-oled in the near future. Until then I'll just be happy with my VP1/Q2 combo. Unlike some, I'm not really interested in a 3-way, lol!
I actually still have my good old cv1 but it's only connected to my home office laptop (Alienware 17r4 w/gtx1060 6Gb, 32Gb ram). Still works fine even though the audio is broke. I just direct audio to my laptop speakers which are surprisingly very good (even have woofers). Still plays most of my Oculus store games fine (up to 1.3x SS) and is a good blast from the past once in a while.
I agree that the lack of new releases on the Rift store is pretty disappointing. Esp. since VivePort seems to get many more and most of them include Oculus runtimes. I think that pretty well the only ones that will get released on the Rift store in the future are one's that are cross-buy with the Q2. So, better than nothing I guess. Cheers mate.
