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Oculus Home needs some updates

DoctorDoodle
Honored Guest

Home is still in desperate need for updates.

I prefer everything about Oculus Home over Steam VR while in the headset, but out of it, Steam wins by a landslide. Home just doesn't feel like a finished product I would pay for on the PC side.

I know there has been discussion before, but I just want to bring it up again.

WARNING: WALL OF TEXT


Here is a list of features I would like updated:

SEARCH FUNCTION

With Touch released, and gallery apps available, there are a TON of experiences. Some things that can be improved with searching are

  1. The placement - It should not be hidden among notifications and settings. Move it to the left side, or give it its own bar where it says my computer does not meet the recommended specs which it most certainly does.
  2. Different search for Library tab and Store tab - Keep the search results only relevant to the tab I'm on
  3. Advanced searching - Categories, Genres, Ratings, Touch support, price, etc. I know some of this is already implemented, but hidden. ie. Searching "action" will show a bunch of action games
  4. Search result page - Don't limit it to the dropdown for results. Show a full page list.

STORE

The store is very cumbersome to use, and many problems can be fixed by fixing the search function, but holy cow, it's sad that Origin is easier to navigate than Home.

  1. List view - Grids look pretty, but list views would be nice to have too

  2. Show more info - Ratings, touch support, and intensity would be easy to display alongside the price

  3. Categories - Have categories be a sidebar near the top so finding games is easier.

  4. Wishlist - I want to save what games to buy next so I don't have to keep an awkward text file to remember

  5. Better Media Player - The current one loads terribly slow on mediocre internet. I always end up looking the game up on YouTube instead. Upgrade your player, and I will more likely spend more $$$ because I can actually see what I'm about to buy!

  6. Sort Reviews - Reviews are great (thanks for listening to us), make it so at the top of the page where it shows the stars, we can click it to immediately bring us down to reviews. Let us sort by most helpful, and click the stars to show only reviews that gave that rating

  7. Refunds - Oculus plz

LIBRARY

The library is okay as it is, but could have a couple of fixes.

  1. List view - It's efficient and has always worked. I don't care if it's not as pretty. I can't see it when in the HMD. It makes life so much more easy in the long run.

  2. Download management. Show me all the things trying to download in one place in what order. It's a headache to try prioritizing a new game to get downloaded first when five other things are trying to update. Don't start updates immediately, give me the option to do that. It's annoying.

  3. Sorting options - categories, and user made folders to organize would be lovely. Especially in HMD mode.

  4. External applications in Home - Launch non-home things from home, like Steam-VR. Using injectors is cumbersome.

  5. Time Played - I love this feature in Steam, and would love to see it here

  6. Start in Desktop Mode Button - It's a bit un-accessible as is, making me choose Steam over Home on some games. Simple convenience would change that.

SETTINGS

  1. Check for updates manually - Add a button that will manually check for a Home update so I don't panic and figure out the reason Home won't let me register my touch controllers is because my version of Home is from 6 months ago, and never updated since I never opened it while I was away.

  2. Make configure Rift an option in the initial dropdown - This is my most used reason for going into settings. Make it easier to get to.

  3. Redeem codes bar in Store - Make it so it's easier to find this by having it as part of the store tab once the store is fixed up.

  4. Allow unknown sources by default - Oculus plz.



Thoughts?
18 REPLIES 18

elboffor
Consultant
I think the majority of this is personal preference and I actually like it the way it is.
How things are out of the rift doesn't concern me (but that's my preference).
In my opinionion the only thing that's really needed is customising what we can see and launch within home.

As for refunds, steam only very recently started doing this. Pretty much all the other digital stores don't do it, so we shouldn't expect oculus to
This is my forum signature.
There are many others like it, but this is mine.

RorschachPhoeni
Trustee
I would like to play some demos. I can't play every game. Some games are just not for me. And I don't mean that I don't like those games but that I can't play those for long. Games like Eve Valkyrie or Project Cars. I would love to know that before I buy a game. You can find out if a game is for you or not in about 30 minutes.
I want to buy "The Climb" but I am afraid that I can't play it, because maybe it is an unpleasent experience for me and then I have spend my money on a game that I am unable to play.
This problem is the main factor for me not to buy games at all for VR right now.
Excuse my bad english. I speak to you through the google translator. 😛

vannagirl
Consultant

elboffor said:

I think the majority of this is personal preference and I actually like it the way it is.
How things are out of the rift doesn't concern me (but that's my preference).
In my opinionion the only thing that's really needed is customising what we can see and launch within home.

As for refunds, steam only very recently started doing this. Pretty much all the other digital stores don't do it, so we shouldn't expect oculus to


yes also steam have lowered the game quality entry so much that is they did not offer refunds there would be much more trouble.

I think oculus will in time they are just trying to get the store established at this moment
Look, man. I only need to know one thing: where they are. 

mambo1888
Rising Star
Id like to see demos added. Theres a few games Ive bought that I wouldn't if I had been able to play a demo first, recently Super Hot on OH and Serious Sam: The First Encounter on steam (I got a refund after 20 mins) because of this it sometimes feels like a safer bet buying on steam as you know if its not for you it can be refunded and you can buy something you like instead. While it would be great if OH allowed the same, demo's would be just as good. If you could download the full game and you got a timed or limited no of games trial of that game, would be great.

I started a thread a few says ago, about household or family accounts. I think something is really needed for people who share their rift at home or just want to show friends and family what it can do without having to move save games all the time. A simple guest option would work for just showing it off where you can log in and then select guest so as not to use any of your save data. 

This might not affect most people but for some like me who have their rift set up in a different room from the monitor, it would be nice to be able to run room setup completely from within the headset. Thats not a major issue as its still easy enough to do setup without this feature bar where you have to align the sensors to your position in the room.

I think this has been mentioned before but an easier way to remove unwanted items from Not Installed list, I believe the only way at the moment is to reinstall and then when uninstalling select don't show in home anymore (or something to that affect) A simple right click and remove/hide from list would be better. Again not a major problem but would be nice.

Wolfox
Protege
The only thing OCULUS HOME needs is the possibility to move around in the "HOME" and personalize it, make you feel like HOME!
For the content Oculus Gives I don't have issues, if i want i can go on steam to get others.

kevink808
Superstar
Agree with a lot here, but actually my primary beef with Oculus Home is the aggravating way they randomly scramble the app tiles after you click one to look at it, then click to go back, only to have them scrambled so you have to try and scroll back to the ones you were looking for!  That is so damn asinine and I don't know why they did that except to maybe help some apps get better "shelf space" so they aren't ignored.
Rift-S, Quest 128GB, GO 64GB.

Choronzon
Adventurer
edit: not here.

XlordB
Adventurer
I just want to see home get out of beta so we can have a proper create party with friends for messaging and talking

P3nT4gR4m
Consultant
Biggest pita for me is that you can't play game trailers in the rift. If I'm thinking about buying a game, I need to take off my rift and view the trailer on the desktop app. 

Being able to customise Home would also be nice. The skyscraper thing is nice and all with the square flames and whatnot, but I'd much prefer to be in a demonic pit or a post apocalyptic wasteland when I put my rift on. Home is the VR equivalent of Windows desktop and it feels like being stuck with those crappy XP fields for our wallpaper. Doesn't feel like home to me unless sinners are roasting on an open fire.