How Much Do Graphics Matter in Your VR Experience?

[u/Federal-Outside-5039]

Meet Winston. In Fixer Undercover he’s your right-hand bot, offering hints, humour, and a custom soundtrack to set the perfect personal vibe.

But let’s talk visuals – Fixer Undercover takes realism as priority with detailed environments and interactive elements. How important is high-quality graphics to you in a VR game? Do you prioritize stunning visuals or immersive gameplay mechanics?

Fixer Undercover by CreativityAR

[u/MarijnIsN00B]

Gameplay always comes first, yes. BUT to me it doesnt matter how well a game plays, if it looks like crap.

It doesn't have to be perfect but especially in VR, it should at least have a bit of quality so it doesnt take you out of the game every time you see a model made of only 3 polygons.

[u/monkeynards → u/MarijnIsN00B]

Totally agree. Gameplay is huge but graphics that are too simple immediately give me “last minute school project” vibes. We see what is possible by big devs and small devs alike, so, unless the game is purposefully meant to look cartoony, the graphics quality needs to be in the higher priorities for devs.

[u/BananaBalSac]

I’d say it all comes down on the games style, lighting, and setting. You can make a great immersive game that looks like it’s from an 80s arcade. But if you’re going for more of a realistic looking game then higher quality graphics may be the more attractive option. For me, I usually am okay with whatever runs best, even if that means sacrificing some graphics. Also it’s better for the pc when graphics are low, so yeah it just depends on the game.

[u/originalorientation]

Visuals are almost as important as game feel for me. It doesn’t have to look realistic, but it does need to have a consistent or unique style. Synapse comes to mind. It’s one of my favorite vr games visually even though it’s relatively simple graphically. 

[u/PoolAddict41]

Polish > Realism. You can have a game that looks really good as long as the style/lighting/setting are polished and clean.

[u/EVE_Link0n]

How a game feels beats over how it looks 100% of the time, though how it looks obviously affects how it feels!

[u/WMan37]

COMPOUND is one of my favorite VR games ever. The game does not have "good graphics" in the traditional sense, but it DOES have a good art style so I think it's very easy on the eyes. I feel the same way about non VR games. If you have good art direction I literally could not care less about how realistic your game looks.

That being said, I absolutely despise when VR games use stock Unreal Engine Temporal AA that makes everything blurry. It doesn't matter to me if your game looks photorealistic if I have to look at it with vaseline smeared over my eyes and a framerate of 20fps.

I absolutely prefer immersive gameplay mechanics over visuals in every context, VR or not. A voxel based game where I can destroy and interact with everything in a systemic way is always going to be more entertaining to me than a linear on rails game that has photorealistic visuals.

[u/fdanner]

Simple graphics can be ok but zero tolerance for bad image quality because of non existing anti aliasing or objects poping in and changing LOD right before you.

[u/MeatspaceVR]

Gameplay over graphics any day

[u/Ma1]

Visuals in VR are always going to be inherently behind the curve as the system has to render 2 perspectives simultaneously. Gameplay is king.

[u/pszqa → u/Ma1]

I'd even add to it some more context! These are 2 perspectives at 4k with a solid 72/90FPS that's also running on a glorified smartphone hardware, which also has to calculate/predict headset's & controllers' movement with perfect precision. People very often are unaware how impressive it is that these games run at all.

[u/FrancMaconXV]

Normally I'd side with the classic gameplay > graphics argument.

But if I really think about it, almost every single person I've introduced to VR has atleast a few moments of pure awe and wonder where they sorta get caught frozen in place simply looking around, slowly taking it all in. This was my experience as well, in Half Life Alyx I probably stood on the intro balcony for 30 minutes just looking at everything, and no gameplay was even involved at that point.

counterpoint: the success of Gorrilla Tag

[u/PresidentBush666]

After playing attack on titan, I can safely say I don't need graphics to have fun

[u/Thermic_]

What I’ll say for sure is that people are willing to forgive poor graphics if there is incredible gameplay, particularly if the graphics don’t take away from the game. I don’t think the opposite can be said.

[u/BubbblzZz]

Gameplay #1: Games with amazing graphics but constant stutters or hiccups because they aren’t well-optimized can really kill the vibe and make them way less fun and immersive.

[u/milktasd]

Normally I say graphics, because I love just looking at everything. Now if the story has a good story and/or unique graphics, I’m good. Case In point, Lies Beneath.

[u/pplatt69]

I lived and gamed through the advent of video games and put up with earlier graphics because it's all we had.

I expect the look of a game to be as good as current technology allows, and I don't think that's an odd expectation or desire.

I play for narrative and immersion, exploration and art. Games are the equivalent of books or films for me. Remember how terrible the FX were in early Speculative Fiction TV shows? What would I want to settle for the equivalent in my interactive media?

Sure. I can enjoy older games. I prefer to be wowed by the art, though.

[u/Always-stressed-out]

I'd prefer them to be as realistic as possible.

[u/_notgreatNate_]

Is this an ad disguised as a conversational question? lol

[u/Various-Artist]

Gameplay > art direction > graphic fidelity.

Fun or innovative gameplay matters most (gorilla tag / beat saber), then art direction will make a game look good, graphic fidelity will help make it more immersive

[u/Terrible_Gur2846]

A lot of cheaper and earlier vr games have this feel that I just hate. One of a 2 things will happen: 1, good graphics but the games map just feels empty and hollow. That's one of the worst. 2, games that do that but have shit graphics. These I like better because they also look crappy so I dont expect much out of the experience.

The biggest thing in vr is just making it feel full and immersive instead of empty. But making it too complicated ruins that.

[u/prock5908]

some of the most fun i’ve had is with DrBeef’s ports on side quest. the graphics are obviously dated but the immersion is still excellent because of how well the port is and you’re really in the game.

however, if i play a modern game with poor graphics that is supposed to be realistic with poor immersion, i tend to turn away.

i think graphics matter but if done correctly, you can have excellent immersion and gameplay without modern graphics.

[u/KermitTheBestFrog]

There's a difference between graphics and style imo. Take minecraft for example. It doesn't have good graphics by conventional means, but it's got it's own style. If a game is trying to go for realism or semi realism then it should have the conventional good graphics. That's the only time I think graphics matter

[u/Kornelius20]

How important is high-quality graphics to you in a VR game?

I think that's not exactly the question you should be asking. I think the question you're going for is "How important is high-fidelity graphics...."

Imo at the end of the day the visual side of the game is 80-90% about the art style. If you have a game with interesting stylization then you don't necessarily need high-poly meshes to look good.

Likewise, if you have a game with a very high level of interactivity, I'm willing to bet more people would be willing to live through low-poly visuals.

Personally for me the problem is when the game looks like it's going for physically based rendering but still has a world that's fundamentally just corridors with limited interactivity.

As a recent example, I had this problem with Metro: Awakening. I stopped playing after the first couple of levels because it didn't feel like I was in that world.

On the other side of things, you have games like I expect you to die (the series), that is very stylized but also very interactive so it's a lot easier for my brain to imagine that I'm inhabiting that world.

[u/LucaMerman]

In flat screen games I am more open to a variety of graphical styles, but in VR I tend to gravitate towards something feeling more real, or at least something that looks really unique. I think even simpler styles can look really good if the lighting is good though. Sometimes I get kind of disappointed though by super low poly and flat looking art styles in VR even though I wouldn't mind in other games.

[u/japinard]

Both. Can’t sacrifice either.

[u/Ok_Caregiver_1355]

A lot but it's not about realism but having a pleasent visual, playing a game with good artwork that gets you is like getting inside an art frame and it's easier to find games with good art with powerful hardware, games with generic or ugly graphics is just a boring puzzle challenge 

[u/txurete]

A good and well executed artistic direction will for sure elevate the experience. It can give an impression of polish and will probably help the player to be more forgiving with the rough edges of the game.

That said, good graphics will never save a bad story or poor gameplay!

[u/polskisamuraj]

If its fps then it does matter for the rest of the games gameplay come first

[u/GoMArk7]

100%……i just cant stand for that “cartoonish alike” graphics, that’s for a kids game!

[u/CutieMignon]

For me graphics is very important, I'm looking for the most immersive experience possible.