Does it seem real enough that your subconscious finds it disappointing when you can't actually hold and touch the things with your hands instead of using the controllers as the interface?
When I was playing job sim (which is lovely and low poly, not at all realistic) I tried to put the wand down for a second on the counter. I realised just before letting go that it hadn't hit the surface. So of course I say to myself "I'm a fucking idiot, of course the counter isn't real" Then as my alternative to putting it on the counter, I tried to put it down on top of the microwave, less than 10 seconds later.
Alternatively, do the games/demos you've played on Vive seem related to you by nature of their common controller? (For me, FPS games feel VERY different from each other because they are distinguished primarily for me by the movement physics rather than the common mouse/keybindings they all share - I expect a similar experience from Vive, but prove me wrong!)
Yes, sort of, but more by the fact that they all seem like they're real places. The same way my basement feels the same as a 5 star hotel room. They're entirely different, but I know they're both places on earth.
It doesn't feel like they're all the same game engine, or have the same control scheme, it just feels like they're all places I've been to. I can't really adequately describe this effect to you, but if I asked you how big your shoes are, you have this amazing physical response to that. Your brain
knows how big your shoes are without them being present. Without holding your shoes you can mentally picture exactly how big your shoe is, the shape and forms they have as part of their very existence. If I ask you how big the pumpkin lantern models from TF2 are, you might be able to picture a size, but instead of a physical memory, it'll be an intangible one. You wouldn't have a clear mental picture of the exact size and shape and presence of those pumpkins. I however, saw them when playing the other day. I have the same kind of mental picture of those pumpkins now in my mind as I do of my shoes.
objects in good VR (I didn't get this effect with the Oculus DK2, only now with the Vive) are entering your brain in an entirely new way. You form an entirely new kind of memory of them. Except it's not a new kind of memory, it's the same kind you use for real objects.
@KubeKing will be able to attest to this. How big was that blue whale dude? How about the size of the manta ray? Or how big was Atlas?
I suppose now I mention Atlas, a good way to describe this effect is like meeting someone from the internet or TV for the first time. I was well acquainted with Atlas from Portal 2. We all know those robots well and I thought I knew how big he was. Then I met him I was totally wrong, now I have a new mental image of how big atlas is.
The way different games handle the input is actually pretty different. For games that have visual hands, the position of the hands is always totally different. Job sim makes the hands invisible when holding something (which I hate). Then there's the Gallery demo that uses the grip instead of the trigger to pick things up. You might initially think that the grip is a good way to simulate picking something up, seems natural to grip your hand, right? Wrong. It's fucking horrible and I hate it. Trigger for picking up please, even with fake hands instead of a....device....
I'm still interested in ways to increasing mobility outside of the safety cube, without actually moveing outside the cube.
The aperture demo has go-go-gadget arms activated by the grip so you can grab things outside the chaperone bounds. It's implemented poorly ( the controller just zips to a meter away, instead of having something extending from it) but it's functional and could be much better with visual improvements to remove the disconnect of seeing the thing you're holding fly magically away from you. (simply making a copy shoot out to a meter would be better)
@KubeKing See how I give radically better answers when there are specific questions asked?