VRMark Preview (Steam VR)

System: Valve Index, HTC Vive & Oculus Rift
Price at Time Of Review: Free
Comfort Rating: Green (No Movement)
Genre: Tool/App
Input: Gamepad, Keyboard & Mouse
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG

 

Description: This preview was added to 3DMark in early 2016 while VRMark was still in development. And although this DLC will continue to be available in 3DMark for a while longer, we recommend that you check out the real thing instead. The full version of VRMark is available to buy on Steam. Or try the free version by clicking ‘Download Demo’ on the VRMark store page.

Review: For those who cannot access the VR preview, This is what you must do. Rightclick on the program in steam and select properties. Go to Beta’s and enter ‘HappyHolidays’ into the code box and click on ‘check code’. Now click on the beta drop-down box. the VrBeta option is now available. Select it and click ok and Steam will begin to download the benchmark.

The VR experience itself is a museum room with diorama displays for a number of past 3D Mark scenes. You can walk around part of the room and obviously look in all directions. There is currently no benchmark number provided at the end, but it does provide a nice, if small, animated 3D scene to explore, demonstrating a fairly high fidelity example of what VR can look like. Oh, and don’t forget to look up!

Oddly, this is really just a VR showcase, not so much a benchmark test. I’m not really sure it has any meaningful value since it doesn’t relate to anything practical for now. Maybe those with high-end SLI setups will get something useful out of it, but for the rest of us, it is best avoided.