Namaste Virtual Yoga Retreat

Note: When I initially puchased this game it was adverticed as a Vive release. I'd love to be able to recommend this "game" but it won't even open on my PC system with my Vive - FWIW I have a great system. I was looking forward to trying virtual yoga and have had no luck even getting it to run. The game thinks/says I have the wrong controllers/headset - bizzare. I hope they fix it. Also, the room scale requrments are too large - you do not need 2.5 meters (which I do have incedently) to do yoga - I'd change it to 2.0. Update - the developer has now posted the Vive is not supported - had I known I would not have gotten it - perhaps it works w revive?

[Editing after build 0.1.1.7] [u]Yoga in VR?[/u] The foremost issue worth addressing is whether yoga itself is a good fit for VR. Standing poses could be tracked with controllers, but that wouldn't work so well for poses like downward-dog. VR provides immersion and escapism, which sounds wonderful, but the obvious tradeoff is a cumbersome headset (especially with current wired ones). You can't see yourself or hand and foot placement; this can be problematic for some poses. [u]Namaste Virtual Yoga Retreat in Summary[/u] While still in early development, it shows some promise but, so far, it's a prototype. The challenges introduced by VR need to be overcome by the depth of immersion and/or interaction and this application doesn't quite live up to that (yet?). The Dev has, so far, been very responsive to criticism. At it's current price-point ($6.99) I can recommend it with the caveat that while it's doing what it needs to, it's still up in the air whether yoga seems a good fit for VR and you should know what you're getting into with any early access software. If you're new to yoga, you're probably better off with a live class or videos. If you're experienced, you'll find the navigation and lack of variety frustrating but my hope is that they'll follow through and continue building up the app. [b]The Basics[/b] The basic elements are in place. Pick an environment and you're greeted with fairly standard mellow music and generally soothing environments. From there, you can load up videos (short, medium, long) in a fixed-position video player. The instructor is good and video straightforward. [b]Environments[/b] The environments are well-chosen, though of middling quality and not much variety. Yoga on the beach is great but what about in a forest or on the roof of a skyscraper? Those, especially the latter, might not be your ideals, but VR is all about creating unique experiences - not necessarily duplicating existing ones. The sets are mostly low-poly and the textures could use some detail - those nearest you, in particular, since you'll be staring at the ground a lot. The lack of detail removes some of the organic feel you'd want from these environments. Only one environment had a yoga mat and its detail is also lacking. After using my Rift's reset view function repeatedly, I was able to roughly line up the mat with a physical one, which helped with immersion and also to establish boundaries. The environments are also fairly static. The water has waves and the clouds slowly move across the sky but everything else feels lifeless. There's vegetation but no breeze blowing its branches. [b]Audio[/b] The music's a passable new-agey backdrop but there's no variety. From the initial release, they've adjusted the video volume so it's much easier to hear but I'd still recommend keeping the music level at the lowest setting. [b]Instructor Video[/b] The instructor obviously knows what she's doing. There are times, though, when poses are done well before instructions are given, causing one to fall out of sync with the class, especially when you're not looking at the video (which will, likely, be 3/4 of the class). Instructor variety would be nice since everyone brings their own style but I'd rather have this one good instructor than a half-dozen unskilled ones. The video (as of recent updates) is moveable, though, and they've added a small video window to your headset view so you can always follow along (though it's pretty tiny). The video itself could also be more dynamic, with varying angles or close ups for pose tips. I can see the justification for a fixed camera (apart from the ease of recording) since it's easier to track visually but with grainy video at a distance it can be hard to see with current VR resolution. [b]Interaction[/b] Motion-tracked controllers are nearly useless. The menu interaction is frustratingly unintuitive. Even though I've navigated a couple dozen other VR experiences, I was initially unable to figure out how to change your position (i.e. teleport) and using the menus requires an odd combination. It's as though the developer hadn't tried many VR experiences to see how others are doing it. The sliders are either unlabeled or their labels are unintuitive - what does this one do and which way's louder? They've added the ability to move the main video window but it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how. There is a user guide in the install directory but it'd be nice to have it displayed or linked in the application itself. A standard controller or keyboard would be easier to navigate the functions with. Since the touch controllers serve no purpose during class, I placed them at the corners of my play space as visual indicators of my boundaries. [b]Final Thoughts[/b] I sincerely hope to see this application develop. The features the developers are considering sound great and they've already made several improvements addressing some of my concerns. Currently, if you want a VR yoga experience, this is your best all-in-one option. Alternatively, you could load up your favorite home/environmental app and listen to an audio class but that juggling that sounds tedious. I look forward to doing more classes in Namaste after it's come a little further. A bit about me and my setup: I'd consider myself intermediate in yoga, having done somewhere around 100 classes with various instructors and a few video and audio classes. I use an Oculus Rift CV1 in a moderate play space (roughly a 4'x5' area). Running a GTX 1080 on an i7 6850 w/ 16G DDR4, though feel this app would run quite well at much lower specs.

I am new to yoga and mostly started to help my back. I found this game very instructional and helpful. I would strongly recommend to beginner yogaists. Great graphics and easy to follow videos.