FastPIPE vs. SteamVR

It's absolutely well suited to anyone needing accurate piping takeoff and laboring estimates, with great reporting and up to date pricing. I love that I didn't need to spend time trying to update the price logs. It's easy to learn, and works well in a large or small environment, and lends itself to more than just estimating, but becomes a good project management tool as well. Fantastic software.

Incentivized

I wanted to play "Half Life:Alyx" which is the best VR game currently available. I was able to purchase it through steam during a sale, launch it through SteamVR, and stream it to my oculus. This allowed me to use the processing power of my desktop with the mobility of my oculus.

Incentivized

• FastPIPE was very fast to learn, very straight forward and user-friendly. It's easy to use and teach new interns and project engineers how to quickly takeoff sections to backup change orders or assist in heavy bid load.
• It's fantastic at keeping up to date on price changes. I'd get updates often, and they were usually within 2-3% of our discount prices with local vendors. In the few instances it wasn't, FastPIPE was very easy to adjust or factor for project costs.
• Is great at being able to pull up reports and graphs and track different materials and labor costs for factoring. We bid on a lot of high rise residential buildings, so we do takeoff by floor. It would give detailed reports per page as opposed to just a lump sum. Very detailed so it was easy to adjust per our project approach.

Incentivized

• It was a trick or two learning how to upload prints correctly, I think that interface could be a bit easier, but it's already better than most of the competition.
• Might be nice to have easier labor factoring, in case we want to pre-load our own instead of MCA time factors for piping labor
• It would auto update upon opening occasionally. It's fairly fast, but I prefer to OK that in case I just need to come up with something quickly and don't want to wait.

Incentivized

• It's stability is good but could still use some optimizing
• The hub has a variety of tools that look cool but are not explained. A tutorial would be nice
• An app that can be accessed from the Oculus would be good, though I realize that is a long shot

Incentivized

SteamVR is the best platform on the market for VR games, and its integration with the already fantastic Steam marketplace makes it piggyback on a very mature product and highly tuned usability. The low-cost, high-reward offering is impossible to beat at this time. There is also a section that is in the works for VR videos, which, once complete, will add additional welcome functionality to the platform.

Incentivized

Steam on the whole is a very mature platform, so SteamVR had a great head start in that regard. I'm used to how Steam operates and that got me most of the way to understanding and navigating SteamVR right from the start. The thing holding me back from a perfect score is the lack of a simple tutorial for those who are not as familiar with the legacy Steam.

Incentivized

The system is easy to download, doesn't take much time to boot up, and is built on the tried and true bones of the Steam launcher. That means great memory of what games you've purchased in the past, and which ones you are currently downloading. Playtime metrics as well are tracked, and the SteamVR has a low crash occurrence, assuming your PC was stable to begin with

Incentivized

SteamVR is fast to boot up, fast to load games, and fast to recover even if you need to restart for any reason. The navigation within SteamVR is quick and responsive, and sifting through have libraries is smooth and fluid. When connected via virtual desktop to an oculus headset, SteamVR still works great and allows for wireless VR Gaming

Incentivized

I've used the quote soft piping takeoff as well, and it's just not as easy to use or update. Basic methodology and interaface is similar, but it's more 'clunky' to use, is harder to keep updated and to upload PDF's for takeoff, and it's just not as streamlined or user friendly. Akin to comparing driving a truck to a sports car. The Fast Pipe is really smooth and easy to function in.

Incentivized

SteamVR has more volume of games, a variety of games, and quality of games much more advanced than the oculus store. While the SteamVR headset is better than the Oculus, the software (SteamVR) is the better option. Plus, you can utilize your computer storage to hold games instead of being limited by the Oculus internal storage capacity.

Incentivized

One person connection is easy to establish and maintain, however we found that multiple people from multiple locations and internet speeds and troubles connecting to s SteamVR social hub. Ultimately we were unsuccessful, however once in a game we had no difficulty connecting to the social hub within it. For some reason, the connection outside of a game was harder to establish

Incentivized

• Best impact is time saved. It's so much faster to do bid takeoff and hit the ground running
• Being able to 'draw in' on design-build and being able to print my takeoff has been helpful when turning the job over so the field install understands the approach taken to get the job.
• Ease of use and learning has made it much more cost effective to bring new people up to speed.

Incentivized

• Vastly increased access to library of the VR games.
• Ability to meet with friends in a virtual space to hang out or then jump into games together
• Ability to utilize the processing power of desktops with relatively low expense of Oculus headset

Incentivized