Virtual reality content is inherently difficult to advertise, especially when its targeted hardware doesn't exist in the wild. You might show a full-screen 2D simulation of what a headset-wearer might see, or you might use goofy-looking footage of people wearing monstrous, face-covering hardware, but neither of those are great at simulating the VR feeling.

VR-game screenshots are even worse, which the creators of VR music-rhythm game Audioshield conceded while trying to promote its upcoming title last month. I gushed at length about how fun the game was, but the screens that creator Dylan Fitterer provided me didn't match my words. Really, they were garbage.

On Monday, the day of the HTC Vive's retail pre-order kick-off, Fitterer finally made a preview video worthy of the Audioshield hype—and I imagine more VR content creators will start to copy Fitterer's impressive mixed-footage approach for future previews. In this trailer, a 2D camera has been set up behind the silhouetted player, while Audioshield's content—an endless barrage of colored orbs dropping from the sky—appears in the shot as if the player was actually standing inside this virtual world. Helping the effect is the additional rendering of the game's colored, handheld shields, which appear in the game as if you're holding them.

Fitterer tells Ars that the trailer was filmed on the PlayStation 3's PS Eye camera—thanks to low latency and high framerate—with a green-screen rig. "The live video feed is sent into the game, where a shader program removes the green background and then adds a silhouette effect," Fitterer says. "Webcam footage is integrated into the game at the position of the headset. The game's (virtual) spectator camera is moved to the same position and rotation as the real webcam so everything matches up.

"It works so well that watching the live integrated feed on the monitor is even more fun than watching the real player," Fitterer adds. He notes that the creators of HTC Vive launch title Fantastic Contraption have made similar videos for their game that include even more camera panning—and look just as cool.

We could imagine other VR game demos looking cool in preview form this way, as well, though they may require more creative camera placement—like a shot just above the fridge in Job Simulator's virtual kitchen or a high-in-the-sky shot of someone warping around the adventure content of Budget Cuts and Call of the Starseed. There's something about that Audioshield trailer's use of a human that sells the sense of scale in ways we've yet to see in most trailers, and we hope the trend continues.

That's what $800 will get you—and here's how to spend it

The trailer launched on the same day that HTC opened its Vive VR system's pre-order page, whose servers appeared to mostly withstand the brunt of orders from 24 nations. Similar to Oculus' own highly awaited pre-order kick-off earlier this month, HTC's page will tell potential buyers a vague estimate of when pre-ordered VR kits will ship if orders are placed today. As buyers line up to pay $800 (or their local currency equivalent), they're told what month their nation's pre-orders will begin shipping in general. In the USA's case, that has been bumped from "April 2016" to "May 2016" as of press time.

Those pre-orders will come with three pieces of software in all: Google's TiltBrush sculpting app and the impressive game duo of Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption. However, they will not ship with the high-spec computer required to render SteamVR content at a recommended 90 frames per second. Currently, Steam's page advertising the HTC Vive recommends a processor minimum of "Intel i5-4590, AMD FX 8350 equivalent or better" and a GPU minimum of "Nvidia GTX 970, AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or better."

On the Steam side of things, SteamVR got its own red-carpet treatment on Monday in the form of an updated shop page filled with launch-window games. Audioshield's on there, as are other games that impressed us at the January SteamVR showcase, including Hover Junkers and Final Approach. The page also includes a few we've never played, including horror-themed titles The Brookhaven Experiment and A Chair In A Room. None of the VR-specific games currently include prices or pre-order options.