Using the Galaxy Map with the Oculus Rift (video guide)
Video guide for most of this thread (quite old but still somewhat useful)
Guide to the best way of recording footage of Elite: Dangerous in VR
DK2 RUNTIME SWITCHER!: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4ckm38/oculus_runtime_switcher_0506070813_with_gui/
EDPROFILER! (for switching from 2D to VR easily): https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...r-Robust-Settings-Profiler-Switcher-Detector!
Please check out the thread of the above, it contains many tools to help the VR experience! Many are explained below as well.
If you want to say thanks, see below!
Latest as of 8/11/18:
I have overhauled this thread, getting rid of some out of date info and adding quite a few new things to try.
Tweaks that apply to CV1/Vive and DK2 (and possibly other VR devices)
Tweaks that apply to CV1/Vive only
Tweaks that apply to Vive only
Tweaks that apply to DK2 only
A few good tools and other stuff for VR users:
Please feel free to suggest others!
Troubleshooting:
If things have gone wrong somehow, here's a list of things you can do (in no particular order):
Please feel free to suggest others!
Good luck!
Incredible Indie Space Documentary by yours truly:
Watch, subscribing, sharing with friends, and most importantly, enjoying the below series (or any of my channel's work) is the single best thing you can do to thank me for the work I put into this thread
[video=youtube;PAtpCzb4v7w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAtpCzb4v7w[/video]
Asynchronous SPACE Warp / Motion Smoothing! (Oculus / Vive respectively)
This is now on by default. If your frame rate drops below 90, it basically knocks it down to 45fps, and then manufactures in-between frames using its own clever processing, to create a faux 90fps experience. The down side is the manufactured frames can contain some strange artefacts, especially when straight lines move across the screen. Some love it, some hate it, but it's definitely worth a try.
For Oculus, here are some shortcuts for it:
Control-Numpad1: Disables ASW and returns to the standard rendering mode.
Control-Numpad2: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW disabled. Depending on the application, you are likely to experience judder.
Control-Numpad3: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW enabled. Enabling and disabling ASW will help you see the effects of ASW.
Control-Numpad4: Enables ASW. ASW automatically turns on and off, depending on whether the app maintains a 90Hz frame rate. This is the default runtime rendering mode.
For SteamVR, you can set it globally, under "Video" settings, or you can override this per game in "Application" settings. It can also be set to "always on" here.
Video guide for most of this thread (quite old but still somewhat useful)
Guide to the best way of recording footage of Elite: Dangerous in VR
DK2 RUNTIME SWITCHER!: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4ckm38/oculus_runtime_switcher_0506070813_with_gui/
EDPROFILER! (for switching from 2D to VR easily): https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...r-Robust-Settings-Profiler-Switcher-Detector!
Please check out the thread of the above, it contains many tools to help the VR experience! Many are explained below as well.
If you want to say thanks, see below!
Latest as of 8/11/18:
I have overhauled this thread, getting rid of some out of date info and adding quite a few new things to try.
Tweaks that apply to CV1/Vive and DK2 (and possibly other VR devices)
Changing the Pixel Density
Far and away the best thing you can do to massively improve the visual quality. It is basically equivalent to the old SS we had in the DK2 glory days that seems to have been changed to something far worse. It runs better too, and has a much better range that it can be set to. You need a good machine to do it, but you probably already do with these headsets.
Via the game: Just change the in game setting "HMD Image Quality" to something above zero. It's the same as the below (and can be combined to "stack" with them), just more convenient. There is no need to use the below, just use the in-game setting (unless you wish to go above the in game setting)
Oculus:
NOTE! A lot of people suggest that turning the in-game SS down so you can turn the pixel density up with less cost to performance is the way to go. See this thread for discussion related to that: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/274325-How-to-get-Elite-in-VR-looking-CRYSTAL-CLEAR-D
Asynchronous SPACE Warp / Motion Smoothing! (Oculus / Vive respectively)
This is now on by default. If your frame rate drops below 90, it basically knocks it down to 45fps, and then manufactures in-between frames using its own clever processing, to create a faux 90fps experience. The down side is the manufactured frames can contain some strange artefacts, especially when straight lines move across the screen. Some love it, some hate it, but it's definitely worth a try.
For Oculus, here are some shortcuts for it:
Control-Numpad1: Disables ASW and returns to the standard rendering mode.
Control-Numpad2: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW disabled. Depending on the application, you are likely to experience judder.
Control-Numpad3: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW enabled. Enabling and disabling ASW will help you see the effects of ASW.
Control-Numpad4: Enables ASW. ASW automatically turns on and off, depending on whether the app maintains a 90Hz frame rate. This is the default runtime rendering mode.
For SteamVR, you can set it globally, under "Video" settings, or you can override this per game in "Application" settings. It can also be set to "always on" here.
It seems that Supersampling in game is now more akin to Multisampling in VR, and is not a recommended option to increase for VR users. See the Changing Pixel Density section above.
Further info:
Feel free to copy all the settings (note if you have enabled Adaptive VSync from part 0. then you should leave Triple Buffering off). They are taken from ShaveIceBaby's thread and in theory should all help too.
This makes the textures better to look at from angles, and apparently improves the quality overall. I'd like some confirmation and perhaps someone to suggest better settings than the ones I have above
Again, thanks to Atlas974 for this suggestion
I have read, and yet to test, that you can still use the NVidia Control Panel's "Colour Settings" on the rift, even though it doesn't show up, simply by plugging another monitor into the HDMI slot you normally plug your rift in, and changing the colour settings. Then when you switch back to the rift in that port, it will take on those settings. Changing the saturation and other things can be good and if anyone can come up with some good settings, I will include them here. You might want to start with the settings used for the DK2, that are now in the Deprecated section of the second post of this thread
Far and away the best thing you can do to massively improve the visual quality. It is basically equivalent to the old SS we had in the DK2 glory days that seems to have been changed to something far worse. It runs better too, and has a much better range that it can be set to. You need a good machine to do it, but you probably already do with these headsets.
Via the game: Just change the in game setting "HMD Image Quality" to something above zero. It's the same as the below (and can be combined to "stack" with them), just more convenient. There is no need to use the below, just use the in-game setting (unless you wish to go above the in game setting)
Vive:
PSA: This is increased automatically by default by SteamVR (see below). If you check Manual Override, it will default to its recommended resolution scaling. Bare in mind that 400% is the equivalent of in-game HMD Image Quality 2x (I know, it's confusing), so whatever is set in SteamVR will combine with the game and you have to be aware of this, especially if you are now suddenly getting worse performance because SteamVR used to never add it's own scaling by default. I recommend setting it to 100% and then cranking it up in game to your satisfaction, which can be managed by EDProfiler, and adjusted in-game when in different contexts.
UPDATE: Steam now has the option to do resolution scaling automatically. It will select the appropriate application resolution (its new term for pixel density) for each game based on your headset and GPU. It does this before the game starts, not dynamically as you play. This setting is found in SteamVR settings under "Video". You can set it for specific games as below, and these will combine with whatever manual override you set. It's a bit confusing and my advice is to set everything in SteamVR to 100% and do all adjustments in game via HMD Image Quality
PSA: This is increased automatically by default by SteamVR (see below). If you check Manual Override, it will default to its recommended resolution scaling. Bare in mind that 400% is the equivalent of in-game HMD Image Quality 2x (I know, it's confusing), so whatever is set in SteamVR will combine with the game and you have to be aware of this, especially if you are now suddenly getting worse performance because SteamVR used to never add it's own scaling by default. I recommend setting it to 100% and then cranking it up in game to your satisfaction, which can be managed by EDProfiler, and adjusted in-game when in different contexts.
UPDATE: Steam now has the option to do resolution scaling automatically. It will select the appropriate application resolution (its new term for pixel density) for each game based on your headset and GPU. It does this before the game starts, not dynamically as you play. This setting is found in SteamVR settings under "Video". You can set it for specific games as below, and these will combine with whatever manual override you set. It's a bit confusing and my advice is to set everything in SteamVR to 100% and do all adjustments in game via HMD Image Quality
[*=1]In SteamVR, click on the dropdown and then Settings
[*=1]In the Applications tab, you should see Elite: Dangerous (if you do not, it's because you are not using the Steam version of the game, in which case it will only appear in this list when the game is running)
[*=1]Select it and choose the value of your choice.
[*=1]Set it to
[*=1](Re)Start the game
[*=1]Setting is permanent
Oculus:
[*=1]Download the SDK here: https://developer3.oculus.com/downloads/pc/1.3.2/Oculus_SDK_for_Windows/ (for a while now, this is included with the Oculus software in the following location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus\Support\oculus-diagnostics)
[*=1]No need to install, just open the .rar and navigate to the OculusSDK\Tools folder and take out the OculusDebugTool.exe and place it wherever you want.
[*=1]Make sure Oculus Home is openand any other VR software is closed
[*=1]Run the tool
[*=1]Change the "Pixels Per Display Pixel Override" value to 1.5 or whatever you want and hit enter.
[*=1]Run any game you want.
[*=1]THE TOOL HAS TO BE OPEN AND SET WHILE ANY GAME IS RUNNING. Doesn't work once and forever.
NOTE! A lot of people suggest that turning the in-game SS down so you can turn the pixel density up with less cost to performance is the way to go. See this thread for discussion related to that: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/274325-How-to-get-Elite-in-VR-looking-CRYSTAL-CLEAR-D
Asynchronous SPACE Warp / Motion Smoothing! (Oculus / Vive respectively)
This is now on by default. If your frame rate drops below 90, it basically knocks it down to 45fps, and then manufactures in-between frames using its own clever processing, to create a faux 90fps experience. The down side is the manufactured frames can contain some strange artefacts, especially when straight lines move across the screen. Some love it, some hate it, but it's definitely worth a try.
For Oculus, here are some shortcuts for it:
Control-Numpad1: Disables ASW and returns to the standard rendering mode.
Control-Numpad2: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW disabled. Depending on the application, you are likely to experience judder.
Control-Numpad3: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW enabled. Enabling and disabling ASW will help you see the effects of ASW.
Control-Numpad4: Enables ASW. ASW automatically turns on and off, depending on whether the app maintains a 90Hz frame rate. This is the default runtime rendering mode.
For SteamVR, you can set it globally, under "Video" settings, or you can override this per game in "Application" settings. It can also be set to "always on" here.
- In-game Supersampling and anti aliasing:
It seems that Supersampling in game is now more akin to Multisampling in VR, and is not a recommended option to increase for VR users. See the Changing Pixel Density section above.
Further info:
For any of the methods, unless you are packing a supercomputer, it's best to save these for space itself, and turn it off when in starports as it really has a hit there, no matter what else you do. If you are doing a lot of trading or in general using the starports a lot, leave it off. If you go exploring or on a long bounty hunt or something, turn it on. If you are using the pixel density method above, some say turning in game SS down to improve performance is best. See the link there.
- Supersample Filtering (SteamVR only)
This is on by default and doesn't cost much processing power. It's a special kind of aliasing reduction that the Vive can use with spare pixels. It can make the overall quality a bit more blurry, but less jaggy. It's hardly noticeable but some might prefer it, some might not, so it's up to the user
Assigning Cores on an i7
This seems to help with micro stuttering and even help the frame rate a little bit. Basically, assign the game process to half the cores, and the VR processes to the others. There seems to be a disagreement about whether it should be 50:50 or 25:75. I also see no mention of what to do if you have an i5 with 4 cores, or more cores than 8 (like with an i9 or a 9700K). Lastly, I see no discussion about AMDs but I imagine this would work. I would appreciate feedback on all the above as I can't personally test.
This seems to help with micro stuttering and even help the frame rate a little bit. Basically, assign the game process to half the cores, and the VR processes to the others. There seems to be a disagreement about whether it should be 50:50 or 25:75. I also see no mention of what to do if you have an i5 with 4 cores, or more cores than 8 (like with an i9 or a 9700K). Lastly, I see no discussion about AMDs but I imagine this would work. I would appreciate feedback on all the above as I can't personally test.
[*=1]To pull this off do the following:
Oculus:
Run ED then go to TASK MANAGER>DETAILS tab: Right-Click program > Affinity
Run ED then go to TASK MANAGER>DETAILS tab: Right-Click program > Affinity
EliteDangerous64.exe: cores 0-3
OculusVR.exe: cores 4-7
OVRServer_x64.exe: cores 4-7
Vive:
Vive:
Run ED then go to TASK MANAGER>DETAILS tab: Right-Click program > Affinity
EliteDangerous64.exe: cores 0-3
vrcompositor.exe: cores 4-7
vrserver.exe: cores 4-7
Again, you might want to change the ratios.
Note: these settings need to be changed each time you start the processes. You can use a program like Process Lasso or Process Hacker to make the changes permanent (you might need those programs always running to pull it off)
Thanks to Apollo Cochrane and rkodey for reporting this!
Note: these settings need to be changed each time you start the processes. You can use a program like Process Lasso or Process Hacker to make the changes permanent (you might need those programs always running to pull it off)
Thanks to Apollo Cochrane and rkodey for reporting this!
- Upgrade to Windows 10
See this thread as to why. Basically - MASSIVE improvement. Read the thread carefully though, as there are some issues that could crop up.
- Drivers: As always, keep your NVIDIA drivers up to date. They are always improving VR compatibility and performance.
- Change the Tone Map:
Some find Elite Dangerous' star background to cause problems in VR. It goes two ways:
1. Some find the background too black for their OLED screens to handle, and therefore when they turn their heads, they see black smearing at the boundaries of dark and light areas (such as at the terminators of planets)
2. Some find the opposite, they don't mind the black smearing, but they find the dark sky backdrop to be not dark enough, too grey/blue/cloudy and they wish to reduce the darkness.
The only way to do this in game is to adjust the gamma. It's no longer possible to do it with Nvidia Control Panel. So I made a tool, after the concept was discovered by horizone, that can adjust the Tone Map of the game (some hidden xml settings left open by Frontier for us to tweak).
The basic idea of Tone Mapping is that you can create a group of specialised settings that will alter the "tones" of the game i.e. how dark the darker areas are and how bright the brighter areas are. You can brighten or darken each, separately all along a curve. So the tool I made is in order to help you do this and see what effect it will have on the game, via a preview (and other things like randomisers), and then apply it directly before you start the game. You can save your own, and post here. I will add them to the tool, which is part of EDProfiler.
Here is a screenshot:
Here is a video guide:
[video=youtube;drcrcklUD6U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drcrcklUD6U[/video]
This is ObsidianAnt's video
You can double click the preview to get a bigger one. You can start with Dr Kaii's included tone map for a good start and work from there - it will make space darker without touching the brightness of planets/stations/your HUD etc. Some of the included profiles might not have the same effect the used to have before the 3.3 colour updates, and it might be they look different in different systems, so bear that in mind.
1. Some find the background too black for their OLED screens to handle, and therefore when they turn their heads, they see black smearing at the boundaries of dark and light areas (such as at the terminators of planets)
2. Some find the opposite, they don't mind the black smearing, but they find the dark sky backdrop to be not dark enough, too grey/blue/cloudy and they wish to reduce the darkness.
The only way to do this in game is to adjust the gamma. It's no longer possible to do it with Nvidia Control Panel. So I made a tool, after the concept was discovered by horizone, that can adjust the Tone Map of the game (some hidden xml settings left open by Frontier for us to tweak).
The basic idea of Tone Mapping is that you can create a group of specialised settings that will alter the "tones" of the game i.e. how dark the darker areas are and how bright the brighter areas are. You can brighten or darken each, separately all along a curve. So the tool I made is in order to help you do this and see what effect it will have on the game, via a preview (and other things like randomisers), and then apply it directly before you start the game. You can save your own, and post here. I will add them to the tool, which is part of EDProfiler.
Here is a screenshot:
Here is a video guide:
[video=youtube;drcrcklUD6U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drcrcklUD6U[/video]
This is ObsidianAnt's video
You can double click the preview to get a bigger one. You can start with Dr Kaii's included tone map for a good start and work from there - it will make space darker without touching the brightness of planets/stations/your HUD etc. Some of the included profiles might not have the same effect the used to have before the 3.3 colour updates, and it might be they look different in different systems, so bear that in mind.
- Change the HUD colours: As of v1.5, this still needs to be done with a config file tweak, but the easiest way to do it is with my Graphics Profiler: EDProfiler, that lets you do it (and test it) via a GUI!
On the DK2, making the colours of the text green makes them much easier to read due to the way the pixels work in the rift.
For the other headsets, the fresnal lenses benefit from cooler colours to avoid the godray effect. For a collection of GUI profiles that do not affect the avatars in game, see this thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/259311-NO2O!-The-Definitive-List-of-1-6-2-1-Compatible-HUD-Colour-Color-Configs-(please-add-yours!)
To do it without EDProfiler, go to your game installation folder (C:\something something\Frontier_Developments\Products\FORC-FDEV-D-1010), open the GraphicsConfiguration.xml and find the following section:
To save you experimenting, it seems the general consensus is that these are the best settings for the DK2:
Replace curly brackets with triangle brackets.
...these settings have the benefit of making everything green without destroying the green/yellow/red colours of the radar targets. Only downside is it makes the red "unavailable" text messages almost impossible to read.
If you want to experiment yourself, without EDProfiler, here's a handy tool: http://arkku.com/elite/hud_editor/
Code:
<GUIColour>
<Default>
<LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
<MatrixRed>1, 0, 0</MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen>0, 1, 0</MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue>0, 0, 1</MatrixBlue>
</Default>To save you experimenting, it seems the general consensus is that these are the best settings for the DK2:
Code:
<GUIColour>
<Default>
<LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
<MatrixRed>0.18, 0, -1</MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen>-1, 1, -1</MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue>0.15, 0.32, 1</MatrixBlue>
</Default>Replace curly brackets with triangle brackets.
...these settings have the benefit of making everything green without destroying the green/yellow/red colours of the radar targets. Only downside is it makes the red "unavailable" text messages almost impossible to read.
If you want to experiment yourself, without EDProfiler, here's a handy tool: http://arkku.com/elite/hud_editor/
- Overclocking: GPU and CPU
WARNING:
GPU
Important Preamble:
So, NVIDIA users, download MSI Afterburner, and learn how to use it. The general work flow is to turn up the power limit and fan to max, and slowly up the core and memory clocks. Do stress tests with whatever software you like, (for example Kombustor on the same site). If it doesn't crash then it's probably stable.
Again, don't just do what I wrote without research.
Key things to find out:
-What is the maximum safe temperature for my card?
-Is it safe to up the voltage on my card?
-How should I stress test it?
CPU
ED does use the CPU quite heavily and it makes great use of multiple threads. Overclocking your CPU would be a good idea if you are up to the challenge. I won't tell you how - it's very complicated and specific to each setup - you will have to google your specific CPU and motherboard. I will tell you a couple of things:
-Don't overclock the CPU unless you have watercooling or a good fan cooler and ventilation. That's just a general tip amongst overclockers.
-Never overclock from the OS. Only do it directly with the BIOS.
For researching your parts, both GPU and CPU, here's where to start: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=7
Overclocking does contain risk. It is your choice and your problem if you want to take that risk. I will not give you any actual advice about overclocking because I don't know much about it. I will give you just the basics, but you HAVE to do your own research, especially about your specific card/processor, in combination with your PSU, cooling etc. It could very well void your warranty, reduce the lifetime of your components and it will reduce your resale prices.
GPU
Important Preamble:
NOT APPLICABLE SINCE ATW: Now while normally overclocking your GPU isn't the greatest performance improvement you can make (in 2D games, getting an extra 5 or so frames per second is barely noticeable), in ED it can make all the difference in the world. You should know one important thing: 75fps is silky smooth, going any less than 70 and you will clearly see it as being much worse, and very often nauseating. So those extra 5fps will probably change everything for you.
As further information: before I overclocked, I couldn't handle starports unless I had zero DSR and zero shadows, and even then I'd get mild judder. After overclocking, I can have 1.2x DSR and low shadows in starports, and with Adaptive Vsync, I barely get any judder. It really made a difference.
As further information: before I overclocked, I couldn't handle starports unless I had zero DSR and zero shadows, and even then I'd get mild judder. After overclocking, I can have 1.2x DSR and low shadows in starports, and with Adaptive Vsync, I barely get any judder. It really made a difference.
So, NVIDIA users, download MSI Afterburner, and learn how to use it. The general work flow is to turn up the power limit and fan to max, and slowly up the core and memory clocks. Do stress tests with whatever software you like, (for example Kombustor on the same site). If it doesn't crash then it's probably stable.
Again, don't just do what I wrote without research.
Key things to find out:
-What is the maximum safe temperature for my card?
-Is it safe to up the voltage on my card?
-How should I stress test it?
CPU
ED does use the CPU quite heavily and it makes great use of multiple threads. Overclocking your CPU would be a good idea if you are up to the challenge. I won't tell you how - it's very complicated and specific to each setup - you will have to google your specific CPU and motherboard. I will tell you a couple of things:
-Don't overclock the CPU unless you have watercooling or a good fan cooler and ventilation. That's just a general tip amongst overclockers.
-Never overclock from the OS. Only do it directly with the BIOS.
For researching your parts, both GPU and CPU, here's where to start: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=7
- Set the Anisotropic Filtering in Nvidia Control Panel: The game has this but apparently it is better to set it manually in the Nvidia Control Panel. Go to "Manage 3D Settings" > "Program Settings" > Find or add Elite and then apply the following settings:
Feel free to copy all the settings (note if you have enabled Adaptive VSync from part 0. then you should leave Triple Buffering off). They are taken from ShaveIceBaby's thread and in theory should all help too.
This makes the textures better to look at from angles, and apparently improves the quality overall. I'd like some confirmation and perhaps someone to suggest better settings than the ones I have above
Again, thanks to Atlas974 for this suggestion
- Planet Texures: Please note all the below can be handled by EDProfiler under "Extra Settings". See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmJF-Ua9coE
This is a two parter. Part one is you can increase the planet textures with a config file tweak, which adds to immersion and beauty, of course. Secondly you can adjust the rate at which the game loads the textures as you approach. Slowing it down will reduce sc judder at the cost of seeing the level of detail change more distinctly. So that's up to you.
Here's how. Go to your game installation folder (C:\something something\Frontier_Developments\Products\FORC-FDEV-D-1010), open the GraphicsConfiguration.xml and find the following section:
To increase the resolutions, change the number in the <TextureSize> fields to whatever you want. 4096 seems to be max but experiment as you wish.
To decrease texture load times, change the figure in the <WorkPerFrame> field.
This is all taken from a real life dev in the below thread. It still works.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52907
See also: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=129065 for further details
Code:
<Planets>
[FONT='inherit']<Low>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <LocalisationName>$QUALITY_LOW;</LocalisationName>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <TextureSize>512</TextureSize>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <AtmosphereSteps>4</AtmosphereSteps>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <CloudsEnabled>true</CloudsEnabled>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <WorkPerFrame>96</WorkPerFrame>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] </Low>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <Medium>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <LocalisationName>$QUALITY_MEDIUM;</LocalisationName>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <TextureSize>1024</TextureSize>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <AtmosphereSteps>6</AtmosphereSteps>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <CloudsEnabled>true</CloudsEnabled>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <WorkPerFrame>128</WorkPerFrame>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] </Medium>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <High>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <LocalisationName>$QUALITY_HIGH;</LocalisationName>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <TextureSize>2048</TextureSize>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <AtmosphereSteps>6</AtmosphereSteps>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <CloudsEnabled>true</CloudsEnabled>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <WorkPerFrame>192</WorkPerFrame>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] </High>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <Ultra>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <LocalisationName>$QUALITY_ULTRA;</LocalisationName>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <TextureSize>2048</TextureSize>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <AtmosphereSteps>6</AtmosphereSteps>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <CloudsEnabled>true</CloudsEnabled>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] <WorkPerFrame>256</WorkPerFrame>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] </Ultra>[/FONT]
[FONT='inherit'] </Planets>[/FONT]To increase the resolutions, change the number in the <TextureSize> fields to whatever you want. 4096 seems to be max but experiment as you wish.
To decrease texture load times, change the figure in the <WorkPerFrame> field.
This is all taken from a real life dev in the below thread. It still works.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52907
See also: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=129065 for further details
- PhysX by CPU: Some have claimed that changing PhysX (pronounced "Physics" as a posh, beret-wearing art major might say it) processing to be handled by the CPU to work best. I guess that's especially true if you have a good CPU.
To do this, open Nvidia Control Panel > Configure Surround, PhysX and under PhysX settings change to "CPU".
Let me know if this is good for you.
I have read, and yet to test, that you can still use the NVidia Control Panel's "Colour Settings" on the rift, even though it doesn't show up, simply by plugging another monitor into the HDMI slot you normally plug your rift in, and changing the colour settings. Then when you switch back to the rift in that port, it will take on those settings. Changing the saturation and other things can be good and if anyone can come up with some good settings, I will include them here. You might want to start with the settings used for the DK2, that are now in the Deprecated section of the second post of this thread
Tweaks that apply to CV1/Vive only
Fix the overblack and generally improve the colour space:
Weirdly, getting an HDMI to DP adapter like this and using it to connect the HMD to the computer through a DisplayPort instead of HDMI massively improves the colour and gets rid of those ultra-dark blacks. Give it a go, they are cheap. You need to get one that supports 2K, and has the right DP size for your graphics card (mini or standard - check before you buy). For more info see here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/278996-Rift-hdmi-port-users and here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...k-levels-finally-fixed-for-me!-Weird-solution
PLEASE NOTE: I tried this personally and it didn't work! Others claim it does. Please give it a go.
Reduce Godrays by turning down the HUD brightness:
You won't even notice them anymore. It's a bit duller like this, but some actually prefer it as they get to enjoy the stars more. It can be done in several ways, the best being to look at your Status panel on the right, in the Functions tab, near the bottom is a brightness bar.
Improve comfort by using custom interface foams:
I recommend this company and their foams: https://vrcover.com/
I have a video on some of their foams for the Oculus Rift CV1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiiNiH4tgdk
Weirdly, getting an HDMI to DP adapter like this and using it to connect the HMD to the computer through a DisplayPort instead of HDMI massively improves the colour and gets rid of those ultra-dark blacks. Give it a go, they are cheap. You need to get one that supports 2K, and has the right DP size for your graphics card (mini or standard - check before you buy). For more info see here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/278996-Rift-hdmi-port-users and here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...k-levels-finally-fixed-for-me!-Weird-solution
PLEASE NOTE: I tried this personally and it didn't work! Others claim it does. Please give it a go.
Reduce Godrays by turning down the HUD brightness:
You won't even notice them anymore. It's a bit duller like this, but some actually prefer it as they get to enjoy the stars more. It can be done in several ways, the best being to look at your Status panel on the right, in the Functions tab, near the bottom is a brightness bar.
Improve comfort by using custom interface foams:
I recommend this company and their foams: https://vrcover.com/
I have a video on some of their foams for the Oculus Rift CV1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiiNiH4tgdk
[*=1]Replace Lenses with GearVR Lenses
This is a MASSIVE improvement, that will also void your warranty. I have personally done it and can attest that it's night and day. Basically there is no longer a sweet spot, every direction your eyeball looks in will see crystal clarity (except maybe right at the extremes of vision). It also removes 100% of godrays. I can't explain how much of an immersion improvement this is and there are many who agree. It's extremely easy to do, and costs around $50-60, main source seems to be ebay. You are buying lenses taken directly out of Gear VR headsets, and then put into a 3D printed bracket that will slot into your Vive/Vive Pro. It will void your warranty to do this, but it's very easy.
One downside some report is that the barrel distortion increases when doing this i.e. the image becomes a bit warped due to a change in physical FOV compared to the FOV the HMD is projecting. There are tweaks to supposedly fix this. I didn't find any barrel distortion when I did it, but I am using a Vive Pro with some Oculus VR Cover interface foams that are too small, so the lenses come right up to my eyelashes almost. I get a great FOV and no distortion.
Here is a video guide to inserting them as well as a very in-depth explanation of what 's going on to help you decide whether to proceed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ckPBhIlkX0
Here is a reddit guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/8c4ggr/gear_vr_lens_mod_for_the_htc_vive_review_and_guide/
Here is a tweak to help with barrel distortion: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/86uwsf/gearvr_to_vive_lens_adapters/dwdigxa/
One downside some report is that the barrel distortion increases when doing this i.e. the image becomes a bit warped due to a change in physical FOV compared to the FOV the HMD is projecting. There are tweaks to supposedly fix this. I didn't find any barrel distortion when I did it, but I am using a Vive Pro with some Oculus VR Cover interface foams that are too small, so the lenses come right up to my eyelashes almost. I get a great FOV and no distortion.
Here is a video guide to inserting them as well as a very in-depth explanation of what 's going on to help you decide whether to proceed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ckPBhIlkX0
Here is a reddit guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/8c4ggr/gear_vr_lens_mod_for_the_htc_vive_review_and_guide/
Here is a tweak to help with barrel distortion: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/86uwsf/gearvr_to_vive_lens_adapters/dwdigxa/
- Some say turning off your main monitor improves performance. It may be considered too much of a hassle though. Up to you!
- I've read that plugging your Motion Tracker camera USB cable into a powered USB hub instead of directly into the motherboard reduces judder. I tried this and I couldn't turn my Rift on anymore. I eventually got it back but I'm not going to try it again, so try at your own risk! Support for this idea also came from Cptn. America so up to you.
The best tool (obviously) is the EDProfiler tool I made that lets you create and set graphics profiles, as many as you like, with each graphics (and more) option however you like, and apply it to the game before launch. You can also detect the current settings and even save those as profiles. You can EVEN set (and test!) the GUI colours and I am working on setting the controller profiles. Why haven't you got it yet?
Here's a screenshot:
Here's the discussion page: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...r-Robust-Settings-Profiler-Switcher-Detector!
Here's the download site: http://www.drkaii.com/tools/edprofiler/
Here's the donate link (please do if you enjoy it): http://bit.ly/DonateEDP
Other tools (this hasn't been updated for years - please make suggestions for things for me to add:
Here's a screenshot:
Here's the discussion page: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...r-Robust-Settings-Profiler-Switcher-Detector!
Here's the download site: http://www.drkaii.com/tools/edprofiler/
Here's the donate link (please do if you enjoy it): http://bit.ly/DonateEDP
Other tools (this hasn't been updated for years - please make suggestions for things for me to add:
- https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=65258- lets you save settings for when using the display and when not, and apply them before you start the game. Really useful if you sometimes prefer to go on a rift-vacation. It also lets you adjust the GUI colours. Ability to save presets etc.
- Captain's Log, EDDiscovery and EDDL - 3 tools that track your jumps and allow you to take notes. Each has their own pros and cons. Captain's Log has a great interface and is very easy to put into, has screenshot auto renamers and is lots of great functions. EDDiscovery works a bit differently and now even includes a 3D map. EDDL is much simpler and lightweight and works with text files instead of databases. I made a video about Captains Log and will be making one about EDDiscovery soon. Choose whichever one you find most useful to you. They are great for VR users who wish to take notes but don't use pad and paper due to the heavy headset on their face.
- http://www.xpadder.com/ - if you use an XBOX 360 controller, and don't use the keyboard due to not being able to see it, this is the one tool that lets you map extra buttons and macros to the controller. It let's you do a lot of things, well worth the purchase. I personally use it to let me deploy shield cells and chaff, control winamp, reset the rift position, etc etc.
- http://www.voiceattack.com/ - lets you use your voice to send all kinds of commands to the game. Lots of options, macros, etc. Everyone loves it.
- http://edtracker.org.uk/index.php/faq?view=faq - Consider getting the EDTracker, a cheap alternative to the vanilla Motion Tracker that's an Elite community project!
- https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=79996 - read this thread for lots of tips to reduce motion sickenss and other nausea-related symptoms
- https://youtu.be/4_q0_fut-HY - Video guide to capturing video with the OR made by yours truly
- http://sweetfx.thelazy.net/ - SweetFx Configurator. Put the SweetFX files in their place the normal way as listed in step 2, then you can run this portable .exe and add Elite. It will find and read the SweetFX settings file and give you a GUI for manipulating it. Very nice! Remember you can experiment with the settings while the game is running. Once you've applied them, tab into the game and press PGDN and it will update from the settings file. If you come up with any good settings please please share them.
- http://uploadgeneration.info/Winamp/www.winamp.com/plugin/winamp-freeverb/144431.html - This plugin for winamp lets you put in some reverb (echo etc.) into your soundtracks so you can emulate "speakers in a cockpit". I find it adds immersion.
- http://www.nuance.co.uk/dragon/index.htm - Dragon Naturally Speaking is a voice recognition and input kit that can be used to chat. It's a bit resource intensive, costs real money, and isn't 100% accurate, but worth thinking about if you really can't touch type
- http://www.vrdesktop.net/ - Vital tool you should definitely have if you own a rift. Virtualises the desktop to be oculus rift friendly - be able to view and manipulate it in 3D without having to take off the rift! And it's free! Thanks to wheatgrinder in this post. Rep to him. NOTE YOU WILL NEED TO TURN OFF "MIRROR TO DESKTOP" if you are using Sweetfx or ReShade
Please feel free to suggest others!
Troubleshooting:
If things have gone wrong somehow, here's a list of things you can do (in no particular order):
0. Make sure you haven't got stereoscopic 3D enabled in Nvidia Control Panel. It will work for a while, but the rift will eventually start to crash.
1. Undo everything you originally did. Delete all SweetFX files (check what was in the .rar file as reference), reset your NVIDIA ED profile, turn off DSR.
2. Restart the Oculus Rift Service using the OculusConfigTool
3. Reboot PC (the single best fix to 99% of all PC problems)
4. Reinstall ED
5. Uninstall and reinstall Oculus Rift drivers, SDK etc.
6. Check all cables. Unplug/reconnect all of them one by one.
7. Check to see if the issue is only in Elite
8. Check you are still in Extended desktop mode. Check that the Rift is still the secondary monitor and is correctly oriented etc.
9. If the game is crashing on startup, try a few more times. With Adaptive Vsync, it might crash 10 times before it works.
10. Try setting your main screen refresh rate to 75hz
11. Ask on the forums, plenty of people here are very happy to help.
1. Undo everything you originally did. Delete all SweetFX files (check what was in the .rar file as reference), reset your NVIDIA ED profile, turn off DSR.
2. Restart the Oculus Rift Service using the OculusConfigTool
3. Reboot PC (the single best fix to 99% of all PC problems)
4. Reinstall ED
5. Uninstall and reinstall Oculus Rift drivers, SDK etc.
6. Check all cables. Unplug/reconnect all of them one by one.
7. Check to see if the issue is only in Elite
8. Check you are still in Extended desktop mode. Check that the Rift is still the secondary monitor and is correctly oriented etc.
9. If the game is crashing on startup, try a few more times. With Adaptive Vsync, it might crash 10 times before it works.
10. Try setting your main screen refresh rate to 75hz
11. Ask on the forums, plenty of people here are very happy to help.
Good luck!
Incredible Indie Space Documentary by yours truly:
Watch, subscribing, sharing with friends, and most importantly, enjoying the below series (or any of my channel's work) is the single best thing you can do to thank me for the work I put into this thread
[video=youtube;PAtpCzb4v7w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAtpCzb4v7w[/video]
Asynchronous SPACE Warp / Motion Smoothing! (Oculus / Vive respectively)
This is now on by default. If your frame rate drops below 90, it basically knocks it down to 45fps, and then manufactures in-between frames using its own clever processing, to create a faux 90fps experience. The down side is the manufactured frames can contain some strange artefacts, especially when straight lines move across the screen. Some love it, some hate it, but it's definitely worth a try.
For Oculus, here are some shortcuts for it:
Control-Numpad1: Disables ASW and returns to the standard rendering mode.
Control-Numpad2: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW disabled. Depending on the application, you are likely to experience judder.
Control-Numpad3: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW enabled. Enabling and disabling ASW will help you see the effects of ASW.
Control-Numpad4: Enables ASW. ASW automatically turns on and off, depending on whether the app maintains a 90Hz frame rate. This is the default runtime rendering mode.
For SteamVR, you can set it globally, under "Video" settings, or you can override this per game in "Application" settings. It can also be set to "always on" here.
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