Ok, first of all VR is amazing. You just cant truly put it into words the difference between this and playing it on a monitor. Its hard to convey what you see whilst looking around the cabin, the first hour online with my buddies with the rift and all that came out of my mouth was ooooo and aaahhh and no #*#^$#* way !!!. After a week of playing with it and lots of fiddling here is some feedback / problems im still having with it.
Lets start with system specs
4790k @4.4ghz
2 x 980gtx in SLI
32gb ram (plenty) at 1600mhz
game is on SSD
X 52 HOTAS
144hz Benq monitor
Occulus Rift (of course)
Game Version 1.2 (not the Beta)
Visual Impressions:
Firstly, the most noticeable aspect for me in VR is sense of SCALE. Looking around your cockpit (the vulture feels huge), on the pad in station, being able to dock at station by guiding the ship down through the glass between your feet, station flybys and jumping into systems is incredible. Something that is really lost when playing on a normal monitor.
Secondly Frontier have done a wonderful job in creating a realistic HUD / cockpit that feels like its been designed ground up for VR the stand out for me is the radar/scanner situated at the center of your HUD followed by the ability to look at screens to activate them and the outer body experience when you look at your virtual hands fly the ship in the same manner you are. Even the little detail like the frosting/dirt on the glass comes to life in VR, ive seen people comment on it as a hindrance under normal play but trust me this just adds to the realism in VR dont tone this down please. The team responsible for the UI design needs some form of VR award everything feels natural and intuitive and helps sell the experience.
Finally:Being able to look through your turns, whilst dog fighting or flying is a game changer. I go back to my monitor and find my self trying to lookup as I turn.
Seting up the Occulus Rift:
setup is fiddly with default settings providing a pixelated mess. A big thankyou to the pinned sticky on this forum detailing optimal settings for the Occulus, I would of been a lost without this.
It has taken me almost a week of getting it to where performance / graphics are balanced. Even with two 980 gtx's and a 4790k i find judder in stations breaking the experience. DSR causes flickering for me which is a shame as this seems more performant then the supersampling (SS) provided in game. If im cheeky i can get away with 2 X SS with a little judder only when docking. but 1.5 ensures it doesn't break the experience and allows long play sessions with out being torn out of the immersion.
Even with it looking pretty good and the text sharp and readable, i find distant ships are still pixelated and its hard to discern ship type until they are relatively close. This makes it hard when in RES to look beyond your sensors, 7+ km, for the big fish (clipper, python, anaconda) as everything appears as a blob of moving pixels in the distant. Ultimately this game screams for a higher resolution screen. come on CV1 and its RGB goodness.
Until then, there is still a long way to go with optimization, Im looking forward to upcoming patches to help FPS stability in high detailed areas (stations, RES) this will allow me to bump up the SS to 2.0X or perhaps some one can enlighten me as to why when apply DSR through the panel then in game i get a flicker on all lighting?
Either way VR and Elite are meant to be. If your on a budget wait for CV 1, better screen and less hardware intensive ( a single 970 should do it) if you have a little coin, a bestie computer and your sold on the elite dangerous experience then $350 is a small price to pay for the next seven months to enjoy elite in VR where it feels at home.
Lets start with system specs
4790k @4.4ghz
2 x 980gtx in SLI
32gb ram (plenty) at 1600mhz
game is on SSD
X 52 HOTAS
144hz Benq monitor
Occulus Rift (of course)
Game Version 1.2 (not the Beta)
Visual Impressions:
Firstly, the most noticeable aspect for me in VR is sense of SCALE. Looking around your cockpit (the vulture feels huge), on the pad in station, being able to dock at station by guiding the ship down through the glass between your feet, station flybys and jumping into systems is incredible. Something that is really lost when playing on a normal monitor.
Secondly Frontier have done a wonderful job in creating a realistic HUD / cockpit that feels like its been designed ground up for VR the stand out for me is the radar/scanner situated at the center of your HUD followed by the ability to look at screens to activate them and the outer body experience when you look at your virtual hands fly the ship in the same manner you are. Even the little detail like the frosting/dirt on the glass comes to life in VR, ive seen people comment on it as a hindrance under normal play but trust me this just adds to the realism in VR dont tone this down please. The team responsible for the UI design needs some form of VR award everything feels natural and intuitive and helps sell the experience.
Finally:Being able to look through your turns, whilst dog fighting or flying is a game changer. I go back to my monitor and find my self trying to lookup as I turn.
Seting up the Occulus Rift:
setup is fiddly with default settings providing a pixelated mess. A big thankyou to the pinned sticky on this forum detailing optimal settings for the Occulus, I would of been a lost without this.
It has taken me almost a week of getting it to where performance / graphics are balanced. Even with two 980 gtx's and a 4790k i find judder in stations breaking the experience. DSR causes flickering for me which is a shame as this seems more performant then the supersampling (SS) provided in game. If im cheeky i can get away with 2 X SS with a little judder only when docking. but 1.5 ensures it doesn't break the experience and allows long play sessions with out being torn out of the immersion.
Even with it looking pretty good and the text sharp and readable, i find distant ships are still pixelated and its hard to discern ship type until they are relatively close. This makes it hard when in RES to look beyond your sensors, 7+ km, for the big fish (clipper, python, anaconda) as everything appears as a blob of moving pixels in the distant. Ultimately this game screams for a higher resolution screen. come on CV1 and its RGB goodness.
Until then, there is still a long way to go with optimization, Im looking forward to upcoming patches to help FPS stability in high detailed areas (stations, RES) this will allow me to bump up the SS to 2.0X or perhaps some one can enlighten me as to why when apply DSR through the panel then in game i get a flicker on all lighting?
Either way VR and Elite are meant to be. If your on a budget wait for CV 1, better screen and less hardware intensive ( a single 970 should do it) if you have a little coin, a bestie computer and your sold on the elite dangerous experience then $350 is a small price to pay for the next seven months to enjoy elite in VR where it feels at home.
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