Tried to play after long time gone -> BLACK BORDER on right side ?!

[Lirezh]

I just reinstalled Oculus SDK 0.8, preapred everything as explained in here using Steam VR.

Everything seems to work, the oculus demo works fine.
Elite starts up as expected (well it crashed first but then it worked).

However, I have a straight black border visible from BOTH eyes on the right side.
As if the physical screen would end there.
However if it was the screen I would be able to see that in other demos, where it is fine.
Also if it was the screen I would only see it with my RIGHT eye but I see the same border completely in focus with both eyes.

Left side is as expected, I can see the screen if I look very far to the left. I see it blurry and only with my left eye, right eye can not spot it of course.
Right side as explained is malfunctioned.

So Elite Dangerous is rendering wrongly. I just hope anyone here knows about this and how to get it done properly.

Update:
Of course recenter does not help, tried that first.

 

[gamer101]

This has been discussed in a few different places (but it DID take a long time for me to find it).

You have to run steamVR and calibrate it.

Elite uses the steamVR libraries to run the rift. It seems that SteamVR has a very tight tolerance for the 3D "ViewPort" and if not calibrated, this viewport will be skewed either right or left.

 

[Lirezh]

Hi,
I've been reading and reading, also since post

So far I could not get it working.
I tried a full reset of Steam VR and set up everything again.
The only thing I can not do is the tutorial, the Avatar appears BEHIND me and I am stuck when it wants me to press a controller button I don't own.

I also tried moving myself exactly to the middle in the grey-room.


By recalibrating you mean doing a Reset and then setting up "standing" right ?
I also read that an older version seems to have supported a DK2 setting but I guess they removed that so only standing and full room are available now from what I see.

 

[gamer101]

Hello Lirezh,

I believe I had exactly the same problem as you (except my bar was on the left).

I calibrated SteamVR by hitting reset, and setting up using the "standing" option (although I was actually sitting). Each time I clicked "calibrate" I made sure that I always faced dead straight ahead. (You have to pre-position your mouse on the calibrate button, so you can click it, with the rift on your face). I think the straight ahead requirement is the crucial one as I would think that this sets the viewport relationship with your head position..

The SteamVR viewport is very tight, using the Rift center button in elite can make the bar return again if I'm not looking dead straight ahead.

I dial down my Eye Relief to get the widest FOV and I can still just make out the bar when I look at a certain angle.

I hope this helps

 

[Lirezh]

Ok I found out how to solve this black bar bug (viewport movement), it happens regularly and it's easy to solve.

Before I tell I'll rant about Frontier.
VR has been the horse which pulled Elite Dangerous into success, it was the huge media attention at the right time (Oculus in all media) and Elite came right.
Elite sold better than ever expected, Frontier changed their development team to the consoles (I realized that development didn't go on and checked their job offers at that time, it was full with console developer positions. People called me stupid when I said it's going to be a console game soon)
Consoles now suddenly were the moneymaker, instead of developing they grinded money out of fans.
Suddenly Elite was about to be released, everyone was wondering why an early access game that's clearly far from finished is going to release now.
Well they released expansion packs instead of filling up the sandbox with content and instead of solving the bugs.

There is still no official support for green colors, DK2 needs green because it doubles the effective resolution.
Instead of adding true DK2 color support they nerfed the settings, now half of the menus are in orange again no matter what you do

The regular loss of tracking (suddenly your camera is moving down half a meter into your chest) is still present. That's a simple bug, I could fix that with a workaround in 5 minute work (just check for a sudden fast vertical translation change and correct it to previous, that's not more than 5 minutes of programming)

They stopped support of all Oculus SDKs after 0.5 (what the ?) instead they jump on Steam VR (at least a development..) but they implement it wrongly.
The viewport problem is crazy, it's something the developer MUST have noticed within minutes of playing.
What's in your mind developer to leave it like that? That approach is the "minimal effort" path, how can you go that route with VR in a game that's praised in all media for it's VR ?

I come back after a year of waiting and the VR features are WORSE than when I left it for exactly that reason.
But yea, I can invest a lot of money into an extension. Which likely is going to be VR bugged as well.

I'm programmer, I also programmed for Oculus SDK (they made a very nice API, it's easy to use).
To make Elite properly support DK2 is not months of work, the main bugs are a few single developer days of work.
A few bug fixes, a few tweaks, color palette support .. How can they be so lazy ?

------------------------------------------------------------

Well the fix for the viewport problem is easy:
First of all, it helps if you are aligned in the Steam VR room center. When in VR mode of Steam (gray room) you can look down you'll see the center.
I do not think it's important but it might help.
Now within Elite you got a key bound to Reset-Orientation (F12, or joystick button etc)
The viewport will change not depending on your translational position (not if you are left or right of the center)
The viewport changes with your yaw position! (if you look left of right when resetting oritentation)

So if you have a black bar/border on your right side, try look exactly straight at the virtual screen. Now turn your head to the right by a few degree and press RESET.
You should notice the black bar move a bit more to the right.
Continue until it's perfect.
If you suddenly have a black bar on the left side it's the same procedure: center your view on the Elite screen and then turn head a bit to the left. RESET and check.

You can easily verify what I say by turning your head like 45% to the right and reset. Suddenly you will notice your viewport was moved by quite a bit to the right and half your screen is black permanently.
I guess they made a bug in Steam VR implementation, there is probably some mistake within the reset orientation function that they accidentially used a YAW instead of a POSITION variable somewhere. So YAW can move your viewport (and it should never do that)


On the positive side, performance is better than before. I can't 1440p anymore but 1.5 supersampling seems to be smooth. Judder issues became better a bit.

 

[Raptoyd]

Thanks for the solution I was having this problem the other night as the tracking would slip so that everything is way too close and when you tell Astra to reset Oculus you better have your view perfectly straight which usually it might be a little off to one side. This is when I will then notice a curtain even though the rest of the cockpit has returned to normal. Very annoying feature and I agree with your sentiments that really nothing has been done to further VR in this game. I did not jump on the CV1 purchase and probably will not even jump on the Vive purchase until this stuff is fixed. Some people will really be kicking themselves when they get what is being called a consumer version and yet they themselves are still trying to find solutions to make it work. Just my 2 cents anyway thanks.

 

[gamer101]

I found that if I used F12 in the game, with a head yaw offset, I could solve the bar problem, but then I ended up not sitting "square" with my real world desk and controllers.

This is why I found it helpful to calibrate within SteamVR as well. Perhaps the initial transitional position had some impact on the viewport in my case.

 

[thafred]

However, I have a straight black border visible from BOTH eyes on the right side.
As if the physical screen would end there.
However if it was the screen I would be able to see that in other demos, where it is fine.
Also if it was the screen I would only see it with my RIGHT eye but I see the same border completely in focus with both eyes.
Update:
Of course recenter does not help, tried that first.

Hi,

Solution: Open Steam VR, DK2 Shows Grey room. Open Oculus Config util, Start Demo Scene (SteamVr must run at the same time) it Switches from Grey room to ORDemo -> DK2 on Head, look straight ahead and reset Position in Oculus Config Util, you will notice the Demo Scene also resets View in Steam VR (check the dark grey square on the floor in the Grey room, that square has to be parallel to your seating Position.)

Last time I did this the ORdemo crashed Steam VR, no worries, just restart and everything will be fine and calibrated.

 

[gamer101]

Thanks thafred. Very concise.

 

[Lirezh]

You should read my posting (#5) for the correct solution.
The one you noted does not solve it properly just for a while.