A sober opinion of the current state of VR for Elite Dangerous

rootsrat · Jul 22, 2017

Joker_the_smoker said:
Rift or vive? Any one better for elite?

Very similar. Here's a very objective review:

[video=youtube;pyhaF5YoOms]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyhaF5YoOms[/video]

I would honestly suggesting trying out both and getting the one that you prefer.

Dogeh said:
Vive has access to lots of games but the Rift has better quality games.

Any examples? Because to my knowledge there are only a few exclusives for Rift and even then you can get access to them on Vive by using a 3rd party app. (This is because Steam is an open platform, and Oculus is closed and won't allow for other HMD users to use their store. Nice one, cheers Oculus, very nice of you, not...).

A D · Jul 22, 2017

MalcYorks said:
If you are going to make a reply quoting me I suggest you read what I wrote, not write what you imagine I feel. e.g, (and just from this thread):

"VR is great", "I am not sending my Rift back - I like it, it is great,", "if anyone is havering about buying-in at the £400 price, I can honestly say it is worth it", "I like the "presence" and sense of scale that ED has in my Rift".

Your grovelling apology will not be accepted so don't bother.

Good for you. Then stay with VR.

Dogeh · Jul 23, 2017

rootsrat said:
Any examples? Because to my knowledge there are only a few exclusives for Rift and even then you can get access to them on Vive by using a 3rd party app. (This is because Steam is an open platform, and Oculus is closed and won't allow for other HMD users to use their store. Nice one, cheers Oculus, very nice of you, not...).

You are correct, of course.
I forgot about ReVive.

Lone Echo and Robo Recall were two of the games I was thinking about! Lone Echo in particular is game changing (apologies for the pun!)

Joker_the_smoker · Jul 23, 2017

rootsrat said:
Very similar. Here's a very objective review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyhaF5YoOms

I would honestly suggesting trying out both and getting the one that you prefer.

Any examples? Because to my knowledge there are only a few exclusives for Rift and even then you can get access to them on Vive by using a 3rd party app. (This is because Steam is an open platform, and Oculus is closed and won't allow for other HMD users to use their store. Nice one, cheers Oculus, very nice of you, not...).

Thanks for that video super helpful.

rootsrat · Jul 23, 2017

Dogeh said:
You are correct, of course.
I forgot about ReVive.

Lone Echo and Robo Recall were two of the games I was thinking about! Lone Echo in particular is game changing (apologies for the pun!)

Ah, yeah - I know you can definitely play Robo Recall on Vive, Lone Echo is a new game, isn't it? My friend was saying a lot of good things about it, but I don't know whether you can use ReVive to play it. I never used it - there are so many games for Vive and so little time...

mp4x · Jul 23, 2017

Being IN a game or looking AT a game.

I feel like they're not even the same thing anymore. It could be 100% photo-realistic, in 2D, and I'd still just use it for screenshots.

Zeeman · Jul 23, 2017

MalcYorks said:
Yes - have your read my posts? I mean that in all sincerity by the way.

Yes, apparently, I did miss that bit. The rest of my post still stands.

Z...

Zeeman · Jul 23, 2017

rootsrat said:
Very similar. Here's a very objective review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyhaF5YoOms

I would honestly suggesting trying out both and getting the one that you prefer.

Any examples? Because to my knowledge there are only a few exclusives for Rift and even then you can get access to them on Vive by using a 3rd party app. (This is because Steam is an open platform, and Oculus is closed and won't allow for other HMD users to use their store. Nice one, cheers Oculus, very nice of you, not...).

Ship's Cat(s)™ confirmed! (For HTC Vive users only)

Z...

popuptoaster · Jul 23, 2017

Dogeh said:
You are correct, of course.
I forgot about ReVive.

Lone Echo and Robo Recall were two of the games I was thinking about! Lone Echo in particular is game changing (apologies for the pun!)

Steam VR should work with any headset, works just fine with my Pimax, Subnautica and Ark Survival are pretty mad in VR.

problemchild · Jul 23, 2017

mp4x said:
Being IN a game or looking AT a game.

I feel like they're not even the same thing anymore. It could be 100% photo-realistic, in 2D, and I'd still just use it for screenshots.

Exactly this. We've currently got a surplus of technology and power where non-VR games are concerned.

4k/8k marks the rapidly approaching pinnacle of the 2D development cycle, anything more will be wasted. OR and Vive are the start of the new way of doing things where 4k will start to be seen as a basic minimum, in order to ameliorate the valid concerns currently surrounding VR, so an entire new phase of development will take-off. UIs will need to be smarter, room scale will allow development of all sorts of peripherals we can't imagine today, there will be more focus on immersive audio, different types of games will take off (Lone Echo is a good example of this type of thinking), people will lose their jobs en masse and be plugged into machines which feed them essential nutrients and scrub them down once per week.

CylonSurfer · Jul 23, 2017

Joker_the_smoker said:
Rift or vive? Any one better for elite?

The Rift, ASW alone makes all the difference in VR for Elite.

rootsrat · Jul 23, 2017

CylonSurfer said:
The Rift, ASW alone makes all the difference in VR for Elite.

Vive has asynchronous reprojection which is the same thing more or less.

CylonSurfer · Jul 23, 2017

rootsrat said:
Vive has asynchronous reprojection which is the same thing more or less.

Its not the same and doesn't work as well as Oculus's ASW. Valves asynchronous reprojection is more akin to Oculus's ATW. SteamVR performance vs the Oculus Runtime in Elite are also quite different. If someone was purchasing VR for Elite (as per Joker_the_smokers comment) the Rift is absolutely the better choice. Not only is it almost 50% cheaper at this moment in time but it has performance and visual benefits over the HTC Vive in this game.

This has nothing to do with the device I own, these are just the facts as they stand. Outside of Elite both devices have their pros and cons, but again coming back to price point, the Rift sits as the most sensible choice for any VR newcomer at this moment in time. To be honest, HTC really need to do something at this point to keep their product in the game - LGs SteamVR headset could really be the nail in the coffin for the HTC device. I'd buy a Vive tomorrow if it was priced better and shipped with controllers that had sticks and not touchpads (the later being personal preference but also the reason for be cancelling my pre-order).

rootsrat · Jul 23, 2017

CylonSurfer said:
Its not the same and doesn't work as well as Oculus's ASW. Valves asynchronous reprojection is more akin to Oculus's ATW. SteamVR performance vs the Oculus Runtime in Elite are also quite different. If someone was purchasing VR for Elite (as per Joker_the_smokers comment) the Rift is absolutely the better choice. Not only is it almost 50% cheaper at this moment in time but it has performance and visual benefits over the HTC Vive in this game.

This has nothing to do with the device I own, these are just the facts as they stand. Outside of Elite both devices have their pros and cons, but again coming back to price point, the Rift sits as the most sensible choice for any VR newcomer at this moment in time. To be honest, HTC really need to do something at this point to keep their product in the game - LGs SteamVR headset could really be the nail in the coffin for the HTC device. I'd buy a Vive tomorrow if it was priced better and shipped with controllers that had sticks and not touchpads (the later being personal preference but also the reason for be cancelling my pre-order).

Fair enough, I got mixed up with ATW.

NeryK · Jul 23, 2017

CylonSurfer said:
Its not the same and doesn't work as well as Oculus's ASW. Valves asynchronous reprojection is more akin to Oculus's ATW.

True. A dev teased last year that Valve's take on ASW was next up, but in true Valve fashion never mentioned it again.

WindWpn · Jul 23, 2017

Heh, I posted earlier in this thread about going back to my 2D trackIR gig on ED..... But I just cannot. The VR experience of scale and immersion is simply too good to pass up. Seated in any of my ships in VR, and as other noted, simply seeing full 3D outside such as station buildings, billboards, spinning radar towers, etc... It's simply now a must! Key to my improved experience is I finally have VR tracking dialed in.

ArmEagle · Jul 23, 2017

loribee said:
I have to say, this is the most annoying thing about the VR in Elite. This, and the system map. They've implemented the station services in a more VR-Friendly manner, but they really need to overhaul the maps for VR. The lack of an OSK for it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Having said that, I am fairly new to the game. I initially played it with Trinus and a PSVR and I thought it was amazing, but I've just picked up a Pimax BE (the 2k model with the faster refresh) and its even more impressive.

People say you need a "Fast PC" to run in VR. I would argue this point somewhat. I have an older system with a core I5 and found that all I really needed was an Nvidia 1060 to run in VR @ 2k (which is what the Pimax BE is) at pretty much everything ultra or high settings and I can happily play the game without any form of motion sickness for hours at a time.

With a custom mapping I can use the galaxymap just fine using my Hotas in VR. Shame that by default it's pretty useless.
Typing is indeed a bit of a pain. But I doubt OSK will make it better, when using Hotas. It would help if the system search in the galaxy map had some autocomplete/suggestions functionality. As having to type a complete system name is quite annoying.

That, and the game should remember what orientation you left the galaxy map at. Now it keeps opening the map with the camera on the horizontal plane. I always tilt it up first because otherwise you can't even use the context menu of the currently targeted system.

Dibiase · Jul 24, 2017

WindWpn said:
Heh, I posted earlier in this thread about going back to my 2D trackIR gig on ED..... But I just cannot. The VR experience of scale and immersion is simply too good to pass up. Seated in any of my ships in VR, and as other noted, simply seeing full 3D outside such as station buildings, billboards, spinning radar towers, etc... It's simply now a must! Key to my improved experience is I finally have VR tracking dialed in.

Same for me. I had 3 27" monitors setup with Nvidia surround with track IR and I thought it was awesome but now that I have played in VR I just can't go back to the monitors.

fced · Jul 24, 2017

So is it still too early (07/2017) to have a better experience with any VR (specifically Playstation VR) than with a good 40" Full HDTV ?

Dibiase · Jul 24, 2017

fced said:
So is it still too early (07/2017) to have a better experience with any VR (specifically Playstation VR) than with a good 40" Full HDTV ?

It all depends on your perspective I guess. I've been gaming for a couple decades and in my opinion gaming in VR has been a game changing experience. Far more immersive that playing on a 40" tv. It really is something that you have to try for yourself.