ED and the Oculus Rift Developers Kit 2 (DK2) Discussion Thread

[kyoseki]

That's incredible performance if that's in a DK2. On a monitor, sure.

Really? Weird.

I'm running an EVGA 780 GTX SC 6Gb, but I'm not overclocking it, it's running at the factory OC speed, which is 10% faster than reference.

I do have two 780s, but since SLI isn't present in Beta 1, I don't see that that makes a difference.

I have antialiasing & ambient occlusion off (AO is very slow and with highly directional light sources like you get in space, it's effects are barely noticeable anyway) and <SSAA>1.5</SSAA> set in the graphics xml file.

Everything else is running at high settings, I was getting some bad slowdown in the stations until I killed AA, but if there's any slowdown now, it's not significant enough to be noticeable.

Edit: Oh, I'm running the 4.1 DK2 firmware I think, I'll check when I get home tonight.

Edit2: I'll double check that the SSAA statement is still in the xml file, but given that I can actually read the text on screen, I'm going to go ahead and assume it is. Everything was illegible without it.

 

[Zalamander]

The amount of stuttering in spaceports is pretty bad with this card. Even in empty space there's random jittery-ness for no apparent reason. The reason I'm considering the new nVidia series is that I'm upgrading the shrine anyway, and my son could use a 290x for his Minecraft needs .

Well its not really a problem with the card its the oculus rift compability in elite that makes this stuttering, it started stuttering for me a bit after last firmware update to DK2, it worked much better before I updated the firmware to it so just wait for beta 2 to come and hopefully they have updated elite to the latest SDK for oculus.

 

[vonFelty]

I'm not sure what happened but I broke my settings with the Oculus Rift somehow. Everything in ED has a green haze and it seems like there is a film of darkness over the ships windshield. I'm not sure what I did exactly. It even seems noticeable on the title screen. I tested other rift titles and they seem fine.

I'm not too concerned because its less than a week til we get direct to rift and hopefully that should resolve it, but has anyone else run into this so maybe I could get it fixed before then?

 

[Half Giant]

I was told over on oculus vr that when they were over at the conference they heard the demos were running on a single GTX980.

which would be better still!

You might well be right. The interview I read said 'they are running on the new Maxwell GPUs'. I took the plural to mean SLI but he probably meant all the demo stations. That would make more sense since the VR SLI is bound to be a hard thing to get absolutely right. Also it wasn't ED they were demoing so it actually has not a lot of bearing on what we all want it for.

 

[KING5TON]

You might well be right. The interview I read said 'they are running on the new Maxwell GPUs'. I took the plural to mean SLI but he probably meant all the demo stations. That would make more sense since the VR SLI is bound to be a hard thing to get absolutely right. Also it wasn't ED they were demoing so it actually has not a lot of bearing on what we all want it for.

Single cards only.
OVR have repeatable said that SLI or Crossfire currently isn't ideal for VR as it adds a frame of latency (and there are compatibility issues with any multi card set up you don't get with single cards) . They recommend getting the best single GPU over SLI/Xfire (see this thread about 980 vs 970sli as an example - LINK)

Since OVR and now Nvidia are trying to suck as much latency out of the process you are effectively working against them by going for multiple cards.

You might not think 1 frame is very much latency but in VR it is.

 

[kyoseki]

I believe that the 9xx series cards handle SLI differently to earlier cards in regard to VR, with each card rendering an eye rather than combining the cards to render a single image by alternating the camera between eyes (which is why you'll always have a frame of latency while the second eye gets rendered).

Not sure if this is a software or hardware thing, so I don't know if it can be backported to earlier cards.

 

[robdood]

Really? Weird.

I'm running an EVGA 780 GTX SC 6Gb, but I'm not overclocking it, it's running at the factory OC speed, which is 10% faster than reference.

I do have two 780s, but since SLI isn't present in Beta 1, I don't see that that makes a difference.

I have antialiasing & ambient occlusion off (AO is very slow and with highly directional light sources like you get in space, it's effects are barely noticeable anyway) and <SSAA>1.5</SSAA> set in the graphics xml file.

Everything else is running at high settings, I was getting some bad slowdown in the stations until I killed AA, but if there's any slowdown now, it's not significant enough to be noticeable.

Edit: Oh, I'm running the 4.1 DK2 firmware I think, I'll check when I get home tonight.

Edit2: I'll double check that the SSAA statement is still in the xml file, but given that I can actually read the text on screen, I'm going to go ahead and assume it is. Everything was illegible without it.

Running 4.1 could be the explanation, I've seen a few people say performance was better on the older runtime.

Fingers crossed beta2's upgrade to newest OR drivers works a charm, let's be honest, the cards we're all talking about should easily be able to manage it (given the normal screen comparisons I've done, even the side-by-side 3D mode runs better than the rift option!) so it got to be down to implementation.

Not long now!

 

[KING5TON]

I believe that the 9xx series cards handle SLI differently to earlier cards in regard to VR, with each card rendering an eye rather than combining the cards to render a single image by alternating the camera between eyes (which is why you'll always have a frame of latency while the second eye gets rendered).

Not sure if this is a software or hardware thing, so I don't know if it can be backported to earlier cards.

Will wait and see.
Not seen anything concrete on it yet other than Nvidia's press release and I always take them (and ones from AMD) with a pinch of salt. If third party testers report favourable about VR SLI then I'll consider getting another 980

 

[VR - wickfut]

Single cards only.
OVR have repeatable said that SLI or Crossfire currently isn't ideal for VR as it adds a frame of latency (and there are compatibility issues with any multi card set up you don't get with single cards) . They recommend getting the best single GPU over SLI/Xfire (see this thread about 980 vs 970sli as an example - LINK)

Since OVR and now Nvidia are trying to suck as much latency out of the process you are effectively working against them by going for multiple cards.

You might not think 1 frame is very much latency but in VR it is.

Are you speaking from experience?

The reason I ask is I've never noticed any added latency with SLI. I'm not saying it doesn't exist , but IMO running something at 100FPS with a touch of latency is better than something struggling to hit 70FPS.
Given the option I'd rather run SLI GTX 770s than a single 970 and when I turn the Rift on I have never turned off SLI.

 

[kyoseki]

Running 4.1 could be the explanation, I've seen a few people say performance was better on the older runtime.

Interesting, good to know.

Fingers crossed beta2's upgrade to newest OR drivers works a charm, let's be honest, the cards we're all talking about should easily be able to manage it (given the normal screen comparisons I've done, even the side-by-side 3D mode runs better than the rift option!) so it got to be down to implementation.

Yeah, Elite Dangerous looks pretty good, but I can't see it being THAT tough to render, the geometry just isn't that complicated.

Definitely looking forward to avoiding having to deal with extended display & service hackery to get everything working nicely.

 

[Gods3nt]

Great news guys, I just caught a break in my finances. My rent is now paid off for the next 3 months. With my paychecks in the coming weeks I will be breaking even in a month on rent payment and then some, that means that I can now afford the Oculus Rift. The thing is I'm a little skeptic, the main website doesn't really answer my question nor does anywhere else with regards to ED (which is the main reason I want to get one.) I need final opinions on ye or ne. (just to satisfy both my curiosity and ego of course.)

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Great news guys, I just caught a break in my finances. My rent is now paid off for the next 3 months. With my paychecks in the coming weeks I will be breaking even in a month on rent payment and then some, that means that I can now afford the Oculus Rift. The thing is I'm a little skeptic, the main website doesn't really answer my question nor does anywhere else with regards to ED (which is the main reason I want to get one.) I need final opinions on ye or ne. (just to satisfy both my curiosity and ego of course.)

The main question being does the DK2 work with ED?

If that is your question, then I can tell you the DK2 worked perfectly with the build I played today at EGX, which is basically the Beta 2 build we are getting on Tuesday 30 September.

 

[Nomadski]

Ok so I've made a few posts in this thread, mostly quite cynical, or (not really negative but) erm, puzzled and sceptical I guess.

Tried it today at EGX. Fuzzy writing (that was actually legible) apart, it was mind boggingly brilliant.

Didn't do much apart from fly near a planet shooting a NPC, and another scenario of just whizzing round asteroids till I felt guilty at taking up one of only 4 VR slots at the stand so I accelerated into an very large asteroid.

I paid a deposit on a DK2 some 5 weeks ago, was borderline whether I was going to cancel. Be damned if I will now, its amazing.

Also, Ive seen some say there are currently issues with DK2 and Beta 1 right now? From the basic, snippet of build Beta 2 I played, it ran smooth and flawlessly.

Stood up under instruction from Ambassador RobinXe (as he shall now be known) and had a moment of vertigo as I looked down to the platform below the seat...

Am a convert.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Will wait and see.
Not seen anything concrete on it yet other than Nvidia's press release and I always take them (and ones from AMD) with a pinch of salt. If third party testers report favourable about VR SLI then I'll consider getting another 980

Are you using the GTX 980 already? If so - what sort of performance are you getting?

I played today on the EGX build with a DK2, and they were supposedly using 980's (though I didn't actually ask them). There was some very minor frame rate dropping when I flew above the asteroid field and looked across the horizon.

 

[Gods3nt]

The main question being does the DK2 work with ED?

If that is your question, then I can tell you the DK2 worked perfectly with the build I played today at EGX, which is basically the Beta 2 build we are getting on Tuesday 30 September.

Sweet, just 5 more days to go.

 

[kyoseki]

I paid a deposit on a DK2 some 5 weeks ago, was borderline whether I was going to cancel. Be damned if I will now, its amazing.

Isn't it?

The first time I got Elite running with my DK2, I just sat on the landing pad for 5 minutes staring around the station and laughing.

 

[KING5TON]

Are you speaking from experience?

The reason I ask is I've never noticed any added latency with SLI. I'm not saying it doesn't exist , but IMO running something at 100FPS with a touch of latency is better than something struggling to hit 70FPS.
Given the option I'd rather run SLI GTX 770s than a single 970 and when I turn the Rift on I have never turned off SLI.

No but I'd take the word of OVR the people that actually make the Rift rather than anecdotal evidence and they say the best single gpu you can buy is better than 2 x lesser gpus that give you similar or even better performance.
If you're happy then have at it. I'm not posting this stuff to sell more GPUs, I don't work for either AMD or Nvidia, just passing on advice that OVR have given (with links to show I'm not making it up (why would I anyway?)).

 

[KING5TON]

Great news guys, I just caught a break in my finances. My rent is now paid off for the next 3 months. With my paychecks in the coming weeks I will be breaking even in a month on rent payment and then some, that means that I can now afford the Oculus Rift. The thing is I'm a little skeptic, the main website doesn't really answer my question nor does anywhere else with regards to ED (which is the main reason I want to get one.) I need final opinions on ye or ne. (just to satisfy both my curiosity and ego of course.)

If you can afford to drop the cash for a DK2 and get the consumer version next year and you've got a beast of a machine already (like 290x or 780ti/980) and will be able to afford to upgrade your GPU next year for consumer then go for it.
If the answer is no to any of the above I personally would wait and save the money. DK2 while great takes a lot of GPU grunt to work well and has some flaws that make it a less than perfect experience (too low res IMO mainly).
Consumer version is going to be better but will probably require even more GPU grunt.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

DK2 while great takes a lot of GPU grunt to work well and has some flaws that make it a less than perfect experience (too low res IMO mainly).

Whilst the DK2 is a huge leap forward in screen quality along with positional tracking, and latency improvements...the resolution increase does indeed leave a lot to be desired.

I can do without positional tracking, and the latency improvements for now...and so I see no reason to change my DK1 for a DK2. I was honestly hoping the resolution would be better than it actually is. (But that said - it is all still a great experience!)

 

[KING5TON]

Are you using the GTX 980 already? If so - what sort of performance are you getting?

I played today on the EGX build with a DK2, and they were supposedly using 980's (though I didn't actually ask them). There was some very minor frame rate dropping when I flew above the asteroid field and looked across the horizon.

Arrives tomorrow, won't get chance to tinker with it till tomorrow night but will report back what FPS I'm seeing in stations and rings either tomorrow night or sometime Saturday.
Chances are the ones at EGX they were using weren't overclocked.
I'll be overclocking mine as much as I can get away with, seen up to a 20% performance increase in some 980 OC benchmarks.
Were you playing the Beta 2 build?
Bit worrying that they haven't managed to improve performance in Beta 2 enough across the board for no judder on the current highest end GPU. Hopefully it'll come in time though.