First Impressions of ED in VR

[Wendake]

Tried VR and it's not for me !

Sense of scale is amazing and you really feel like you're in your cockpit but in my case the downgrade in graphic settings to get a playable session in VR is too heavy.

I've been playing ED on my new PC for over a year with pretty much every settings in ULTRA + head tracking. I knew that VR ask a lot of juice to run and that you have to drop down graphics but not that much =(

Also don't like the blurry edges which is normal after some reading + the eye soreness after playing.

Perhaps I'll give it another try in a few years but for now I'll stick to my actual set-up !

 

[Old Duck]

Tried VR and it's not for me !

Sense of scale is amazing and you really feel like you're in your cockpit but in my case the downgrade in graphic settings to get a playable session in VR is too heavy.

I'm lucky in that I've not had to dial back my settings much. I still have my ultra shadows, and a number of the special effects I got rid of I never liked in the first place (like heat shimmer, light cones, etc). What I see in VR is still far better than what I had on PS4, and everything is clear enough for me on my Rift S - surprisingly clear after my first experience being with PSVR.

 

[Old Duck]

Two Weeks Later....

It's safe to say that ED is now a VR exclusive for me. The only time I potentially see playing ED on my 2D display is when I have to farm materials in my SRV, because I still get sick driving that thing, regardless of horizon settings. But for my day-to-day play, VR is definitely my new default.

This is not to say I'm done with 2D games. There are plenty of games like Overwatch and Stellarus that I would not want to play in VR. If Space Engineers was in VR, I think I would enjoy that immensely, but the lack of VR support doesn't kill the game for me. Interestingly, my two favorite VR games at the moment, Skyrim and Elite, are games that I had basically "finished" in 2D, so VR is breathing new life into these otherwise old games that I had grown bored with.

I did a little research, and Skyrim SE has a 30 day average of 11,411 players, whereas Skyrim VR only has an average of 218 players. Unfortunately this tells me that VR is still very much a niche. I hope that changes as prices drop on HMDs like Rift S. I think games like Elite and Skyrim VR were released back when VR was the "next big thing", but since then the hype train has left the station. Maybe Sony can change this with their VR-centric PS5. I'd really hate to see Frontier abandon VR support for upcoming DLCs. For me personally, VR is now the thing keeping me invested in this game.

 

[VerticalBlank]

I initially got nausea from the SRV but after some time using VR only in the ship, I took the SRV out in VR and was fine. YMMV, but the one piece of advice I see everywhere is to stop at once if you feel nausea. Trying to push through it will only reinforce the assocation in your brain.

 

[Balmung]

I initially got nausea from the SRV but after some time using VR only in the ship, I took the SRV out in VR and was fine. YMMV, but the one piece of advice I see everywhere is to stop at once if you feel nausea. Trying to push through it will only reinforce the assocation in your brain.

That is definitely true, if you feel nausea, stop immediately. It also safe you from 2+h feeling sick and you only need a little break for some minutes, best on fresh air. And all with Ingwer helps a lot. So maybe you combine the little break with some Ingwer tea with honey.

 

[VerticalBlank]

That is definitely true, if you feel nausea, stop immediately. It also safe you from 2+h feeling sick and you only need a little break for some minutes, best on fresh air. And all with Ingwer helps a lot. So maybe you combine the little break with some Ingwer tea with honey.

I don't know "Ingwer": would that be "Ginger"? If so yes it is really good for settling the stomach.

 

[Old Duck]

FWIW, the SRV is the only thing that does this to me. I can dog fight in a RES in my Eagle and not get sick at all (much to my surprise), and I can walk, run, and ride horse in Skyrim for hours at a time without ill effect. I got my "VR legs" back when I owned PSVR.

I think it's all the bouncing around the SRV does. I'll take it to one of these "race tracks" today and see if it's better on a flat surface. As for mats, someone suggested I can go to a geological or biological site and farm higher quality mats and trade them down. I suppose I can also laser mine that 500 tons of ore and get at least some mats in the process. Thankfully I don't engineer much or often, but I do have a couple of ships requiring attention.

It sure would be nice if we were given a hovercraft SRV alternative, like a skimmer, or the ability to detect and collect ground-based mats in either our ship or SRV. Hey Frontier, throw us VR folks a bone!

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Two Weeks Later....

It's safe to say that ED is now a VR exclusive for me.

Im a recent vr as well, and my most dramatic conclusion was 2d elite is broken its so differently less.

I involuntarily called out in amazement the first time i saw some heightmap cliffs on planet surfaces.

I've been playing elite quite a bit mucking around in vr where i wouldn't have actually.. ah! just found something to do.. haven't seen the beluga yet in vr. Might go to shinrata and retest every single ship to see them again. Even the dolphin looks right in vr.

 

[Maolagin]

Two Weeks Later....

It's safe to say that ED is now a VR exclusive for me. The only time I potentially see playing ED on my 2D display is when I have to farm materials in my SRV, because I still get sick driving that thing, regardless of horizon settings. But for my day-to-day play, VR is definitely my new default.

I can't say I'm an exclusive VR player now, but it's definitely becoming my default. The VR experience makes even routine jaunts around the bubble interesting again - and it actually makes a number of tasks easier thanks the improved situational awareness! But, if I'm just covering distance while chatting with the family or posting on the forum or whatnot, then I'll probably stick to 2D just for the ability to multitask. Also I've found the house gets too hot in the summer for VR ... actually had the lenses fog up on me!

But yes, overall, especially now that I've got the muscle memory down for my HOTAS setup, it's a real treat.

 

[Old Duck]

The other area where I'm reconsidering using VR is out exploring. I like the FSS on a 2D display, but I'm growing to hate it in VR. I'm not much of a fan of the system map in VR, either. The way Frontier floats some text right in front of my face while floating other text out in oblivion, sometimes causing the two text boxes to overlap in 3D space, it's just janky and annoying! On a 2D screen I can easily imagine the FSS as a Spock's science station, but in VR....

I can't believe I've gone from the "FSS is great!" camp to the "FSS sucks!" camp! Oh well.

 

[He$$eeTant]

Interesting, I’ve never used FSS outside of VR so had no preconceptions or ideas of how it could be used. In VR i have all actions mapped to my hotas throttle and joystick and it just works, I don’t have any strong views one way or other. However what I think VR is capable of is simulation of real life and so it would be capable of doing a “Spock” station. If you’ve got it or heard about it ,Xplane flight simulator allows you to use the controllers as your hands around the cockpit of the plane. So you could offer the scientific station option, but then you might fight the Useability of a single input - hotas - vs switching between Hotas and Controllers.

 

[Kemo]

The other area where I'm reconsidering using VR is out exploring. I like the FSS on a 2D display, but I'm growing to hate it in VR. I'm not much of a fan of the system map in VR, either. The way Frontier floats some text right in front of my face while floating other text out in oblivion, sometimes causing the two text boxes to overlap in 3D space, it's just janky and annoying! On a 2D screen I can easily imagine the FSS as a Spock's science station, but in VR....

I can't believe I've gone from the "FSS is great!" camp to the "FSS sucks!" camp! Oh well.

Yep, some of the recent implementations to ED have been poorly applied in VR, it's almost as if no thought went in to how these screens were going to work in VR until the last minute, like someone forgot the game had a VR mode at all.

It's a worry for the future of ED and VR.

 

[Gortron]

Tried VR and it's not for me !

Sense of scale is amazing and you really feel like you're in your cockpit but in my case the downgrade in graphic settings to get a playable session in VR is too heavy.

I've been playing ED on my new PC for over a year with pretty much every settings in ULTRA + head tracking. I knew that VR ask a lot of juice to run and that you have to drop down graphics but not that much =(

Also don't like the blurry edges which is normal after some reading + the eye soreness after playing.

Perhaps I'll give it another try in a few years but for now I'll stick to my actual set-up !

I really don't understand how people prefer resolution over presence. I don't mean this as an attack on you, I just don't understand it. You aren't the only one and we all play computer games for fun, so there isn't a right or wrong way.

But to me it is a bit like saying 'I'd rather play Grand Turismo on a PS4 with my glasses on than drive a car around a race track without my glasses.' Why would anyone prefer that?

 

[Gortron]

The other area where I'm reconsidering using VR is out exploring. I like the FSS on a 2D display, but I'm growing to hate it in VR. I'm not much of a fan of the system map in VR, either. The way Frontier floats some text right in front of my face while floating other text out in oblivion, sometimes causing the two text boxes to overlap in 3D space, it's just janky and annoying! On a 2D screen I can easily imagine the FSS as a Spock's science station, but in VR....

I can't believe I've gone from the "FSS is great!" camp to the "FSS sucks!" camp! Oh well.

Unfortunately FDEV have gone from pioneering VR support to reluctantly bolting it on. In the last couple of years there have been some massive bugs that suggest they don't even test VR before a release anymore. I dread to think what horrors will be included in the 2020 (2021) release. In VR we have had to put up with something like wearing a -2 and a +2 lens at the same time in different eyes for a few months

 

[Old Duck]

I really don't understand how people prefer resolution over presence.

There is a threshold. I've been trying ATS in VR, and the resolution in that game in VR is pretty bad. It reminds me of PSVR. When things are too blurry, then it really detracts from the game. I'm hoping there's a setting (probably supersampling) I can adjust to fix it.

But ED on Rift S is surprisingly clear. IIRC, Rift S is a noticeable upgrade to CV1 in the clarity department, so that might be what makes the difference. Back when I had PSVR, it really was a huge nerf in resolution, so much so that when I had to return it because of defective pixels, I never bothered to replace it.

 

[Gortron]

There is a threshold. I've been trying ATS in VR, and the resolution in that game in VR is pretty bad. It reminds me of PSVR. When things are too blurry, then it really detracts from the game. I'm hoping there's a setting (probably supersampling) I can adjust to fix it.

But ED on Rift S is surprisingly clear. IIRC, Rift S is a noticeable upgrade to CV1 in the clarity department, so that might be what makes the difference. Back when I had PSVR, it really was a huge nerf in resolution, so much so that when I had to return it because of defective pixels, I never bothered to replace it.

Yeah, I suppose if it’s really blurred I’d probably still play on a monitor. I’ve only had a couple of goes on PSVR and if that was the only VR I had I’d probably tend to use the TV over it.

 

[Wendake]

I really don't understand how people prefer resolution over presence. I don't mean this as an attack on you, I just don't understand it. You aren't the only one and we all play computer games for fun, so there isn't a right or wrong way.

But to me it is a bit like saying 'I'd rather play Grand Turismo on a PS4 with my glasses on than drive a car around a race track without my glasses.' Why would anyone prefer that?

I totally understand the point of immersion from VR adepts. It's totally amazing but in my case (based on my personal preferences) the disadvantages were winning over advantages.

I've been playing ED in 4K on a 80" screen with maximum settings, headtracking and HOTAS in a quiet room where I close every lights. I have easy access to my keyboard and everything is set-up to maximize my gameplay experience.

In VR most of the graphic settings were at medium and ship that were a little bit far were looking like a 4 pixels square shape without any details. Planets textures were ugly VS my ultra setting (also tweaked the resolution of textures to 4K in config file). Also didn't like the blurry edges in VR + eye soreness (didn't had any problems with motion sickness though) after playing only 30-60 minutes. Didn't like the feeling to have a full cask on my head & face and Oculus S sound is far from being good so I had to put my headphones over the whole thing...not convinced about the whole experience so I'll stick to my 2D set-up for now. I would rather invest in a 180° simpit for immersion where I see my real hands, have easy access to keyboard and other stuff than investing in a VR set-up + rig able to give me a decent image quality in VR with good FPS.

It's my personal experience and I'm not bashing VR - simply doesn't fit for me

 

[aXeL]

Hark! The sound of someone suggesting that VR was something other than the future of humanity...

Source: https://media.giphy.com/media/l0IpYf36OQy9O7ENW/giphy.gif

 

[Old Duck]

Assuming you are using medium or higher FX quality, putting this in your GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml should do the trick:

I don't remember where the thread is, but somewhere you told me how to increase the number stars in my sky. Is there a way to put this in the GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml instead of the main file? I'm assuming any setting GraphicsConfiguration.xml file can be copied into the override file, but I'm not 100% certain regarding how this is done. How far up the DOM tree does one need to go when mirroring a specific setting?

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

...., and Skyrim SE has a 30 day average of 11,411 players, whereas Skyrim VR only has an average of 218 players. Unfortunately this tells me that VR is still very much a niche....

While VR being a niche is still with no doubt a fact at the moment, i can say that Skyrim VR is only a good VR game, when heavily modded (i use around 50 mods, most VR players, at least those on YouTube, use up to a 100 or more). The lack of a virtual body in general is an absolute immersion-breaker for me, unless the game world is abstract. Also the combat system with its lack of decent VR implementation is not an example of a good VR game. Mods fix all that, but the modding process is not for everyone. If it would be a good VR product by default, my guess would be, that it would be played more frequently by more players. This post is not meant to attack the game, i like it, but there are far better VR games out there and those are of course neither graphically outdated nor do they lack good VR feature implementation by default.