A thread for anyone who's managed so far to get their hands on a G2, to tell what their experience in Elite has been like.
I think it would be helpful if anyone posting lists their system specs along with the settings they used, and what the performance was like, as well as what VR headset was previously their daily driver (if any), so their impressions of the G2 will have a bit more context. I went from Rift CV1 to the G2 myself.
EDIT: I found a better configuration for my system specs is to set SteamVR resolution to 80%, switch on Motion Smoothing in WMR and SteamVR, and use the below mentioned Elite Dangerous Graphics Options, but with Shadow Quality and Ambient Occlusion at their highest settings. Picture is very clear, text is sharp, effects are great. I didn't bother to check my FPS this time, choosing to just see how flying in and out of stations and engaging in combat feels, and it's very smooth.
Below is from a Reddit post I made, but I will say that if you want to bump some settings or sampling up, then you canenable Motion Smoothing enable Motion Reprojection in WMR via the default.vrsettings file (see next post by @HeavyGroovez) and it should be quite playable, as long as your FPS is still a stable and consistent 60+. Also note that as of my last play session, SteamVR is still not reporting the correct per-eye 100% render resolution of the G2, so manage your SS settings between Steam and your games carefully.
System Specifications
Intel Core i9-9900K
nVidia Geforce RTX 2080Ti
16GB RAM
To get a mostly stable 90fps with occasional dip spikes in stations, I used the following settings and measured with fpsVR:
SteamVR
Global Render Resolution per eye: 100%
Elite Dangerous specific resolution multiplier: 50%
Disable Motion Smoothing
Elite Dangerous Graphics Options
Select the "VR Ultra" profile
Switch off Blur
Switch off anti-aliasing
Set Shadow Quality to Low
Set Ambient Occlusion to Low
Set Super Sampling to 1.0x
Set HMD multiplier to 1.0x
With the above settings the picture quality will be very clear, but you will still see some aliasing. As a test, I set HMD quality to 1.5, and while FPS took a big hit, aliasing was pretty much eliminated. The black levels are not at all an issue for me, despite not being as deep as the CV1's OLED screens. Text is clear and easily readable, there's no Screen Door Effect, God Rays feel like they happen when they should be happening, the colours are vibrant, and the game world feels like you finally managed to tune your signal right and get clear reception. There's really not much else to say about it.
I'm new to WMR, and have never tried modifying graphics settings in SteamVR before, so I'm sure more experienced people will know how to play with settings to get a better result with the same system specs.
I think it would be helpful if anyone posting lists their system specs along with the settings they used, and what the performance was like, as well as what VR headset was previously their daily driver (if any), so their impressions of the G2 will have a bit more context. I went from Rift CV1 to the G2 myself.
EDIT: I found a better configuration for my system specs is to set SteamVR resolution to 80%, switch on Motion Smoothing in WMR and SteamVR, and use the below mentioned Elite Dangerous Graphics Options, but with Shadow Quality and Ambient Occlusion at their highest settings. Picture is very clear, text is sharp, effects are great. I didn't bother to check my FPS this time, choosing to just see how flying in and out of stations and engaging in combat feels, and it's very smooth.
Below is from a Reddit post I made, but I will say that if you want to bump some settings or sampling up, then you can
System Specifications
Intel Core i9-9900K
nVidia Geforce RTX 2080Ti
16GB RAM
To get a mostly stable 90fps with occasional dip spikes in stations, I used the following settings and measured with fpsVR:
SteamVR
Global Render Resolution per eye: 100%
Elite Dangerous specific resolution multiplier: 50%
Disable Motion Smoothing
Elite Dangerous Graphics Options
Select the "VR Ultra" profile
Switch off Blur
Switch off anti-aliasing
Set Shadow Quality to Low
Set Ambient Occlusion to Low
Set Super Sampling to 1.0x
Set HMD multiplier to 1.0x
With the above settings the picture quality will be very clear, but you will still see some aliasing. As a test, I set HMD quality to 1.5, and while FPS took a big hit, aliasing was pretty much eliminated. The black levels are not at all an issue for me, despite not being as deep as the CV1's OLED screens. Text is clear and easily readable, there's no Screen Door Effect, God Rays feel like they happen when they should be happening, the colours are vibrant, and the game world feels like you finally managed to tune your signal right and get clear reception. There's really not much else to say about it.
I'm new to WMR, and have never tried modifying graphics settings in SteamVR before, so I'm sure more experienced people will know how to play with settings to get a better result with the same system specs.
General
Visual quality
Potentially super sharp and crystal clear, but depending on the machine driving it and the level of optimisation of the game you're playing, you may more realistically have to reduce your graphics settings, giving you a somewhat downgraded experience compared to what the G2 is capable of, but still a much improved and more enjoyable visual experience when compared to the CV1.
Comfort
Headset comfort is better than the Rift CV1, due mostly I think to the fabric face-gasket. The strap system I found harder to fine-tune as compared to the Rift, but once done is also more comfortable for longer play sessions.
Sound
While the over-ear speakers sound noticeably better than the stock CV1 speakers, I was using the Rift Inner-ear earphones, which sound great, and block out virtually all other sound to improve immersion. You can't attach other headphones to the G2, so to get a better audio experience, you'll need to remove the headphones and use your own - preferably via Bluetooth, as otherwise that's an addition cable to manage, which may not be a big deal for seated play, but may be restrictive for room-scale.
Sweetspot
There is some contention over the size of the sweetspot, but what I've observed, and some others have commented on, is that the areas outside the sweetspot and in your peripheries appear much more blurred in contrast with the very sharp image in the center of your vision. That would make the perimeter of the sweetspot more defined, which may make it seem considerably smaller. This may possibly influence when a person has decided that their sweetspot has been found, if they're focusing too much on the contrast in clarity between the center and the edges, particularly when coming from a CV1. In the Rift CV1, there wasn't so much of a difference, and so the sweetspot may have appeared larger, and easier to find.
FOV
The Rift CV1 took almost no fuss to get into maximum FOV position, at least for me. For the G2, I found it's really important that you adjust your fit in steps. Firstly, adjust for your sweetspot and then your comfort. After that you need to ensure you've brought the lenses as close to your eyes as possible without losing comfort to a degree you find unacceptable, so that you get the most out of the device's FOV. There is some give in the straps even with the Velcro on, so what I do is put one hand on the part of the strap that sits at the back of your head, and one hand on the front of the HMD, and squeeze them together. The difference is immediately noticeable, and doing this doesn't mess with your sweetspot calibration.
Other Notes
There is a considerably longer amount of time between clicking to launch Elite Dangerous in Steam VR and having the game load than there was with starting the game from the Oculus library. I've transferred my Oculus copy of Elite Dangerous to Steam, so I'm not using Revive to launch it. Cliff house is an unnecessary part of the experience, and it's annoying that you need it running at all when in most cases you won't want to do anything in it. Overall though, I don't think anyone will disagree that the refinement of experience in the Oculus ecosystem is considerably better than WMR at the moment.
Visual quality
Potentially super sharp and crystal clear, but depending on the machine driving it and the level of optimisation of the game you're playing, you may more realistically have to reduce your graphics settings, giving you a somewhat downgraded experience compared to what the G2 is capable of, but still a much improved and more enjoyable visual experience when compared to the CV1.
Comfort
Headset comfort is better than the Rift CV1, due mostly I think to the fabric face-gasket. The strap system I found harder to fine-tune as compared to the Rift, but once done is also more comfortable for longer play sessions.
Sound
While the over-ear speakers sound noticeably better than the stock CV1 speakers, I was using the Rift Inner-ear earphones, which sound great, and block out virtually all other sound to improve immersion. You can't attach other headphones to the G2, so to get a better audio experience, you'll need to remove the headphones and use your own - preferably via Bluetooth, as otherwise that's an addition cable to manage, which may not be a big deal for seated play, but may be restrictive for room-scale.
Sweetspot
There is some contention over the size of the sweetspot, but what I've observed, and some others have commented on, is that the areas outside the sweetspot and in your peripheries appear much more blurred in contrast with the very sharp image in the center of your vision. That would make the perimeter of the sweetspot more defined, which may make it seem considerably smaller. This may possibly influence when a person has decided that their sweetspot has been found, if they're focusing too much on the contrast in clarity between the center and the edges, particularly when coming from a CV1. In the Rift CV1, there wasn't so much of a difference, and so the sweetspot may have appeared larger, and easier to find.
FOV
The Rift CV1 took almost no fuss to get into maximum FOV position, at least for me. For the G2, I found it's really important that you adjust your fit in steps. Firstly, adjust for your sweetspot and then your comfort. After that you need to ensure you've brought the lenses as close to your eyes as possible without losing comfort to a degree you find unacceptable, so that you get the most out of the device's FOV. There is some give in the straps even with the Velcro on, so what I do is put one hand on the part of the strap that sits at the back of your head, and one hand on the front of the HMD, and squeeze them together. The difference is immediately noticeable, and doing this doesn't mess with your sweetspot calibration.
Other Notes
There is a considerably longer amount of time between clicking to launch Elite Dangerous in Steam VR and having the game load than there was with starting the game from the Oculus library. I've transferred my Oculus copy of Elite Dangerous to Steam, so I'm not using Revive to launch it. Cliff house is an unnecessary part of the experience, and it's annoying that you need it running at all when in most cases you won't want to do anything in it. Overall though, I don't think anyone will disagree that the refinement of experience in the Oculus ecosystem is considerably better than WMR at the moment.
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