VR tunnel vision in cockpit and menus

[HoranVan]

Hey folks! I'm having an issue with the VR experience using an Oculus Quest 2 headset, but I'm inexperienced with VR, so I'm not sure if these are actual issues or instead a consequence of design. The following examples are in-game screenshots cropped to represent the edge of my seeable periphery within the Quest 2.

First off... Is it normal to not be able to see the entire cockpit dashboard at one time?

Or not be able to see the entire menu at one time?

Or feel like I'm staring up at the 2nd floor of an apartment building when viewing the galaxy map?

The headset image feels incredibly zoomed in. Looking straight forward at the hardpoint reticule within the cockpit puts the pips display in the far right corner of my eye periphery.

Additionally, the 3D-ness of the cockpit panels can be a bit severe... The front and center display of "Supercruise Assist Active" feels about 6 inches from my forehead and I need to cross my eyes hard to put it in focus. Looking at the starscape past it naturally produces some hard doubling of the words.

I've tried leaning forward a bit and pressing F12 to reset the HMD position, then leaning back in my chair during play, effectively positioning my decapitated player skull inside the chair's headrest and away from the player model's shoulders. This does help a bit to reduce crossing my eyes at the HUD, but it's not the type of solution I'm going for.

Other details:
My IPD: 63mm
Quest 2 IPD setting: 2 (middle setting); range 61mm to 66mm
CPU: Ryzen 9 3950x
GPU: 2080ti
RAM: 64gb
No other noteworthy performance issues (except that I'm also experiencing this unrelated thing https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/oculus-quest-2-visual-problem.565652/)
Purchased Elite through steam a couple years ago.

I'm accessing Elite through the Oculus Link UI library within the headset via a wired USB 3.1 connection, bypassing SteamVR. I have also tried accessing Elite through the Virtual Desktop app within the Oculus UI, but no difference can be seen.

Is this just how it is? Elite in VR is otherwise glorious, but I feel like I'm missing out on something truly amazing.

Also of note... the raw screenshot image files show considerably more than what I'm actually able to see in the headset

Thanks!

 

[Koot Katmandu]

I think what you are seeing is normal. I have to move my head to really look at the pips.

 

[HoranVan]

I think what you are seeing is normal. I have to move my head to really look at the pips.

Thank you for the reply, this is both reassuring and disappointing. Coming from using a 21:9 ultrawide monitor, this feels like a step backward in some ways. Suddenly the canvas of space is reduced to the forward scope of a spyglass. I'd be curious to hear from folks using other VR hardware too.

 

[varonica]

Thank you for the reply, this is both reassuring and disappointing. Coming from using a 21:9 ultrawide monitor, this feels like a step backward in some ways. Suddenly the canvas of space is reduced to the forward scope of a spyglass. I'd be curious to hear from folks using other VR hardware too.

The 2D screen is an incredibly poor rendition of actual sight as it really works. You can clearly see everything in the cockpit on a flat screen because your cockpit is rendered into your frontal field of view, an actual person sitting in a cockpit would not see what you see on your monitor and even a lot of the closer edge details would be blurry. For instance sitting at my screen there's a cup to the right of the keyboard about 40cm, while concentrating on the screen I know it's there and even get a blurry idea of what it is and its pattern, but if you wrote something on it and asked me to read it without turning my attention to it there would be no chance.

This why fighter jets and even many cars these days have HUD's, because to look at the speedo or mirrors takes away your attention from the road ahead and you can no longer see them clearly, and the speedo and mirrors in a car aren't anywhere as far out of direct view as your cockpit controls and displays. The ancillary displays are left and right, if it was real you would need to turn your head to read them as in the VR goggles.

Now one of the problem with VR is eye tracking. I can keep me head facing straight ahead and still clearly see my car mirrors and speedo by moving my eyes because they are in that narrow cone where my eyes can point to, and it is indeed quite narrow, so in this regard VR requires you to move your head because it has no idea your eyes are looking somewhere else. Oh yes, even doing this I can see my cup far more clearly, but still couldn't read anything written on it even though when I turn my head I would be able to.

Human sight is remarkably complicated and manufacturers are trying reproduce a facsimile using two tiny flat screen, it's never going to be perfect, just good enough. As for the galaxy map, well I am surprised it's even usable at all, that's a difficult thing to do!

 

[VR Roxydog]

Do you wear glasses normally?
I have the Reverb G1 - looks similar to your view.

 

[Craith]

All headsets have a limited field of view compared to real life. It varies quite a bit between the headsets, with the Quest 2 on the lower end with ~100° horizontal FoV, Reverb G2 in the middle with ~115° and the Index having the biggest with ~130° (then there is the PiMAX with 170°). Human vision is around 220°.

It is also varies highly how much people are affected by loss of peripheral vision, some (like me, and apparently the OP) rely more on it than others. It was one of the reason why I went for the Index, and haven't regretted it one second.

Of course, as stated above, eye tracking is also not working in VR as in real life.

But, the biggest difference to a screen is that you are not looking at a picture of a cockpit, but you are in there ... on a screen it will be warped to show you as much as needed to allow you to read all instruments, and still fit on the screen, even if it is a 15" laptop monitor half a meter away from you. It will not be real life sized (except in a few rare special setups of people building their own cockpits)

 

[VR andysonofbob]

Additionally, the 3D-ness of the cockpit panels can be a bit severe... The front and center display of "Supercruise Assist Active" feels about 6 inches from my forehead and I need to cross my eyes hard to put it in focus. Looking at the starscape past it naturally produces some hard doubling of the words.

I haven't used the SC assist so don't know but is it the same for something like auto-dock? If so this sounds wrong. Nothing should look zoom in at all, in fact it should look pretty much to scale so much so, people with X52 HOTAS like to adjust their stick to match the ingame one because it has been designed around the X52!

I do remember a bug in the new tutorial where all the info bits were rendered way too close, like how you describe the supercruise assist notification. Quite small and painful to look at.
Do any of the handlebars in the cockpit look right? What about the keyboard? When you look at the throttle and stick do they look OK? (Ignore the legs because you probably aren't the same length as the rendered pilot.)

When I first put on an HMD I struggled at first with the reduced FoV, to me it felt 'oppressive'. Suffice to say I got over it as I love VR now.

I think this thread is a testament to the clarity of the Q2 and G2. People seem less alarmed by the lower resolution...

All headsets have a limited field of view compared to real life. It varies quite a bit between the headsets, with the Quest 2 on the lower end with ~100° horizontal FoV, Reverb G2 in the middle with ~115° and the Index having the biggest with ~130° (then there is the PiMAX with 170°). Human vision is around 220°.

Hi Craith

Please forgive me for being a bit of pedant regarding your HMD comparisons. The Q2 seems to have a decent FoV for the 'standard' FoV headsets. I too am sensitive to FoV which was why I was greatly relieved to find my Q2 had a slightly wider FoV than my CV1.

When I asked a couple of folk here to do my FoV test, using the two side lights of the Asp E, the results were a bit different from what you mention.
*Quest 2 - widest, being able to see part of both lights
G2 - seeing a good slither of light
*CV1 - just seeing a smidge of light
*RiftS - glow of the light
*Quest2 with glasses spacer - glow of the light

* my findings

Obviously result depend on head-shape and how head-shape fits in gasket but there doesn't seem to be much in the 'standard' HMDs.

 

[Koot Katmandu]

I have a quest 2 that has the same image problem you linked. Lower part of the screen washed out. I can clear it by opening and closing the galaxy map but it comes back a lot. I bought a HP g2 because Occulus support is so slow. The field of view is pretty much the same with both head sets. It is kind of like wearing googles that block your peripheral vision. I still think it is 100 time more engaging than flat screen.

 

[Craith]

Hi Craith

Please forgive me for being a bit of pedant regarding your HMD comparisons. The Q2 seems to have a decent FoV for the 'standard' FoV headsets. I too am sensitive to FoV which was why I was greatly relieved to find my Q2 had a slightly wider FoV than my CV1.

When I asked a couple of folk here to do my FoV test, using the two side lights of the Asp E, the results were a bit different from what you mention.
*Quest 2 - widest, being able to see part of both lights
G2 - seeing a good slither of light
*CV1 - just seeing a smidge of light
*RiftS - glow of the light
*Quest2 with glasses spacer - glow of the light

* my findings

Obviously result depend on head-shape and how head-shape fits in gasket but there doesn't seem to be much in the 'standard' HMDs.

Hi Andy, son of Bob

I took the ° from the internet, I only have used the Quest 2 and the Index, but not the G2 myself - and the Quest 2 not with Elite. There is a easily visible difference between the FoV of the Index and the Quest 2. Is it 30°? I don't know, but I definitely have less tunnelvision in the Index.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

Hi Andy, son of Bob

I took the ° from the internet, I only have used the Quest 2 and the Index, but not the G2 myself - and the Quest 2 not with Elite. There is a easily visible difference between the FoV of the Index and the Quest 2. Is it 30°? I don't know, but I definitely have less tunnelvision in the Index.

Yeah

I left the Index out of that list I wrote above because it isn't what I would term a standard FoV headset. Out of curiosity, if you have an Asp E, using those side lights as a reference point, how much further do you see in the VI?

 

[Craith]

Yeah

I left the Index out of that list I wrote above because it isn't what I would term a standard FoV headset. Out of curiosity, if you have an Asp E, using those side lights as a reference point, how much further do you see in the VI?

I'll have to check it out, I'll try to remember one of these days when I am near my carrier.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

I'll have to check it out, I'll try to remember one of these days when I am near my carrier.

Thanks!

 

[BigDuke6ixx]

Thank you for the reply, this is both reassuring and disappointing. Coming from using a 21:9 ultrawide monitor, this feels like a step backward in some ways. Suddenly the canvas of space is reduced to the forward scope of a spyglass. I'd be curious to hear from folks using other VR hardware too.

Did you not understand the FOV value given in the product specs of your headset?

 

[HoranVan]

Do you wear glasses normally?
I have the Reverb G1 - looks similar to your view.

Thanks for your input. I have very slight astigmatism and use (largely optional) mild prescription lenses for sharpening detail for things like street signs at night and for staring at text on a computer screen. I've tried using glasses within the headset, but I generally have a better experience without them. I haven't yet had any issues reading text in the headset without glasses. Perhaps I'd notice a difference when headset images become sharper in the coming years, but not with the Quest 2.

I haven't used the SC assist so don't know but is it the same for something like auto-dock? If so this sounds wrong.

Yeah it's the same portion of the screen where the auto-docking message appears and also FSD charging. It's almost like the game is rendering the 3D image as if it thinks my eyes are as far apart as my ears are. As a test today, I tried leaning way into the words, like having them physically against my face, and closing one eye, then alternating, to get a sense of where the game actually thinks my eyes are. Based on that rudimentary test, I've concluded that the game thinks I'm Sid from Ice Age

Out of curiosity, if you have an Asp E, using those side lights as a reference point, how much further do you see in the VI?

Sure do! The side lights are way beyond the scope of my visuals. Here's an in-game screenshot taken through Steam... You mean these lights right?

Here's a crop for what I actually see.

I could actually see the tips of my player model's toes in the headset at this moment, but it didn't show on the screenshot for some reason, hence why the view dips out of frame at the bottom here.

 

[VR Roxydog]

I can't use VR without (reading) glasses so I got some VR Optician lenses made - makes a world of difference but may not in your case.
He makes them to your particular eye specs and any differences between each eye.
Virtually the whole viewing area is clear.

 

[HoranVan]

Did you need understand the FOV value given in the product specs of your headset?

Googling the Quest 2 FOV spec returns a few different results, but all seem to report at least 90°. I downloaded an FOV test room from the steam workshop prior to starting this thread, and according to this environment, my visible spectrum is hovering around 93ish°

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1359389601

Further... It was super awkward to do, and it's not perfect, but I got as good a top-down screenshot as I could manage to superimpose this angle for what a 90 degree view should be including. Seeing all this would be lovely

...But this angle does not represent the experience in the headset specifically for Elite Dangerous.

 

[Craith]

Yeah

I left the Index out of that list I wrote above because it isn't what I would term a standard FoV headset. Out of curiosity, if you have an Asp E, using those side lights as a reference point, how much further do you see in the VI?

Checked it out yesterday - I see the lights, the bar and a tiny bit of the window. It does depend a lot on seat position, when I leaned forward it was less - down to just the lights when I move forwards about 1 head "length", when I leaned back I saw more (but also the inside of the seat).

I will try to mark it on a screenshot.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

Checked it out yesterday - I see the lights, the bar and a tiny bit of the window. It does depend a lot on seat position, when I leaned forward it was less - down to just the lights when I move forwards about 1 head "length", when I leaned back I saw more (but also the inside of the seat).

I will try to mark it on a screenshot.

Nice!
Obvs press F12 before the test and try not to move forward or backwards. I think it is OK to tilt head up / down to get the lights in the widest spot of the HMD though.
If you squeeze it closer to your face can you see more?

With my head-shape, without the spacer for glass wearers, 3rd IPD setting and with it snug on my face, I can make part of both lights in the Q2.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

Googling the Quest 2 FOV spec returns a few different results, but all seem to report at least 90°. I downloaded an FOV test room from the steam workshop prior to starting this thread, and according to this environment, my visible spectrum is hovering around 93ish°

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1359389601

Further... It was super awkward to do, and it's not perfect, but I got as good a top-down screenshot as I could manage to superimpose this angle for what a 90 degree view should be including. Seeing all this would be lovely

View attachment 212142
...But this angle does not represent the experience in the headset specifically for Elite Dangerous.

I think that image is asymmetric, exaggerating the angle. You might have better luck if you position the camera looking straight down and positioning it more in the middle instead of over the head.

Unfortunately though, I think you either need to accept and adjust to the FoV in these headsets or look elsewhere. The PiMax range have the widest FoV but there are more of a ballache to set up compared to the Q2 and more expensive.

Or consider something like Craith's Valve Index, which does have a wider FoV, in fact by the sound of it, the Index's FoV is like the view you were showing in your diagram. (Craith said he could see part of the window beyond each light.) The Index is also costly compared to the budget priced Quest2 though.

 

[BigDuke6ixx]

Googling the Quest 2 FOV spec returns a few different results, but all seem to report at least 90°. I downloaded an FOV test room from the steam workshop prior to starting this thread, and according to this environment, my visible spectrum is hovering around 93ish°

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1359389601

Further... It was super awkward to do, and it's not perfect, but I got as good a top-down screenshot as I could manage to superimpose this angle for what a 90 degree view should be including. Seeing all this would be lovely

View attachment 212142
...But this angle does not represent the experience in the headset specifically for Elite Dangerous.

Well, this is a hardware glass ceiling that can't be fixed with software. Zooming out the view is a terrible idea which will reduce the scale and feel really odd.