Allow the VR '2D screen' to be disabled?

I've not bothered with testing Odyssey despite being applicable as I bought into the original ED Alpha, and won't install Odyssey upon realise now it's not even 3D projection in the cinema window. I bought ED to play in VR, so they can forget any more ARX money from me, and participation.

I've long suspected the amount of fks given by Frontier about VR pretty much zero since their early VR adoption HELPED PROMOTE THE GAME, and they've never done anything with VR to enhance it since, except fix bugs which usually VR uses have to tell them about post-release (it's like they don't even tested it, or care for it... weird that).

It took a massive thread for them to concede and put a projected view in for VR users, but for it not to be in stereoscopic shows their intent was never to render it any Odyssey content in 3D at all, and this is such a poor shoe-horned in solution to start with.

I absolutely approve of this thread and Golgot in trying to get Frontier to make the expansion proper 3D and head look, which I don't believe is that hard, although as above, without it being in 3D on legs does make me wonder how much they'd have to change the rendering pipeline to make it so, certainly because so far and obviously right up to the release, the amount of headway and effort is clearly zero.

I'm disappointed in the whole affair, and I resent Frontier for the ambiguity and weasel words they use whenever a VR question comes along. I hope they read these comments and rectify this by not just cater for the lowest common denominator, or they'll find a lot more people who bought the game for VR from somewhere like the Oculus store negatively affecting the way they regard Frontier, when VR support is not available for them either to enjoy the expansion themselves.
 
Devs,

I'd like to offer my services to develop the VR aspects of Odyssey. If there's a way I can help, please use me. I'm sure my cohorts will be equally enthused to do what is needed.

You have a great game here and you started on the VR path long ago. Let us help you forge the way ahead in whatever way you deem we can.
 
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Devs,

I'd like to offer my services to develop the VR aspects of Odyssey. If there's a way I can help, please use me. I'm sure my cohorts will be equally enthused to do what is needed.

You have a great game here and you started on the VR path long ago. Let us help you forge the way ahead in whatever way you deem we can.

Yep absolutely, if there were any form of discrete testing needed I’m sure they could get a ton of volunteers here or elsewhere on site.

We’re all primed to test any extra VR we can get our hands on as it is 😄
 
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Yep absolutely, if there were any form of discrete testing needed I’m sure they could get a ton of volunteers here or elsewhere on site.

We’re all primed to test any extra VR we can get our hands on as it is 😄
I'm ready to sign up - I've even got my nicest scribbling stick ready :p

Seriously, my coding is mostly limited to microcontrollers and embedded systems, but I am more than willing to test anything you come up with, and don't worry, even if it is a barf fest I won't be claiming expense on the carpet cleaning.
 
As an avid VR user in ED, and as someone who has decided not to pay to be an alpha tester this time around, can any of you VR users please comment on the non-Legs gameplay in Odyssey? Specifically, (I guess not all of these displays are available yet): Galaxy/System Maps (I hear they've had a bit of a revamp), FSS, station menus (in-ship), etc.

Depending on how much these have been fiddled with I fear they may have some issues in VR now.
 
As an avid VR user in ED, and as someone who has decided not to pay to be an alpha tester this time around, can any of you VR users please comment on the non-Legs gameplay in Odyssey? Specifically, (I guess not all of these displays are available yet): Galaxy/System Maps (I hear they've had a bit of a revamp), FSS, station menus (in-ship), etc.

Depending on how much these have been fiddled with I fear they may have some issues in VR now.
At the minute, the only item you've listed that we can access is the system/galaxy map, and it is indeed a significant improvement in my opinion, but nothing I've seen in the new maps strikes me as presenting a barier to VR. Ship menus etc aren't something we can access at this point in Alpha, and while the on foot gameplay is indeed very good, the janktastic virtual flatscreen implementation has killed my interest in Odyssey.
 
At the minute, the only item you've listed that we can access is the system/galaxy map, and it is indeed a significant improvement in my opinion
And specific VR improvements? The GalMap is ok, although sometimes a bit finicky with keeping focus on things. It seems that it partially implements a focus-on-look system in VR which means when looking from your currently selected system over to the info panel quite often you'd change the highlighted system.

But the System Map was always very horrible/slow in VR compared to the pancake version (looked good enough, was just a dog to actually use, especially for exploration when checking out all the bodies in a system). What I'd like for the SystemMap in VR would be basically the pancake version projected onto a screen (++ if curved), but fairly certain that's not going to happen.

Would love FDev to give VR a once-over and just clean up some of these usage issues, but fairly certain whoever was the driving force behind VR at the Elite Dangerous project has moved onto other things.
 
Agreed.

But sadly I'm thinking the devs (if they're even reading this) are gently rubbing their temples muttering "We've got bigger issues. The latest vid from ObsidianAnt is not good, not good, not good..."
 
This nonsense is impactng my decision to buy Odyssey. You move forward, you move forward...you can't give us VR and balk at supporting it. If you do, I'll balk at your product. It's that simple.

Come on Fdev. At the very least, throw in some basic VR features. I don't even need motion controller support.
 
They haven't improved VR at all since launch, it's a travesty but this is a fact. There hasn't been any improvement to VR past the initial release. No changes to the Galaxy map, no virtual keyboard, no touch support, nothing.

What we have is a p1ss-poor screen in 2D that we can't officially even test in VR during Alpha. Thanks Frontier. And if they don't follow up with any improvements post-release of Odyssey, VR support will remain as is, forever. And I honestly believe that is the future, and I'd love to be proved wrong, I really would.
 
Found my testing focus for tonight :)

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/mleuad/odyssey_may_not_support_vr_yet_but_it_already/gtlcqyk/


I assumed the vanity cam would just display within the 2D screen. Sounds like it actually displays in VR. Worth a mess around :)
Very interesting. I had a quick glance at the post and am a bit confused... does switching to the vanity cam enable VR??
 
Very interesting. I had a quick glance at the post and am a bit confused... does switching to the vanity cam enable VR??

Sounds that way. Surprising, but a welcome bonus :)

Will grab a vid tonight if it's any good.

EDIT: Presumably you have to be in VR mode already. (It's working in the alpha, in kinda unsupported fashion at the mo)
 
Nice yeah, working for me too :)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8G2BtCXg7A


It's obviously not meant for outright gameplay, but it's still fun to charge about in. Can operate your basic weapons and tools, throw grenades etc, but without interactions or a target reticule it's not really practical for any of that as such.

With a bit of tinkering with the camera position I'd guess you could probably fudge a form of first person here, for exploration at least. (At points when I was edging around on rooftops checking for scavengers I could almost believe I was doing it in first person. But then my avatar would run into a wall out of sight ;))
 
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So, we can have VR on foot, as long as we play 3rd person perspective, but officially the game isn't supporting third person perspective, and if we want to play first person perspective, we've got go to virtual flat screen, got it...
 
Snarkiness aside, have a look out for any gotchas in vanity cam mode of VR that would prevent FPS VR on foot...

Just from that quick experiment, I'd guess that functional gameplay is going to be extremely limited to non-existent.

I'll have to bind the keys for the free cam and see how close you can get it to a front-facing head position. Possibly if you can get close enough to your avatar you might be able to navigate reliably without being able to see it, and maybe eyeball hip firing stuff or tool operation. Definitely explore I'd think. But without interactions it's guaranteed you can't play seamlessly like this. And even at best your FPS play is going to be... non-competitive let's say. (I think there's a bit where I try and hit the goliath in the vid in 3rd person. I probably get closer to the local gas giant ;))

The vanity cam isn't designed to allow for full gameplay, that's pretty clear.

(Still worth hopping around like batman in it though ;). And experimenting more :))
 
The mere fact you HAVEN'T spotted anything obvious on foot in VR via the vanity cam that simply "doesn't work" kind of suggests there's no reason not to do "proper VR" (headlook). Had you said "aye Jay, the framerate tanked to 8FPS" or "it was pretty cool but you suddenly seen the ground isn't tesselated as it appears, its just a sprite mask" or whatever, implementing VR might have needed resources, but now? In the absence of any glaring reasons that VR on foot wouldn't work? They just need to switch it on for alfa for gosh-darn-its-sakes!
 
Agreed. It seems like a shorter path than what we expected. I dare say that FD has a plan in place but is being cautious. Might even be a surprise announcement, who knows.

It's a pity that ED is completely closed to outside mods, etc. So many keen and talented people out there who have adapted VR into non-VR games (i.e. Alien Isolation, GTAV, and the upcoming Halo VR project).
 
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