Things I like:
Things I don’t like:
In summary, ED in VR is pretty awesome. There’s a lot I haven’t done yet, like all the “normal” stuff, because I’ve been mostly sightseeing and “renting” ships to try out in VR. I definitely think VR is my new preferred way to explore the Bubble, as it really shows off Frontier’s handmade assets in a way that goes far beyond 2D. As for doing more “mundane” things like BGS missions and deep-space exploration, I might be just as prone to do these in 2D. I’m just not sure yet. I’m still very new to VR, and I’m experimenting not only in this game but others as well. I’ll have to revisit this thread in a few months and update it with more long-term conclusions.
- Headlook – Probably my favorite feature of VR is being able to look around! I’ve been missing the gyroscopic headlook available on PS4, but true headlook (you see where head is pointing) is extremely immersive. I told my wife that VR will be much better for my neck since I’ll be moving my head around. It’s true!
- Eyelook – Similar to headlook, but different, is the ability to look around with my eyes and see things hidden on a 2D monitor thanks to different FOVs. The best example I can think of is my Vulture, where I can now look down and see the landing pad through that small section of downward-facing glass. I don’t even need to move my head!
- Space Legs – The ability to walk around my bridge / cockpit is a really big deal for me. I like to go sightseeing, and this allows me to walk up to the window and see the universe from different perspectives. It also makes me feel like I’m flying spaceships rather than being a spaceship. While I don’t plan on getting out of my chair at every space port, it’s nice to know I have this option when I visit someplace that is visually stunning.
- Sense of Scale – This is lower down on my list because I’ve worked hard to get a sense of scale during my 2D gameplay, so it’s not as “holy cow!” for me as it is for others, but still, it’s cool! The sense of scale comes from both the size / fov of the view and the stereoscopic image that gives us depth perception.
- Small Ships – I’ve been “renting” ships that I currently don’t own in order to experience all these cockpits in immersive VR, and I’m finding a new love for ships like the humble Eagle. The cockpit of the Eagle is just perfect in VR, and I love being able to look behind me and see my wings! Unfortunately this has diminished other ships for me, like the Vulture which now feels to have a ridiculously big dome of glass for the canopy… All this said, I do enjoy the cockpit of the Type-7, which just feels right for the type of ship that it is (though whoever thought to put those displays down under the floor is daft).
- System Map – That’s a cool effect!
- The Glass – What I hated in 2D (dirty glass) I actually love in VR, because now it actually looks like proper canopy glass!
Things I don’t like:
- HUD – I’m not talking about the interior holographic displays, but rather the stuff that floats outside of my ship, things like target markers and the awful planetary landing system. It just looks wrong, especially when the artificial horizon clips parts of the actual ship, making it look to be both inside (because I see it on top of framing or a nearby rock) and outside due to the stereoscopic depth. In 2D, I always imagined these things projected on the cockpit glass, which would make much more sense and not look so terrible. This “outside the cockpit” HUD is the Elephant Butt Leather of VR, LOL. Now the stuff inside the cockpit, that stuff is awesome.
- Lack of Tessellation – Now I see why people have been making a big deal about this! What looks like great ground cover on a 2D display looks like wallpaper on the ground in 3D. Of course I’m talking about the small rocks and cracks on the surface of planets. To be fair to Frontier, most of the games I’ve played in VR have this “wallpaper” effect, but tessellation would go a long way to making planet surfaces more realistic in VR.
- Silly-sized Cockpits – The aforementioned Vulture is the best example I have at the moment, as I’ve only tried a handful of ships. Again, the Type-7 actually feels appropriate for an insane-sized cockpit, but not a combat fighter like the Vulture. VR really shows these silly designs for what they are, silly
- Station Jitter – The “everything is vibrating” problem with rotating stations and asteroid bases is amplified in VR. I believe this has to do with floating point precision applied to circular motion inside these stations, but whatever the reason, it really does detract from sightseeing at stations. I much prefer non-rotating orbital platforms and planetary bases which don’t vibrate like the phasing Flash.
- Planet / Star Scale – I was actually disappointed that planets and stars don’t feel bigger in VR. Sure, they feel big, but not as big as I was expecting. I’m talking about non-landable planets as seen from orbit. Now perhaps planets feel “small” IRL as seen from space by astronauts, I wouldn’t know. I was just expecting more based on comments I’ve read on this forum.
- Faked Things – The best example I have is the "light cones" down on planetary bases, where a cone of light projects from the "street lamps". Come to find out, these are not cones at all, but 2D sprites that rotate to always face us. There shouldn't be a cone of light in a vacuum anyway, but that's a different story. The flat sprite effect is seen on stars, smoke, etc. However I will give Frontier credit in doing "tricky things" to improve performance, but as I said, stuff like light cones aren't needed to begin with.
- The Bugs – ED in VR feels like a very different game, so it’s weird when the same bugs pop up that I’ve experienced over the years in 2D.
- VR-specific Things (not Frontier’s fault) - There is no easy “get up and walk around IRL during supercruise” in VR like I have when playing on a monitor. I also don’t like all this glaring / haloing / whatever you call it that I see in my VR lenses. It sometimes feels my glasses are smudged when they aren’t! Another issue is the lower resolution and reduced quality settings to achieve VR framerates. It's not as bad as I expected (my cockpit looks great), but when ships in the distance look like smudges, I miss the clarity of my 2D monitor.
In summary, ED in VR is pretty awesome. There’s a lot I haven’t done yet, like all the “normal” stuff, because I’ve been mostly sightseeing and “renting” ships to try out in VR. I definitely think VR is my new preferred way to explore the Bubble, as it really shows off Frontier’s handmade assets in a way that goes far beyond 2D. As for doing more “mundane” things like BGS missions and deep-space exploration, I might be just as prone to do these in 2D. I’m just not sure yet. I’m still very new to VR, and I’m experimenting not only in this game but others as well. I’ll have to revisit this thread in a few months and update it with more long-term conclusions.
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