A New Day

I just finished my first run in Elite Dangerous Horizons 2.1 Beta with my new HTC Vive. I took the day to set everything up properly, followed all of the tutorials and got used to things with "The Blu" before getting stuck into ED in 3D.

First, my settings as promised:

eMCxxAr.jpg
Took me a while to get ED going. I found this excellent post on Reddit. Thought it may be of use to others. My rig hardware list is in my sig block. I tried 2.0 Supersampling, but the frame rate suffered when I turned my head. 1.5 SS worked very well, however. Max temp on my GPU was 72C

Just sitting at the ED main menu, I was slack-jawed (I won't spoil what you see) and said WOW so often while looking around, my wife tapped me on the shoulder asking if she could have a look. Her reaction was "Wow, cool." Once in the game proper, I was IN the game. Hands on HOTAS, it looked just like what I was seeing. I was in the cockpit, in a space station. A paradigm shifting experience, I assure you.

I was prepared for disappointment based on the threads I saw here, but (expletive deleted) it took my breath away. I found if you looked directly at something it sharpened up considerably. Yes, it wasn't perfect, there were some issues, fuzziness and problems seeing long range objects, but after a while your brain compensates and then you are fighting a FGS in the NAV Beacon with smoke and sparks coming off the panels, sirens howling, missile alerts, point defences wailing with a huge frikkin smile on your face.

Now a personal note for the Devs.

Dear Devs,

How are you? I am fine.

Guys and gals, you rock! If you can fix the minor issues with the Vive you and I will be BFF's forever. Seriously, you'll never buy a drink again if we're in the same room. Please, please, please make this happen.

Regards,

Your friend Shad.

It is that good everyone. If you are having the slightest doubt and are thinking of cancelling your order, don't. I paid twice the going rate for one of these, mostly for shipping, considerable import duty and many handling fees. I don't have the slightest bit of remorse.

Now it's back to the Beta for me. Peace, out.
 
Last edited:
...... If you can fix the minor issues with the Vive you and I will be BFF's forever. Seriously, you'll never buy a drink again if we're in the same room. Please, please, please make this happen ...

Heavenly-Hammer just posted a sticky link from Frontier apparently acknowledging the issues, with a partial fix targeted for 2.1 which IMHO seems good news.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=247986
 
Last edited:
By the way.

If you have a wife or significant other who you think might object to your Vive purchase. Go to Steam and buy The Blu (Currently $10). Then select the whale encounter and put her/him in the Vive Headset. Any doubts will vanish. This also impresses people to no end and is a perfect social activity for friends. Absolutely mind blowing.

DO NOT put them in the Abyss unless they agree. Dark and scary.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/451520/
 
Last edited:
They're working on it. And I agree, as much as I love E:D in VR, it's a bit too aliased and difficult to read on HTC Vive. I'm playing in 1440p on a big monitor while I wait for VR fixes.

Worst case scenario, I'll wait until I have a GTX 1080 and use its horsepower to crank up the Supersampling.
 
Last edited:
I have to add the SRV is incredible. The chassis, wheels, turret, etc. are very clear in the Vive. Even the front canopy has a sheen to it that adds to the overall picture. The sheer feeling of "being there" is overwhelming.

There was a bit of an upset stomach after a while, but I slowed down, kept my eyes on the horizon and returned to my ship before it got too bad.

After a couple of hours use, the Vive (even with the flaws) is an 8/10 with Elite.
 
Just beware, I was loving ED in VR on my Vive and had spent a couple of days Res hunting and trying various ships and loved every minute of it. Then I thought I would try the SRV, and while I would agree it looks fantastic after 10 minutes of driving fast over a bumpy planet I felt sick as a dog!
 
Just beware, I was loving ED in VR on my Vive and had spent a couple of days Res hunting and trying various ships and loved every minute of it. Then I thought I would try the SRV, and while I would agree it looks fantastic after 10 minutes of driving fast over a bumpy planet I felt sick as a dog!
I saw earlier posts describing this. You start driving slow, turn on all the anti-nausea settings and don't do anything nuts like barrel rolls until you are used to it.
 
I saw earlier posts describing this. You start driving slow, turn on all the anti-nausea settings and don't do anything nuts like barrel rolls until you are used to it.

Oooh what are these anti nausea settings? The only way I have found it to drive really slowly.
 
Am away from my gaming computer, but they are in settings. Can't remember if they are under Graphics and 3D or in regular controls under Driving header. There are several in a row.

Another method is to use turret mode which keeps you horizontal regardless of the actual slope of the hill you are on. Will try to find the settings for you when I get home.
 
The anti nausea settings are directly under 3D settings in Graphics. There are three. Cheers.

Can you two let the rest of us know if repeated exposure to the SRV actually trains up your 'VR stomach' to handle extended/faster/aerobatic driving?

I'm guessing we'll get used to it, to a degree... but the SRV is almost certainly 'Intense' as far as VR goes.
 
"Vehicle maintain horizon camera" made a huge difference for me..

[video=youtube;Bvo0xyB8Zdc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvo0xyB8Zdc[/video]
 
Can you two let the rest of us know if repeated exposure to the SRV actually trains up your 'VR stomach' to handle extended/faster/aerobatic driving?

I'm guessing we'll get used to it, to a degree... but the SRV is almost certainly 'Intense' as far as VR goes.
You start off slow, literally. Keep your speed down and steer around large rocks; avoid blasting over them. If you start to feel woozy, stop. Take a break, get up and walk around without the HMD and have a drink of water.

I've heard of people taking ginger supplements to offset nausea, but if you do use these take them several hours if not a full day ahead of time to get it into your system. If you wait until you are ill, it won't help much.

Over time you get used to the motion and get your "sea legs" as it were.
 
I wasn't aware of these settings, I will need to try that, thanks for mentioning.
Driving the SRV was the one issue I was having so far as it usually made me want to lie down after longer drives. :)
 
I'm not sure if Frontier have made some incremental graphic enhancements for the Vive over the last patch, but last night was looking pretty flipping good in Vive VR.

Maybe I'm just getting used to it, but the text did look a little better and everything just felt better overall. I've tweaked my VoiceAttack profile to include basic navigation commands for the side panels and the only thing missing is system/galaxy map controls that work consistently and ability to speak to text when chatting to other players.
 
Can you two let the rest of us know if repeated exposure to the SRV actually trains up your 'VR stomach' to handle extended/faster/aerobatic driving?

I'm guessing we'll get used to it, to a degree... but the SRV is almost certainly 'Intense' as far as VR goes.

Yes you definitely do. First time I tried it, I was starting to get a bit woozy, then made the mistake of rolling down a canyon. Spent half an hour going up extremely bumpy terrain to try to get out (never did, had to suicide as my ship wouldn't land in the canyon on recall).

Start off slow, and probably best to go on higher gravity planets, as you'll spend less time getting bumped into the "air," you'll have better traction, and the terrain is more even.

Eventually you'll be doing this (skip to 19:10)
[video=youtube_share;uLA-DaG2ofs]http://youtu.be/uLA-DaG2ofs?t=1151[/video]
 
Back
Top Bottom