Advice needed....

My VR brothers and sisters of Elite,
I am at a cross roads in my Elite Dangerous investments. I have been playing on a Samsung 32" TV for years now (flight sim and now elite) and am torn between upgrading the TV as a monitor (4k 43" that works well for gaming) or investing in an Oculus Rift. As it stands Elite is where my heart is and where I spend all my gaming time and I would love the immersion of VR, but here is the rub, I currently have a GTX960 which is the bare minimum for a rift, but I have seen a few people who have been able to run it with NO issues. My biggest question is how bad is the display in the rift? Would it still be an upgrade from 720p? I know that the specs state each lens displays 1080 but I hear people complain about not reading the text.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
 
I have a rift and i know people with a vive. The rift is easyest to get readable text with HMD set to 1.25 and higher. The vive can be the same but they have to work harder to get it there.
Long range objects are not good, eg CZ fights. And disappointing.....
But when you are in REZ and close! Or just in your asp! Or coming in on a planet! OH MY!!!!!! I am in love with elite all over again!
I did a lot of trying before i brought so if you could do Heavys kind offer or someone else with elite then i would.
I had a GTX960 but upgraded to a 1080 just to play in VR.
i think of my old flat screen ( 720p 42") as high res elite and my rift as 3D elite, so it is a win-win mate!
good luck!
 
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I reallyappreciate the offer Heavy, but that would be a long haul, as I am in the states. (Damn upstart colonists lol)
 
Thanks for the input Marcus, I am thinking about heading to my local electronics store this weekend and seeing a demo of the equipment (won't be Elite, but at least it will be a better perspective than never having tried it out)
Understood with the GPU upgrade, that would be my next move after.
 
If you live in London (or are prepared to commute) you are welcome to PM me and come over and have a session on my rig to see for yourself.
First thing I thought was "I wonder if HeavyGroovez lives over a Pork Pie shop?"

Vive or Rift does not matter. They are more similar than different. For just Elite, get a Rift. If you want Elite and room scale for other things get a Vive.

Other than that OP, be prepared for a epiphany. You'll never want a monitor again.
 
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The GTX960 is going to struggle with VR and 4K so that might have to be your first upgrade. I've never tried gaming on a TV so I can't compare VR to that setup. I do have 3 27" monitors setup in Nvidia surround with TrackIR head tracking and it is pretty awesome but I prefer the Rift by a large margin. The other issue with Elite and VR is that it isn't the best example of VR and to get it looking decent you need to have at least .65 SS and 1.25 HMD and I'm not sure the GTX960 will cut it. It would probably work for better optimized VR games but I think it would be a bad experience for ED.
 
The GTX960 is going to struggle with VR and 4K so that might have to be your first upgrade. I've never tried gaming on a TV so I can't compare VR to that setup. I do have 3 27" monitors setup in Nvidia surround with TrackIR head tracking and it is pretty awesome but I prefer the Rift by a large margin. The other issue with Elite and VR is that it isn't the best example of VR and to get it looking decent you need to have at least .65 SS and 1.25 HMD and I'm not sure the GTX960 will cut it. It would probably work for better optimized VR games but I think it would be a bad experience for ED.

Understood, I unfortunately got my PC just as the GTX 10 series came out so it was a kick in the nuts, but I would rather the bigger investment (rift or monitor) then the card (especially as they come down in price)
 
The 960 will struggle regardless of what you choose.

I had one when I first started with elite and I upgraded to an ultrawide with the resolutikn of
3440x1440, a fair bit shy of 4k/uhd and it struggled enough to maintain ok frame rates. But that was also a 2GB card, not the 4gig version. That would have helped.

The rift doubly so. Contrary to what some expect. 4k gaming is easier to get good results with than VR.
But the experience in vr second to none. It simply is THE GAMING EXPERIENCE I have been waiting for since the first time I fired up snake on a zx spectrum and all the games after that.

Even after having vr for a year and clocking in at least 1000 hours in elite with it.
I still get the occasional "wow!"
I don't care what things look like 15km away (that's 15000 meters or approximately ten miles away) that's what my sensors are for.

Heck I used to love playing wing commander etc at 640×480, current rift resolutions are better than that.

You should, if possible try it before buying into vr.
 
I reallyappreciate the offer Heavy, but that would be a long haul, as I am in the states. (Damn upstart colonists lol)

I'm in the states.
If you're in Texas... Let me narrow that down- in the DFW area.... YOu can take a spin on my Rift / Warthog / rudder.
I need to save up some cash for the cockpit still.

Entry fee is a six pack of beer.
 
Thanks to you all for the input and to Heavy and Ren for the offers to try their rigs (I live in NC, still a bit of a haul lol). I am going to hit up my local Best Buy and get a feel for the Rift with a hands on demo. I am really even considering the rift for that experience and the immersion that the rift offers. So as I can afford an upgrade (saw a 1070 for $300 on Newegg) and hopefully the rift will either remain on sale or go back on sale in the near future. Thanks again. This community is even more helpful and willing to offer up their own experiences than the flight simulator community...
 
Just a quick note - prices of cards have gone through the roof thanks to the current resurgence of cryptocurrency. 1060s 1070s and 1080s and the rest are overinflated at the moment. Of course, I have no idea when they'll settle back down, but holding off upgrading your card for a while might save you some cash (or 'bucks' I believe you call them :)).
 
My VR brothers and sisters of Elite,
I am at a cross roads in my Elite Dangerous investments. I have been playing on a Samsung 32" TV for years now (flight sim and now elite) and am torn between upgrading the TV as a monitor (4k 43" that works well for gaming) or investing in an Oculus Rift. As it stands Elite is where my heart is and where I spend all my gaming time and I would love the immersion of VR, but here is the rub, I currently have a GTX960 which is the bare minimum for a rift, but I have seen a few people who have been able to run it with NO issues. My biggest question is how bad is the display in the rift? Would it still be an upgrade from 720p? I know that the specs state each lens displays 1080 but I hear people complain about not reading the text.
Thoughts? Suggestions?

you need to try one..... i love VR and even when i had an underspecced card for my DK2 and had to play on minimum (i had gtx 670 at the time) it still beat any sized, any resolution screen for me (my gaming screen is 70 inches and goes practically untouched these days).

but whilst i think, esp at these oculus summer sale prices, everyone should now be considering VR... it isnt for everyone and is not something to jump into blindly esp when you are on the lower end of the spectrum pcwise. i am 15 miles from Cambridge UK (haverhill) and am happy to let anyone have a demo of VR. Bit far for you tho ;)
 
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Thanks Mad Mike. That progeny of yours is adorable. I would love to come back for a visit again...only been 20 years (getting old) since I last was in the country. My brother lived there for a couple of years (Air Force) not long ago and I never got to come visit him during that time unfortunately either. If I lived as close to Frontier as you, they would be kicking me off the property on a regular occasion. Lol.I am going to check one (Rift) out this coming weekend and make some decisions from there including hunting a new GPU as well.
 
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