As of today, VR (ED) on a budget?

[MiercolesTrece]

So after playing ED on Xbox for a few months I got interested in VR.

Its being about time to upgrade my old pc (its a 10 yo first generation quad-core) so I was considering to buy a VR capable one to play ED.

As I said, I'm coming from Xbox One (1080p), so thats more or less my performance standard (which is pretty enough for me) and, for a first contact, I was thinking about Oculus Rift DK2 and maybe in the future an update to CV1.

What would be the cheapest options for me as of today?

Thanks in advance people!

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

Personally I would avoid a DK2 as it was never an official consumer product and therefore will not be supported by Oculus, plus I don't think you'll have access to Dash. Besides, most people who upgraded have said that the CV1 is better in most areas (the main exception being "god rays" from the CV1's fresnel lenses I believe). If you're on a tight budget probably your best bet is a second-hand CV1.

 

[WeirdWizard]

Absolutely do not buy a DK2 it's years old prototype tech that doesn't even support motion controllers (maybe no relevant for ED but tons of VR games need them). Depending on where you are if price is your primary concern then a Windows Mixed Reality VR headset is probably going to be your best choice (cheapest, better res than Oculus or basic Vive, inside out tracking which has some minor drawbacks for the motion controllers but requires no setup), after that Oculus (more robust tracking, better controllers, more expensive, more setup) and then Vive and Vive Pro (most expensive of the main headsets, best tracking, Vive Pro has best main stream res (tied with the best WMR headset)).

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I think steamvr still supports dk2.
But I never had one so can't comment further on that.

Personally i have been playing in a cv1 for two years though.
Thing with buying a used Oculus's is that would void all warranty.

I would just recommend going straight to a cv1, I don't really find the lens flares distracting.
Certainly a lot less lens flares in VR than in a JJ Abrams movie.

Could also mention that by most guesses, second generation of VR will start off sometime around next summer.

 

[VR Mr Teatime]

To the OP,

If you can hang on for a month, I would wait. Some here, like myself, should be getting the first shipments of the PiMAX 5K+ and 8K HMDs and also they are expected to start taking pre-orders at the same time for early 2019 delivery, for non-kickstarter/retail.

If all goes well and the signs from the Berlin demo session do point to this, then I would expect either deep retail price cuts on the Rift/Vive and a small glut of second hand CV1 and Vive units to hit ebay etc. (possibly the other WMR headsets also).

If you must have VR now for ED, then I would recommend the Rift (CV1) as a minimum.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

As dk2 is unsupported I would only get one if you can get it for $70 or something. I have played this game a lot on it, resolution is lower (and fov slightly higher) so you have to lean in to read stuff with it.

The windows vr headsets also work (via steamvr) and they can be heavily discounted sometimes, $200 or $100 even.

 

[Pville_Piper]

The Windows Mixed Reality is a good option if you're on a budget. Some have reported using very high sttings with better performance. That being said, I would definately get me the best computer I could.

If the budget is tight though I certainly would get a top end I5 8600 and a K version if I could. The K versions of Intel processors will have a bit higher clock speed and can be easily overclocked with decent cooling for a bit more performance. With 6 cores, the new I5 processors are quite good and budget friendly when compared to the I7. The I7-8700k is about the best all around Intel processor and worth the extra cash if you can afford it. Older generations such as the I7-7600k are still available and very good processors. I won't comment on AMD offerings because of my lack of knowledge in them. When it becomes time to upgrade I'll look at them deeper. They have some very good offerings that may save you a bit of money and are worth checking out.

As for the GPU, I started my VR experience with the GTX 970 and with careful application of settings I could get decent performance out of it. I have recently upgraded to the GTX 1080 and I can definitely recommend it. Much better performance and graphics make the game very smooth. A nice benefit is in other games, I like to play FPS shooters and with the GTX 1080 I can run my 1080p G sync monitor at 144 fps on full Ultra settings without a glitch or stutter.

An SSD isn't required for gaming and I've never seen a benchmark that showed any improvement from having one, so a potential savings there. 8 gigs of ram is enough, I run 16 and feel that that takes out any ram related issues that I might have. As for ram speed, anything over 2666hz will rapidly show diminishing returns for the extra cash, getting a quality set of 2133 or 2400 ram and spending more on the CPU will be a better choice gaming wise. Also, some games show virtually no improvement in increasing ram speed while others do but I haven't seen any tests with done with Elite Dangerous.

Whatever the case, I would recommend getting the best computer I could and I would prioritize spending more on the CPU and motherboard if it came down to a really CPU/motherboard with a GTX 1070 or a average CPU/motherboard and a GTX 1080. The reason is you will likely change out the GPU sooner than the whole motherboard and CPU.

 

[Muzz UK]

I am a current owner of a VIVE Pro and it's amazing and a good upgrade... I did have a standard vive and played with the HP Windows Mixed reality headset for a week or two. I was very impressed with the WMR headset's. I actually think the Microsoft gear is better than the standard vive.

If on a budget the Windows Mixed Reality headset is a no brainer just make sure you have a decent CPU and GPU. I'd say an i5 and fairly good GPU is a requirement. The WMR is not as comfy as the standard vive and build quality is lower but it's never going to break or fall apart. For the price it's excellent and on par with the standard vive imho. The tracking works fine as long as you're not moving around like a mad man and as Elite is seated VR you'll be fine.

The issue is expectation and text quality. Elite looks better in non VR because of resolution BUT it's not as a immersive. Once you've gone VR I doubt you'll go back to 2D full time. As long as you don't mind the cockpit text being a little blurry you're going to love it.

VR is possibly on a budget for sure but the more you spend the better it will be.

 

[Tyr Ceti]

Windows MR - best buy. They are inexpensive and work really well. I have a Dell Visor and it is pretty awesome. Near imperceptible screed door effect compared to the rift. Tracking issues are nill if you use it for ED. For other games, it is good - not the best, but good. It works great through SteamVR. 90 percent of games designed for Vive work fine in a Windows MR headset. Text is easy to read with the right ED settings and based on your computer.

So $200 - $250 for dell visor or $180 - $200 for Lenovo visor
I run VR on laptops one with a 1080 and other with 1060. 1060 works but you're running it on low settings. 1070 would be your sweet spot for cost vs. budget.

Or wait for new cards and headsets to come out.

 

[Sweet&Dandy]

Supposedly some of WMR headsets are going dirt cheap in US at the moment...

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/9en2rs/lenovo_explorer_99_headset_only_free_shipping/

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

A friend of mine uses an Oculus go, by feeding the steam video stream to it. He uses a system with a 3770 i7, a GTX970 and 16 Gigs of RAM. The instructions on how to play on the Go can be found on YouTube.

 

[rhiz]

Whatever the case, I would recommend getting the best computer I could and I would prioritize spending more on the CPU and motherboard if it came down to a really CPU/motherboard with a GTX 1070 or a average CPU/motherboard and a GTX 1080. The reason is you will likely change out the GPU sooner than the whole motherboard and CPU.

Yes, this strikes me as good advice. I built an i7 7700k machine just over a year ago – put the money into the core components and opted for a GTX 1060 6gb for the short term. It runs Elite with the Rift great (without super sampling), so I’ve not felt the need to upgrade yet. I intend to see where the market ends up once the new cards are widely available.

And definitely go for the “Oculus Rift and Touch Controllers Bundle” if you can – it’s good value now.

 

[MiercolesTrece]

So I was thinkin on something like i5-8400 8GB with GTX 1050 Ti 4GB (a bit less than 600 eur) for a second-hamd Oculus CV1. But may it be a bit low?

 

[Avago Earo]

So I was thinkin on something like i5-8400 8GB with GTX 1050 Ti 4GB (a bit less than 600 eur) for a second-hamd Oculus CV1. But may it be a bit low?

My Asus Srix 970 struggles on an overclock, and according to websites it out punches the 1050ti. I'm not an expert and don't know how accurate these GPU vs GPU sites are, but I recommend further investigation on your part.

 

[MiercolesTrece]

Thank you!

Thank you! Then I'll br looking the 1060 series. If possible I wouldnt want to spend much more than 600 eur on the pc.

Windows Mixed Reality devices are *never* discounted in Spain, and they're asking about 500usd for the cheapest one, so theyre not an option.

I would wait for a second - hand CV1 expecting to find one below 300 eur (yeah, 2nd hand market here is kinda hilarious, asking 380 eur on average for the CV1).

 

[MiercolesTrece]

Lil update!

Sooooooo I'm just waiting for my Lenovo Explorer to come and give it a good try [heart]

My final hardware setup being Ryzen 5 2600 8gb + Radeon RX580 8gb (which is running pretty amazing for now) on a micro-atx Asus motherboard, all under 600 euro. All in all I think it is fairly budget compliant lol

I just grabbed Lenovo Explorer for 150 euro on a Black Friday sale (I was on the fence between Lenovo 150eu from a local vendor vs. Pimax 4k 200 eu from AliExpress) so if everything runs fine and smoothly then I could name this a success

 

[Pville_Piper]

Let us know how it works out!