Finally, my ASUS GTX 1080 STRIX arrived yesterday!
I have to say that I'm really enjoying the visual boost I'm getting from this beast. I went with the recommended settings of 0.65 in game SS and 2.0 pd using the Oculus debug tool, anti-aliasing set to off with then mostly maxed out settings across the board, other than shadows which are set to high and some lower settings for the planetary landing stuff.
Stations, when viewed from the exterior and from within the interior docking area, look superb. For the most part, the horrid jaggies which danced across the various landing pads and surrounding areas are gone. I can now pick out finer details as I pass over the industrial buildings and structures below my ship as I head back out into the void. Sure, if you look hard enough there are still a few jaggies, but they no longer stand out like a soar thumb, nagging at your eyes as you come into land.
RES Sites, the first site I visited with this new found power was situated in some ice rings, very pretty indeed. I initially had my shadows set to Ultra, which I found fine in and around stations. However as the RES Site became more active and I engaged in a few fights I noticed the card struggling to keep up. I lowered the shadows from Ultra to High and found this to be a good compromise and it gave me that needed boost in performance.
Planetary Landings, likely the most power hungry element of Elite Dangerous. I'd like to say it was all rosey but I felt that the new GPU still struggled a little while roaming the planet surfaces, nothing worse than my GTX 980 at much lower settings, but still noticable. I'm still tweeking these settings but of all the GFX options these are the ones I've had to lower the most. I'm almost at a point that I'm happy with the visuals while maintaining suitable performance but I still find the odd occasion where I see dips in frames and the tell tale signs of the async timewarp threshold being hit. Planet side ports seems to be a big contender for this, not so much in my ship but the frame drops are noticeable in the SRV while navigating these areas. I also notice the same performance drop while driving around my landed ship in an SRV, even if both are situated miles away from a planetary port. That said, as soon as I'm clear of my ship or planetary port the performance is excellent, I spent a good 45 minutes to an hour navigating the ridges of an ice canyon in order to reach surface level and the card didn't break a sweat. As a bonus I was treated to a very nice view when I finally reached my goal and looked back at the perilously steep route I had taken (And I wondered why my SRV had struggled so much during the ascent!!). Never before had I seen the surface terrain rendered in such detail - it was a sight to behold.
Overall, when it comes to the CV1, a GTX 1080 and Elite I'm extremely impressed, although a little more tweaking is required for the planetary landings side of things but I have a lot of scope to turn down options relating to that particular element of the game. Maybe time to upgrade my 16GB of DDR4 memory to 32GB - thoughts anyone?
Outside of Elite I tested the following VR games / experiences:
Henry:
I stuck with a debug tool PD of 2.0 and the experience seemed fine and it has a satisfactory visual boost.
Edge of Nowhere:
Again a PD of 2.0 and the game seemed to tick over fine. I'm not a fan to be honest, been there and done that type of game for me and the VR adds nothing to the experience in my opinion, other than a few annoying moments where the camera isn't positioned well and I have to crane my neck to see the game character. I didn't notice much of a visual boost having a PD of 2.0 in this particular title but then again I have have always been underwhelmed (outside of the opening scene in the plane) by the graphics in this particular title anyway.
Adr1ft:
I had to the lower the PD setting to 1.5 for this title. At 2.0 I noticed considerable amounting of 'hitching' as I span around in my eva suit, even the odd bit of stutter. Even with a PD of 1.5 the game looked great and performed without a hiccup.
Vanishing of Ethan Carter:
Let me be clear, I loaded this game with a PD of 2.0, when it loaded my jaw hit the floor. I had initially intended to spend only a quick 10 - 15 minutes walking around the game environment. I couldn't leave. The quality of the image was simply too compelling for me to be able to take my headset off. Ultimately I spend nearly an hour walking around, mixing up a bit of pad based locomotion with room scale when I found a particularly interesting or beautiful part of the environment I wished to explore (not hard considering how many there are). At one point I lay on my back, looking up at the sky with a river at my feet, a trees branches looming over head, vegetation and different types of grasses surrounding me - all swaying in the wind only adding to the immersion. At another point I sat on the ground with my back lent against an old stone building, the buildings stone wall matching the position of my rooms wall, my back feeling the cold and hardness of the surface as the two connected. I admired the view and relaxed for some time. Hands down, visually this was the jewel in the crown for me. The game looked nice any way, but using the pixel density up-scaling sent this particular title off the chart. The lines between reality and virtual reality were blurred on this occasion for me, I cannot wait to spend more time in that particular environment.
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