Considering buying Rift S.... what would I be in for?

selrach · Jul 9, 2019

I've never previously used or owned any VR set up, but I'm considering buying a Rift S for the sole purpose of using it with Elite. My question is, out of the box, how many and what kind of hoops will I have to jump through in order to go from unpacking it to actually playing Elite in VR? I have the impression - perhaps wrongly - that this stuff is not exactly plug and play. So I'd really like to know what I'd be in for, how much of a hassle, how much time required to invest, in order to make that happen?

My PC is about 3 years old, but is a four core i7-6700K using an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition with 8GB GDDR5X so I -think- I can expect reasonable performance in VR.

Thanks - appreciate any info you can provide.

HeavyGroovez · Jul 9, 2019

Download Oculus software.
Plug in Rift (display port and USB).
Batteries into Touch controllers.
Stick Rift on head.
Perform setup which defines environment boundaries and pairs controllers.

That's it, welcome to VR.

Jezzer · Jul 9, 2019

Two Cables 1 x Graphics port & 1 x USB 3

Download & Install Oculus software and run, the setup (much less fiddly than the rift) following the instructions. The controlers are pre-paired. Less than and hour to get going

.

Get Dr Kai's ED profiler from this sub forum.

Fire up ED and it's almost a differernt game, prepare to be amazed..........

I have the same CPU as you, different GPU, but you should all set with a 1080.

J

selrach · Jul 9, 2019

Thank you both! That doesn't sound too bad at all

UmbraRex · Jul 9, 2019

I went from a CV1 to the Rift S. The setup was a snap, the picture is better and the performance seems slightly better.

Kemo · Jul 10, 2019

UmbraRex said:
I went from a CV1 to the Rift S. The setup was a snap, the picture is better and the performance seems slightly better.

same here, install is a breeze.

@ OP: A couple of points you will need to be aware of though.

Make sure HMD headphones (under graphics options>3D) is selected as this ensure ED knows it needs to display in the Rift S
Set the Quality to either VR Medium or Low (you should be fine with Medium) and then tinker and tweak from there.

There are lots of opinions as to what the ideal setting options will be, especially where the Supersampling and HMD Quality settings should be at, but as suggested by Jezzer, Dr Kai's ED Profiler makes this easy to tweek and fiddle with and you can setup multiple profiles until you get something you prefer.

ED in VR is a different game; it blew my socks off the first time I sat in the Sidewinder in VR - it still wows me today, 3 years later.

[VR] Frank_G · Jul 11, 2019

Yup, i can confirm this. 20 minutes is all you need and mostly it is waiting for the software to download and install. If you launch Elite from the Launcher or Steam, which i assume, as you don't have Oculus Home yet, make sure to enter the Oculus Home settings and allow external applications to link with the headset.

To set up Elite for VR, go to the graphics settings and select "HMD and Headphones" from the options and then restart Elite. From now on, it launches directly in the Rift. You can switch back at any time, which won't be worth talking about, after sitting in any cockpit for a minute or two

Graphic settings strongly depend on your system, but as the Rift-S is less performance hungry than the original Rift CV1 or the Vive, you will be in the green zone in no time. Just make sure to start low and work up, not the other way around.

One other thing essential for VR: if you experience nausea, stop immediately and pause for an hour or two. This might not be satisfying at first, but it will get significantly better within a few days. If you try to fight through the nausea, which will not work, you might train your brain to reject VR experiences in general and get dizzy from minute one all the time.

And to say something about Elite and VR... i stopped playing any game on a monitor, the day i got my first VR headset and fired up Elite. It totally ruined playing "normal" games for me, as the experience you will have is so mindblowing, it cannot be described with words or ingame videos. Depths perception, freedom of head movement and the total abscence of any external interference is such a game changer, that there is hardly a way back. Experiencing the ships of Elite in their full size and actually "being there" is incredible. To date, i havent found a single game in VR that is as immersive as Elite on a long term. I hadn't a single session without a wow in the past 3 years. If you want my opinion, just do the jump to VR. Worth every single cent.

selrach · Jul 11, 2019

Thanks again everyone, you've really all but convinced me to give it a whirl. The last piece I'm struggling with is managing the controls without a keyboard as I don't have room in my current set up/space for a HOTAS rig. I'm using a 12 button joystick which clearly isn't going to be enough on it's own. Right now I'm investigating voice attack, in the hope that I can fill in the gaps with that.

[VR] Frank_G · Jul 11, 2019

I am using a Logitech G-13 Game-Keypad for ship functions, which does not take much space. It has a few rows of keys, which can easily be located without looking and as there are only a handful of keys, they can be memorized with ease as well. The only thing i use the regular keyboard for is for the galaxy map and naming ships. I can blind-type though. The Rift-S has in-build cameras, so if you are lost where to put your hands, you can take a peek if required.

Jezzer · Jul 12, 2019

selrach said:
Thanks again everyone, you've really all but convinced me to give it a whirl. The last piece I'm struggling with is managing the controls without a keyboard as I don't have room in my current set up/space for a HOTAS rig. I'm using a 12 button joystick which clearly isn't going to be enough on it's own. Right now I'm investigating voice attack, in the hope that I can fill in the gaps with that.

For issuing commands to the game and not enough programmable buttons, there is another great piece of software called VoiceAttack https://www.voiceattack.com

I don't have any of the readymade voicepacks for ED but it is relatively easy to setup some simple commands and the need for hotas / extra buttons is reduced.

jnTracks · Jul 12, 2019

One other thing regarding graphics setup:
My CPU is slightly faster than yours (7700k) and my GPU is not as fast (1660ti) and I can run medium/high settings with a slight super sample. You'll be fine starting with VR med and turning the distance and textures up, then messing with some other things to probably get better eye candy; as long as you don't mind ASW. I don't.

But with regards to Super Sampling, this is a huge thing in VR and will hugely improve your experience.
Start with HMD set to 2.0 and SS set to 0.5
This will be the same GPU load as using 1.0 for both (no super sample) but you'll notice that distant objects have a MUCH smoother, less shimmery look. It doesn't improve the clarity of anything up close, but distant things will be hugely improved with no extra load on the system.
Then increment the SS up until your performance begins to drop. Never take HMD lower than 2.0. I'm at HMD 2.0 and SS 0.65, so I'm sure you'll be able to go higher than that and get it looking really nice.
But do start with HMD 2.0 SS 0.5 so you have that distant object smoothing right at the start. It's really nice and matters a lot.

Rift S was my first headset also. A breeze to set up.

LupusTheCranky · Jul 12, 2019

To be clear - it doesn't just feel like a different game, it is a different game. At least a different install anyway. That was what got me - I thought I could just launch the non-VR install of the game I already had downloaded, but you can't. You have to download a new copy and launch, either through SteamVR or Oculus Home. It's fairly easy, and there's a guide page somewhere about generating keys in your Frontier account that grant you access to the game through SteamVR and/or Oculus Home. What got me was that the download stage is maddeningly slow, compared to the other Oculus app downloads. This is apparently because the Elite install is made up of lots of small files instead of a few big files, but the reason doesn't really matter. What I found out was that you really do have to be patient, if you're hoping it will download in the background while you tinker with other Rift stuff, it really won't. Every time you launch something new it stops the download, and when it restarts, it sits for 5-10m deciding what to download again before it even starts to download. So best to just start the download and wander off to do something completely different while it finishes.

Kemo · Jul 12, 2019

LupusTheCranky said:
To be clear - it doesn't just feel like a different game, it is a different game. At least a different install anyway. That was what got me - I thought I could just launch the non-VR install of the game I already had downloaded, but you can't. You have to download a new copy and launch, either through SteamVR or Oculus Home. It's fairly easy, and there's a guide page somewhere about generating keys in your Frontier account that grant you access to the game through SteamVR and/or Oculus Home. What got me was that the download stage is maddeningly slow, compared to the other Oculus app downloads. This is apparently because the Elite install is made up of lots of small files instead of a few big files, but the reason doesn't really matter. What I found out was that you really do have to be patient, if you're hoping it will download in the background while you tinker with other Rift stuff, it really won't. Every time you launch something new it stops the download, and when it restarts, it sits for 5-10m deciding what to download again before it even starts to download. So best to just start the download and wander off to do something completely different while it finishes.

That's odd, I didn't need to do any of that. I just use the standard FD ED launcher, and as long as you set select HMD Headphones in the 3D menu within the game prior to launching it, ED runs straight from there (admittedly Oculus software will also start, but I never start ED from there or needed an Oculus key for ED)

LupusTheCranky · Jul 12, 2019

Kemo said:
That's odd, I didn't need to do any of that. I just use the standard FD ED launcher, and as long as you set select HMD Headphones in the 3D menu within the game prior to launching it, ED runs straight from there (admittedly Oculus software will also start, but I never start ED from there or needed an Oculus key for ED)

Aha, I did dig around in the options menu for a good 20 minutes but that 3D options didn't jump out at me. I think I cracked open the submenu and didn't see the keys I expected, and completely didn't notice the OFF on the right hand side to suggest it was editable. On launching I would get the grey environment with the panel showing diagonal wavy lines and it just would never go away.

Now with the proper Display mode selected it shows for a while on first startup, but then shows the Frontier logo, but that's a fairly minor down side, I'd much prefer sticking with the ED launcher. Time to junk that second install, and the horrible update checks in the Oculus Home app. Thanks!

For a moment I held out hope that launching from the Frontier launcher would fix my annoying glitchy snap away from the reset HMD position, but sadly not. That is probably just something wrong with my setup rather than a problem with the launcher anyway.

Cliché · Jul 13, 2019

Frank_G said:
...but as the Rift-S is less performance hungry than the original Rift CV1...

That's the first I've read anything about that. I know the frequency is about 11% lower, but there about 42% more pixels to push. Would you please elaborate a bit on that?

PS. I couldn't take the CV1 performance after about a year and switched to 4K. But with the S, I'm now ready to sell my 4K monitor and game only in VR. And that's with an old system. It could look so much better with new hardware, but I'm going to wait for a FOV boost and a small resolution boost for that.

Kemo · Jul 13, 2019

LupusTheCranky said:
Aha, I did dig around in the options menu for a good 20 minutes but that 3D options didn't jump out at me. I think I cracked open the submenu and didn't see the keys I expected, and completely didn't notice the OFF on the right hand side to suggest it was editable. On launching I would get the grey environment with the panel showing diagonal wavy lines and it just would never go away.

Now with the proper Display mode selected it shows for a while on first startup, but then shows the Frontier logo, but that's a fairly minor down side, I'd much prefer sticking with the ED launcher. Time to junk that second install, and the horrible update checks in the Oculus Home app. Thanks!

For a moment I held out hope that launching from the Frontier launcher would fix my annoying glitchy snap away from the reset HMD position, but sadly not. That is probably just something wrong with my setup rather than a problem with the launcher anyway.

Cool, glad you got that sorted. I also get the grey VR view just prior to ED starting, but as you said, it's a minor niggle.

I also get the glitch where your view 'snaps' away, I tend to end up with my head view just right of my lap. Very annoying and I've seen plenty of others post the similar issue, i'm not sure if it's an Oculus issue or FD, i didn't have this issue with the CV1... top tip to anyone reading, make sure you bind your re-centre view to an easily accessible key!

LupusTheCranky · Jul 13, 2019

Kemo said:
make sure you bind your re-centre view to an easily accessible key!

Yeah if it was just an occasional thing I'd be fine with it, but it's continual and I barely get a few seconds in the right place before it snaps away again.

[VR] Frank_G · Jul 13, 2019

Cliché said:
That's the first I've read anything about that. I know the frequency is about 11% lower, but there about 42% more pixels to push. Would you please elaborate a bit on that?

PS. I couldn't take the CV1 performance after about a year and switched to 4K. But with the S, I'm now ready to sell my 4K monitor and game only in VR. And that's with an old system. It could look so much better with new hardware, but I'm going to wait for a FOV boost and a small resolution boost for that.

The thing is, that i needed 1.5 to 1.75 x HMD quality in the CV1, to get text at least readable. The Rift-S does not require HMD quality settings above 1.0 to make the picture extremely crisp. So in the end, the Rift-S turned out to be less performance hungry than the CV1 while delivering much better results.

Cliché · Jul 13, 2019

That makes perfect sense. I never thought about it that way. I guess that's why my old system can still handle it.

selrach · Jul 14, 2019

I pulled the trigger on Thursday, and my Rift S was delivered about 2 hours ago. Have successfully been in Elite in VR with it. Feel like there's going to be quite a learning curve on settings and all the environments Oculus threw at me during the setup without much of a word of explanation, but the game looks damn good on whatever default settings it automatically ran on.