CV1 recent observations

[Herne]

I always loved VR in Elite Dangerous. I've taken a break for pretty much the last year from ED.

I got addicted to IL2 post VR patch, and have put in a good 1000 hrs + into that since April last year, with gaming sessions spanning several hours at a time.

I fired up ED this weekend, and straight away, I noticed that something seemed off in VR. I couldn't quite put my finger on it exactly, but found myself trying to adjust the headset and IPD to make whatever I perceived to be wrong better. VR in ED performs spectacularly, better than I ever remember but something about the display was uncomfortable, after a couple of hours, I had to switch to the monitor.

The purpose of this post is not to moan, but to see if any of you VR users can relate to what I am describing and better still if you can identify the cause of what I was describing, in the hope that the devs might be able to investigate, and improve the experience.

 

[heretowatch]

I play quite a few other VR games regularly, and I'm not quite sure what feeling you're referring to. The overall graphic fidelity in ED VR is nowhere near as good as it could be (compared to From Other Suns or Lone Echo, for instance), but I don't experience any discomfort while playing. But after changing the HUD colors to favor green and blue, and bumping up the HMD quality setting, I'm really pleased with the experience and I'd never go back to the monitor.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

I wonder if what you are experiencing is due to ASW? Can't remember when it was added. You could try disabling it and see if you notice any difference.

To be honest it's difficult to understand what you are referring to without more details - you mention IPD so are you referring to the sharpness/focus of the image or something else? Is is stuttering/juddering? Try monitoring the frame rate using either the in-game FPS counter on the mirror window (or use an external program like MSI Afterburner to log it) or using the Oculus Debug Tool (including the 'frame drop' counter).

Are you playing with the same graphics settings as you were previously?

 

[Herne]

I wonder if what you are experiencing is due to ASW? Can't remember when it was added. You could try disabling it and see if you notice any difference.

To be honest it's difficult to understand what you are referring to without more details - you mention IPD so are you referring to the sharpness/focus of the image or something else? Is is stuttering/juddering? Try monitoring the frame rate using either the in-game FPS counter on the mirror window (or use an external program like MSI Afterburner to log it) or using the Oculus Debug Tool (including the 'frame drop' counter).

Are you playing with the same graphics settings as you were previously?

I think so, it felt maybe like my eyes were really having to work to focus. I don't recall this being a problem in Elite Dangerous before. hard to say if this was just trying to read things on menu's or more "global" I think it was the latter, because the first thing I see is the bridge of my cutter, and I'm trying to adjust the headset because something seemed off.

Seems like if i'm the only one to notice it, then the fault probably lays with me.

 

[MartyB]

I think so, it felt maybe like my eyes were really having to work to focus. I don't recall this being a problem in Elite Dangerous before. hard to say if this was just trying to read things on menu's or more "global" I think it was the latter, because the first thing I see is the bridge of my cutter, and I'm trying to adjust the headset because something seemed off.

Seems like if i'm the only one to notice it, then the fault probably lays with me.

Agree with the ASW comment. I’m the same when it kicks in, a weird “off” feeling. I think it’s the slight ghosting / smearing around edges of things that you get with it.

I know a lot of people that crank every setting up to the max and play all day long with ASW permanently on preferring image quality over performance. For me it makes me feel “drunk” almost.

1st post btw! Hi all //waves//

 

[TorTorden_VR]

What's the rest of your system and settings?

And yes, it could be ASW, or it just could be some sort of "oddity" in ED.
It is better than has been, but it still seems a little off compared to Pcars 2 etc.

Also ED is the only the game to trigger ASW throttling as much as it does.

Older hardware seem to get more artefacting than with newer as well so would be informative if you could let us know what your system is.

 

[Herne]

What's the rest of your system and settings?

And yes, it could be ASW, or it just could be some sort of "oddity" in ED.
It is better than has been, but it still seems a little off compared to Pcars 2 etc.

Also ED is the only the game to trigger ASW throttling as much as it does.

Older hardware seem to get more artefacting than with newer as well so would be informative if you could let us know what your system is.

I have a 4790k cpu and gtx 1080 founders edition. I was running on VR ultra, but this actually performed magnificently. didn't notice any micro stutters, or ghosting.

the image just seemed a little off, compared with how it was when I used to play regularly. With IL2 the ASW kicks in frequently but it's still easier on the eye, I was thinking about this and wondered if it was because in the cockpit of a fighter plane everything is so much nearer to you. I really don't know. I used to be able to spend hours at a time comfortably in VR with ED, came as a shock for me, a self confessed VR evangelist, to actually prefer playing ED on my monitor.

 

[heretowatch]

I have a 4790k cpu and gtx 1080 founders edition. I was running on VR ultra, but this actually performed magnificently. didn't notice any micro stutters, or ghosting.

the image just seemed a little off, compared with how it was when I used to play regularly. With IL2 the ASW kicks in frequently but it's still easier on the eye, I was thinking about this and wondered if it was because in the cockpit of a fighter plane everything is so much nearer to you. I really don't know. I used to be able to spend hours at a time comfortably in VR with ED, came as a shock for me, a self confessed VR evangelist, to actually prefer playing ED on my monitor.

Well your explanation of the issue remains that the visuals "seem a little off" so I'm not sure this is anything we can help you with. Elite is still far from the best when it comes to VR graphics quality, and sadly it doesn't look like FDev is doing much to improve. I suspect what you're talking about is just the overall lack of contrast, which can make my eyes strain a bit when I'm trying to pick out an enemy ship against the backdrop of space.

 

[Raptoyd]

forget asw if you have the goods ctrl 1

 

[Durden T.]

forget asw if you have the goods ctrl 1

I personally prefer to disable it from the Oculus Debug tool. Just open the tool once Oculus home is opened, make the changes and off you go...

Another important thing is to close the Debug tool once you launch Elite, since some people has reported it might affect performance if remains opened...

 

[dmulligan]

Could the "little off" be coming from aliasing appearing so much worse because of the naturally high contrast against the blackness of space?