Does Steam VR + Elite Make a Difference?

[TomT]

I have recently gotten the CV1, and like most here, have been tweaking away to get the best possible experience.

I've seen a number of posts where people make recommendations for Steam VR settings. I've never redeemed my Steam keys, as up until now have just run the game off my desktop client. But I am wondering now if for VR are there any advantages/disadvantages to running it thru Steam?

Is there a possibility of getting better graphics/performance or will things be pretty much the same as the non-Steam version?

Thanks for any advice on this.

 

[vic]

Yes I'd like to know this too. Especially for the fact that using CTRL-num1-4 that supposedly turns ATW ASW on/off by does diddly squat for me, but apparantly steamvr allows you to select those option easier?!

 

[shadragon]

To try it, the Steam Client is free and so is Steam VR. Just download them and try it out.

It works brilliantly with my Vive, but I have no experience with the Rift. Sorry.

 

[TomT]

To try it, the Steam Client is free and so is Steam VR. Just download them and try it out.

It works brilliantly with my Vive, but I have no experience with the Rift. Sorry.

But wouldn't I also have to install Elite again, on Steam? Or could I just play the version I have installed (non-Steam) via Steam vr?

It's a bit confusing...

Thanks

 

[Bannok]

But wouldn't I also have to install Elite again, on Steam? Or could I just play the version I have installed (non-Steam) via Steam vr?

It's a bit confusing...

Thanks

No. in steam you can add any existing app to your library, even if purchased outside of steam. How do I know? Because I got Elite directly from Frontier before it bacame available on steam.

-bk

 

[vic]

So can anyone give us a feedback on fronteir/oculus direct play vs steam play?

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

I had heard that the SteamVR layer can lower performance, but a quick Google search can't find anything to back that up. It may be hearsay.

If there is a performance hit, I am not sure how bad it will be, probably minimal or none if it just acts as a launcher, and VR processing gets handed off to the Oculus software itself and SteamVr just goes into the background. If SteramVR keeps handling the VR itself, you may lose ATW or ASW, and/or some performance.
Its worth a go.

As Bannok said, you can link to the normal Frontier launcher through Steam itself (just as you can any game you buy on Steam or elsewhere. Steam is just the common launchpad application.

Steam has been around for a while and is superior in pretty much all respects to Oculus Home library/store etc. StramVR does detect the Cv1 and will also detect the Touch controllers etc.

Apart from that I don't have much SteamVR experience - I had GTAIV and Skyrim on Steam, but play ED via the normal FD launcher.
I'll be installing Steam etc back on over the weekend so I'll be testing it out too.

 

[vic]

I had heard that the SteamVR layer can lower performance, but a quick Google search can't find anything to back that up. It may be hearsay.

If there is a performance hit, I am not sure how bad it will be, probably minimal or none if it just acts as a launcher, and VR processing gets handed off to the Oculus software itself and SteamVr just goes into the background. If SteramVR keeps handling the VR itself, you may lose ATW or ASW, and/or some performance.
Its worth a go.

As Bannok said, you can link to the normal Frontier launcher through Steam itself (just as you can any game you buy on Steam or elsewhere. Steam is just the common launchpad application.

Steam has been around for a while and is superior in pretty much all respects to Oculus Home library/store etc. StramVR does detect the Cv1 and will also detect the Touch controllers etc.

Apart from that I don't have much SteamVR experience - I had GTAIV and Skyrim on Steam, but play ED via the normal FD launcher.
I'll be installing Steam etc back on over the weekend so I'll be testing it out too.

If you do test it out, let us know if it gives us control over ATW/ASW or not please.

 

[dogbite]

There wouldn't be any technical advantage in running the Rift in Steam VR. You should be able to run from normal Steam and select Oculus mode instead of Open VR, thus maintaining ATW/ASW functionality. Doesn't seem to be any advantage to using a Steam or Home key, save having as many games in one place as possible. DCS is another title I prefer to launch natively (something I don't think you can do with the Steam version).
Running Home plus Steam plus Steam VR in the background seems burdensome.

 

[TomT]

One reason I started this thread was because of a post here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/274325-How-to-get-Elite-in-VR-looking-CRYSTAL-CLEAR-D/page10 by Aio, which seems to indicate a better result with Steam VR (more access to other settings, etc.).

I think the title of that entire thread "How to get Elite in VR looking CRYSTAL CLEAR." has got me thinking there must be a way to get things looking, as the title says, "Crystal Clear", but I'm beginning to wonder if that might be a bit of an overstatement.

 

[Xerx]

One reason I started this thread was because of a post here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/274325-How-to-get-Elite-in-VR-looking-CRYSTAL-CLEAR-D/page10 by Aio, which seems to indicate a better result with Steam VR (more access to other settings, etc.).

I think the title of that entire thread "How to get Elite in VR looking CRYSTAL CLEAR." has got me thinking there must be a way to get things looking, as the title says, "Crystal Clear", but I'm beginning to wonder if that might be a bit of an overstatement.

Thjeres a super easy way to get it crystal clear.

Jump forward 2-3 years and get a vr headset with proper glass lenses and a non pentile 8k display.

 

[Soda Popinski]

Thjeres a super easy way to get it crystal clear.

Jump forward 2-3 years and get a vr headset with proper glass lenses and a non pentile 8k display.

I'm fairly sure you'd need to reverse the polarity of your Frame Shift Drive to do that.

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Thjeres a super easy way to get it crystal clear.

Jump forward 2-3 years and get a vr headset with proper glass lenses and a non pentile 8k display.

Glass lenses will only make the Rift/Vive heavier. And you can get high refractive index polycarbonates/plastics etc that do the optical job with 99% of the visual clarity of glass and 1/2 the weight. I can't remember the last time I actually had glass... er... glasses. They've all been plastic since the 70's (for me at least).

Technically, yes - glass is superior, but costly, especially when you're talking small improvements over the current fresnel lenses. This is consumer VR, not photgraphic lenses The Rift lenses and Vive lenses probably only cost a few dollars each... maybe $20 for the pair in bulk (if that, probably lower).

Morpheus: "You think that's glass you're looking through, Neo?"

- - - Updated - - -

One reason I started this thread was because of a post here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/274325-How-to-get-Elite-in-VR-looking-CRYSTAL-CLEAR-D/page10 by Aio, which seems to indicate a better result with Steam VR (more access to other settings, etc.).

I think the title of that entire thread "How to get Elite in VR looking CRYSTAL CLEAR." has got me thinking there must be a way to get things looking, as the title says, "Crystal Clear", but I'm beginning to wonder if that might be a bit of an overstatement.

Yes - the current Rift/Vive resolution is the main problem - you can throw supersampling at it, but you can only get so much out of those pixels.

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

There wouldn't be any technical advantage in running the Rift in Steam VR. You should be able to run from normal Steam and select Oculus mode instead of Open VR, thus maintaining ATW/ASW functionality. Doesn't seem to be any advantage to using a Steam or Home key, save having as many games in one place as possible. DCS is another title I prefer to launch natively (something I don't think you can do with the Steam version).
Running Home plus Steam plus Steam VR in the background seems burdensome.

The only advantage is perhaps using the SteamVR overlays etc which Oculus Home doesn't have.
I have read here;

that SteamVR hands off the job of the barrel distortion, ATW and ASW to the Rift to handle on its own. So the Ctrl-Numpad mode switches will work - they just go through to the Oculus software.
However, that does include the SteamVR overlay functions as well, so obviously SteamVR will have some compositing input (which would include any SteamVR overlay graphics etc) before sending that image to the Rift for final display.

So you will lose a tiny bit of performance to the SteamVR app itself, generating any overlay graphics (frame counter, friends popping in and out, chat messages etc). Simply having Steam running in the background probably won't use anything other than a tiny blip of your cpu power.