ED and the Oculus Rift Developers Kit 2 (DK2) Discussion Thread

ZZleeZZ

Z
Superb thread, very entertaining!

I would say Dr Zach was knocked out in round 3 :)

Im Afraid Dr Z S that you totally missed out some extremely important information, Im talking about the title of the thread and the op's original question which was "shall I buy a DK2". Now that we have been through 7 pages of the HMZ is not a DK2 I will attempt to push the topic back on course! :)

I have tried a DK1 (at LaveCon, thanks Kerrrash!) and while it was not a perfect experience for me (my IPD, the distance between my pupils, is a little wider than the DK1 supports) I could totally see the potential there. I decided back then that as soon as I could afford it I would order a DK2 which, happily, just about fits my IPD.

Since ordering the DK2 I have had plenty of time to research everything I can about it and have found there are some pitfalls to avoid. People that report a bad experience tend to have either set the thing up wrong (very easy to do, this is new tech) or have a system that cant support the required frame rate.

I cant give you a proper informed opinion having not tried the DK2 yet but I can happily encourage you based on a LOT of research into the fors and againsts.

If you got the cash to spare, go for it, nothing to lose.
 

el_tel

el_tel
katscan said:
Just because you can use Oculus for 10 hours doesn't mean you SHOULD use Oculus for 10 hours. Agreed, I think its a great system (haven't personally tried it), but to think that there is no eye strain or no ill-effect from having your eyes focus at close range for extended periods of time without stopping is ludicrous. The fact of the matter is, yes, Oculus is more immersive, but monitors will continue to be superior for extended gameplay for a majority of people.
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You don't focus at short distance with the Rift. The lenses make you brain think the image is further away, so you focus at the percieved distance.
The people who experience nausea do so because they are particularly sensitive to the discrepancy between what they're seeing and what their inner-ear feels.
 

waters10

W
What makes the oculus a VR display is the head tracking and the high FOV. You have 1:1 tracking and very high peripheral vision. Enough to give you the sense of presence, the feeling that you can touch everything around you.

A Sony HMZ has 45 degrees FOV. This is less than half FOV of the oculus! This means that in order to have 1:1 head tracking, you have to reduce your FOV slider way way low, to the point of not being playable. Or you just ignore 1:1 head tracking. Either way, this will never give you the sense of presence.

For the record, I have a 110 projection screen and I played with head tracking solutions at different seating distances from the screen. Most of the time, close enough that my FOV was higher than the HMZ 45 degrees. Then I got a DK1 and despite the terrible resolution, the sense of presence just cannot be matched. I am now waiting for my DK2. ED is just a nice cool game on a monitor (or on my 110" screen). With the Rift, it's much more than just a game.
 

cherbert

cherbert
el_tel said:
The people who experience nausea do so because they are particularly sensitive to the discrepancy between what they're seeing and what their inner-ear feels.
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And can I just add to that by saying most people who experience nausea are generally playing FPS style games or they were using the DK1. The Oculus Rift at the moment is perfectly suited to cockpit based games or games where you are sitting down. Because of the superb positional tracking introduced in the DK2 and the fact you are sitting in a cockpit the majority of people have little problem with sickness playing Elite. You might get a bit queezy doing dog fighting - but I am sure you would get that if you were doing real dog fighting in space! And I find it more of a butterfly's in your stomach feeling than nausea.

This could all change when we start running around on the planet surface of course! But from my understanding you can cure yourself of VR sickness with short usage daily. I myself can feel sick playing Half Life 2 within 10 seconds yet I can play Elite for hours.
 
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Xzi

X
Dr Zachary Smith said:
3 hrs, you have a lot more stamina than me sir I salute you ! I generally need to have a smoke at least once every 30 minutes or type a system name at some point meaning it comes off, after taking the headset on and off a few times, i just thought yeh this looks great an all but it's just not practical so have stopped using headset for ED unless drunk :)
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The smoking takes you away from the game whether you're using VR or not, and typing is meant to be done while staring at the screen. You shouldn't have to look down at the keyboard, or else you aren't practiced enough. Strong typing skills are necessary not just for gaming, but for business/school activities as well.
 

Rickenbacker

Rickenbacker
Finally got to try it! And it sure gives you a whole new sense of immersion, when you can look freely around the cockpit, stretch a bit to see the front of your ship and keep enemies in view in dogfights without effort. It's a much bigger difference from the TrackIR I normally use than I had expected.

On the minus side, I found the view low-res and blurry. To read the text on the various panels, I had to look directly at it and hold my head very still. The menus were pretty hard to navigate, as most of them were too blurry to read. Perhaps a settings issue?
 

DaveB

DaveB
This beta is making me want an Oculus. I was firmly resolved to wait until CV1 before buying but... CURSE YOU FDEV!!!!!! :p
 

hypergreatthing

H
personally i'm waiting for release of the rift.
DK2 looks interesting, but then i found it out uses the same screen as galaxy s3 for the display. Those pentile squiggles all over the place? no thank you.
 

madmossy

M
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alpharesearch

A
burzum said:
Anyone knows how to reset the elite graphics configuration from outside the game? Any config file or registry?

When I start ED now it comes up as a huge window but stays white and nothing happens. This happen after I disconnected the Rift.
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It is a text based config file under: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\
 

Druid

Druid
Much as I respect anyones right to spend their money any way they choose , I cant see the reasoning to spend all that cash on a DK2 when it is clearly an unfinsihsed bit of kit. Once it has hi res screens that are pixel perfect in every way I just dont get it.

If you can afford to buy these toys just to see what the future might bring then fine, good on you. The rest of us will probably wait until it actually offers what it should, eventually.
 

Ryder35

R
katscan said:
Just because you can use Oculus for 10 hours doesn't mean you SHOULD use Oculus for 10 hours. Agreed, I think its a great system (haven't personally tried it), but to think that there is no eye strain or no ill-effect from having your eyes focus at close range for extended periods of time without stopping is ludicrous. The fact of the matter is, yes, Oculus is more immersive, but monitors will continue to be superior for extended gameplay for a majority of people.
Click to expand...

Why is it that the most vociferous people in this thread are uninformed and have obviously not used the rift for any length of time. Yes the screen is close to your eyes but the lenses make your eyes focus on infinity, just like in real life. There is NO eye strain involved unless you have it set up wrong. Before you accuse others real life experience of the rift of being "ludicrous" maybe do some research?
 

[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
Druid said:
Much as I respect anyones right to spend their money any way they choose , I cant see the reasoning to spend all that cash on a DK2 when it is clearly an unfinsihsed bit of kit. Once it has hi res screens that are pixel perfect in every way I just dont get it.

If you can afford to buy these toys just to see what the future might bring then fine, good on you. The rest of us will probably wait until it actually offers what it should, eventually.
Click to expand...

Fair enough to each their own however is that not a little like saying do not buy a 5 inch b/w tv in the 1940s because you want to wait for full colour HD?

Tech improves. You want to wait for perfection fine but in the mean time I al having fun with the dk2 and so long as I sell it at the right time it wont even cost much :)
 

RiftFlyer

R
Sorry to the EU/UK guys still waiting but I am onto my second dev kit2 and probably delaying one of you guys by a bit. I reported a faulty cable when I first got mine (over a month ago) and I just received shipping notice for a replacement. They can't replace the cable as each camera and head unit is calibrated to its own specific cable.

I was having issues with the unit powering off due to what looks like a partial short in the cable (I could trigger it by flexing the cable where it splits on the head strap). I must say although it took over a month to get resolved I'm very impressed with support. They are sending out the replacement before getting the old one back.
 

SAB380

SAB380
Dr Zachary Smith said:
Well they aren't just remotely similar they just are similar, only the HMZ has a better image quality, yes yes I get it about the lenses I tried a DK1, essentially what you are getting is quite similar once you add head tracking with a HMZ I bought the HMZ because I preferred it to the DK1 I had tried both before purchase, but that isn't really what my initial point was which is wearing something on your face intended to block out the real world every time you play a game is a right royal pain in the behind. Something no amount of research and development is gonna change for a long time I suspect.
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Well I think we've established that you personally don't enjoy having the helmet on your head. But for the rest of us, it's not a big deal and pretty instantly becomes unnoticeable.

Maybe at the 4hr mark it may get tiring, but I'd find the same with a monitor at that point...
 
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cherbert

cherbert
Druid said:
Much as I respect anyones right to spend their money any way they choose , I cant see the reasoning to spend all that cash on a DK2 when it is clearly an unfinsihsed bit of kit. Once it has hi res screens that are pixel perfect in every way I just dont get it.

If you can afford to buy these toys just to see what the future might bring then fine, good on you. The rest of us will probably wait until it actually offers what it should, eventually.
Click to expand...

Some of us are developers. And those that aren't still contribute by creating demand for new software and contribute to testing of said software. If there weren't any developers or early adopters then there would be no software for you to use on your consumer version. The only reason Frontier implemented Oculus support was because of the demand.

And when you finally buy your Consumer version that "offers what it should" - you will have developers and early adopters to thank for it.
 
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