Elite Dangerous + VR Setup

[Huntn]

Looking for advice or an established thread/Guide here on the best way to play ED with an Oculus Rift.

1. Can it be played with an xbox 360 wired controller? Xbox 1 wireless controller?
2. I suppose a joystick is reccommended?
3. How to you interact with your ship's side panels?

Thanks! More questions forth coming.

 

[Verlaine]

Huntn,

Welcome to Elite in VR.

You can play with an Xbox controller, but a HOTAS — a stick and throttle combo — would be much better. Additionally, you can control everything, even the interface panels and game menus, from the various dials and buttons on most HOTAS setups.

I use a Saitek — now Logitech — X52 Pro with Elite in VR and love it. Admittedly, it's layout is slightly dated, and it could use a few more buttons and hats. But its throttle shape is sublime. In fact, Elite's in-game stick is modded after the X52.

But other excellent HOTAS setups exist, such as the Logitech X56 and Thrustmaster T1600 (and there are others). Whatever you go with, I'd recommend a HOTAS.

Good luck. Have fun!

 

[loribee]

I actually use a combination of hotas warthog and Xbox controller for elite.

Xbox controller is for SRV and camera suite and hotas is for flying.

I used to think looking at the panels to bring them up was cool, but it's more of a pain if you don't want them. Now I just have one of my hats set to panels and another stick to navigate menus. The the srv I map X + dpad for panels

Actually flying with the hotas is awesome and gives you a lot of control plus it mimics what you're seeing in VR!

 

[Mxpower76]

I use an x52 also. I have the left and right screens bound to a couple buttons so I can look out the windows without a menu popup. Find that in the button settings. You could play with an Xbox controller but I would find even maybe a budget throttle set up.

 

[dree]

I use T1600 hotas for everything, camera, driving, flying, galmap and menu's
I'm very happy with it, lots of buttons.
I also use Voice attack.

 

[OVMorat]

If you can afford a Thrustmaster Warthog, you really should get one. It's way overspecced for Elite Dangerous but it's the last joystick you'll ever buy. Yes, you can argue that the buttons are not ideal for spaceships and you can argue that the stick is a bit stiff for throwing "lock to lock" but really.. the precision and accuracy are outstanding.
Yes, you need pedals too.

It requires advanced man maths but you could possibly justify it on the grounds that it costs about half as much as a new 1080 but lasts much longer

Beware, it's a gateway drug to DCS World and the best flight sims on the market, which also work in VR I bought my whole PC, Monitor, Stick in one hit for Elite Dangerous but ended up playing DCS World instead!

 

[loribee]

Yeah, the warthog is pretty sweet -- I just wish frontier made the landing gear behave like the cargo hatch so I don't need to double-flip the button.

I tried using pedals, but just did not like it, so I've got left and right on the little gray stick on the throttle mapped to yaw when flying and it's working great for me to course correct drift during supercruise and landings.

Not sure about the man maths thing though ... I'm a girl and I'm flying with ok

 

[dree]

I use VA to handle my landing gear but all wat it does is click the L on my key board...
Cargo hatch is also one button (Home key)
I have to say I have a lot of push buttons on my T 1600 stick and I do not know the
concept of those fancy flip buttons from the wartdog

 

[CylonSurfer]

Yeah, the warthog is pretty sweet -- I just wish frontier made the landing gear behave like the cargo hatch so I don't need to double-flip the button.

If you create a profile in the Thrustmaster TARGET program you can get around this - worth setting one up if you have a WH, you can create nice little marcos for PIP pre-sets etc which helps a lot. There are also a lot of advanced features such as the layers as well which are great for getting creative with your binds.

I do agree though, I really wish the gear behaved like the scoop!

 

[loribee]

my current Elite VR/Regular setup ... ships cat included!!

 

[dogbite]

Looking for advice or an established thread/Guide here on the best way to play ED with an Oculus Rift.

1. Can it be played with an xbox 360 wired controller? Xbox 1 wireless controller?
2. I suppose a joystick is reccommended?
3. How to you interact with your ship's side panels?

The game really comes to life with a hotas (X52 here). As to the panels, I just call them up and shut them down with Voice Attack, another must have for ED.

 

[A D]

1. Yes, no problem. Wired Xbox controller is all I use and don't have to keep replacing batteries.
2. I gather, but never used one. Used the Xbox controller since the Xbox 360 days, so muscle memory and have got used to the sensitivity of the thumb-sticks, so all good for me.
3. On the Xbox controller - Hold X button + press "D"pad (left, right, down or up to show relevant panel). Navigate tabs with left or right "bumper", move cursor in panel with "D" pad. push A button to confirm choice.

Comment: Would strongly recommend Voice Attack with a HCS (Astra) voice pack and the EDDI helper app. Total cost around $70.

 

[Huntn]

Thank you all for the advice! I'm thinking as my first foray into VR, that something simple might be advantageous to start with since I won't be able to look at control crib sheets. I do have several joysticks that would qualify for this game, including CH USB Throttle and Stick. Once I get my hands on the OR, I'll give the xbox controller a go in the practise tutorials and see how well that works. If not, I'll break out the CH Stick and Throttle.

1. Yes, no problem. Wired Xbox controller is all I use and don't have to keep replacing batteries.
2. I gather, but never used one. Used the Xbox controller since the Xbox 360 days, so muscle memory and have got used to the sensitivity of the thumb-sticks, so all good for me.
3. On the Xbox controller - Hold X button + press "D"pad (left, right, down or up to show relevant panel). Navigate tabs with left or right "bumper", move cursor in panel with "D" pad. push A button to confirm choice.

Comment: Would strongly recommend Voice Attack with a HCS (Astra) voice pack and the EDDI helper app. Total cost around $70.

Thanks for this advice from you and others about Voice Attack. I have used it previously, but with now using an Oculus Rift headset, my understanding it has a built in mic, anyone know how to configure it to be used with VA, anything tricky about it?

As mentioned above, I'll try the Xbox controller in the ED practise tutorial and see how it feels. Thanks for the tip on using the controller to navigate the ship's panels. Which do you use for throttle, slash reverse?

 

[MadMark]

I use an x52 also. I have the left and right screens bound to a couple buttons so I can look out the windows without a menu popup. Find that in the button settings. You could play with an Xbox controller but I would find even maybe a budget throttle set up.

I also use a x52 pro but I found in VR the Pinki button is auto reversed and when held down the side panels no longer appear, which I thought was a nice touch and saved me having to mess with any settings.

 

[CMDR Scolstice]

Thank you all for the advice! I'm thinking as my first foray into VR, that something simple might be advantageous to start with since I won't be able to look at control crib sheets. I do have several joysticks that would qualify for this game, including CH USB Throttle and Stick. Once I get my hands on the OR, I'll give the xbox controller a go in the practise tutorials and see how well that works. If not, I'll break out the CH Stick and Throttle.



Thanks for this advice from you and others about Voice Attack. I have used it previously, but with now using an Oculus Rift headset, my understanding it has a built in mic, anyone know how to configure it to be used with VA, anything tricky about it?

As mentioned above, I'll try the Xbox controller in the ED practise tutorial and see how it feels. Thanks for the tip on using the controller to navigate the ship's panels. Which do you use for throttle, slash reverse?

Yes voice attack allows you to chose your default sound input and output. Just select the wrench icon on top of voice attack you can chose the appropriate default sound input and output you want

 

[Bugnus]

I am using Warthog HOTAS with Aussiedroid Warthog Elite Scripts which is bless to use (takes a some learning curve though) and VoiceAttack to control panels and some functions. I also do have OVR to display Elite Companion panel and play some tunes while hauling cargo.

I am still after few weeks use (I am quite new Vive user) still amazed immersion feeling what i get.

 

[Frank]

Mark Zuckerberg.. A big Mark in the cons column of whether to buy a CV1

Here's a piece of advice...

Don't buy your games from the Oculus Rift shop. If your connection goes down you lose access to every game, even the simplest of offline ones.

 

[dogbite]

Thanks for this advice from you and others about Voice Attack. I have used it previously, but with now using an Oculus Rift headset, my understanding it has a built in mic, anyone know how to configure it to be used with VA, anything tricky about it?

You can set the Rift to "windows default for mic and headphones (or speakers), Then you just select which record(mic) and playback(speakers or headphones) devices you want to use from Windows (small speaker on the taskbar) as needed.

 

[Alicina]

Improvised Warthog setup

I don't have the space to have my Warthog on my desk. I also prefer a center stick configuration, same as my home built Lancair 320. I moved the Warthog stick forward on its mounting plate and placed an old tower to the left of my workstation with the throttle on it. I move my desk chair to the left, place the pedals at my feet, place the stick on the front of the chair holding it firmly in place with my upper leg. Works fine for me.

 

[imski]

If you get the desk clamps that let you drop the stick and throttle to a more natural "L" shaped arm position you'll find it a lot more comfortable, I use a pair of speaker stands and use Velcro to keep them attached.