TrackIR is absolutely not comparable to VR. It's very limited viewing angles and the horrible "head move eyes still" thing in Elite made it uncomfortable to use. Even with the limited sensors on the DK2, you have a much fuller range of movement - and of course a full 3D view.
This one's more expensive but is reversible (for lefties or righties)
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/283315-Thrustmaster-T-16000M-FCS-HOTAS-official-thread
Did quite a few years with trackIR, awesome piece of kit. Two completely different things tho, no comparison. One is headtracking, the other is the matrix
Beware. Once you've had a chance to really play Elite in VR, you'll never want to go back to 2D.
*six months playing with the Vive and counting*
I must be in the very small minority
I was ultra excited to get a Rift, but when the day finally arrived and I got over the awe of gazing into space from the bridge of my Imp Cutter, things started to intrude on my happiness.
The VERY low resolution makes combat very trying, especially when ships are at a distance - it's very difficult to aim accurately as everything blends into a mass of pixels.
The Rift suffers from 'godray' lens blooming which, on the 2 rifts I tried, caused a really distracting halo effect around bright objects.
Finally, and again this might be just my issue, but I found myself having issues keeping things in focus. The smallest movement of the rift on the head causes the 'sweet spot' to move and you just get blurred vision - readjusting the rift helps sometimes, but I found the constant discomfort in losing clarity all the time overly distracting and ultimately impossible to deal with.
I cannot speak for the Vive as I live too far from a demonstration.
I REALLY want VR, and I am happy that it's here. I just hope the next gen doesn't take too long to get here.
I was ultra excited to get a Rift, but when the day finally arrived and I got over the awe of gazing into space from the bridge of my Imp Cutter, things started to intrude on my happiness.
The VERY low resolution makes combat very trying, especially when ships are at a distance - it's very difficult to aim accurately as everything blends into a mass of pixels.
The Rift suffers from 'godray' lens blooming which, on the 2 rifts I tried, caused a really distracting halo effect around bright objects.
Finally, and again this might be just my issue, but I found myself having issues keeping things in focus. The smallest movement of the rift on the head causes the 'sweet spot' to move and you just get blurred vision - readjusting the rift helps sometimes, but I found the constant discomfort in losing clarity all the time overly distracting and ultimately impossible to deal with.
I cannot speak for the Vive as I live too far from a demonstration.
I REALLY want VR, and I am happy that it's here. I just hope the next gen doesn't take too long to get here.
Did quite a few years with trackIR, awesome piece of kit. Two completely different things tho, no comparison. One is headtracking, the other is the matrix
This ^^^
Although having a TrackIR does make it easier to go back to the monitor when I choose to do so.
Pretty much what 777Driver said. I have an Nvidia 3dVision surround setup and TrackIR 5 which was great. Haven't touched it one single time since my DK2 arrived >2 yeas ago.
I decided to bite the bullet and give the Vive another go last night.
I managed to scour around and get some advice on gfx tweaking to fix some of the issues I was having (such as modifying the super-sampling to increase the text clarity which was bugging me, etc).
It's obviously not perfect still, but definitely was a much better experience this time around.
And OMG! I hadn't experienced the Anaconda in VR! (I only had my Vulture before)
It's g huge inside that thing! Heh! You certainly notice the size difference. I am desperate to try some of the other ships as well.
On a side note, though - I've never had any problems really with nausea in VR games (in any of the previous stuff I've played) - apart from the occasional wobbly feeling sometimes - but I was starting to suffer from this a fair bit during combat. Anyone else find this at all? And is there a way to reduce it?
Also, do people find combat seems to be a damn sight harder in VR?
Maybe it's just me (or NPCs have changed again recently or something) - but I found myself struggling to keep shields intact and stuff while doing dog fights in VR (I never usually have much problem).
Just some thoughts...
I managed to scour around and get some advice on gfx tweaking to fix some of the issues I was having (such as modifying the super-sampling to increase the text clarity which was bugging me, etc).
It's obviously not perfect still, but definitely was a much better experience this time around.
And OMG! I hadn't experienced the Anaconda in VR! (I only had my Vulture before)
It's g huge inside that thing! Heh! You certainly notice the size difference. I am desperate to try some of the other ships as well.
On a side note, though - I've never had any problems really with nausea in VR games (in any of the previous stuff I've played) - apart from the occasional wobbly feeling sometimes - but I was starting to suffer from this a fair bit during combat. Anyone else find this at all? And is there a way to reduce it?
Also, do people find combat seems to be a damn sight harder in VR?
Maybe it's just me (or NPCs have changed again recently or something) - but I found myself struggling to keep shields intact and stuff while doing dog fights in VR (I never usually have much problem).
Just some thoughts...
I play E: D in VR, and I have several ships. The bridge on the Anaconda is huge (I knew it was big in normal 2D, but in VR it is massive), while the cockpit of the Sidewinder is so small I really don't want to stand up in case I bang my head on the canopy (honestly). In combat you can get eyes on target much faster than in 2D, and just holding in space and looking around is beautiful. The only problem I have is when driving the SRV, and then I get motion sickness.
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VR is something I'm looking forward too. What scares me is the idea of my wife going to pat my neck every now and then and repeatedly joking me, but I could face that.
And of course the expensive equipment I still need to buy to upgrade my pc. Two costly video cards and some more RAM. But I could face that.
And of course the expensive price of and Oculus CV1... but I could face that....
What truely scarese me is I have no idea of how much time I could spend playing ED in VR before feeling sick and tired. Could you VR addicted tell me how do you feel after a long (say 4-5 hours) VR session? Do your eyes bleed? Do your head hurts? Do you feel nausea?
but I could face that.......
And of course the expensive equipment I still need to buy to upgrade my pc. Two costly video cards and some more RAM. But I could face that.
And of course the expensive price of and Oculus CV1... but I could face that....
What truely scarese me is I have no idea of how much time I could spend playing ED in VR before feeling sick and tired. Could you VR addicted tell me how do you feel after a long (say 4-5 hours) VR session? Do your eyes bleed? Do your head hurts? Do you feel nausea?
but I could face that.......
Had the same effect when I tried the DK2 for the first time at a friend's place. Amazing. Even that the resolution was poor which took away a bit of my expectations, the beeing inside the game feeling was super awesome. Then I got the CV1 this June and the resulution was better than expected. Elite is one of the best games for VR.
But try other games as well. A Formular 1 race in Project Cars is another great experience. 2 weeks ago, I played INSIDE (awesome 2D game made in a 3D engine, successor of LIMBO) using the Cinema Mode of VorpX. That was truly another amazing experience. 1st of all the game is pure art transporting an awesome atmophere. And playing it on a huge cinema screen got me deep inside the 2D game which made playing this game a fantastic experience.
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I play for 2 or 3 hours max without any problems. Driving the SRV can make you feel sick a bit as it's pretty shaky.
With the Vive, I have played for entire afternoons with minimal queasiness (in most VR games).
Elite, however is a different kettle of fish depending on what you are doing.
(Bear in mind this is my personal experience) - if you are doing some simple flying around at a leisurely pace (trading, exploring, etc) I've found there's not much problem with nausea etc.
However, if you start getting into more fast and zippy dogfights with spinning and jerking movements, this is when the nausea feelings start to happen.
Now, it's not been anywhere near heavy-nausea for me; just the occasional few moments of "Ooh, that feels a bit weird. I need to stop for a moment" - this usually dissipates pretty quickly and I can continue on without much problem.
So, to recap, there is (for me) a slight nausea there at times of more evasive flying, but for the most part, it is a grand experience!
For a little context here, I am someone who cannot use pretty much any ride at a theme park that spins without getting severely sick from it, so this was always a huge fear about VR for me - I am happy to report that it has rarely been a problem for me ever. Elite (and one other space game) is the first time I've had any weird feelings (mostly because of the g-force-less spinning) - your brain gets tricked because when you spin you expect some sort of g-force and the absence of it makes your brain freak out! Hehe!)
I think it's what you get used to. I rarely use the oblique-disc-shaped radar anymore because it's so easy to eyeball your opponents. This means that on the few occasions I've found myself in a combat situation with a normal monitor, I do feel like I'm wearing blinkers.
If you use the scanner properly to give yourself the spacial awareness in the middle of a firefight then there is a good chance you'll find the extra resolution a standard monitor gives you will be an advantage.
For me?.. Well put it this way, I'm not exactly the greatest pilot in the world. I doubt I would now be Combat Elite if it weren't for my VR headset.
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With the Vive, I have played for entire afternoons with minimal queasiness (in most VR games).
Elite, however is a different kettle of fish depending on what you are doing.
(Bear in mind this is my personal experience) - if you are doing some simple flying around at a leisurely pace (trading, exploring, etc) I've found there's not much problem with nausea etc.
However, if you start getting into more fast and zippy dogfights with spinning and jerking movements, this is when the nausea feelings start to happen.
Now, it's not been anywhere near heavy-nausea for me; just the occasional few moments of "Ooh, that feels a bit weird. I need to stop for a moment" - this usually dissipates pretty quickly and I can continue on without much problem.
So, to recap, there is (for me) a slight nausea there at times of more evasive flying, but for the most part, it is a grand experience!
For a little context here, I am someone who cannot use pretty much any ride at a theme park that spins without getting severely sick from it, so this was always a huge fear about VR for me - I am happy to report that it has rarely been a problem for me ever. Elite (and one other space game) is the first time I've had any weird feelings (mostly because of the g-force-less spinning) - your brain gets tricked because when you spin you expect some sort of g-force and the absence of it makes your brain freak out! Hehe!)
That's good news as I'm not subject to nausea when riding rollercoasters or such. And I very welcome personal experiences. The stuff to run VR is very expensive and I'm not lucky to know any guy that could make me try VR before buy. I need to be shure I will not regret the effort to set my rig for VR. Thanks!
The VR sub-forum has lots of advice on this but my thoughts are...
When you first get a HMD, I'd suggest you spend some time fiddling with the HMD straps, IPD setting and eye/screen distance settings to get the display in the right position as well as being comfortable first. The devices one menu is good enough for the first pass at this.
For Elite, just park on the surface in a large station (worst frame rate position for my Vive) and fiddle with the graphic options to get a reasonable frame rate here. It does not have to be buttery smooth, but if it judders badly as you turn your head here, you may have stomach issues when flying.
Supposedly it is low frame-rates more than perceived movement that cause the nausea.
When it looks good while docked, fly a slower ship and just fly around or do some trade runs until you get your VR-legs. Adjusting your graphic options as required. Avoid fast ships, dog-fighting, and especially the buggy for now.
If you get any feelings of nausea, STOP NOW. This is because you can condition yourself to feel nauseous as soon as you put the headset on if you try to push-through. Just wait until you feel ok again, then try again. You will build up your resistance pretty quickly if you have problems.
Move on to fighters and res zones once you can generally fly without issue. I can fly/drive for several hours without any issues at all now but it can take a while to build up to this, dependent on your own constitution and graphic settings.
For reference, I had no problems in my big/slow Cutter almost straight away. It took me about a week before I could fly fighters in combat comfortably and a whole month before the buggy was no problem, but I didn't use/practice the buggy much.
Because the frame rate is so significant, I'd say you want a good graphic card (Min 1070) before buying an HMD to get a good experience without sacrificing too much fidelity.
Me too. I can take it on a large open plain, but around buildings...arrrfff. My frame rates are good.
Some things that worked for me are switching to lowest graphics settings. Not just for frame rate, but having less detail seemed to help.
The Lock to Horizon option in the options menu is a must for me. That made things much better.
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Ooh - I hovered over the purchase button for Project Cars the other night, but decided against it for the moment.
What's it like? Is it any good?