Eye/Head Tracking or Three Monitors?

Kentai

K
Hi everyone. Really enjoying Elite so far and am looking to take the experience to the next level. I'm trying to decide between pursuing eye/head tracking or using three monitors. The price of the tracker I'm looking at (Tobii 4c) is about the same as a third monitor would be (I currently use one for the game and the second with my browser tabs). Here's my pros and cons list I've come up with thus far:

Eye/Head Tracking:
Pros -
  • This would seem to provide vertical movement as well as horizontal.
  • No seams as I look around the cockpit since it's all on one screen
  • I free up my second monitor to use browser tabs (inara/eddb).
Cons -
  • May not produce the sensation of having the cockpit wrap around like three monitors could do.
  • You have to be within 95cm of the tracker strip (37 inches). I think I have this covered though as I don't sit too far away.

Three Monitors
Pros -
  • Since the view remains static this could be less disorienting.
  • Monitors could be configured to give the sensation of the cockpit wrapping around.
  • There are uses outside of Elite for a third monitor.
Cons -
  • There would be obvious seams in the view created by the borders of each monitor.
  • Unless I get a fourth monitor I would have to tab out of the game to visit reference websites or do anything else.
  • May require a great deal of tweaking to avoid distortion in the side monitors.

At first I was considering combining both features but after watching a video of someone doing this I decided that the monitor seam that moves around as you look around would be totally distracting and immersion breaking. Plus this is more price prohibitive at the moment. I'd love to hear what you guys think and your experiences with either of these approaches. Thanks for your time and I hope to see you all in the black! o7
 

Garand1987

G
Have you considered an oculus? Its a great way to play the game. Its hard to describe the scale of everything until you’ve tried it in VR.
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
3 monitor and head tracking.
You get make your phone do head tracking if you don't mind looking ridiculous. :D

Works surprisingly well.


Have you looked at ultra-wide curved monitors?
 
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ViperSixAlpha

ViperSixAlpha
I use a TrackIR and play Elite on a 42" TV. There's some software out there you can use to up the resolution to 4k (can't remember what it's called off the top of my head head, sorry). I have a 22" monitor for everything else I run at the same time. I preferred this to my VR headset.
 

Kentai

K
Garand1987 said:
Have you considered an oculus? Its a great way to play the game. Its hard to describe the scale of everything until you’ve tried it in VR.
Click to expand...

I have and may still do that at some point. Obviously price is the initial issue with VR. I'm not sure how my 1060 would do with it. I've also heard it's hard to use for long periods due to heat, weight and general fatigue. Then there's not being able to see anything on my keyboard (just for typing as I do use a HOTAS).

I do like the idea of VR and have heard people rave about it. Just wanted to say what my reservations about it are.
 
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ViperSixAlpha

ViperSixAlpha
Bah, I would recommend staying away from VR for a while yet. To each their own, but I didn't like not being able to read text in game because the resolution is so much lower (and I have a decent setup). That and I use Discord and multiple websites as I play. There are third party programs out there to work around the single screen issue, but the fact remains there's a "sweet spot" with VR headset. If it move or you try to peek outside to see something you have to readjust.
 

BlackSpaceCowboy

BlackSpaceCowboy
ViperSixAlpha said:
Bah, I would recommend staying away from VR for a while yet. To each their own, but I didn't like not being able to read text in game because the resolution is so much lower (and I have a decent setup). That and I use Discord and multiple websites as I play. There are third party programs out there to work around the single screen issue, but the fact remains there's a "sweet spot" with VR headset. If it move or you try to peek outside to see something you have to readjust.
Click to expand...

I have no problem reading text. It's not even slightly difficult to read. But I've always used a good amount of supersampling. Right now, I'm using 1.7 ss on a 2080ti.

I do agree that using external websites while in VR can be a pain. But I doubt I would continue playing ED without VR. In VR you're not playing a game on some monitors. You're transported outside of your room and into the ED galaxy.

Moreover, you can play more than ED in VR.
 

GJ51

GJ51
I had triple monitors a few years ago and then switched to a 34" Dell curved with a 27" monitor for desktop browsing.

I would never go back to triple monitors unless FD eliminated the distortion and actually made the monitors functional without rotating them to the center - and then, only maybe.

I'm looking forward to the new LG 38" with G-sync coming sometime latter this year. ED isn't very demanding unless you use VR. I get 90+ framerates in ED even when playing video on the 27" monitor while playing ED on the 34" using a 980Ti and a Core i7-950 CPU.

I'm looking at a new build toward late Summer this year that should be able to handle ED very easily at 144Ghz based on what I'm seeing on my antiquated setup. My son has a 38" curved Dell on an even less powerful PC and has no major issues pushing pixels to the 38" with a 24" alongside.

For me the large curved screen with another auxiliary screen is a far better setup than triple monitors for ED.

HTH
 

Hullreaver

Hullreaver
ViperSixAlpha said:
I use a TrackIR and play Elite on a 42" TV. There's some software out there you can use to up the resolution to 4k (can't remember what it's called off the top of my head head, sorry). I have a 22" monitor for everything else I run at the same time. I preferred this to my VR headset.
Click to expand...

I run the exact same set up, minus the additional monitor. I just hit the Windows key to minimize and look at my browser when needed. TrackIR makes a huge difference in combat and no need to mess around with VR and not being able to see my keyboard, my beer, etc.
 

Navynuke99

Navynuke99
Kentai said:
It just seems like it would be awkward with the moving seam created by the monitor borders.
Click to expand...

Not in the least- I found very quickly that I don't even notice the transition seams going from monitor to monitor, plus it's handy to be able to have EDD up in the outside corner of one of the outer monitors for easy reference, and it doesn't get too intrusive so as to terribly break the immersion.
 

Crank Larson

Crank Larson
ViperSixAlpha said:
Bah, I would recommend staying away from VR for a while yet. To each their own, but I didn't like not being able to read text in game because the resolution is so much lower (and I have a decent setup). That and I use Discord and multiple websites as I play. There are third party programs out there to work around the single screen issue, but the fact remains there's a "sweet spot" with VR headset. If it move or you try to peek outside to see something you have to readjust.
Click to expand...

Do you use the Vive? As I had that problem with the Vive, so I sold it. Then I bought a Rift in the sale a couple of years ago, and it looks so much better. I'd definitely recommend a Rift over a 3 monitor set-up.
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
If y’all learn to touch type you don’t have to worry about your keyboards when you’ve got geek goggles strapped to your heads. And if you don’t know where your beer is, you don’t deserve a beer!
 
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