Finally off the fence

Toasty

Toasty
So after reading experiences from other gamers I decided to finally come off the fence and bite the bullet. I've bought a Lenovo Explorer.

I know it's an entry model HMD but I'm excited to be able to play ED in VR for the first time when it gets delivered next week.

My question really is: any tips for getting it up and running?
I've got steam and steam VR installed. Anything else I need to install? I've got a pretty decent gaming rig and a HOTAS so that should be ok. Just wondering how to set it all up when it gets delivered and what additional software to install if any.

Thanks in advance for your help!
O7
 
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[VR] Frank_G

[VR] Frank_G
Welcome to the world of VR Elite pilots :)

I am using a Oculus Rift, so no tips about installing software from me.

Once you get into Elite, start with VR medium settings and work your way up or down, depending on the performance you get.
Experiment with HMD settings to increase rendering sharpness. If you have a decent GPU (GTX1080 and above) it helps to move terrain workload from the CPU to the GPU, by using the slider in the graphic settings.

Also installing the game on a SSD helps to reduce or eleminate micro stutter.

I hope this helps :)

o7
 

Toasty

Toasty
Thank you for the tips! very useful. can't wait to give it a try. I've been eyeing this up for a LONG time; just never really had the opportunity to shell out the kind of money for a vive or rift. then i found out that WMRs work with steam VR so that kinda changes things...
 

Aekero

A
Frank_G said:
Welcome to the world of VR Elite pilots :)

I am using a Oculus Rift, so no tips about installing software from me.

Once you get into Elite, start with VR medium settings and work your way up or down, depending on the performance you get.
Experiment with HMD settings to increase rendering sharpness. If you have a decent GPU (GTX1080 and above) it helps to move terrain workload from the CPU to the GPU, by using the slider in the graphic settings.

Also installing the game on a SSD helps to reduce or eleminate micro stutter.

I hope this helps :)

o7
Click to expand...
Wait..there's a slider to offload CPU to GPU? Terrain slider? I must try this!
 

Pville_Piper

Pville_Piper
Warning!!! Prepare to be amazed!
Most commanders end up sitting the docking bay of a larges station for about 10 minutes just watching and being amazed after logging on for the first time...:D
 
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thistle

T
Pville_Piper said:
Warning!!! Prepare to be amazed!
Most commanders end up sitting the docking bay of a larges station for about 10 minutes just watching and being amazed after logging on for the first time...:D
Click to expand...
True. I sat being amazed a couple of nights ago in Obsidian Orbital of all places, watching ships coming and going after landing so I was pointing away from the slot. Seemed to be lots of cruise ships, then I realised nobody seemed to be leaving, just hovering and jostling for space. Then I noticed flashes from weapons. Took off, and cruise ships were getting blown up either in the slot or just outside by the station! Lol. Not sure if the AI was borked, but saw a couple of ships making a right mess of getting through the slot with nobody near them, and then having got lodged, others ships taking them out on the way in/out, then hails of laser fire.

I got outside and watched for a while. The dead husks of 2 or 3 Belugas spinning about, amazing.

Would have been interesting in 2d, was something else in VR.
 

jumpingclear

J
Pville_Piper said:
Warning!!! Prepare to be amazed!
Most commanders end up sitting the docking bay of a larges station for about 10 minutes just watching and being amazed after logging on for the first time...:D
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the low quality my rig is producing means the stations aren't very impressive and produce too much shimmering.

What I find most impressive is the cockpits and I went through my entire fleet or rather fleets as I run more that one account trying out the different ships. The difference of sitting in a 3d cockpit and simply looking at a 2d 'mask' over the view is huge. It is interesting how different some of the ships feel now and the sense of different scale between small ships and large ones.
 

Toasty

Toasty
right. so first impressions. Please know that i have 0 experience with VR and have absolutely no comparison. i'm also not biased towards one or another headset.


full disclosure: i have a i7 6700K, 16gb ram and a 1080 gfx card.


initial set up was somewhat of a pain. while the headset was detected, it threw up a code 43 in device manager. after trying a few things i think i had too many USB devices attached. swapped a few ports, disconnected non essentials and got it working.


Comfortable fit, but do take time to make sure it's comfortable. has a somewhat limited FOV (meaning you can see black around the edges if you look from the corner of your eyes) as if you are looking through binoculars (without the zoom). hard to describe. when playing though you don't notice it because you focus on what's in front. having said that, it has a somewhat limited 'sweet spot' for clarity. meaning if you move your eyes instead of your head and if you don't look straight the sharpness is less. the more you move your eyes, the less sharp it becomes. it means you'll be moving your head a lot (which i suppose is kind of the point.


But, when i started playing with the settings I managed to play it in higher detail which made it look a lot better. however, coming from a high resolution monitor to this IS very different. objects in the distance are far more blurry because of the lower resolution. need to play around with settings a bit more i think...
I would say this though: game changer for me is an understatement. yes its blurry, yes its not as sharp. but your IN the cockpit. and that is a massive difference. can't believe how good it feels. played around with a conda (with fighter bay). the conda cockpit is massive. everything is really large. it's amazing how much your sense of scale changes. I thought it was really cool to see an actual 3D cockpit. you can lean forward and to the sides etc. the holograms on your dashboard now really come into their own. the 3d scanner in the middle of your screen is now truly 3d and made it a lot easier to see where targets are in relation to you. Also had a play with the fighter. REALLY fun. the speed and sensation of speed is phenomenal. dog fighting is REALLY fun!


gameplay is very smooth on my system which is great. have to say, for the price i think it's worth it. I think all VR systems ultimately are hamstrung by resolution unless you get one of the really latest ones. you pay for that of course AND you need a beefy system to get smooth gameplay. having said that all that: I love it!


on a side note: I couldnt see any glare, blurring, streaks or other artifacts. so i'm quite happy with it!


text is also perfectly readable by the way... :)

overall, happy with the purchase.
 

Oheck

Oheck
Pville_Piper said:
Warning!!! Prepare to be amazed!
Most commanders end up sitting the docking bay of a larges station for about 10 minutes just watching and being amazed after logging on for the first time...:D
Click to expand...

That's funny, I was going to post that very sentiment, as I've been using a samsung odyssey plus for about a week. Folks just have no idea how massive that entry is till you get in VR.

Also real impactful flying over terrain. I spent 20 minutes hovering over a dropship I found parked on a planet, looking through the glass at my feet on my asp explorer marvelling at the sense of height. Then I got out of my chair and walked around the cockpit, looked down the ladder to the other pilot chair on the level below.... pretty amazing stuff.
 
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bobtuck

B
Like Toasty and Milner I had a very similar experience.

Bought my Lenovo just before Christmas. I had a Rift two years ago but sold it due to a financial crisis!

This isn't a 'mine is bigger than yours' sorta thing but I prefer the Lenovo over the Rift any day of the week (the fact that the Lenovo cost me half of what a Rift is now going for (£349.99 Argos)) notwithstanding!

The sweet spot is smaller in the Lenovo (you soon never notice) but the clarity of text and general all round sharpness (yes! even in ED) more than makes up for it....not to mention the lightness of the headset and comfort et al

Just to be sure, a mate still has his Rift, so off I went to do a little comparison....was my visual memory failing me or was the Lenovo really that good? Ten seconds after putting the headset on I knew that....for me....I'd never go back to the Rift (the decimal temperature readout in the hologram in front left was the first of many things I noticed....it was mildly blurry....so was most of the rest of anything textual.

Another example....I notice in the start screen, in the hanger with the SRV and ship, I can see very clearly (in the Lenovo) the reflections in the windscreen of the SRV.

Toasty, dont know if it's been mentioned or you already know about it but try swapping the padding on the headset around. It's velcroed so easy to do or swap back. It's not a perfect fit but entirely adequate. It brings your eyes that little bit closer to the lenses and increases the FOV and sweet spot!

...and do try the target render scale already suggested....it works!

Ramble over
 

Toasty

Toasty
Toasty, dont know if it's been mentioned or you already know about it but try swapping the padding on the headset around. It's velcroed so easy to do or swap back. It's not a perfect fit but entirely adequate. It brings your eyes that little bit closer to the lenses and increases the FOV and sweet spot!
Click to expand...


How do you mean 'swap around'?
 

Milner

M
bobtuck said:
.....or you already know about it but try swapping the padding on the headset around. It's velcroed so easy to do or swap back. It's not a perfect fit but entirely adequate. It brings your eyes that little bit closer to the lenses and increases the FOV and sweet spot!

Ramble over
Click to expand...

I've not seen this mentioned and don't know what you mean, link to a guide possible?

Edit. Toasty beat me to it
 
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Rock Hunter

Rock Hunter
I’m only around a month into VR and am still in utter awe of how it changes the game. Ten minutes wasn’t enough for me when I first put my headset on, I spent around an hour and a half flitting between ships and simply staring at the station’s interior.

I’ve got the original Odyssey on the same rig as OP but just a 1070 rather than 1080. The sharpness is excellent, though clearly not as good as screen resolution, and the colours aren’t noticeably different than when I played 2D. The WMRs are well worth consideration IMO.

Does VR make the game easier too? I’ve been asking myself this since I went VR, the tangible sense of scale makes everything seem so easy.

I’d also second the TargetRender hack, made a big difference for me.

Enjoy!
 

Toasty

Toasty
yup, did the target render change. it helped.
played around with hmd quality and ss settings as well. good improvement. very happy with it.

i find the game a bit easier in combat because my situation awareness is better. also, being able to look at something and target it without having to change the bearing of your ship helps!
 

bobtuck

B
Milner said:
I've not seen this mentioned and don't know what you mean, link to a guide possible?

Edit. Toasty beat me to it
Click to expand...

Milner, Toasty it's easy guys.....just peel off the padding on the rear of the headset (it's velcroed on there), peel off the padding at the front of the headset (again velcroed) and swap 'em around. What was on the rear goes on the front and what was on the front goes on the rear.

You'll see that they don't fit/line up as perfectly as before in this situ but it's nothing really. Still very comfy.

The result is your eyes are quite a bit closer to the lenses resulting in a wider FOV and slightly bigger sweet spot.

P.S. the latest Steam update has changed the target render from 1.0 to 2.0 (with a thank you to the community) so nothing to do there!
 
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