First time in VR. Holy Mary, Mother of God.
- Thread starter scadh
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You have to use the existing controls, the VR controllers aren't supported (you may get the buttons to work but that's it). A bit of remapping might be helpful. And if you can touch type that'll help a lot. Also Voice Attack is well worth looking in to for VR.Can I ask about the control methods while using the Quest 2 ?
I use HOTAS and keyboard for flight nav and mouse for menus etc, would that still be possible or do you have to use VR controls only ?
Asking because my lad wants to buy one and I'm tempted to split the cost so I can play Elite
Fab, I can't touch type per say but I don't use so many keys that I would have trouble not seeing them, I think I'm falling off the fence towards buying now, cheers
Yes, it gets better. I got really sick during my first week of VR, as the brain has to get used to seeing motion without feeling it. It's that disconnect between your eyes and your vestibular system. Eventually your brain will adapt. That said, I still get sick in the SRV to this day; my kingdom for a hovercraft!
BTW, I notice that if I'm away from VR for a long time, I need a day to readjust to it. I don't get sick like I did when I first got VR, but I do feel a little bit dizzy after a long break. Unlike some folks, I still get enjoyment out of 2D gaming, so my Rift is more likely to be in the closet than on my head these days (though ED is pretty much a VR exclusive now).
Ian Phillips
Volunteer Moderator
You do get used to it! One thing I do in the SRV is to focus on the scanner so that it is a stable constant in the field of vision. This helps prevent the disorientation you get when focussing on the ground or horizon, which moves around far too much for confort
3D mining is one of my favorite things!
3D mining is one of my favorite things!
While you're getting used to it come off as soon as you start feeling sick. Do some casual flying while you acclimate to it then once your fine with flying in open space do some more intense stuff. Try flying a slf round the outside of a station to get used to moving around things the try going down to a planet and doing some srv driving. Also have a go at cqc in vr now that there's people playing again its great fun
CQC also shows off one of the big advantages of VR - you can see your target as long as it's still in view of the canopy, and it's much easier (and keeps the sense of orientation better) than mouselook. Not sure how it compares to TrackIR though, I've never tried that.
The option to keep the horizon level and instead move the SRV helped me a great deal. The only downside is that you lose a bit of perspective about how steep a slope you're on.You do get used to it! One thing I do in the SRV is to focus on the scanner so that it is a stable constant in the field of vision. This helps prevent the disorientation you get when focussing on the ground or horizon, which moves around far too much for confort
For me this helps a lot too, unfortunately I find a much bigger downside is that when you slide off a cliff and end up upside down in a hole, the crotch menu is now upside down and behind your head...
I'm getting delivery of my Rift S tomorrow.
Soon I too shall be throwing up whilst saying how wonderful it is!
Soon I too shall be throwing up whilst saying how wonderful it is!
I've used Elite in the past but having just got the VR bug a few months back with the Quest 2 and now the HP reverb G2 plus a thrustmaster hotas purchase , I have a new found interest back in Elite dangerous.
It's quite an amazing immersive experience, sitting in your ship in VR as you get moved into the landing pad on a space station, I don't think I felt quite the excitement since that day when I was 14 (36 years ago) and booted it up for the first time on my BBC microcomputer.
The way you can just look around you whilst dog fitting in an asteroid belt just doesn't come close when using a monitor.
In terms of nausea, I am actually quite susceptible to it in VR. I do racing Sims aswell and other games. I can only last 10mins in anything standing up that moves. Reversing in racing sims is the same, it just brings on a headache.
But Elite I haven't had any issues with, I've spent 2 or 3 hours in it without any problem. The main thing is to make sure you have the right fps, it really needs 60fps or more. Any lower and you risk getting nausea. some people can handle it ,many can't. Get yourself something that shows the frame rate and check its fast enough.
It's quite an amazing immersive experience, sitting in your ship in VR as you get moved into the landing pad on a space station, I don't think I felt quite the excitement since that day when I was 14 (36 years ago) and booted it up for the first time on my BBC microcomputer.
The way you can just look around you whilst dog fitting in an asteroid belt just doesn't come close when using a monitor.
In terms of nausea, I am actually quite susceptible to it in VR. I do racing Sims aswell and other games. I can only last 10mins in anything standing up that moves. Reversing in racing sims is the same, it just brings on a headache.
But Elite I haven't had any issues with, I've spent 2 or 3 hours in it without any problem. The main thing is to make sure you have the right fps, it really needs 60fps or more. Any lower and you risk getting nausea. some people can handle it ,many can't. Get yourself something that shows the frame rate and check its fast enough.
I can't stress enough that switching Horizon Lock on is worth trying.
Can take some getting used to the srv moving around you but persevere with it because it can be a huge help.
Thanks, everyone, for the many useful suggestions! I am going to play a few more sessions today to see how things go. A few thoughts, some related to other posts in this thread:
- The Steam overlay evidently has a built-in FPS display, though I'm unsure whether it will work in VR; I'll give it a go and see where I'm at.
- I use a Thrustmaster T1600M HOTAS controller. It has many buttons. Most are on the stick or throttle and easy to memorize. There are also a dozen buttons plus a slider on the stick base that require moving the hand off the stick to press. My ED mapping uses all of them, mostly for stuff like landing gear, silent running, etc. I'm worried those will difficult to find in the heat of the moment without being able to see them in my peripheral vision. If I do elect to go full VR, I think VoiceAttack is going to be a must-buy. Even though I'm positive that my wife will sneak up when I can't see her and shoot a phone video of her 50-year old husband sitting in the dark with his joystick and VR goggles shouting "Open cargo bay! Fire group 2! Switch to infrared mode!" and post it on social media for my friends and family to mock.
- I spent a few minutes playing with some of the demo and "explore VR" content on the Oculus store and found it very cool. It made me think of other ways VR might be enjoyed. My favorite type of games are tactical, turn-based strategy (XCom, Gears Tactics, etc). I think seeing the battlefield in VR in such a game would be incredible. A game my son and I completed a few years back (even my wife played with us) is Alien Isolation, and I'm certain that would be terrifying in VR! Can't wait to re-install and try that one out. Racing or first-person-shooter games would surely be impressive but I know I couldn't handle it (even in 2D, it's too much for me). I could see it being VERY cool for a baseball game, the pitcher-batter view especially. There were even some free videos to watch that were breathtaking, like skydiving. Which, of course, immediately led me to think of an altogether different type of video that might be enhanced by VR -- a fact that I am POSITIVE is not lost on my 15-year old son.
If you’re interested in performance monitoring, the Oculus
A quick’n’easy method is CTRL+F in Elite - it shows your FPS on the monitor, though it’ll either be 90 or 45 depending on ASW kicking in. It gives a rough idea of what you’re getting though.
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Welcome to VR! It's pretty cool stuff, and is a game-changer for combat in Elite. Mentioned already re headaches - this was definitely the IPD setting (distance between lenses), as when it's not right for your eyes, your brain and eyes are straining to build the 3d world. Once I had that sorted, no more headaches.
Alien Isolation in VR is terrifying. Good luck with that! Half Life: Alyx is also an amazing, scary, well-made game, and if you're gonna play Alien, then you can handle Alyx, and Alyx was made for VR, while Alien was modded. This makes Alyx a much better VR "experience". So many other apps and games, some that entertain for a few minutes, others, like Google Earth can absorb hours of time.
Alien Isolation in VR is terrifying. Good luck with that! Half Life: Alyx is also an amazing, scary, well-made game, and if you're gonna play Alien, then you can handle Alyx, and Alyx was made for VR, while Alien was modded. This makes Alyx a much better VR "experience". So many other apps and games, some that entertain for a few minutes, others, like Google Earth can absorb hours of time.
And engineer it for maximum speed, with some green contrails!
Sorry that I don't have any useful VR information for you, but I wanted to chip in to say that write up was absolutely fantastic!!
It's got me excited to hopefully one day try Elite in VR
Alright, it's clinched. 90 seconds into my 2nd go-round with ED in VR, I experienced an event that sealed my fate -- I'm getting a Quest 2 of my own.
When the game loaded, I was in the hanger in my son's Krait. I launched and, just for fun, decided to punch it on the way out of the station. Well beyond the speed limit. I lined up with the airlock from a distance and stomped the gas. Almost immediately I noticed a light on the other side of the airlock fog. A ship was coming in. A big one. A Beluga Liner. As it emerged from the fog nearly directly in front of me, I literally jumped back in my chair and exclaimed the foulest of curse words. Not even joking, it was akin to the startling moment when someone pulls out in front of you in traffic while driving your car. It totally sucked and kicked so much as$ at the same time. Our ships collided and the Krait went spinning into the airlock wall and outside into the rails and thru the holograms. Flight Control was bawling me out and I racked up a fine for my son.
It was blissful.
Never going to play ED any other way again.
When the game loaded, I was in the hanger in my son's Krait. I launched and, just for fun, decided to punch it on the way out of the station. Well beyond the speed limit. I lined up with the airlock from a distance and stomped the gas. Almost immediately I noticed a light on the other side of the airlock fog. A ship was coming in. A big one. A Beluga Liner. As it emerged from the fog nearly directly in front of me, I literally jumped back in my chair and exclaimed the foulest of curse words. Not even joking, it was akin to the startling moment when someone pulls out in front of you in traffic while driving your car. It totally sucked and kicked so much as$ at the same time. Our ships collided and the Krait went spinning into the airlock wall and outside into the rails and thru the holograms. Flight Control was bawling me out and I racked up a fine for my son.
It was blissful.
Never going to play ED any other way again.
Wait until you come out of hyperspace into a close binary system, with the secondary star right in your line of sight...