First try of VR at home - with Riftcat and a Moto G5 Plus - love it!

[Spruxxx]

I first tried Elite in VR at FX17, queued for nearly an hour to try 5 minutes with an Oculus Rift. Didn't have access to a high end VR headset (well kinda, developer Hololens and GearVR at work doesn't count right), so I figured I had to give it a go. Totally thought it was worth it

When I saw the recent newsletter and YT video about using an Android phone I had to try it. Wasn't too fussed about low res and illegible text, I just wanted to get that sense of space again (no pun intended).

And for all its limitations, I'm impressed! If anyone was thinking of testing it out, do it! For me it's just a case of waiting for a next gen headset to invest in now. This will keep me entertained in short bursts until then!

Some context:

1. I have an old gaming PC from 2011. But the spec is decent (SSD, 20Gb RAM etc), plus I added a 980Ti and Gsync monitor last year. Elite flies at 2k with that card, so no worries on the GPU front.
2. I'm using a VR Primus VX3 headset with a Motorola G5 Plus
3. Currently testing with the lowest quality stream settings at 1080p in Riftcat to keep things smooth and minimise artefacts. I've turned up the render scale to 150% in advance settings to get more legibility on the text, it's performing acceptably.
4. I started a USB tether but the cable was quite short and therefore restrictive, so I tried wifi, and was pleasantly surprised that it worked OK. And only 2.4Ghz to boot. I'm close to the router, which may help. Cable free VR whoo hoo


However, it prompted a couple of questions for me, perhaps someone with more experience can help...

1. I grabbed a Steam key, installed SteamVR and downloaded a second installation of Elite, only to realise that the game has native VR and that probably wasn't necessary. However it does provide the benefit that I can configure Steam Elite just for VR. Would it be better to just run native?
2. There are more potential choices for a next gen headset than before, I'm still reading and learning the pros and cons.

Original Rift
Original Vive
Pimax 8k
Vive Pro
Oculus Go
Vive rival to the Go?
Next gen Rift

Correct me if I'm wrong, but for PC gaming it seems like I should wait to see how Pimax 8k vs Vive Pro vs next gen Rift actually fare, and then get a better PC to suit. Bring on hi res, no letterboxes, no excessive flaring, 1-2 hours of lightweight comfort and no cables. I can dream eh

 

[cmdrrdmc]

The steam version will open up SteamVR, so that might theoretically reduce performance due to the extra overhead. However, lots of people have reported no performance loss using steam ED with a Rift, so it may be negligible. You could use EDProfiler to toggle between VR/Monitor settings in the standalone instead of having two copies around.

Pimax is still an unknown. HTC just released the Vive Pro, so I don't see them releasing a real next gen headset for a while. Oculus GO is more meant as a replacement for mobile phone VR. It only has 3 degrees of freedom, and won't support Elite so that's not an option. Oculus is coming out with a more powerful mobile headset with touch controllers and 6 dof currently known as Santa Cruz probably sometime this year. It's still probably gonna use a system on a chip, so I doubt it will run ED either. Considering that, I doubt we'll see a successor to the Rift until 2019 at least. So your options right now are see how Pimax winds up, or get a Rift/Vive now.

 

[Retrograde]

You're looking at upcoming headsets, but I think you should consider adding Microsoft Mixed Reality to your list of considerations. As mentioned in another thread, WMR works fine with Elite, even if not run through Steam. Compared with Rift and Vive, I'll also add the following: cheaper, easier to set up, higher resolution*, stable controllers since 0803 update. Honestly, I think WMR is a better purchase than Rift and Vive right now, but I'm sure some will disagree.

I'm using the HP WMR set, but the Odyssey seems to be the best option. More expensive, though.

* All the WMR headsets are higher resolution than non-pro Vive and Rift. Odyssey WMR is same resolution as Vive Pro.

 

[Spruxxx]

The steam version will open up SteamVR, so that might theoretically reduce performance due to the extra overhead. However, lots of people have reported no performance loss using steam ED with a Rift, so it may be negligible. You could use EDProfiler to toggle between VR/Monitor settings in the standalone instead of having two copies around.

Pimax is still an unknown. HTC just released the Vive Pro, so I don't see them releasing a real next gen headset for a while. Oculus GO is more meant as a replacement for mobile phone VR. It only has 3 degrees of freedom, and won't support Elite so that's not an option. Oculus is coming out with a more powerful mobile headset with touch controllers and 6 dof currently known as Santa Cruz probably sometime this year. It's still probably gonna use a system on a chip, so I doubt it will run ED either. Considering that, I doubt we'll see a successor to the Rift until 2019 at least. So your options right now are see how Pimax winds up, or get a Rift/Vive now.

Thanks yeah makes sense. I'm inclined to wait for the eventual release of the Pimax and see if it achieves its aims.

You're looking at upcoming headsets, but I think you should consider adding Microsoft Mixed Reality to your list of considerations. As mentioned in another thread, WMR works fine with Elite, even if not run through Steam. Compared with Rift and Vive, I'll also add the following: cheaper, easier to set up, higher resolution*, stable controllers since 0803 update. Honestly, I think WMR is a better purchase than Rift and Vive right now, but I'm sure some will disagree.

I'm using the HP WMR set, but the Odyssey seems to be the best option. More expensive, though.

* All the WMR headsets are higher resolution than non-pro Vive and Rift. Odyssey WMR is same resolution as Vive Pro.

Ah yes good point, I haven't looked at any of those in detail yet. I'll do that. So in fact I think I'll wait for the Pimax, and see how it stacks up to these. If it doesn't, I can decide whether to get a current gen Rift / Vive set for less, a WMR set, or wait [up] The Vive Pro doesn't seem to be getting much love atm