Gear VR - it works!

[OVMorat]

After a bit of messing around I got my GearVR working yesterday and I'm very impressed with the results.

I'm not going to make claims vs Rift or PSVR - I've never tried one - but for someone who wants to have a dabble in ED VR and see what the hype is about I'd say it's a solid choice. I ran a couple of missions last night and was able to navigate and trade while reading the text in the cockpit. The galaxy map is STUNNING although tricky to search if you don't know exactly where your keyboard is and there seems to be a bit of an issue with the mouse lining up with the stars when you try to select them.

Otherwise, it looks fantastic! Yes it's fuzzy compared to my monitor, but that's 4k and pin sharp so it's a tough comparison. The biggest win is the head tracking. The GearVR gives really good stable tracking with its extra sensors and being able to free look around at all times is clearly what the ED cockpits were designed for. The interface makes more sense with a proper 3D perspective and the cockpits look great OK, I'm preaching to the choir in this forum!

I thought it might be handy to publish my specs and settings. I wasn't sure what I could expect from my setup when I first started and the initial results were very dissapointing because the lag was several seconds. When I was googling for inspiration there really weren't many data points out there* so perhaps people can use mine and aim off for their own setups.

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S7 (non edge)
Screen set to 2k
running VRidge
Wifi Set to HOTSPOT mode.
Mobile Data Disabled (Just in case).

Headset: Samsung Gear VR gen2 (the black one)
Creative wireless headphones connected to the PC (optional)

PC:
HOTAS - you'll need to map _everything_ My choice is the Warthog Joy/Throttle and Saitek Pro pedals but there are many options
Dino PC - i7 4790k @ 4.5Ghz
16Gb RAM
NVidea 980 (Asus Strix version, 10% factory overclock)
running: Riftcat for GearVR
https://support.riftcat.com/hc/en-us/articles/212489169-How-to-setup-VRidge-in-GearVR
Networking: Cabled Ethernet for Internet (direct to router)
Separate Wifi N card connected to the Wifi Hotspot on the phone.


I had to claim a steam key for Elite Dangerous from my Frontier account and re-download ED. The days of fitting Elite on two floppies are long gone - it's a 24Gb download now!
The procedure to launch is:

Start Riftcat on the PC
(My current settings, Resolution 2560x1440, Framrate 60FPS, Bitrate 30Mbps, Render Scale 149% (I was probably shooting for 150 ) Video Encoder: Media Foundation (Win 10 NVIDEA GEforce) and Experimental HEVC ticked. Tracking source: Phone Sensors Only)
Tell it to search on the Wifi Connection for the phone.


Start VRidge on the Phone, stick it in the Gear VR, check the connection comes up. I tend to keep my thumb over the central face sensor to keep the phone display on as it seems more stable. YMMV.

Once the phone and PC are connected, Riftcat should give you three options. Click on SteamVR Games and SteamVR should start. When it's ready, choose Elite Dangerous from your steam library. If Steam VR is running, Steam should automatically give you the option to start ED in VR Mode. Start it

In ED you should be running automatically in HMD + Headphones mode. If not, select it from settings/graphics. While you're there you can play with the other graphics settings. I haven't finished tweaking yet but I'm getting good results in VR-High mode with no other changes apart from boosting gamma up a bit because I found everything quite dark. I might put it back.

Then it's headset on, headphones on - and up up and away
If anyone else is running a similar setup, I'd appreciate hearing what settings you're using and how happy you are with the results. As you can see, I'm running mainly "Stuff that was great last year" so I'm sure this could be a relatively accessible route to ED VR as long as you don't mind getting a Samsung phone.
Cheers,
Morat

* there was a potentially useful thread Here but it descended into a slagging match pretty quickly

 

[Rowander]

Thank you for this post, I'm starting today with the same setup as you (S7 + Gear 2), as I've tested other methods and they're all pretty bad.

I hope it turns out ok in the end!

 

[Avago Earo]

I experimented with Trinus Vr a couple of years back with a 7" tablet. The best way to deal with the Galaxy map, for me anyway, is to bind your HOTAS controls to it. I use a hat switch to move the pointer between the stars and the throttle 'paddles' (T1600m FCS) to zoom. If this conflicts with other navigation tools, just bind the hotas so you can hold down a modifier key and use the hat. When you use this method the 'circle thing' snaps to the nearest star (or the little blob at the bottom of the stars altitude stick (really don't know the correct terms)), so you don't have to hover over it with a pointer in a hit-and-miss way anymore. I have other buttons to move along and select the star's options such as plot route, bookmark etc etc. Then just use your other key bindings to move to the menu and exit. The same can be done for the System Map. Hope this helps.

 

[Rowander]

After much testing around, I've given up. I can't find Vridge on sideload, it seems it's been ported to "Construct VR", another way of bypassing the Oculus Startup. But with Construct, Vridge does not even load, the phone shows an error screen (something about an unregistered application) and exits. It seems Construct VR is not doing what it needs to do and thus Vridge does not even load.

UPDATE:

It seems there's a way to sign the Vridge application manually. I followed the steps witten in the FAQ in the Riftcat website, and finally was able to run it without errors. This is the page that explains the procedure: https://support.riftcat.com/hc/en-u...ecurity-exception-make-sure-the-apk-is-signed

I've been testing some games and while some of them are playable, like Subnautica, it seems Elite needs some more fiddling around. I can't get a decent framerate no matter how low I set the graphics.

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

I was at Alton Towers theme park the other week and they have a roller coaster ride called Galactica (which used to be called Air) where they added Samsung Gear VR headsets synced to the motion of the ride.

Wasn't impressed at all with the VR experience tbh, in fact has confirmed for me at least that until the field of view and resolution increases I'm not ready for VR.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I was at Alton Towers theme park the other week and they have a roller coaster ride called Galactica (which used to be called Air) where they added Samsung Gear VR headsets synced to the motion of the ride.

Wasn't impressed at all with the VR experience tbh, in fact has confirmed for me at least that until the field of view and resolution increases I'm not ready for VR.

The gear vr is quite a bit poorer than the main sets.
We are talking most likely 90° fov. Rendered to at most 60fps on fairly high latency displays.
And most videos I have seen pushed to the device is at most 320p, maybe 720p if they preload.

I'm not saying the right decision isn't to wait.
This is very very early in when it comes to vr, and most likely a few years from now I will find the rift in a cupboard and shake my head.

But gear vr is very subpar comparison.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

Cool, will have to try this as I do own a Gear VR. I've long wanted to at least try E in VR but just can't justify the price of a Rift or Vive right now.

 

[the100thmonkey]

The gear vr is quite a bit poorer than the main sets.
We are talking most likely 90° fov. Rendered to at most 60fps on fairly high latency displays.
And most videos I have seen pushed to the device is at most 320p, maybe 720p if they preload.

I'm not saying the right decision isn't to wait.
This is very very early in when it comes to vr, and most likely a few years from now I will find the rift in a cupboard and shake my head.

But gear vr is very subpar comparison.

The GearVR is 101° fov at 60Hz. The resolution of the screen is determined by the app. My S8+ required that I set the resolution to its maximum for GearVR.

One thing I can say, not having used GearVR for this game, is that the SDE is significantly less noticeable on the S8+ than on my HDK2. Whether this is due to superior pixel density or is a result of Samsung's partnership with Oculus I don't know. I do know that since GearVR is free for many people (it comes with the phone for S8, S8+ and Note 8 users), I wouldn't sniff at it. If you're lucky and 60Hz doesnt cause motion sickness, I'd say it's a good gateway to VR that will help determine if you want to lay down a lot of cash on a more powerful dedicated headset.

 

[Rowander]

If you're lucky and 60Hz doesnt cause motion sickness, I'd say it's a good gateway to VR that will help determine if you want to lay down a lot of cash on a more powerful dedicated headset.

You're right, that's exactly what many people are using it for, and I'm on that list. A 1080 is coming my way just because of the initial testing done with the Gear VR. I plan on wating until the new MS Mixed Reality sets are around and then decide what's the best one to buy. But Gear VR is definetly a great starting place if you haven't experienced VR and are on the fence about it.

About resolution, both samsung S7 and S8 have more pixel density than current CV1 HMDs, and a little less FOV, so it's logical that SDE is lessened.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

You're right, that's exactly what many people are using it for, and I'm on that list. A 1080 is coming my way just because of the initial testing done with the Gear VR. I plan on wating until the new MS Mixed Reality sets are around and then decide what's the best one to buy. But Gear VR is definetly a great starting place if you haven't experienced VR and are on the fence about it.

About resolution, both samsung S7 and S8 have more pixel density than current CV1 HMDs, and a little less FOV, so it's logical that SDE is lessened.

Not only less SDE, but the AMOLED displays should be a full RGBRGB pixel structure.
This to me is the largest drawback for this first gen panels, now a lot will persist and say you can't really tell the difference, well yes we can and doubly so in VR.

Think about it, in reality with a pentile display the CV1 (and vive) has really half the resolution when it comes to red and blue colours.
We have to render all the pixels and shades anyways, so only reason to get the pentile was "price".

 

[Rowander]

Fortunately, screen tech advances fast these days, let's hope the second coming brings us what we need.

I've read today that the Acer HMD is only 95º FOV, and that's a big, big letdown. If all the new Windows Mixed Reality devices are 95º, it's a big step backwards, as FOV is one of the most important factors when it comes to the immersion factor.

 

[the100thmonkey]

What happened to foveated rendering?

No one seems to be talking about it these days.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

What happened to foveated rendering?

No one seems to be talking about it these days.

Cause we don't have any actual Hmd's outside of a the Fove devkit and the dev kit eyetrack extension for the vive that cost as much as a rift alone.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I have everything installed and nearly working. I had to follow this guide to eliminate a "Thread Priority Exception" error on my phone: https://support.riftcat.com/hc/en-u...ecurity-exception-make-sure-the-apk-is-signed

My issue now is I got Elite to start up, but the resolution and quality is so low I can't read anything at all. I went into the options menu to tweak the graphics settings, but that view is so blurry I can't read any of the options to mess with them. Any ideas?

EDIT: Played around with the RiftCat settings and I was able to improve the quality somewhat. However, at higher quality there is so much latency and the head tracking is so far behind that it's not really worth using this system. I can reduce the quality, but there's still just enough latency that it really doesn't feel right. And with the blurry text and narrow FOV, it just isn't a compelling experience for me. It's much better on my 40" 4K TV.

EDIT #2: Ugh. I played with it for maybe 5 minutes. Now my head is all screwy. I now get nauseous in real life by moving my head around. [where is it]

 

[the100thmonkey]

I have everything installed and nearly working. I had to follow this guide to eliminate a "Thread Priority Exception" error on my phone: https://support.riftcat.com/hc/en-u...ecurity-exception-make-sure-the-apk-is-signed

My issue now is I got Elite to start up, but the resolution and quality is so low I can't read anything at all. I went into the options menu to tweak the graphics settings, but that view is so blurry I can't read any of the options to mess with them. Any ideas?

EDIT: Played around with the RiftCat settings and I was able to improve the quality somewhat. However, at higher quality there is so much latency and the head tracking is so far behind that it's not really worth using this system. I can reduce the quality, but there's still just enough latency that it really doesn't feel right. And with the blurry text and narrow FOV, it just isn't a compelling experience for me. It's much better on my 40" 4K TV.

EDIT #2: Ugh. I played with it for maybe 5 minutes. Now my head is all screwy. I now get nauseous in real life by moving my head around. [where is it]

How's your bandwidth to the phone?

 

[Aashenfox]

The gear vr is quite a bit poorer than the main sets.
We are talking most likely 90° fov. Rendered to at most 60fps on fairly high latency displays.
And most videos I have seen pushed to the device is at most 320p, maybe 720p if they preload.

I'm not saying the right decision isn't to wait.
This is very very early in when it comes to vr, and most likely a few years from now I will find the rift in a cupboard and shake my head.

But gear vr is very subpar comparison.

As the other user said, it's a little better than that.

The pros and cons are:

Pros: Phone screen is higher resolution than full PC headset (2k vs 1200p)

Cons: refresh rate, NO POSITIONAL TRACKING

It's that last one that is the deal breaker. If the Gear VR had full positional tracking and 90hz, it would be BETTER than the CV-1.

 

[Aashenfox]

I have everything installed and nearly working. I had to follow this guide to eliminate a "Thread Priority Exception" error on my phone: https://support.riftcat.com/hc/en-u...ecurity-exception-make-sure-the-apk-is-signed

My issue now is I got Elite to start up, but the resolution and quality is so low I can't read anything at all. I went into the options menu to tweak the graphics settings, but that view is so blurry I can't read any of the options to mess with them. Any ideas?

EDIT: Played around with the RiftCat settings and I was able to improve the quality somewhat. However, at higher quality there is so much latency and the head tracking is so far behind that it's not really worth using this system. I can reduce the quality, but there's still just enough latency that it really doesn't feel right. And with the blurry text and narrow FOV, it just isn't a compelling experience for me. It's much better on my 40" 4K TV.

EDIT #2: Ugh. I played with it for maybe 5 minutes. Now my head is all screwy. I now get nauseous in real life by moving my head around. [where is it]

OK, stop experimenting. It;s not worth it for you. Go to a games store and try the real thing. The reason is if you carry on doing these experiments and keep getting nauseous, your brain will associate VR with nausea forever and you will never be comfortable. It;s VERY important that your first few sessions are enjoyable, from a psychological perspective.

 

[dayrth]

....there seems to be a bit of an issue with the mouse lining up with the stars when you try to select them.

Tilt the map so that you are looking straight down (or up) on to it. It is a lot easier to select stars that way. Also in the system map, move the reticule on to the body you want to select, zoom in on it then move your head to get the cursor on the buttons rather than moving the mouse. That way your target body will stay selected.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

As the other user said, it's a little better than that.

The pros and cons are:

Pros: Phone screen is higher resolution than full PC headset (2k vs 1200p)

Cons: refresh rate, NO POSITIONAL TRACKING

It's that last one that is the deal breaker. If the Gear VR had full positional tracking and 90hz, it would be BETTER than the CV-1.

Native resolution and the rendered resolution we two very different things.
You could have a 8k screen but the gear vr run times only render 1080p@60 And a slight variation in horizontal resolution and fov, at most. Several games and whatnot render even lower than 720p.

The higher pixel density helps with SDE, but still a pentile pixel structure resulting in nearly half the native resolution for Red and Blue subpixels and high latency.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

How's your bandwidth to the phone?

I have a pretty uncluttered 5GHz wireless network in my apartment.

In other news, it took nearly two hours for the nausea to wear off. The strange thing is it didn't happen until I took the headset off. I was fine while wearing it.