Going to get VR + new PC, completely blank slate, don't know what to get or when...?

Truesilver

Truesilver
Greetings VR Cmdrs,

As title ... I've decided to buy VR. I don't know anything about it except that I want it.

I'm going to buy a new PC as well. I know very little about PC's either except the basics, e.g. there's a graphics card and I suppose I probably need the new Nvidia one or two of the older ones.

My expectation is that I will only use the kit to play ED (although sadly I'm not very happy with RNGineers so it's not impossible that this could change - but hopefully not).

So, a blank slate. I'm certainly not asking you guys for a full build or anything like that but I do have three questions, if I may:-

1. Should I buy VR now or wait and if so, why and until when?

2. Which VR?

3. What would your 'must haves' be on the PC? (I know that min VR specs are published but I'd really like to know fellow ED players' 'must haves')

Hopefully that's a fairly discrete list that won't impose too much on anyone's time!

(I should add that I'm almost exclusively a PvP player so if it makes any difference I would always put function over form, if you see what I mean.)

Thanking you in anticipation,

See you in 3D,

Truesilver
 

[VR] Frank_G

[VR] Frank_G
If you want VR, then you have to go all the way. There is no a bit VR.

Currently it is experimental technology, a start. The experience is beyond awesome, but not perfect.
I love the idea of VR since the cyberpunk novells in the early 80th... There was no way to avoid getting right into it. And i will never go back. I am totally convinced, that this is the gaming medium of the future.
If you feel like this, go get VR. If you want the perfect experience wait for the second generation with higher resolution and VR targeted graphic cards. But you should at least try it once.

What do you need? The most decent PC you can afford... i7 processor, 16gigs of RAM and one of the latest graphic cards. Also make sure, your system has lots of powered USB3 ports and a decent power supply.

Rift or Vive? You decide yourself. The visial experience is close to identical, but each offers some unique things you might like or not. At best, try them both, before buying.

If you dont already have one, plan to get a HOTAS for Elite, one with enough input options, that you can almost ignore the keyboard.

I hope this gets you on the road to VR. I enjoy every minute of it.
 

Arithon

Arithon
1. Yes, by all means buy it now. There are no "third generation" Cculus rifts on the Horizon or "second generation" Vives. What you see, is all that you'll get for some time to come. Until graphics cards get twice as good as the current GTX 1080, a 4K-per-eye VR headset just isn't possible. The tech is some years away at least.

2. Try it first! Both Vive and Oculus have pros and cons. Comfort, ease of use, etc. (unlike price) are VERY subjective. You need to try them to see which YOU prefer, not what your mate or anyone else tells you is "best" because you may find after spending £500-700 on an HMD that you don't like that model! That's a LOT of buyers regret.

3. "must haves" for playing Elite in VR - A good HOTAS joystick. Voice Attack and a voice pack that makes you smile. A cup with a straw. The best video card you can afford (currently a GTX 1080).

If you are attending LaveCon, I will be there with my Oculus CV1 giving demonstrations to anyone and there is also going to be a VR Q&A panel as well over the weekend.

Whatever you do, don't buy either model sight unseen! Nobody can tell you what The Matrix is! or if it is too heavy on your head or looks bad on your desk!
 

TorTorden_VR

T
I think the best we have heard of gen 2 vr as in the next oculus or vive was a cryptic no sooner than at least three years maybe five.

There are others coming, like starvr and fove. Both featuring in HMD eye tracking.
This lets the game know what you are actually looking at enabling the illusion of eye contact etc.
But also more practically it could influence rendering where you coulf have supersampling of the direct area you are looking and downsample in the area of your vision where you mostly only motion perception anyways.

The StarVR main point is much greater resolution and FOV, but from rumors they are making an expensive device.
Like at least $2k maybe twice that. So much I and others suspect they aren't aiming for a major consumer device but more likely to aim for large scale arcade type venues and certainly not my basement.

I have had the vive for little over a week now and yes VR is all the things it is cracked up to be.
But the naysayers and realists also have some major points. So albeit I think it is worth it, I cannot really say everyone should get it.
At least the vive I do not consider it a plug and play device it took a bit of fiddling getting it going and I'm still not all there. It also, least for elite looks like i would need to overclock my cpu to get decent frames in elite.
From the looks of things it seems to be something hinky with the ED rendering and steamvr that trigger the reprojection routine, I seem fine with it but combat gets blurry.
 

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE
Would agree 100% with all the points above. As for hardware, I would buy the fastest kit you can afford. Some may disagree but in my opinion if you can't afford a high-end PC then don't bother with VR just yet unless you will be satisfied with low image quality and/or low frame rates. In particular spend most of your money on a high-end graphics card.

It is rumoured that Nvidia might be announcing a new Titan at Gamescon (mid-August) so might be worth waiting. Of course, it won't be cheap :)
 

Xebec

X
Truesilver said:
1. Should I buy VR now or wait and if so, why and until when?

2. Which VR?

3. What would your 'must haves' be on the PC? [/B](I know that min VR specs are published but I'd really like to know fellow ED players' 'must haves')
Click to expand...
EDIT - more importantly than anything else. If you use VR with a Joystick, make sure you're ergonomically attached to that joystick. Last year I started a mid career sabbatical (about at the end of it now), and let's just say I did an Elite Dangerous in VR marathon after leaving a company I worked 17 years for.. and ended up with Tennis Elbow due to VR + Joysticks. Yes, laugh - but it wasn't fun at the time :)

1 - Having played ED since DK1, the experience has gotten way better over the years; both the graphics cards and the VR units. IMO Elite is a great experience with today's headsets and graphics cards (thanks for the launch of the 1070/1080). The only 'push' I would give is if you're used to playing Elite on a 4K monitor at full spec, you might wait for one more generation of headset, and higher end graphics cards (AMD Vega or Geforce 1080Ti) as the resolution drop can be a little jarring.

2 - Oculus for me; but do research. Some people can't stand the 'god rays' on the Rift, however, the Rift optics are anecdotally better off center which imo makes it feel more natural when playing Elite (where you will look around with both your 'head' moving and your eyes).

3 - HOTAS joystick (x52 pro for example is a great choice); no less than a GTX 1070 (i.e. no Radeon RX 480, no Geforce 970, 980), preferably GTX 1080. A core i7; there are good videos out there from digitalfoundry showing that the i7 does a lot to stabilize minimum frame rates over an i5. A fast SSD and 16GB RAM (32GB if you plan to keep the system for several years) to ensure minimal hitching when the disk is accessed. Recommend the i7-6700K over the newer 6800/6900 at this point as the 6700K is a newer architecture and has higher single threaded performance. Software: Steam VR VR Desktop helps a lot with switching between applications or seeing notes on your headset. Voice attack is 'nice to have' but definitely not necessary imo. It won't react fast enough for anything critical. A good set of speakers for immersion.
 
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Nerwan

Nerwan
Something to point out.. you're a well known keyboard and mouser and most VR players use entirely HOTAS and have it set up so that no keyboard use is required. Is that going to work for you or will you switch to HOTAS? I guess it could work if you're already relatively comfortable with touch typing and you stick to the keys which can be located from the home keys on the keyboard..
 

dogbite

dogbite
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Going to get VR + new PC, completely blank slate, don't know what to get or when...?"


"Since you put it this way, I will assume your committed and not on a strick budget.
The response Xebec gives above, pretty much covers the hardware you should consider. I would go GTX 1080 card for sure though.

The Rift is my recommendation for Elite but Vive is getting there. Read these forums until you order and Research Research Research before you pull the trigger on an HMD. Neither HMD will disappoint. I can only speak of the Rift, but I will say the experience in Elite was worth the price of admission. I won't be flat screen gaming any more.
 
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shadragon

shadragon
Nerwan said:
Something to point out.. you're a well known keyboard and mouser and most VR players use entirely HOTAS and have it set up so that no keyboard use is required. Is that going to work for you or will you switch to HOTAS? I guess it could work if you're already relatively comfortable with touch typing and you stick to the keys which can be located from the home keys on the keyboard..
Click to expand...
Voice Attack fills a lot of holes as you can't map every needed key combo to your HOTAS without a lot of jiggery-pokery.

I have a HOTAS, DEEBOL 46 key secondary gaming keyboard and Voice Attack when I play Elite. Anything I need in combat is on the HOTAS, secondary controls are on the KB and VA.
 

Truesilver

Truesilver
Thanks indeed to all who have responded - really very helpful and much appreciated.

Concerning controls, as a KBM user albeit quite an intuitive one, I think the main issue might be left and right panel management (I don't look at anything during combat except if I have to high wake or module manage) - thinking about work arounds here.

My main combat issue would probably actually be text comms (I'm quite a chatty PvP-er at times)

@HellRazor, thank you - I am in the Manchester UK area so might make a trip to Leeds!

Any more contributors, please do keep 'em coming, o7
 

Nerwan

Nerwan
Truesilver said:
My main combat issue would probably actually be text comms (I'm quite a chatty PvP-er at times)
Click to expand...

Time to learn to touch type ;-) I did it in 1989 as a boy using "Mavis beacon teaches typing", I'm sure they have better tutorials these days :p
 

Ankor Grammaten

Ankor Grammaten
Excuse my jumping in with another question ... it's somewhat on topic.

Due to glaucoma I have lost about a third of the field of vision in my right eye. To get an idea, if I put my hands out in front of me at shoulder width, and the hands held somewhat lower than horizontal, if I close my left eye I don't see my left hand. No sympathy necessary, it doesn't affect my life in any significant way.

What I'm wondering is what effect this would have on the VR experience, given that the 3D effect is produced by the brain combining two different images. For what it's worth, I've watched 3D movies and the effect is not too bad, though of course I don't have a perfect vision experience to compare it to.

I realize that most people won't have a clue, but I'm hoping that someone reading this might have some personal experience, or know someone who does. I don't want to spend a lot of money on this only to find it doesn't work well for me.
 

Soda Popinski

Soda Popinski
Ankor Grammaten said:
Excuse my jumping in with another question ... it's somewhat on topic.

Due to glaucoma I have lost about a third of the field of vision in my right eye. To get an idea, if I put my hands out in front of me at shoulder width, and the hands held somewhat lower than horizontal, if I close my left eye I don't see my left hand. No sympathy necessary, it doesn't affect my life in any significant way.

What I'm wondering is what effect this would have on the VR experience, given that the 3D effect is produced by the brain combining two different images. For what it's worth, I've watched 3D movies and the effect is not too bad, though of course I don't have a perfect vision experience to compare it to.

I realize that most people won't have a clue, but I'm hoping that someone reading this might have some personal experience, or know someone who does. I don't want to spend a lot of money on this only to find it doesn't work well for me.
Click to expand...


You'll see 3D just as well in a VR set as in real-life. A big part of the experience is having 6 degrees of freedom, so you can not just look around, you can move your head around the cockpit. Even without full binocular 3D vision, it will give you far better immersion than any monitor based setup.

I have a friend with a lazy eye, who doesn't get very good 3D perception (binocularly). He was blown away by VR, and kept dreaming about it for days (Vive using room scale).

To the OP, I've got both a Vive and a Rift, and prefer the Rift for sit-down cockpit experiences. Wearing a Vive for hours on end isn't as comfortable as the Rift. I was even grinding in the Rise to Power for hours in the Rift. Otherwise, it doesn't feel engaging for me.
 
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souprmage

S
I have just completed a full system refresh.

I was first waiting on VR as well as the new GTX1080. I decided to get onto the Vive 'waiting list' without realizing there wasn't one. I was thinking there would be a month wait or so. So since that had shipped within a day, I was anxiously awaiting the GTX1080. Surprisingly, that didn't take all too long to get either.

Once those were confirmed shipping, I pulled the trigger on a Thermaltake Z71 case (beast mode), full EKWB water cooling system with both CPU and GTX1080 coolers, two radiators, 6700K, MSI Gaming M5 MB, 32GB ram, and I upgraded to Sennheiser Gamer One headphones. Just ordered a Thrustmaster Warthog w/ Rudder Pedals (free with HOTAS purchase) that should be here in a couple days. Not sure I could do a lot better than that at the moment. Hopefully it lasts more than a couple years. :p
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
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RaistlinUK

R
Can't confirm but I think, if your in Manchester you need to speak to Overclockers in Stoke on Trent, they have both a rift and a Vive on demo so you can choose between the 2.
 
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