My rift arrived yesterday around 2:30PM so decided to wait for one of my boys to get home from school before unboxing it. He was well excited as it was a complete surprise for him.
INITIAL SETUP
Setting it up to play demos via direct to rift was easy, and I was well impressed with the first one (called 'welcome to oculus') it gave me my first taste of what was to come. I laughed out loud a few times with sheer joy of how it was making me feel.
Of course, had a queue of family members lined up ready to show it off to, and they all enjoyed the demo, and the next one, and the next one. We tried Helix Rollercoaster, the chair, and surge, which were all impressive in their own way.
ELITE SETUP
Once the kids were in bed, I started setting up for Elite, but found it really fiddly with the 'extended desktop' scenario, but got there in the end, but it was very late, I was very knackered, and for some reason my ED controls had reset, so I had a quick look, was impressed, but the chromatic aberration was staring me in the face like an unwanted gatecrasher at a party. Still I went to bed fairly optimistic that a bit more tweaking and learning the ropes of how it all works and becoming more familiar and I'd get it looking better in ED.
So today I spent a good few hours on and off, researching and tweaking and by this evening I cannot tell you how blown away I was by my time in Elite. It is just immense and I am so glad I made the decision to get a DK2 even though the CV is on the horizon.
The clincher for me was Colour Settings in the Nvidia Control Panel as suggested in this awesome thread -
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=121355 it really improved the visuals for me, but I skipped it early on as I couldn't suss out how to get my rift to show in the Nvidia CP. Realised today it would only show up once I was in the rift in extended mode.
Yes there are still issues, like the stars are a bit blurry etc etc, but over all it is one amazing experience and I now cannot imagine playing Elite any other way.
One other small annoyance is it's not the most comfortable thing to wear and I get very hot very quick, and the lenses steam up a tad, but it's no biggy, as it is just a Dev Kit, but I hope these things will be less so when a CV comes along.
I was also concerned about my IPD which the rift measured at 66, and the online thingy with the web cam/credit card test, measured it at 67, which I've read is maybe on the high side which may make it more blurry. Anyway, tonight I fiddled around a lot with the position of the headset and found a 'sweet spot' for me which I'm happy with, and is relatively clear. Inside the cockpit is crystal clear (my god it's awesome) and the text in the ship menu's is fairly clear too, and really easy to read. The game main menu is less readable but not a big problem.
BEST MOMENTS
My best moment tonight, well there were a few but by far the best was loading up in solo, where my ASP is parked near the core just off a ringed gas giant. I put the ship into a nice position facing the planet, sun gleaming in the cockpit, then I got my boys down to the office one at a time.
I made them hold the x52 like the pilot is inside the game, then I slipped the rift down over their eyes. Their jaws dropped instantly and they both said out loud 'oh...my...god...' as their faces turned into a gaping smile. They were absolutely amazed and so I let them both have a little fly around in the ASP, as it did look gorgeous near the core with all the stars, and then I fired up the first combat training mission for them both so they could have a bit of fun. To say they loved it is an understatement, I think they'll be dreaming about it tonight
Anyway, those are my first impressions, which in a nutshell is - It is totally amazing, even with its low res and screen door etc, the DK2 is well worth the price, even for the 6 months or so that it'll be in use before the CV's come along. Thanks for talking me into it guys! (even the mrs was well impressed!)
