HTC Vive resolution and  focus

Koreldan

Koreldan
Guys... you should follow this guide : https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4q3aa9/psa_supersampling_on_the_htc_vive_has_arrived/

it helps you to set supersampling to 2.5 ... not on Elite... but via Steam config file ( huge performance and quality improvment )


My experience :

i have a GTX 1080

i set on ED Super sampling down to 1.0 ( from 2.0 )

I've simply added 1 line into the file C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\steamvr.vrsettings


Code: 
[...]
   },
   "perfcheck" : {
      "allowTimingStore" : false,
      "heuristicActive" : false,
      "warnInHMD" : false,
      "warnOnlyOnce" : false
   },
   "steamvr" : {
      "allowReprojection" : true,
      "background" : "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\steamapps\\workshop\\content\\250820\\691295994\\taikongxueshan.jpg",
      "basestationPowerManagement" : false,
      "defaultMirrorView" : 1,
      "directMode" : true,
      "directModeEdidPid" : 43521,
      "directModeEdidVid" : 53794,
      "playAreaColor" : "#FFFFFF00"[COLOR=#ff0000],[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000]      "renderTargetMultiplier": 2.0[/COLOR]
   },
   "userinterface" : {
      "StatusAlwaysOnTop" : false
[...]

red code is what i've added to that file.


The difference is huge... better graphic ( text is more readable ) and better performances.

Notes : i've also turned off the shadows to remove small annoying juddering
 
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TorTorden_VR

T
I dont use either steam or ocuclus store to start elite.
Just launching Elite starts the given vr service automatically depending on which hmd I have plugged in.

I prefer to start steamvr first myself, just to make sure its tracking and up and running.
The rift is easier in that regard but the vive has a few major points on the cv1.

Primarily display fidelity, yes it has more sde but the cv1 has much more artefacts, banding and less contrast.
A star in the vive is bright whereas in the cv1 it looks more like an illuminating ball.
 

Koreldan

Koreldan
This trick also improves HTC Vive graphic in others VR App ( much noticeable on SteamVR interface )

But not all games let to use supersampling at 2.5 ... some games block it at lower values ( 2.0, 1.5, ... ) even if 2.5 is set, like "Out of Ammo" that use its own SS settings.


This setting could also lowering performances in some games, you should find your perfect spot ( 2.0, 2.5, or less ) based on your own hardware.


Anyway, comparing SS 2.0 of ED to 2.0 of SteamVR config file... the second one gives better graphic and performance.


Searching around i found these pairs setting graphic card -> value:

GTX 980 -> 1.0 - 1.5

GTX 980 ti -> 1.5 - 2.0

GTX 1080 -> 1.5 - 2.0 - 2.2 - 2.5



( nobody thought to try ED SS 1.5 -> Steam SS 1.5 rather than ED SS 1.0 -> Steam SS 2.0)
 
Last edited:

cmdr awesome

cmdr awesome
The SteamVR supersampling does make a big improvement, but setting it to a high value then dropping down the in-game sampling rate can give performance issues with other games. It's a PITA to keep editing the file just for one game, and it smacks of ED not supporting the Vive properly - something FD committed to last year. I'm glad the setting is there, but it doesn't let FD off the hook.
 

Thoemse

T
cmdr awesome said:
The SteamVR supersampling does make a big improvement, but setting it to a high value then dropping down the in-game sampling rate can give performance issues with other games. It's a PITA to keep editing the file just for one game, and it smacks of ED not supporting the Vive properly - something FD committed to last year. I'm glad the setting is there, but it doesn't let FD off the hook.
Click to expand...

Use chaperone switcher. No editing files needed.
 

Amelogenin

A
Hi all - been lurking on this thread for a while, but now it's time to post a few little questions, if you will indulge me!

I spent countless hours playing the original Elite many (too many) years ago on an Acorn Electron 32k (I still have it in the loft!) - how they got that game to perform so well with such a small amount of resource still amazes me. Anyway I am very close to convincing myself that I need a bespoke gaming PC and a VR headset to step back into the amazing world of Elite and to try out VR (before it's too late for me!). For lots of reasons (mainly room-scale, controllers etc.) I think I would prefer the Vive over the Rift.

Whilst it seems clear that the game is far from being optimised to work with the Vive - in your opinions, does the recently discovered supersampling work-around resolve the issues sufficiently that the game could now be said to be thoroughly enjoyable to experience on the Vive? Does it now look as good as people originally expected (even if it is inneficient in the background)? With the benefit of hindsight, if you were me, would you jump in now or hold off for a little while longer?

I haven't had a bespoke gaming PC before (I'll be a console convert) but it's likely that the machine I'll go for would be well equipped for VR (e.g. GTX-1080, i7-6700K, 16GB RAM).

I'd really value your thoughts.

Many thanks!
 

TorTorden_VR

T
Amelogenin said:
Hi all - been lurking on this thread for a while, but now it's time to post a few little questions, if you will indulge me!

I spent countless hours playing the original Elite many (too many) years ago on an Acorn Electron 32k (I still have it in the loft!) - how they got that game to perform so well with such a small amount of resource still amazes me. Anyway I am very close to convincing myself that I need a bespoke gaming PC and a VR headset to step back into the amazing world of Elite and to try out VR (before it's too late for me!). For lots of reasons (mainly room-scale, controllers etc.) I think I would prefer the Vive over the Rift.

Whilst it seems clear that the game is far from being optimised to work with the Vive - in your opinions, does the recently discovered supersampling work-around resolve the issues sufficiently that the game could now be said to be thoroughly enjoyable to experience on the Vive? Does it now look as good as people originally expected (even if it is inneficient in the background)? With the benefit of hindsight, if you were me, would you jump in now or hold off for a little while longer?

I haven't had a bespoke gaming PC before (I'll be a console convert) but it's likely that the machine I'll go for would be well equipped for VR (e.g. GTX-1080, i7-6700K, 16GB RAM).

I'd really value your thoughts.

Many thanks!
Click to expand...
Sounds like a sweet rig.
I run 16gb ddr3 with an i5 4670k and a 980ti.

I find it very enjoyable with the vive. And I have an oculus to compare with.

Yes the oculus has less screen door effect, it gets significantly better performance,
But that is where it ends for me.

It could be my Norwegian, cro-magnon skull. But I find the oculus less comfortable than the vive even though it is smaller and lighter.

The rift is easier to get on and off with the attached headphones (which are OK but as a bit of an audiophile I class them as lower mid range in sound quality)
Wearing glasses is cumbersome with either but the vive has more room. Mine works with either.

One thing to set the vive apart in my opinion is its higher contrast in the panels.
Space is pretty much black with either but the stars in the vive are bright.
One of the first things I did when I got it was pick a fight at a nav beacon.
I spin around and the star hits me in the face.
I almost threw my hand up to shield me from the light, that is how bright they seem in the vive.
Makes the stars in the rift seem like illuminated balls in comparison.

But the cv1 is cheaper and get higher fps and let's you turn up the quality settings some.
So if you only want VR for Elite I might go with theither cv1 but if you also have an interest in VR in general and room play I would definitely go with the vive.
 

SneakyBastd

S
cmdr awesome said:
I asked the FD panel about the vive rendering during the Q+A. After a bit of shrugging it was said that a quick fix was done, but the full fix required a rewrite of half the rendering pipeline, and this job was sat on a list. It didn't fill me with confidence to be honest.

I play ED more than everything else put together, and ordered a Vive following FDs very clear statement of support. Much as I really like many aspects of how FD roll, I think they are bang out of order to leave this issue for so long.
Click to expand...

That really sucks to hear. I trusted FD to fix this also. Even bought Horizons expansion purely for VR fun :(
But I stopped playing ED until a fix was ready. I NEVER thought it would be several months on and STILL no fix from FD. Or even a statement on the issue. For a supposedly supported major VR title, I am quite disappointed in FD. If you can't (or won't) fix it, atleast have the balls to say so.

Let's be honest, there isn't particularly much depth to the game once you have a decently fitted Anaconda or so. You've seen it all before. You play for the pretties. But without those...
 

J'Zargo

J'Zargo
cmdr awesome said:
I asked the FD panel about the vive rendering during the Q+A. After a bit of shrugging it was said that a quick fix was done, but the full fix required a rewrite of half the rendering pipeline, and this job was sat on a list. It didn't fill me with confidence to be honest.
Click to expand...

Well, that unfortunately confirms my fears. If you follow a bit the current massive work on optimized VR rendering techniques in the major game engines, it is clear that you need active and ongoing R&D just to keep pace with the technical VR aspects of your engine. And we are just at the beginning with all new tricks and algorithms popping up all the time.

All the new graphic cards do ( and will ) support optimizations for VR on a hardware level, and that has to be incorporated into the rendering engine as well. And the next generation of VR headsets will offer even more optimization potential, like eye tracking which you can use to only render the focus area at full resolution and reduce quality for the other parts.

That all means for me, that, as a game engine developer, to be able to really get the best VR experience you have to invest a lot of man power continuously into R&D and engine optimization. It is not clear for me how the resource situation is at FD, but my impression is, that they just do not have the manpower to handle this huge field of VR and keeping their Cobra engine competitive.

I hope I am wrong, but I am very pessimistic about a quick solution to VR render quality.
 

Filmgeek47

F
Amelogenin said:
Hi all - been lurking on this thread for a while, but now it's time to post a few little questions, if you will indulge me!

I spent countless hours playing the original Elite many (too many) years ago on an Acorn Electron 32k (I still have it in the loft!) - how they got that game to perform so well with such a small amount of resource still amazes me. Anyway I am very close to convincing myself that I need a bespoke gaming PC and a VR headset to step back into the amazing world of Elite and to try out VR (before it's too late for me!). For lots of reasons (mainly room-scale, controllers etc.) I think I would prefer the Vive over the Rift.

Whilst it seems clear that the game is far from being optimised to work with the Vive - in your opinions, does the recently discovered supersampling work-around resolve the issues sufficiently that the game could now be said to be thoroughly enjoyable to experience on the Vive? Does it now look as good as people originally expected (even if it is inneficient in the background)? With the benefit of hindsight, if you were me, would you jump in now or hold off for a little while longer?

I haven't had a bespoke gaming PC before (I'll be a console convert) but it's likely that the machine I'll go for would be well equipped for VR (e.g. GTX-1080, i7-6700K, 16GB RAM).

I'd really value your thoughts.

Many thanks!
Click to expand...

yup. I'd say with the new SS system people are using, we've crossed the threshold into fully functional territory. Yes, frontier dropped the ball on this, and yes, it's very inefficient, but if you can afford a GTX 1080 and you're willing to take some time to tweak your settings, it's a great experience.

As for Vive vs rift, all I can say is that I think that valve has put more thought and focus into room scale experiences (i.e. The chaperone system) that will keep them comfortably ahead of rift in this generation of HMDs for room scale. And yes, room scale is a huge game changer. So go for it and enjoy!
 

wstephenson

wstephenson
Amelogenin said:
Whilst it seems clear that the game is far from being optimised to work with the Vive - in your opinions, does the recently discovered supersampling work-around resolve the issues sufficiently that the game could now be said to be thoroughly enjoyable to experience on the Vive? Does it now look as good as people originally expected (even if it is inneficient in the background)? With the benefit of hindsight, if you were me, would you jump in now or hold off for a little while longer?

I haven't had a bespoke gaming PC before (I'll be a console convert) but it's likely that the machine I'll go for would be well equipped for VR (e.g. GTX-1080, i7-6700K, 16GB RAM).
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that early generation VR is always going to involve compromise. Before you drop a couple of thousand quid on a VR HMD and a PC to run it, I suggest you find a way to demo VR so that you have an idea whether you are prepared to accept the physical limitations of the displays' resolution and the field of view. If by any chance you are near Nuremberg, Germany you're welcome to demo my rig (but I suspect you're in the UK).

If you do decide to get it, I suggest that you include a fast and largish SSD in your spec to run your VR experiences from. As VR multitasking is still primitive, if you find yourself bottlenecked by a slow disk, it will feel like waiting for that Acorn's tape to load all over again!
 

rtrski

R
Launch ED to VR *without* SteamVR - steps please??

Darkfyre99 said:
NVidia driver is 368.39
SteamVR is the current (non-Beta) version: 1465424737

I should also note that I have the non-Steam version of Elite: Dangerous Horizons, and I don't run SteamVR before playing Elite. I also have the lenses of my Vive two ticks back to accommodate my glasses, and this seems to reduce the god rays a bit, make the text more legible, and eliminates the flickering in my peripheral vision.

My own personal theory is that there is some sort of miscommunication between the Steam Version of Elite, and Steam VR, that is behind the problems others are having, but some people haven't been able to replicate what I'm experiencing themselves. It does seem to me that when I load Elite: Dangerous directly, as opposed to loading SteamVR, a lot fewer programs load in my TaskManager.

As for scale... what you're experiencing seems to be what happened when I tried loading SteamVR in Beta4, where I felt like a giant head atop a tiny body and, IIRC, there seemed to be a bit of a fisheye effect, for lack of a better term, going on as well. The effect was unnerving. Right now, when I walk around my Cobra's cockpit, I feel like I'm in a normal sized room, with normal sized chairs, and a normal sized door at the back. I really don't think our relative heights should make a difference, especially when we're in the commander's seat.

edit: and yes, I'm running Windows 10.
Click to expand...
I keep seeing you and others mention starting ED in VR without SteamVR running. Mind saying how (seriously, a step by step)? My lighthouses don't seem to be on unless I run SteamVR (yes, I used the bluetooth option to shut off when not in use). I've read you can apply the /vr argument to a shortcut instead of using the launcher but have not attempted that myself. ED with the headset is immersive....but pretty fugly unfortunately.

My config: Win 10, AMD card (Sapphire Fury, non-X), Vive. ED purchased and installed thru Steam. Usually run ED thru Steam by selecting either play Horizons or play VR mode (which presumes Horizons). In the latter case I've launched Steam VR first, got the lighthouses on and headset tracking (controllers left off - I use either KB/mouse/Razer Orbweaver or new Saitek X56 HOTAS for which I'm still feeling out the right button combo.

Also not sure if the FOV setting in the in-game menu might be an issue altering the VR render? I had bumped it somewhat becasue my monitor is a 21:9 3440x1440 curved...could that be still influencing how things look in the headset? What's the optimal FOV setting for the headset? Fury card does seem good enough to have the vast majority of settings on high at my monitor rez without problems (earlier I had some screen artifacting esp in witchspace due to driver issues with Freesyn and FRTC, but driver updates seem to have cleared that up, and/or something in Engineers did so).
 

Magic Man

Magic Man
rtrski said:
I keep seeing you and others mention starting ED in VR without SteamVR running.
Click to expand...

Not sure if they mean Steam rather than Steam VR (maybe the Steam version of ED) since you can't run ED in VR with a Vive without Steam VR. Steam VR will auto start (if the checkbox in VR settings is set) when ED starts.
 

Mike Kangaroo

M
I see no news again. lovely. I'll take another week off.

Hell, last time I tried to log into Elite, the spinning ship animation ... spun for 30 minutes. I could never get into the game be it Solo or live
 
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