I started playing in VR... And now nothing else will do... #VR4Life

I'm honestly serious here. Visual fidelity of the current VR devices aside. This is it. I wont be able to go back. Even with a beautiful wide screen monitor (That I never thought I would own either) Even with a device that allows my eyes to be tracked, or my heads movement to be transposed onto the screen for menu manipulation. Or the wonderful Voice Attack program!

Playing Elite on the rift has been like a nuke to the rest of my gaming library. It has shown me that I can actually get into a game, for more than a fleeting moment. That being the main reason I hadn't played games as much as before. Life is tough on the previously hardcore gamer. And having a family has made getting into games nae impossible. Until I put on that headset. Now hours breeze by, filled with fun and immersing experiences.

After I got the Rift, I went for the one game I knew I would put hundreds of hours into. Elite Dangerous. I was so impressed with how it felt. A perfect fit for VR. Everything is beautiful. Ships are fun to fly around. Choosing a direction and hitting full throttle only to have to pull out and fend ones self off is an excellent diversion. The ability to hit one button to jump into to FTL or speed boost. Depending on what location is actively selected, is brilliant. Space battles with NPCs or player are equally dangerous... and lucrative. Space is big. Very big. And I could do this for a long long while. And the ship customization, with the ability to fill any role you could want? *Drool* This is a game I have dreamed about for years. When my parents first let me watch star wars. And the space sim was a giant in the industry. Props to the Devs! Seriously. Good Sim. Rough in some places, but good. There is so much I want to explore here!

Unfortunately. I've run into a snag. I play with the Oculus Touch control scheme. It took three days to learn. [yesnod] I don't get much free time. For the most part, everything seems to work alright. Until you hit one crucial menu in the game. The Galaxy map. I noticed a post a little earlier noting the same thing.

A user posted a finagling fix. (And thanks to SteeleDK for that! I was going to quit. Really! You saved this game for me. Thank you so much.)***

WTH is going on here? Could we please get this fixed? With the current default controls. We get to move around the map just fine. But lack any menu controls. Cant create a series of way points. Cant access anything else in the menu. Until I found this forum with a fix. I actually stopped playing due to the frustration of not being able to go anywhere fast.

I mean it. I like this game. I love space. I love sims. Yes I want a HOTAS but Im not there yet. Please, please, for the love of galactic travel. Fix the controls for the Oculus Galactic map.

Thanks for reading the rant. Peace and love!

***I also want to thank the persons responsible for making the control scheme robust enough to accept contextual controls. And roast the people who didn't give enough to test the controls for the rift.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Seriously invest in a hotas.

what you have now is the xbx control pad scheme forced onto the touch controllers buttons.
I'd rather play mouse and keyboard..
A thrustmaster x has been on sale for about $30 recently.

And yes VR is the only way to play.

And I see a thread on the galaxy map every two weeks.
The solutions are rough.
stop using mouse.
bind all needed controls to your controllers especielly zoom, pan and vertical travel.
Make sure the grid is on.
You have a central marker on the grid, instead of selecting stars directly like with the mouse move the central grid marker over the projects dots stars make on the grid.

It takes some getting used to, but I don't miss the mouse anymore.

Also learn to love the filters.
 
Last edited:
  • Like (+1)
Reactions: NW3
Yes, a Hotas is a must if you want to fully immerse your self into the game. I have the Thrustmaster T1600m FCS and love it. I also have the Thrustmaster pedals which also increase the immersion. Having obtained my private pilots license years ago I can say that this feels very much like flying. If the T1600m is too pricey for you the Thrustmaster X is a very good Hotas for the price.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I do intend to get a HOTAS and suggestions are more than welcome. Thank you. I only meant to express some frustration for the lack of implementation of controls. I know that things will be much more satisfactory with the proper controller :cool:
 
Get an x52-pro and assign your major tasks let voice attack have the rest and play on brother

This is what I am using (x-55 in my case). Voice attack is a god-send even with my voice that I needed to run the training sessions through multiple times....

I've bound the lateral movements in the Galaxy map to the main thumb hat, rotation to the joystick itself, zoom and vertical movement to a thumb hat on the throttle. It' s a bit clumsy but getting better with practice.
 
I would also recommend the Hotas-X as a starter stick. I made the switch to VR in September (thanks to my wonderful wife buying me a Rift for my birthday) and cannot game without it now.
 
Good to know! Voice attack looks awesome. I started looking into it a couple weeks ago. Definitely going to get that downloaded asap. I was really curious about the few dual stick set ups people have going on out there. If I could find a deal for dual X52's or X56's (As I don't know that you can really find 55's anymore though idk). Then i would be sold. As of now I'm thinking T16000's as they come in one package already dueled up.
 
Last edited:
  • Like (+1)
Reactions: NW3
Can also wholeheartedly recommend the T.16000M Hotas system, having picked one up a few days ago! It really completes the feeling of presence in VR, as your hand positions and actions now mirror those of your in-game avatar. I do think I'll spend a lot of time fiddling with button assignments though... Holy moly...

From another fellow Rifter, welcome to VR-land, Commander. You'll never be able to go back!

o7
 
Welcome to Oculus. I can’t play ED without it, I feel naked (no, I don’t play ED naked). I can’t wait for better gpus and higher resolution, and tactile gloves. This is just the beginning! I got my first VR headset in 1993 to play doom (the real doom), it had oled screens, gimbal tracker, and 3D and I had to spend most of the day to make it work under dos. It was amazing, but nothing like today. And now people seem to be getting into it.

Invest in a good hotas, you won’t regret it. I have had saitek before and now have the Thrustmaster TWCS and a Warthog. Get the Warthog for the ultimate immersion and feel, the TWCS does the job, its cheap and lightweight too. I use it when I travel. The Warthog with a 2-4 inch extension and good mounts is the ultimate setup, but you need a rudder too.
 
Thank Buddy! Isn't this an excellent time to be alive! I never thought I would see the day.
I have to say. The fact that it would look/feel more natural with the throttle and stick, is all that keeps me from going full bore into the dual stick.
But the sheer control of having every direction available with the twin sticks... Being able to move Left Right Up and Down in addition to the standard Pitch Roll and Yaw. I saw a video of this guy flying through some rough terrain with that configuration. It just looked so cool. I don't know why, but it took me back to that game. Anyone remember Descent?

Thrustmaster TWCS and a Warthog. Get the Warthog for the ultimate immersion and feel ... but you need a rudder too.

Do you find that you miss the "twist" action on the stick at all? I know the rudders cover for it. But how does it feel?

I got my first VR headset in 1993 to play doom (the real doom).

No word of a lie. This is the very first thing I did when I first tried out VR as well. Mind it was a cell phone. But the Doom 1 WAD. Amazing!
 
Last edited:
Personally, there's no need for an expensive HOTAS (although they are great, if you want one). I use a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick with throttle, along with Voice Attack and the HCS Obsidian Voice Pack. It works great and is a lot cheaper.
 
Personally, there's no need for an expensive HOTAS (although they are great, if you want one). I use a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick with throttle, along with Voice Attack and the HCS Obsidian Voice Pack. It works great and is a lot cheaper.

True. I've been playing thus far with an old, beat up Saitek Cyborg 3D Gold stick. Gotta be at least ten years old. And I agree that Voice Attack is a must, with or without an add-on voice pack. But I am loving my new Hotas (certainly not a Warthog.... waaaaaay out of my price range!).... It's a good fit for VR, IMHO...
 
Personally, there's no need for an expensive HOTAS (although they are great, if you want one). I use a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick with throttle, along with Voice Attack and the HCS Obsidian Voice Pack. It works great and is a lot cheaper.


It works, and the logitech 3d is an accurate stick and wireless too. But it doesn’t have enough buttons and knobs for me, even with VA. VA is great, I use it for everything, minus prepare my coffee (alexa does that). But it is not reliable nor fast enough for some critical stuff like balancing power or when you are in the heat of battle. Mechanical keys and a hotas are a must for me.

I don’t miss the twist action at all, in fact thats the first thing I disabled in my saitek previously. However I am more used to yaw with feet since its part of my job and I have been using a dedicated rudder for a lomg time. I use a “cheap” saitek pro rudder. Not the best, but does the job. The Warthog is the best feel, like I said, but the TWCS does the job more competently if you are not investing in rudders, and only looking for a tabletop joystick. I use it in my laptop when I travel. It looks awesome, with matching orange ui colors.

If you got the cash, go all in for Warthog ($340)+Rudder ($180-300)+Fulk cockpit mount ($150). If you can get it stages even. If it is too much, get the TWCS + T16000 for $130. I like the Saitek too, but have had quality issues (more than the others), and the lcd screen in some models is useless in vr. Plus the Thrustmasters feel more accurate and better for me.

The VR hmd I used in 1993ish was called V-io glasses. It was 3D, used comm1 serial and the big printer one (lttp or something) for tracking. It had also a box to connect to analogic video. It was oled screen, high resolution (for the time) too and had built in speakers. Many similarities with the rift. There wasn’t anything useful to do and it costed a fortune (I was rich back then lol).
 
Forgot to add. I have not tested a dual joystick configuration. No reason except stubbornness and Im too lazy to rebind everything. But it is interesting for space flights, although not natural for my muscle memory. The most interesting I saw was a 3D mouse, but it doesn’t work natively and it costs a lot too and I no longer have any money after the hog lol.

Also, agreeing with others as maybe I left it unclear, VA is a must, regardless of how many buttons you have. I feel with a hotas you have plenty to fly without voice, but just the basics. VA will allow you much more and even the basics it is more comfortable through voice in most cases. The exception is heat of battle, when you can’t afford VA not hearing you or when eating snacks or drinking beer.
 
I had occasion to try a Rift out for a few hours a couple of weekends back, with Elite and the default apps it comes with.

I was pretty impressed, but also slightly disappointed at the same time. It was brilliant, but just not quite as brilliant as I'd been expecting.

Coupled with the fact I'd need to spend at least 1200 quid for a graphics upgrade and the VR headset (I'd probably get the Vive), I find myself still playing the waiting game.

I'd been hoping that I'd be "oh yes, now's the time", but it wasn't, quite.

So hoping that there'll be a Vive 2 sooner rather than later, but I'm hearing rumours that AR rather than VR is now becoming the rage.
 
Personally, there's no need for an expensive HOTAS (although they are great, if you want one). I use a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick with throttle, along with Voice Attack and the HCS Obsidian Voice Pack. It works great and is a lot cheaper.

T-flight HOTAS is about the same price as the Extreme 3D pro. For a reason though, as its a trade-off. The Extreme 3D pro is more accurate, but the HOTAS has the throttle and more buttons. You can also use both, and go for HOTAS plus dual-stick. Dual stick is for example invaluable when landing on high-G planets. You can actually thrust downwards when your thrusters are analogue rather than binary. :D
 
Top Bottom