Late to the VR party...but...Ohhhhh Mai gawd!

[Alec Turner]

Anyone using a GTX970? I want to hold out for a 1080Ti, and currently have a 970. I am considering picking up a 1070 to tide me over if the 970 really isn't enough... There won't much much financial loss overall, but no loss is better than a small loss, obviously...

If the 970 struggles, though, I'd rather see it as an investment in keeping myself from getting motion sick...

Z...

Yup, I've got a 970 and it's coping fine. I'm using the Oculus debug tool to set Pixel density to 1.5 with in-game super sampling currently at 0.75. Most of the settings are still at max quality although I did wind down some of the terrain stuff and galaxy map settings from Ultra to High after I perceived a bit of judder now and then. I wouldn't worry about the 1080 for now, just get going with the Oculus - it's absolutely amazing!!!

 

[P3nT4gR4m]

Today I lost about 3hrs to Luck's Tale, a cutesy platformer about a coin gathering cartoon fox. That's gonna be fairly uninspiring right? Wrong. It's possibly the single most impressive thing I've seen all weekend. I can't explain why but it's absolutely jaw dropping. Gave my wife a go and she's been giggling like a child all afternoon. Time to wipe the slate clean. Gaming, indeed home entertainment, education, work and social interaction have truly just entered a whole new era.

Lucky's Tale totally hits the sweetspot for Rift graphics. Crisp flat cartooney textures seem to work better in Vr than hipoly normal maps with subsurf and all the bells and whistles. There's an RTS called Arimech command that goes the same way. Worth a look if you're stuck for ideas. Don't get me wrong, ED looks and plays great in the rift but it's one of those - you can see the join - things. Not quite convincing. I reckon that's just down to the low fidelity display.

 

[Rubix]

Anyone using a GTX970? I want to hold out for a 1080Ti, and currently have a 970. I am considering picking up a 1070 to tide me over if the 970 really isn't enough... There won't much much financial loss overall, but no loss is better than a small loss, obviously...

If the 970 struggles, though, I'd rather see it as an investment in keeping myself from getting motion sick...

Z...

I'm using a GTX970 (evga) oculus debug tool set as 1.5 pixel density, in game SS currently at .65. I turned off shadows/blur/bloom but rest of the settings are VR high. absolutely zero problems. it's amazing!!

 

[Zeeman]

Yup, I've got a 970 and it's coping fine. I'm using the Oculus debug tool to set Pixel density to 1.5 with in-game super sampling currently at 0.75. Most of the settings are still at max quality although I did wind down some of the terrain stuff and galaxy map settings from Ultra to High after I perceived a bit of judder now and then. I wouldn't worry about the 1080 for now, just get going with the Oculus - it's absolutely amazing!!!

OK, sounds good. I'm wanting to hold out for the potential 1080Ti anyway, if nothing else, 1080's will be cheaper

Thanks for the info guys - I guess I *may* need to reconsider my glasses. We'll see. Will order a new set of contacts, worst case, I guess.
Z...

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Hi,

Picked up mt Rift on Friday and as the title says OMG it is something else. I was initially running a GTX970 (Palit NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 JetStream to be more precise) and all worked fine using the High VR settings provided by EDProfiler, did not experience any sickness, only issue I find is the resolution, using the debug tool could set pixel density to about 1.4 before FPS took too much of a hit.

I had also ordered a ASUS GTX1080 O8G as wanted to get the best res I could, this allows me to run the debug tool with pixel density set to 2 with an FPS at 90 most of the time.

The only issue left to solve is glasses, the normal set I have are a tad wide and also what is known as occupational (read bi-focal) which is not good in a rift - back to the opticians it would seem.

Good on ya - welcome to VR.

Yes, the resolution is low but the rest is all plain to see.

Glasses - if you're long sighted generally, you probably won't need glasses in the Rift. If you're short-sighted, then yeah, it'll be a problem.

 

[Straker]

I spent a few hours in a Vive just recently but I didn't get to try Elite. If I had then it might have been the one thing to tip me over the edge and buy either a Vive or Rift.

The only thing that has me extremely worried is image quality. I currently play with a GTX 970 in 2560x1600 with TrackIR. I'm just paranoid that I'd get the HMD and be really disappointed with not being able to read text. I'm a bit of an image quality nutter. I need to do some more research on other people's experience, however can any one chime in with their specific experience with regard to image quality. Are you an image quality nut with direct experience with VR and can explain your reactions to experiencing Elite in VR.

 

[Alec Turner]

I spent a few hours in a Vive just recently but I didn't get to try Elite. If I had then it might have been the one thing to tip me over the edge and buy either a Vive or Rift.

The only thing that has me extremely worried is image quality. I currently play with a GTX 970 in 2560x1600 with TrackIR. I'm just paranoid that I'd get the HMD and be really disappointed with not being able to read text. I'm a bit of an image quality nutter. I need to do some more research on other people's experience, however can any one chime in with their specific experience with regard to image quality. Are you an image quality nut with direct experience with VR and can explain your reactions to experiencing Elite in VR.

I don't know if you've read my thread ..

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/295207-Oculus-Elite-The-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

.. but the image quality is a bit of an issue for me. Don't get me wrong, VR is mind-blowing and I have ZERO regrets about buying my headset. However - I am agonising over the loss of the absolutely gorgeous, pin-sharp, rock-steady graphics I've become accustomed to (see the video over in the OP of that thread for an example of the gorgeousness I'm talking about) and I'm seriously considering playing Elite (at least some of the time) back on the monitor (with TrackIR). Given that your screen res' is even higher than mine (I've been playing at 1920x1080) and that you're a self proclaimed "image quality nutter" I suspect you may find yourself in a similar situation.

Note: for me at least, reading text has not been a problem. I'm long sighted (wearing +2.0 reading glasses to be able to read anything smaller than an Exit sign) but miraculously, in VR I can read text perfectly without glasses. My wife, who's short sighted, does have to wear her glasses under the headset but, although slightly fiddly to get on, is apparently perfectly comfortable once it's settled.

 

[Straker]

I don't know if you've read my thread ..

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/295207-Oculus-Elite-The-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

.. but the image quality is a bit of an issue for me. Don't get me wrong, VR is mind-blowing and I have ZERO regrets about buying my headset. However - I am agonising over the loss of the absolutely gorgeous, pin-sharp, rock-steady graphics I've become accustomed to (see the video over in the OP of that thread for an example of the gorgeousness I'm talking about) and I'm seriously considering playing Elite (at least some of the time) back on the monitor (with TrackIR). Given that your screen res' is even higher than mine (I've been playing at 1920x1080) and that you're a self proclaimed "image quality nutter" I suspect you may find yourself in a similar situation.

Note: for me at least, reading text has not been a problem. I'm long sighted (wearing +2.0 reading glasses to be able to read anything smaller than an Exit sign) but miraculously, in VR I can read text perfectly without glasses. My wife, who's short sighted, does have to wear her glasses under the headset but, although slightly fiddly to get on, is apparently perfectly comfortable once it's settled.

Thanks Alec. I previously had a quick look at that thread thank you.

I guess the image quality thing will be an issue for me, so it may be that VR is not something for me to invest in at the moment. The only possible way for me to know how I feel about it is to somehow try Elite in VR first as I'd really regret spending the money and feeling really bad because I couldn't live with the reduced image quality. I've experienced VR in other things and know that 'indescribable feeling' that it brings but image quality is really important to me.

 

[Alec Turner]

The only possible way for me to know how I feel about it is to somehow try Elite in VR first as I'd really regret spending the money and feeling really bad because I couldn't live with the reduced image quality. I've experienced VR in other things and know that 'indescribable feeling' that it brings but image quality is really important to me.

It's a bit of a long shot but where do you live? If by some miracle it was near me (Hertfordshire, UK) you'd be more than welcome to come and give my Oculus a try. Send me a pm if you're interested.

 

[Straker]

It's a bit of a long shot but where do you live? If by some miracle it was near me (Hertfordshire, UK) you'd be more than welcome to come and give my Oculus a try. Send me a pm if you're interested.

Thanks Alec. I'm in Australia, so it'd be a little difficult but appreciate the offer.

 

[Craith]

Australia ... close, I'm from Austria ... just missing a few letters and a few cangaroos ...

I am also new on board the VR train, got it about a month ago, and have since spent my spare time in space, no longer in front of a computer screen. All the friends who've tried it loved it, and at least 2 are seriously considering VR themselves. There is definately room for improvement, the 970 that could power Elite flawlessly on the screen is not really up to the task, the vive has some troubles with text resolution, bloom from the freshnel lenses occurs ... but there's no going back to 2D.

I was waiting for VR to become "ready" since 1994, i think it was called the VFX-1 or something like that, a big helmet, bad resolution, only few programs supported it, horribly expensive, but boy did I want one badly. Drove hours to get to an exhibition to wait hours in line to be able to test it. Followed the Rift since its beginning, but without the finances to buy in - finally settled for the Vive for different reasons, although it is worse for ED at the moment (I am still hoping the problems will be fixed, call me an optimist) ..

I spent hours walking around my bridge on the corvette, thoughtlessly tried to touch the cockpit in the eagle ... in my mind I should have been able to touch it ... I am definitely less efficient (even as I wasnt the most efficient player before), but I really enjoy every moment of it. Don't get me started on combat ...

 

[Alec Turner]

I spent hours walking around my bridge on the corvette, thoughtlessly tried to touch the cockpit in the eagle ... in my mind I should have been able to touch it

Speaking of cockpits, that's what I spent my entire morning doing today. Went to Founders World and proceeded to try out every single one of my ships. Fascinating. The Vulture cockpit is surprisingly big (and almost identical to the Federal Gunship). The Imperial cockpits are glorious (particularly loved the Imperial Courier - very snug). And as for the Anacdonda - it's HUGE! Had to climb out of my seat and crawl across the floor to explore it. Eventually bumped into my living room door!

Really looking forward to trying the Corvette, speaking of which ... back to the Lebedev rep grind I go!

 

[Monoceros]

Australia ... close, I'm from Austria ... just missing a few letters and a few cangaroos ...

I am also new on board the VR train, got it about a month ago, and have since spent my spare time in space, no longer in front of a computer screen. All the friends who've tried it loved it, and at least 2 are seriously considering VR themselves. There is definately room for improvement, the 970 that could power Elite flawlessly on the screen is not really up to the task, the vive has some troubles with text resolution, bloom from the freshnel lenses occurs ... but there's no going back to 2D.

I was waiting for VR to become "ready" since 1994, i think it was called the VFX-1 or something like that, a big helmet, bad resolution, only few programs supported it, horribly expensive, but boy did I want one badly. Drove hours to get to an exhibition to wait hours in line to be able to test it. Followed the Rift since its beginning, but without the finances to buy in - finally settled for the Vive for different reasons, although it is worse for ED at the moment (I am still hoping the problems will be fixed, call me an optimist) ..

I spent hours walking around my bridge on the corvette, thoughtlessly tried to touch the cockpit in the eagle ... in my mind I should have been able to touch it ... I am definitely less efficient (even as I wasnt the most efficient player before), but I really enjoy every moment of it. Don't get me started on combat ...

This you mean

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFX1_Headgear

Had one of these, playing the likes of Doom, Duke Nukem but mainly Descent - damn heavy to wear I seem to remember.

Descent was great in it at the time though highly nausea inducing.....

 

[Craith]

This you mean

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFX1_Headgear

Had one of these, playing the likes of Doom, Duke Nukem but mainly Descent - damn heavy to wear I seem to remember.

Descent was great in it at the time though highly nausea inducing.....

yes, I envy you (not for the nausea though), thanks for the link

 

[Monoceros]

yes, I envy you (not for the nausea though), thanks for the link

This has made me think now, may still have this tucked away in the loft with the pile of BBC Micros/Archimedes and MicroVAX systems I for some reason though may be useful in the future...

 

[Cliché]

I need to do some more research on other people's experience, however can any one chime in with their specific experience with regard to image quality. Are you an image quality nut with direct experience with VR and can explain your reactions to experiencing Elite in VR.

I had dual GTX-970 SLI 2560x1440 with 1.5SS for the best image quality I could get. I had the choice to go 4K or VR. I chose VR and have not regretted one second. I did buy a 1080 and still use 1.5SS and I think the image quality is more than adequate. And sometimes it looks just damn good. Thought it's always blurry around the edges, and a station exterior at night and at a distance looks pretty awful, after a while you just don't care anymore. I don't have a problem reading text, although I might have to lean in to read planetary g's, longitude & latitude. But when your mind thinks you are actually in a cockpit of a space ship, the little things no longer matter.

And in two years, I'll do it all over again for generation 2. [money]

 

[Straker]

...
I am also new on board the VR train, got it about a month ago, and have since spent my spare time in space, no longer in front of a computer screen. All the friends who've tried it loved it, and at least 2 are seriously considering VR themselves. There is definately room for improvement, the 970 that could power Elite flawlessly on the screen is not really up to the task, the vive has some troubles with text resolution, bloom from the freshnel lenses occurs ... but there's no going back to 2D.
...

The GTX 970 is listed as minimum spec for VR but you recommend something higher instead for Elite Dangerous? If that's the case then I'll probably skip VR for the moment as I'm not keen on upgrading the video card just yet. I'd have to spend a fair bit of money to upgrade the video card and get the HMD at the same time.

 

[Zeeman]

The GTX 970 is listed as minimum spec for VR but you recommend something higher instead for Elite Dangerous? If that's the case then I'll probably skip VR for the moment as I'm not keen on upgrading the video card just yet. I'd have to spend a fair bit of money to upgrade the video card and get the HMD at the same time.

I'm hoping to grab a Rift in the next few days, all going well, I have a GTX 970, others have said it'll do the job OK.

I'm happy to let you know what my experience is, I'm coning from a 55" 1080P TV running at 60FPS (the max the TV is capable of).

Z...

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Australia ... close, I'm from Austria ... just missing a few letters and a few cangaroos ...

I am also new on board the VR train, got it about a month ago, and have since spent my spare time in space, no longer in front of a computer screen. All the friends who've tried it loved it, and at least 2 are seriously considering VR themselves. There is definately room for improvement, the 970 that could power Elite flawlessly on the screen is not really up to the task, the vive has some troubles with text resolution, bloom from the freshnel lenses occurs ... but there's no going back to 2D.

I was waiting for VR to become "ready" since 1994, i think it was called the VFX-1 or something like that, a big helmet, bad resolution, only few programs supported it, horribly expensive, but boy did I want one badly. Drove hours to get to an exhibition to wait hours in line to be able to test it. Followed the Rift since its beginning, but without the finances to buy in - finally settled for the Vive for different reasons, although it is worse for ED at the moment (I am still hoping the problems will be fixed, call me an optimist) ..

I spent hours walking around my bridge on the corvette, thoughtlessly tried to touch the cockpit in the eagle ... in my mind I should have been able to touch it ... I am definitely less efficient (even as I wasnt the most efficient player before), but I really enjoy every moment of it. Don't get me started on combat ...

I remember seeing something like that in the late 80's/early 90's They had one set up at an amusement park, it was expensive - $10 for 5 minutes, but it was cool. I can't even remember what you did in it anymore, I think it was just looking around a virtual room...

Z...

 

[Straker]

I'm hoping to grab a Rift in the next few days, all going well, I have a GTX 970, others have said it'll do the job OK.

I'm happy to let you know what my experience is, I'm coning from a 55" 1080P TV running at 60FPS (the max the TV is capable of).

Thanks Zeeman, that'd be awesome! Just as a reminder, I'm coming from spending a few hours already with the Vive, so I totally understand the 'indescribable experience' thing that VR has - I have just not been able to try it with Elite Dangerous. So if you ignore the wow-factor of VR, does the image quality thing cause you to debate whether you should go back to using a monitor?

 

[Alec Turner]

Thanks Zeeman, that'd be awesome! Just as a reminder, I'm coming from spending a few hours already with the Vive, so I totally understand the 'indescribable experience' thing that VR has - I have just not been able to try it with Elite Dangerous. So if you ignore the wow-factor of VR, does the image quality thing cause you to debate whether you should go back to using a monitor?

Further to this I just wanted to report back that today, contrary to rumours that "you can never go back", I went back to playing Elite on the monitor and actually .... I loved it. The graphics are so so beautiful (I actually got to appreciate them all over again) and I felt, almost a sense of relief. I'm far less conflicted playing on the monitor than I am in the Oculus. I also think having head tracking really helps when "going back". There's undeniably a sense of loss because the VR experience IS stunning but I suspect that, until the next gen of VR headsets comes out (with maybe double the resolution) I'm going to be mostly playing Elite on the monitor and will save my Oculus (which I love and have no regrets about buying) for "experiences", blowing the minds of friends and relatives and playing Lucky's Tale.

These are just my opinions of course, others will (and do) disagree.