New Oculus Owner - First impressions

Like many others I was on the fence about this whole VR thing. It sounded interesting but I have never had the chance to see it in person so it was a little hard to spend $600 - $700 for a VR headset. Then I saw the recent sale on the Oculus bundle for $400. Based on all the positive feedback on this forum about VR and Elite I thought I would take the gamble and spend the $400. Ran to the store after work yesterday and picked up the bundle.

So just to setup my perspective on the whole experience I though a little background would help. I only started playing Elite about 10 weeks ago and I have logged about 300 hours into the game. When I bought Elite I already had 3 27" monitors setup with Nvidia Surround and an old cyborg joystick. After the first two days of Elite, I knew I liked it and I wanted a new HOTAS, so I ordered the Thrustmaster 1600M setup. It was a huge improvement over the old joy stick and now I no longer had to use my keyboard for anything. I could control everything from the HOTAS and I was really enjoying Elite. But as a noob I found myself checking out this forum almost every day looking for tips and information and I saw some post about VR and how great it was but I didn't think it was for me. Then I saw a post about Track IR. I read a bunch about it and watched some youtube videos and thought it would add a lot to Elite. It was a lot cheaper than VR so I order one up. I got it setup along with Voice attack. Track IR was awesome, I could look around my ship and look around at everything outside without having to turn my ship to see something. I thought it was really cool the first time I looked down and saw my hands and feet in the ship moving when I moved my controls. It made flying a lot easier because I could look around to see stuff. Now I'm really loving the game, new HOTAS, Track IR, voice attack with a cool voice pack from HCS. I figured I'm all set now, this is great.

I would still read some post about VR and how immersive it is and that its like a totally different game. But I'm thinking its gotta be like track IR but you just can't see anything else from the outside word so I don't need it. I mean sure it would probably more immersive because all you see is the game, but at the same time that makes some things more difficult. I also saw some reviews say the image isn't as sharp because the lower resolution lets you see the pixels a little bit. So I happily continued on with my setup for another 8 weeks loving the game. Then I saw the $400 bundle deal which made me start thinking about VR again. I already had a GTX1080 so $400 wasn't too bad to give it a go. Back to this forum to read about VR. I understood the cons pretty well, you notice the lower resolution and you can't see the outside world so it makes it difficult to use outside tools or grab a beer. Also some people get motion sickness but I have never really gotten motion sickness before so I figured I would be ok. Now the pro's are harder to understand since I have never see VR before. The closest demo location I could find was 90 miles away. I saw comments like you could play the game or with VR you could be in the game. "Be in the game", that sounded cool but I'm thinking Track IR but I can't see the outside world. I went back and forth but decided why not.

I had been bounty hunting all week at the CG and I was in the top 10% so when I got home I decided to get some more bounties done before I hooked up the Oculus because I wasn't sure if it would take a while to get used to before I was ready to try combat in VR. So I did bounties for an hour and landed back at the potato and turned them in for my cash. I logged out and started setting up the Oculus. I got through the setup and went through the little demo at the end. It was pretty amazing, I was in the little workshop with a robot who was handing my these disk to put in something that looked like a 3D printer. It would create these objects to play around with and I was started to understand what this whole VR thing was all about. Ok, setup was complete and now it was time to check out ED. Once if figured out how to activate it I was ready to login.

I got logged in to my ship and was blown away. It wasn't like TrackIR at all. I was not expecting the sense of scale and size that I was seeing. I probably sat there for 10 minutes just looking around. The inside of my FAS looked really cool, I saw even more stuff than I could see with TrackIR. Plus every think looked real, not flat and 2D. Once I move my ship to the surface of the station I could not believe how big it was inside. I just never got the feeling before that I was inside this massive structure, but seeing in VR is just mind blowing. When I finally decided to take off and leave the station I couldn't get over how big the mail slot actually is. Before I always felt like I was going to hit the ceiling or floor but in VR you can see how big it really is and it made it pretty easy to fly through. I left the station not sure what to do as I took it all in, again the size of the station from the outside was just as impressive as the inside. I figured I'd just do some more bounty hunting to really give this VR try. It was just amazing, the asteroids look so much bigger, the enemy ships are so much bigger, and I found flying so much easier. I really think it is because it is so much easier to judge distance in VR. I found it a lot easier to stay on the tail of enemy ships and avoid getting shot at by them. I ended staying there until I ran out of ammo in my multi-cannons. I racked up another 2 million in bounties and headed back to the station to collect. Again docking was a lot easier, I could see everything better and the station seemed so much bigger and I never felt like I didn't have room to maneuver. I didn't want to stop playing but It was getting late and I had to get to work in the morning so I forced myself to log off. I can't wait to discover ED all over again.

Thanks to all the Commanders for posting so many positive stuff about VR. Without them I probably wouldn't have given it a shot.
 
Like many others I was on the fence about this whole VR thing. It sounded interesting but I have never had the chance to see it in person so it was a little hard to spend $600 - $700 for a VR headset. Then I saw the recent sale on the Oculus bundle for $400. Based on all the positive feedback on this forum about VR and Elite I thought I would take the gamble and spend the $400. Ran to the store after work yesterday and picked up the bundle.

So just to setup my perspective on the whole experience I though a little background would help. I only started playing Elite about 10 weeks ago and I have logged about 300 hours into the game. When I bought Elite I already had 3 27" monitors setup with Nvidia Surround and an old cyborg joystick. After the first two days of Elite, I knew I liked it and I wanted a new HOTAS, so I ordered the Thrustmaster 1600M setup. It was a huge improvement over the old joy stick and now I no longer had to use my keyboard for anything. I could control everything from the HOTAS and I was really enjoying Elite. But as a noob I found myself checking out this forum almost every day looking for tips and information and I saw some post about VR and how great it was but I didn't think it was for me. Then I saw a post about Track IR. I read a bunch about it and watched some youtube videos and thought it would add a lot to Elite. It was a lot cheaper than VR so I order one up. I got it setup along with Voice attack. Track IR was awesome, I could look around my ship and look around at everything outside without having to turn my ship to see something. I thought it was really cool the first time I looked down and saw my hands and feet in the ship moving when I moved my controls. It made flying a lot easier because I could look around to see stuff. Now I'm really loving the game, new HOTAS, Track IR, voice attack with a cool voice pack from HCS. I figured I'm all set now, this is great.

I would still read some post about VR and how immersive it is and that its like a totally different game. But I'm thinking its gotta be like track IR but you just can't see anything else from the outside word so I don't need it. I mean sure it would probably more immersive because all you see is the game, but at the same time that makes some things more difficult. I also saw some reviews say the image isn't as sharp because the lower resolution lets you see the pixels a little bit. So I happily continued on with my setup for another 8 weeks loving the game. Then I saw the $400 bundle deal which made me start thinking about VR again. I already had a GTX1080 so $400 wasn't too bad to give it a go. Back to this forum to read about VR. I understood the cons pretty well, you notice the lower resolution and you can't see the outside world so it makes it difficult to use outside tools or grab a beer. Also some people get motion sickness but I have never really gotten motion sickness before so I figured I would be ok. Now the pro's are harder to understand since I have never see VR before. The closest demo location I could find was 90 miles away. I saw comments like you could play the game or with VR you could be in the game. "Be in the game", that sounded cool but I'm thinking Track IR but I can't see the outside world. I went back and forth but decided why not.

I had been bounty hunting all week at the CG and I was in the top 10% so when I got home I decided to get some more bounties done before I hooked up the Oculus because I wasn't sure if it would take a while to get used to before I was ready to try combat in VR. So I did bounties for an hour and landed back at the potato and turned them in for my cash. I logged out and started setting up the Oculus. I got through the setup and went through the little demo at the end. It was pretty amazing, I was in the little workshop with a robot who was handing my these disk to put in something that looked like a 3D printer. It would create these objects to play around with and I was started to understand what this whole VR thing was all about. Ok, setup was complete and now it was time to check out ED. Once if figured out how to activate it I was ready to login.

I got logged in to my ship and was blown away. It wasn't like TrackIR at all. I was not expecting the sense of scale and size that I was seeing. I probably sat there for 10 minutes just looking around. The inside of my FAS looked really cool, I saw even more stuff than I could see with TrackIR. Plus every think looked real, not flat and 2D. Once I move my ship to the surface of the station I could not believe how big it was inside. I just never got the feeling before that I was inside this massive structure, but seeing in VR is just mind blowing. When I finally decided to take off and leave the station I couldn't get over how big the mail slot actually is. Before I always felt like I was going to hit the ceiling or floor but in VR you can see how big it really is and it made it pretty easy to fly through. I left the station not sure what to do as I took it all in, again the size of the station from the outside was just as impressive as the inside. I figured I'd just do some more bounty hunting to really give this VR try. It was just amazing, the asteroids look so much bigger, the enemy ships are so much bigger, and I found flying so much easier. I really think it is because it is so much easier to judge distance in VR. I found it a lot easier to stay on the tail of enemy ships and avoid getting shot at by them. I ended staying there until I ran out of ammo in my multi-cannons. I racked up another 2 million in bounties and headed back to the station to collect. Again docking was a lot easier, I could see everything better and the station seemed so much bigger and I never felt like I didn't have room to maneuver. I didn't want to stop playing but It was getting late and I had to get to work in the morning so I forced myself to log off. I can't wait to discover ED all over again.

Thanks to all the Commanders for posting so many positive stuff about VR. Without them I probably wouldn't have given it a shot.

Welcome. To the Real World.
 
Yes, my first experience of ED in VR yesterday too, and as a previous triplehead TrackIR user, its simply a whole different realm. The KEY difference is simply scale. 2D screen with TrackIR is looking at a computer screen on your desk. The view is not true 1 to 1, but something smaller. In VR, its 1 to 1, in true 3D, and you are literally there in the virtual cockpit. As noted in another thread, I could get out of my set, walk around the bridge of my python, get on my hands and knees and look at the detail simply unseen in 2D, plus all from a 1 to 1 perspective! Stunning. The SDE is a tradeoff, but I do not think I will be back to 2D in ED, the VR experience is simply too grand.
 
Congrats! Same with me, bought mine just last week and won't play Elite in 2D anymore (at least, when I'm not on the notebook during holidays). One warning, though: the Touch Controllers (fantastic stuff) come with several free games, including Robo Recall (it should be marked as 'purchased' in the Oculus Store once you set up the controllers). Even though I'm not too big a fan of FPS, it's worth checking out, the immersion is just great. So great, actually, that I completely forgot about the room I was in (sitting at my desktop) and spilled half a can of beer in the general direction of my keyboard in the process. Luckily, it's still working, but I had some tense moments (and my wife was definitely not amused) :)

Yo,
[noob]
 
Indeed, I have learned to keep my hand out in front of me when out of chair to lightly touch out to the real work to be sure i do not knock anything over or bump into anything. I could imagine my kids strapping this on, see the wide open space and simply run...slamming into the wall, table, etc..!
 
Yes, my first experience of ED in VR yesterday too, and as a previous triplehead TrackIR user, its simply a whole different realm. The KEY difference is simply scale. 2D screen with TrackIR is looking at a computer screen on your desk. The view is not true 1 to 1, but something smaller. In VR, its 1 to 1, in true 3D, and you are literally there in the virtual cockpit. As noted in another thread, I could get out of my set, walk around the bridge of my python, get on my hands and knees and look at the detail simply unseen in 2D, plus all from a 1 to 1 perspective! Stunning. The SDE is a tradeoff, but I do not think I will be back to 2D in ED, the VR experience is simply too grand.

You can get out of the chair and walk around on the Python? How is this done? I thought we couldn't get out of the chair?

Congrats! Same with me, bought mine just last week and won't play Elite in 2D anymore (at least, when I'm not on the notebook during holidays). One warning, though: the Touch Controllers (fantastic stuff) come with several free games, including Robo Recall (it should be marked as 'purchased' in the Oculus Store once you set up the controllers). Even though I'm not too big a fan of FPS, it's worth checking out, the immersion is just great. So great, actually, that I completely forgot about the room I was in (sitting at my desktop) and spilled half a can of beer in the general direction of my keyboard in the process. Luckily, it's still working, but I had some tense moments (and my wife was definitely not amused) :)

Yo,
[noob]

I'll have to check that game out. I'm still thinking about how I'm going to drink my beer when in VR. :)
 
What an absolutely excellent post, thanks so much for writing that! It actually mirrors many of my own thoughts and experiences (I too went the TrackIR route first). I've had my Oculus for about 8 or 9 months now and I'm still blown away every single time I put it on. I know ED is pretty all encompassing but if you get a chance here are some other things to try on the Oculus which will astound you.

Google Earth VR
Robo Recall
Tilt Brush
Valve's The Lab (on SteamVR)
The Rose and I
Allumette

Err and probably loads I've forgotten (these are all great because they're things you can dip into without eating too much of your Elite time!)
 
You can get out of the chair and walk around on the Python? How is this done? I thought we couldn't get out of the chair?

LOL, dude try it now! Park your ship somewhere then (carefully) get up our of your computer chair and go for a little walk. Oh man, you're gonna squeeee! :D

Oooh ooh, better still .... get a docking computer, initiate the docking sequence and THEN get out of your chair. Walk around to the back of it, stand with your hand on it for support, point forwards, shout "make it so!" and laugh like a drain!

Edit: oohoooh, another one ...get a ship with glass side/floor windows, park the ship next to a star with nice solar flares, get out of your seat, go and lie face down on the floor with your chin in your hands and gaze out of the window ... remain there for about 7hrs!! [yesnod]
 
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Welcome to the club! Now you know why people say it's hard to describe what VR is like until you've experienced it, you're inside the game! Inside. The. Game.

Now try this: make sure that everything around you is clear in the "real" world, put on your headset so you're inside your ship, and then (carefully) stand up and have a look around :)
 
Get 3 VR multicrew members. Stand in the middle (assuming you have a big enough ship), put some 80's metal on Voicechat.... and ROCK YOUR BRIDGE!

(which would work if everyone else actually got out of their chairs.. sadly they don't so... just do it solo!)
 
Long neck bottles, and spacial memory :)

No such thing as long necked bottles, except that one brand of imported at twice the price.
Let alone bottles in general.

Here it's cans cans cans.
God I miss the feel of a glass bottle.

Well there is always wine though.
 
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No such thing as long necked bottles, except that one brand of imported at twice the price.
Let alone bottles in general.

Here it's cans cans cans.
God I miss the feel of a glass bottle.

Straws! Hey, with the headset on you already look like a dork anyway :)
 
Oh I do.
It's just so not right to drink beer with a straw.

Well, your other option is a sippy cup.

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