Newbie to VR

[Speculative]

Hi all,

A complete newbie to VR here.

I have not played ED for a while now but want to get back into it. I also have no idea about VR at all, my understanding of all things computer, has slowly disappeared to the point of being an end user only over the past 20 years.

What are peoples opinions of VR for ED? I have a budget of about £500 so was really looking at the Oculus Rift S, but;

a) want to know peoples view (who know what they are talking about) and
b) need to check the specs on my computer when I get home Friday (I have 16GB ram but not sure on CPU other than i5 (old ish) and not sure on graphics card or port availability)

So can you help a know nothing newbie?!

Thanks for all help in advance!

Best regards
James

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

VR is becoming more and more accessible. There are several good HMDs on the market that will generally not cost you more than the gaming computer required to run them. Of course, you also have the expensive high-end of the spectrum like the Valve Index or Pimax headsets.

Youshould be aware that Oculus (owned by Facebook) recently implemented a policy that you need to link a Facebook account in order to use it. Do with that information what you will, but most people are rather upset with this. There are also other headsets out there. Personally I use an Index, but that is a bit pricey based on your budget.

The most important part in your gaming rig will be the graphics card as you will need to render two images at high frame rate. Without knowing more of your specs, it is difficult to say. Steam has some test programs that can tell you roughly how you are doing performance wise relative to needed performance.

 

[Speculative]

Thanks for the information.

When I get home I will gather my system data and see if I can run it.

Do you have the steam software name that I can run to see if it would cope?

As for facebook, I take it I could open up a blank account just for the rift?

What are peoples opinion of the quality of the Rift S?

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

As for facebook, I take it I could open up a blank account just for the rift?

Only if you are happy breaking the Facebook ToS and therefore risking having that account suspended at any time. I don’t use Oculus, but I suspect any purchases on the Oculus store would be gone with such a suspension ... others would have to confirm.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

Thanks for the information.

When I get home I will gather my system data and see if I can run it.

Do you have the steam software name that I can run to see if it would cope?

As for facebook, I take it I could open up a blank account just for the rift?

What are peoples opinion of the quality of the Rift S?

Can't you just list your operating system (is it Windows 10?), CPU and graphics card when you know them? 16GB RAM is ample!

Regarding quality of the Rift S:
The visual quality is good. In fact, I would say excellent for the price.
Audio is rubbish so either use 5.1s for elite and other cockpit sims like assetto corsa or use headphones.
The hand motion controllers are superb for the price.
Oculus's runtime software is the best, second to none. In other words, if you run your games on oculus software, it will run better than an identical spec on any other VR runtime software e.g. Steam VR

But then there's the Facebook issue.

I have been an oculus white knight since DK2. As it currently stands my next HMD will not be Oculus.

 

[Dooguk]

Thanks for the information.

When I get home I will gather my system data and see if I can run it.

Do you have the steam software name that I can run to see if it would cope?

As for facebook, I take it I could open up a blank account just for the rift?

What are peoples opinion of the quality of the Rift S?

Steam VR Performance Test is what you are looking for. It's free on Steam.

 

[Meresiga]

Thanks for the information.

When I get home I will gather my system data and see if I can run it.

Do you have the steam software name that I can run to see if it would cope?

As for facebook, I take it I could open up a blank account just for the rift?

What are peoples opinion of the quality of the Rift S?

Only if You do not want to cause unnecessary problems - do not buy the game Elite through Steam. It will be better if you buy it directly from the site of the developer of this game. There will be no unnecessary extra layer in the form of the Steam app, and the game will work perfectly only with the Oculus app.

 

[Speculative]

Thank you everyone,

I have been an ED backer since kickstarter and have it as a stand alone game, not through Steam.

I can tell you I have windows 10, i5 (just not sure which chipset) and 5.1 surroud sound.

just need to get the graphics card and the main cpu details

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

Only if You do not want to cause unnecessary problems - do not buy the game Elite through Steam. It will be better if you buy it directly from the site of the developer of this game. There will be no unnecessary extra layer in the form of the Steam app, and the game will work perfectly only with the Oculus app.

How is this related to what you quoted? The OP was asking for the Steam app that gives you an indication of whether or not your computer is VR ready (answer already given in #6). Nobody told him to buy the game on Steam.

 

[Meresiga]

How is this related to what you quoted? The OP was asking for the Steam app that gives you an indication of whether or not your computer is VR ready (answer already given in #6). Nobody told him to buy the game on Steam.

He initially did not ask anything about Steam at all. All about the compatibility of Oculus and the game - you can find out without Steam. There are utilities from the developer for this purpose:

Download Oculus Rift Compatibility Tool - MajorGeeks

The Oculus Rift Compatibility Tool is an official, portable app to determine if your computer meets all the requirements for Oculus Rift.

www.majorgeeks.com

Oculus 'Rift Compatibility Check' Tool Tells You if Your PC is "Ready For Rift"

Not sure if you’re computer is going to be ready in time for March when your pre-ordered Rift ships? Oculus has just published a handy tool that assesses your system and simultaneously confronts you with the stark reality that you’re already dangerously close to the poverty line. Update: We...

www.roadtovr.com

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

He initially did not ask anything about Steam at all. All about the compatibility of Oculus and the game - you can find out without Steam. There are utilities from the developer for this purpose:

Download Oculus Rift Compatibility Tool - MajorGeeks

The Oculus Rift Compatibility Tool is an official, portable app to determine if your computer meets all the requirements for Oculus Rift.

www.majorgeeks.com

Oculus 'Rift Compatibility Check' Tool Tells You if Your PC is "Ready For Rift"

Not sure if you’re computer is going to be ready in time for March when your pre-ordered Rift ships? Oculus has just published a handy tool that assesses your system and simultaneously confronts you with the stark reality that you’re already dangerously close to the poverty line. Update: We...

www.roadtovr.com

Still nobody suggested him to buy the game on Steam. Buying Oculus after the latest Facebook move seems like a genuinely bad idea to be honest.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

Thank you everyone,

I have been an ED backer since kickstarter and have it as a stand alone game, not through Steam.

I can tell you I have windows 10, i5 (just not sure which chipset) and 5.1 surroud sound.

just need to get the graphics card and the main cpu details

If you have Steam, the performance test in reply #6 is a good one. If you haven't got steam you can right-click on your desktop and choose graphics properties (or something similar), your card's details will be around there somewhere.

The fact you have i5 suggests your CPU should be good enough for RiftS, I had a i5 2500k until about a year ago! Honestly not 100% sure of the difference following upgrade to Ryzen 3600 x! The Oculus software said old CPU was insufficient but games ran fine.

I think GPU is key. I am currently using nvidia 1070 which is defo a mid range (and falling) card now and it does a good job with RiftS.

Looking forward to seeing what you have!

 

[sgurr]

The fact you have i5 suggests your CPU should be good enough for RiftS, I had a i5 2500k until about a year ago! Honestly not 100% sure of the difference following upgrade to Ryzen 3600 x! The Oculus software said old CPU was insufficient but games ran fine.

Elite in VR wants to use 5 or 6 threads minimum, and Elite generally is very good at using multiple threads. A 4 thread i5 might not be the best choice, but better than buying a new processor if it's what you have.
(If you want I can hunt out the info to back up what I'm saying)

I went from a 4 thread i5 to a 12 thread 1st gen Ryzen (1600x) and the jump in performance was v.noticeable even though it was a slower clocked chip (I was borderline GPU at the time)

I agree that the GPU is key, but the processor can limit on what it's able to do.

Looking forward to seeing what you have!

Me too

 

[VR andysonofbob]

For sure!

Just saying, in my experience, the difference in performance in ED using Rift, going from 8gb i5 2500k at 4.4 GHz to 16gb ryzen 2600x wasn't all that. :/
I recently went up to 3600x, only a teeny difference from the 2600x. I do however LOVE how you can just upgrade CPU NOW, instead of the entire mb ram CPU!

In my experience, I have always seen gains, in ED VR, upgrading gfx cards, less so CPU.

However the upgrade made a difference in ascetto corsa, allowing me to race against more ai.

 

[aXeL]

I'm probably going to get slapped for saying this but if you want the best experience possible and a reasonable price, the only headset is an HP Reverb G1 ( revision 200 ) or Reverb G2 ( available for pre-order ). I paid $399 for my G1, however you will want a good graphics card to go with it as it's far higher resolution than everything else except the Pimax. CPU isn't such a problem, I'm happily ticking along on an old 4970K.

Unequivocally, all of the other reasonably priced retail headsets on the market are absolute garbage image quality compared to the Reverb G1/G2, the nearest 'good' headset being the Valve Index but, because I tried it after I got my G1, it was a horrid blurry display. Oculus headsets - don't go near them if unless you have no other choice. FYI It's thanks to Oculus that we have VR now and they've done fantastic work stimulating the market but they've since been soundly beaten by the serious hardware vendors who have much more experience in wholesale manufacture of high end kit. If you're new to VR if you can afford not to, don't go near Oculus, you can do much much better for ED. Don't get me wrong, I'm eternally greatful to Lucky Palmer ( the visionary behind Oculus ) however HP and Microsoft have decided that VR has officially landed, Windows 10 natively supports VR if you buy any headset that is 'WMR' compliant, it works perfectly with SteamVR games and Microsoft are adding VR features to Win 10 every few months. e.g. I don't need an 'app' to embed a web browser in my games, Windows 10 supports this anyway.

To all you Oculus fans out there, I've loved Oculus ever since DK1 and without them, there wouldn't even be an HP headset for me to rave about. Oculus did for VR what the iPad1 did for tablets.

 

[Speculative]

So I take it this is ok? also 16GB Ram

now I just need to look at what type of VR headset!

I have no idea what to look for buyt realistically the Oculus Rift S seems pretty much all i can afford at the moment. I will keep looking!

Should this be ok to run a reasonable quality setup?

 

[Arioch]

View attachment 185778
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So I take it this is ok? also 16GB Ram

now I just need to look at what type of VR headset!

I have no idea what to look for buyt realistically the Oculus Rift S seems pretty much all i can afford at the moment. I will keep looking!

Should this be ok to run a reasonable quality setup?

I started in VR (Rift CV1) with an i5 4670k & GTX 1060 which isn’t a million miles away performance-wise from your setup, and side-graded to a Rift S without any noticeable decrease in performance.

ED ran nicely, but I used to experience a few stutters due to having the graphics settings turned up and eventually I upgraded my system. If you don’t mind having some of the performance-hungry settings turned down, you should be good to go.

 

[Speculative]

Thank you,

Quick question about the Rift S port requirements, I have no idea how to check If I have a suitable one? I have a DisplayPort, but not sure how to check if it is a 1.2?

 

[Arioch]

Thank you,

Quick question about the Rift S port requirements, I have no idea how to check If I have a suitable one? I have a DisplayPort, but not sure how to check if it is a 1.2?

I think you’d have to look up your particular graphics card specifications - perhaps run dxdiag.exe from the Windows run prompt, then Google the graphics card info that comes up?

 

[Speculative]

The computer is a Lenovo Idea Centre Y700 34ISH, the specs just say it comes with a DisplayPort, but it doesnt say what type. the computer was from 2016 and DisplayPort 1.2 was released in 2013 so should be at least the 1.2, but I cannot find any concrete information anywhere