Oculus Rift SDK update

[Chris_murdock]

A BIG FIX on the VR experience on the SRV is if they make a option disable and enable panels pup up by looking left or right etc on the SRV, reason is because when you are on the SRV on VR you want to look around and enjoy the view, now we have the disable options on menu but that obtion will also disable that on your ship. if we could have the separated option for the SRV would be great, also regarding the SRV would be nice to have key board set up ready when you start horizons, I spend so much time setting up that I didn't really enjoy my first SRV runs.
if we can get that fixed would be great.
Thank you

 

[dutchy2000]

So, if you bought an Oculus Rift today, and then tomorrow you bought a copy of Elite Dangerous,
you'd be in for a nasty surprise.
how do I set up Elite for Oculus again?
Oh, i understand, we don't talk about that here.

You simply follow the steps in the sticky at the top of this forum and voila you will have working ED with the rift. If you don't understand that you bought a DEVELOPMENT KIT rift which is EXPERIMENTAL (I am highlighting the important words since you seem incapable of figuring this out). And it requires some tinkering to make work. But anyone with a little tech knowledge and reading capabilities can buy a rift today (well you can't since they are out of stock) and have it working the same day.

So please stop with the oh the rift is not supported with ED non sense already, its getting really old and tired. Whatever problem you have, is you, not the rift or ED.

 

[SpectrumZZ]

You simply follow the steps in the sticky at the top of this forum and voila you will have working ED with the rift.

Normal people using the Rift can't just use old Nvidia drivers and old Rift drivers. They are incompatible with apps like Unity3d, AltVR, etc. You are misinformed.

If you don't understand that you bought a DEVELOPMENT KIT rift which is EXPERIMENTAL (I am highlighting the important words since you seem incapable of figuring this out). And it requires some tinkering to make work. But anyone with a little tech knowledge and reading capabilities can buy a rift today (well you can't since they are out of stock) and have it working the same day.

ED was sold on the basis that Rift was supported, period. It doesn't matter what the status of Rift is as a shipping product, devkit or no. ED had Rift support, claimed to support Rift, but no longer has Rift support.

So please stop with the oh the rift is not supported with ED non sense already, its getting really old and tired. Whatever problem you have, is you, not the rift or ED.

Stop blaming the user for Frontier's lack of commitment in keeping up with Rift support. Frontier should never have claimed they were going to support Rift if they didn't plan to do it. Right now they claim they will fix support at some time in the future when Rift hits 1.0, or some arbitrary marker like that. CV1 is likely 6 to 7 months out, and even then the problem of primary display support has nothing to do with the Rift, but rather than ED only renders to extended.


The really interesting scenario is Horizons. They claim it has Windows 10 64-bit support, but say it only has Vive SteamVR support, and nothing for Rift (which is entirely different than Elite Dangerous). In other words, they aren't claiming it is Rift compatible. They probably know they can't label it was Windows 10 compatible if they claim Rift support but don't support the Windows 10 Rift drivers (ie. they would be blatantly lying if they said they support Rift and Win10, but don't support the Win10 Rift SDK 0.7). Thus, it is perfectly safe to say that officially, Horizons is not Rift compatible at ship, which is a good reason not to order it until they do.

 

[CylonSurfer]

Elite Dangerous + Horizons beta works fine on my DK2 using run time 0.5. I read on here that others have it working with run time 0.8 and SteamVR.

It would be nice to have official run time 0.8 support, but as Frontier have said themselves, they continue to look for fixes to problems runtime 0.7 + have presented and are working with Oculus to achieve this. Their best intentions are to have this problem fixed for run time 1.0, hopefully before.

Oculus changed the goal posts when they removed and stopped supporting 'Extended Mode', Frontier didn't just stop supporting the product and it's silly to suggest they have.

 

[jabokai]

Oculus changed the goal posts when they removed and stopped supporting 'Extended Mode', Frontier didn't just stop supporting the product and it's silly to suggest they have.

The second half is true but extended mode really did need to disappear as it's not user friendly. A lot of people are not into "fiddling" to get things working and there has to be a standard plug and play mechanism for VR to take off without people getting disillusioned - that's Direct mode. So I wouldn't call it "changing the goal posts" I'd more say it was more just putting them where they should be for a consumer product.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

The second half is true but extended mode really did need to disappear as it's not user friendly. A lot of people are not into "fiddling" to get things working and there has to be a standard plug and play mechanism for VR to take off without people getting disillusioned - that's Direct mode. So I wouldn't call it "changing the goal posts" I'd more say it was more just putting them where they should be for a consumer product.

this is true, however it would have been nice if they could have kept it in there as an unsupported, and unlockable mode via altering a hidden config file..
Any game forcing us to do this could never use VR support in their marketing as it would not be officially supported, but at the same time, it does look like a number of fairly nice demos and older games etc may lose their VR (I am not worried about ED going this way, but games like alien isolation - which most would say could not be considered to be fully VR compatable anyway - do still offer a compelling VR experience, even with their issues. It is a shame that many may never feel the ball tingling terror of being hunted by the giant xenomorph )

edit, and just as a reminder of what many may now miss out on (warning, fruity language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwLUHEG4oNs

 

[CylonSurfer]

The second half is true but extended mode really did need to disappear as it's not user friendly. A lot of people are not into "fiddling" to get things working and there has to be a standard plug and play mechanism for VR to take off without people getting disillusioned - that's Direct mode. So I wouldn't call it "changing the goal posts" I'd more say it was more just putting them where they should be for a consumer product.

As much as I agree that extended mode had to go in the long run it certainly changed the priorities for many developers who previously had working 0.5 / 0.6 compatible applications - so what placed Oculus where it needed to be for a consumer launch also changed the goal posts for many developers who then had / have to play catch up.

this is true, however it would have been nice if they could have kept it in there as an unsupported, and unlockable mode via altering a hidden config file..
Any game forcing us to do this could never use VR support in their marketing as it would not be officially supported, but at the same time, it does look like a number of fairly nice demos and older games etc may lose their VR (I am not worried about ED going this way, but games like alien isolation - which most would say could not be considered to be fully VR compatable anyway - do still offer a compelling VR experience, even with their issues. It is a shame that many may never feel the ball tingling terror of being hunted by the giant xenomorph )

edit, and just as a reminder of what many may now miss out on (warning, fruity language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwLUHEG4oNs

Yup, I agree 100%. For the developer units they should have kept a way to re-enable extended mode. If it were not for the run time switcher I would not have upgraded past run time 0.5 in order to preserve from bit of VR history.

 

[jabokai]

Well, I couldn't play Alien Isolation long enough in VR to get to the Alien due to VR sickness! First person (non vehicular) games just don't work for me.

The concern, I guess, of leaving unsupported mechanisms is that people will use them when you really don't want them to and that poor experiences may damage the take up of VR. I think they've even stated this as a concern in relation to other aspects of VR. And, as you suggest, some experiences could be so compelling that people would really want to try and so feel "forced" into fiddling just so they could try them. I think they want a more seamless and polished experience than that, like Gear VR. I tried it, it's so painless compared to my DK2 - just attach the phone and everything then works! This is how it should be for the PC too, albeit that we should still be able to fiddle with various graphics settings, as ever - the Rift itself should be seamless.

The death of Extended Mode will be a minor footnote in history once the commercial units come out and everything is developed for them from the get go.

All just IMHO, of course.

 

[CylonSurfer]

I agree that for the consumer Oculus Rift extended mode would be unsuitable for the masses, but for developer units I see no issue with having it left in as a debug option, maybe with adequate warnings when the mode is enabled.

When you buy a developer unit you need to expect some degree of fiddling and should have a sufficient skill set to do just that. Even if you purchased it for enjoyment and not development.

UPDATE: Well it looks like Frontier will have no choice but to get 'Direct Mode' working if they want to support either device. Valve just confirmed that the Vive is to ship with 'Direct Mode' as standard:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/358720/discussions/0/487876568235374560/#c487876568235406225