Oculus Rift Virgin user, 2 day report.

[Wasp0]

So i thought i would write a write up after 2 days of ownership of my very first Virtual Reality Headset, the Oculus Rift CV1.


I have umm'ed and err'ed about one for quote sometime now, and very nearly bought into a second hand rift about 7 months ago, but i decided not then.


Background:


I am an Elite nut and play nothing else apart from a bit of American Trucker and NMS (Yuk) on my laptop when not playing ED on my gaming rig. I have been spoilt playing ED as i used a 40" Phillips 4k Monitor with outstanding clarity and stunning graphics powered by a EVGA 1080GTX card. I also had the use of a second 22" monitor to run the 3rd party addon's that accompany ED, EDDI, Inara, EDDB etc, and using my own spreadsheet of ED usefulness, so this was the main reason why i have not dived into VR before now.


Any-hows' i bought one from John Lewis on Wednesday and it was delivered on Thursday, and i arrange a hurried day off from work on Friday, so here is my initial 2 setup and usage report.


Setup from the box was a breeze and Oculus hand holding was Excellent, in no time at all i was in my Oculus home. What is it with the Square Flames from the fire, a little disappointing the home screen is, and the running water was pish, not a good start. So getting into the only reason i bought one, running Elite Dangerous.


I have read, re-read and Read again all the forums offerings of setup and configuration help regarding the settings. I downloaded the excllent program from Dr Kaii (ED Profiler) who's ED videos are a must for me, what this guy can't program is not worth worrying about! I am a complete Noob on Graphic settings and no noting about Supersampling, Alialising, Anti-Alialising, Gamma, etc etc! so i needed help.


The generosity of this forum never fails to impress me and i contacted a CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned and Mad Mike and they very kindly took some of their time to answer my PM's, thank you guys for your help. Using Alec Turner and Dr Kaii settings i dived into ED Profiler.
Most have their own preferred settings differing quite a bit, but i settled for set of settings that suited me. TBH, i could not really see the difference, but that is my untrained eye most likely. WHAT ARE THE BEST SETTINGS, i have yet to find out.


What do I think?


I have been spoilt with stunning 4k on the 40" Monitor, so i was a little disappointed in the sharpness of the image in the VR and the periphery vision is way out of focus and you have to look directly at something to bring it into focus. The stations, planets are low res, but i am comparing my 4k monitor with the VR and i realise this you cannot do (Yet). No matter how much i tweaked the settings this remains the biggest disappointment to me.


However....The VR experience is Breathtaking, stunning, unbelievable. I am now IN THE GAME not playing it, i am bloody well in it, i am flying my ship. It is so spooky when i move my hands away from the HOTAS and i look down and think why are my hands still there. Going in and out of the station is Jaw dropping and mine dropped onto the floor. looking around all my ships is wonderful, watching Earth like worlds sail past as i line up the station is doubly mind blowing.


So i took the SRV for a bit of Material hunting, O.M.G.....This Alone is worth the money for the VR!!!!! STUNNING! it is a 100% different experience.


Combat is different as well, the graphics make it harder to spot enemy ships, but i'll get used to it.


Landing is, well you'd think i just picked up the game, not had 2000 hours in it, the distances are huge, the perspective is huge, the SHIPS are HUGE.


What i miss:


My 3rd party addons, reading the forum/web when on long SC journies, my Spreadsheet,


Biggest Disappointments:


Graphics, without a doubt hugely disappointing, and the biggest down is the god awful System and Galaxy map navigating.....How the flip do you get around in the GM & SM? How do you type in a name of a system? Maybe someone will tell me what i am doing wrong?


Will I keep using it or go back to my 40" 4k 2d?...........

The jury is still out on this one, but i will give it every chance, and maybe i will find a better graphic settings. The experience is quite literally out of this world. The visor is no issue and although i wear low setting reading glasses, i don't need them in the Visor. I will look at getting the visor padding as i will wear this for long periods at a time, my normal gaming session is 4+ hours.


Sorry for the long post, but wanted to get it all of my chest. Hope this is of some use to other people, and if anyone can offer further advice for me, then please do.

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Good on ya for giving it a go. You've got the same nails many of the rest of us have, and you've hit them on the head the same way.

Resolution is lacking, check.
Immersion is mind-blowing, Check.
SRV is awesome, CHECK.

You're coming from the best of the best 2D setup to a 1st -generation VR setup. You've got the hardware, but I agree the resolution is for me the biggest negative by far.

I think we can look forward to VR awesomeness in the future.... this is just the beginning.

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

i contacted a CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned and Mad Mike and they very kindly took some of their time to answer my PM's, thank you guys for your help.

First off no bother I suspect Mike would say the same it's actually a real pleasure seeing someone else get into VR

periphery vision is way out of focus and you have to look directly at something to bring it into focus. The stations, planets are low res, but i am comparing my 4k monitor with the VR and i realise this you cannot do (Yet). No matter how much i tweaked the settings this remains the biggest disappointment to me.

I actually just came onto the forum to PM you when I noticed this thread - the PM was going to be are doing this [where is it] to look around the ship or this [squeeeee] you have to move your head , the field of vision is tiny, very much like having tunnel vision. Only when you look directly will you get a sharp image - takes a little getting used to but not much.

However....The VR experience is Breathtaking, stunning, unbelievable. I am now IN THE GAME not playing it, i am bloody well in it, i am flying my ship. It is so spooky when i move my hands away from the HOTAS and i look down and think why are my hands still there. Going in and out of the station is Jaw dropping and mine dropped onto the floor. looking around all my ships is wonderful, watching Earth like worlds sail past as i line up the station is doubly mind blowing.


So i took the SRV for a bit of Material hunting, O.M.G.....This Alone is worth the money for the VR!!!!! STUNNING! it is a 100% different experience.

You should try going mining as well, those asteroids are quite big

Biggest Disappointments:


Graphics, without a doubt hugely disappointing, and the biggest down is the god awful System and Galaxy map navigating.....How the flip do you get around in the GM & SM? How do you type in a name of a system? Maybe someone will tell me what i am doing wrong?

In the galaxy map use

q w e r
a s d f

To navigate and select the star with the blue circle. When the icons pop up keep you head totally still and use the mouse to select.

Similar in the System map w a s d to move around and then mouse to select or wait till you're at the system and use the left panel to select the planet/station you want.

It's still a pain, as I said in a PM maybe they could incorporate touch to select in 3D.

Will I keep using it or go back to my 40" 4k 2d?...........

The jury is still out on this one, but i will give it every chance, and maybe i will find a better graphic settings. The experience is quite literally out of this world. The visor is no issue and although i wear low setting reading glasses, i don't need them in the Visor. I will look at getting the visor padding as i will wear this for long periods at a time, my normal gaming session is 4+ hours.

I still use both 4K monitor and VR depending on the circumstances, first world problems huh.

Really glad you enjoyed it though, always a bit nerve wracking when you're advising someone to spend hundreds of pounds on VR.

 

[arhoos]

Time playing in VR will make that you forget the resolution and prefer the inmersion.
When you are fighting seeking the enemy with the head tracking, you're not wasting time counting pixels (and you know it)

Enjoy it!!

 

[Alec Turner]

Am arsssoled at wedding but some of your thought mirror my own so I'll point you at this ...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...d-and-the-ugly?highlight=Oculus+good+bad+ugly

 

[BaronVonDoon]

The resolution loss is something I adjusted too, aside from far away objects, like Stations when you drop from cruise, I think it looks pretty good. Once you get more used to the depth perception, landing becomes a riot, especially on outposts, where I now find myself throwing the ship about and pulling off some pretty funky and satisfying landings.

 

[Wasp0]

Am arsssoled at wedding but some of your thought mirror my own so I'll point you at this ...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...d-and-the-ugly?highlight=Oculus+good+bad+ugly

Blimey Alec your doing well typing and being AH, Well done

Your link could have been written by me and you could have written my OP.......!

I LOVE the feeling of being In the Game with the Oculus, not just in the Game but part of it!

Enjoy tomorrow morning

 

[BigDuke6ixx]

To the OP: did nothing you have read about the rift prepare you for the fact the graphics aren't as good as a 4K monitor? Trying to understand how why you weren't prepared for a hit in the graphics dept.

 

[Wasp0]

To the OP: did nothing you have read about the rift prepare you for the fact the graphics aren't as good as a 4K monitor? Trying to understand how why you weren't prepared for a hit in the graphics dept.

Like i said in my post (You may have missed it) I say "but i am comparing my 4k monitor with the VR and i realise this you cannot do (Yet)." i was not comparing and i know that, but i was disappointed how disappointing low they are. I was ready for a big drop, but perhaps not as big as i got, that's what i am saying!

 

[Derek Speare [VR]]

You can get around nicely in the Galmap in VR. You need your binds setup properly. I have a thumbstick on my throttle which is bound to the cursor movement on the plane. L-Click-Hold with mouse rotates the view around the cursor. Right-Cilck-Hold raises or lowers the cursor vertically and the wheel zooms in and out. I struggled as well until I got it setup on my mouse and throttle properly. You never need to come out of the HMD in ED if your binds are setup properly.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Galaxy map took me about a week to get used to and bindings setup right.
Now I can't even remember a time when I used a mouse.
System map is honestly worse now.

I would so love an orrery style system map, for now in vr I use the interact able object list to hop around the system map. Although I hardly ever use the system map much, it's nearly superflour unless you are out exploring that is.

 

[Gortron]

To the OP: did nothing you have read about the rift prepare you for the fact the graphics aren't as good as a 4K monitor? Trying to understand how why you weren't prepared for a hit in the graphics dept.

There are some things in life that you can only understand from experience. VR is almost impossible to explain to someone but once you have done it, it seems obvious.... I present to you a musical version of said phenomena [video=youtube;YFJdUJg4wOk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFJdUJg4wOk[/video]

 

[dogbite]

As to navigating maps, there are many ways to bind your controls. Several threads have discussed it here. here is my setup.

I use the mouse as I did before VR in both maps. The only thing I do differently is control the cursor movements with a hat on the back of my throttle (x and y axis in the galaxy map and screen position in the system map) I still use right MB to control z axis. Once zoomed in to correct range (close)to acquire a lock on, a target star, planet or such, the hat is necessary to (with grid on in the GM) do the precision final poisoning over the target to achieve lock, click as before. I personally like this tandem camera control. I find it very fast and efficient and without issue in VR.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I haven't used a mouse in the galaxy map for a long long time. I use my hotas to move around it, the same with the system map. And that includes the options.

 

[dogbite]

I haven't used a mouse in the galaxy map for a long long time. I use my hotas to move around it, the same with the system map. And that includes the options.

The things I like about the mouse.
I requires no re-mapping and works as before except for being hard to lock a target.
I can grab the screen and drag to move the cursor large distances (as before).
I can quickly tilt and rotate the view and wheel zoom in an out (as before).
While zooming in to slow speed of cursor, I can use the hat on the back of my x52 throttle to position over and lock a target and when the target flag pops up, I can just click .
It sits nicely beside my stick as a additional control.
I didn't have to bind the throttle's hat, as it already moved the cursor in the desired manner in both maps.
For me, it is the fastest and most accurate way to work both maps.
Because the mouse was already being used this way it just works.

That said, there is no wrong way and depending on one's control setup. a chacun son gout.

 

[space pilot]

...the biggest down is the god awful System and Galaxy map navigating.....How the flip do you get around in the GM & SM? How do you type in a name of a system? Maybe someone will tell me what i am doing wrong?

With the X52, I bound up/down to the upper joystick hat, and zoom to the throttle mousewheel. Iirc with defaults there was no way to get full 3d movement, and that setup works, if not extremely intuitively/smoothly.

For typing I use...the keyboard. If you never learned touch typing, that makes it complicated. Could be done by looking through the nose hole.

 

[Draxxen]

Thank you for sharing your experience.
I am currently using a 4k Ultra Wide monitor and like you I would suffer from the low resolution. I have been debating with myself whether to tough it out and wait for the 8k wide FOV visors that will be released this year or next, like Pimax, and I think you just convinced me
(Disclaimer: yes, I am aware that the Pimax 8k is probably not going to be a true 8k, just like their 4k was not a true 4k, but the true ones are also coming)

 

[Wasp0]

Thank you for sharing your experience.
I am currently using a 4k Ultra Wide monitor and like you I would suffer from the low resolution. I have been debating with myself whether to tough it out and wait for the 8k wide FOV visors that will be released this year or next, like Pimax, and I think you just convinced me
(Disclaimer: yes, I am aware that the Pimax 8k is probably not going to be a true 8k, just like their 4k was not a true 4k, but the true ones are also coming)

I would hate to think of what rig will be required to run the Pimax? twin 1080Ti in SLI i wonder, coming in at £650 each that's a massive amount just to run it and...............................? I guess as tech gets better, VR res will go up, and equipment to run it will come down but where will the price's go? (I assume only up)

Hey Ho the cost of being a pioneer techie

I am getting used to the lower res of the VR, and so far the 'Experience' is making up for it. I am constantly changing my settings, but like Alec have achieved a pretty constant 90FPS, except in the REALLY big surface stations where it dives to 45FPS.

- - - Updated - - -

................................................. If you never learned touch typing, that makes it complicated. Could be done by looking through the nose hole.

Looking through the 'Nose Hole' to type is do-able. but wholly uncomfortable....

I remember somewhere a VA program that enabled 'Speak-to-Text' where you dictated what you want printed in the comms and then pressed to send? Anyone point me in the right direction to said program? I might give that ago.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Thank you for sharing your experience.
I am currently using a 4k Ultra Wide monitor and like you I would suffer from the low resolution. I have been debating with myself whether to tough it out and wait for the 8k wide FOV visors that will be released this year or next, like Pimax, and I think you just convinced me
(Disclaimer: yes, I am aware that the Pimax 8k is probably not going to be a true 8k, just like their 4k was not a true 4k, but the true ones are also coming)

Granted I'm as far from normal as anyone can probably be when it comes to embracing VR.

But I consistently go from gaming on the couch, where I am about eight feet, (about 2m) from my 65" panasonic DX900 UHD tv.
Where I play my batman games and other '2d' titles (off the same pc).
(hey if you have 2 x 12" subwoofers, you would want to play doom on them, rather then the logicrap g533)

And immediately squeeze into the rift, and as I sit in the station in VR, I still get the "HOLY's this is awesome !" And I have covered at least 1000 hours of elite in vr.

For instance, last week one of my in game buddies had landed about 750km from I sola prospect in Brestla, and was driving his way back. Just cause.
He had started a few days before he mentioned it, so I only joined him at the 470km mark.
But we made it, and I woulnd't fathom doing it outside of VR

Just two scarabs, powering through the desert at 40ms.
(until we hit that one rock)

Would I love more FOV, higher res. Of course !
But this is the gaming experience I have been dreaming about since I was a kid.
It might just be virtual.

But I have my spaceship now !
Best I can suggest, is not to try and force your eyes or brain, to see the pixels that isn't there, just accept what you do see.
After I started doing that I stopped caring about the resolution.

I would hate to think of what rig will be required to run the Pimax? twin 1080Ti in SLI i wonder, coming in at £650 each that's a massive amount just to run it and...............................? I guess as tech gets better, VR res will go up, and equipment to run it will come down but where will the price's go? (I assume only up)


Hey Ho the cost of being a pioneer techie


I am getting used to the lower res of the VR, and so far the 'Experience' is making up for it. I am constantly changing my settings, but like Alec have achieved a pretty constant 90FPS, except in the REALLY big surface stations where it dives to 45FPS.


- - - Updated - - -






Looking through the 'Nose Hole' to type is do-able. but wholly uncomfortable....


I remember somewhere a VA program that enabled 'Speak-to-Text' where you dictated what you want printed in the comms and then pressed to send? Anyone point me in the right direction to said program? I might give that ago.

As for the Pimax, it's a cheap HMD for reasons, 75hz is barely at the level of vomit town, even for me.
It's honestly a high res version of GEAR VR, with some native steam support, so obviously better than gear.

But still I keep reading of people having to reset the hmd position because of drift every few minutes or so.
And I'm sorry that's a deal breaker.
Neither the rift or vive has this issues (because spatial tracking), only reason I have to reset the rift HMD position is because the game does so whenever the rift sensor toggles, or I have shifted my seat position enough to warrant it.

And as for running it, SLI is not support in elite, or 99% of most VR titles yet whatsoever.
Next year for games in general, but not elite, they would have to do far too much rewriting of the engine code to be worth it.

As for typing, well yes, that's an issue, but I highly recommend rather trying to get your buddies to use discord or TS.
text typing is the WORST coms tool by any means.

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

Looking through the 'Nose Hole' to type is do-able. but wholly uncomfortable....

I remember somewhere a VA program that enabled 'Speak-to-Text' where you dictated what you want printed in the comms and then pressed to send? Anyone point me in the right direction to said program? I might give that ago.

I thought Voice Attack did this already - sure I've seen forum posts that mention it.

Small search later...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...board-needed?p=2231016&viewfull=1#post2231016