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.
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.