One more little step into the rift

[Junky Juke]

Hello virtuals. A couple of months ago I decided to slowly make my way toward VR. So I started to build up my VR ready machine. I am at a good point and I miss a 980ti video card and 8 more gigs RAM. I just ordered them to my personal "drug dealer" today

My actual specs (it is a good rig actually to play ED on my monitor at 60fps)

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K @4.00Ghz
RAM: 8,00 GB
OS: Win8.1 64bit
Solid state HD
GeForce GTX 750 4gb videocard

Today I decided to have a taste of ED in VR, just to make shure it will be worth the very expensive VR set (Oculus? Vive? I have to decide yet). So I bought a cheap 25€ VR visor, pushing together this setup:

-VR visor for smartphones (no gyroscope)
-Huawuei P9 lite (no gyroscope)
-3.1 USB cable for tathering
-Trinus VR
-My beloved EDtracker Pro
-Thrustmaster T.16000M left-handed joystick
-Mouse and keyboard
.My PC

I was able to force ED to run at 1920x2160 side by side by setting up custom resoution on my nvidia. I took a little effort to setup everything correctly.
Then I loaded my savegame and found myself (ossia my "other self") sitting in my Anaconda's cabin...in a full 3D environment.

I spent 30 minutes of "oh my god" mode on! :O:O:O
My conda's cabin was so beautiful. All those 3d rendered panels, that feeling of depth. I did not think the Anaconda was that big! And the stations were so huge. Flying by stars and planets was so amazing.

Ok frame rate sucks and my cell phone gets quite hot but but but man... I had the most mind blowing videogaming experience of my old gamer's life!!!
Good news I had not motion sicknes, no nausea, no eye strain. Nothing. Just good feelings and pure enjoyment. I guess I'm a natural. Born to fly in VR

I think I did a very big mistake, because now I can't get back to my monitor. I will no more be able to play ED on my flat 2D monitor. I just can't.
Now I need to stack my money and buy one of those crazy expensive VR machines otherwise ED will stay hybernated on my disc drive forever.

Now I come with a couple of questions. Because it is not wise to throw 800-900 bucks out of the window for a toy.

What VR set do you suggest me?

Oculus Rift CV1 comes with a handy xbox360 controller, but I know it (Oculus) could suffer of malfunctions with prolonged use. Is it true?
Also I know of evil godrays spreading everywhere in dark environments because of fresnel lens. Price for shipping in Italy: €742,00

HTC Vive is a punch in your wallet. Very expensive also because of bundled touch controllers (I don't care about them, I don't mind playing virtual bowling). I know it suffers less godrays problems and it has a better positional tracking. Price for shipping in Italy: €923,00

Let's add €500,00 for an Asus 980TI and 100ish euros for a good HOTAS and I will have to eat bread and water for a couple of months. But I'm not scared. It is worth the entire experience.

What are your thoughts about the two VR sets? Should I risk my neck and go for a Vive or stay with my feets well grounded and go for an Oculus Rift? Also should I take in consideration second hand Oculus CV1 on ebay? (there are some interesting offers from England, Germany and Italy) Should I consider second hand Oculus DK2?

Help me, I need it. Thanks. [up]

 

[Zeeman]

Personally, I think I'd be edging towards a Vive if I were buying brand new, the lighthouse tech, to my mind, is superior, having said that, I have a Rift, though I bought it second hand for about £300.

It's pretty awesome though, I got the final piece of my own puzzle a few days ago (GTX1080 G1 Gaming), and finally turned on the rift, after it had been sitting there for a few months (I had a GTX970 Strix, and wasn't convinced I'd get a truly good experience, so preferred to hang in there).

You'll love it whichever way you go, I suspect!!!

Z...

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Its a big question many of us have had to answer. (Some of us had to answer to the wife too lol).

Seriously - it is a big cost for the Vive and Rift. It is a high-end enthusiast addition for any gaming PC.

They do have their limitations (resolution is lower than a monitor, god-rays and screen-door effect etc) - but the trade-off is that they free you from having to look through a tiny window - your monitor. You can really look around, properly. And that freedom is priceless!

Your phone setup sounds great for a first try/VR taster - more than most people get - well done. But yeah, VR kinda ruins it for 2D monitors... everything does look flat and your viewpoint feels very limited after VR. I'm stuck too.
Your

I have the Rift, and I don't find the god-rays distracting, even in high-contrast scenes. Most of the time they're not visible. The screen door effect is there, but you probably saw similar on your phne setup. For me, its not a big problem. The Vive has similar fresnel lenses with fewer ridges, there are god rays but its a bit different effect. Opinions vary on which is best.

Resolution is an issue - its 1/2 that of a 1920x1200 monitor... so the Rift and Vive tend to look a bit pixelated. Many will buy a high-end graphics card just to run supersampling to make the image sharper, but its costly $$$ too on top of the headset.
But, the tracking a FAR superior to any phone - you can move around properly, and the tracking stays calibrated for long periods of time (hours, barring you moving about in your seat etc.)

I love the design of the Rift, and its easy to put on and off with its headphones. Its light and while not 'sturdy', I don't think its prone to failure - but you wouldn't want to drop it too many times Vive is similar, bit heavier, softer straps may suit your head better.

The Vive is a bit brighter, and colour is a little better, but many probably wouldn't notice unless you had them both side by side.

The Rift and Vive handle reprojection, so even your 750 card will do the job (on low-ish settings). You can upgrade the GPU later - you don't absolutely have to do it with the VR headset. Having said that, many of us did go out and buy a 1080 or similar so we could get the best VR experience possible.

The Rift does come with the XBox controller... its handy for some games, and is reasonably built.

The Vive does come with the hand controllers standard, and you can buy these separately for the Rift now (Touch).
If you want to save a bit, and save hand controls for later (as I did), the Rift might be better. If you want to go all in, buy the Rift with Touch, or get the Vive. Vive does have a bigger play area - tracking seems pretty similar in most situations - but the Vive has a technical edge here over the Rift allowing a larger space to move about in.
Personally I don't have the space to put that increased play space to use, so I went with the Rift, and ED was my main VR app of choice. But I will have Touch tomorrow and see what having hands is all about - there's a lot who say its a game-changer as well on top of being in VR.

I admit to being a Rift-centric poster, but the Vive is a great piece of kit too, and either will blow your mind in ED and plenty of other apps too.
Its a great time to be a PC gamer, if a little expensive!

 

[Junky Juke]

Tahnk you guys. Yes I'm shure I'm will apreciate both. I cell phone has the same resolution of OR and Vive, so I could have a taste of what I will see. And it is enough for me. Also I played ED with the lowest FOV and text becomes more readable too. Add some supersampling and it will do the trick. I can live with low res (I'm a bitmap generation guy) and the 3D thing plus the free look greaty overcome the high resolution of a monitor. With VR Elite becomes a true space flight simulator and more.

@[HJ]-RedRaven you said I could skip buying a new video card (by now). What about frame rate? I'm concerned my 750 can't give me more that 60fps on elite. But maybe it can? My monitor is 60Mhz, pherhaps it is bottlenecking my video card? I will consider your suggestion btw. I played ED on VR low res and it does not seem that bad (I didn't notice a great difference in quality). So I could love so save some bucks by now and focus on the VR device.

I still have to decide who will be the lucky receiver of mah moneh. But you already gave me good points to think about. More feedback from other users would be much apreciated.
Thanks

 

[thafred]

Hi,

congrats on your mobile ED setup! Its really hard to go back to 2D, especially once you got a glimpse of presence! (not really possible with mobile VR so you have more than Resolution and framerate to look forward to!)

I honestly would suggest getting a second hand Rift on Austran "willhaben.at" second hand site. I see CV1´s going for around 500€ and I think most sellers will send them to Italy if you ask politely.

If you´re on a budget and plan only to play seated experiences (like E and Assetto Corsa) I would strongly suggest you get a used DK2 and a GTX 1060, you then have money for a HOTAS and a wheel setup wich gives you hand presence in the right games and honestly the DK2 with supersampling is roughly equal to a CV1 wthout SS, also easier to drive the 75fps.

Rumors is going around that Oculus DK2 support for games ends in 2017 and to an extend I think it´s true but only because most if not all newer titles will use Touch wich doesnt work with DK2. In my mind when Oculus said they will not support Dk2 in the future, they were really saying that no touch games will work on DK2, not that you cannot use it any more! all IMHO off course.

I would invest into a CV1 if I was you. I just recently got touch and its phenomenal. Don´t know yet if I will play touch games remotly as much as I did E or Assertto Corsa but the experience of Superhot alone was worth the money! If you plan to go the DK2 route, I´m in Vienna and have a spare DK2 lying around that I´m too lazy to sell, would help a felllow commander out thou. PM me if youre interested but honestly get a used CV1 and stop buying groceries!

eating is for real world people you dont need that in VR

 

[Junky Juke]

Ok my meditation is already off. And the crazy step is done. I just placed my Order for a brand new Oculus Rif CV1.

I meditated on the pros and cons of owning a second hand device and honestly I prefered to put in some more coins and be eligible for customer support and warranty.
I'm shure I did the right thing and I will put my "drug dealer" on a pause until I try my new Oculus on my actual video card. Eventually I will save more money through hard work and buy my Asus vido card at the end of next month. Merry Christmas to me!!!

God... I will not sleep until the package will arrive at home! It's a long trip from America to Italy :O

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Ok my meditation is already off. And the crazy step is done. I just placed my Order for a brand new Oculus Rif CV1.

I meditated on the pros and cons of owning a second hand device and honestly I prefered to put in some more coins and be eligible for customer support and warranty.
I'm shure I did the right thing and I will put my "drug dealer" on a pause until I try my new Oculus on my actual video card. Eventually I will save more money through hard work and buy my Asus vido card at the end of next month. Merry Christmas to me!!!

God... I will not sleep until the package will arrive at home! It's a long trip from America to Italy :O

Nice, well done!

You're right- the bottleneck in your PC is definitely the video card - the 6700cpu in your PC is plenty fast enough to pump a new TitanX Pascal (or two!).
The 750 will work - you'll need lower settings amd it won't be pretty, but it will work. I started off with a 780GTX, and it was fine. Bit faster than the 750, but think of it as a stepping stone.
Once you get into VR, yes, you'll be saving for a new GPU as well.

Thanks to ATW and ASW on the Rift you will still see 90fps (all the time) - but there might be some wiggling of lines etc in the menus and GUI in ED.

 

[Junky Juke]

Nice, well done!

You're right- the bottleneck in your PC is definitely the video card - the 6700cpu in your PC is plenty fast enough to pump a new TitanX Pascal (or two!).
The 750 will work - you'll need lower settings amd it won't be pretty, but it will work. I started off with a 780GTX, and it was fine. Bit faster than the 750, but think of it as a stepping stone.
Once you get into VR, yes, you'll be saving for a new GPU as well.

Thanks to ATW and ASW on the Rift you will still see 90fps (all the time) - but there might be some wiggling of lines etc in the menus and GUI in ED.

Good news. I will have the time to scroll the high tech market and choose wisely my next piece of technology.

 

[vic]

Buyer beware of the CV1 godawful color banding seen on many of them, yet never on a Vive!
p.s. I am not a Vive fanboy, just happen to use a DK2 and CV1 on Elite Dangerous.

 

[Junky Juke]

Buyer beware of the CV1 godawful color banding seen on many of them, yet never on a Vive!
p.s. I am not a Vive fanboy, just happen to use a DK2 and CV1 on Elite Dangerous.

I know of this color banding. It's not a problem for me. I'm not a ultra quality graphics fan and I tell you I'm having great fun on my cheap smartphone VR set, despite "dirty" graphics, high latency and low fps.

My only expectations from OR CV1 are low latency, good and natural FPS, positional tracking and "aw my god I'm there!" effect. Plus the great sense of scale and depth that I'm already esperiencing in my VR box at minimum quality.
Visual eyecandy lack is not going to kill my immersion and fun, hopefully. And I'm confident that a modern video card will do the rest.

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Good attitude @Junky Juke

While the colour banding is annoying in some situations, it doesn't show up all the time. The Vive seems to have better, more vibrant colour, and the community is struggling to see why this is not the case for the CV1.

With a bit of luck its a temporary issue and FD/Oculus will be able to fix it. *hope*

 

[Junky Juke]

Good attitude @Junky Juke

While the colour banding is annoying in some situations, it doesn't show up all the time. The Vive seems to have better, more vibrant colour, and the community is struggling to see why this is not the case for the CV1.

With a bit of luck its a temporary issue and FD/Oculus will be able to fix it. *hope*

I experienced color bending on my BenQ monitor. It toke me several tries to fix it both via monitor tools and nvidia software, but I fixed it. So I guess it can be done through software. Fingers crossed.

On a side note: my Oculus just arrived at Milan/Italy and is ready for delivery. Can't wait to grab my box!!!!!

 

[Zeeman]

I experienced color bending on my BenQ monitor. It toke me several tries to fix it both via monitor tools and nvidia software, but I fixed it. So I guess it can be done through software. Fingers crossed.

On a side note: my Oculus just arrived at Milan/Italy and is ready for delivery. Can't wait to grab my box!!!!!

You'll love it! About to take my Vulture into a CZ...

Z...

 

[Junky Juke]

Guys I'm still waiting for my rift. There was a single digit number error on the package and it was delivered to the wrong place. So I will have to wait until friday on next week