Playing Elite with Google Cardboard

[Retrograde]

There are notes on the Trinus Gyre website about how to prioritise the networks. Read under USB Connection:
http://oddsheepgames.com/?page_id=134

As for performance, I'm now convinced that the bottleneck on my system is the CPU, not the USB connection or GPU. Even if Trinus is only streaming a tiny notepad window capped at 1 FPS, it still consumes 65-70% CPU (old Phenom II 965@3.4GHz). There might be space for optimization here.

If you're getting stuttering due to a slow phone, capping FPS in the Trinus server might help. It should give it less work to do. See how 20 works and also try the buffering option.

 

[OVMorat]

Thanks! that worked - although I had to manually set the USB Tether to a really high metric. It defaulted to 5 which still took priority over the suggested value of 10 for the LAN.

I'm getting 35-37 FPS @ 8x600 (x2 for fake3D) sitting on the pad in station. Daren't launch yet!

Next up Freetrack!

 

[OVMorat]

You not needed to use opentrack if you use trinus.
In Trinus you select 'Freetrack' and run ED.

Trinus has gyro support itself and it works better at this moment.
While using opentrack via udp you can have some axis rotation malfunction.

If Elite do not recognize trinus and do not enter headlook mode you can turn off opentrack, start for a while on oculus and stop.

Hi, could you tell me how you got Freetrack working? I've set it on Trinus Gyre but Elite doesn't seem to recognise it. Is Freetrack contained within Trinus or do I need to run another application?
Do I need to change any settings inside Elite?
thank you so much for any help.
Morat

 

[hydraSlav]

I've got mine to work with a different phone

So far I'm having problems setting up.

If I use the USB cable, I need to enable tethering. Fine - the Trinus Gyre server and client hook up.

BUT if I enable Flight Mode, I can't start ED because my laptop won't connect to the internet. I've re-ordered my network bindings to put my ethernet connection to the top of the list, but I still can't browse the net or start ED once tethered with the phone with Flight Mode enabled. The laptop seems to prefer connecting to the internet via the phone to ethernet

I've tried connecting ED then the phone, but unlike IRC, ED drops connection once the phone connects.

I really don't want to connect to the internet via my phone to play ED!

You don't have to have Flight Mode. It suggests that so that you don't accidentally waste your mobile (3G/LTE) data. If you are at home with a WiFi network, and your phone is on your WiFi, then your computer, that is tethered to the phone, will use the phone's WiFi, which is not a problem.

Otherwise, you need to enable reverse tethering. Google it. It usually requires a rooted device though.

 

[HoshiQaVam]

So I finally got round to testing this today.

My PC can handle 1920x1080 in Elite's 3D mode quite comfortably, but although there was absolutely no lag at all on-screen, the phone was laggy as hell.

I was actually able to get a smooth experience running at 1280x1024 res using wifi, which was smoother than USB, so I guess the Samsung S3's USB 2.0 port is crappy.

As above I don't have Google Cardboard yet,, was just going by how the phone looked in my hands, so what appears smooth now may not be when it's right in front of my eyes.

Frankly, though, I am surprised it was working as smoothly as it was given how crappy Samsung's touchwiz has made the S3. It went from being a really fast phone to a phone that is just constantly hanging.

I might have to nick my brother's Nexus 5 and see if it's any better at some point.

 

[Corwyn]

How, do you think, would such devices work for those with vision in only one eye?

 

[deMangler]

I got this working a while ago. The main problem I found was the split screen being slightly out of alignment on my S4. Didn't seem to be anything I could do about it, but otherwise it is great.
Had no problems with Google Cardboard generally - I love it.
Maybe there are some Trinus Gyre settings I am missing.
As for using it with one eye? I can see it working when phones get a bit more Hi-res but at the moment if you tried to play it with just one eye you would have half the res of a phone screen. Doesn't seem worth it.

 

[hydraSlav]

Anyone with glasses, near-sighted in particular, that can comment how this works with glasses?

Would I need glasses under the Google Cardboard? Or since the image is so close, I can just take the glasses off?

 

[Retrograde]

I just take my glasses off. Google suggests cutting into the side flaps.

I really want to recommend the Trinus Gyre update released earlier today! Performance is vastly improved!
Higher resolutions are now fine; they just increase tracking lag a little. Also change the quality setting to something better than Normal. It makes text and pips much clearer.

And slightly off-topic, the video from newsletter 41 is great in Cardboard!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifg6bShMI1c

 

[Ben Ryder]

Google Cardboard.

Dirt cheap!

Enjoy chaps

 

[HoshiQaVam]

I haven't tried the update yet, but I was playing with it extensively on Saturday, and I'm not overly impressed - though as I've mentioned before it's almost certainly down to the Galaxy S3.

Firstly, the quality just isn't good enough. That certainly is the S3 - phone's resolution is poor by modern standards, and with the magnification of cardboard you can literally see the pixels. No amount of resolution fiddling is going to avoid that.

The actual stream wasn't too bad, if the phone's resolution was better it would probably have been playable, however I just couldn't get the motion tracking to remain reliable.

The headset's natural centre constantly changed, at times I'd have to be looking over my left shoulder to be facing forward in game. Roll kept continuously inverting itself after a few minutes, regardless of the settings I used. And no matter what I tried, I just couldn't get yaw to match my actual head movements 1:1, or anywhere near, which made trying to look at either of the side UI panels virtually impossible.

As above how much this is down to the S3 I do not know. My phone downloaded the update earlier so I will give it another try tonight - but with my current phone, not very impressed. It's pretty much useless.

 

[Parabellum]

I just take my glasses off. Google suggests cutting into the side flaps.

I really want to recommend the Trinus Gyre update released earlier today! Performance is vastly improved!
Higher resolutions are now fine; they just increase tracking lag a little. Also change the quality setting to something better than Normal. It makes text and pips much clearer.

And slightly off-topic, the video from newsletter 41 is great in Cardboard!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifg6bShMI1c

My first setup attempt failed but I'm glad there has been an update.

I must have a big head because I find the Cardboard lenses too close together. Anyone else with the same problem?

 

[itarrow]

Hey there, thanks for the heads up: I've been able to set it up and test it a bit, and it's really fun.

Annoying thing for me is about aspect ratio: regardless of the resolution I select, the "side-by-side" visualization stretches both the views to fit vertically, and this gets troublesome after a few minutes, especially when docking or in a station.

Moreover, it gives a narrow field of view feeling vs. other applications which present a correct aspect ratio.

Anyone knows how to correct this within Elite Dangerous ?

 

[Sargon]

Possible Oculus alternative... from a pizza box.

Going to try this!

 

[Sir.Tj]

I'm not sure if this has been posted previously... But, what do you guys think of an alternative to the Oculus made from a pizza box?

cardboard-vr-headset-is-no-joke

Yep, I've added your post to it.

 

[Sargon]

Yep, I've added your post to it.

Heh thanks, i should really use the search function! )

 

[Kyokushin]

Yes, it works good.

You need to stop opentrack before play elite, Opentrack is only to enter Elite in tracking mode. It shoud be turned off before playing.

You can also use Freepie + script + geforce expierence video stream (android apk needed).

Script:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73783868/polacusVR/ED2_swap_pitch.py

 

[Kyokushin]

... and it would be much better than cardboard:

Colorcross VR gogles.
http://www.dx.com/p/colorcross-univ...ideo-glasses-for-4-7-smartphones-black-336607

 

[ACenterForAnts]

I ordered some ColorCross goggles from eBay and got Elite working on my Galaxy Note 2 very easily (Thanks to Retrograde's excellent instructions)

It's not the best resolution - can't wait to get a Galaxy Note 4 with twice the screen resolution.

 

[HoshiQaVam]

The problem is, even if your phone has a 2560 x 1440 screen, Elite is still probably only running at 1920x1080 on your PC (or worse).

That means the actual image is around 960x1080, which is why even DK2 users are saying the resolution still isn't high enough for ED's UI.

However, NVidia has a feature that lets you run a game in 4k resolutions, but downscales the image to fit onto a 1080p screen. That may solve the problem depending on whether the image shared to your phone is the original resolution or the downscaled one.