Quest 2 - My Initial Impressions

VR StarLightPL · Mar 4, 2021

mister dog said:
I did read that the Quest 2 is one of the more gentle headsets when it comes to requirements

It actually doesn't make sense, because the quest is only 25% less resolution than Reverb G2. So it's the second highest when it comes to requirements re: pcvr. Maybe it was about the refresh rate, IDK, but it definitely isn't "gentle". Games that function standalone on the Quest might have lesser requirements, gimped Onward comes to mind - now I can play that in 120fps on my index.

It goes something like this wrt resolution: G2 > Quest2 > Index > Rift S > OG Vive with weird pimax "widescreen" resolutions somewhere inbetween.

mister dog · Mar 4, 2021

VR StarLightPL said:
It actually doesn't make sense, because the quest is only 25% less resolution than Reverb G2. So it's the second highest when it comes to requirements re: pcvr. Maybe it was about the refresh rate, IDK, but it definitely isn't "gentle". Games that function standalone on the Quest might have lesser requirements, gimped Onward comes to mind - now I can play that in 120fps on my index.

It goes something like this wrt resolution: G2 > Quest2 > Index > Rift S > OG Vive with weird pimax "widescreen" resolutions somewhere inbetween.

Welp; if only I could upgrade my GPU

I'll have to settle for low settings then atm.

VR StarLightPL · Mar 4, 2021

mister dog said:
Welp; if only I could upgrade my GPU
I'll have to settle for low settings then atm.

One advice: "Nothing to worry about, unless there's something to worry about"

You will find the equilibrium of settings appropriate for you and your desktop

It will still be awesome

Also, contending with lower settings is interwoven with VR right now. Even the 3080 can struggle with bad games (looks sternly at DCS)

VR andysonofbob · Mar 4, 2021

mister dog said:
Welp; if only I could upgrade my GPU
I'll have to settle for low settings then atm.

Yeah, I have to do that with my 1070.
I have the slider all the way to the left and even have it set at 72hz. I think 72Hz is fine for Elite. I cannot say the same with something like Dirt Rally where I do notice the difference between 90Hz and 72.
I have found even at low resolution, it is no where near as bad as CV1, I think that is because of the lack of screendoor. In the CV1, the darkside of planets would look a mess, almost swarming because of the screendoor, on the Q2 it just looks low res and you can still clearly see the texture.

VR StarLightPL said:
Even the 3080 can struggle with bad games (looks sternly at DCS)

Yeah! That video with the YouTuber playing DCS with his 1080Ti and his new G2, then buying a 3090 and getting worse FPS!

mister dog · Mar 4, 2021

[VR] andysonofbob said:
Yeah, I have to do that with my 1070.
I have the slider all the way to the left and even have it set at 72hz. I think 72Hz is fine for Elite. I cannot say the same with something like Dirt Rally where I do notice the difference between 90Hz and 72.
I have found even at low resolution, it is no where near as bad as CV1, I think that is because of the lack of screendoor. In the CV1, the darkside of planets would look a mess, almost swarming because of the screendoor, on the Q2 it just looks low res and you can still clearly see the texture.

How are your ingame graphics settings? ED is already 7 years old now so I guess you can keep most of it on medium to high if you run 72hz and the slider at minimum resolution?

VR andysonofbob · Mar 4, 2021

mister dog said:
How are your ingame graphics settings? ED is already 7 years old now so I guess you can keep most of it on medium to high if you run 72hz and the slider at minimum resolution?

Blimey yes!

I do have some settings off e.g. AO and others reduced.
But I do have loads of settings on max too, I even have shadows on Ultra and the top AA.

I am prepared for ASW when in busy areas but I think most people are.

mister dog · Mar 12, 2021

Well, received my Quest 2 on Monday and since then I've been trying to get acquainted with it. On day three I realized I had to put it lower on my nose to get rid of the blurriness at the sides

, makes me look like Rudolf now after wearing it for a while but I'm sure I'll sort that out as well. Overall I'm very satisfied with my Q2;I reckon this headset will have an impact on VR the way Playstation 1 had an impact on consoles (reaching the masses). It really is an ideal first time/ all round headset. Flying a spaceship, floating in space and being able to correctly scale everything (it's all huge), makes such a difference even if I was playing on a '55 incher before. Same for racing I never appreciated the work that goes into modelling the cars until I was actually sitting in the interior. So much easier to judge corners and apexes!
ps. Since v25 they introduced a brightness slider in the menu, which helps with the blackness levels in space. Default is set at 50% and I think I lowered it to 40.

[VR] Garfs · Mar 19, 2021

Hi Guys

Got a Quest 2 few days ago - am playing with PC cable (not official not paying £80) with thrustmaster Hotas one (used to be xbox player) on RTX 3080 / ryzen 5 3600

All i can say is OMFG - its a totally different game - I saw Commander Exegious youtube that said playing Elite in VR is like flying a fkin spaceship - and its spot on - its such an unreal experience

Settings wise though - i've bumped up to 90hz & 1.5 render res (5048 x 2376) via oculus desktop app - and in SteamVR have render resolution default to 150% - 3312 x 3348

Are these settings ok? could pushing the SteamVR res make it better? I find the game looks really good if a little blurry on distance, but obviously nowhere near as clear as on my monitor - i understand that, but No Mans Sky for example looks pretty awful for the anything not right in front of you (and gives me terrible motion sickness) -

VR andysonofbob · Mar 19, 2021

Garfs said:
Hi Guys

Got a Quest 2 few days ago - am playing with PC cable (not official not paying £80) with thrustmaster Hotas one (used to be xbox player) on RTX 3080 / ryzen 5 3600

All i can say is OMFG - its a totally different game - I saw Commander Exegious youtube that said playing Elite in VR is like flying a fkin spaceship - and its spot on - its such an unreal experience

Settings wise though - i've bumped up to 90hz & 1.5 render res (5048 x 2376) via oculus desktop app - and in SteamVR have render resolution default to 150% - 3312 x 3348

Are these settings ok? could pushing the SteamVR res make it better? I find the game looks really good if a little blurry on distance, but obviously nowhere near as clear as on my monitor - i understand that, but No Mans Sky for example looks pretty awful for the anything not right in front of you (and gives me terrible motion sickness) -

It's good isn't it

Can I ask why you are going through SteamVR? SteamVR has to cater for all HMDs and isn't as efficient performance-wise as going through Oculus' own Oculus Runtime via Home, which is dedicated for Oculus. You will get even better performance through Oculus without Steam.

Turn off SteamVR.

If you can max the slider up in Oculus software - you are a lucky so and so.
If you want even crisper visuals, either increase the HMD resolution in ED graphics or (and) increase the SS settings, again in ED, the latter help with any remaining shimmer.

[VR] Garfs · Mar 19, 2021

[VR] andysonofbob said:
It's good isn't it

Can I ask why you are going through SteamVR? SteamVR has to cater for all HMDs and isn't as efficient performance-wise as going through Oculus' own Oculus Runtime via Home, which is dedicated for Oculus. You will get even better performance through Oculus without Steam.

Turn off SteamVR.

If you can max the slider up in Oculus software - you are a lucky so and so.
If you want even crisper visuals, either increase the HMD resolution in ED graphics or (and) increase the SS settings, again in ED, the latter help with any remaining shimmer.

It's incredible.

Erm, steamvr launches automatically when I try to launch game (I think)

I cant remember in game setrings but fairly sure they were all.maxed - will boot up in a bit and have a look

SushiCW · Mar 19, 2021

It's a bit awkward because even though the game is launched via Steam, that doesn't mean it's using the SteamVR runtime. I found I have to explicitly opt in if I want that, and as already pointed out there's not good reason to do it.

I actually don't even need to launch via Steam / SteamVR at this point, it's on my "recently played" list when I open Oculus Link and I just go through that.

If you can actually maintain 90hz (including in stations, planets, & asteroid rings) with maxed settings and 1.5x render resolution... dang, that's a bigger difference between 3070 and 3080 than I would have expected. For my 3070 I have about 1.3x render resolution and needed to carefully tune graphics settings to be able to maintain 90hz.

[VR] Garfs · Mar 19, 2021

SushiCW said:
It's a bit awkward because even though the game is launched via Steam, that doesn't mean it's using the SteamVR runtime. I found I have to explicitly opt in if I want that, and as already pointed out there's not good reason to do it.

I actually don't even need to launch via Steam / SteamVR at this point, it's on my "recently played" list when I open Oculus Link and I just go through that.

If you can actually maintain 90hz (including in stations, planets, & asteroid rings) with maxed settings and 1.5x render resolution... dang, that's a bigger difference between 3070 and 3080 than I would have expected. For my 3070 I have about 1.3x render resolution and needed to carefully tune graphics settings to be able to maintain 90hz.

How do i see framerate in game (i've disabled nvidia overlay when using VR)

Yeah i have my oculus graphic setting at 1.5 / 90hz and its runs smooth as a babies behind

i've not messed with any ingame settings so far

VR StarLightPL · Mar 19, 2021

Garfs said:
No Mans Sky for example looks pretty awful for the anything not right in front of you (and gives me terrible motion sickness) -

NMS has performance issues. Also you are not used to VR yet, you need to build your VR legs. Rule of thumb - stop when you're sick. Look at this vid telling about DCS in VR (timestamped):

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5TG0aXTqps&t=527s

GreenWarfare · Mar 20, 2021

SushiCW said:
It's a bit awkward because even though the game is launched via Steam, that doesn't mean it's using the SteamVR runtime. I found I have to explicitly opt in if I want that, and as already pointed out there's not good reason to do it.

I actually don't even need to launch via Steam / SteamVR at this point, it's on my "recently played" list when I open Oculus Link and I just go through that.

If you can actually maintain 90hz (including in stations, planets, & asteroid rings) with maxed settings and 1.5x render resolution... dang, that's a bigger difference between 3070 and 3080 than I would have expected. For my 3070 I have about 1.3x render resolution and needed to carefully tune graphics settings to be able to maintain 90hz.

Gotta ask a bit stupidly here: How do you start the game (or rather: The VR mode) when not using Steam VR? I also only used SteamVR and from what I read here, going Oculus only might be worth a try!

SushiCW · Mar 22, 2021

GreenWarfare said:
Gotta ask a bit stupidly here: How do you start the game (or rather: The VR mode) when not using Steam VR? I also only used SteamVR and from what I read here, going Oculus only might be worth a try!

At first, I'd do the following:

Turn on Quest 2
Plug it in, enable Oculus Link
Go to SteamVR
From SteamVR home, launch Elite

Now, though, Elite shows up in the "recently launched" menu as soon as I enable Oculus Link, and I can launch directly from there.

Garfs said:
How do i see framerate in game (i've disabled nvidia overlay when using VR)

Yeah i have my oculus graphic setting at 1.5 / 90hz and its runs smooth as a babies behind

i've not messed with any ingame settings so far

Your framerate will always be either locked to the refresh, or cut down (usually in half) if you're exceeding the capacity of your graphics card to actually push 90 FPS. Sometimes you'll perceive this as minor glitching/warping in the HUD, as the Quest tries to interpolate a dropped frame. If you want to clearly see where you are relative to your capacity, though, you either need to launch in SteamVR mode and use the performance graph, or launch the Oculus Debug Tool and turn on the performance overlay there. Both give you metrics that basically amount to "how close are you to breaking that 90fps barrier, or if you are breaking it, how often it's happening."

aXeL · Mar 25, 2021

VR StarLightPL said:
NMS has performance issues. Also you are not used to VR yet, you need to build your VR legs. Rule of thumb - stop when you're sick. Look at this vid telling about DCS in VR (timestamped):

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5TG0aXTqps&t=527s

This doesn't sound right to me. It's running fine on my old 1080Ti and I have no peripheral vision problems. Could it be a settings/version problem?

VR StarLightPL · Mar 25, 2021

aXeL said:
This doesn't sound right to me. It's running fine on my old 1080Ti and I have no peripheral vision problems. Could it be a settings/version problem?

Different people have different definitions of "fine". It still had framerate problems even on my 3080 when I tested it in October, of course it can be tweaked in settings, but people are referring to it as "a downgrade to playstation level graphics".

sactownbwoy · Mar 25, 2021

GreenWarfare said:
Gotta ask a bit stupidly here: How do you start the game (or rather: The VR mode) when not using Steam VR? I also only used SteamVR and from what I read here, going Oculus only might be worth a try!

This is what I do. Turn on Oculus, enable Oculus Link. Hit the "virtual desktop" button on the control panel that floats in front of me. This brings up my desktop and from there I go to my Steam library, click "play", select "Launch in VR mode" and wait for it to load.

Not sure if this is playing through SteamVR because I know before when I was trying to figure it out, I had to explicitly launch steam VR before I could play. But after some reading and trail in error I found that the above mentioned method works and I no longer see the prompt for SteamVR or have to launch it. I'll uninstall SteamVR and see if I can still play the way that I described.

Dilligaf666 · Mar 31, 2021

That is exactly what I do and I find it works best

sactownbwoy said:
This is what I do. Turn on Oculus, enable Oculus Link. Hit the "virtual desktop" button on the control panel that floats in front of me. This brings up my desktop and from there I go to my Steam library, click "play", select "Launch in VR mode" and wait for it to load.