Rift on order. Set my expectations for me...

[STARSHOT]

So I have a late order for the Rift which is due August sometime. My plan once the order went in was to try and get a demo to make sure I didnt find the well-publicised negatives like the 'god-rays' and low resolution affected my gameplay too badly. Not found one anywhere yet but theres still plenty of time.

But from you lucky people who have had a good chance to use the rift with ED (and other games) is it really as bad as some seem to make out? I've read countless discussions on it now and even compared numerous images depicting the SDE and relative resolution etc. but all of them state thats not exactly how it looks in game. The general opinion is that the photos tend to make it look more blurry, but conversely actually in game you get a a shimmer which makes distant objects and some text harder to read. Am I correct in saying that other games that are not so 'dark' tend to look better also?

For info I'm coming from a 24" Dell IPS 1920x1200 monitor and I'm fully prepared for a step down in image quality in exchange for the immersive experience.

Cheers!

 

[mikeytrw]

If you've never played in VR the experience will be incredible. However if you're used to playing on a DK2 - you'll have a few surprises.

Resolution:
The resolution is lower than you're used to because you're used to a monitor but it's perfectly acceptable for reading text etc. I find it perfectly playable.

God Rays:
I don't like the term 'God Rays' because it makes them positive so I prefer the term 'fresnel smear'. Short story is they're bad, especially in elite dangerous as it's a dark scene with bright UI. I'm still adjusting to them, but I came form DK2 which had no god rays whatsoever and much better contrast. Other people have gotten used to them, I hope I will too.

Screen Door Effect:
Still exists, but is much better than DK2. Perfectly acceptable.

Comfort:
I hoped it would be better tbh, but then I had a DK2 which I modified with soft materials to make it comfortable for long periods of play. Overall it's fine for long play sessions.

Audio:
Much better than expected. Decent headphones.

System Requirements:
Heavy. I have a 980Ti and I use the 'VR High' preset. Still ATW has to kick in occasionally to prevent stutter.

Hope this helps!

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

It's a tricky one this because sure, there are negatives and none of the first gen HMDs are anywhere near perfect, but I and I'm sure most existing users would not want to say anything to put you off or make you feel like you'd made a bad decision (you haven't). So it's a case of making sure your expectations are in check.

I've had my Rift for a week and a half. Let's get the negatives out of the way (and this is purely from an ED perspective, I bought the Rift solely because of ED, I'll let others comment on other games as I've only had time to play some demos):

resolution (including clarity of text) - this is the only big negative for me. In combat smaller ships at a distance are fuzzy. Some of the cockpit text is fuzzy. Most disappointing of all for me is that the stars in the starfield are blurry. But with a decent GPU, the debug tool and the right graphic settings things can be improved somewhat. Let's hope there is something that FD can do in this area
glare (god rays) - after changing my HUD colour, dashboard brightness on low and tweaking one or two graphics settings it's not too bad now, the game menus are terrible (white on black) and make my eyes sore but everything else I can live with
shimmer - not game-breaking for me but certainly noticeable - not really sure but maybe this is caused by a combination of the low res, aliasing and glare - turning up the AA helps to an extent
SDE - non-existent for me

After a couple of days with the Rift I played ED on my 34" 3440x1440 IPS panel. OMG the sharpness! I nearly had one of those "I've made a terrible mistake" moments. I haven't. The thing is, nobody can describe the feeling that in the Rift, you are IN the ship, not just staring at some pixels on a flat screen. The sense of scale and perspective is unbelievable and these are the things that make it such a great experience. The ships are huge! The landing pads look small on a monitor don't they? They aren't, they are massive! When you take off from a planet and start manoeuvring you can now almost feel the forces of gravity acting on the ship. First thing you should do is get in one of the medium or large freighters (ASP or anything with a good view) and land on an outpost - brilliant!

So we all have different expectations of course but I think overall you won't be disappointed.

I'm still playing with the graphics options, HUD colours and debug tool to find the sweet spot between image/text clarity, image quality and performance. Thankfully ATW means you can turn things up and even at 45 FPS still get smooth head tracking, but it means your GPU is being worked hard. If I put the pixel density at 1.5 and turn up a few graphics settings my 390X wants to melt. I'll be upgrading to Vega for sure.

You've probably read all the threads already but these ones should give you a fairly balanced view of people's opinions:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/241558-The-Oculus-Rift-CV1-General-Discussion-Thread
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/247074-Elite-Dangerous-in-the-Rift-is-AWESOME!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...od-Rays-I-m-reading-about-Rift-Virgin-no-more

 

[Ren Garris]

Main Sequence covered much of the 'downsides'. Although I would gladly trade a little resolution for what VR gives me.

As a matter of fact, when I look at the world around me, I don't even have optimal resolution through my own eyeballs.
I will squint, things can be blurry, my sunglasses have a few scratches on them....

I chalk a few of these things up to 'immersion'. If i tell myself that these god rays or blurred stars are a by-product of my visor, then I am fine with it. It all pales in comparison the first time you experience the cockpit or turn around and see the little doorway in your eagle. Or maybe the first time your stomach drops when you go sailing off a cliff in your SRV.

So last night I was goofing around in a HAZRES with a friend. I had refitted my python for combat and we were just trolling for bad guys. I got a little too over confident and went toe to toe with a Master FGS.
Oops.
As my cockpit crackled, popped and then shattered in front of me, I paused to admire how it looked. It was amazed at the sparks... They were all around me...
The smoke filled both sides of the cockpit... I could see the depth of the spider webs on the remainder of the cockpit...

Death looks so much better in VR than in 2D.

I actually let my life support run out. I wanted to experience how it is to die in VR.

Did you know that you actually gasp for air the last minute you're alive?

I don't know why my ship exploded when my life support ran out of O2, but whatever. I still had 50% hull.
And the buy back screen looks the same. Nothing cool here.

Anyway, Elite is a new game in VR. Enjoy it.

 

[STARSHOT]

Many thanks MAIN SEQUENCE you seem to be echoing the general feeling I've read about and even considering the negatives I'm still really looking forward to trying it for the first time. I just need to experience that sense of scale everyone agrees is the real eye-opener!

Regarding the graphics options and fps, I currently have a GTX 960 so I'm planning to pick up a 1070 hopefully in a few weeks when prices stabilize. Do you think that will suffice to get decent image quality/performance with the Rift? I'd love to go for a 1080 but thats a bit rich for me on top of the £500 for the rift as well at the moment.

Also in that last thread you mentioned is the heat/fogging up of the lenses a big issue? I've only seen it mentioned once or twice but I'm wondering if I'm going to need to get some sort of desk fan set up so my face doesnt melt

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Main Sequence covered much of the 'downsides'. Although I would gladly trade a little resolution for what VR gives me.

As a matter of fact, when I look at the world around me, I don't even have optimal resolution through my own eyeballs.
I will squint, things can be blurry, my sunglasses have a few scratches on them....

I chalk a few of these things up to 'immersion'. If i tell myself that these god rays or blurred stars are a by-product of my visor, then I am fine with it. It all pales in comparison the first time you experience the cockpit or turn around and see the little doorway in your eagle. Or maybe the first time your stomach drops when you go sailing off a cliff in your SRV.

So last night I was goofing around in a HAZRES with a friend. I had refitted my python for combat and we were just trolling for bad guys. I got a little too over confident and went toe to toe with a Master FGS.
Oops.
As my cockpit crackled, popped and then shattered in front of me, I paused to admire how it looked. It was amazed at the sparks... They were all around me...
The smoke filled both sides of the cockpit... I could see the depth of the spider webs on the remainder of the cockpit...

Death looks so much better in VR than in 2D.

I actually let my life support run out. I wanted to experience how it is to die in VR.

Did you know that you actually gasp for air the last minute you're alive?

I don't know why my ship exploded when my life support ran out of O2, but whatever. I still had 50% hull.
And the buy back screen looks the same. Nothing cool here.

Anyway, Elite is a new game in VR. Enjoy it.

Haha awesome thanks for that, you've almost made me want to die in the rift now just to see what its like!

As you say immersion is the key here, like yourself if I can explain away things like the god rays then you can accept them.

 

[theriverlethe]

Once you go 90fps, you can't go back. My 1070 handles Elite at 90fps in VR High, but I'm still trying to find the right amount of supersampling. Going to try some over-clocking tonight.

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I wouldn't recommend VR (or a PC) unless you have air conditioning, but YMMV.

 

[STARSHOT]

Good to know thanks. Obviously the 1080 would allow a bit more supersampling/pixel density tweaking with the debug tool but hopefully the 1070 will do the job then!

 

[dutchy2000]

I believe the 1070 has about the same power as a 980ti, and that should handle ED very nicely in VR. It barely breaks a sweat on my DK2, but that is lower rez and lower frame rate. On the plus size for me, hopefully I will be able to see how it does 'soon' as I got my you rift is shipping soon email yesterday

 

[Ren Garris]

Once you go 90fps, you can't go back. My 1070 handles Elite at 90fps in VR High, but I'm still trying to find the right amount of supersampling. Going to try some over-clocking tonight.

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I wouldn't recommend VR (or a PC) unless you have air conditioning, but YMMV.

Oh yeah...

I almost forgot this. ^^

I find that having a fan helps. I found a small fan that I can tuck under a shelf partition on my desk. I keep a breeze on me for two reasons-

It helps keep the temp down under the HMD. The first night was a pain because of the heat build up that lead to fogging. I will pull he HMD from face an inch or so to cool it down every 30-60 minutes.

I think it also helps my head. The breeze gives me a sense or movement or motion. Plus it looks like there are air vents on the dash of my Python.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

Also in that last thread you mentioned is the heat/fogging up of the lenses a big issue? I've only seen it mentioned once or twice but I'm wondering if I'm going to need to get some sort of desk fan set up so my face doesnt melt

I've not found this to be an issue. I've wiped the lenses twice in the last week and a half. As for heat the HMD gets warm at the front but I've not felt my face get warm, despite the heat that my 390X (which is 3 feet away) insists on pumping into the room.

 

[koop26]

The 1080 is a reminder than the Oculus could have shipped with 1.5x the resolution and the GTX 1080 could have handled it. But if you notice, the higher resolution monitors get the more difficult it is to increase refresh rates and response times. Even the $1200+ 1440P Acer Predator has lower response times and refresh rates than their $300 TN panels. I just don't think the technology is there at the right price for higher resolutions to be implemented.

And like Ren said, you have a space suit strapped on with a helmet, you're cruising the galaxy all the time, I imagine blurred vision is a part of being a pilot too. All this adds up to natural clarity issues in the pilots chair anyway. Easy to role play away.

A rift and a high resolution monitor are two different things and basically incomparable. One is for eating cheetos and alt tabbing to change radio stations while playing a really pretty video game. The other is for being in a somewhat fuzzy galaxy and flying your spaceship. One is a treat for the eyes, the other for the senses. Right now we can't have both.

 

[STARSHOT]

Cheers both sounds like the heat/fogging may be something that affects some more than others, it does get quite hot in my office in the summer so I'll see how it fares.

koop26 very interesting regarding the 1080 and pixel density/super sampling at 1.5. Makes me want to consider the 1080 again but I think it's well over priced at the moment. I have at least a month or so though I think before my rift is likely to ship so will be following the prices closely

 

[Ren Garris]

It tends to warm here...95-100 degrees in the summer. (36-40 Celsius)
Add in humidity and heat index....
I'm lucky to keep the house around 80 at times.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

That's weird, I have an email notification with an excellent reply by mikeytrw, timed between posts 12 and 13, and yet I don't see it in this thread. :S I have no-one on my ignore list.

 

[STARSHOT]

If you've never played in VR the experience will be incredible. However if you're used to playing on a DK2 - you'll have a few surprises.

Resolution:
The resolution is lower than you're used to because you're used to a monitor but it's perfectly acceptable for reading text etc. I find it perfectly playable.

God Rays:
I don't like the term 'God Rays' because it makes them positive so I prefer the term 'fresnel smear'. Short story is they're bad, especially in elite dangerous as it's a dark scene with bright UI. I'm still adjusting to them, but I came form DK2 which had no god rays whatsoever and much better contrast. Other people have gotten used to them, I hope I will too.

Screen Door Effect:
Still exists, but is much better than DK2. Perfectly acceptable.

Comfort:
I hoped it would be better tbh, but then I had a DK2 which I modified with soft materials to make it comfortable for long periods of play. Overall it's fine for long play sessions.

Audio:
Much better than expected. Decent headphones.

System Requirements:
Heavy. I have a 980Ti and I use the 'VR High' preset. Still ATW has to kick in occasionally to prevent stutter.

Hope this helps!

Cheers for that it seems to me that it's only likely to be the god-rays that might bother me, I guess I'll just need to see if I can look past it to be honest I'm not overly concerned about it. Regarding the GPU it looks like the 1070 is around the 980ti performance level, hopefully this will improve as well over time with mature drivers etc.

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That's weird, I have an email notification with an excellent reply by mikeytrw, timed between posts 12 and 13, and yet I don't see it in this thread. :S I have no-one on my ignore list.

Seems to have appeared as post number 2??? Odd...

 

[koop26]

Cheers both sounds like the heat/fogging may be something that affects some more than others, it does get quite hot in my office in the summer so I'll see how it fares.

koop26 very interesting regarding the 1080 and pixel density/super sampling at 1.5. Makes me want to consider the 1080 again but I think it's well over priced at the moment. I have at least a month or so though I think before my rift is likely to ship so will be following the prices closely

I'm a one GPU kind of person and I build Mini ITX machines with no attention paid to cooling (actually I tend to underclock in the summer). I prefer portability and convenience over performance. So overclocking isn't something I play with. The GTX 1080 lets me run anything without with messing with anything, and that's what I needed.

Could I have gotten away with a 1070? Yup. But I want that extra overhead for stable framerates in intense games (I get woozy as it is) or super sampling in lighter games. The amount of money I've spent has been through the roof for the 1080 and Rift, but it's a completely new way to experience entertainment and I wanted to be there at the beginning.

40 years from now when we're strapped into our Matrix chairs with a feeding tube through our belly buttons, I just wanna say to my virtual grandkids that I was there and I made sure I bought the best dang graphics card money could buy.

 

[HeavyGroovez]

Nothing can really prepare you for VR. Don't get too concerned with the technobabble (easier said than done I know) just know for certain that it will change your digital entertainment experience forever.

I was blasting across Portugal in Euro truck 2 days ago and I was due to catch a (real life) flight to Crete. That I was somewhat reluctant to leave my virtual world says a lot about the sheer power of the immersion.

Edit : Yes I'm on holiday in Crete posting on the VR forum. Its 35c outside blue skies I have a freezing cold beer but I miss my Rift already

 

[STARSHOT]

Hhhhhhmmm I think I'm gonna need to sell this to her indoors to avoid a potential divorce! She doesn't game at all which makes it difficult but I think she'd like the demos I've read about so will try that

 

[UniMag]

Hhhhhhmmm I think I'm gonna need to sell this to her indoors to avoid a potential divorce! She doesn't game at all which makes it difficult but I think she'd like the demos I've read about so will try that

My wife doesn't game at all and can't understand the attraction to it.

My trick is to keep reminding her that it's better than spending every evening down the pub like a lot of blokes do or watching footie (luckily I have interest in that)

To be fair though I do only game around 10 hours a week of combined time

 

[dogbite]

The godray effect will depend on your situation. If you wear glasses or contacts, you are used to some halo effects at night around lights and stars. You can tweak a lot of this out. On the subject of glasses, if you have a large head, as I do you will find glasses a pain to use in the Rift and would be well advised to adopt contact lenses if you can. You will find you are lifting the HMD often to make different things happen on your computer screen and glasses get stuck in the headset.

As far as the experience, if you, have never tried VR, you are in for a real treat. Besides Elite being worth the price of entry alone, if you play DCS, IRacing, Project Cars oe War Thunder you will be a happy camper, I have no doubt As one who does play those games, I echo the sentiment of so many -I can no longer play on a flat screen -nope - not interested and I was used to playing on a 147" wall projection.