Rift: Swapping between BigScreen and Elite.

[TorTorden_VR]

For one I am using voice attack to do this https://voiceattack.com it should be perfectly possible to use the trial version to test this
It started off with me being annoyed at how Oculus would launch ED and it would't be focused, in other words, no button response.
Since my rift area is practically headless (my monitor is on the other side of the room) alt-tabbing to fix focus was a neck bending, back twisting yoga exercise :\

But I remembered VA should be able to this, so with some testing I have this command to focus ED.
(I'l post my exported commands below)

My focus command is identical apart from all the sections where it is different.

Then I also remembered that sometimes earlier I would start Bigscreen from inside the rift, launch ED from regular desktop launcher, leaving running.
And sometimes I managed to stumble on some combo of alt-tab that would focus back to .
And it would work!
I would even see the mirror on the desktop.

So why not take the Alt-tab lottery out, and use VA here?, hmm that would be pretty cool.
BigScreen is a lot more usefull than the Biowaste-tastic software that is V.
I'm not using the steam version of BigScreen, I suspect that might start the Steamvr software as well and I suspect that could cause issues but it honestly should work fine.

So in order to do this.
1: Put on the rift.
2: Start BigScreen (free on both Oculus store and steam)
3: Use the virtual desktop to start all your normal ED programs.
4: start the Elite Launcher directly from desktop or preferably Dr.Kaii's profiler.
5: Fly space ships of awesome.
6: Switch back to desktop, google for that crashed alien ship, use copy\paste for the system name like before, or move annoying bum on discord, or open EDengineers add a print to your shopping basket etc etc.
7: Repeat step 5.


With variable but good success I can just say "show the desktop" and "focus elite dangerous" to switch between the two.
Sometimes, like one out of five switches something might go weird, but it hasn't crashed on me yet.
Simply switching back around has fixed it for me.

I'm running in the void room, so performance use would be minimal, but it shouldn't use more than just a bit ram when unfocused.
I can't really tell the expense, it certainly is more stable the V ever has been for me.
But it's not usefull for watching netflix or what not while cruising around, just saying.

Exported VA commands.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wp0le44bkxpwhby/BS_elite_toggle.vap?dl=0

 

[dape]

interesting idea. I think I will give it a try.

 

[Chromezero]

That's a good example of using VA for things other than simply "put my landing gear down". The longer I use VA, the more I tend to rely on it for things like this.

 

[Judz]

I have followed this Tutorial to the letter and it will not work correctly for me, the only thing that will go right is actually hearing VA saying "focusing Elite Dangerous"

I put on my Rift, I start Bigscreen, I open up my Elite goodies. All is fine up until this point. If I start Elite with either through the desktop or Dr Kaii's program that's when it all goes to hell. I get maybe 1 frame per minute, it flashes grey to normal game constantly and is a total eye hurting experience. When I have actually got into the game after keeping my eyes shut, the game itself is flicker from grey to normal game screen none stop and this is just horrendous as you can pretty much guess.

Using Dr Kaii's program does nothing whatsoever. I can change it to VR Low and when I get in game nothing at all has been changed, it is still set to my normal setting which is VR Ultra. I can play with most things on Ultra but have DOF, AO and Bloom set to off and have AA set to FXAA, SS to 1.2 (I think it is 1.2) and HMDQ to 1.25. In fact I tried DR Kaii's program on Sunday before I even properly set up my graphics and nothing changed at all in that. I tried the ODT and that did nothing at all whatsoever regarding HMDQ, it looked exactly the same, the only thing that worked using the ODT was the fps counter which dropped to 0FPS (before I tweaked my Graphics settings)

I have had this Rift since Saturday and I bet I have played no more than 4 hours with all the borking up. It didn't help matter having Sun/Mon/Tue off and having the worst headache for them days, only for it to go the day I go back work.

Any help here would be very much appreciated.

TIA CMDR's

Asus Maximus Hero VIII z170
I7 6700k@4Ghz
16Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200
gigabyte D5X 1080GTX
Crucial M2 256GB SSD

Edited to add specs.

P.S I can play this in 2d on Ultra with everything on and all turned up @ 120FPS.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I wouldn't really call it a tutorial per say.

And you might have to tweak the window focus commands yourself.
Like for instance testing on desktop by having it switch between a browser and winamp or something.

Also since I posted big screen has had forty-two-hundred-umpteen small patches and all the breakage that ensues, yeay for early access. And a major update to 1.17 for oculus.

I had a fair amount of wierd ness last night after the 1.17 update as well. But eventually after a lot of shouting and keyboard banging it just started working again.

As for profiler, I have been lately experiencing a bug with ED that if I launch via normal desktop install it will reset graphics and start up in regular 2d.
Applying a vr profile before starting seems to prevent this.

I also honestly suspect oculus doesn't support this kind of alt-tabbing. It might be exploiting some wierd bug on my system that for some reason makes this work.

 

[AirBear]

I'm very interested in this as I'd wear the Rift a lot more often if I could multi-task easier when not busy in game. I have 3 monitors and frequently do other stuff while cruising around space and auto-docking.

I'm not having any luck in getting ED to start in VR mode using the above methods. I start both modes of the game via the Oculus library, but I have 2 installations of the game (I think), one leftover from before I bought the Rift:

G:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\elite-dangerous-64

G:\Oculus Apps\Software\frontier-developments-plc-elite-dangerous\Products\elite-dangerous-64

I've installed Dr. Kaii's program and adjusted the settings. When I click Default VR profile and then click "Launch Elite" it just starts the 2D version of the game.

I also installed BigScreen but the same thing, it just runs the 2D version and of course you can't run 2 apps with Oculus home software.

Is there anyway to start the 3D version of ED without using the Oculus library? I could have given ED Profiler the Oculus path to the .exe vs the other path, maybe that makes a difference.

I have Steam VR but ED isn't on the games list. I added the launcher but still just get the 2D version.

Thanks,

AirBear

 

[A D]

I'm very interested in this as I'd wear the Rift a lot more often if I could multi-task easier when not busy in game. I have 3 monitors and frequently do other stuff while cruising around space and auto-docking.

I'm not having any luck in getting ED to start in VR mode using the above methods. I start both modes of the game via the Oculus library, but I have 2 installations of the game (I think), one leftover from before I bought the Rift:

G:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\elite-dangerous-64

G:\Oculus Apps\Software\frontier-developments-plc-elite-dangerous\Products\elite-dangerous-64

I've installed Dr. Kaii's program and adjusted the settings. When I click Default VR profile and then click "Launch Elite" it just starts the 2D version of the game.

I also installed BigScreen but the same thing, it just runs the 2D version and of course you can't run 2 apps with Oculus home software.

Is there anyway to start the 3D version of ED without using the Oculus library? I could have given ED Profiler the Oculus path to the .exe vs the other path, maybe that makes a difference.

I have Steam VR but ED isn't on the games list. I added the launcher but still just get the 2D version.

Thanks,

AirBear

The answer to your question is a definite "yes". I suspect this will solve your problem:

- Open ED Profiler.
- next to "VR/3D" choose the "HMD Headphones" option.
- Click "Apply" then "Save Profile".

Now when you launch (with that profile) it should open the ED Launcher, and when you click play open the game in VR mode (assuming you have the Rift working).

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Yeah the oculus store will force close bigscreen if you launch ed from the oculus library.

So you kind of have to circumvent that by having a non oculus install of ED.
And launch this via desktop from within big screen.
Ideally if you have it configured for vr. It should play like normal.
But it's been a bit more hinky after the latest batch of patches and that's on top of being as rickety as a house cards to begin with.

Also I kind of totally suck when it comes to writing directions.
Apologies.

 

[AirBear]

Thanks, I had "HMD" selected but never hit "apply". That fixed the problem. Now to see if bigscreen will run along with ED. Does the Oculus software have to be open for ED to run in VR mode?

edit: The Oculus software shows ED running so won't start Bigscreen. Maybe I need to direct ED Profiler to the non-Oculus installed of the game. I tried shutting down Oculus but it auto-starts when ED launches.

The answer to your question is a definite "yes". I suspect this will solve your problem:

- Open ED Profiler.
- next to "VR/3D" choose the "HMD Headpones" option.
- Click "Apply" then "Save Profile".

Now when you launch (with that profile) it should open the ED Launcher, and when you click play open the game in VR mode (assuming you have the Rift working).

When you now click on launch it should open the ED launcher, and when you click play the VR version of the game will launch

 

[Judz]

Well, I have gone through this again and it still will not work, its a flickering mess, and now it has decided to be a flickering mess when bigscreen or the non working EDProfiler are not even running, flickering and a jerky mess now, back to square 1 again.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Has anyone besides me gotten this to work?

At all?

 

[AstroCreep]

Remember that BigScreen is still in Beta so it may be having issues with certain things from time to time, join their Discord channel and post in there about it as the Devs are very quick to respond with help towards any bugs that are found.

I'm loving the Cinema update BTW, superb program this!

 

[AirBear]

Has anyone besides me gotten this to work?

At all?

I think I just need a way to launch ED without the Oculus software auto-starting. That's assuming Oculus doesn't need to be running for the Rift to work in ED. Once I'm past that issue I may be able to get it to work.

AirBear

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I think I just need a way to launch ED without the Oculus software auto-starting. That's assuming Oculus doesn't need to be running for the Rift to work in ED. Once I'm past that issue I may be able to get it to work.

AirBear

Oculus software is already running, with this I start everything from inside the Rift.
No need to close it, you need it or well, the rift won't work at all.
Just minimize, or ignore it.

Oculus is setup from the normal usual way, with unknown sources checked.

I put the rift on, start BigScreen from inside the Oculus home environment.
I do not take it off unless something goes really borked.

From that desktop view I then start whatever software needed, like discord, (voiceattack is actually launched from a startup routine now, but that too I guess)
Also, VA is also running with elevated privileges.

And when I launch ED, I do so from the desktop as displayed inside the Rift now running BigScreen, and fingers crossed, ED should start normally and take focus from like it would the oculus home environment.
But by using VA or, probably just from normal alt-tab it should be possible to switch focus between the two.
You cannot luanch more than one application from oculus home, because the home software force closes anything running when it opens the next program.
So launching elite from a non oculus install simply bypasses this.

Dunno if that helps.

I have also added a command that focuses on my music player, by first focusing the process, and then the player window.
Also, the Win+d keycombo before each, seemed to be needed to make sure it would fully focus, without that step it would often seem as if elite was the top window on the desktop, but not actually engaged for input as if I had clicked the mouse pointer outside it.

 

[Queeg501]

Has anyone besides me gotten this to work?

At all?

Thanks for suggestion. I followed your steps and everything works for me except focusing ED. I can live with that since just clicking on the ED client window brings it up full screen.

The big gain for me is being able to switch out of ED to the Bigscreen app with just a voice command.

 

[Judz]

Thanks for suggestion. I followed your steps and everything works for me except focusing ED. I can live with that since just clicking on the ED client window brings it up full screen.

The big gain for me is being able to switch out of ED to the Bigscreen app with just a voice command.

So you have followed this tutorial of sorts and it all works? If so I hate ya. Excellent Avatar though so +rep.

 

[AirBear]

No matter how I start ED it launches the Oculus store/library and then I get a warning about how it's going to have to close bigscreen. I can not get both to run at the same time. I wonder if I installed ED via Steam and ran it in Steam VR if that would allow me to run Bigscreen in Oculus?

 

[Cliché]

Has anyone besides me gotten this to work?

At all?

I just tried it and it works fine.

The first time I tried showing the desktop I just got a black screen, but could return focus to ED.
I changed the command to put wildcards (*) around "Bigscreen" and then it worked.
I didn't need wildcards around "Elite Dangerous", but it probably wouldn't hurt.

 

[Crank Larson]

Since my rift area is practically headless (my monitor is on the other side of the room) alt-tabbing to fix focus was a neck bending, back twisting yoga exercise :\

My main screen (a projector) is actually upstairs in another room from the Rift, so anything that requires me to see the screen is a real pain! Your idea of VoiceAttack and BigScreen looks good, and I'll have to play with that. I'm doing the ruins mission at the moment, and do need to look things up quite frequently - taking the headset off and using my laptop is a little tedious for that. Being able to swap to BigScreen would be awesome, and I presume that Copy/Paste would then also work (for system names, etc.).

Anyway, thanks for the pointers.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

My main screen (a projector) is actually upstairs in another room from the Rift, so anything that requires me to see the screen is a real pain! Your idea of VoiceAttack and BigScreen looks good, and I'll have to play with that. I'm doing the ruins mission at the moment, and do need to look things up quite frequently - taking the headset off and using my laptop is a little tedious for that. Being able to swap to BigScreen would be awesome, and I presume that Copy/Paste would then also work (for system names, etc.).

Anyway, thanks for the pointers.

That's even less practical than my setup.
My regular desk and screen is a 170 degrees and 3m away from my setup

Wild cards for the focusing commands might be a good idea, also, I often need to run the commands a couple of times to get it going right when I start Elite.
Like I need to actually tell it to focus on ED before focusing back on desktop works.

And sometimes it just goes weird, although not to often.