Commanders, apologies for not taking any pictures (spoilers) today, but I was busy setting up my VR...

And boy, was it an experience!
First of all, what did I invest my hard earned money on, just to give you an idea what I am talking about, in case you decide to try the VR yourself:
PC:
Ryzen 5 5600X
16GB 3600MHz DDR4 memory
1TB NVMe
Gainward GeForce RTX 3070
4K 27" monitor Philips (60Hz)
VR set:
HP Reverb G2 (90Hz)
Now what needed to be done in order to make it work:
I play on Steam, so I had to download SteamVR and Windows Mixed Reality for Steam. Went through the setup process ,in 20 minutes I was ready to go... However, my VR headset wasnt doing anything... The audio was there, but no picture... I had to go to settings and the moment I opened the settings up, the picture poped up...
So Im in this VMR setting and Im quite amazed... The HP Reverb has resolution of 2160x2160 per eye, so you perceive it moreless like a full HD from upclose... Not bad,, but compared to the 4K monitor, it was a step down... If you were to expect the same level of clarity as 4K monitor, you would be dissapointed... But if you play in HD, then this is probably similar experience...
So I finish the setup and launch the game... First impression - terrible... I was not able to control anything, I did not know how to center the headset, I attempted driving the SRV on that 3,5G planet and got sick after couple of minutes....
But, the drive around my ship was monumental... This is the first time you can see how big the ship is... And it is really impressive!
So I exited the game, a bit dissapointed I have to say and started playing with settings and mainly looking for a way to control the game... I finally got the keyboard and mouse working, but the problem is, you cant see the keyboard while in game...
Then I downloaded Voice Attack and that was another hour setting it up... Also downloading and setting up the Windows speech recognition feature...
In the end, I got everything to work and I also figured out how to program the voice attack: now when I enter my ship, I say "Hello CML" and the ship answers "Good Day Commander! The ship is ready for your inspection, all systems nominal!" And I respond by "Than you CML, proceed" and the ship responds with "Roger Commander, waiting for your command!"...

When I say "Landing configuration", the ship deploys Landing gear, or whenn I say "Ready for departure" the ship retracts landing gear... etc etc... Of course always saying something like "Deploying Landing gear" with another confirmation from the ship itself (Landing gear deployed) etc... When I say "Engage", it would say "Roger Commander, engaging warp drive!"...
(Note to self: replace all "rogers" with "aye aye Sir!" )
So when I had everything set up, I went back to the game and decide to perform landing on the last Bio planet of the above...
"Sector map!" - "opening sector map!"
"Cruise!! - "Roger, engaging supercruise!"
Flying this thing in VR is amazing! You ca freely look around and see the depth you would not be able to see in 2D... The difference is breathtaking! It is like truly being inside your ship... Yes, the focus sweet-spot makes it a bit difficult to see things with your peripheral sight, it is like wearing a glasses with a bit of grease on its edges, but no problem, you just have to look directly on whatever you want to see... If I hd to explain the difference, for example: when you drive a car and you want to check your speed, you do not move your whole head, you just move your eye bulbs to focus on the speedo... You can't do it in VR, because the lenses do not provide focus in their entire field of view... The picture is clear only in the direct line of sigh and close around your line of sight... Everything else is blurred to some degree... So moving your eye bulbs does not give you the results you expect... You need to move your head and put the thing you want to see in the direct line of sight...
And then you approach the planet and it just leaves you speechless... The sense of depth, altitude, the way you can approach the landing site, the way you can see and feel the depth below you, that unimaginable easiness with which you are landing, looking around and not having to look at the instruments, because you see everything like in a regular space ship... I was always kind of nervous when landing on a planet... Not anymore... Here you just KNOW... You see everything, you get the feeling of where you actually are, how your ship is leveled etc.. That is beyond anything you can experience in a 2D game...
"Landing configuration!" - "Deploying landing gear!!
and a touchdown....
Yes, it cost me money... But I do not regret... It was a fantastic experience to fly and land in VR!




