So I Dusted off my Monitor..........

[Faded Glory]

I do wonder if there's not a bit of "I bought a VR headset and the only game that's actually any good is Elite so I'll whine about Odyssey not being VR compatible until I sell my headset" going on.

No, I think that people who have enjoyed a game that was built with VR support right from the beginning are very disappointed that it's now seemingly being dropped. (Of course, if you believe FD, it'll be coming back soon...).

I'm wondering why so many people who don't play in VR seem so upset that people who do play in VR and enjoy the experience very much are disappointed that the way they enjoy playing the game is seemingly being abandoned. Empathy seems in short supply...

 

[Maggie_Oz]

Where as we have self entitled overreaction by the bucket load!

 

[Arioch]

No, I think that people who have enjoyed a game that was built with VR support right from the beginning are very disappointed that it's now seemingly being dropped. (Of course, if you believe FD, it'll be coming back soon...).

I'm wondering why so many people who don't play in VR seem so upset that people who do play in VR and enjoy the experience very much are disappointed that the way they enjoy playing the game is seemingly being abandoned. Empathy seems in short supply...

Aye, there's a familiar ring to the comments made by the unaffected...see if any of these sound familiar:

"Everybody is online anyway these days, how are you even posting your complaints here?"
"Macs aren't for gaming, anyway you can just install Windows or buy a proper gaming computer"
"1 button Honk was rubbish, just get used to the FSS"
"32-bit users, there's hardly any so it's no great loss, better game for everyone once it goes 64-bit!"

...and as if by magic, a perfect example appears

 

[the100thmonkey]

No, I think that people who have enjoyed a game that was built with VR support right from the beginning are very disappointed that it's now seemingly being dropped. (Of course, if you believe FD, it'll be coming back soon...).

I'm wondering why so many people who don't play in VR seem so upset that people who do play in VR and enjoy the experience very much are disappointed that the way they enjoy playing the game is seemingly being abandoned. Empathy seems in short supply...

I do play in VR. It's a bit of a pain in the donkey, but it is enjoyable to strap a pound of plastic to your head sometimes.

What bothers me most about the current whinefest (I can recommend some good cheeses to go with, btw) is that it's been obvious for years that FD were not going to continue to develop the game for VR - look at the Beyond release! In the release livestream, the devs were specifically asked about VR support. The answer was "no, we didn't make Beyond with VR in mind." Subsequent questions on the stream regarding VR support were met with "Yeah..." and a shrug (and not in a good way.)

It really escapes me why any player would expect VR to be a part of Odyssey, when it wasn't even considered for Beyond.

 

[Maggie_Oz]

I can recommend some good cheeses to go with

Do you have a Gorgonzola?

 

[the100thmonkey]

Aye, there's a familiar ring to the comments made by the unaffected...see if any of these sound familiar:

"Everybody is online anyway these days, how are you even posting your complaints here?"
"Macs aren't for gaming, anyway you can just install Windows or buy a proper gaming computer"
"1 button Honk was rubbish, just get used to the FSS"
"32-bit users, there's hardly any so it's no great loss, better game for everyone once it goes 64-bit!"

...and as if by magic, a perfect example appears

I'm not unaffected; I just don't buy the rationale for the whining.

Your first point... Well, it's true.
Your second point... Well, it's true!
Your third point... Well, it's true!
Your fourth point... You can work it out for yourself; you're obviously intelligent.

 

[the100thmonkey]

I'm feeling the sunk cost fallacy hella hard tonight...

 

[Arioch]

Thank you for another prime example

I think your “sunk cost fallacy” detector is in need of calibration - Elite is only one of my healthy stable of VR games (though by far the most played over the last few years, SkyrimVR being second place at just over a couple hundred hours) and I will miss playing the first major content in 5 years in VR Anyway, there’s some cool games coming out and I’m looking forward to seeing what mods come out for HA:Alyx, and the Halo VR mod for the Master Chief Collection is looking awesome.

Why you and others feel the need to prod away at those VR players disappointed in this decision...if I found myself doing something similar I’d definitely take a bit of time for self reflection. I hope one day nothing gets binned from the game that would upset you.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

Yeah, it's rubbish.

It also feels a... chore? I think I am so used to all the benefits of VR (headlook, FoV, S3D), that whenever I try to game in non-VR, without these benefits, I feel like a squirel that has been forced to use a ladder to climb trees!

It's possible; it's still rubbish!

 

[Red Anders]

Do you have a Gorgonzola?

No, it's just the way I'm sat.

 

[Old Duck]

Bye, then. You won't be missed by anyone that's not on your friends list.

I'll miss him. Rude people like yourself, however, I never miss when they go (except Stigbob).

 

[Old Duck]

Ran up ED in Boring OLD HAT, 2D on my Monitor.....................................AND HATED EVERY SECOND of the 2 mins i played it for. Reverted back to my VR.

Look, being honest here and Monitor only players won't/can't understand this next statement, But i honestly don't think i can play ED again in Boring 2D, and that INCLUDES Odyssey!!

Not entirely sure i will invest in it.

Lately when I play ED (which is rare these days), I've been doing so in a monitor because I'm out exploring, which is mostly looking at the 2D FSS and hyperspace jump animation. If I find an interesting system worthy of mapping, I'll save it for a VR session. One of the things I find interesting is that if I play ED in VR exclusively for many days, it looks great to me, but if I switch to monitor for a few days and back to VR, my first thought is "Eww this is blurry." I think the brain must compensate for the lower resolution and contrast, along with those awful godrays, given enough time. Going to a high resolution, high contrast monitor "resets" my brain, which in some ways degrades my VR experience until I adapt again. Granted, I'm playing on the humble Rift S, which is a lower-end VR headset. Perhaps if I had one of these 8K bad boys, I'd not have this problem. No way I'm investing in new VR gear while the future of VR is up in the air, however (ED being the only game I truly care about in VR).

 

[Juniper]

I was a VR afficionado for Elite back in the day. Originally a DK2, and then a CV1.

The problem (and it may just be me, my eyesight isn't what it was) is that I struggle to read the text at a glance (have to really concentrate and focus), and after a while, that either tires me out or I get a headache.

Love E: D in VR - the stations and ships are amazing to behold. But the crispness of a 4K monitor wins out for general play, so for the last year or so that I played, it was almost exclusively "pancake mode".

The difference is like playing a game in 4K vs 1024x768. I know which I find easier and more enjoyable.

 

[Old Duck]

The difference is like playing a game in 4K vs 1024x768. I know which I find easier and more enjoyable.

The other thing, at least for me, is that I can max out all my graphic settings to ultra for 2D and still have lots of CPU & GPU to spare, whereas VR pushes my system to the limit even after dialing back some settings. This results in a cooler, quieter, and less power-hungry gaming session while also providing higher fidelity both in resolution and quality. I just wish Frontier fully supported the DS4 controller on PC like they do on PS4 (gyroscopic headlook is the next best thing to natural headlook in VR).

 

[Juniper]

The other thing, at least for me, is that I can max out all my graphic settings to ultra for 2D and still have lots of CPU & GPU to spare, whereas VR pushes my system to the limit even after dialing back some settings. This results in a cooler, quieter, and less power-hungry gaming session while also providing higher fidelity both in resolution and quality. I just wish Frontier fully supported the DS4 controller on PC like they do on PS4 (gyroscopic headlook is the next best thing to natural headlook in VR).

Yup.

I have a good PC that can run at maxed-out settings on VR (or 4K) without too much trouble, although it does creak under VR more. I've tried supersampling. I've tried changing my HUD colour to predominantly green to eek out some extra sub-pixels. But nothing really gets past the basic usability issues of VR for me (reading text), and like you say, you're taxing your system a lot to run under VR.

Without it, everything can be cranked up to max and it never uses more than 50% CPU.

So while I completely understand and sympathise with the OP's aversion to the sudden switch to 2D, you get used to it, and it's not that bad. Better in a lot of ways.

 

[Faded Glory]

It's certainly true that the resolution in VR is not what you can achieve with a monitor (at least on my Rift), that said, the only thing that I have difficulty making out are landing pad numbers at outposts or planetary bases from a distance but that is not something that has ever given me any problems, I find it's easy enough to determine which is your pad. I use a predominantly blue HUD, and can read any other text just fine. As an oldie, my eyesight is far from spectacular, but I do have prescription inserts.

For me at least, playing in VR, which I have done exclusively for the last two and half years is about that awful word immersion. I feel like I am in the game, rather than playing the game, and after more than five years of ED I personally need that. I don't believe I'd still be playing if I were just looking at a screen rather than feeling that I'm actually flying a spaceship.

Certainly, as I've said before, it doesn't surprise me that FD are dropping support for VR, and frankly I don't believe it is intended to to be supported going down the line other than as a legacy feature. I'm struggling to understand when I see other people accusing people of 'whining' about this, especially as I don't see much whining myself, simply people who are clearly passionate about the game letting FD know that without this feature - something FD boasted and crowed about in the early days - then that passion for their product is gone. FD should maybe listen, although it's fairly clear to me, has been for a while that the early vision for the game no longer seems to be direction that it's going.

It's certainly a shame that FD are willing to move the goalposts and remove features rather than build on them, and disappointing that they would do so after selling pretty expensive expansion packs early on in the games development. Let's just hope that they don't one day decide to drop features that those currently attacking VR players care about...

 

[Chris Simon]

Let's just hope that they don't one day decide to drop features that those currently attacking VR players care about...

I think it's not about attacking from either side.
Personally I just feel it's strange there are so many people claiming that VR is the only thing they play Elite for and without it they can't find a single thing to keep them interested. That's... sad.

I don't really feel a difference between playing in VR and on the monitor. When I'm out exploring, I play on the monitor (having to work with the map and taking screenshots). Combat also on a monitor so I don't get sick.
The rest of the activities I play either on the monitor or in VR, depending on mood, but in either case I enjoy the GAME, not the displaying device. :|

 

[Faded Glory]

I think it's not about attacking from either side.
Personally I just feel it's strange there are so many people claiming that VR is the only thing they play Elite for and without it they can't find a single thing to keep them interested. That's... sad.

I don't really feel a difference between playing in VR and on the monitor. When I'm out exploring, I play on the monitor (having to work with the map and taking screenshots). Combat also on a monitor so I don't get sick.
The rest of the activities I play either on the monitor or in VR, depending on mood, but in either case I enjoy the GAME, not the displaying device. :|

Well, there have been (IMO obviously) some pretty mean spirited posts considering that something that has been a pretty core part of the game for those who use it - and as I said boasted about by FD, first AAA game to support VR, blah, blah - is looking very likely to be discontinued going forward. Many of us would be quite happy to forego the FPS experience in VR if we could still continue to fly our ships and drive our SRV's in VR on the planets included with Odyssey. Not speaking for everybody, obviously. And sure, we don't know, but I simply don't believe it's what FD want to do. A hundred plus people working for over two years and not planning on even having the same level of VR support that exists now in the new release? Hmmm.

I don't really want to come across as sounding 'down' on the game. I've played since late 2014 when it was in beta, but for me at least, I cannot say that the content that's been released since Horizons has truly been enough to keep me that interested, so it's much more how I play the game that gives me a motivation to log in. Of course, there's content that they released that simply doesn't interest me, mainly Powerplay, but I've engaged in most areas of the game to some degree or another. I'm triple elite, have over 10 billion credits, have engineered nearly 30 ships, unlocked the guardian FSD booster, destroyed some Thargoids...

I set myself goals and challenges very willingly, happy to figure out a way to destroy elite pirate lords in small ships and don't consider that to be handicapping myself. But honestly, after this time in the game I cannot help but find the gameplay (particularly mission based) to be repetitive and predictable. Every pirate lord is a Federal Corvette, every delivery mission the opposition four Anacondas, one after another - if they turn up at all, every planetary scan job the same searching routine and then one of just two bases to scan.

So yes, for me, playing in VR gives me the 'immersion' I need to log in and fly one of my spaceships for a while, and I guess that I'll probably keep doing that in Horizons despite having an LEP, because that's why I play this game, to fly spaceships, something that I just cannot seem to be able to do anywhere else. Oh, I'll hope that FD incorporate VR into the flying / driving part of the game in Odyssey, but I'm honestly not hopeful. Not surprised, but disappointed nonetheless.

 

[-VR- pipestein]

For me persoanlly what is bothersome about the new expansion dropping VR is not that I can't nor will I play it. What bothers me is that the game I have played for the last 5 years is becoming something that it has never been until now. I am also extreamly bothered by the fact that Frontier are dropping support for what is a core function of the original game, It was certainly responsable for driving a certain segment of the sales when launched as well. I started playing the game in 2d then got into VR simply for elite. I got into elite because of what it was not what it is becoming. Space legs are cool but I am not interested in a FPS shooter. That is what Star Citezen is for which I have never played and never will. I am sad because the fact is that I feel like Frontier have pulled the rug out from underneath what ED was in order to try and feed me something that ED is not. I am not buying Odyssey becaause it does not support VR I will continue to play Horizons instead. What I have done is decided that rather than play ED as my main space sim is that I am going to switch over to Dual Universe. It is not VR but it is not billing itself as a VR game like ED did. There fore I am less likely to be disappointed by the developer in the future. I love Frontier and I love ED but the shine is gone for me now because it is evolving into something it was never really meant to be.