Loaded up Elite on my Vive for the first time last night. I've had the Vive since Monday, but have spent a lot of time messing around with the various demos and other 'light' VR games. I figured I'd ease my way into VR rather than jump straight to Elite.
A few initial observations in my case...
-The resolution does seem 'off' compared to other VR titles. Still, I have to say its awesome, and when fixed will be insanely awesome.
-Jaggies/aliasing makes the game rough around the edges (pun intended). I hope this can be improved.
-With a greenish/bluish UI color, text is more comfortable. Yeah its not super sharp, but its passable. Default orange seems ok, but I'm starting to prefer cooler colors in VR.
-Shimmer certainly is there. Its distracting and annoying at times. Most notable in brighter areas, such as when in the docking bay looking around.
-I found with the Vive, having bluetooth enabled for the lighthouses causes terrible tracking issues. When disabled the problems go away. Bluetooth is known to be buggy apparently.. still something that needs some work. I didn't observe issues with Bluetooth enabled in other VR games so far, just Elite. I can't confirm for sure it is an Elite issue. I just suspect Elite is a way heftier game, so weak links in the VR chain may just emerge more readily.
-My X55 HOTAS would periodically stop responding in Elite, though the buttons showed as working in the X55 windows tool. I'd be stuck in VR at the starting screen unable to select any menu options. After a bit of fiddling, I moved the Vive to my USB 3.1 port, and left the HOTAS and other things on USB 3.0. Looks like it helped as I haven't had a control lockup since. I also unplugged the wireless Xbox controller from USB. I don't use it in Elite.
-Galaxy/System map in VR: Yeah, this needs some work. While it looks nice, the controls are quirky and selecting objects in the 3D space such as with a mouse doesn't work all that well. I guess its just one of those things that you have to get use to, quirks and all.
I played for a few hours last night. I'm eager to get more time in the cockpit tonight. All I can say is Elite in VR feels like nearly a completely different game. I've read what others have said about the game in VR, especially the scale of things. The ships, stations, etc. Yeah. Words don't do it justice. Going from flying an Anaconda in regular to VR was shocking, in a good way, to say the least. The ship is huge. I felt freaked out docking in a Coriolis for the first time... approaching the slot was daunting. When not in VR its a simple line up and fly in. In VR you are suddenly aware of the sheer size, scale, and dimensions of everything. I sat about 15 minutes on the landing pad at a surface port and a coriolis later. Just watching other ships take off and land.
When in dock I went to the outfitting screen. Large weapons are LARGE. Yeah. Before VR nearly every weapon looked the same. Small vs Large. The scale wasn't quite as apparent. The large cannon I have on the Conda's nose... holy moley. The ship's cockpit? Sweet! Everything is perfectly positioned. The sensor display is HUGE. It actually feels like the bridge of a large ship. Frontier did a great job. While not completely perfect.... this is the game I've been wanting to play since Elite of 1984.
I do need to get back to using VoiceAttack... while the HOTAS works great, the inability to directly see the buttons/switches may be a small detriment. I suspect quick reaction commands such as those for combat (chaff, etc) may be better done using voice command. I may also tweak my bindings... I suspect there are somewhat better ways to do things.
A few initial observations in my case...
-The resolution does seem 'off' compared to other VR titles. Still, I have to say its awesome, and when fixed will be insanely awesome.
-Jaggies/aliasing makes the game rough around the edges (pun intended). I hope this can be improved.
-With a greenish/bluish UI color, text is more comfortable. Yeah its not super sharp, but its passable. Default orange seems ok, but I'm starting to prefer cooler colors in VR.
-Shimmer certainly is there. Its distracting and annoying at times. Most notable in brighter areas, such as when in the docking bay looking around.
-I found with the Vive, having bluetooth enabled for the lighthouses causes terrible tracking issues. When disabled the problems go away. Bluetooth is known to be buggy apparently.. still something that needs some work. I didn't observe issues with Bluetooth enabled in other VR games so far, just Elite. I can't confirm for sure it is an Elite issue. I just suspect Elite is a way heftier game, so weak links in the VR chain may just emerge more readily.
-My X55 HOTAS would periodically stop responding in Elite, though the buttons showed as working in the X55 windows tool. I'd be stuck in VR at the starting screen unable to select any menu options. After a bit of fiddling, I moved the Vive to my USB 3.1 port, and left the HOTAS and other things on USB 3.0. Looks like it helped as I haven't had a control lockup since. I also unplugged the wireless Xbox controller from USB. I don't use it in Elite.
-Galaxy/System map in VR: Yeah, this needs some work. While it looks nice, the controls are quirky and selecting objects in the 3D space such as with a mouse doesn't work all that well. I guess its just one of those things that you have to get use to, quirks and all.
I played for a few hours last night. I'm eager to get more time in the cockpit tonight. All I can say is Elite in VR feels like nearly a completely different game. I've read what others have said about the game in VR, especially the scale of things. The ships, stations, etc. Yeah. Words don't do it justice. Going from flying an Anaconda in regular to VR was shocking, in a good way, to say the least. The ship is huge. I felt freaked out docking in a Coriolis for the first time... approaching the slot was daunting. When not in VR its a simple line up and fly in. In VR you are suddenly aware of the sheer size, scale, and dimensions of everything. I sat about 15 minutes on the landing pad at a surface port and a coriolis later. Just watching other ships take off and land.
When in dock I went to the outfitting screen. Large weapons are LARGE. Yeah. Before VR nearly every weapon looked the same. Small vs Large. The scale wasn't quite as apparent. The large cannon I have on the Conda's nose... holy moley. The ship's cockpit? Sweet! Everything is perfectly positioned. The sensor display is HUGE. It actually feels like the bridge of a large ship. Frontier did a great job. While not completely perfect.... this is the game I've been wanting to play since Elite of 1984.
I do need to get back to using VoiceAttack... while the HOTAS works great, the inability to directly see the buttons/switches may be a small detriment. I suspect quick reaction commands such as those for combat (chaff, etc) may be better done using voice command. I may also tweak my bindings... I suspect there are somewhat better ways to do things.
