Thinking of jumping into VR

[A D]

You've asked for an expert opinion, so that count's me out. However, couple of comments:

- VR is great. I'm very happy with the Rift and expect you will be too.

- Your laptop spec's are OK but VR entry level. Not saying ED won't run but your laptop may puff a little (particularly as its in a small box and my get a little hot).

- Check that your laptop has enough connections - only saw 2 USB 2.0's on the specs and no mention of a HDMI (from memory need at least 3 USB 3.0 and 1 HDMI for the Rift).

As you are new to VR my suggestion would be to try the Rift (at friend's place or in a store) just to make sure it's something for you and compare the specs of your laptop with the test computer at the same time.

Anyway, welcome and enjoy ED (hopefully in VR).

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I I think it could strictly work with 2 usb 3.
The second or third camera can go on usb 2.

Problem is USB controller saturation.
A motherboard, take some of the Ryzen boards has a glorious amount of USB ports.
But it might have four seperate ports, but like a hub they all go to one controller so shared bandwidth between all ports.

Hence why some of us on normal stationary computers still get USB expansion boards to avoid USB saturation. Unfortunately that's not really an option for laptops.

I do however think it will work with an HMD and at least one sensor on the usb 3, perhaps a second sensor on usb 2. Might not get a third sensor but I haven't needed one yet myself.

 

[Scotiauk]

Thanks for the input everyone.

I’ve had the laptop for a couple of months now and it definitely has an hdmi port, 2 usb 2.0 ports, 1 usb 3.0 port and a usb type C which I have an adapter to convert it into another usb 3.0. So basically the laptop has 2 usb 2.0, 2 usb 3.0 and 1 hdmi.

A quick check on the official Oculus Rift forums shows other people using the exact same laptop as I’ve got myself so I’ll be pretty miffed if it doesn’t work

Scotia-UK

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Thanks for the input everyone.

I’ve had the laptop for a couple of months now and it definitely has an hdmi port, 2 usb 2.0 ports, 1 usb 3.0 port and a usb type C which I have an adapter to convert it into another usb 3.0. So basically the laptop has 2 usb 2.0, 2 usb 3.0 and 1 hdmi.

A quick check on the official Oculus Rift forums shows other people using the exact same laptop as I’ve got myself so I’ll be pretty miffed if it doesn’t work

Scotia-UK

I'm very confident it will work as well.
The second camera/sensor is mostly to extend range a little and improve on stability.
The cv1 will work well with just one in a pinch.
I only had the one camera for a lost a year before I got the touch package.

The third is to add 360 degree tracking and even more stable room play but I have rarely felt the need for it and so haven't bought it yet.

Even with games that highly recommend the third sensor as well.

Nah this will work great, I would also highly recommend getting a powered USB 2 hub though for other peripherals, you really really want a HOTAS for elite in vr
And these can be had for <$30.

 

[Scotiauk]

Noob question time!

I already have ED with Horizons which I purchased direct from the Frontier Store. I know to play ED in VR I'll need to either use ED in SteamVR or direct on Oculus and I already know about the "partner keys" that I can get from the Frontier Store.

My question is, I assume I'll have to uninstall the copy of non-VR ED I already have installed and back-up my bindings before I install it again via Steam or Oculus? Also, what method do you guys recommend - get the Key for Steam and use that platform or get the key for Oculus and use that?

Thanks.

 

[Dooguk]

Noob question time!

I already have ED with Horizons which I purchased direct from the Frontier Store. I know to play ED in VR I'll need to either use ED in SteamVR or direct on Oculus and I already know about the "partner keys" that I can get from the Frontier Store.

My question is, I assume I'll have to uninstall the copy of non-VR ED I already have installed and back-up my bindings before I install it again via Steam or Oculus? Also, what method do you guys recommend - get the Key for Steam and use that platform or get the key for Oculus and use that?

Thanks.

You set ED to use VR in the games graphics menu. There is no separate game. Once setup in the ED menu and the Oculus key registered, the game will start in the Oculus from the ED launcher after a short delay. Hope this helps. OH! and it's awesome.

 

[Faded Glory]

Noob question time!

I already have ED with Horizons which I purchased direct from the Frontier Store. I know to play ED in VR I'll need to either use ED in SteamVR or direct on Oculus and I already know about the "partner keys" that I can get from the Frontier Store.

My question is, I assume I'll have to uninstall the copy of non-VR ED I already have installed and back-up my bindings before I install it again via Steam or Oculus? Also, what method do you guys recommend - get the Key for Steam and use that platform or get the key for Oculus and use that?

Thanks.

Yep. No need to get a different version of ED, you can run it in VR straight from the standard launcher.

Once you get your rift set up, in the Options > Graphics settings there's a 3D section, just make sure it sets to one of the HMD options (from memory it does that by default if it detects an HMD, but could be mistaken there) and you will be good to go. You'll likely be in the Graphics settings quite a bit getting things so they run smoothly.

If you want to use DASH (which is Oculus's desktop viewer for want of a better description - it let's you pin windows within your VR game, so for example web browsers can be viewable from within your ED cockpit), to get the most seamless experience you might want to run ED from Oculus home. It works from the standard launcher version, just not quite as integrated. You can have both versions installed, just get the free key from the Frontier store.

 

[Assimilator1]

Be wary of comparing laptop GPUs to desktop GPUs, I don't know what the current state of affairs is, but it was until very recently that 2 supposedly near identically labelled GPUs with an 'm' added to it had very different performance! The laptop 'm's version being significantly worse than the desktops.

On a different note, a friend of mine recently bought an OR & ED along with a racing game, I tried them both, & the sense of scale & immersion (really feeling like I was in the ED world!) was amazing! We just sat outside a space station for several minutes admiring it's size & detail . Anyway, on that 1st go (which I think lasted nearly an hr) I felt very dizzy at 1st (as expected), we started on the racing game & I had to drive really slowly, but gradually it reduced so by the time we played Elite, as long as I didn't spin around quickly I was ok. So thankfully no nausea . But the 2nd time I tried it some weeks later (the racing game again, my mate prefers that atm ), I was getting dizzy again & within a few minutes I felt sick & had to stop, worse than that I felt sick for about 2hrs afterwards! . Wth!?? Anyone else had that? Did you get over it later? I plan to try his OR again, but I wondered what other people experienced.
Btw, I travel on the channel ferry regularly & never get sick on that even when it's a fairly rough crossing!

 

[Eliza]

Be wary of comparing laptop GPUs to desktop GPUs, I don't know what the current state of affairs is, but it was until very recently that 2 supposedly near identically labelled GPUs with an 'm' added to it had very different performance! The laptop 'm's version being significantly worse than the desktops.

On a different note, a friend of mine recently bought an OR & ED along with a racing game, I tried them both, & the sense of scale & immersion (really feeling like I was in the ED world!) was amazing! We just sat outside a space station for several minutes admiring it's size & detail . Anyway, on that 1st go (which I think lasted nearly an hr) I felt very dizzy at 1st (as expected), we started on the racing game & I had to drive really slowly, but gradually it reduced so by the time we played Elite, as long as I didn't spin around quickly I was ok. So thankfully no nausea . But the 2nd time I tried it some weeks later (the racing game again, my mate prefers that atm ), I was getting dizzy again & within a few minutes I felt sick & had to stop, worse than that I felt sick for about 2hrs afterwards! . Wth!?? Anyone else had that? Did you get over it later? I plan to try his OR again, but I wondered what other people experienced.
Btw, I travel on the channel ferry regularly & never get sick on that even when it's a fairly rough crossing!

This is totally normal. As a new VR-User don't stay to long under the hmd. First I started with 10-15min. Then, during the weeks I expanded this period. Now, after 6 months, I don't experience nausea at all, although I'm stuck in the VR for hours AND in the srv.

Your comparison to channel ferrys is quite the proof for nausea in vr. In vr your brain "thinks" to be fooled by your eyes, because you "see" yourself moving, but there is no response from your inner-ear. That, in fact, causes the nausea. You simply have to "train" your brain to accept these (missing) signals.

BTW: the "Space Sickness", that has been experienced by real astronauts in zero-g, is based on the same cause.

 

[zarrazee]

Noob question time!

I already have ED with Horizons which I purchased direct from the Frontier Store. I know to play ED in VR I'll need to either use ED in SteamVR or direct on Oculus and I already know about the "partner keys" that I can get from the Frontier Store.

My question is, I assume I'll have to uninstall the copy of non-VR ED I already have installed and back-up my bindings before I install it again via Steam or Oculus? Also, what method do you guys recommend - get the Key for Steam and use that platform or get the key for Oculus and use that?

Thanks.

A few words to potentially save you weeks of trouble shooting. (Elite non-steam version)

When I initially used the partner keys and downloaded Elite via oculus store it worked fine for months. Then overnight I could go no longer run the game from oculus store (or even in desktop mode). After weeks of troubleshooting and doing 3 clean windows installs, I think it is AVG blocking the app somehow. I've put exceptions in AVG but it still doesn't launch from the store/occy client.

My solution is to launch Elite from it's desktop shortcut. It means I can't access desktop mode (I have to uninstall Oculus client for that), but at least I can get the game to run.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

A few words to potentially save you weeks of trouble shooting. (Elite non-steam version)

When I initially used the partner keys and downloaded Elite via oculus store it worked fine for months. Then overnight I could go no longer run the game from oculus store (or even in desktop mode). After weeks of troubleshooting and doing 3 clean windows installs, I think it is AVG blocking the app somehow. I've put exceptions in AVG but it still doesn't launch from the store/occy client.

My solution is to launch Elite from it's desktop shortcut. It means I can't access desktop mode (I have to uninstall Oculus client for that), but at least I can get the game to run.

Are people still using AVG ?
Sounds like that's your real problem.

Also, dash works fine with the usual launcher version of elite.
I just get pullet into the grey construct instead of an overlayed.
Again could be AVG preventing the oculus SDK from doing what it needs.

 

[zarrazee]

Again could be AVG preventing the oculus SDK from doing what it needs.

Yeah, I think it is. I've just signed up for another 2 years sub, when that expires I'll switch, mcafee probably.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Yeah, I think it is. I've just signed up for another 2 years sub, when that expires I'll switch, mcafee probably.

That's as bad if not worse.

For the past few years, AV software has been causing more headaches and harm to a computing experience than the viruses they fail to protect against.

 

[Alec Turner]

For what it's worth I use the standard FD desktop install of ED for both VR and non-VR elite (using the brilliant EDProfiler to switch graphic profiles). I have AVG anti-virus and have had no problems with it. I use Oculus Dash occasionally and it's worked OK - only issue is switch to grey construct when pinning windows but it's no biggie.

 

[Old Duck]

So what was the verdict? Did you get it to work, OP?