Vote Elite Dangerous for Best VR Game in the 2019 Steam Awards

[777Driver]

Aside of the VR... Aerofly good ?

Yes and no. Have never really been a fan of desktop sims due to the lack of fidelity regarding flight dynamics. DCS is a great study sim, but flight dynamics are average at best.

For an amazing all round package you are probably best investing thousands on something like P3D or X-Plane.

Aerofly is marketed as a simple jump in fly around in beautiful scenery type sim. However (and this is what kept the sim on my hard drive) the main guy coding things like the A320 system logic, he's a genius, he's coding in things 99% of the player base would not even know is happening under the hood, a lot of study sim level programming going on. Spent a long time testing it against the FCOM on the real aircraft, was shocked, amazing piece of work there.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

Having played Lone Echo, Elite Dangerous doesn't have a leg to stand on if we're voting for VR awards.

Don't get me wrong, I like Elite in VR and I think FDev have (slowly) patched out many of the z-depth interface problems that were present in maps, interface, some menus etc.

At the end of the day though, Elite is NOT a VR game - it is a game that wasn't designed for VR and then VR support was tacked on as an extra.

 

[Oss133]

If Trump wins, can we blame the Russians or do we default to t.j?

 

[Meeklo Braca]

Having played Lone Echo, Elite Dangerous doesn't have a leg to stand on if we're voting for VR awards.

Don't get me wrong, I like Elite in VR and I think FDev have (slowly) patched out many of the z-depth interface problems that were present in maps, interface, some menus etc.

At the end of the day though, Elite is NOT a VR game - it is a game that wasn't designed for VR and then VR support was tacked on as an extra.

I get what you are saying, and that seems to be the common sentiment. However I feel that 2D games that offer a VR mode is the true future of VR, and anything else is committing to a small userbase that just isn't worth the cost of traditional game development.

So I am happy that Elite is both a beautiful 2D game, as well as a super-immersive VR game. And it is a VR game, as much as it is also a PS4 game or an Xbox game. Which is to say that VR is a separate mode, and just as legitimate.

Saying it isn't a VR game (even though it let's you play in virtual reality) just because it has a few interface issues or that it doesn't offer touch support is an incredible form of gate keeping.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

Aye, but you're still stuck in your chair, forced to use your mouse, gamepad or hotas. The better VR games really do escape these binds.

All VR in Elite lets you do is look around freely, which you can do in 2D mode with any number of different trackers. I mean, technically VR also gives you depth perception but it's wasted in elite because things are either in your cockpit, a couple of feet from you or they're (literally) miles away - so the magic of 3D vision that VR brings to the table is almost completely wasted on Elite.

It's not FDev's fault that there are better-suited games for VR and I don't want them to give up on VR support because Eiite VR is excellent. It's just really disingenuous to vote for Elite as the best VR game. It isn't, for several reasons, and EACH of those many reasons is justification all by itself.

One good thing is that VR headset specs are slowly improving, which will make the sensor display and status numbers on the HUD easier to read, as well as reducing the screen-door-effect and obvious loss of detail from running at (relatively) low resolutions. 1080x1200 seems okay on paper, but coming from a 65" 4K television to the Rift it's like stepping back into the 320x240 16-colour DOS gaming days. So many VR games are designed to hide the low resolution of the headsets. Sadly, Elite is not one of them and the game will probably be ruined if FDev ever try. IMO, we just wait and see what future hardware brings to the table....

 

[Quantis Trap]

I did before I saw this, but it's kind of pointless because Elite Dangerous it to much of a niche game.

 

[Muzz UK]

I'm biased but went Frontier for best developer... Planet Coaster, Dinos and Elite are all in my Steam library and have good play hours.

 

[B1rdy]

You can't even interact with the ship in vr! You have to use the mouse, keyboard, controller or hotas. The vr manipulators is a no go. That fact alone disqualifies ED.

I think this is an unrealistic standpoint. In order to have some decent control in any sim-like game, you need to have some physical device of control, at least at the current consumer tech level. I have never seen anyone in the sim racing community complaining a sim (still) needs a wheel to control the car.

 

[777Driver]

I think this is an unrealistic standpoint. In order to have some decent control in any sim-like game, you need to have some physical device of control, at least at on the current consumer tech level. I have never seen anyone in the sim racing community to complain a sim (still) is needs a wheel to control the car.

I think he's talking about flipping switches or interacting with the panels, a few sims now let you manipulate controls through touch controllers. Still, quite a silly complaint, look at racing sims in VR, pretty much all of them only allow interaction through the physical hardware, and those are all great VR experiences.

Voice attack negates the need to interact with the ships panels via hardware.

 

[Frank]

I've not bought Lone Echo yet. My wee computer cannae handle too many big games installed on it, and I'm not going to delete Elite.

I will be buying a new rig for gaming over Christmas, so until then Elite is still the greatest VR game I've ever played. I'll see if I have to review that sentiment after I've played Lone Echo.

 

[777Driver]

I've not bought Lone Echo yet. My wee computer cannae handle too many big games installed on it, and I'm not going to delete Elite.

I will be buying a new rig for gaming over Christmas, so until then Elite is still the greatest VR game I've ever played. I'll see if I have to review that sentiment after I've played Lone Echo.

Lone Echo in VR is like being inside an extremely well made hollywood sci fi movie, Elite dangerous is like living inside your favorite Sci fi series. For that reason alone ED will always be my top VR title by a long shot.

 

[B1rdy]

I think he's talking about flipping switches or interacting with the panels, a few sims now let you manipulate controls through touch controllers.

Imagine you either need to control the whole ship only by Vive/ Rift controllers or even partially by having to switch between HOTAS and VR controllers - completely awkward, either way.

 

[ChrisF0001]

ED in VR still has a few problems (primarily for me, selecting things in the system view requires me to keep my head really still...), but I'd in no way describe it as 'tacked on as an afterthought'.

For that, see for instance Subnautica. An otherwise great game, in VR it should be really good, right? Except that the PDA is perhaps half the size of a postcard and only a couple of inches from my nose, my hand holding the scanner device frequently appears to be coming straight out of my face, and the indicators normally at the bottom of the screen are almost entirely out of sight below my field of view and track with the headset so I can't look down to see them. That, my friends, is 'tacked on as an afterthought'...