In the first place there was to be no VR at all for Odyssey.
VR support 'not at launch' for Odyssey
- Thread starter Lordxenu
- Start date
To me it seems logical that it's the same people that have to fix the engine that will have to add at least the basic VR headlook. Full VR probably would require other teams. Seeing that they have reduced graphics quality and removed/simplified shaders in an effort to improve performance, I'd understand if VR isn't on the top of the list..
Even if they did implement headlook for on foot, it's likely it'd tank performance on many people's computers, so I do understand that the priority lies elsewhere.
I'll repeat what Arthur said (and I hope that it hasn't been negated elsewhere by FDev):
"We understand that VR is a big part of Elite Dangerous and is a feature that holds a dedicated and passionate community. However, we do strongly believe that VR should only be enabled for on foot gameplay when we have an experience that truly matches the same quality bar that we set for cockpits."
P.S. I'm gonna have to go get a shower to get all this white stuff off my armour...
I'll repeat what Arthur said (and I hope that it hasn't been negated elsewhere by FDev):
"We understand that VR is a big part of Elite Dangerous and is a feature that holds a dedicated and passionate community. However, we do strongly believe that VR should only be enabled for on foot gameplay when we have an experience that truly matches the same quality bar that we set for cockpits."
P.S. I'm gonna have to go get a shower to get all this white stuff off my armour...
Yep, I agree.
With the improvements to headsets and GPU’s along with the upcoming RTX-4000 series, I believe Odyssey will run to that standard as it is now.
Lol. We'll see, as I most definitely need more horsepower for my Index.
Still the situation is a bit crazy as it seems that it's not a question of vastly improved graphics requiring a new GPU..
Still the situation is a bit crazy as it seems that it's not a question of vastly improved graphics requiring a new GPU..
My hopes for further development of on-foot VR took a knock when Odyssey for consoles was dropped - I’d thought that once that was done (and associated performance gained) then VR might be in with a shot.
I feel passionate about VR, it’s been the most transformative gaming experience I’ve ever had. The lone dev for Tiny Combat Arena said this (they’re a VR user but they were explaining why they weren’t implementing it for their game):
“VR is amazing. I highly recommend it, but it's really difficult to get across just how game-changing it can be unless you try it for yourself. Unfortunately this makes VR people look like a cult
”
To all forumites who like prodding those who wish for a greater Elite experience: you could always not
Then you wouldn’t have to complain about seeing all these three or four VR threads.
To any VR users calling FDev lazy or questioning their programming skills: please can you not
I think the future of VR in Elite would be better served with threads like the most “liked” Suggestion post (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/allow-the-vr-2d-screen-to-be-disabled.565992/), votes and confirmations for outstanding VR issues (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/odyssey-vr-specific-bug-reports-please-contribute.575557/), and any created content that can give a small glimpse of what Odyssey could be.
I feel passionate about VR, it’s been the most transformative gaming experience I’ve ever had. The lone dev for Tiny Combat Arena said this (they’re a VR user but they were explaining why they weren’t implementing it for their game):
“VR is amazing. I highly recommend it, but it's really difficult to get across just how game-changing it can be unless you try it for yourself. Unfortunately this makes VR people look like a cult
”To all forumites who like prodding those who wish for a greater Elite experience: you could always not
Then you wouldn’t have to complain about seeing all these three or four VR threads.To any VR users calling FDev lazy or questioning their programming skills: please can you not
I think the future of VR in Elite would be better served with threads like the most “liked” Suggestion post (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/allow-the-vr-2d-screen-to-be-disabled.565992/), votes and confirmations for outstanding VR issues (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/odyssey-vr-specific-bug-reports-please-contribute.575557/), and any created content that can give a small glimpse of what Odyssey could be.
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
indeed that is true, what we have now is better than that. I remember at the time when there was to be no VR in ED:O certain posters complaining about whining VR players. Rightly or wrongly sometimes the squeeky wheel does get the oil. in this game for me that has generally been a negative (price of ships, butchering the economy, changing exploration probes to unlimited, making black markets visible on the map before descovering, seeing progress bars on everything and giving up on the shield balance pass)
but there have been a couple of ones where I have benefited such as cancelling the instant fast travel ship transport plan and going back to the original design(ish), removing the roulette wheel of the engineering and the topic in question at least SOME VR support.
now... you could argue none of the community complaints made any difference at all and all of those things would have happened anyway. We cant prove it either way BUT to me it certainly looks like if enough players keep talkign about certain topics FD do have form for caving to them sometimes (not always..... some things they have stood fast on).
either way however the topic title is pretty self explanatory, anyone who does not want to see the thread is welcome to ignore and poking fun at people requesting a feature / expressing opinions about a feature or lack of should not be done imo (not aimed at a specific poster)..
Realistically no whining in the world is going to add full hand tracked VR support purely on a few here complaining..... that will take FD actually wanting to invest in VR if they think there is a market........ I think players hoping for that are setting themselves up for dissapointment.
but much like FD implementing VR as we have now, i think lower hanging fruit that can be done with limited dev time may be more likely if players dont let it drop, such is revisting the external cam hack which worked ok in VR at the time, other than the poor performance, (which is much better now), which was blocked when the camera was fixed.
all the ingredients are already there and it does not seem a huge ask on the surface at least for FD to look at that and re add the hack and perhaps tidying up a bit, but without breaking the rest of the cam controls.
Last edited:
We are all speculating with no real knowledge - maybe @Arthur Tolmie @Zac Cocken @Bruce G or @sallymorganmoore can jump in to tell us if the official position has changed or is likely to change in the near future? Has it even been discussed? Is it something that will be revisited in the current DLC?
You'd need Odyssey, in the most taxing of in-game environments, to be able to exceed 180 frames per second at 2k resolution, 1080p whatever you call it.
That way there's 90 frames per second at 2k resolution per eye - which, apparently, is the gold standard for VR today.
Certainly noone's getting that kind of performance at the moment.
Ultimately it's up to Frontier to understand that while their customers are laymen, or worse, when it comes to software engineering and intricate specializations like render programmer - their customers are able to compare games in the FPS genre with each other and contrast Odyssey with other games of similar graphical complexity yet better framerates and then make a judgement based on that. Which a lot of folks have.
Odyssey's still in the running of being an enticing broad-appeal shooter product, especially if they're going to do what I think they're going to do early 2023...
...but the biggest roadblock to success right now is that framerate. Get that sorted and a lot of doors will open, for everyone - including VR aficionados.
From looking at honest signals I think it's safe to say they know what needs to be done. Question is, will they be able to make it happen at or before that "key feature overhaul" early next year?
it doesnt need to be anywhere near that good.... Asynchronous space warp or equivalent takes a huge amount of the load... obviously ideally you would not need it but it allows elite to be fully playable at 45fps in VR, so long as it is a steady 45fps.
also the resolution, again, more is better of course, but you dont have to render at the native res of the headset and it isnt that much worse if you cut it back a bit (sometimes perfection is the enemy of the good i think is the (i probably butchered it) famous quote.
I'll put on my DIY CM hat and say: if FDs position changed, you'd know.
Highly likely but at least if we can an answer we would know
Can we get confirmation of the current state of play of consoles as well if VR is being questioned for Odyssey.
i would argue that putting in a smoothed out camera view which was in ED:O when it initially launched enabling players to play all the game in VR, is less of a task than making the game for console.
but hey what do I know? feel free to ask away - in the correct thread of course.
Well, somewhere in the EDO files there is bound to be a pair of regular plain matrices for each of the preset vanity camera root positions, and I imagine it should not be impossible for somebody who knows what they are doing, to "simply" modify the values in one of them, in order to change, say the first one in the cycle, to a position just in front of the helmet visor, instead of the current default -- with a few keystrokes offering one quickly selected vanity cam view option that is first-ish person.
Of course, this someone would have to be a Frontier developer with permission from upstairs -- unauthorised alterations tend to be frowned upon in online games... :7
Of course, this someone would have to be a Frontier developer with permission from upstairs -- unauthorised alterations tend to be frowned upon in online games... :7
Using the Vanity Camera in VR gives you pretty good VR when walking around and looks ok with decent fps for me, definitely usable.
It makes me wonder and scratch my head thinking about to possibly of just moving the position of the camera.
it doesn’t seem very difficult, looks like all the heavy lifting has been done but I am not a programmer.
Just walking around in first person VR even without full control of action’s would be a huge step forward.
You can go into freecam mode, and "drive" the camera over to where you want it, then exit freecam again, and continue with the camera remaining in that spot, but it will not stick there for the next time you use the external camera suite. :7
Aligning it can be a bit finicky and coarse; You'll do best if the camera you move already faces the way you intend it to point, to begin with; And the collision box around the avatar restricts you to having the camera no closer than ca. 50cm in front of their face.
None of this would be necessary if FD would just put VR in the on foot stuff. Like the should.
You act like all they have to do is flick a switch to add it, and they have no reasons for not adding it.
It's was never going to be that simple.
Performance, along with critical bug-fixing was always going to come before everything else.
Games companies always fix the things that affect the most players first, maybe picking tp a few odd things along the way..
You also need to understand that VR isn't their only concern.
I think we're just at the point now where looking at how the performance improves over these next couple of patches and see what progress has been made.
It was always going to take a lot of time to get ODY up to speed.
We just need to be realistic about the situation we find ourselves in and this works for all the wants and desires of the entire playerbase.