VR vs Monitor?

[Viscera]

I was reading a thread that eventually turned into the usual handbags and name calling definition argument. In the thread was a really interesting throw away comment about VR that seemed to be ignored.

Does playing in VR effectively make elite a very different game?

It would be great to hear from some who have done both.

A personnal example would stem to a talk I had about the imperial courier. I hate the cockpit on my monitor set up. Those hoops make me feel space sick. A VR player friend said it was one of his favourites and offered a great view.

John.

 

[bisador]

Yes, it is a different perspective on the game. its the same game obviously, but somehow completely different in VR. . .and yes the courier is MUCH better when in full 3d when your IN the cockpit rather than looking at a 2D picture of it.

 

[Wasp0]

I was reading a thread that eventually turned into the usual handbags and name calling definition argument. In the thread was a really interesting throw away comment about VR that seemed to be ignored.

Does playing in VR effectively make elite a very different game?

It would be great to hear from some who have done both.

A personnal example would stem to a talk I had about the imperial courier. I hate the cockpit on my monitor set up. Those hoops make me feel space sick. A VR player friend said it was one of his favourites and offered a great view.

John.

I have both and still play in Rift or Monitor.

Rift makes my combat so much easier as i can follow my target better. (Yes i use TrackIR on the monitor, but that has limitations compared to following a target with VR). VR is better on a planet surface as you can see the undulations.

When i need to use the map or 3rd party apps (Engineering, mat gathering) the VR headset has obvious downfalls over the monitor.

Over all when i am just playing, my first choice is always the VR, the feeling of being 'IN THE COCKPIT' has to be experienced to be understood and believed.

My pirate ship is my icourier and i have to say the cockpit in VR is beautiful, in fact all cockpits in VR are out of this world, literally!!

 

[[VR] Shadowman]

I've had a CV1 for some time now and I rarely (if ever) use my monitor for ED any more. For me, it makes everything more enjoyable, because it just works so well. My only (minor) gripe at the moment is SDE, but it's early days still.

 

[RidingTheFlow]

Tried VR and its certainly unique "been there" experience, but I like large 4K monitor (with head tracker) more.

Even newest gen VR is extremely blurry and lacking in details in comparison. Intricate ships become a blurry mess even at moderate distances. And lenses adding own artefacts (god rays, dark rings, chromatic aberration, etc) not helping either.

 

[Neo-ST]

Only VR will give you that "inside the ship" experience.
The same goes for car simulations, it's not comparable to a monitor.
Once you try it, you'll see why. All your senses, that are not activated with a monitor, get activated in VR. Orientation, awareness, depth perception, size perception, precision of steering.
Try flying through canyons on a monitor, then try it in VR. You won't go back, trust me
The expense is - loss of resolution/some details/difficult to see far away stuff.
Therefore, it's best to have both

 

[Aashenfox]

Have both, play 90% monitor, but man when you put that headset on, you'll chuckle every single time. If I were to go into a pvp duel I really cared about winning, I'd do it in vr. It IS a different game in vr, much more immersive and it also suddenly becomes much easier to judge speed, distances, directions of movement and dodge stuff, because true 3d and free look.

 

[A D]

Done both. VR all day long and tomorrow.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

When playing with a monitor, it is like watching a moving picture. With VR you are actually inside your ship. You feel like you can reach out and touch the controls. It is a very different experience to the monitor.

I still use my monitor from time to time, but most of the time I will play in VR as it is so much better. And the people who struggle to use the galaxy map in VR, sort your bindings out. When playing with a monitor I now use the galaxy map the same way as in VR, using my hotas instead of a mouse. I am just as quick.

 

[Sylveria]

I'm seriously anticipating getting a VR headset, but have chosen to wait for now until the next generation of headset technology is released.

I really want the immersive experience, but I'm also the patient sort- and already have a 4K monitor to play with in the meantime. I've been watching the VR technology since the Rift was originally announced, read and watched many (many) reviews, and decided that it's worth waiting for at this point. I'm quite sure it's enjoyable at present- but I'm also sure there's going to be better coming along (features, resolutions, etc.) and the price tag is a bit of a stretch for something that is limited in scope as most of my games aren't VR inclusive yet.

I also agree that the hoops on the iCourier are very intrusive, at least for me with a monitor- I love the ship but avoid it because of the thickness of the rings in the view blocking most of it. I even use headlook with a mouse and it's very noticeable, IMO.

 

[Teldja]

I was reading a thread that eventually turned into the usual handbags and name calling definition argument. In the thread was a really interesting throw away comment about VR that seemed to be ignored.

Does playing in VR effectively make elite a very different game?

It would be great to hear from some who have done both.

A personnal example would stem to a talk I had about the imperial courier. I hate the cockpit on my monitor set up. Those hoops make me feel space sick. A VR player friend said it was one of his favourites and offered a great view.

John.

Yesterday I went to the Paris Game Weeks event.
There I played Elite Dangerous with a VR headset, a hotas system and rudder from thrustmater.
I am already using hotas, rudder and TrackIR at home.
The VR headset blew my mind away.
I thought I knew the inside of a Sidewinder cockpit but I was wrong.
The sens of depth and size is much, much better and impressive.
It was much easier and natural to search, lock and track targets to me.

By the way, Frontier Development staff was there. It was very nice to get the possibility to talk to them and share with them (Martin and another one) how I feel about the game. They are very passionate about ED and enjoy playing it as much as anyone else.

 

[fitzsteve]

I still have my DK2, I used to play Elite Exclusively in VR but as amazing VR is to use it's also a chore to set up every time and if you're trading/exploring anything where you need to type it's a pain. For general play and combat it's absolutely fantastic due to the scale of the game in VR.

I play mostly on the Monitor now, the game is awesomely sharp in 4k even if you do not get the special perception, and it's nice to lounge on the sofa and play too.

 

[d8veh]

I have both Rift and 4k monitor. I prefer the monitor. The Rift is a nice experience, but lacks definition of targets and for me is too inconvenient. I can't type destinations when using it and it's very uncomfortable because I wear glasses.

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

I was reading a thread that eventually turned into the usual handbags and name calling definition argument. In the thread was a really interesting throw away comment about VR that seemed to be ignored.

Does playing in VR effectively make elite a very different game?

It would be great to hear from some who have done both.

A personnal example would stem to a talk I had about the imperial courier. I hate the cockpit on my monitor set up. Those hoops make me feel space sick. A VR player friend said it was one of his favourites and offered a great view.

John.

Lets put it this way... the day i got my Rift in June last year, was the last day, i played Elite on a monitor. Before that, i was playing on 55" setup and had used Track IR as well.
I bought the GeForce 1080ti as a founders edition this year. Before that, i was using a GTX970, which forced me to play Elite in a very low quality VR setting. Still it beat playing on a monitor by far.
So why is that?

1. Lack of wrong peripheral vision - all distorting things disappear. No desk, no window, no office chair... it hurls you from your room into the ship. You are there.
2. Free head motion and positional tracking - The ability to freely look around at a 1:1 head motion vs on-screen-reaction is priceless.
3. Spacial awareness - The ability to sense scale, guess distances and follow targets or POI in a complete natural way gives you a real advantage. And you finally notice, what massive vessels you pilot.
4. Immersion - In Elite you are flying a spaceship, not playing a game. Everything is in actual vicinity, not on a flat screen, pretending to be three-dimensional. It turns every gaming-session into an adventure.
Because of this, you will start flying ships because they feel better, not because of their numbers and this will pay off, as it actually offers a true advantage.

Do the cockpits make a difference in VR? Yes, totally.
Fly a Lakon ship for maximum freedom of view. The Asp for example offers free view to the sides and below, which makes landing much more fun and precise. It also allows you to follow friends (or foes) in SRVs easily, without pressing the 100 meter nose of an Anaconda into the ground - or on the SRV or POI (Man i hate those "explorers" who want to see everything, but choose ships with the badest possible cockpit arrangement for exploration...).
The Imperial Courier also has a very nice designed cockpit. The round canopy offers excellent view in combat situations. You will be surprised how different each ship feels in VR.

For me, playing Elite without VR has actually become unthinkable.

 

[B1rdy]

I have both and still play in Rift or Monitor.

Rift makes my combat so much easier as i can follow my target better. (Yes i use TrackIR on the monitor, but that has limitations compared to following a target with VR). VR is better on a planet surface as you can see the undulations.

When i need to use the map or 3rd party apps (Engineering, mat gathering) the VR headset has obvious downfalls over the monitor.

Over all when i am just playing, my first choice is always the VR, the feeling of being 'IN THE COCKPIT' has to be experienced to be understood and believed.

My pirate ship is my icourier and i have to say the cockpit in VR is beautiful, in fact all cockpits in VR are out of this world, literally!!

I second this, even though I mostly play on one monitor (I have three) in borderless window mode, which I usually never use, because I need to rely on said third party apps (at least for engineering).
VR on planet surfaces is basically great as well, but the way the SRV behaves with its rear-wheel-steering is quite a strain on the brain.

Hence I think you can´t call it vs., because VR just isn´t just another kind of monitor.

 

[StiTch]

For some games, VR is nice but ultimately impedes your combat ability

VR in ED is actually quite beneficial for a couple of reasons. Provided you keep track of things like pip management without having eyes on your HUD, it means you can fluidly keep eyes on the target whenever they're in canopy view and easily look around to identify other threats. 3D also grants the benefit of being able to discern the distance of other ships/objects far more easily.

EDIT: Canopy appreciation is very subjective. I like the iCourier's bridge, which is definitely better in VR, but that doesn't mean everyone loves it in VR either.

 

[Viscera]

Great responses on here.

It seems although the game is the same, it can have a massive impact on the actual experiance itself.

It may also explain a few of those weird les that I get in certain ships, that seem to go unremarked by many others. What to me seems a very strange position for a light or panel on my basic non head tracking monitor, is in reality the perfect spot when in VR.

It is interesting to come to appreciate there is a lot more design to be taken into account than when you first look at something and just go "meh".

It may be interesting to start a thread to find which ships are better for monitor viewing and which are better in VR.

 

[Robinson]

I've got a DK2. Never tried it with any current VR offering. My experience was that it's just too inconvenient for long periods, caused me some eye strain and also neck ache from the weight (again, over longer periods of time). There's also the nausea problem when you enter a station (docking computer + closing my eyes helped).

It's interesting as a new experience though. Dogfights are far cooler too.

 

[Conch]

triple monitor > VR

VR is such a hassle, mouse not working properly in the Galmap.

 

[Stealthie]

For some games, VR is nice but ultimately impedes your combat ability

That's the key issue, right there.

Fundamentally, it depends it you're more interested in doing well or having a better experience.

As I've said before, when I first started using a proper HOTAS I felt like I was hobbling myself compared to using a mouse & keyboard.
It was harder to aim properly, it was harder to make subtle corrections, there wasn't immediate access to as many functions and it just felt more clumsy.
For me, it was worth persevering with simply because a joystick feels like a "better" way to interact with an aircraft/spacecraft.

I think a similar thing applies to VR.
If you're honest, you're probably not going to be playing the game at the same level in VR as you do with a monitor but, once you've got used to it, you'll probably have a richer experience.

Personally, the main problem I have with VR is the inability to interact with all the secondary controls while using it.
What VR really needs is a "natural" way to let the user see things in the real-world when they want to.
Once that happens, VR will be much more attractive.