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- Thread starter hawknerd
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You could give this a try with your Go, and maybe get a first hand impression:
www.windowscentral.com
How to play SteamVR games on Oculus Go with ALVR
Want to enjoy a SteamVR game inside your Oculus Go? Our guide to using ALVR can help.
www.windowscentral.com
Been playing ED in VR for a couple of years now. Have the Rift CV1. It's lovely, and the scale is wonderful.
Wouldn't play it on a monitor anymore...
(And would likely not play it if they drop VR support.)
Wouldn't play it on a monitor anymore...
(And would likely not play it if they drop VR support.)
![[VR] Orodruin](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/237/237188.jpg?1614840532){kind=avatar}
It is almost a different game. Your situational awareness becomes completely different as does your experience of the game. It gives you more of a feeling of actually being in the spaceship. Some small downsides is driving the SRV on a bumpy landscape in low gravity - I usually do not get inverse motion sickness from VR, but I do get it from that sometimes.
I am running ED in VR using a Valve Index HMD after previously being on an original HTC Vive. The difference is noticable in terms of screen door effect and clarity. The only downside to the Index is the backlighting of the LCD screens making the black levels worse, which is not ideal for a space game - but that is not bad enough to negate the positives of the Index.
I am running ED in VR using a Valve Index HMD after previously being on an original HTC Vive. The difference is noticable in terms of screen door effect and clarity. The only downside to the Index is the backlighting of the LCD screens making the black levels worse, which is not ideal for a space game - but that is not bad enough to negate the positives of the Index.
Doesnt seem to work. Having issues which I cant solve.You could give this a try with your Go, and maybe get a first hand impression:
How to play SteamVR games on Oculus Go with ALVR
Want to enjoy a SteamVR game inside your Oculus Go? Our guide to using ALVR can help.
Is that a USA device? Not showing available in UK? Where did you get yours?
Be aware that there are many downsides to playing in VR. I tried it for a while, then I went back to a monitor. I wear glasses with varifocal lenses, which really compounded the problems, though that was only part of the reason I gave up and wasted more than £1000.
1. I don't touch type, so couldn't send any messages nor type system names into the galaxy map.
2. I still had keys bound on the keyboard for some things, so I couldn't find them.
3. In some ships, the info you need on the left panel was behind me, which is too slow for combat
4. Discomfort from the device after about an hour. I normally play 4 hour sessions.
5. Can't watch or see anything else while playing
6. It's very difficult to navigate on the galaxy map
7. Resolution crap compared with a 4k monitor.
Basically, ED is not designed for VR. If you just want to fly around and marvel at the size of a Coriolis station, it's fantastic, but playing the game in VR won't suit everyone. There are workarounds for nearly all the problems, so you might be able to get an acceptable solution. For me, the main deal-breakers were the glasses and being cut off from the he world while playing followed by discomfort and the resolution.
1. I don't touch type, so couldn't send any messages nor type system names into the galaxy map.
2. I still had keys bound on the keyboard for some things, so I couldn't find them.
3. In some ships, the info you need on the left panel was behind me, which is too slow for combat
4. Discomfort from the device after about an hour. I normally play 4 hour sessions.
5. Can't watch or see anything else while playing
6. It's very difficult to navigate on the galaxy map
7. Resolution crap compared with a 4k monitor.
Basically, ED is not designed for VR. If you just want to fly around and marvel at the size of a Coriolis station, it's fantastic, but playing the game in VR won't suit everyone. There are workarounds for nearly all the problems, so you might be able to get an acceptable solution. For me, the main deal-breakers were the glasses and being cut off from the he world while playing followed by discomfort and the resolution.
Being produced by Valve, they are sold on Steam only. They were out of stock from November to March due to the Half-life: Alyx hype. When they came back in stock in mid-March I basically ordered it the moment it was possible to do so. Got it within 2 weeks, but I read that others were not so lucky ... (basically if you were a few minutes late the expected delivery went up to months) The Steam store currently shows a delivery time of 8 weeks.
I would say most of those are issues that are solvable, but it is true that VR is not for everyone. Some will like it and love it, others will not. Just my own experience regarding these points:
1. Is clearly going to be a problem if you touch type. However, if you do touch type it works fine, it just might take a little bit longer to find the correct hand positions on the keyboard. I usually copy-paste system names from EDDB or Inara when using the galaxy map.
2. Solving this requires either a lot of buttons on your HOTAS or using VoiceAttack. I personally use VoiceAttack for many commands that are not time-critical.
3. This is true. One thing that could possibly make it somewhat better is experimenting with where you keep your head during HMD position reset.
4. Very true. You absolutely need a comfortable HMD if you are going to wear it for hours on end. I had some issues with this when using the original Vive, the Index is much more comfortable during long sessions (this is also going to be different from person to person - before I found the right hardware adjustments on the Index, it was much less comfortable ...).
5. There are applications that allow you to project things into your VR environment. I project an additional screen into the VR environment (located up-ahead so that I see it when I look up relative to looking straight ahead). I turn the projection on/off using VoiceAttack. I usually have a browser window in this projection, which allows me to literally watch Netflix or Twitch in my space ship or look things up on Inara or EDDB.
6. This is true and a clear negative. It does take longer and I would prefer if there was a mouse pointer on the current plane that you could use to select systems.
7. Very HMD dependent. After playing in the Vive for half a year or so (around 500 hours in-game), I was really looking forward to getting the Index. This changed a lot. The resolution is much better and I have no problem reading any of the text. The screen door effect is not visible to me, where it was a major issue in the Vive. The only negative about the Index is the black levels as it has LCD panels. That being said, you are never going to have the same resolution in a headset as on a monitor. The pixels will always take up more solid angle in a HMD as it is literally a screen a couple of cm away from your face (as opposed to 50-60 cm away) that takes up a lot of your field of view.
I'm going to chime-in and agree generally with @d8veh that whilst for sure the "presence" you visually experience in VR with Elite is great, the downsides for me far outweighed any positives.
I know there are an awful lot of people who absolutely love playing in VR and that is great, I am not criticising them - it is completely personal.
For me the worst thing was having a box strapped to my face, the second worst was the horribly poor resolution, closely followed by having to move my head to focus on something instead of just glancing with my eyes (a function of the lenses only having a small central "sharp" image). The other downsides are well known.
Admittedly this was in a Rift nearly 3 years ago so no doubt a lot of stuff is much improved but it will take a lot to make me buy another outfit.
However, try it and if it suits you then you will be well pleased. (If it doesn't then there are lots of other games that suit VR better and can be played for shorter periods - else do what I did, sell the gear on.)
I know there are an awful lot of people who absolutely love playing in VR and that is great, I am not criticising them - it is completely personal.
For me the worst thing was having a box strapped to my face, the second worst was the horribly poor resolution, closely followed by having to move my head to focus on something instead of just glancing with my eyes (a function of the lenses only having a small central "sharp" image). The other downsides are well known.
Admittedly this was in a Rift nearly 3 years ago so no doubt a lot of stuff is much improved but it will take a lot to make me buy another outfit.
However, try it and if it suits you then you will be well pleased. (If it doesn't then there are lots of other games that suit VR better and can be played for shorter periods - else do what I did, sell the gear on.)
I completely agree, it is very very personal. It also depends a lot on the HMD. It should be noted that VR technology has come a long way in the last couple of years. As I mentioned, I find the Index much more wearable for long periods of time than the original Vive. The resolution in the latest generation of headsets is also much improved over the Vive and, most of all, getting rid of the screen door effect has been huge for me.
I am not trying to force VR on anyone, just share my own experience of it. When I first strapped on the Vive I was actually a bit disappointed in the screen door effect and limited resolution myself. It does not matter much in a fast paced game such as Beat Saber, but in games where there are at least calmer periods (such as Elite and Skyrim), it is noticeable and quite disturbing to me at least. What I do love is the experience of it all. I don't have any real issues with having to turn my head (I feel the Index also has a larger focus area than the Vive), and I do like the fact that "target ahead" uses the HMD orientation, which makes it pretty simple to use that to select particular targets.
Not adding anything new here, but Elite in VR is the only way I play anymore. The immersion is what I'm after and VR is the most dramatic improvement towards that. Of course this leads to finding more ways to be immersive, which gets expensive quickly.
I have a Rift too, and for me it's th only way to play. I bought a 4K monitor before I got the Rift, and that looks amazing, but for the full, in-cockpit experience you need to play in VR. Yes the graphic quality is lower, but you are there, in the cockpit with the displays hovering in front of you.
If you liked the low quality VR you'll love the higher quality.
I've recently got back into Elite after trying VR back when the CV1 came out and only getting into the intro before stuffing my computer up trying to get better graphics. Even that low quality blew me away and I didn't play any games till I read about the HP Reverb.
Bought a pretty decent computer to see if I'd like it - and yes - loved it. The graphics was great when I had my reading glasses on but pretty much unplayable otherwise.
Read about VR Optictician - guy from Germany who makes optics to suit different headsets and got some of them made.
Absolutely stunning full clarity compared to before but you do need to virtually swivel your head off to open sidepanels in the cockpit haha. Still well worth the strain.
You also don't have to worry about your IPD as the optics take that into account (mine was 69mm)
I bought a top of the line computer and have no regrets . Elite is the only game I've tried.
Playing Elite has pretty much taken up all my time for the last few months the VR is so good!
I've recently got back into Elite after trying VR back when the CV1 came out and only getting into the intro before stuffing my computer up trying to get better graphics. Even that low quality blew me away and I didn't play any games till I read about the HP Reverb.
Bought a pretty decent computer to see if I'd like it - and yes - loved it. The graphics was great when I had my reading glasses on but pretty much unplayable otherwise.
Read about VR Optictician - guy from Germany who makes optics to suit different headsets and got some of them made.
Absolutely stunning full clarity compared to before but you do need to virtually swivel your head off to open sidepanels in the cockpit haha. Still well worth the strain.
You also don't have to worry about your IPD as the optics take that into account (mine was 69mm)
I bought a top of the line computer and have no regrets . Elite is the only game I've tried.
Playing Elite has pretty much taken up all my time for the last few months the VR is so good!
@Orodruin:
Since you are a fellow Index User and seem to have serious Knowledge, may i ask you some Questions i have regarding my Index?
Firstly, i just love the VR feeling in ED. In fact, this was the main reason i got the HMD (asinde from Alyx)
But i have some issues regarding ED and i am trying to find solutions.
1. I still have minor stutters while moving my head. The Game in the HMD runs smooth, but as soon as i turn my head (mainly in Conflict Zones, Mining zones or
the Galaxy map) minor stutteirng occurs. I Already Set Supersampling to 100% in Game and Steam VR, this helped against the "major" stutters, but i still got
those minor ones. As said, everything else runs as it should, only head movement is kinda off. (Specs: I7 8700k, G180Ti, 16 Gig RAM)
Second: Since i do a lot of mining, you meintioned a overlay tool to watch stuff while mining - please tell me what i could use, at this time mining is the only thing
i do outside VR, just to entertain ma while watching limpets crashing into asteroids.
Regards
Maniac
Since you are a fellow Index User and seem to have serious Knowledge, may i ask you some Questions i have regarding my Index?
Firstly, i just love the VR feeling in ED. In fact, this was the main reason i got the HMD (asinde from Alyx)
But i have some issues regarding ED and i am trying to find solutions.
1. I still have minor stutters while moving my head. The Game in the HMD runs smooth, but as soon as i turn my head (mainly in Conflict Zones, Mining zones or
the Galaxy map) minor stutteirng occurs. I Already Set Supersampling to 100% in Game and Steam VR, this helped against the "major" stutters, but i still got
those minor ones. As said, everything else runs as it should, only head movement is kinda off. (Specs: I7 8700k, G180Ti, 16 Gig RAM)
Second: Since i do a lot of mining, you meintioned a overlay tool to watch stuff while mining - please tell me what i could use, at this time mining is the only thing
i do outside VR, just to entertain ma while watching limpets crashing into asteroids.
Regards
Maniac
I am not experiencing this, so I am not sure I can help you here. The only time I have stutters is on the game loading screen when the CPU/GPU is busy initializing the game. As usual in VR, this does not mean that they are not there, I may just be less sensitive to them.
I am running an i5-9600K with 16 GB of RAM and a GeForce RTX2060.
I am using OVRdrop. I think it is no longer maintained but I have not really bothered looking into another application for this purpose as my current setup works fine for me. However, there should be several other applications that do similar things available on Steam.