Which VR H'sets Work with Elite - Advice Needed re purchase

[milinks]

Hi, This is my first posting to this site, I've followed Elite since its inception on BBC micro, through to the present. As a Christmas present, my wife has bestowed upon me the chance to have a VR headset from Santa. The only (main) reason I want one, is to play Elite Dangerous (PC) but I'm sure I'll have to sell the idea better to my wife. Anywhoo! I've looked at a few VR headsets, and I'm aware that the oculus SDK version is currently available, and that the rift is being launched in the 1st quarter of 2016. Is Elite only playable with Oculus, or is it compatible with others such as the HTC vive, Sony Morpheus or the Razer OSVR. As i say my wife is willing to put one in Santas sack, but I really want one that is compatible with Elite, should i wait for the rift in 2016, or is the oculus sdk version a worthy purchase. I'm a novice on this issue so I apologise if i'm talking rubbish, or asking something which is obvious to others. Many thanks for your help. Fantastic forum by the way!

 

[Red Dirt Nurse]

I'm aware that the oculus SDK version is currently available, and that the rift is being launched in the 1st quarter of 2016. Is Elite only playable with Oculus, or is it compatible with others such as the HTC vive, Sony Morpheus or the Razer OSVR. As i say my wife is willing to put one in Santas sack, but I really want one that is compatible with Elite, should i wait for the rift in 2016, or is the oculus sdk version a worthy purchase. I'm a novice on this issue so I apologise if i'm talking rubbish, or asking something which is obvious to others. Many thanks for your help. Fantastic forum by the way!

Welcome! Congrats on your first post - won't be your last, I'm sure.

I'm a novice in this regard also, and I'm sure a person with greater knowledge and authority will provide the requisite information. Or, check out this thread here.

I know that the HTC Vive has been used in E. Personally, at this stage, this is the product that I would prefer.

There's tentative dates out there in teh interwebs, in regard to consumer versions of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. I heard a rumour that the HTC product would be consumer ready before the end of this year.

My money is on the HTC. I wouldn't purchase an SDK product, but rather hold out for a full consumer item. That's just me.


Edit:
Article on the subject here and a video by Obsidian Ant below...

Spoiler

[video=youtube;OCYcMqt7cmA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCYcMqt7cmA[/video]

 

[callezetter]

Both Oculus CV1 and HTC Vive consumer headsets will come in Q1-2016, so there is no hurry really.

At the moment we have the oculus DK2 wich was release 18 months ago. Its not sold anymore, unless you pay a hefty premium on ebay at this point.
Its also not a consumer product, meaning you may have to fiddle around with drivers a little to get it to work.

The consumer versions that come in 2016 will blow the old trustworthy DK2 out of the water. In every aspect.

All three will work great with ED. But if you want a consumer experience, wait until Q1 2016.

 

[Red Dirt Nurse]

This article suggests a release date of December 8th.

We can only hope....

Article here

 

[grnbrg]

I seem to recall (but cannot cite) that Braben mentioned somewhere that he'd used a Vive. Vive is supposedly coming out in December. The Rift is slated for Q1, 2016. There are currently issues with the latest Rift SDK, and FD has said they are "waiting for the 1.0 SDK to be released", so there is a plan to support it. However, I suspect Oculus is putting their resources behind EVE: Valkyrie, so I can see them dragging their feet. There is little question that both will work (eventually) with E, and work well. If I had to guess, I'd say that the Rift will provide the better experience, because they have more experience in the market. But I doubt it will be a massive difference. Also, the buzz I have seen suggests that while Vive will launch in December, it might not ship in significant numbers, where the Rift will ship later but with far more available.

In all, I'd really suggest waiting for reviews of both to come out and see if there is a clear winner.

If you want a definite answer for what to put under the tree for Christmas, I'd suggest a top-shelf video card -- an R9 390 or a GTX 970 or more -- and save for the headset in February or March. (I got a similar gift for my birthday in August, and I'm still waiting. Leaning toward Oculus Rift, but the Vive does look shiny....)




grnbrg.

 

[Dozer.k.a.o.]

Too late for a consumer release this year i think, we are already on 12th november, both devices have repeatedly commented to be released on the 1st quarter of 2016, and if HTC said at some moment they were going to have it before the end of the year, then they talked about a Developer version, so clearly this things are still cooking in the oven.

Also the moment now is to wait, and choose which to buy when both are released, hardware needs etc, if somebody doesn't have a DK version already why to spend money on it now?

 

[callezetter]

There wont be any major consumer release of the Vive this year. They have said that that they plan to ship a very small number of units before the end of the year. Thats all.
For all real purposes both CV1 and Vive will be launched pretty much at the same time. So plan for Jan 1st - March 31st and both will most likely be plentiful from the start. I know
CV1s started to fill up warehouses in late september, for a major launch early in Q1.

 

[CMDR Rison]

As others have said, Frontier Devs fully support Oculus Rift (dk2 and cv1) and the HTC Vive.
They have always said they are open to supporting other headsets.
There has been talk about releasing Elite for the Playstation, but no mention of Playstation VR as of yet. Don't know if they're able to support it or not.
The only mention I've heard of the OSVR is Braben mentioning that he did not expect to support it.

 

[milinks]

Thanks so much for all your advice, as much as I "want One! Want One! Want One!" i think the best is to persuade my wife to hold off until the new year for a consumer version. The Vive has a lot of good reviews, but also the rift seems to have a lot of support etc. I looked on ebay for the DK2 and the prices vary massively, with some being sold for as much as a newly produced consumer model is estimated to cost. Thanks for all you advice.!

 

[grammatonfeather]

Thanks so much for all your advice, as much as I "want One! Want One! Want One!" i think the best is to persuade my wife to hold off until the new year for a consumer version. The Vive has a lot of good reviews, but also the rift seems to have a lot of support etc. I looked on ebay for the DK2 and the prices vary massively, with some being sold for as much as a newly produced consumer model is estimated to cost. Thanks for all you advice.!

Swings and woundabouts. Consumer VR wouldn't be a thing without Palmy. It's great that Vive can do whole body tracking for VR etc but I'm wondering about its range of content at this point? A search on steam reveals very few titles so I guess valve have been doing it all in secret and will have a secret stash of hundreds of launch titles? Oculus has the best infrastructure and potential at this time. I'm thinking beyond just elite and a slight increase in resolution for vive isn't significant over CV1.

Oculus DK2 is a wonderful experience and having watched the Connect 2 preview I reckon CV1 is going to be amazing.

 

[NoshDaMinsk]

I have the DK2 and it is ace.

Really transforms the game - and although there is a little issue with stutter in super cruise, it seems to have been fixed in the beta.

You can't buy a DK2 new now - so CV1 seemingly around the corner - but if I broke my DK2, I would have to buy another 2nd hand unit str8 away.

Can't play the game on monitors at all.

Nosh

 

[arhoos]

I have the DK2 and it is ace.

Really transforms the game - and although there is a little issue with stutter in super cruise, it seems to have been fixed in the beta.

You can't buy a DK2 new now - so CV1 seemingly around the corner - but if I broke my DK2, I would have to buy another 2nd hand unit str8 away.

Can't play the game on monitors at all.

Nosh

^ This.

 

[Dweezil_Moon]

^ This.

^ That
(just coming out from a 3 hour exploration/mining trip in VR

 

[Hommes]

Playing ED on a monitor doesn't even compare to using the Oculus. Without Rift support would have never played ED. Now the support for SDK 0.7 and 0.8 is not there and I can nolonger play ED on the Oculus and so I stopped playing ED all together. It is just super boring when you are not immersed. I switched to games like DCS which really support VR the best. I can see why Frontier is waiting from a business point of view. Yes I could rollback to 0.6 if the install would only work properly in Win10. Not sure what breaks ED when supporting Direct mode instead of the Extended display. VR is much much better with direct mode. Anyway I hope Frontier will start supporting the latest SDK from Oculus soon because without VR ED is just a bit plain.