While waiting for VR to mature

[Drumatiko]

Drumatiko is right - TrackIR is great if you don't want to jump into VR now. Its a great 1/2 way point, and up to a few months ago was the hands down best immersion-gain you could buy (before, say, the DK2). But when you do finally get a HMD, that TrackIR will just be desk clutter. Its only advantage is that you can use it with your higher resolution monitor.

Just think - Drumatiko has had TrackIR for 5+ years, more than enough to have made the purchase worthwhile. When you do get VR later, you'll suddenly wonder why you didn't get VR now.

VR is much more natural in that you automatically know where to look, and the sound all matches up perfectly. You can move about, stand up even. The positional tracking is absolutely spot on. On both Vive and Rift.
Sneaking a peak out of your cockpit side window by leaning out of your chair just to see a neighbouring ship land on its pad nearby, or checking exactly where under your SRV is that material rock you just blasted loose; these sorts of motions are just second nature in VR. You can look past your toes at the ground, keep an eye on the ship's shadow for landing, move slightly and block out that bright sun using a cockpit strut just as you would in a car.

Everyone's different in VR as far as getting tired is concerned, and being affected by VR motion sickness. And as I found, its not tied to you necessarily being vulnerable to motion sickness in real life. Some do, some don't, but what is clear is after getting used to it, you'll be able to VR for hours at a time and

Be warned - system requirements for VR will not drop; they will rise with each new generation of VR HMD. As resolution rises, plus eye tracking, facial tracking.. all this will cost cpu horsepower, and of course more graphics horesepower.

Developers will also exchange the gains to be had in software from foveated rendering, and nVidia's in-driver SMP for additinal detail. Some VR titles are already over sampling for additional detail.
Developers will want to close the detail gap between VR and monitor-centric titles.

I'm not trying to sell you a HMD here; this is just my honest to goodness experience with it. Yes, its lower resolution. You see through it. God rays, not an issue for me. I can even leave my glasses on the desk, no need for them in the Rift. YMMV of course, and 'you'd be a mug' as we say here in Oz not to be a tad skeptical.

But do it, its that good.

Well i followed your advice and got myself a htc vive. The experience in a SRV is stunning with it. While i still have to get used to the "limited" resolution, it is still a spectacle to behold. I also tried the training within the astroid field, it blew my mind how much the vive improved my situational awareness.

Ontopic:
2d < 2d with tracking <<< VR

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Eye tracking and fove like rendering wouldn't decrease system requirements at all.
In fact just the addition of it would probably increase cpu overhead by at least 20% and require a second usb3 port.

I have the tobii eye tracker and enabling it sets my cpu from 0-3% idle to a 20-25%.
More than either the vive or the rift does .

So I agree it definitely was the right decision to not implement eye tracking at this point.
Fove is keeping it as their main feature naturally but those guys are at least two years away from an actual released product (no I don't count dev kits here)

 

[dogbite]

Eye tracking and fove like rendering wouldn't decrease system requirements at all.
In fact just the addition of it would probably increase cpu overhead by at least 20% and require a second usb3 port.

I have the tobii eye tracker and enabling it sets my cpu from 0-3% idle to a 20-25%.
More than either the vive or the rift does .

So I agree it definitely was the right decision to not implement eye tracking at this point.
Fove is keeping it as their main feature naturally but those guys are at least two years away from an actual released product (no I don't count dev kits here)

There will be big performance improvement when foveated rendering and eye tracking are finally implemented. 2nd half of this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2SV7HgNU14

 

[JerryLove]

There will be big performance improvement when foveated rendering and eye tracking are finally implemented. 2nd half of this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2SV7HgNU14

We hope.

If we can sort out the issues without raising the hardware consumption.

If, for example, we have to move the refresh rate up to 180fps in order to prevent lag in response to eye-tracking; then that (plus the tracking overhead) may well offest any benefit of the reduced rendering level.

Or if it turns out that there's no great way to deal with an individual object or texture rendered at multiple LoDs, or if doing so introduces yet more processing overhead.

Then there's the overhead of eliminating the tunnel effect.

So yea. Maybe at some point eye tracking will actually lower requirements, though likely only for programs that support it. Given that ED hasn't implemented support of, for example, Pascal's improved VR features; I won't hold my breath

Still: Project cars will likely support it.

 

[Chaz]

I used Track IR before for a couple of years before getting the Rift. Track IR is pricey but it works straight out the box with no fuss. Install the software, plug it in and you're good to go. I never needed to calibrate it or adjust curves or any of that stuff. Whatever game supported it, it just worked with no tweaking.

Just as I can't imagine playing Elite without my Rift, before it was likewise with the Track IR. Not just Elite either, there's loads of sim type games that support it.

I know folks say that with the Tobii eyetracker thing that you don't have to take your eyes off the screen, well you don't with most head trackers either. With Track IR if you looked to the edge of your screen then you were probably almost looking right behind you in the game. It always sounds like an awkward thing to use but it actually feels surprisingly natural when you use it.

 

[Y2K]

The thing is... waiting for 2nd gen is usually a wise choice. With VR and the current hardware available AND the prices associated with the hardware to run VR at a reasonable resolution/frame rate, waiting for 2nd gen VR HMD's and the hardware you would need to run the 2nd gen HMD's you could be talking alot more £££'s than a decent setup right now. My i770k (4.4ghz) - gtx 1080 fe and 32gb ram cant push my rift @ 90fps with 2xss as it is. Its 2nd to none for experience and immersion. If your at all interested in VR and have the hardware/funds to do it now - do it, theres noway youll be disappointed and tbh it could be another 5-10yrs before better resolution and hardware to run it @ that resolution are available @ affordable prices. That was a gobfull, you may need to read it twice ^_^

 

[Chaz]

Yeah I can't see 2nd gen units getting much if anything in the way of a resolution upgrade, but perhaps better lenses with less distortion from the fresnel rings and better screens with reduced screen door effect. Plus other refinements to the basic comfort and usability. However I can't see a 2nd gen of the Vive or Rift arriving for another couple of years yet at least, although I suspect there might be minor modifications to the current units to improve reliability.

 

[JerryLove]

Yeah I can't see 2nd gen units getting much if anything in the way of a resolution upgrade, but perhaps better lenses with less distortion from the fresnel rings and better screens with reduced screen door effect. Plus other refinements to the basic comfort and usability. However I can't see a 2nd gen of the Vive or Rift arriving for another couple of years yet at least, although I suspect there might be minor modifications to the current units to improve reliability.

I won't rule out a res change; but I generally agree. More to the point: I think those are far better places to place effort.