newcomer to VR, some help please

Hi all, been using my Rift CV1 for sim racing for a while, and have just decided to go over to using it for DCS ( which I am coming back to after a break due to RL pressures of time)

There is a bewildering array of threads, often with hundreds of pages and I am finding it a bit confusing....Also jabbers guide for exaple is now very old and probably superseded by lots of the recently released updates etc.

Please could someone clarify the following for me to hopefully save me sometime getting it all up and running:

What is the best framework to run VR within? ( IE do I need steam VR etc or anything like that running? )

What is the best way to adjust PD for the best performance / appearance ?

Any good base settings? General advice for using DCS with VR?

I have a EVGA GTX 1080, if I upgrade, do you think its better to get one bigger card ( 2080) or another 1080 to run together..?

Finally, the relatively poor graphics always put me off, and I see now there are some good new products out or due out....was looking at the HP device, what do you feel is the best buy currently?

Thanks!

Hi Mark and welcome :)

Below some answers in red

 

What is the best framework to run VR within? ( IE do I need steam VR etc or anything like that running? ) You can either use Steam VR, but you can also use the ED stand alone version which only requires the Oculus dash. (Steam purchases can be transfered to stand alone, so that won't hold you back)

 

What is the best way to adjust PD for the best performance / appearance ?

This is highly depending on your system specs. Looking at yours I'd say start at 1.2-ish and move up to the point where you still have acceptable frame rates. (just as a reference I've mine set to 1.5 (1080ti), quality vs performance didn't add up for me going higher)

 

Any good base settings? General advice for using DCS with VR?

Again, a case of just trying out and do concessions (in general most people have shadows to flat or off as it has a big impact on performance)

 

I have a EVGA GTX 1080, if I upgrade, do you think its better to get one bigger card ( 2080) or another 1080 to run together..?

I could be mistaking here so don't shoot me, but I think I saw some posts here from people saying that SLI wasn't as effective as they hoped.

 

Finally, the relatively poor graphics always put me off, and I see now there are some good new products out or due out....was looking at the HP device, what do you feel is the best buy currently?

I heard some pretty good things about the Reverb, but whichever you choose, be prepared to upgrade your GPU as your 1080 will most probably not suffice

 

Thanks!

SLI is not supported for DCS in VR.

Getting another 1080 would be a waste of money.

You probably would not see much improvement going from GTX 1080 to RTX 2080, maybe if you went 2080 Ti route like the EVGA 2080 Ti FTW3. Not sure it would be worth the expense though.

What MB, CPU, and Ram do you have? If older like say i7 4820k and DDR 3 ram, you might gain more by a system upgrade.

Reverb has some teething issues, might want to wait a bit on one to see if they are addressed with a hardware update.

Rift S is probably best bang for the buck, I went from Rift to Rift S and am very happy. It too has some teething problems, though perhaps not as

widespread as HP is having. My Rift S is working quite well. Performance about the same as I was getting with Rift CV1.

Thanks for the replies fellas, so its really as simple as running the occulus software, fire up DCS, choose run in VR?

What about adjusting settings in Nvidia control panel - are there some good base agreed settings ?

Also, do I adjust PD in game or using the debug tool?

Thanks for the replies fellas, so its really as simple as running the occulus software, fire up DCS, choose run in VR?

 

What about adjusting settings in Nvidia control panel - are there some good base agreed settings ?

Also, do I adjust PD in game or using the debug tool?

Yep it is that simple.

Nvidia control panel, all you need to do is set a profile for DCS.exe to " Prefer Maximum Performance". Use in game settings for the rest, most of those Nvidia settings will not apply to the VR screen.

Yes, adjust PD in game. I only use the Oculus software for this if a game does not have this setting.

Free download, give it a whirl. Vis range medium, trees 62, PD 1.2, civ traffic and smoke off, texture high, cockpit resolution 1024. Msaa off, aniso 16x. Prepare to be blown away. Only so much you can do with a rift, 1080 is plenty

Maybe it has to do with the recent VR performance enhancements, but two weeks ago I've set civil traffic to max and havn't seen any negative fps impact so far.. It does makes the world much much more alive (especially when in choppers)

Anyways... just fiddle around with all settings and see what works for you

I'd say the 1080 is enough, too - but just be careful on the subject of Rift S - if your IPD is not average you may end up with a poor FoV.

Free download, give it a whirl. Vis range medium, trees 62, PD 1.2, civ traffic and smoke off, texture high, cockpit resolution 1024. Msaa off, aniso 16x. Prepare to be blown away. Only so much you can do with a rift, 1080 is plenty

Thanks , but what is a free download?