VR Unit Purchase Help?

I know absolutely nothing about VR. In fact I've never even tried one on. I would like to purchase one for DCS, but I need some guidance on which model I should buy.

I am currently using TrackIR v5 and a VKB Gladiator joystick.

My rig has, Intel i7-7700 3.6GHz, 16GB DDR4 2400MHz, NVidia GTX 1080 w/8GB GDDR5X, 850W PSU, 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD, HP 27es 60Hz 1920x1080. (Do you need to know any other specs?)

Are the VR units plug-n-play? Does my rig have all of the correct components for VR?

Cost really isn't an issue, I'm just looking for the "correct" VR unit for the rig that I have.

Thanks,

It’s a complete gamechanger in VR. Fully immersive like you are flying in the cockpit! There are a bunch of decent VR headsets out there. My personal favorite is the samsung odyessy+ which just came out and was on sale for $299US. Everything is plug and play.you will need to get the MS WMR app but it usually prompts to add when you set up the headset IIRC. My first headset was the HP V1000 which was on sale when WMR first arrived so picked it up ($240 vs. $500 or more made it a no brainer). It works fine but SDE (screen door effect) and FOV leave something to be desired compared to the new samsung unit. Either way you choose, you will be blown away at the difference complared to playing on a monitor! Your system is plenty beefy to run it.

odyessy+

https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/hmd/windows-mixed-reality/hmd-odyssey-windows-mixed-reality-headset-xe800zba-hc1us/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/enthusiast-guide/#pivot=enthusiast

Here's another dumb question,

With the VR goggles ON I will not have any reference to my keyboard correct? All game functions will need to be assigned to the joystick correct?

Thx

Oculus Rift is still a great piece of kit, and works very well in DCS. Can even use the Touch Controllers to manipulate switches if so desire.

I have been running my Rift since Jan 2017 and use it practically daily.

Also there are some very cool Touch supported games out there that are quite fun for a distraction.

I am excited for a true second generation device, hopefully a new Rift maybe - but expect it will probably be sometime late 2019 before we see a second gen device.

Your rig will handle it ok, would have been nice if that was a 7700K processor and you could get it clocked up to like 4.5 GHz.

VR loves CPU horsepower.

Also the Rift has a nose gap you can peer out of to see part of the keyboard, not very easy to reach out and hit keys though - best to have everything on the HOTAS and something like Voice Attack with Vaicom Pro.

Just got an Odyssey. Its definitely better than the Rift. Go with it.

As for your keyboard.. Eliminate it, go with DWVAC for voice commands or similar.

Just got an Odyssey. Its definitely better than the Rift. Go with it.

 

As for your keyboard.. Eliminate it, go with DWVAC for voice commands or similar.

Please do tell us how and why the odyessy is better than the rift?

Well, firstly take a look at my computer specs in my signature.

I'm running 1.8 PD with almost max setting. I did the same with the Rift.

You don't have screen door. I mean, its clear man. You can read instruments better, you can see further and clearer. No its not a revolution but a very good evolution.

The thing I don't like is that with the Rift it seemed you had better peripheral clarity where with the Odyssey you get a clear picture looking forward but its blurred to the sides. Takes a bit to get used to but once you do, its a great upgrade.

Please do tell us how and why the odyessy is better than the rift?

It's pretty much all over the internet. just do a search for "Odyssey+ vs. Rift"

It's pretty much all over the internet. just do a search for "Odyssey+ vs. Rift"

Lot of mixed reports that I see.

I personally do not recommend the Oddessy, esp the +. I tried the Odyssey org and the new screen door remover just blurs things slightly. On top of that the Odyssey has a pentile panel(This is what they used to do on cell phone screen back when OLEDs first came out) and you can tell. This means there are only 2 sub pixels per pixel but still costs the same in performance as a full RGB display. So 80% more performance cost at only 20% increase in subpixels. 2.3 million pixels per eye vs 1.3 million, but only 4.6million sub pixels vs 3.8million. This is why the Odyssey only looks a little better then the Rift (in clarity but does worse in other areas).

Even considering the above a 2080TI gfx card does not have the power (it is close) to run a Odyssey at 90FPS on setting i would consider acceptable (your mileage may vary). I kept watching youtube videos and getting a flash back to what the screen should look like(nice high res textures ect) and at that point sent my VR set back. I will say this, the immersion was amazing... and i was really sad to return it...but imo the tech is not there yet. At the very least make sure you can return whatever you buy if it does not meet your expectations.

This is just my opinion based on my experience, i do recommend you give it a shot and see if you are able to sacrifice gfx fidelity for the immersion it is something to experience.

Lot of mixed reports that I see.

Not to mention thread after thread on this forum with people saying "Oh, that part doesn't work. You don't need that anyway."

If you want rock-solid reliability and don't want to reward manufacturers by "tweaking" their incomplete products, you can't go wrong with a Rift.

I had to send back two rifts due to the device stop working. Now the third one stopped. Picked up the Odyssey + on sale at $299 and glad I did. I Trashed the rift.

Not to mention thread after thread on this forum with people saying "Oh, that part doesn't work. You don't need that anyway."

 

 

 

If you want rock-solid reliability and don't want to reward manufacturers by "tweaking" their incomplete products, you can't go wrong with a Rift.

What’s incomplete on the Odyssey+?

Coming from my previous Rift that I owned and loved for 15 months, I can’t name a single thing I miss. Well, maybe the headband...it was a bit more comfortable, but still not optimal.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not to mention thread after thread on this forum with people saying "Oh, that part doesn't work. You don't need that anyway."

 

If you want rock-solid reliability and don't want to reward manufacturers by "tweaking" their incomplete products, you can't go wrong with a Rift.

Do you own or have you tried an Odyssey plus? Do you have a Rift?

While I have my issues(stated above) with the Odyessy, compatibility was not one of them. DCS worked flawlessly.

Here's another dumb question,

 

With the VR goggles ON I will not have any reference to my keyboard correct? All game functions will need to be assigned to the joystick correct?

 

Thx

For Rift, you can use the controllers to point and click things on the cockpit. not sure if it's any better than just using the mouse. But honestly, I just look between the bridge of my nose to physically click on MFDs, switches, etc.

What’s incomplete on the Odyssey+?

Coming from my previous Rift that I owned and loved for 15 months, I can’t name a single thing I miss. Well, maybe the headband...it was a bit more comfortable, but still not optimal.

I was on the fence about what to do for my next VR upgrade. The choice was between getting the Touch controllers for my Rift, or spending the 400 bucks to get an Odyssey which came with hand controllers. My reasoning led me to purchase the Odyssey, since I would be getting higher resolution, along with hand controllers. I felt I would be killing two birds with one stone. The basic functions of the Odyssey came on-line pretty much right away, but I never did get the hand controllers to pair for more than a few seconds. That really bothered me, since hand controllers were the whole reason for even considering an upgrade one way or the other. I bypassed that problem and got Steam VR and the WMR plugin installed for it, only to be stopped by the fact that those hand controllers wouldn’t stay paired. After several frustrating hours of trying to get things working, I decided that I wasn’t going to reward the manufacturer by letting them keep my money and accepting that some things just weren’t going to work. From what I have read on this forum and others, the hand controller pairing is a known issue. I also really didn’t like the fact that the headset didn’t completely shut out the outside world. That was an immersion killer for me.

I returned the Odyssey to Best Buy and had them fill out the details of what was wrong with it. Its my hope that doing so will give Samsung some feedback about what they need to improve in order to sell their product. I then used a portion of that money to buy the Oculus Touch. The touch controllers were leaps and bounds ahead of the ones for the Odyssey in quality and feel alone. The main thing though is that they actually worked, right out of the box, anywhere in my room. The extra sensor that came with it also had the effect of augmenting the tracking area for my Rift to pretty much my whole living room.

Everything on the Rift worked as advertised as long as I satisfied all of the requirements of what video port I plugged it into, and had enough power on my USB 3.0 bus to handle its current draw. It was only when I wanted to add extender cables for video that I started having to tweak things. That’s understandable, because I was wanting it to do things that it wasn’t intended to do.

I’ve had mine since June/July of 2016, and its actually better than it was when I got it, since it has all the new capabilities that I’ve added on. For me, the Odyssey having problems as basic as hand controller pairing was a huge disappointment.

Different people are looking for different things, so this is just my experience with the Odyssey. :D

Do you own or have you tried an Odyssey plus? Do you have a Rift?

I have a Rift. Purchased an Odyssey, and returned it for the reasons in my post above. I tend not to weigh in on product comparisons unless I have had personal experience with both.

So no experience with the plus. K.

So no experience with the plus. K.

I believe the threads I referenced were referring to the plus, and those people were having the same issues that I had with the Odyssey. Speaking of experience, I don't think it was me talking about how awesome the Odyssey Plus was, when I didn't even have one yet. :music_whistling:

I believe the threads I referenced were referring to the plus, and those people were having the same issues that I had with the Odyssey. Speaking of experience, I don't think it was me talking about how awesome the Odyssey Plus was, when I didn't even have one yet. :music_whistling:

I had first hand accounts to back me up prior to owning one. Turns out, those accounts were correct. :music_whistling:

Cost really isn't an issue, I'm just looking for the "correct" VR unit for the rig that I have.

If cost isn't an issue, then I would recommend the Vive Pro. I bought one recently to replace my Rift, and am very pleased with the improvements I am seeing.

Took me a while to get everything setup as it is quite different to the Rift, but having done it, I would say the extra 80% pixel count makes the Vive Pro a much better visual experience, and it is a more substantial, comfortable-on-the-head piece of kit.

The price is an issue, but you said it wasn't for you, so I would have a look at the Vive Pro.

Alternatively, you could wait a few months and see what users are saying about the Pimax 5K+. Big increase in FOV compared to current HMDs.

Here's another dumb question,

 

With the VR goggles ON I will not have any reference to my keyboard correct? All game functions will need to be assigned to the joystick correct?

 

Thx

Yeah it really helps to have a HOTAS. I have a T16000 and it's barely adequate, it needs a fricken gear lever and flaps switch.

You can map combo strokes but that didn't work for me, the combo key works like numlock, it stays on till you hit it again and it's too easy to get twisted up imo.

A clickable cockpit, Touch controllers and a decent GPU helps a lot. For autopilot, messing around with the DDI's and the radio, external lights, HUD brightness, a lot of that stuff it's easier and more intuitive to just press the button or flip the switch.

Even then you'll want at least a few keys, not everything is mapped. Views, kneepad. "U." "Esc." That kind of stuff. I keep a USB numpad next to the throttle and a logitech K400 keyboard/trackpad in my lap. Map em right and they aren't hard to use without looking.

If you only play DCS I cannot recommend getting a VR headset at the moment. ED is working on some kind of VR optimization, but so far we know nothing about this tech or how effective it will be.

There are some titles that works really well in VR, but they generally don't have any "legacy" code and are made with VR in mind. I might be a bit picky, but just look at Heatblurs F-14 VR stream. Dropping way below 20-30fps during some parts of the mission. Some might look past the stutter, but flying for 1hr+ with low framerates is very distracting. Not to mention you already sacrificed a lot of visuals to even get an acceptable framerate.

My recommendation is to wait and see what 2019 will bring in terms of DCS and VR.