Wanting to get into VR but have questions

I have heard a lot about VR but couldn't make up my mind my main concern is that its too new of a technology still...but then a friend got a play station head set and ace combat 7 (running on PS4) and pretty much insisted that I stop by and check it out. I figured it would be like full range of motion track IR and some slight improvements in depth of field.

Not sure if anyone here has played acecombat 7 I haven't. Its an arcade game and doesn't pretend to not be. In this case it starts out in a hangar with like an f-18 and some people walking around. I started on the tv and it looked like anything else no big deal whatever.... but when switching to the VR HMD there was a pretty significant wow moment. I had no idea that it would produce such impressive scale and depth. One thing that I noticed immediately was the creation of true depth and not just a simulation. A menu screen was floating in front near the observer the jet was much further away and the hangar wall was much further than the jet. To clearly see each object you had to focus on that object just like in real life...actual depth. That was quite surprising. The image was okay it was not fantastic but neither was the image on the TV. In both cases reading the text on the gauges was tough but it was a bit better than I had expected considering the VR Headset and the PS4 combined cost less than half of what my video card alone cost which is also nearly as large as the entire PS4.

So now I want to give it a shot...people seem to really like it and with an extra 2,500 dollars of hardware over the PS4 (not counting the head set) I would expect the image to be significantly better to the point where one can read gauges, huds and text.

to start I have questions about windows mixed reality and steamvr

Im not really sure what they do other than provide a VR enviroment like a little game to test equipment with. But they seem required to play DSC in VR. Is that true and if so what do they do??? I figured this would just take software like track IR does that would have options to setup VR and then simply start DCS and its good to go....It seems like its more complicated than this.

It looks like the Samsung Odyssey + the HTC Vive and the Rift are the most popular. The Odyssey is suppose to be the best image can anyone confirm or deny that? Does the Odyssey need cameras like the Vive...I dont see them in pictures and cant find any reference to them...how does it track head movement?

Thanks for your help

I have been using an Oculus for a year now (cant speak for the odessey) and yesterday I fired up my track ir to play with higher graphics. Hated it. Went straight back to VR even though the graphics take a hit it just doesn’t compare with immersion. I run with a i7 6700 16gb DDR4 and a 1080.

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Yeah, the fight with graphics against immersion. Got it everytime I am making my missions on monitor. Cant wait for the next gen headset and hardware. also better implementation.

I’ve been on my rift for a couple of weeks now albeit with a brand spanking RTX2080ti and it’s friggin awesome!

I bought the Rift because of the hype around some of the newer headsets including the Pimax the Samsung Odyssey+ and the Vive Pro.

Long and the short of it: the jury is still out on which of these might be best. The interim solution after having tried a mates Rift is that it’s a $hi+ tin of fun in the meantime and yes the clarity on screen poses some clear limitations there’s sooooo much fun to be had in DCS while you wait for the experts to improve the hardware/software combination.

Odyssey doesn’t need a camera and by all accounts there are plenty of owners on here that believe it is a significant improvement on the Rift/Vive at least. The Rift seems to be a step ahead of the Vive because of the reprojection that I don’t understand other than to say it helps DCS significantly.

Pimax is one to watch but as I have been reading it’s most likely not going to be useful in its full capacity of 210 degrees horizontal FOV until DCS switches to Vulkan API which I believe is a method of coding specifically intended to speed up the type of rendering that VR HMDs need.

I’m sure there’s plenty of people that know much more than I do about this but I’ve been having a ball just with the rift and am really looking forward to a concensus emerging on which HMD will be best going forward in the near future.

My biggest problem is making sure I’m not found everyday to be sitting on my PC, I have a wife and kids and a job that I love, I’d like to keep them. If only there was 36hours in the day!

Been using my Rift for over 2 years now, several days a week and still loving it.

Look from a fly by the seat of your pants experience and doubly so for helicopters although the FA-18, Yak and CE2 and others are pretty damn well impressive even in Rift. :thumbup:

The first question is what hardware do you have?

Do you need special lenses? maybe from your experience with the other VR setup I don't know.

The odd small "sweet spot" of okay resolution is an expediency of CPU/GPU capabilities as well as the HMD and some behind the scenes adjusting. Personally I find the lack of overall image quality for peripheral vision a short coming. IMHO.

Rift works well, it ain't perfect well more res would be nice but it's not bad either, tracks very well, runs as a standalone for DCS and less demanding on hardware.

Agree,..

Other options also look interesting like Pimax.

Mr SharpeXB will be along soon to say its rubbish :)

Hey if in any doubt read my thread i left yesterday in the VR titled, If your thinking of getting into VR! In short nothing compares to VR if you can afford the investment and there is little point in waiting.

The Odyssey+ doesn't use external camera towers like the Rift. Cameras are built into the HMD along with position sensors. Whether the Odyssey image is better than the Rift is subjective. Sounds like you're sold on VR though. This forum is a great help for setting up VR which ever way you decide to go.

SteamVR is used to control the Vive (Pro), and Windows Mixed Reality goggles such as the Odyssey+ and others. The Rift uses it's own software, Oculus Home to control the headset.

Windows Mixed Reality uses headtracking by means of two camera's on the front of the goggles, to keep track of your position. Never used WMR myself but I can imagine that tracking is more accurate with external camera's such as the Vive and the Rift.

Thanks for your input guys!

That was my initial reaction too... That the immersion more than makes up for the loss of graphics BUTTT that was with ace combat where you dont need nothing there's no real gauges or anything other than a fake cockpit and a big arrow that say go that way and huge flashing box around the target. Its a total 180 from DCS where all that stuff does matter so it still needs to provide a decent image and from what I can tell it does...it should be better but it appears to tick the box for "still usable" and "not just eye candy"

Im pretty sure I want to go with the Samsung O+ because I like the idea of the cam looking out and not needing extra stuff to screw to my wall.

FragBum I built this PC with the intention of not closing doors on VR which im glad I did at this point. Its an I7 8086K at 5.1ghz with 32gb of G Skill Trident Z at 3200. Has ROG Strix 2080ti.

Hawkeye I did read that thanks.

Does the Samsung O+ come with software used to set up IPD and make config changes? I find plenty of reviews about how it compares to other systems and how VR in general is real immersive but Im getting beat up trying to find how VR implements with a game.

So do I need steam VR and WMR to get the O+ to work with DCS? There's a 9 page thread with these getting tossed around to make config changes that impact DCS but I dont know why that isnt done using the software that might come with the unit and if they are actually required....still not sure what WMR and SteamVR do outside of that small VR testing enviroment

Thanks again

-Gun

The Odyssey has a knob that adjusts IPD physically and shows the current IPD onscreen. Much better than software IPD adjustment...

Okay thats quite helpful.

The systems that use external cameras for position tracking use steamvr and systems that use internal cameras use WMR. with the exception of rift which has its own software.

So now I see steamVr in the steam software and it looks like an easy download click and done but If Im going to use O+ then I need WMR software and when looking for that I ended up at the dreaded MS store. Its free but it cant install it because it says my copy of windows needs to be updated to be at least Windows 10 version 17688.0 or higher but clicking the update link redirects to a dead page.

I like win10 a lot in fact I like most version of windows even including vista (once updated) but the very odd thing is MS software seems to be on average the least compatible with windows thats something ive noticed before and its almost funny. At the download link for this WRM software eveyone is pissed and no one had any luck.

Im guessing I ended up at an outdated source can someone point me to a version of this software that I should be downloading.

Did anyone have to update to a more recent version of windows? Is that not done automatically by windows updater???

VR is a complete game changer. Nothing else comes close to being fully immersive in the game. That being said, it does give up some graphical resolution but the tradeoff is 100% worth it. Right now the samsung odyessy+ is on sale at their site for $200 off making it $300 buy. Easily the best WMR headset out there and some prefer it’s resolution and screens to those in the more expensive Vive or Occulus. If you are contemplating VR, jump on the deal before it goes away!

As to hardware, it does require quite a bit of Computing HP to run at high graphical settings so consider a rig with a 1080ti and 4.5hz cpu to get the most visual enjoyment. Until DCS writes better code, the single core speed of the CPU is more critical than the number of cores. This isn’t as critical with other games as more developers are coding to better utilize multi-core CPUs. DCS hasn’t got with the program yet which is a shame.

In summary, try it once and you’ll probably never play in 2d again. There are also a ton of other non flight sim games that are amazing as well.

You can download Windows Mixed Reality from Steam. No need for the M$ store... I'm running Win10 1803 17134.590 - WMR works fine with it.

Until DCS writes better code, the single core speed of the CPU is more critical than the number of cores. This isn’t as critical with other games as more developers are coding to better utilize multi-core CPUs. DCS hasn’t got with the program yet which is a shame.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for this to happen. It likely never will...

Don’t hold your breath waiting for this to happen. It likely never will...

Told ya :)

Told ya :)

Somebody has to speak the truth. Am I wrong?

DCS is not going to rewrite all its code for multi core any time in the foreseeable future.

Thanks Bun I got StreamVr and Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR which appears to allow steamvr stuff to run on WMR but im assuming it also runs native WMR stuff as well. It looks like it installed okay but I cant launch it because it detects no head set

Rossterman the O+ has the highest res screens of the 3 common systems and its a year newer so mechanically it should be better if it was implemented properly that was my initially draw to the O+ in the first place.

Thanks for the help guys

The only bad thing I've heard about the O+ is comfort, but you can mod/fix that. Its my short list upgrade from my rift once I get a better rig.

Thanks Bun I got StreamVr and Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR which appears to allow steamvr stuff to run on WMR but im assuming it also runs native WMR stuff as well. It looks like it installed okay but I cant launch it because it detects no head set

 

 

Rossterman the O+ has the highest res screens of the 3 common systems and its a year newer so mechanically it should be better if it was implemented properly that was my initially draw to the O+ in the first place.

 

 

 

Thanks for the help guys

It’s night and day better than the HP WMR headset I sold to buy the odyessy+. Mechanical IPD, wider FOV, higher resolution, virtually zero screen door effect. Colors are bright and vibrant. The headphones are excellent too. The only negative is it leaks alot of light around the nose piece and I’d expect the vive or rift probably have better headstraps (imo, the HP and the odyessy + were OK and usable but the HP leaked less light).

Somebody has to speak the truth. Am I wrong?

The only truth I can see is that in your opinion VR is a big fail. Others acknowledge the drawbacks but still manage to ENJOY it. So there we have it , some like and some dont. Simples :smilewink:

Okay so I got the SO+

Attempted to do some setup but there wasn't much available in the walk though

Started DCS and tried to do some stuff and its pretty terrible. So now is where I get to figure out how to set up VR so I get the most out of it. With the play station 4 system you set IPD and go and it was fine but this is a far more complex system here so im not surprised that it sucked right off the bat.

Here are the issues and hopefully you guys can point me in a direction to solve them.

I have pretty dang good eyesight and dont use glasses or contact.

1) I sometimes get double vision on things up close when looking at far away objects like canopy rails on the p51 or the no handhold dillio on the k14 gun sight.

2) the center FOV for like 40 deg is the only real usable part it gets pretty blurry towards the edges or even past 40 deg. I didnt notice this much at all on the PS4 system yes a bit but it was like the last 10 deg. and most of the image was quite consistent in quality.

3) im not sure on the proper startup of dcs I just click the shortcut and it launches DCS in VR I guess though steam VR but I'm only getting 20FPS so im not sure if its running the game twice or if something is way off settings wise. That same mission I usually get 100 to 150fps

Lets start with that...

Thanks

Gun

1. Check the O+ double vision thread in the VR issues form.

2. IPD setup right? Headset positioned right? Most hmds have a sweet spot you need to find.

3. Check the steam SS setting, probably set too high. And start turningndown your gfx. You cant run the same settings as pancake guys.

I set my settings up very similar to what jabbers had shown in his VR Setup and the best I got was 44FPS

When I look at my monitor I see two instances of the game running one at about 44fps and one over 100fps...is that normal?