General VR Catch-All

JC wrote:
JC wrote:
Propagandalf wrote:

It looks like they've found a way to force a higher image quality for the Vive, if your graphics card can handle it. Editing a config file enables you to increase the supersampling from the default (1.4 is the speculation).

http://www.roadtovr.com/how-to-impro...

Initial feedback I've read on Reddit, people say it really improves the graphic quality in Elite Dangerous, especially for those people with new 1080 cards that can handle a big increase 2.0 or better.

Interesting. Will try this tonight. Elite dangerous already has a way to up the super sampling to 2 in video options though. Wonder how this is different

Makes a difference!!! In elite dangerous you'll need to turn the in game super sampling down so you're essentially doing it twice.

I've got a TitanX and I was able to set it at 2.4 and then back down the in game SS to it's lowest option. BIG difference, especially when I enabled SMAA.

Awesome! I installed this tool last night and it's an easy way to change Vive's SS on the fly.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/commen...

I haven't tried it with E:D yet, I've moved to the Rift for sit down experiences.

Hmm, I'll have to give that a shot. I've got a love/hate relationship with E:D in VR mode - It's awesome, but the graphics are kinda bad. The dev has been promising a fix for a long time, but nothing yet...

I have to agree about Battle Dome being an amazing game. Really does feel so much like speed ball (paintball more as sport than in woods). Being community holds up I can see myself putting many hours playing it.

Interesting. So that tool would allow me to have a separate chaperone for when I'm seated? That would be nice since my desk is one of the boundaries and I'm always seeing a blue line when I'm seated in between launching a game.

Filthy skimmer alert; apologies. I've never tried any of the various VR headsets, and I've only been somewhat peripherally (ha!) aware of some of the games -- basically only what's been discussed on the few podcasts I listen to. Is there yet a Myst-style environmental exploration puzzler type game for VR? How about a version of The Room? I feel like these ought to be fantastic genres for the platform, but I don't remember hearing anything like these.

Im a Myst hater so I had a filter installed in my brain quite some time ago that prevents any news of similar games from getting in. There is, however a trap full of Myst gunk I need to empty from time to time which suggests a few options.

Adr1ft is a game about floating around and doing nothing but getting kinda nauseous on a destroyed space station and hearing bits of story. That's Mysty.

A few others, The Gallery: Starseed something and The Solus Project strike me as up that alley, which is why I dont know more about them.

They're all on Steam.

Edit: Also, Esper2 on Oculus only has the puzzle solving and ancient temples and stuff

And "I Expect you to Die!" upcoming for PSVR is totally escape-the-room

JC wrote:

Interesting. So that tool would allow me to have a separate chaperone for when I'm seated? That would be nice since my desk is one of the boundaries and I'm always seeing a blue line when I'm seated in between launching a game.

If you're seeing the chaperone boundary lines while seated, bring up the SteamVR menu, go to settings and "Reset Seated Position". That should turn off the lines while you're seated.

I picked up Battle Dome but haven't fired it up yet. I'm guessing there's no way to join friends and form a Goodjers team?

Serengeti wrote:
JC wrote:

Interesting. So that tool would allow me to have a separate chaperone for when I'm seated? That would be nice since my desk is one of the boundaries and I'm always seeing a blue line when I'm seated in between launching a game.

If you're seeing the chaperone boundary lines while seated, bring up the SteamVR menu, go to settings and "Reset Seated Position". That should turn off the lines while you're seated.

Yeah, tried that originally and it didn't seem to take. Will give it another shot.

merphle wrote:

How about a version of The Room?

I can't find it (Fireproof Games website appears to be down) but I'm pretty sure they've announced a VR version of The Room.

merphle wrote:

Filthy skimmer alert; apologies. I've never tried any of the various VR headsets, and I've only been somewhat peripherally (ha!) aware of some of the games -- basically only what's been discussed on the few podcasts I listen to. Is there yet a Myst-style environmental exploration puzzler type game for VR? How about a version of The Room? I feel like these ought to be fantastic genres for the platform, but I don't remember hearing anything like these.

Well, the creators of Myst have a VR game coming out in August I believe. Oculus snatched them up but it will probably work with ReVive I'm guessing.

If you like horror, Chair in a Room is one of the best room scale adventure-ish games out for VR right now.

The Gallery is great but it is very, very short right now and it sounds like they are only beginning to jump into development on episode 2.

I don't think that Fireproof Games is putting The Room into VR (more's the shame).
From their website:

Our Virtual Reality Jetpack game “Omega Agent” is available for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift & Samsung Gear VR.

Edit: They did or will make something called: The Room: Archive

Yeah, that's the one.

Serengeti wrote:

Hmm, I'll have to give that a shot. I've got a love/hate relationship with E:D in VR mode - It's awesome, but the graphics are kinda bad. The dev has been promising a fix for a long time, but nothing yet...

Have you found a good solution for the Galaxy Map in E:D? I have a HOTAS setup and it's the one thing putting me off playing it ATM.

Propagandalf wrote:

A couple of others I'm considering are: HordeZ, BlazeRush, and Windlands.

I got Windlands refunded. It was a bit tech-demoey for my liking and is screaming out for those touch controllers. I think they'll be patching that in same as they have for Vive. I think many of the positive reviews are coming from Vive-owners. This game is a bit gimped for us Oculus gamers until the touch comes out...

bobiroka wrote:
Serengeti wrote:

Hmm, I'll have to give that a shot. I've got a love/hate relationship with E:D in VR mode - It's awesome, but the graphics are kinda bad. The dev has been promising a fix for a long time, but nothing yet...

Have you found a good solution for the Galaxy Map in E:D? I have a HOTAS setup and it's the one thing putting me off playing it ATM.

The whole galaxy map UI (and calling it a UI is being kind) needs to be reworked. Regardless of if its VR or not. At least that's my professional opinion after a total of 2 hrs of trying to play the game and understand everything. It's not intuitive at all.

I've managed to put dozens of hours into ED without really touching the galaxy map. If you select the mission you want to do all you have to do is click over twice or whatever and select plot course and you're done. If you need to stop somewhere else for gas or what have you, just use the nav panel.

I agree it's a pain to use the map in VR. I have something similar setup on my X55, as this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5jG...

I'd like to explore utilizing voice attack in using the map, though. Something like this maybe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zpw...

I'll be getting my Rift fairly soon. It's been delivered. Now I just need to finish up my vacation...

Meanwhile, a question about graphics cards. I'm running 2 980s in SLI right now. This doesn't quite cut it for Surround (5760 x 1080), so I've been eyeing the 1080 with interest. I'd be interested if anyone would weigh in on:

- Is SLI support for the rift sufficent to make the 2 980s good enough?

- Is 1 1080 better/same/worse than the 980s for surround and/or the rift

- What about 2 1080s?

Propagandalf wrote:

I agree it's a pain to use the map in VR. I have something similar setup on my X55, as this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5jG...

I'd like to explore utilizing voice attack in using the map, though. Something like this maybe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zpw...

Aah thanks for that - I was experimenting with something similar - I'll give that vid a look and see how I get on.

Have experimented with Voice Attack a bit in the past, but not beyond the free trial. Shouting 'Punch it Chewie!' to activate hyperspace wasn't getting old

Moggy wrote:

- Is SLI support for the rift sufficent to make the 2 980s good enough?

Everything I've heard - including what Sean was saying on this week's conference call - suggests that a single Uber card is better than 2 lesser ones.

I'm running the Oculus with min spec GTX 970 and having no bother whatsoever. I know the Vive scene is a little more 'Wild West' though....

bobiroka wrote:
Moggy wrote:

- Is SLI support for the rift sufficent to make the 2 980s good enough?

Everything I've heard - including what Sean was saying on this week's conference call - suggests that a single Uber card is better than 2 lesser ones.

I'm running the Oculus with min spec GTX 970 and having no bother whatsoever. I know the Vive scene is a little more 'Wild West' though....

That's what I've been reading too, that SLI isn't supported in VR games yet, but that there's a good chance they will in the future.

I think you'll be fine with a 980 for most games, but might struggle with graphic intensive games, where you really have to raise the settings, in order for them to look good in VR. I'm thinking of Project Cars and Elite Dangerous, specifically.

bobiroka wrote:

.Everything I've heard - including what Sean was saying on this week's conference call - suggests that a single Uber card is better than 2 lesser ones.

Yeah, I've been reading the same thing.

I'm running the Oculus with min spec GTX 970 and having no bother whatsoever. I know the Vive scene is a little more 'Wild West' though....

Good data point. Thanks!!

Propagandalf wrote:

.That's what I've been reading too, that SLI isn't supported in VR games yet, but that there's a good chance they will in the future.

This is where the jury is out. I have read that there maybe support for "one card for each eye" rendering, which is slightly different than true SLI. If true, then my 980s would definitely be fine.

I think you'll be fine with a 980 for most games, but might struggle with graphic intensive games, where you really have to raise the settings, in order for them to look good in VR. I'm thinking of Project Cars and Elite Dangerous, specifically.

Unfortunately, those are two games I specifically want to be playing in the Rift. Even though the Rift resolution is plenty low enough to be pushed by the 980, that fact that high levels of super-sampling, along with MSAA, make the graphics requirements pretty high.

My biggest frustration is that - on paper, anyway - a single 1080 doesn't look anymore compelling than two 980s. That makes throwing the money at it a questionable decision. If, on the other hand, having TWO 1080s DOES make a [big enough] difference, then the decision to spend the extra makes a little more sense.

bobiroka wrote:
Propagandalf wrote:

A couple of others I'm considering are: HordeZ, BlazeRush, and Windlands.

I got Windlands refunded. It was a bit tech-demoey for my liking and is screaming out for those touch controllers. I think they'll be patching that in same as they have for Vive. I think many of the positive reviews are coming from Vive-owners. This game is a bit gimped for us Oculus gamers until the touch comes out...

Windlands is weird. I have both headsets. With the Vive I find it to be one of the best games because of the movement feels so good. However I find it unplayable without the Vive controllers. So I really think Windlands is Vive only until Touch controllers come out.

Does running 2 980s in SLI have a negative impact on anything? You can run anything in the current generation on a single 980, so as long as 2 cards is not a detriment you'll be fine. Until the headsets have more pixels to drive, that will continue to be the case. Right now the only things that don't run well on my 970 are poorly optimized games, such as Pool Nation VR, and that one is fine if I bump the settings down.

GPU hardware is not the current limiting factor, it's the resolution and refresh rate. Yeah there's a high minimum, but pushing beyond that doesn't gain you much.

I'm very much looking forward to that day.
I had the opportunity to play a game with the Touch controllers, and they're fantastic. There's also no reason why the Rift cant do roomscale as well (the game I played was using two sensors, like the Vive), so I think we're going to see Rift moving into what are currently Vive only games.

Propagandalf wrote:

I think you'll be fine with a 980 for most games, but might struggle with graphic intensive games, where you really have to raise the settings, in order for them to look good in VR. I'm thinking of Project Cars and Elite Dangerous, specifically.

To clarify, it's the 970 that I'm running and I just let the Nvidia experience do it's thing with the settings (really cannot be arsed with tweaking things in VR) and it looks and runs amazingly.

Also, with the resolution/screen-door effect the feeling of presence means so much more than Low/Medium/High details settings. I tried the new Doom game in theatre mode with everything set to low and I honestly could not tell the difference (apart from the fact that on Low settings the frame rate was almost acceptable).

Taharka wrote:

I'm very much looking forward to that day.
I had the opportunity to play a game with the Touch controllers, and they're fantastic. There's also no reason why the Rift cant do roomscale as well (the game I played was using two sensors, like the Vive), so I think we're going to see Rift moving into what are currently Vive only games.

Really looking forward to that. I prefer the comfort of the Rift headset and its looking like Touch will be better overall than the Vive wands, which it should given the extended 'baking' time.

I've been toying with some VR development with the SteamVR toolkit in Unity. Im loving what I can do but the effort of getting in and out of the playable space and putting the headset on is really quite taxing. Im almost wishing I could use Cardboard and just hold the thing up to my eyes for a quick test, but I dont think you can combine Vive wand input with any other visual output yet.

Once developers start taking advantage of the 1080's ability to render multiple angles on one pass, you'll see some massive gains. That probably won't be for a while though.

Quite a few VR Games support SLI. I'm running two 980s and I certainly see a benefit in most cases. In engines that are not support it, it's just not used.

Unity 5 and Unreal 4 are both deferred rendering pipelines. Which generally means SLI cannot be used. However, both engines have a VR pipeline now that is forward rendering and can take advantage of SLI at the cost of some of the fancier shadowing and lighting. Which in many cases isn't missed in the relative low fidelity of current headsets.

AlexV over at Valve highlights the importance of multi GPU rendering in VR:

http://alex.vlachos.com/graphics/Ale...

I think soon you'll see some new VR friendly multi GPU rendering modes from both Nvidia and AMD.

The one exception is Elite + Vive. There is certainly as bug here, and having SLI enabled halves my frame rate due to some timing bug. Funny thing, is SLI works fine with Oculus in Elite.