Any Valve Index Sim racing feedback yet?

[Flibbberflops]

Has anyone here got their Valve Index yet and can give some sim racing feedback?

 

[RCHeliguy]

I was just told that the PiTool just added motion cancellation....

 

[Full_Ninja]

I've owned a CV1, Odyssey + and now the Valve Index which came in a few days ago. I'm only three days in, but I'll summarize my feedback below.

Resolution: A great step up from anything else i've worn. On paper, the HP Reverb has it beat but this is a noticeable step up from the CV1 and a clarity improvement over the Odyssey which had a bit of a smeared effect due to how they tried to remove screen door effect. I'm all about crisp, clear picture and the Index delivers here. If you look, you can still see a bit of screen door but all the words on the dash are clear and I can read everything (well, except for ACC dashes but that's the UE4 engine). Colors are very good and seem more vibrant than the CV1 but not as overexposed as the OD+. FOV is improved over the rift, but it's not a massive jump. I noticed it mostly in the vertical space.

Sound: This is a game changer for me. Sound is a big part and although the CV1 had passable audio, it never was great and the microphone was terrible. The speakers on the Index sit just off your ear and have great range but also allow a little sound to come through at low levels so your wife/kids don't scare the hell out of you.

Comfort: Puts a little pressure on the upper bridge of my nose, but i'm still playing with the fit. I like the lens adjustability knob which lets you bring it closer/farther away from your eyes for maximum FOV. Sits well on the head and I can lean it against my race seat without any issues. It is warm, but so was the CV1 so it's hard for me to tell if its worse.

Concerns: I think there are two concerns that I have at the moment. 1) You need some good hardware to run this thing. I have an i7-7700k and 1080 and I need a better GPU at the moment. It definitely requires top end hardware unless you want to run at minimal settings. 2) The software in WMR for motion smoothing (ASW equivalent) is good but not as good as Oculus. If you put the light houses on my rig under big jolts/bumps it throws off the headset tracking and causing a temporary gray screne and the smoothing just isn't as good when you drop frames. Will it get better? Maybe...but it's not as good as Oculus.

EDIT: I'll add a couple more gripes. I have triple screens as well and switch back and forth depending upon the sim. It's a pain to switch now because this headset used a DP connection. Second, I wish there was an easier way to reduce audio volume. Oculus had a handy remote...no such easy option here.

Do not mount your lighthouses on anything that move. If you move your lighthouses while they are on you will damage them

 

[Full_Ninja]

Has anyone here got their Valve Index yet and can give some sim racing feedback?

Sorry for the late reply. I got the Index at launch. I tried Assetto Corsa and was very happy. Then I tried it at 120hz and I had judder. I have a 2700x CPU, 1080ti gpu and 3466 ram. I thought dang I guess I need a more powerful CPU. Then I remembered that in AC there is a frame limit option in the settings. Sure enough I had it set to 90hz. Changed that to 120hz and booted up a race. Smooth as silk. At first I could not see the difference but I could feel the difference. It's like having a higher resolution on your inputs and how fast the sim can convey those inputs effect visually. It's like there is no latency at all with your inputs. In the past I never felt there was any latency I was adjusting to but there was.

Now I have better control of the car. When I'm pushing the car at the edge and I go a little over the edge I'm easily able to get the car back under control. In the past not so much. The vertical fov is almost as high as I can see. The horizontal fov is improved but not as much as vertical. An example I can see both of my rearview mirrors while sitting in an ktm x-bow looking straight ahead. In my Vive I would have to turn my head to see the right mirror.

Eyebox is large and clear through out. Example while taking a left turn and someone trying to pass on the right. I was able to turn my head to the left to look into the Apex and then with my head turned to the left just use my eyes to look to the right to check on the car to my right.

On my Vive I would have had to turn my had to the right to check on the car then turn it back to the left to check I'm still good with my alignment with the Apex. That takes fractions of a second longer to do and makes for a slower turn.

All of my lap times are falling. Can't wait to race again

 

[Deleted member 197115]

120fps in AC VR, mighty impressive.
Care to share your settings. Thanks.

 

[Jeremy Ford]

I've just uploaded my Valve Index review for Sim Racers. Enjoy!

 

[DotComRich]

Anyone using an Index with the SFX-100 actuators or similar? I've got the pt-actuators and using thanos motion controller and as soon as I power on my servos the index base stations immediately disconnect. Their light remains green but they disappear from steam vr. I can't get them back until the servos are powered off.

Is this EMI or something else?

 

[RCHeliguy]

Anyone using an Index with the SFX-100 actuators or similar? I've got the pt-actuators and using thanos motion controller and as soon as I power on my servos the index base stations immediately disconnect. Their light remains green but they disappear from steam vr. I can't get them back until the servos are powered off.

Is this EMI or something else?

Are your base stations mounted in to the wall corners like they should be hopefully many feet away from your rig? They absolutely should not be mounted to your rig. That is asking for trouble.

 

[DotComRich]

Yes they up on the tops of the walls, about as far away from the rig as they can get. All 3 are plugged into different outlets as well.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I believe at least two people with SFX-100 systems and the Index have posted that they aren't having any issues. Since the base stations are passive and have no connection to the computer, there might be something coming across the the circuit even if they are on separate outlets.

Have you tried powering up your SFX-100 first and then powering up the base stations and then computer last? That seems like the most likely order to remove a transient startup issue.

FYI, there may be an electrical issue as well. My last house was wired with the romex shoved into the spring connections ( holes ) on the back of the outlets rather than screwed down. I had some weird stuff going on until I went around that circuit and screwed all the wires down.

 

[DotComRich]

I managed to at least get into a race with the motion and display working, but anytime my hand goes up near the hmd it loses tracking and the screen goes grey until I move my hand back away. With the actuators not turned on there is no issue.

I will try powering up in a different order and see.

 

[diablo2112]

This is all quite interesting. I went through a weekend of setup hell with the Vive base stations and a Pimax 5k +. Same tracking issues with my SFX-100 setup. I didn't think to power down the SFX-100 to see if that was an issue. I finally got things to work most of the time by mounting the lighthouses in the far corner of my room.

I also found if I put my hands anywhere near the HMD, that tracking would be broken. I ended up sending the Pimax back, as I could never get it to reliably track. Now, I wonder if this wasn't a compatibility issue with the SFX? Regardless, it's a non-starter if the system won't work with my SFX-100/OSW setup. The Oculus IR/visual based tracking has worked flawlessly. Does the Valve/Vive base station communicate wirelessly with the HMDs? Bluetooth, maybe? I don't think they're entirely optical/IR based.

Edit: from the Vive webpage: "Powers the presence and immersion of room-scale virtual reality by helping the Vive headset and controllers track their exact locations. Features wireless syncing." So yes, there's more than optical communication occuring with these.

 

[RCHeliguy]

The base stations sync with each other, but otherwise are passive radiators.

 

[DotComRich]

Ok after a bit of research I stumbled across a comment from the guy that invented the vive basestations on a similar EMI/RF issue.

"
In the case of severe MW/HF RF interference to the headset alone (the controllers will track fine but the headset will not - often only during specific times of the day), then adding a choke to the tether near the control box end almost always fixes the problem.

In all cases where there was a confirmed conducted RFI problem this completely cured it: I recommend using four FT240-31 ferrite cores, stacked on top of each other to make a big tube of type-31 ferrite, then winding as many turns of the tether through it as will fit, generally 9 turns. Type-31 ferrite is a MnZn ferrite unlike the cheaper and more commonly available type-43 NiZn ferrites. It is far more effective at lower frequencies which are generally responsible for the interference. Those little type-43 clip on ferrites will not be very effective at all.

Now winding up the tether through ferrite toroids reduces its length, so I generally also recommend people daisy-chain an additional tether and control box inline to extend the tether and make up for the length loss. The choke can go at the PC-end of things so you don't have a kilogram of ferrite hanging off your head. The massive choke is probably overkill in mild cases, but it has been extremely effective in the few cases of true RFI I have seen. The only difficulty with this fix is the cost of toroids is about $10-15 each and a single core is probably not enough, so you want to be sure you really have an RFI problem before you invest in a choke.

"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toroid-Core-FT240-31-Ferrite-/112027538874

These are what he's talking about

So if I am understanding correctly, grabbing four of these and stacking them together, then running just the thin power cable through these as many times as possible should fix this.... Right? lol....

 

[diablo2112]

That makes lots of sense. My controllers were seen/tracked without issue. The headset had massive tracking problems. And now that I think of it, the problems seemed to occur more in the evening. I came back the next day, and the headsets finally started partial tracking in a configuration that had not worked the night before. Interesting. The ferrite choke is certainly worth a try for those of us that had issues.

 

[DotComRich]

Well I went and bought a couple from Digi-Key, will report back once they arrive.

 

[HoiHman]

If

I believe at least two people with SFX-100 systems and the Index have posted that they aren't having any issues. Since the base stations are passive and have no connection to the computer, there might be something coming across the the circuit even if they are on separate outlets.

Have you tried powering up your SFX-100 first and then powering up the base stations and then computer last? That seems like the most likely order to remove a transient startup issue.

FYI, there may be an electrical issue as well. My last house was wired with the romex shoved into the spring connections ( holes ) on the back of the outlets rather than screwed down. I had some weird stuff going on until I went around that circuit and screwed all the wires down.

If i power up my SFX100 servos and i standing beside the rig, not even touching it, i get a grey screen when touching the Index on the side. The middle is OK.

Connecting the mass from USB cable of the frunk to the chassis of the rig should fix this, but i haven't got around to trying it out yet.

 

[GFJunky]

I posted this in the SFX-100 but here is my temporary fix to get my Vive tracking working:

Coiling up the excess cable and wrapping it and the linkbox in grounded foil fixed all my tracking issues where the Vive would only work with either Simucube or SFX running, but not both. Next step is to try some proper ferrite coils around the cable near the linkbox.

 

[RCHeliguy]

The aliens won't exert any mind control over you!

 

[DotComRich]

Sad to report that 4 and even 7 of these ferrite cores had no effect on my issue. I coiled up as much of the power cable into the tube of ferrite like 90% of it and it did nothing. I will continue to pursue a solution.

 

[RCHeliguy]

A new one for me today. I had slid off the road in Dirt Rally, the engine was stalled and I heard the crowd cheering in Wales. And then... A thunder clap. I had never noticed that before. Reminds me of something I've only seen once in Dirt Rally. A squirrel running across the road out in front of me.

The new updates have made ReVive more stable and the hand controller configuration is now very reliable and configuration changes are immediate and can be made while the game is running

I'm sure it completely placebo effect, but I feel like I'm driving better because everything looks so much better.