Done with VR

[ShinyAndy]

I gave it my best shot, three months in, but I just can't get on with my Rift S! The immersion is incredible but it's too hot, the graphics are awful, it gives me eye strain and I'm fighting the vomit effect constantly. I also hate having to lift it up a bit so I can find my keyboard/mouse/drink/Haribo which then tends to smear the lenses even more. I'm constantly moving it around on my face to keep it in the sweet spot and just generally seem to spend more time fiddling than driving. Consequently I'm significantly slower driving with it, even though the depth perception is fantastic, but I've tried everything (FPS adjusting/massive industrial fans/short sessions/travel sickness tablets) but it's just not working for me in driving games. I've actually got to the stage of dreading it and avoid any potential races, whereas before I'd jump at the chance of a race or even just spend 4+ hours driving around LAC in something old and slow for fun.

Back in the day I had 3x32" triples but the large bezels drove me crazy and I don't really have the space for a large set. So, I'm thinking that I could go down a single superwide path with something like a Acer Predator X34P, or for even less money I could get two more AOC G2790s and go triple with my existing AOC (that have tiny bezels).

What's the current trend heading towards?

 

[Denis Betty]

I've tried pancake racing again - briefly - and yes, the IQ is beautiful at 4k. But for me everything el
And as for your VR performance, something smells off. I'm maybe lucky that I'm happy with 45ASW but I run a bog-standard 6600k/980Ti combo with my Rift, CSP and Sol with medium-high settings. I have a 20-grid GT3 preset at Spa using a LOT of one-LoD car mods and it's a consistent 45ASW experience, which I find perfectly acceptable with my mid-range kit. I'll never achieve a constant 90fps so don't even attempt it..

Really interesting conversation. I bought a used Rift around a year ago (maybe a little longer). Initially, I found it a great experience. The feeling of being in the car is pretty much unbeatable and turning my head to look to the apex seemed to help my driving. There is a lot that I like about VR.

Like others in this thread though, I experienced negatives too. They're listed above, so no sense in repeating them all, but the killer (for me) was the amount of faffing about. My PC would decide not to recognise the Rift after a few days, so I would need to trawl forums, remove/reinstall USB drivers, etc. Some advised buying a PCIe USB card, but advice on what would work seemed to vary, etc, etc.

I'm not great with computers, I muddle through, so every time Oculus decided to throw a spanner in the works, it cost me hours of (what would otherwise be) gaming time. I had to use Homeless for one game, Open VR .dll for another and constantly research and try out suggestions to increase frame rate, clarity, etc.

In the end, it felt like too much. When added to the blurriness (especially when looking down the track) and other negatives I was experiencing, I eventually gave up. I'd love to try out some (or just one) of the latest HMDs on a kicking PC, but sadly, I couldn't justify the outlay to own all the kit right now. Even if I did, I'm not sure that I could bring myself to spend the time required to get the best out of it.

I appreciate that I'm posting on a forum filled with tech minded people, who are perfectly capable of and happy to fiddle with all the nuances required to get the most out of VR, but I think this thread just shows us once again, that different strokes suit different folks.

On a side note, I'd love to try VR with CSP and Sol, but I'm once again put off by the constant fiddling that (I imagine) this requires . Are there still regular updates and do they take much time to get (and keep) working properly? I race online (mostly at RD), so is there any point?

Oops that's a long post, sorry for dribbling on.

 

[Mascot]

Really interesting conversation. I bought a used Rift around a year ago (maybe a little longer). Initially, I found it a great experience. The feeling of being in the car is pretty much unbeatable and turning my head to look to the apex seemed to help my driving. There is a lot that I like about VR.

Like others in this thread though, I experienced negatives too. They're listed above, so no sense in repeating them all, but the killer (for me) was the amount of faffing about. My PC would decide not to recognise the Rift after a few days, so I would need to trawl forums, remove/reinstall USB drivers, etc. Some advised buying a PCIe USB card, but advice on what would work seemed to vary, etc, etc.

I'm not great with computers, I muddle through, so every time Oculus decided to throw a spanner in the works, it cost me hours of (what would otherwise be) gaming time. I had to use Homeless for one game, Open VR .dll for another and constantly research and try out suggestions to increase frame rate, clarity, etc.

In the end, it felt like too much. When added to the blurriness (especially when looking down the track) and other negatives I was experiencing, I eventually gave up. I'd love to try out some (or just one) of the latest HMDs on a kicking PC, but sadly, I couldn't justify the outlay to own all the kit right now. Even if I did, I'm not sure that I could bring myself to spend the time required to get the best out of it.

I appreciate that I'm posting on a forum filled with tech minded people, who are perfectly capable of and happy to fiddle with all the nuances required to get the most out of VR, but I think this thread just shows us once again, that different strokes suit different folks.

On a side note, I'd love to try VR with CSP and Sol, but I'm once again put off by the constant fiddling that (I imagine) this requires . Are there still regular updates and do they take much time to get (and keep) working properly? I race online (mostly at RD), so is there any point?

Oops that's a long post, sorry for dribbling on.

I only really use Assetto Corsa now so that keeps things simple, but in the beginning flipping between different sims was a bit of a faff. Oculus updates used to always bork things too, but the last four or five have been seamless.
VR driving for me is no more complicated than 2d racing, apart from having to put the HMD on. Activating my motion rig, strapping myself in to the harness etc is far more annoying...

 

[AlexN]

Thanks guys,

Heading of to the simracing expo in an hour, but i will order a 9700K when i get back.
Any thought and recommendations about mobo and especially ram.

I read on the sector 3 forum that fast ram is very important for R3E since lots of internal recalculations need to be done because it's a DX9 title that running VR.

I hope a new CPU will solve my performance issues in VR, if not i'm definitely done

I wouldn't worry too much about fast RAM. Get something faster than stock and from a reputable brand, but there is an inflection point at which price begins to substantially jump relative to stock RAM, and that's where I draw the line. Real-world benchmarks typically show 0-3% difference for the fastest ($$$) RAM vs stock. Also, when you build your new PC, you will need to go into the BIOS and actually configure it to use the faster speed - it's too easy to buy fast RAM and just leave it running at the stock speed

A tip for actually hitting those faster speeds, which are NOT guaranteed, is to opt for fewer memory sticks - if you can get 32GB in two sticks, that's better than four, which is better than eight - it only takes one of them not hitting timing to drag all the others down. (This needs to be weighed against cost).

For motherboards (and GPUs, monitors...), ASUS is my go-to these days. Reliable, and it seems to be in all the high-end builds we source for work.

 

[maelstrom]

benchmark says single thread the 8700k is 26% faster than yours at near clock for clock.

If you're referring to CPUBenchmark.net, there are plenty of reasons why their figures are not very reliable. On systems which submit results to the site (and others like it) they have no control over the amount of RAM or RAM speed, the type of graphics card, the OS and upgrade status, the background apps running during the test, BIOS settings (to name just a few variables), which could all affect the overall CPU performance. For comparative benchmarks to be representative, they need to be carried out by people who know what they're doing under controlled conditions.

Guru3D have an IPC/Single thread test they do for all CPU reviews which tests processors in a controlled environment at the same clock speed to give more accurate results (bottom of the page): https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_7_3700x_ryzen_9_3900x_review,9.html. The difference between a 4790k and even the 9900k in their tests is only about 15%, clock-for-clock. Of course, the 9900k has a higher max turbo out of the box which translates into more single thread performance. However, if you can overclock your 4770k/4790k to close to 5GHz, that 15% difference would probably still be valid. Multi-thread performance is, of course, another case entirely.

 

[Cote Dazur]

I am one of those VR fanatic, I will not go back to watching a game on a screen when I can be in the game!

As always and with everything, you have to take the good with the bad. Perfection is often mentioned, but never seen.

different strokes suit different folks.

Amen! to that, you tried it, not for you, at this time, no issue for you.

 

[slikk66]

I'm running a pimax 5k+ in large FOV with an 8700k @5ghz , 1080ti and I can get pretty clear graphics on iracing at 72hz with a full field or cars.. for me, it's a great sweet spot and I'm completely happy with it. This is with the steam sampling at 120%, so the details are crisp, but I'm sure I'm sacrificing some extras like reflections, shadows, track items etc. Very happy with my VR experience! Most people I let try it get sick, which is a bummer, but for me I'm fine now, but I've been doing VR things for many years now. I can get away with 90hz in most cases, but do get some dips depending on the number of cars and/or track. At 72hz (pimax option) I really can't tell any discernable difference so I just stick with it.

Would be happy to share settings if anyone would like to try them.

 

[maelstrom]

I don't own VR so I'm not sure if this addon is already available and functional for sims, but I have read about the virtual nose and how it may be a solution for sickness in VR:

https://www.wired.com/2015/04/reduce-vr-sickness-just-add-virtual-nose/

I'm not so convinced that this will make that much difference - 13.5% could almost be placebo effect. I used to work in the development cell in a large, real world full motion 6DoF flight sim complex (6 sims). There appeared to be 2 main causes of motion sickness. One was when we had to run with the motion off - your eyes tell you you're moving but your inner ear tells you you're not and, if you're susceptible, you feel sick (in my opinion, the main cause of nausea with VR). The second was when, for whatever reason (usually a development software load), with the motion on the visuals were slightly out of sync with the motion. Oddly, the smaller the delay, the more people seemed to feel sick. The bottom line, in my opinion, is that if you suffer from motion sickness generally, there's little that can be done to prevent it in VR.

 

[Nasos Charalampou]

Really interesting conversation. I bought a used Rift around a year ago (maybe a little longer). Initially, I found it a great experience. The feeling of being in the car is pretty much unbeatable and turning my head to look to the apex seemed to help my driving. There is a lot that I like about VR.

Like others in this thread though, I experienced negatives too. They're listed above, so no sense in repeating them all, but the killer (for me) was the amount of faffing about. My PC would decide not to recognise the Rift after a few days, so I would need to trawl forums, remove/reinstall USB drivers, etc. Some advised buying a PCIe USB card, but advice on what would work seemed to vary, etc, etc.

I'm not great with computers, I muddle through, so every time Oculus decided to throw a spanner in the works, it cost me hours of (what would otherwise be) gaming time. I had to use Homeless for one game, Open VR .dll for another and constantly research and try out suggestions to increase frame rate, clarity, etc.

In the end, it felt like too much. When added to the blurriness (especially when looking down the track) and other negatives I was experiencing, I eventually gave up. I'd love to try out some (or just one) of the latest HMDs on a kicking PC, but sadly, I couldn't justify the outlay to own all the kit right now. Even if I did, I'm not sure that I could bring myself to spend the time required to get the best out of it.

I appreciate that I'm posting on a forum filled with tech minded people, who are perfectly capable of and happy to fiddle with all the nuances required to get the most out of VR, but I think this thread just shows us once again, that different strokes suit different folks.

On a side note, I'd love to try VR with CSP and Sol, but I'm once again put off by the constant fiddling that (I imagine) this requires . Are there still regular updates and do they take much time to get (and keep) working properly? I race online (mostly at RD), so is there any point?

Oops that's a long post, sorry for dribbling on.

Apart from the pc issues, the above describes my experience too.

I just cant convince myself to sacrifice the crisp image for the blurriness.

Maybe in a couple of years image will get better and get me back.

But i must admit, the feeling of being in the car is amazing amd makes me smile everytime.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Things are more complex and it does feel like I'm jumping through hoops to get things to work well.

It was easier with the Rift.

The results are excellent when everything is going well, but sometimes you get blindsided. I was very happily running 120 fps in iRacing, but found out that even 90fps is a struggle in the the Rally tracks for some reason.

Dirt Rally 1.0 with Revive is livable but not great. Dirt Rally 2.0 works pretty well.

Still you can't take anything for granted and it feels like I'm having to jump through a lot of hoops.

The hoop jumping does get old and takes away from the whole experience.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Making it work is half of the fun. Otherwise we wouldn't have all those exotic fancy sim toys and played with console controller on the family room TV, or worse, phone.
I am really sorry for people who are physically incompatible with VR, truly am, you are missing a brand new world. Hopefully there will be some solution for that besides getting stoned (which helps as I've heard).

 

[RCHeliguy]

FYI I am not CPU limited anymore. So a 2080Ti would actually make a difference now.

 

[Patrick Thomas]

I really wanted to love VR but i'm super particular about graphics, and right now they just aren't where i want them to be. Regardless, the tech is still cool, and it's fun to see it evolve, but i think i'll need a few more iterations or better hardware, specs, and more creature comfort before i jump into it more seriously.

 

[RCHeliguy]

My hand may have just been forced. My development system's old GTX 660 appears to have just failed, so my 1080Ti is now living there. I'm verifying that is the root cause of the instability. If so there will be a 2080Ti ordered shortly.

It appears that the video card was the problem and surprisingly I can see the difference a 1080Ti makes on my development system. I didn't expect that for the use I have here. Overkill for sure. A EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Ftw3 Ultra will be here Thursday or Friday. OUCH, but I'm looking forward to seeing how much of a difference it makes.

 

[RaceNut]

I love driving in VR but, I don't use it as much as I used to due to the poor image quality. I've considered upgrading my HMD now but, would prefer to see further evolution in improved image quality and FOV. If I should find myself with some extra money, I might order the Valve Index but, that's probably a pretty big "IF".

 

[anton_Chez]

Use VR enough and you tend to forget what the image ever looked like in the first place...

 

[Deleted member 197115]

True, I was one of the complainers about VR image quality. Now I just don't understand what is the problem. Looks sharp and clear to me. Perhaps either found a way to make it look better or made a peace with what it is.
To be honest AC + CSP/SOL at 200% SS looks quite spectacular on Odyssey+ AMOLED.

Unfortunately I just can't drive without VR now, feels bland and cartoonish.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Honestly the only thing which has wowed me graphically in the last decade has been VR. Sure graphics have improved somewhat this gen but the gains have been minimal really.

VR on the other hand, sure things in the distance are a bit blurry and you can see the pixels but the whole being in a 3D world and seeing things to scale with actual volume, honestly blew my mind. That first Oculus Contact demo when you set everything up with the robot, the graphics in that were so real and tangible it’s just impossible to describe.

I didn’t expect much from VR and got it from Amazon with the intention of returning it after trying but instead I’ve ended up upgrading my entire rig to match what I’m seeing.

Playing games on a flat screen has never felt natural to me though whereas VR just makes sense, even having the stereoscopic 3D worked better for me than just plain old 2D because of the added depth.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I had ZERO interest in any sort of gaming until I got VR, none what-so-ever. My ex-wife had an NES I rarely played. My kids had Playstations 1,2,4, X-Box, X-Box One. I got to see some of it in action and nothing remotely got me excited about gaming. When I got my Rift things changed and my threshold had been passed.

BTW with the Valve Index the free title " The Lab " is surprisingly good. Apparently they gave it an upgrade recently. It looks fantastic and is extremely realistic.

 

[Vintagedriver01]

I think for all who are not really know what to do, after now reading all that pos/neg aspects of VR. Go to an local VR arcade hall and just try it, see, feel it by yourself. We can give you all hundreds of arguments but you should experience this by you self.
If it is a go, then do a good search which VR set is the best for you.
Remember for VR you need high performance hardware without it will be one big disappointment.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Go to an local VR arcade hall and just try it

Good advice, an alternative to that is to get a used DK2, you can get one cheap, it is not so demanding on the hardware so it should work on what you have. It I will give you a good idea on what VR is about, give you a chance to see if you get over the period of discomfort. If you like VR you will be in a better position to choose the next VR set and if you don’t, just sell the DK2 with minimum or maybe even no cost penalty. That is how I did it back in the days, my CV1 is better, but DK2 was already a lot of VR fun for SIM driving.