VR versus triple-screen for Assetto Corsa

[Billy Pilgrim]

I have a triple-screen setup. It's great.

I've never tried VR. I'd like to read opinions from those who have experienced both to understand how the two options compare.

The downside of VR, I understand, is the screendoor effect. That's about the extent of my knowledge. I'm thinking fps may be better in VR.

 

[Brandon Wright]

including sorting out corrections for the chromatic aberrations (which seem quite noticeable in the shots above, so maybe AC doesn't do a correction?).

I'd say any chromatic aberrations you see in my pics are probably artifacts from the iPhone pics (also, those are from iRacing, not AC). It's actually quite tricky to get a picture in the headset because the phone has a hard time focusing that close and it's also a pretty narrow window so slightly moving the phone makes the picture disappear, plus I'm having hold my thumb over the HMD sensor to make the picture appear. So with all that it was pretty tricky to keep the phone still and positioned correctly enough to get a decent pic. Plus, if you've ever tried taking a pic of a screen with your phone you'll know that a lot of weird things can happen, vertical lines, part of the screen missing because you caught it in the middle of a refresh cycle, etc. plus I also had the glare from the overhead light reflecting on the lens. I might try to get a video to see if that gives a more representative view but that's going to be even more difficult to accomplish, not even real sure how to attempt it.

 

[Mascot]

Yep, no CA in my HMD.

 

[Dan Costa]

So, it is my understanding from reading the last few posts that your CV1's have:

- barely no SDE
- no glare smudge
- no CA

Either there are two versions of the same CV1 or we are talking about different hmds. There's an abundant of all of the above in my CV1 and the ones I came across in stores. Specially glare smudge and CA.

I need a drink, or to stop drinking!

 

[Mascot]

So, it is my understanding from reading the last few posts that your CV1's have:

- barely no SDE
- no glare smudge
- no CA

Either there are two versions of the same CV1 or we are talking about different hmds. There's an abundant of all of the above in my CV1 and the ones I came across in stores. Specially glare smudge and CA.

I need a drink, or to stop drinking!

SDE is there if I stop and look for it, but it's not something I ever notice when immersed in a race. I certainly find it very easy to ignore.
I can honestly say the only time I've noticed god rays was in some horror VR demo in a dark room with torches. Again, it's not something I've ever noticed when racing. The lenses can mist up when you first put the HMD on, but I warm mine first and it's never a problem.
No noticeable CA at all, even when looking for it.

I don't wear glasses and have good distance vision. Maybe that helps.

I have taken time to set my Rift up carefully, get it comfortable, get it positioned on my face correctly, set the IPD properly. I honestly forget I'm wearing it when deeply immersed.

 

[Dan Costa]

Far from me to tell you guys what you should be seeing. I actually envy not noticing any of that. But aside from the PSVR optics (which are great), what we have today is actually very poor.

I shared earlier in this thread that in order to discuss somethings, its best to separate the experience from whats factually in front of us. This to say I have a great experience using CV1 also, despite having to come to terms with the immersion breaking defects from the lenses and screen (they do break the immersion for me, a lot).


Now, i just dont think its possible to not see those things when actually evaluating the image and not the experience.

The lenses employed in CV1 and VIVE will have vast amounts of glare and CA towards the borders . Its in their design.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/vive-rift-playstation-vr-comparison,review-33556-3.html

Its no mistake, that from the image above, the best image from the HMD's I own (CV1 and PSVR) is indeed from the PSVR! The absence of glare on the PSVR together with the RGB panel, puts the CV1 in a feeble spot, specially while costing 3x as much at the time.


About the glare "smudgeness" aka godrays, you surelly see the difference in these two videos.

CV1

PiMAX 4K

Play them side to side, and clearly the CV1 looks like a Michael Bay movie.


My recommendation is to hold your purchase and wait for the actual ones to drop to 200$ or less. The Pimax 4k and Pimax 8k alongside the many windows HMD's are around the corner
and here is a glimpse of what hey offer for your money:

VIVE vs CV1 vs Pimax 4K

now, off to that drink

 

[Brandon Wright]

So, it is my understanding from reading the last few posts that your CV1's have:

- barely no SDE
- no glare smudge
- no CA

Either there are two versions of the same CV1 or we are talking about different hmds. There's an abundant of all of the above in my CV1 and the ones I came across in stores. Specially glare smudge and CA.

I need a drink, or to stop drinking!

Pretty much what Mascot said, and it really depends on the game. SDE varies from game to game, in iRacing I honestly can barely see it, in AC it's there but after a few minutes I don't notice it anymore and it's certainly not enough to bother me or impede my vision, in PCars2 the SDE is pretty strong and always visible.

For glare, my first couple weeks I was really bothered by the glare. Oddly, and I'm not entirely sure why, I pretty much never see any glare now. Either my brain is filtering it out or I have my settings dialed in to where it's all but gone. There are instances where it can happen and be pretty annoying, like driving at night in PC2 in a car that has a big LCD screen on the dash it can have some pretty bad glare from the LCD but that's really the only instance where it bothered me. During daylight or dusk in AC and iRacing or in games like Robo Recall or Eleven Table Tennis I really don't notice any glare at all, ever.

As for chromatic aberrations, I'll be honest that I wasn't entirely sure what that is which may be why I don't notice it. But I just looked it up and yeah, I do see some of that on occasion but it's subtle and another one of those things that I just got used to and don't really notice and am certainly not bothered by and it's usually out towards the edges and not in the center where I'm focusing. So, I'm not saying the things you listed are completely absent, but most of the time they're so insignificant that they don't bother me or I literally don't notice them.

I'll try to figure out a way to get a video this weekend but I have a feeling it's going to be difficult to accomplish so no promises.

 

[Brandon Wright]

Far from me to tell you guys what you should be seeing. I actually envy not noticing any of that. But aside from the PSVR optics (which are great), what we have today is actually very poor.

I shared earlier in this thread that in order to discuss somethings, its best to separate the experience from whats factually in front of us. This to say I have a great experience using CV1 also, despite having to come to terms with the immersion breaking defects from the lenses and screen (they do break the immersion for me, a lot).


Now, i just dont think its possible to not see those things when actually evaluating the image and not the experience.

The lenses employed in CV1 and VIVE will have vast amounts of glare and CA towards the borders . Its in their design.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/vive-rift-playstation-vr-comparison,review-33556-3.html

Its no mistake, that from the image above, the best image from the HMD's I own (CV1 and PSVR) is indeed from the PSVR! The absence of glare on the PSVR together with the RGB panel, puts the CV1 in a feeble spot, specially while costing 3x as much at the time.


About the glare "smudgeness" aka godrays, you surelly see the difference in these two videos.

CV1

PiMAX 4K

Play them side to side, and clearly the CV1 looks like a Michael Bay movie.


My recommendation is to hold your purchase and wait for the actual ones to drop to 200$ or less. The Pimax 4k and Pimax 8k alongside the many windows HMD's are around the corner
and here is a glimpse of what hey offer for your money:

VIVE vs CV1 vs Pimax 4K

now, off to that drink

Sorry for the double-post but your video from the CV1 looks nothing at all like mine, that's horrid. What I see in my CV1 with my eyes looks almost exactly like your video with the Pimax.

 

[Mascot]

Far from me to tell you guys what you should be seeing. I actually envy not noticing any of that. But aside from the PSVR optics (which are great), what we have today is actually very poor.

I shared earlier in this thread that in order to discuss somethings, its best to separate the experience from whats factually in front of us. This to say I have a great experience using CV1 also, despite having to come to terms with the immersion breaking defects from the lenses and screen (they do break the immersion for me, a lot).


Now, i just dont think its possible to not see those things when actually evaluating the image and not the experience.

The lenses employed in CV1 and VIVE will have vast amounts of glare and CA towards the borders . Its in their design.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/vive-rift-playstation-vr-comparison,review-33556-3.html

Its no mistake, that from the image above, the best image from the HMD's I own (CV1 and PSVR) is indeed from the PSVR! The absence of glare on the PSVR together with the RGB panel, puts the CV1 in a feeble spot, specially while costing 3x as much at the time.


About the glare "smudgeness" aka godrays, you surelly see the difference in these two videos.

CV1

PiMAX 4K

Play them side to side, and clearly the CV1 looks like a Michael Bay movie.


My recommendation is to hold your purchase and wait for the actual ones to drop to 200$ or less. The Pimax 4k and Pimax 8k alongside the many windows HMD's are around the corner
and here is a glimpse of what hey offer for your money:

VIVE vs CV1 vs Pimax 4K

now, off to that drink

I don't know what more to tell you. if my Rift looked like that vaseline-smeared mess in the CV1 video then, yes - I too would be running for the hills. Luckily mine is NOTHING like that. That video looks like it's been filmed with sweaty-face fogging on the lenses.

I only race in Assetto now but even night racing in pCARS wasn't that bad.

*shrug-shrug-shruggity-shrug-SHRUGSHRUGSHRUG-shrugadoodledoo*

Shrug.

 

[Dan Costa]

 

[Brandon Wright]

^ Winner.

 

[Full_Ninja]

Someone on Reddit posted a pretty good picture of how the screen looks like in the Rift (to my opinion, I own a Rift for 1.5 years):

Not as sharp as on a monitor (not at all in fact), but in VR you're IN the car, in glorious 3D. I'll take VR anytime over a monitor. But that's me .

And also life size 1:1 scale and you are no longer looking through a window at a fixed camera angle to pretend your driving a car.

 

[Full_Ninja]

Just gotta give it time man, may take a week or three for your brain to adapt. No, it will never be as sharp or crisp as a monitor but eventually you'll get to where you can read stuff on the dash without much problem. It also greatly depends on what game your playing, some are quite a bit nicer looking than others in VR (IMO iRacing looks the best, PCars2 is the worst, AC is in the middle). VR is a compromise, for sure, but for most of us eventually the pros far outweigh the cons, I'm one that will gladly give up a smidgen of clarity in exchange for actually being IN the car. Apparently we all have different definitions of what immersion is but for me it's all about making me feel like I'm actually in a car and monitors just can't compete with VR in that aspect.

The thing that great about actually being in the car is you can now look where you are driving. That always frustrated me when trying to race on a screen. You could never look where you were going. You could only look where the camera was pointing.

 

[Full_Ninja]

The glare really bothered me at first, that was the biggest reason for me wanting to return it. Now I don't even notice the glare, can't recall the last time I saw it. I'm sure it's still there but it goes completely unnoticed.

When you take the time to properly adjust and fit an HMD to your individual face you can remove most of the glare. For most this involves the angle of the lens. For some the top of the lens needs to be a little further way from your face than the bottom of the lens. For some it is the opposite. For me I need the bottom of the lens a little closer to my face than the top of the lens. To make that possible all I needed to do was offset the bottom part of the face cushion so when the HMD made contact with my face the bottom part would naturally rest closer to my face. VR is very intimate and personal because each of us are physically shaped differently.

 

[Full_Ninja]

For some of my friends who tried vr racing for the 1st time would just look straight ahead while driving like they were racing on a screen. Then I would say why don't you try looking where you are going instead of straight ahead. Once they did that they would comment on how unbelievably real it was and for the 1st time they could really drive the car like they would in real life. I think years of racing on a screen has subconsciously taught people some bad driving habits. []>》

 

[Neilski]

Well I'm really looking forward to trying VR one day, because I have always favoured realism and immersion over eye candy anyway...

 

[TachyonGod]

Sorry i'm late to this discussion, but i thought I'd add my view.
I have a triple screen setup (3 x 21" monitors), they are approx 65 cm (25.5 inch) away just behind the wheel. in addition I also use TrackIR 5 for head tracking. This combination is FAR superior to the VR setup I had in the past (Occulus DK1). I know the DK1 isn't very good compared to the current crop, but forgetting about screen door effect and low resolution display, I found having to wear the device cumbersome and constantly peeking out through the bottom to see what I was doing with the keyboard a complete pain, not to mention the constant sweating and fogging up of the display. Maybe this is all fixed now, but i never liked that experience.
Having head tracking (both looking around and moving around on ALL axis) is way better than VR simply because the display resolution of my screen (6000x1080)!
About the only thing I would do different in the future is upgrading all my monitors to stereo 3D possibly with NVidia 3D Vision. This would give me the best of all worlds.

 

[Brandon Wright]

Sorry it took me a while to get this done but here's a little video of what VR looks like in iRacing on my system. Also sorry for the portrait video but it's the only way I could fit the phone up to the HMD. I think this does a very good job of representing what I see through the headset, what I see is slightly sharper and of course in 3D but hopefully you get the idea. Any weird artifacts or glare you see is just from recording it on a cell phone, none of that is visible to me when I have it on my face.

 

[Motowntom]

Sorry i'm late to this discussion, but i thought I'd add my view.
I have a triple screen setup (3 x 21" monitors), they are approx 65 cm (25.5 inch) away just behind the wheel. in addition I also use TrackIR 5 for head tracking. This combination is FAR superior to the VR setup I had in the past (Occulus DK1). I know the DK1 isn't very good compared to the current crop, but forgetting about screen door effect and low resolution display, I found having to wear the device cumbersome and constantly peeking out through the bottom to see what I was doing with the keyboard a complete pain, not to mention the constant sweating and fogging up of the display. Maybe this is all fixed now, but i never liked that experience.
Having head tracking (both looking around and moving around on ALL axis) is way better than VR simply because the display resolution of my screen (6000x1080)!
About the only thing I would do different in the future is upgrading all my monitors to stereo 3D possibly with NVidia 3D Vision. This would give me the best of all worlds.

Glad your so happy....... rationalize...rationalize...rationalize.
Cheers

 

[Mascot]

I'm starting to think that a lot of the naysayers are possibly using badly-adjusted or faulty headsets, wrong IPD, using underspecc'd PCs, bad graphics settings, have underlying eyesight issues (using the headset without prescription glasses on perhaps?) or have fogging on the lenses (I often hold my lenses in front of a mildly warm fan before first putting the headset on to eliminate condensation on the cold lenses from a warm face).

Further to this, I very occasionally get double-image ghosting in the Rift if I've been chopping and changing between lots of cars and tracks, and have to restart Oculus Home (or reset my PC) to get rid of it. I wonder if some of the blurry-image complainers are experiencing this?

 

[Brandon Wright]

Further to this, I very occasionally get double-image ghosting in the Rift if I've been chopping and changing between lots of cars and tracks, and have to restart Oculus Home (or reset my PC) to get rid of it. I wonder if some of the blurry-image complainers are experiencing this?

I've never experienced anything like that, at least not that I'm aware of. I rarely run Oculus Home though so that may be why.