VR - my initial thoughts

Hi all

Just thought I post my initial thoughts on VR after receiving a Rift CV1 earlier this week:
First up, as an experience, it is amazing, nothing else puts you in the car quite like it, incredibly immersive. That said I have suffered from some nausea, I thought I would as I’m prone to motion sickness but it’s getting better, and after 4 days of driving slow cars on flat tracks I can last about an hour now (Initially it was about 2 laps!)

My 1060 GPU is struggling though, everything is turned right down and I have the pixel ratio thing set to 1.3, this is OK for single cars and very small grids but it won’t cope on-line (I enjoy the SRS racing so this is a worry). Coming from being able to run pretty high settings on 4K, I’m also missing the picture like image quality for the much lower resolution in VR.

My other concern with it is my rig, odd one this but over the last 2 years I’ve been steadily upgrading…xbox to PC, wheel stand to Omega cockpit, adding a DS button box etc next on the list was fanatic pedals and maybe a DD wheel…..suddenly in VR all this feels redundant, what I’m sitting in and steering with kinda makes no difference, the experience is all about the VR. This might be great for some, but I like upgrading my rig, slowly adding to it over time, it’s part of the whole fun of sim racing for me.

This last one is a real puzzler for me, I’m really not sure which way I’ll go with it, for example, I think if I stick with VR, I really won’t feel the need to change my thrustmaster TX for a DD wheel….somehow in VR FFB seems less important as you are so connected with the environment anyway….again this should be a good thing but I don’t know how I feel about it in truth.

So my plan is to give it a couple of week, and then I will either stick with VR and buy a 1080 is put it on ebay and keep sinking money into upgrading my rig!

 

Its bloody marvelous isnt it

 

I guarentee that the experience is different, using a TX and a DD wheel, also in VR.
Before you throw money at a DD wheel, think about adding simvibe first, as it really connects you even more in a tactile way.

Welcome onboard

PS: I have a 970 card, no real issues driving online, but I also have to go with 45fps ASW, which is fine for the moment. I've tested it on a 1080 rig too, 90Hz is better for sure, but you can not crank all settings even with a 1080. The CPU needs to be up for the task as well.

 

I'd say the shock of how awesome VR is will ware off and you'll begin to notice the FFB again. Good FFB can add to the immersion of VR, there's been a few times where the shaker motors in the pedals feel like they're behind me and in certain situation the body just can't separate it all out and it all gets mushed into one immersive experience where your brain just trusts what it see's. Before VR I had no interest in but shakers or moving chairs but after seeing how simple FFB gets amplified in VR I'm beginning to think they have a place now.

CPU is my major bottleneck, I have a i7 2600K overclocked to 4.6ghz and it's still under strain. I just replaced the thermal paste on the chip so I'm going to try and push it a bit more. I have a 1070 GC and it seems well able.

 

VR is a game changer and your comments are one more proof. Don't worry about making a choice the more you will drive in VR little by little driving without it will loose all appeal.
If you absolutely need to spend money on your rig to be happy, motion will take care of that for you.

 

The novelty will wear off the VR after a few months, then you will seek further upgrades, pedals, DD wheel, stronger rig for DD wheel, stand alone sequential shifter, H shifter, hydraulic handbrake etc etc etc!!
But with VR all those things will IMO be just a little better and more satisfying to use!

 

A 4.6 ghz i7 is a bottleneck?

 

^^yes the i7 2600K is a bottleneck. I upgraded from just that to an i7 7700K. Now I can throw everything at it, in VR using pixel density 2.0 and full grids.

 

Unfortunately the 2600K is the most my motherboard will take so to upgrade it I'd have to upgrade my motherboard and ram too. I think there's some extreme version of the i7 it will take but last time I looked it was still an obscene price.

 

I'm in the same boat. Hoping I can hold out till next year for an upgrade.

 

Like others I also switched from traditional 2D screen (4K/HDR....) to VR. Immersion, experience we all know what I mean. Addicted!!! Luckily I had the opportunity to buy a way too expensive HP Omen with e.g. a 1080ti GPU. Therefor I can set all visual setting to max/ultra and still have 90fps in hotlap mode. Tbh I have not tried a race with multiple cars yet .

As said it was a ridicilous 'investment' but worth every euro cent.

Now looking forward to the upcoming complete VR race sims including menus etc. And hopefully somewhere in time also AC1 and/or AC2?

 

I hated my Rift first month I used it. Could not be satisfied with the image quality at all. However, I didn't gave up on it and after some time I really enjoyed it, I think my brain forgot that ultra crisp image quality my monitor delivered to me.
I thought at first, that my wheel ffb was weird somehow lol but it was a placebo effect. I got used to it after some time.

Also I tried something earlier today. I used my monitor and did several laps at Nurburgring GP with the Porsche GT3, and my best time was 1.5 seconds slower than using Rift. 3 laps with Rift was enough to be 1.5s faster.

Even with the 1070 gtx running with a 7700k, it struggles in VR. I ended up putting most settings in game to max and using 1.0 ppd. That way I can play online with a full grid at 90fps with only some slow downs here and there. Got a decent image quality. Specially changing the nvidia setting "image quality" from quality to high quality. The reflection frequency, smoke and shadow consumes the most of the performance. Also PP effects is killer but turning it off you get a boost! The down side is you can't see the other's car brakelights. Too bad.

I would like to understand why VR demands so much video power.
In full hd monitor, alone in the track I get like 180fps... crazy huh

 

Check this for headlights

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/natural-graphics-mod-oculus-rift-filter.11146/

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/pp-filter-for-oculus-rift-cv1.13651/updates

 

Wow I thought, well by looking the specs anyway, that this combo would be very capable in vr. Do you suggest going with the 1080 from your experience.

 

The difference between 1070 and 1080TI is immense, you can find benchmarks showing raises of 30, 40 % ! Thats why the 1080TI costs so much.

Just as an example for a random find via Google:

Game.......................GTX 1070..................... GTX 1080 ti
Gears of War 4........67.2 FPS avg..................109.1 FPS avg
Rise Tomb Raider...71.2 FPS avg................. 113.1 FPS avg
GTA V.....................62.7 FPS avg...................73.7 FPS avg
PUBG.....................41.6 FPS avg....................68.9 FPS avg

 

@Skybird Did you read my post when you quoted it? I am very aware that the 1080 and especially the 1080ti are vastly better cards in than the 1070 and that this performance obviously costs more. My question to someone who actually owns the card was did he regret buying the 1070, or with the value that comes with the 1070 are the compromises in performance justified.

 

Invest in a better GPU, than a DD wheel. >60fps is a must with VR or you'll get even more disorientation, that means 1080 or 1080ti.

 

It is not true that anyone needs a killer GPU to enjoy AC in VR, all is needed is a sensible setting, as at the end of the day because of the nature of VR, there is not that much of difference, not like on 2D screens, between low setting and high setting. For example the difference between 1.3 ssd and 1.5 is hardly noticeable but will allow the system the FPS level to deliver a comfortable experience. Staying away from post processing and reflection also leads to good performance with minimum visual impact in VR for those of us, like me, with an average GPU.

 

Yeah I bought a new PC a year ago for about £1200 to run AC in VR. It "only" has an i5-somethingorother and a 1070, with a bit of playing around I have about 1.3ppd, some PP so I can see brake lights, more than good enough visuals and can run almost full grids of AI and play online with no probs.

A 1080 would be better of course but I don't think you need one. I think GamerMuscle runs (or did run) a 1070 and manages to stream AC too.

Check out his vid on optimising AC for VR:

 

I'm running AC in VR fine with my rig, check my signature. Settings are not maxed and ASW kicks in sometimes, but does not bother me at all.