My current favorite: Elite Dangerous

westrock2000

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
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Bought this when I first got the Rift last year but never got around to trying it out. Now that I have a better video card than I did last year, I decided to revisit (or visit rather) the game.

It has a heck of a learning curve and I have had some jarring head tracking issues, but other than that, the game is really fun if you are into flying or simulation stuff.

My first attempt at playing was a total failure. I grabbed a mission in some far off star system and ended up being stranded with no fuel in the middle of nowhere. So I watched about 3 hours of introduction videos and delete my character and start over. Now I'm doing a lot better.

The game proves time dilation is real. I use my Frame Shift Drive and hop over to another star and do some bounty hunting and come back to dock. I think it's probably been 30-45 minutes. It's 2-3 hours later! Last week I probably spent 10-12 hours in the game and have barely done anything. I also find that since you aren't really physically moving, I don't get the moisture build-up in the HMD. On some games, the HMD gets all foggy after 20-30 minutes because you are moving around a lot. This game you are pretty much motionless other then looking around the cockpit periodically.

The sense of size and immensity is very good in this game. Space stations feel real. As you fly around other ships or asteroids you get a good sense of their size relative to you. The transitions are also pretty good. As you come up on a Saturn like planet the rings look smooth. As you get closer and closer you start to see distinct asteroids. The game will then transition you to a localized instance of the asteroid field. It's not a 100% seamless transition, but it's not too disruptive to the experience either. Transitions to space stations are more obvious. But overall, the traveling experience and fly experience is very enjoyable. Warping in to a big ass bright sun with coronal mass ejections spewing out is a great experience.

The head tracking was really bad, so I upgraded the nVidia driver which was only a couple months old and the head tracking seemed to be better afterwards. But like I would occasionally be turned around so I that I was staring at my headless body, or down at the base of the cockpit seat. Very disruptive especially when you are in combat.

This is an ideal genre for VR. Right now I'm using the Xbox Controller. I will probably pick up the Thrustmaster HOTAS to make the experience more enjoyable. If Star Citizen ever comes out AND supports VR, it could probably have a wide appeal.
 
I ended up getting a Thrustmaster HOTAS4 for the game, greatly improved the experience. Now I can laugh at the poor bastards trying to dock at the space port and getting all twisted and misaligned. With a HOTAS I can pull in and dock super smooth. Combat is also far easier.

We have a computer set up just for the Rift, and it is on an Ikea Micke desk. I decided to use the drawer as the anchor to hold the HOTAS. The tray is the size of the top of the drawer and slides it and uses the front and back of the drawer to hold it in place.

The 1/2 height part in the back slides under the back of the drawer and keeps it from tilting. The front notch locks it in place with the face of the drawer.

6wFpD54.jpg


The platforms for the HOTAS. Also added additional room on the right for the mouse to set next to the stick. I cut little 1/8" pegs from a wooden dowel. I set each part of the HOTAS down and glued these little pegs in place around it. They keep the stick and throttle from moving around. These were a bear to cut, I used a miter saw and they would go flying...so I had to hunt them down...lost a few in the process.

2x2W4vC.jpg


No mechanical fasteners used. Relying on wood glue and surface area. The glue should be more than strong enough, it's usually the skin of the MDF that rips off. But with 2+ feet of surface area (overall it's 26" wide), there should be enough surface area to withstand the leverage of the HOTAS and my hand weight.

0R8UEDX.jpg


Used a router to clean up the front, put a round over on it.

hPj8v2s.jpg


Test fitting to make sure it fits and is comfortable.

daiTz9g.jpg


Put some black paint on it. Mouse tracking is a little iffy, might need to get some mouse pad material and put it on the there.

GTTXSCG.jpg
 
Fancy. I just used stick-on velcro and an old car seat I got on Craigslist for my E:D rig. I couldn't use a desk chair because the swiveling didn't play nice with my rudder pedals.

I do think E:D is just about the best use case for VR right now. It's a fully realized game that's good even without VR, but it really does a good job of working around the limitations of VR.
 
What's with the ghetto HP wired mouse? :LOL: :yuck:

This is specifically the VR computer. It's wired, so it always works and I have a 5 and 8 year old that use this frequently......needs to be tough and reliable....but expendable!
 
I still have that same G15 keyboard.

I got 3 of them in active service (2 at home, 1 at work). The macro's are handy at work. iTunes stopped supporting the display last year because no "current" keyboard was on the market anymore that supported displaying. Still works with Foobar2000 though. I had to use a label maker to print out 2 replacement key labels for faded keys, but other than that they have worked excellent.
 
Game is fun until it gets boring. Not much to do I didn't think.
 
Game is fun until it gets boring. Not much to do I didn't think.
Kinda true.

Especially in VR, the game offers an incredible cockpit experience wrapped in kind of a chore of a game. The first 50 or so hours are super fun, when you're seeing new things and switching ships regularly, but once you get to the point where you can reasonably afford the big ships, you eventually kind of run out of things to do.

It changes somewhat if you have a group of actual players to play with. The community events are kind of scary to do by yourself, since they attract all the asshole players with nothing else to do, but if you go with a few friends, they're kinda fun.
 
I ended up getting a Thrustmaster HOTAS4 for the game, greatly improved the experience. Now I can laugh at the poor bastards trying to dock at the space port and getting all twisted and misaligned. With a HOTAS I can pull in and dock super smooth. Combat is also far easier.

We have a computer set up just for the Rift, and it is on an Ikea Micke desk. I decided to use the drawer as the anchor to hold the HOTAS. The tray is the size of the top of the drawer and slides it and uses the front and back of the drawer to hold it in place.

The 1/2 height part in the back slides under the back of the drawer and keeps it from tilting. The front notch locks it in place with the face of the drawer.

View attachment 89217

The platforms for the HOTAS. Also added additional room on the right for the mouse to set next to the stick. I cut little 1/8" pegs from a wooden dowel. I set each part of the HOTAS down and glued these little pegs in place around it. They keep the stick and throttle from moving around. These were a bear to cut, I used a miter saw and they would go flying...so I had to hunt them down...lost a few in the process.

View attachment 89218

No mechanical fasteners used. Relying on wood glue and surface area. The glue should be more than strong enough, it's usually the skin of the MDF that rips off. But with 2+ feet of surface area (overall it's 26" wide), there should be enough surface area to withstand the leverage of the HOTAS and my hand weight.

View attachment 89219

Used a router to clean up the front, put a round over on it.

View attachment 89220

Test fitting to make sure it fits and is comfortable.

View attachment 89221

Put some black paint on it. Mouse tracking is a little iffy, might need to get some mouse pad material and put it on the there.

View attachment 89222
Wow, that is amazing! Great work. I thought about just buying the Thrustmaster but now I feel like I have to go all out or nothing at all
 
I prefer the X52 Pro in VR over the thrustmaster... I've always disliked having to chord buttons to do anything.

I find since the tracking is always slightly inaccurate it's useful to have the view reset bound to an easy to find key -- I use delete. After 4+ hours I tend to find it's not quite where I started.

I use a Vive.
 
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