Do I go VR?

[smartroad]

I have been fantasising about playing Elite in VR ever since I heard the game supported the Occulus. Hearing people say about their experiences playing the game in VR. I have even had a go with anaglyph glasses which was absolutely awesome with my head tracker! Although the anaglyph does cause massive eye ache and you loose all colour.

I have been saving for ages and now have enough (have to upgrade GFX card as well, thinking the 980 or more likely 980ti) so do I go for it? I want the Vive (Oculus lost me when they sold out to Facebook), plus I have just about enough space to use it as they intend and move about if needed, although the ED you are obviously sat down for all of it. The only thing is the Vive is released on the 5th, but if I ordered now when would i actually get it?

Arghhh i hate waiting!

[JustSomeGuy]

This probably wont help you at all.. But I plan to get Vive at some point, and I also lost interest in Oculus when FB stepped in.
I have never been that interested in 3D things and such, never even seen any 3D movies. But after fiddling with head tracking, and hearing that VR is a much different/better experience, and seeing few YouTube videos of Vive, I am very interested. But I will need a graphics card first, my gtx 660 is not good even without VR. Have to play with medium/low settings now.
But yeah, I'm pretty much sold for Vive, but I will have to wait for a bit for the prices to come down, and I need that GFX card first, and for that I probably need a new PSU too

[CMDR Abil Midena]

Everyone makes decisions differently. I suggest you read these:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10149/han ... culus-rift

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ocu ... ,4506.html

And absolutely try before you buy.

[Digga]

I plan to get the vive, I have watched a lot of VR vids on YouTube and I get the impression that the vive is better.
I'm also going to wait for some time (expect around 1 year), my gfx upgrade will be at least for a next gen gpu and highly likely to be vega but I will be waiting to see the results of various vega vs pascal reviews first.

I really want to try VR but my advice is wait, at least wait until both the rift and vive has been out long enough to get a feel for which is the best option. By then you might just find that when it comes to VR, the polaris gpu will be running rings around the maxwell gpu and that will give you something else to consider.

the VR Zombies make her scream
https://youtu.be/wIf2oceP2IY

[TorTorden]

Waiting is probably the best course.

We are still in a bit of limbo atm so only thing we have going right now is hype.
And the hype around the vive has been intense lately and oddly between the dk2 and consumer rift oculus went oddly quiet.

But both units are shipping to customers as we speak so coming next week we will likely have actual hands on review's of both.

Personally I don't think the vive clocks in at being that much better at least enough to warrant the price.
It has room tracking and that's about it.
Some say the optics ad a little fov but others say this means the resolution seem lower on the vive.

To me the vive is just to expensive.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Damn, it's worse than it sounded - Facebook acquired Oculus. I didn't know that. I hate Facebook. I also hate Twitter, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Campell's Soup, and on and on and on. I hate supporting them, but sometimes there are no other feasible options, so I need to hold my nose and do business with them. So I won't let the Facebook relationship sway my decision. I'll just wait for the reviews to come out, and that goes for the new graphics cards too, and then buy a setup.

I'm usually pretty cheap and not an early adopter, but I'll probably break down and get a first generation unit, but I'm not going to be the one experimenting and dealing with all the crap until things get sorted. Assuming the new GFX cards are out, I expect to buy something this year.

[Darr Valen]

I struggled with the "Do I go VR in gen 1 or not" question quite a bit over the past year. I ultimately decided no. I have to upgrade my 780 to do decent VR, and I'm not comfortable with the pricetag of the Vive in gen 1. I totally ruled out the Oculus, since I'm not a big fan of the oculus store.. and I really don't want to add ANOTHER library program to have running at once. (see Origin, Uplay, GOG, Steam, etc)

I figured this though. Would I rather have 2x1080 or 2x1200, a bulky and possibly problematically heavy after 5-7 hours of binge gaming headset, the obsoletion of my secondary and tertiary monitors, which I use for information and entertainment WHILST gaming, or would I rather get a 4k2k screen at my current (27") or larger size, that still allows me to run dual, triple, or quad monitors still, allows me to watch, surf, etc, and doesn't cause anymore eyestrain than a normal monitor would after binge gaming.

That and many other factors, have led my choice to go UHD this generation, and not VR. I love VR, or the idea of VR, and if I had to buy a headset, I'd get the Vive, since it's the complete package. But, for less than the Vive, I can buy a UHD screen with Gsync support, and enjoy games in a higher graphical standard than I could with any gen1 VR HMD.

I've seen 4K.. UHD is amazing. My JS9000 has converted me for good. It's only fitting my PC be able to take advantage of the beefy new GPUs coming that can actually handle 4k60 gaming. At the end of the day, a VR headset is still limited to the current screens they have, and those aren't all that good compared to a high end monitor, for less or the same price. Elite has plenty of fantastic head tracking supported software, so that and an amazingly high resolution sounds like the best bet for me.

I'll be getting into VR in Gen 2, I think, when they offer a better option.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

I agree with everything DV says, but I really want to see outside the cockpit in 3D!

My existing monitor is a 32" 2560x1440 and it looks great, but I really really want to see the depth of 3D ships and planets.

I figure I won't be able to "try it out" w/o buying one, and there is always ebay when gen 2 comes out.

[Darr Valen]

I agree with everything DV says, but I really want to see outside the cockpit in 3D!

My existing monitor is a 32" 2560x1440 and it looks great, but I really really want to see the depth of 3D ships and planets.

I figure I won't be able to "try it out" w/o buying one, and there is always ebay when gen 2 comes out.

I won't be buying without trying, either. I know what UHD looks like, and I love it. However, I don't know what gen 1 looks like, outside of a galaxy s7 edge and my stormtrooper Google Cardboard. Though, from what I've read, the DK2 WAS using a samsung's screen for the HMD.

I want to be a part of 3D gaming. Stereoscopic 3D sucks. It just does. It's not worth it. I've wanted 3D Gaming since I was a kid.. and nothing has ever really and truly been worth it. A monitor still trumps an HMD, in overall effectiveness, I think.

And if I really find I love VR and can handle the constant weight on my head for hours on end, I'll adopt as soon as possible. But that really requires mass production of the headsets, displays where I can play games, the hardware to run those displays, and the games to play them. All of those things are really non-existent. Walmart or Best Buy isn't going to shell out $2,000 for a display that's adequate enough to run a AAA VR game at 60fps or higher, which is mandatory to avoid the vomit-sim experience.

TL;DR, I really think I am a gen2 VR adopter. We're buying a new house, and I'm really hoping gen2 of the Vive offers a near-holodeck-with-a-headset experience, so a dedicated VR room isn't beyond the scope of reality. Just need to slap a decent GPU into my server (5820k) and it'll be good to go.

As to monitors, I like the 2560x1440 offerings, but, it is quite an old resolution.. and I'm not sure how much of a real-world benefit it offers over my existing 1ms 1920x1080 27". A 144Hz 1440 screen vs a 60Hz 2160p screen doesn't seem like it's even a question. 60Hz at 4K wins, in my book. . though I'd really love a 60-100Hz 4K screen instead.

*Edit* I'm pretty sure Display Port 1.3 or 4k120/8k60 trumps VR Gen I, 1440p, 2160p, and anything below.. seeing as that opens up so many higher end e-peen level gaming options.. and that's going to be a reality in 2016, ie this year.

[TorTorden]

There is going to be a lot of HMD's coming out over the next few months and probably next year.

But Oculus and I highly doubt vive will launch a second device anytime soon, the Rift and vive will quite likely have at least a 3 year model run by estimates from press releases.

A monitor and good screen is of course that, BUT comparing VR to a normal screen is as pointless as comparing 3d tv to vr, it's a completely wrong comparison to make.
It is truly a completely new form for media consumption, it's not an upgrade.

I now sit about 65cm from a 34" 3440x1440 (ultra wide) monitor and it's nowhere near as immersive as my gear vr, graphical prowess included and that has a rather limited fov (about 90 I believe) I slapped on eyetracking, that's pretty great. but it's still just a good screen with headtracking it's far from as immersive as playing anshar 2 or Gunjack on my cell phone...

But sure, waiting for the increased hype to settle and the next gen (or two) of gpu's to come out is the smarter choice.
I tried waiting myself but nah, can't help myself