VR on low Tier PC; A Review

[=RS=GiantPLANK]

HI all,

 

I bought an Odyssey + in the sale and thought I might record my experiences thus far for the benefit of those with "pauper rigs" such as myself.  And also to review the O+ to add to JonRedcorn's comments.

 

Prologue

 

My first time in VR after trying a mate's PSVR.  I dont OC my PCs.  I'm not an uber pilot.  I am not an overly-emotional type (British, what-what) but after my 1 v 1 dogfight in VR vs an AI, im shaking.  I cant wait to get online with VR.

 

MY RIG

 

CPU: i5 - 4460 3.2 GHz

GPU:  Gtx 970 Zotac

Ram; 8GB vengeance 1333 Ghz

 

Settings - SEE attached JPG

 

PERFORMANCE

 

In 8 V 8 QMB I was getting a steady 50 FPS.  I did notice occaisional stutters, once or twice during the whole battle.  However, in fairness I used to get these when playing in 2D at higher quality settings. Oh and this was with HUD ON.  I was in a spit and could read my engine settings in % as well as ammo count, speed and direction.  The HUD was very small in VR and just about readable for me if I concentrated.  I probabaly need to start to ween myself off it and onto the gauges. baby steps.....

 

ODYSSEY REVIEW

 

Unlike JonRecorn, my head is a perfect basketball (no really, its quite round), and I did not experience the light bleed from the sides.  There is some from the nose area still but it is not too bad.  In game i didnt really notice, but i am a new VR player and got sucked into the game/new experience, however.

Fit is not great but not awful. the halo feels like its going to slip, but when i am in a battle to be honest I dont really notice, so it does the job.  For the 20-40min play time sessions i have been doing it is perfectly OK.

VISUAL sweetspot - You MUST situate the O+ correctly on your head to take advantage of the sweetspot on clarity.  The halo must rest towards the hairline at the front, while at the base of the occipital bun at the back.  This will give you a clear picture, such that reading text on the hud and dials is no problem.  I do sometimes see the circular rings of the glass when my head is not correclty situated, but when you do as i instructed above, problem solved.

 

 

PLAY & EXPERIENCE

 

As a VR noob playing at 50 FPS in 1v1, 8v8 QMB I have to say.....HOLY MARY MOTHER OF BABY JESUS.  Best 350 USD I have spent in along while.  The graphics are not great, yes, i had to lower the quality to maintain 50-55 FPS on my old rig.  BUT i did not get nausea with the setting above in an intense dogfight and I am middlingly susceptible to motion sickness.  The situation awareness, depth perception, and sense of immersion, even on my weak PC were simply priceless. It has completey changed this software from "GAME" to "SIMULATOR" for me.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

If you have an old PC (as mine) and are reading all the other VR player comments about their high-end pcs and feeling some trepidation about taking the plunge into VR...Then i hope this review gives you heart, or at least resolve.

 

It is simply game changing.  Today I fulfilled a boy-hood dream.  I flew a spitfire.  I flew a spitfire in combat.  I flew a spitfire and I WAS THERE.

 

 

 

[71st_AH_statuskuo]

Nice writeup, glad you're enjoying VR.   You'll want to get Lefuneste's mod before going into MP,   that mod really makes VR complete by giving equal zoom to a monitor.

 

 

[JonRedcorn]

I tried running the game at 50fps in VR after this thread and all I have to say is you are a far braver man than I.

[WB_jokkr]

might suggest a few items that may not cost you frames

 

gamma to 0,8

 

target fps off

 

you can try landscape filter to blurred. get rid of spectacular bright spots largely on ground

 

bob

[JonRedcorn]

Target FPS does nothing when the games being displayed on a VR headset.

[=RS=GiantPLANK]

On 3/10/2019 at 9:10 AM, jokkmccarthy said:

might suggest a few items that may not cost you frames

 

gamma to 0,8

 

target fps off

 

you can try landscape filter to blurred. get rid of spectacular bright spots largely on ground

 

bob

thanks this was helpful

On 3/10/2019 at 2:47 AM, JonRedcorn said:

I tried running the game at 50fps in VR after this thread and all I have to say is you are a far braver man than I.

haha well i have never experienced any different so it is all i know.  Have to endure until i can afford a better CPU and GPu

[JonRedcorn]

May I suggest people trying the balanced preset. If only clouds were able to be set to high on balanced it'd be perfect. Games running fantastic for me though now. Using 200% supersamplkng and those settings it's pretty amazing. 

[blitze]

On 3/9/2019 at 7:47 PM, JonRedcorn said:

I tried running the game at 50fps in VR after this thread and all I have to say is you are a far braver man than I.

Depends on your Headset.  Rift / Vive - no way but with the more recent arrivals - quite do-able.

[JonRedcorn]

14 minutes ago, blitze said:

Depends on your Headset.  Rift / Vive - no way but with the more recent arrivals - quite do-able.

It depends on if you can deal with asw on or not. If you have no asw activated than 50fps is to me completely unplayable. Been playing with 90 on the Samsung pretty much all day yesterday. I'd suggest you all give the high fps a try you'll see how smooth everything becomes. I find it's a lot less stressful as well. Just throw the game on low and go fly around and see how smooth it feels. 

[=RS=GiantPLANK]

51 minutes ago, JonRedcorn said:

It depends on if you can deal with asw on or not. If you have no asw activated than 50fps is to me completely unplayable. Been playing with 90 on the Samsung pretty much all day yesterday. I'd suggest you all give the high fps a try you'll see how smooth everything becomes. I find it's a lot less stressful as well. Just throw the game on low and go fly around and see how smooth it feels. 

 

Jon what does Super sampling do? and how does it affect system resources?

How do I turn ASW on?  Errr. what is it? and, again, will it eat my CPU/GPU resources?

[HunDread]

6 hours ago, JonRedcorn said:

May I suggest people trying the balanced preset. If only clouds were able to be set to high on balanced it'd be perfect. Games running fantastic for me though now. Using 200% supersamplkng and those settings it's pretty amazing. 

 

I would like to but clouds look horrible on Balanced on Rift.

 

I even created a topic in the Bug section but no replies no ups so this seems a no issue for the community in general so I don't forsee any efforts put into fixing it by the Devs.

 

 

[=RS=GiantPLANK]

21 hours ago, Black_Sab said:

 

I would like to but clouds look horrible on Balanced on Rift.

 

I even created a topic in the Bug section but no replies no ups so this seems a no issue for the community in general so I don't forsee any efforts put into fixing it by the Devs.

 

 

i have clouds on low, they dont look great and tend to do a bit of a "pixel dance" but as i am a VR beggar, I cant be a chooser!

[dburne]

4 minutes ago, GiantCorn said:

i have clouds on low, they dont look great and tend to do a bit of a "pixel dance" but as i am a VR beggar, I cant be a chooser!

 

Well the clouds certainly look better on High, but the "pixel dance" is still there.

[=RS=GiantPLANK]

4 minutes ago, dburne said:

 

Well the clouds certainly look better on High, but the "pixel dance" is still there.

 

 

I try to see the big picture.  We are what? 4-6 years into VR?

 

I actually turned the clouds up to medium (caution be damned!) and when I flew through them i saw the water droplets on the canopy.  It was a lovely touch in 2D, but man, in 3D it really does make me smile.  Early morning sunrise, lazy climb through the clouds in my spit IX.... makes you want to wipe away a tear!

[dburne]

1 minute ago, GiantCorn said:

 

 

I try to see the big picture.  We are what? 4-6 years into VR?

 

I actually turned the clouds up to medium (caution be damned!) and when I flew through them i saw the water droplets on the canopy.  It was a lovely touch in 2D, but man, in 3D it really does make me smile.  Early morning sunrise, lazy climb through the clouds in my spit IX.... makes you want to wipe away a tear!

 

Not even three years yet officially, but close.

 

Yeah water droplets look great

[=WoVi=cercataa]

10 minutes ago, dburne said:

Not even three years yet officially, but close.

 

Yes, comercial VR is gonna make 3 years soon ... and it's amazing what we have now !!!!

2nd gen is gonna blow our minds !!!!

[HunDread]

1 hour ago, GiantCorn said:

i have clouds on low, they dont look great and tend to do a bit of a "pixel dance" but as i am a VR beggar, I cant be a chooser!

 

Yeah I had it on Balanced for quite a long time and I was OK. I accepted the pixel-dance. But then I tried High preset / High clouds and now it's hard to go back. It is especially horrible when you are looking down at the clouds from high alt when the sunlight is very defined (early morning late afternoon). Looking from below upwards is not that bad. 

[JonRedcorn]

I found that if you leave the clouds on high and used the balanced preset it looked worse then putting them to medium and using it, seemed like they looked even worse when the game was limiting them. I rather have the high frame rates, makes the game so much better. In my opinion of course.

[BP_Lizard]

Those clouds, no matter how sparse and low the setting, drastically cut the FPS in half on my machine.

[JonRedcorn]

2 hours ago, BP_Lizard said:

Those clouds, no matter how sparse and low the setting, drastically cut the FPS in half on my machine.

Yeah apparently I can even run the game on high preset with the clouds on medium pretty much just fine, apparently they are the major source of FPS drain. Trees destroy my framerate, if I go over a forested area, it plumments into the mid 40's from 90 fps. This is on high preset, it's not so bad on balanced, wish I could edit something to get the balanced trees and high clouds.

Edited March 13, 2019 by JonRedcorn

[DD_Arthur]

On 3/9/2019 at 4:31 PM, GiantCorn said:

HI all,

 

I bought an Odyssey + in the sale and thought I might record my experiences thus far for the benefit of those with "pauper rigs" such as myself.  And also to review the O+ to add to JonRedcorn's comments.

 

Prologue

 

My first time in VR after trying a mate's PSVR.  I dont OC my PCs.  I'm not an uber pilot.  I am not an overly-emotional type (British, what-what) but after my 1 v 1 dogfight in VR vs an AI, im shaking.  I cant wait to get online with VR.

 

MY RIG

 

CPU: i5 - 4460 3.2 GHz

GPU:  Gtx 970 Zotac

Ram; 8GB vengeance 1333 Ghz

 

Settings - SEE attached JPG

 

PERFORMANCE

 

In 8 V 8 QMB I was getting a steady 50 FPS.  I did notice occaisional stutters, once or twice during the whole battle.  However, in fairness I used to get these when playing in 2D at higher quality settings. Oh and this was with HUD ON.  I was in a spit and could read my engine settings in % as well as ammo count, speed and direction.  The HUD was very small in VR and just about readable for me if I concentrated.  I probabaly need to start to ween myself off it and onto the gauges. baby steps.....

 

ODYSSEY REVIEW

 

Unlike JonRecorn, my head is a perfect basketball (no really, its quite round), and I did not experience the light bleed from the sides.  There is some from the nose area still but it is not too bad.  In game i didnt really notice, but i am a new VR player and got sucked into the game/new experience, however.

Fit is not great but not awful. the halo feels like its going to slip, but when i am in a battle to be honest I dont really notice, so it does the job.  For the 20-40min play time sessions i have been doing it is perfectly OK.

VISUAL sweetspot - You MUST situate the O+ correctly on your head to take advantage of the sweetspot on clarity.  The halo must rest towards the hairline at the front, while at the base of the occipital bun at the back.  This will give you a clear picture, such that reading text on the hud and dials is no problem.  I do sometimes see the circular rings of the glass when my head is not correclty situated, but when you do as i instructed above, problem solved.

 

 

PLAY & EXPERIENCE

 

As a VR noob playing at 50 FPS in 1v1, 8v8 QMB I have to say.....HOLY MARY MOTHER OF BABY JESUS.  Best 350 USD I have spent in along while.  The graphics are not great, yes, i had to lower the quality to maintain 50-55 FPS on my old rig.  BUT i did not get nausea with the setting above in an intense dogfight and I am middlingly susceptible to motion sickness.  The situation awareness, depth perception, and sense of immersion, even on my weak PC were simply priceless. It has completey changed this software from "GAME" to "SIMULATOR" for me.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

If you have an old PC (as mine) and are reading all the other VR player comments about their high-end pcs and feeling some trepidation about taking the plunge into VR...Then i hope this review gives you heart, or at least resolve.

 

It is simply game changing.  Today I fulfilled a boy-hood dream.  I flew a spitfire.  I flew a spitfire in combat.  I flew a spitfire and I WAS THERE.

 

 

 

 

What a great review GiantCorn!  Exactly the kind of info I'm interested in as I have a system very similar to yours and am thinking hard about options and choices for VR right now.

 

 

[Ceowulf]

Thanks for this write up, GiantCorn.  Your plain language was quite helpful. 

 

I just bought an Odyssey+ on the site sale ($323 shipped) and am waiting for it to arrive.  I confess to having done minimal reading first do to life business and am now encouraged that my 6600k, 1070, and 16gb 3200mhz will pull it off.  Not speaking technically but rather, I hope to enjoy VR like you do in spite of whatever limits.  

 

Ceowulf<><

[=RS=GiantPLANK]

11 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

 

What a great review GiantCorn!  Exactly the kind of info I'm interested in as I have a system very similar to yours and am thinking hard about options and choices for VR right now.

 

 

 

Most welcome Arthur!  Im just glad to be of help here.  I see so many great posts and the comunity is so helpful I thought I would try to chip in and figured this was a bit of a niche that I could fill.

 

If you do decide to go the VR route feel free to PM me if you need any help in setting up. I just came out of a multiplay game against a well known and deadly player (IMO) who usually bounces me by total surprise and i never even se where he comes from.  Today because of VR i had total situation awareness that I got the drop on him!! my gunnery is also MUCH better and although he turned the tables on me I got into a rolling scissors with him and kept him off me.  I was shaking through excitment, surprise and visceral thrill.

 

One thing during the fight that was tough tho was spotting him when he was very low and moving away.  the plane just blends into the backround especially when side on with little profile.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Ceowulf said:

Thanks for this write up, GiantCorn.  Your plain language was quite helpful. 

 

I just bought an Odyssey+ on the site sale ($323 shipped) and am waiting for it to arrive.  I confess to having done minimal reading first do to life business and am now encouraged that my 6600k, 1070, and 16gb 3200mhz will pull it off.  Not speaking technically but rather, I hope to enjoy VR like you do in spite of whatever limits.  

 

Ceowulf<><

 

Glad to be of help Ceowulf! Yes always was of the opinion to write clearly and plainly!  Congrats on the purchase, I love my O+ even with the issues i have had. Check my other thread about blackscreen issues.  I think I may have solved it.  Hopefully you wont have such issues.

 

Your PC looks better than mine so I am sure you will be able to run things at a better FPS than me (about 45-55 depending on altitude, clouds, action).  If you have any questions feel free to PM me and ill help if i can.

 

[whitav8]

One of the most critical aspects of using an older Windows 10 system for WMR (especially the Odyssey+) is making sure that you have build 1809. Other than that (which will have WMR Portal in it) then you load both SteamVR and SteamVR Mixed Reality addon.  Many folks are having problems with making sure you have USB 3.0 with enough current and HDMI 1.4. I have a brand new CPU (9700K at 5GHz) but still ended up with a Valve Link Box (with power supply), a male-male USB 3.0 and a male-male HDMI 6ft cable so as to have a long enough cable for the Odyssey+

[HunDread]

On 3/12/2019 at 4:04 PM, Black_Sab said:

 

Yeah I had it on Balanced for quite a long time and I was OK. I accepted the pixel-dance. But then I tried High preset / High clouds and now it's hard to go back. It is especially horrible when you are looking down at the clouds from high alt when the sunlight is very defined (early morning late afternoon). Looking from below upwards is not that bad. 

 

I have to re-evaluate my opinion on this. I tried Balanced with 1.2 (OTT!) SuperSampling (and no AA) and the clouds look much much better than what I remember from before. It's totally acceptable now. I still see the pixel dance but only on far clouds - further than before. It also seems true that Medium clouds setting looks better with Balanced preset than High clouds setting.

 

One more advantage is that on Balanced with Med-Clouds I don't see that approx 2 FPS stuttering of clouds that is really annoying on HIGH/HIGH

 

I'm not sure if I found a sweet-spot in settings or the devs have done optimizations since I last tried with Balanced/Med. At some point I might try to do some testing to find out.

[HunDread]

On 3/17/2019 at 1:32 PM, Black_Sab said:

 

I have to re-evaluate my opinion on this. I tried Balanced with 1.2 (OTT!) SuperSampling (and no AA) and the clouds look much much better than what I remember from before. It's totally acceptable now. I still see the pixel dance but only on far clouds - further than before. It also seems true that Medium clouds setting looks better with Balanced preset than High clouds setting.

 

One more advantage is that on Balanced with Med-Clouds I don't see that approx 2 FPS stuttering of clouds that is really annoying on HIGH/HIGH

 

I'm not sure if I found a sweet-spot in settings or the devs have done optimizations since I last tried with Balanced/Med. At some point I might try to do some testing to find out.

 

Changing opinion again. Clouds on Balanced still look like crap.

[JonRedcorn]

2 hours ago, Black_Sab said:

 

Changing opinion again. Clouds on Balanced still look like crap.

This is the constant battle of vr. It gets tiring! 

[lightbulbjim]

10 hours ago, JonRedcorn said:

This is the constant battle of vr. It gets tiring! 

I think the path to happiness is to stop tweaking, configure conservative options and just play. Better hardware will be available in the future and things will improve.

[JonRedcorn]

2 hours ago, lightbulbjim said:

I think the path to happiness is to stop tweaking, configure conservative options and just play. Better hardware will be available in the future and things will improve.

That's why I've pretty much just shelved the two VR headsets for now. Been playing a ton of 1946 and loving every minute of it.

Edited March 25, 2019 by JonRedcorn

[DD_Arthur]

On 3/9/2019 at 4:31 PM, GiantCorn said:

.....HOLY MARY MOTHER OF BABY JESUS.  

 

Plugged my ebay Rift in tonight for the first time.

 

Yeah, what GiantCorn said!  

 

 

[JonRedcorn]

52 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

 

Plugged my ebay Rift in tonight for the first time.

 

Yeah, what GiantCorn said!  

 

 

I remember my first beer.

[DD_Arthur]

Lol, yeah; it was one of those moments.

 

Went to bed at three freakin' a.m!  sigh.........  

[dburne]

8 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

 

Plugged my ebay Rift in tonight for the first time.

 

Yeah, what GiantCorn said!  

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the club!

[=RS=GiantPLANK]

10 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

 

Plugged my ebay Rift in tonight for the first time.

 

Yeah, what GiantCorn said!  

 

 

 

haha welcome to the club!  There is no going back for me now.  After a few weeks with my O+ im happy.  The graphics are not highest and IDing planes is super tough (i cant raise SS due to pc limits) but the feeling for the plane, 3d position, tracking enemy, shot placement are out of this world.

 

case in point - last night was on WoL in a P40.  He111 up high for level bombing.  i was probably 500-700 m away at his low 7, I fired a burst with a guessed lead.  bullseye on his left engine. black smoke!  in 2D i would have had to pull a ghostbusters and walked that stream in alerting him to my presence.

 

 

[DD_Arthur]

 

[JonRedcorn]

13 hours ago, GiantCorn said:

 

haha welcome to the club!  There is no going back for me now.  After a few weeks with my O+ im happy.  The graphics are not highest and IDing planes is super tough (i cant raise SS due to pc limits) but the feeling for the plane, 3d position, tracking enemy, shot placement are out of this world.

 

case in point - last night was on WoL in a P40.  He111 up high for level bombing.  i was probably 500-700 m away at his low 7, I fired a burst with a guessed lead.  bullseye on his left engine. black smoke!  in 2D i would have had to pull a ghostbusters and walked that stream in alerting him to my presence.

 

 

You can use the 3dmigoto mod to give you increased zoom, pretty much mandatory.