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Need help/advice from VR users

Started by infected247, January 18, 2021, 11:30:57 PM

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infected247

Hi everyone, it's been a couple of months since I first played GPB, (needless to say I loved it) and I am looking to "upgrade" the experience. The first thing that comes to mind, is getting a VR headset.  I don't know if it gets more immersive than that, with just one piece of gear. It's been almost 15 years since I've played any games (apart from SBK2001 every now and then, and the occasional bikes game demo) so I won't be needing any features that do not apply to GPB. (like moving around untethered etc) With respect to price range, I want to stay below 500-600EUR if possible, as I will be needing a graphics card too.

So, tell me what things I should consider carefully before buying, what are some good options, what things you liked/disliked about your headsets, things you wish you knew before you bought them, what pixel resolution to go for, etc....
What I'm especially interested in, is whether you've had compatibility issues with GPB, e.g. is it likely than any non oculus or htc stuff won't work with GPB?
Also, I am expecting to be able to use 3DOF for "Mouselook/Freelook" and another 2 for rider lean F/B and L/R, directly from the headset obviously. Is that feasible easily through the GPB settings menu? Or do I still have to fiddle with OpenTrack/vJoy and the likes, to get it working?

Also, my crappy 50EUR nVidia Geforce GT710 (2GB) is pushing 70+/-20FPS at 1600x900 at reasonably high settings, with the occasional drop of course to 35-45 in certain spots at some tracks. Given the double overhead that will be required for VR, what graphics cards do you suggest for a smooth ride?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

PS. I didn't know if I should post this in "VR" or "General Discussion", I hope it's ok here.

PS2. Is it possible to get GPB in VR mode to render the two side by side views, if no headset is connected?

Chris_Beeves

Hello!
I've had a HTC vive for a while, and just got an Oculus Quest2 for myself and a Vive Cosmos Elite for another project. The Quest is way sharper than the Vive Cosmos and the Cosmos is way sharper than the normal Vive. So Quest2 any day.
I have still to get the Quest working on my computer though. My wifi is too slow and my USB3 ports don't seem to work for VR. I use a AMD RX580 8GB, i7 processor @4,6MHz, 32GB DDR3 RAM and it struggles with the more detailed tracks. I'd go for at least a Nvidia 1070. What CPU do you have?

Freelook works ok with only the headset. If you want to tweak it to get it "just right" you'll need Vjoy & co.
I had to try..

Vini

January 19, 2021, 05:06:10 PM #2 Last Edit: January 19, 2021, 05:32:54 PM by Vini
Even though Oculus is an absolute shit company with poor customer service, their products are pretty solid. You will have the best compatibility and most importantly the ASW framedrop compensation algorithm which is far superior to competing software. This will in turn lead to lower minimum system specs. I didn't buy into it at first but it really makes a huge difference and is crucial to getting smooth gameplay since even in GPB keeping constant 90FPS everywhere is pretty difficult.

I am running the Rift CV1 on a GTX970, 8GB RAM and an i5-2500K@4.7GHz. The bottleneck is the CPU in my case but I am quite happy with my system and its performance. Apart from a few exceptions where tracks have a lot of ressource-heavy extra stuff, it runs smoothly and there is no motion sickness.
VR works very well with GPB out of the box but like Chris said, for more advanced input tweaking you will need OpenTrack/vJoy. For example, I have recently been testing steering the bike with the Oculus controller tracking. In general, GPB is very open for external trickery so there is almost no limit to what you can do.

Before buying the Rift from Allan, I tested the Valve index which really doesn't feel like a big upgrade. The resolution and FoV feels only slightly better (you can still see the pixels) and the higher framerate doesn't make a big difference either, especially since the SteamVR framedrop compensation is far worse than Oculus' ASW and hitting constant 120/144 FPS in VR is close to impossible. It also weighs twice as much the Rift, which resulted in the headset constantly sliding away from the perfect position, leading to a completely out-of-focus image.

IMO at the moment, the old generation of VR headset is the more reasonable choice, especially once you take ergonomics into account. A lot of headsets were also downgraded in certain regards compared to the predecessors (e.g. lower framerate, LCD instead of OLED, more weight, etc.).
While the "true next-gen headsets" (4K+ resolution) will definitely give a new level of VR experience, there is currently no way to utilize their full potential unless you have a NASA computer at home.

doubledragoncc

DUDE!!! I am DD not Allan lol, only a few know my name here

Anywho I am thinking of setting up a VR club for regular meetings online to race so we can maybe help each other in realtime and just enjoy the great feeling of VR together, just an idea but will work on it.

Cant thank Piboso enough for making VR in GPB it is just brilliant

DD
GPBOC Live Streams: https://www.youtube.com/c/IASystemsComputerControls; i7 12700K 5.1GHz Z690 ASUS Strix Z690-A Mobo 32GB 3600MHz DDR4 RAM ASUS Strix RTX3080 OC 10GB DDR6X ASUS Ryujin 360 AOI Cooler ROG Thor 1200w PSU in ROG Helios Tower Case.

infected247

Hi guys, thank you for replying. From what you say, it seems that I will need a much more expensive graphics card than I expected... I naively assumed that since GPB is not very GPU intensive , I would get away with something less powerful, but it seems I was wrong. I also kinda thought that maybe you could lower the headset display resolution for a performance boost, if needed... I understand that's not the case, right?  :-\


Quote from: Chris_Beeves on January 19, 2021, 08:06:59 AMHello!
I've had a HTC vive for a while, and just got an Oculus Quest2 for myself and a Vive Cosmos Elite for another project. The Quest is way sharper than the Vive Cosmos and the Cosmos is way sharper than the normal Vive. So Quest2 any day.
I have still to get the Quest working on my computer though. My wifi is too slow and my USB3 ports don't seem to work for VR. I use a AMD RX580 8GB, i7 processor @4,6MHz, 32GB DDR3 RAM and it struggles with the more detailed tracks. I'd go for at least a Nvidia 1070. What CPU do you have?

Freelook works ok with only the headset. If you want to tweak it to get it "just right" you'll need Vjoy & co.
Hey Chris, I've been reading some reviews these days, and indeed the Quest2 sounds too good. It's also cheaper than most HTC stuff, from what I see. What concerns me though, is that it's almost 7 megapixels, and I don't know how my computer would cope with that! Now I see why you suggested a 1070 as minimum... Also, can you confirm that Windows 10 OS is required?

Your issue with the USB3 ports seems weird, because I've read people claim that it worked perfectly fine with USB2 despite the stated "minumum requirements". Anyway, I plan on using the headset with a 5 year old intel i5-6500, 16GB DDR3 that I used solely for music production until now. The computer I use for GPB at the moment should be locked in a museum somewhere, so I'll leave it here...  ;D



Quote from: Vini on January 19, 2021, 05:06:10 PMEven though Oculus is an absolute shit company with poor customer service, their products are pretty solid. You will have the best compatibility and most importantly the ASW framedrop compensation algorithm which is far superior to competing software. This will in turn lead to lower minimum system specs. I didn't buy into it at first but it really makes a huge difference and is crucial to getting smooth gameplay since even in GPB keeping constant 90FPS everywhere is pretty difficult.
Thanks Vini, I didn't about that framedrop algorithm, sounds like it works quite good, so that a big plus.


Quote from: Vini on January 19, 2021, 05:06:10 PMVR works very well with GPB out of the box but like Chris said, for more advanced input tweaking you will need OpenTrack/vJoy. For example, I have recently been testing steering the bike with the Oculus controller tracking. In general, GPB is very open for external trickery so there is almost no limit to what you can do.
No big deal with OpenTrack/vJoy, just trying to keep the hassle at a minimum. The issue I had with OpenTrack was when loading two instances at the same time, settings from the two profiles were messed and I had to sort them out each time. It's better now that my EDtracker finally arrived, but still trying to keep things as "plug and play" as possible.
I've seen your topic with the VR handlebars, really cool! I hope I'll be able to try it soon ;D

Quote from: Vini on January 19, 2021, 05:06:10 PMIMO at the moment, the old generation of VR headset is the more reasonable choice, especially once you take ergonomics into account. A lot of headsets were also downgraded in certain regards compared to the predecessors (e.g. lower framerate, LCD instead of OLED, more weight, etc.).
While the "true next-gen headsets" (4K+ resolution) will definitely give a new level of VR experience, there is currently no way to utilize their full potential unless you have a NASA computer at home.
You do have a point here... I'll look a little further into some of the earlier stuff.

infected247

Quote from: doubledragoncc on January 19, 2021, 06:20:46 PMDUDE!!! I am DD not Allan lol, only a few know my name here

Anywho I am thinking of setting up a VR club for regular meetings online to race so we can maybe help each other in realtime and just enjoy the great feeling of VR together, just an idea but will work on it.

Cant thank Piboso enough for making VR in GPB it is just brilliant

DD
Hey man, I want to take the opportunity and thank you personally because I found out about GPBikes through your website, and because of all the hard work you've done with the databases and keeping things online and updated. I've seen the old topic with the Dorna people presentation and it's really amazing how you tried to promote GPB. So... THANK YOU!!!  ;D

Vini

Quote from: infected247 on January 20, 2021, 12:16:34 AMFrom what you say, it seems that I will need a much more expensive graphics card than I expected... I naively assumed that since GPB is not very GPU intensive , I would get away with something less powerful, but it seems I was wrong. I also kinda thought that maybe you could lower the headset display resolution for a performance boost, if needed
I think you can do that, at least on an Oculus device, with the pixel density setting.
Used GTX970s or 1070s are pretty affordable. Used VR headsets also sell for very reasonable prices.
Like I said, I would go for the budget option right now and upgrade in a few years when 4K/120fps-capable hardware becomes affordable.

BTW, yes, sadly Win10 is required. I had to bite the bullet as well.

For the headset you need HDMI or DisplayPort and USB2.0 (the USB is just for sound and power). The sensors should be connected to USB3 for the best tracking but like Chris said, some motherboards have incompatible controllers. You should be able to find a list for supported USB hubs on the manufacturer's site.

Quote from: infected247 on January 20, 2021, 12:16:34 AMThe issue I had with OpenTrack was when loading two instances at the same time, settings from the two profiles were messed and I had to sort them out each time.
OpenTrack doesn't currently seem to support two parallel instances outputting to vJoy. This is a issue for me at the moment as well. I am looking through the source code to see if I can recompile it with a different vJoy device numbers hardcoded into the executable.

doubledragoncc

Quote from: infected247 on January 20, 2021, 12:29:39 AM
Quote from: doubledragoncc on January 19, 2021, 06:20:46 PMDUDE!!! I am DD not Allan lol, only a few know my name here

Anywho I am thinking of setting up a VR club for regular meetings online to race so we can maybe help each other in realtime and just enjoy the great feeling of VR together, just an idea but will work on it.

Cant thank Piboso enough for making VR in GPB it is just brilliant

DD
Hey man, I want to take the opportunity and thank you personally because I found out about GPBikes through your website, and because of all the hard work you've done with the databases and keeping things online and updated. I've seen the old topic with the Dorna people presentation and it's really amazing how you tried to promote GPB. So... THANK YOU!!!  ;D

Thankyou sooo much for the very kind words and it makes me feel good to know I at least helped one person.

DD
GPBOC Live Streams: https://www.youtube.com/c/IASystemsComputerControls; i7 12700K 5.1GHz Z690 ASUS Strix Z690-A Mobo 32GB 3600MHz DDR4 RAM ASUS Strix RTX3080 OC 10GB DDR6X ASUS Ryujin 360 AOI Cooler ROG Thor 1200w PSU in ROG Helios Tower Case.

infected247

And there I was taking my coffee in the morning, trying to get my eyes open to read some news in my mobile phone, and the first suggested page is an "Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1070 for sale (used)", :o  with today's date and about 40minutes drive from where I live... ;D Don't you just love karma?  ;D (and google suggested articles? ) lol

Quote from: Vini on January 20, 2021, 09:39:14 AMI think you can do that, at least on an Oculus device, with the pixel density setting.
Used GTX970s or 1070s are pretty affordable. Used VR headsets also sell for very reasonable prices.
Like I said, I would go for the budget option right now and upgrade in a few years when 4K/120fps-capable hardware becomes affordable.
Right, I knew I had seen something like that in the forum, that's probably how I got the idea in the first place. That's good in case things don't work out that well.
As for the 1070, I already sent a PM to the seller, I hope it's still available.  :D I agree, sticking to the basics for now seems to be the most reasonable thing to do, at least in my case.

Quote from: Vini on January 20, 2021, 09:39:14 AMOpenTrack doesn't currently seem to support two parallel instances outputting to vJoy. This is a issue for me at the moment as well. I am looking through the source code to see if I can recompile it with a different vJoy device numbers hardcoded into the executable.
I am aware of that issue, I think I've read about it on the forum. In my case, I wasn't using two outputs to vJoy, I used one instance to split 3DOF (yaw, pitch, roll) from a 6DOF head tracking thingy I made, and send it to GPB as FreeTrack data to use for Freelook, and another two DOF (translation X,Z) that were routed to vJoy and used for rider leaning. The guy who runs the OpenTrack project in github seems quite active and open to suggestions, did you try to get to him?

Vini

Quote from: infected247 on January 20, 2021, 11:51:42 AMIn my case, I wasn't using two outputs to vJoy, I used one instance to split 3DOF (yaw, pitch, roll) from a 6DOF head tracking thingy I made, and send it to GPB as FreeTrack data to use for Freelook, and another two DOF (translation X,Z) that were routed to vJoy and used for rider leaning.
Damn, just checked it and I get the same problems.

Quote from: infected247 on January 20, 2021, 11:51:42 AMThe guy who runs the OpenTrack project in github seems quite active and open to suggestions, did you try to get to him?
Tried but no luck so far.

infected247

Quote from: Vini on January 20, 2021, 01:01:31 PMDamn, just checked it and I get the same problems.
If it wasn't written with multiple instances support in the first place, it would be quite a long shot to expect it to work properly... It's been *very* long since I've done any win32 programming so take it with a grain of salt, but it looks like some windows messages posted by one instance, are somehow globally processed by all instances, without checking the handle of the window that posted the message in the first place. This would explain e.g. why loading one profile seems to screw the other, or why the window title bar always reads the last loaded profile name.

Vini

I guess you could use another program in parallel then, like FreeTrack.

infected247

Quote from: Vini on January 20, 2021, 10:53:07 PMI guess you could use another program in parallel then, like FreeTrack.
Not quite sure what you mean. It worked in my case (unless I closed all instances of course), I just had to go and readjust all settings for both profiles after loading them, and then run GPB

Gray Dev

Hi All

I'm new to GPB but loving it already thanks to DD! I'm running a Vive Pro 2 and the app loads up properly in Steam VR, but when I get into an actual test/race, the lenses are misaligned (seems like the vertical alignment of the two lenses is off) and it causes enough eye strain that it is unplayable in VR this way. I've run hundreds of VR apps over the years and never faced this problem. Has anyone else experienced this? Any help with this issue is much appreciated, as I'm really excited to get into GBP properly in VR!

Vini

Can you try with Steam/SteamVR closed? Just put headset on and start GPB VR link.