VR (Oculus/ HTC Vive) topic, gathered some answers and replies:
- Heat - there is no heat generated to the face or head all it's diverted to the front of the HMD and user do not feel any. Not sure what you mean by ergo sweat but I do not see any difference in sweating - I did sweat a lot and I am sweating now as well - work out on SS2 and HE Ultimate with combo of hot and humid climate without air con
- Resolution - it's lower than on screens for sure but you will get used to it very quickly - if you are practical and not design person
- Weight - no issue at all. Did 8 hours in Spa without any pause apart of pit stops.
- Refresh rate - it's maxed to 90, but you will not see difference with monitors. Generally refresh rate have major impact on speed - smaller rate - faster feel. higher rate - slower feel. As long you have PC for maintain stable 45 FPS you will have no issues
- Button Boxes - it's not waste of money if you have them placed well without any special effort to reach them. I do operate up to 30 push buttons, 17 toggles, 15 rotaries with 99% hit accuracy - good placement = muscle memory. SLI - use in-car HUD for it
VR conclusion - it's direction for SimRacers. Waste money I would call it for high end triple screen solutions. I have spent S$4500 for 3x P279Q and after 3 months I have sold it for 3K. Do not forget space for triples which is reflected in rental every month
Rift goggles are light and actually pretty comfortable the way the band sets on the back of your head the goggles really sit on your forehead and can be adjust up or down for better view they do get hot after a race but I use a fan on the floor pointing up and it is manageable. maybe not for an endurance race but for 20 laps or so
depends on your video card my 1070 stays locked at 90fps you can make some adjustments in iRacing as well as in the oculus debug tool to make it a little better. you do get a little screen door effect and small text can be difficult to read without really focusing. but how much text are you reading during a race.. the black boxes are easy to read I honestly feel the immersion is a small tradeoff for 1440 144hz
FOV,.. you are sitting in the car everywhere you look you are in the car you can put your head out the window and look down at the ground. you can turn around and see out your back window. MIND BLOWN LOL
motion sickness.. take your time start off slow 1 or 2 laps and work your way up. I started with dirt rally DO NOT DO THAT LOL. after a race or 2 I felt sick and was kind of pissed I went and laid down and was like I need to return it I can’t use it. about an hour went by and I was like damn I need to go use it again...
also the price of the rift is a no brainer compared to big curved triples
Tried VR and it is cool but the low resolution and the "dead rig syndrome" were too much to overcome. I like my real gauges, my real 7" telemetry screen, my button boxes etc. ... I like the race car look of it. A VR rig has a seat, wheel and pedals and nothing else. ATM I am using triple 55" HDTV's, only because of the awesome deal I got. I want to get them around 36"- 42" full HDTV's.
I have Vive, which is slightly heavier, and the weight is not an issue at all. My 7 year old niece bounces around with them on her head for an hour or so (though the strap is a bit long, so we have to shim her head).
The heat from Vive is not a problem. Sweatiness was a problem with the OEM foam, so I switched out to a leatherette VRCover.
The Rift and Vive share the same 2x1080x1200p resolution. The drivers add in a 1.4x multiplier. iRacing adds in a further multiplier that you set in rendererDX11.ini. I use a further 1.5x. This creates a huge resolution, which then gets down sampled to the 2x1080x1200p. That 2x1080x1200 is spread over an FOV of 110deg, so can seem fairly coarse if you sit there pixel-peeping. The pixilation appears to reduce when you move your head.
The refresh rate is 90Hz V-sync. If you let it drop below that, you become a migraine or puke candidate. If you keep it at that, well, it behaves like a 90Hz monitor running at 90Hz. Contrary to popular belief, it is more likely to be the CPU than the GPU causing the bottleneck. Graphics settings can be tweaked into behaving with an Intel CPU at or above 4GHz - a few objects might need to be disabled, especially at Nurb GP track. The problem is that a single CPU core is rendering the whole scene twice in series, and can struggle to achieve it in 1/90th sec. A 980ti and above will not even be at 100% at the highest scene complexities unless some unnecessary super sampling and filtering options are chosen.
The FOV in Vive is 110deg or 360deg, depending how you look at it. It's like wearing a scuba mask. And unlike triples, if I turn my head I get to see what's on the right of me, behind me, on the left of me, above me, or below me. I can drive inches from cars in front or beside me, and in smaller cars lean towards the side window to check the curb
If you can read in a car without getting car sick, you'll probably be fine. If reading in a car makes your car sick, or watching a full length 3D movie at the theater make you want to hurl, you'll probably feel ill for the first 1-3 weeks of using VR. It quickly gets better.
Despite all of that, IT IS AWESOME !!!!
VR vs. triples is a really tough comparison to make via text, because the immersion VR gives is completely indescribable if you've never experienced it before.
I'll just add that, with the Vive, dropping below 90fps is more nausea-inducing than with the Rift, due to the Rift's implementation of ASW (Asynchronous Space Warp), whereas the Vive only utilizes ATW (Asynchronous Time Warp). Basically, the Rift does a slightly better job at simulating a 90fps experience when you drop below 90, so you're less likely to get nauseous.
