Thinking of going VR

[Drano]

So been thinking about this for a while as everybody says it's super awesome in the game. After waiting for a next gen  rift it seems that's happened with the Rift S. Here's the sitch. My hardware is up to spec but I'm on Win7/64 which looks like a deal breaker for the S as the new spec is Win10. I see conflicting reports whether it'll work or not. Some say it'll work but you'd "miss out on cool features" that as far as I can tell I might never use. I'm just looking for the looking around the cockpit in VR here, they can keep the rest. I'm not a dedicated "gamer". I loaded the software and it installed without issue but I haven't bought the headset as I'm afraid it just won't detect when I plug in. So I'm taking a step back for a sec.

Going to Win10 I'm guessing would be a problem for my mobo which is a z68 circa 2010 board. There are no drivers or bios for it beyond win8. I've tried resisting the step to win10 as it just seems to add a ton of useless overhead not to mention endless data mining and auto updating which I really dislike. Upgrading my mobo/cpu/memory to accommodate that OS would add a few hundred dollars to the project. So I'd like to avoid that. I know it's inevitable!

I see the HTC Vive will still work on Win7. That might be an alternative too. Looks close in spec otherwise. It's about a hundred bucks more than the Rift S but if it'd save me the expense of upgrading all the other stuff I come out ahead.

So what do you guys think I should do? Anybody able to use the Rift Son Win7? How about the Vive? How is that compared to the Rift? Thanks.


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[Bizman]

Going to Win10 I'm guessing would be a problem for my mobo which is a z68 circa 2010 board. There are no drivers or bios for it beyond win8. I've tried resisting the step to win10 as it just seems to add a ton of useless overhead not to mention endless data mining and auto updating which I really dislike.

FWIW I've successfully installed W10 on old Vista era computers with Core2 processors. The Z68 was launched in Spring 2011 so it's definitely newer than those. I've also had greater success with Intel than AMD, apparently MS has some sympathy for Intel since the Device Manager can update the motherboard drivers to reasonably recent ones. I know letting Windows find the right drivers is commonly known to be the worst thing to do for your computer, however in the case of older hardware it may be the only available way and I can tell by experience that it works to an extent.

Plug in a fresh drive and do a clean install of W10 using your existing W7 license code for testing. If it works, good. If not, just swap the old HDD back. Here's the download link for 10: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

[Easyscor]

I have a lot of empathy for your reluctance. I went through the same thing when the Oculus software stopped working with Win7 on my P67 motherboard (ASUS P8P67.) But I couldn’t bring myself to sell the Rift after using it in AH.

After running 10 over the last six or eight months, I’m finally as happy with it as I was with Win7.

Besides the telemetry, one of the worst aspects of Win10 is the steep learning curve required to customize the desktop user interface the way you’re used to. Six month on, I finally discovered how to boot the PC from the keyboard again using Ctrl+Esc, one of my most missed features from Win7.

As your motherboard is a series newer then mine, and updating your hardware to current boards and processors will force you into Win10 anyway, you might as well follow Bizman’s advice. You can dual-boot between 7 or 10 until you’re completely ready to cut the Win7 strings. Put the Win10 installer on a USB and you can reinstall it repeatedly. Call it a do-over when things like the sound settings get porked while you’re learning and testing.

[Drano]

Clearing some space on one of the drives to set up dual boot so I can just go back of I need to. Will give Win10 a shot over the weekend. Hey it'll either work or it won't right?

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[Eagler]

vive pro works well in AH3

[Drano]

Ok I finally got the Rift S set up. Was a chore every step of the way! Had to go to Win10 of course. No big deal right? I just bought a 1TB SSD and figured I'd clone my existing drive to the new one and rock on from there. But I put this thing together so long ago I kinda spaced out I had IRST running and my original drive was in RAID with a little cache drive. When I booted up with the new drive in there the RAID didn't like this stranger! So that had me tangled up for a while. I worked through it. Multiple repair boots with the Win7 disc at least got me to where the thing would even boot up and could proceed. I'll still have to mess with the old drives at some point but at least I have everything backed up.

Made some other partitions on the new drive and loaded Win10/64 pro using my Win7/64 pro key. That went pretty much flawlessly. Did an update and let it do it's thing. Updated my video drivers right off. Plug in the Rift S and it isn't being picked up on any of the DP on my card! The monitor works on all of them so I know that isn't the problem. It's seeing the usb 3 plug just fine tho. Although the compatibility test said it didn't like the ones on my mobo so I ordered a Fresco expansion card. Which I updated too but the Rift S doesn't like it! Go figure! Everything else I have plugged into it works fine! Back to video, for some reason Win10 is not actually picking up that I had the new drivers even after multiple attempts at installing them. Like I haven't done this a zillion times by now! I kept seeing a version from like 2017 no matter what I did. Like v388.13 which I think is the base Win10 driver. After pulling more hair out and google being my friend I find the most recent nvidia drivers (at least from the other day) had a "known" issue with my now updated version of Win10 and there was a hotfix issued for it. Installed those (v430.97) and bazinga! I'm back in business. Christ how hard could this be? I could have installed those other "new" drivers a hundred times and they'd never have worked!

I plug in and everything works finally! Get stuff all paired up. Playing around with one of the tutorials I spilled a drink on my keyboard and lap trying to catch a ping pong ball I dropped in the virtual world! So a painful lesson learned there right off the bat! But I gotta work around that. FSO with no beer just ain't gonna work!

Got all of my controllers set up. I thought I'd have a problem with the CH Pro Throttle as I've read that the CH Control Manager in Win10 was a no go. But I just installed it and copied over my map files from the backup drive, downloaded them, calibrated, put in mapped mode and it works. I'll take it!

Only have a few hours in AH with it. The world looks great and the cockpits are like---touchable! About the only thing I haven't figured out and I don't know if is possible. Is there a way to disable the Oculus hand controllers in AH? I figured out how to ditch the graphical hands but that's all. I have a HOTAS system with buttons out the wahzoo and it's a lot easier to find the mouse right in front of me than to fiddle with the right controller I have hanging on my joystick stand. That trigger button is real twitchy!




 

[1stpar3]

Yes you can Disable easy...under Options: map controls. In the Drop down box on top, all controllers recognized will show up, just disable the ones you dont use! WELCOME to VR We even have some NEW WAYS to get familiar with VR...Capt.Tripp's WW1 Arena(I.E.  HOLY CRAP---best ever) and WO:P (a bit dumbed down but effective for familiarization). Its a GREAT NEW WORLD with VR Also, ou may be aware,since you have followed a lot of VR postings....VOICE ATTACK is also a pretty sweet APP. You might find yourself needing, as typing commands with VR isnt always the easiest

[FLS]

I never use the Oculus controllers or a mouse with AH VR. I have the mouse buttons mapped to a hat and I just look and click.

To really get a sense of the difference VR makes I recommend driving a jeep into a bomber hanger. 

Don't forget a fan, if you fly WW1 use a big fan.   

[Drano]

I downloaded voice attack but haven't gotten to it yet. Will see about ditching the controllers too as they're rather annoying at least for AH. Was cool the first time when I grabbed the yoke on the 38 with both hands tho!

[Vulcan]

If you're on the fence drano I suggest visiting your local electronics store and asking for a VR demo of boinkVR.



Oh...

...don't take your wife along.

[Drano]

Too late bro! Was happy birthday to me! Tonight's project was getting voice recognition setup for voice attack. Will get into that tomorrow.

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[Vulcan]

Congrats!