A few tips for if you want to play career with the Oculus Rift.
They have no in game HUD with the rift so you have no information about what lap it is or what position you are in. It is even worse in time trial because you can't see how much time you have left or how many points, it doesn't even tell you when the time trial starts.
There are a few hotkeys which you should bind for the Oculus which makes it a lot better.
Look left: restart session
Look behind: start race
Look right: exit session
Celebrate: recenters the rift
Bind these to your wheel and it should make things a lot easier.
For a race I found this is the best way to do it.
When you start a race it will instantly start the countdown to the for the race, this means you only have 7 seconds to get ready. I find it is easier to press the "Look left: restart session" this will restart you on the grid but won't start the countdown. This will give you as much time as you need to get ready then click the "Look behind: start race" then it will start the 7 second countdown to the start of the race. When the race is over press the "Look right: exit session" button and it will take you back to the main screen and the results.
In Time trials it is a real pain because the clock starts as soon as you are in the car, even before the headset warning sign is gone.
For Time trials I find it is best to leave your mouse hovering over the "Start Engine" button, then put the rift on and click the mouse to start the time trial. As soon as you get in to the car the timer will start so just shift up and floor it as soon as you get in, don't wait for the headset warning to disappear. Then once you are moving you can recenter the oculus etc. You won't have any display for how long you have left in the time trial so just keep racing until the screen goes black and it shows an outside view of your car. Press "Look right: exit session" and it will take you back to the results page so you can see how well you did.
The "Look left: restart session" button doesn't restart the timer in time trial so it doesn't work with the rift, if you want to try again or restart the time trial you need to exit the session and start it again.
There is an easy way to switch runtimes using batch files
Here is guide on how to do it.
Step 1: Uninstall 0.8.0.0
Step 2: Install 0.6.0.1
Step 3: Copy the contents of C:\program files (x86)\Oculus to another folder i.e D:\games\Oculus\Runtimes\Oculus_0601
Step 4: Uninstall 0.6.0.1
Step 4a: Repeat step 2-4 for any other runtimes you want to do
Step 5: reinstall 0.8.0.0
Step 6: Create a batch file to activate 0.6.0.1 and call it something like 0601.cmd
- Code: Select all
@echo off
Echo ***Switching to runtime 0.6.0.1***
Echo ***Stopping Config Util if running***
taskkill /f /im OculusConfigUtil.exe
Echo ***Stopping OVR Server if running***
taskkill /f /im OVRServer_x64.exe
Echo ***Stopping OVR Service if running***
net stop OVRService
Echo ***Disabling Direct Display***
"C:\program files (x86)\Oculus\Tools\DirectDisplayConfig.exe" off
Echo ***Starting 0.6.0.1 OVR Server***
start "" D:\games\Oculus\Runtimes\Oculus_0601\Service\OVRServer_x64.exe
Echo ***Starting 0.6.0.1 Config Util***
start "" D:\games\Oculus\Runtimes\Oculus_0601\Tools\OculusConfigUtil.exe
Step 6a: Create additional batch files for your other runtimes and change the folder name in the last 2 lines of the previous batch file
Step 7: Create a batch file to activate 0.7.0.0 and call it something like 0800.cmd
- Code: Select all
@echo off
Echo ***Switching to runtime 0.8.0.0***
Echo ***Stopping Config Util if running***
taskkill /f /im OculusConfigUtil.exe
Echo ***Stopping OVR Server if running***
taskkill /f /im OVRServer_x64.exe
Echo ***Enabling Direct Display***
"C:\program files (x86)\Oculus\Tools\DirectDisplayConfig.exe" on
Echo ***Starting 0.8.0.0 OVR Server***
net start OVRService
Echo ***Starting 0.8.0.0 Config Util***
start "" "C:\program files (x86)\Oculus\Tools\OculusConfigUtil.exe"
Step 8: Run the desired batchfile as administrator and that will close down the
Here is the batch file I use for 0.6.0.0
- Code: Select all
@echo off
Echo ***Switching to runtime 0.6.0.0***
Echo ***Stopping Config Util if running***
taskkill /f /im OculusConfigUtil.exe
Echo ***Stopping OVR Server if running***
taskkill /f /im OVRServer_x64.exe
Echo ***Stopping OVR Service if running***
net stop OVRService
Echo ***Disabling Direct Display***
"C:\program files (x86)\Oculus\Tools\DirectDisplayConfig.exe" off
Echo ***Starting 0.6.0.0 OVR Server***
start "" D:\games\Oculus\Runtimes\Oculus_0600\Service\OVRServer_x64.exe
Echo ***Starting 0.6.0.0 Config Util***
start "" D:\games\Oculus\Runtimes\Oculus_0600\Tools\OculusConfigUtil.exe
I find it works well. I did find that if you run the built in VR demo then you can’t switch back to 0.7.0.0, a reboot fixes it. If you don’t launch the VR demo then you can switch between runtimes without a problem.
I tested it with Project Cars running in 0.7.0.0 then AC running 0.6.0.1 then some other demos running in direct 0.6.0.0 and then back to Project Cars in 0.7.0.0 and they all worked great.
by Tony » Sun Nov 29, 2015 4:00 am 
