Lot's of people now have an Oculus Quest 2 so this is worth looking at with a view to giving Quest 2 owners a VR option for SO7. Following a previous post from a member of the community regarding getting Starters Orders working on the device (sorry the thread ended up being deleted due to server work) I decided to play around to try to work out the best expierience possible.

Thankfully due to Oculus Air link being introduced this now works better than ever and from my expierience playing the menus in regular 2D (on the monitor) and jumping into the headset to ride a race seems to work fairly seamlessly which is a bonus. It appears you can also turn off the VR screen while playing in the menu's to save the device battery (while the device remains connected) which is a big help for this game where little time is spent in VR. This is currently the best VR expiereince to date for Starters Orders and as a bonus it's inexpensive and completely wireless and the visual quality using the Quest 2 is a noticable improvement from the old teathered headsets previously used (CV1).

You will need:

1. An Oculus Quest 2 headset (Quest 1 may also work).
2. A capable PC with SO7 (SO6 should also work) installed. The headset and PC need to be on the same network and you need to have paired the headset via the Oculus desktop app.
3. You can use the keyboard but idealy a gamepad or joystick (the Oculus controllers won't work in the race). Configure the gamepad beforehand by launching SO7 and hitting 'C' or use the defaults.

Getting it working:

Launch SO7 and go to OPTIONS. Make sure Anti-Aliasing AND Depth of field are OFF and then exit the game.

On your device (in VR) go to SETTINGS > SYSTEM > QUEST LINK. Make sure QUEST LINK is turned on. You may have to pair the device at this point if it's not already done. Select the LAUNCH QUEST LINK option. Both the device and the PC need to be active on the same network!

If you are using a wireless controller make sure it's powered on.
Next launch SO7 from your PC. On the menu a headset icon with ON should be displayed. If it's not quit and check you launched QUEST LINK in VR as above and then restart.

The game menus will not display in the headset yet (3D). This is fine you do not wan't to be navigating complex menu screens with lot's of text in VR for long periods - much better the traditional 2D way on your monitor. The headset should be placed close by and not worn at this point as you will be playing in 2D on your monitor until the race. Tap the on/off button quickly to turn the screen off without shutting the device down to save the devices batteries. Do not hold the button or it may shut down your device.

Start or load a saved game on your PC. You are now playing in 2D as normal (windowed or full screen should work) on your monitor. Enter one of your horses and get to the race menu before the start of the race. A 'ride your horse' button should display top right of the mini race card on the race menu. Tap the power button on the device to turn the screen back on and then Click the RIDE button. You will be told to put the headset on. Put on the headset and then pickup the gamepad (that should have been previously configured).

When you see the race scene in 3D you may need to hit L-SHIFT to re-center the display. This only needs to be done once at the start of the session.

Ride the race.

After the race simply take the headset off and tap the power button once to turn off the display and continue to play in 2D until the next race.

Any issues or improvements please post and I'll update this.

Oculus Quest 1:

I have been asked if this works with the Oculus Quest 1. I have not tried it so can't confirm but a google search seems to suggest it will.

As the PC is doing all the rendering work the lower spec of the Quest 1 should not be a problem. The screen has a slightly lower resolution but I would expect it to be a similar expierience.


TROUBLE:

The 3D is messed up. Go to the game options and make sure the renderer is DX11 and ANTI-ALIASING and DEPTH OF FIELD are turned OFF (everything else can be on) and restart.

The view is not alligned correctly. Sit facing the monitor and hit L-SHIFT. If this does not work the view can be reset via the Oculus headset options.

Artifacts flicker in front of the jockeys view. Try moving your seat slightly forward towards the screen.

Stuttering gameplay issues during the race. Make sure both the PC and the headset have a good WIFI connection.

For me using Jockey Rush, it starts to load the race telling you to put headset on and controller shown, but it just boots you out of the game all together. I think I had the same issue with starters orders.

Hi again Mark.
Nice run down on how to use the Quest to play your games.
I found it pretty thorough and had no trouble following it to make VR work.

As for being kicked out of games before they load a VR race Gregan, I found that track issues were mostly to blame for that.
So if you've downloaded extra or upgraded tracks to add to the game, perhaps they have errors?
This happens to me a lot when I edit or create new tracks, as the racecourse editor can be a bit finicky.

A while back Mark you mentioned a jockey mode possibly being introduced for the next version of Starters Orders.
Is this still a reality? If so can you elaborate on how it will be implemented?
I mean can I be a freelance jockey with no particular ties to just one stable?

It could be related to your PC spec. VR rendering requires additional resources so the game may be fine outside of VR but then crash in VR. Apart from modded racecourse (mentioned) shared video memory on laptops seems to cause a problem for some.



Yep. Streaming wirelessly to the Quest from a PC is a suprisingly good expieirience (dependent on your network speed obviously) and relatively inexpensive. The introduction of Quest Air Link (streaming) has made it relatively pain free. It's a shame the price of a Quest has been hiked so much recently.

The jockey career mode is in progress. Currently you begin by accepting an apprentiship offer and building your reputation with that trainer but it is possible to freelance once you build your reputation. That side of the game needs work. Sim improvements have been mostly done for SO8 outstanding are some new courses and the Jockey mode and a new schedule editor and some other bit's and pieces. Hopefully I can wrap up Android for the 2D game soon and the focus can be entirely on the SO8.

I got it working. It had defaulted to the integrated potato graphics card. Once I changed this it worked, mostly without sound. I don't think the settings in Jockey Rush save as couldn't switch off things and up the anti-aliasing. It's a little bit jagged/pixelated for me for it to be smooth, but it is cool being in amongst it and looking round. I actually for the minute quite enjoy putting a huge curved screen in front of me via Virtual Desktop and playing it that way 2D with up to 145fps. I prefer the newest slightly further back camera. Really enjoyable. Thanks for developing. I'm looking forward to the next jockey installment.

In addition to turning Anti Aliasing off in the options also turn off 'Depth of field' and restart. Having this on can cause visual problems in VR.

It works ok. No sound from the headset. Everything near looks fine, the horses and jockeys. It's just far away stuff and anything white.

I feel it needs the anti aliasing to smooth out the jagged edges etc, but it stays on off when headset is active.

My monitor shows a split screen of the VR action. Strangely, very occasionally in my headset it sometimes shows the same image in both lenses like the monitor, but I can look around and its clean and crisp without any anti aliasing issues. Depth of field on or off didnt seem to make a noticeable difference. Would love a jockey experience in VR using the motion controllers. Jockey Rush would work well with a bit more jockey controls using the motion tracking.

Try right clicking the sound icon on the task bar (bottom right) once the headset is on and select OPEN SOUND SETTINGS and then change the OUTPUT DEVICE to OCULUS.

I will try thanks. Generally the sound kicks in on the headset once the race is over. Just the racing it is missing. Once or twice it has kicked it, not sure why.