4Game

Hey y'all. Odyssey approaches, I figured this would be an interesting thread for those of us returning or enhancing our gameplay experience.

The most basic way you can play Elite: Dangerous is with a regular monitor, a mouse, and keyboard. You can step it up a notch and get a HOTAS for more immersion; I personally use a Saitek X52 (and a PS4 controller for FSS, Galaxy map, etc). But the biggest change is playing the game in VR: you are literally in the game. Now this begs our discussion prompt: the best way to watch any form of media is in a theater, usually a home theater of some sorts with a big screen and a surround sound system. What if we played Elite: Dangerous on a home theater setup? How would that stack up against the authenticity of VR? Obviously, the VR wins in visual immersion as it responds to your head movements and position. However, the auditory experience and accuracy of a 5.1 (or 7.1) sound system simply can't be beat compared to a VR headset's tiny headphones, especially combined with a big screen that spans your field of vision. Which do you believe is better? Or are there simply pros and cons? Possibly a mix of both?

I will do some testing on this myself and pitch my thoughts as I have access to both. I'll use my Samsung HMD Odyssey for VR, and my TV and 5.1 setup for big-screen. I can confirm the game supports 5.1 when using multiple audio ports on your mobo/soundcard (and configured properly in Windows).