I just need two questions answered, one by someone with experience, the other by random peeps

[popit42]

so the first question is kinda simple, could maybe a mod or dev or someone smarter than average tell me how good these laptops (I know desktops are undeniably better, but the gaming parties are never here) would be for an oculus DK2 (maybe eventually a CV1, but the DK2 is what I expect I'll have for the next year);
the cheaper one with the little sale; http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX62145
or the more pricey one?; http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX59294

and thus the guess-at-able question; every time I attempt to run a direct-to-rift or Unreal Engine game the windows firewall popup comes up and nothing happens after that(I've disabled it before, it's not the problem) and every time I try to run it after that it freezes after about a second. So I have no idea what to do now .

My laptop-
MSI GS60 2QE-045US Ghost Pro w/ Core i7-4710HQ, 128GB SSD, 1TB, 15.6in FHD, GeForce GTX 970M, Win 10 (with all the latest nvidia drivers)

[spydersvenom · Accepted solution]

It's great to hear that the 970m works with Oculus, thanks for reporting. I think the reason you see the hesitation is because traditionally the "m" cards don't match compatibility with the regular cards and they certainly don't match power. We have grown accustomed to not making promises we can't personally verify because this is expensive hardware, both the pc and the goggles, and people rightfully get upset if it doesn't work. You also can't upgrade so when new projects come out its likely the 970 (and 970m) won't be enough.

I assure everyone's looking out and very cautious, Oculus itself included, to recommending anything that doesn't meet the high requirements. Those below it COULD work, but there's no promise it will work. Also as someone else said, running at that load could reduce the life of the laptop, which you won't discover until much later.

[popit42]

well, to put at least the first part of the question to rest, I've decided to simply use an older runtime and (reluctantly) get a desktop, and one I've been looking at mainly for it's design but only recently decided to tweak it, the trinity; http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1HX6YW  could I please get some tips on this one? I've always used laptops and ergo never learned how to build a cpu.  When I wrote this, I was mainly just hoping to get one or two people saying "that one has a better processor" or refresh rate or toast maker or something to that effect, but what happened was about two people who realized that I have used it before and tried to sway my decision nicely (which I didn't want), but then the rest seemed to be people violently yelling at me to not get a laptop, and I know this a bit extra bitching and complaining but if I'm asking for help with my laptop and I want to get a new one can't some people understand that its already partially working on the aforementioned laptop? 
p.s. cybereality, you're staff, so you should already know this; GTX970M works, but just barely and the previous software versions install fine on all systems (the new installer looks nice, but won't accept the existence of my graphics card), if the oculus works is the question.  
and still nothing about the UE4/D-T-R?

[kojack]

popit42 said:

p.s. cybereality, you're staff, so you should already know this; GTX970M works

The issue isn't really whether the 970M works, it's that many other things can get in the way (and frequently do). Having a mobile gpu is a hint that the other things (such as Optimus) are probably going to be there. You could get 10 different 970M based laptops and find only 2 of them work (don't know the real percentage).

(I use my 980M based Clevo P770ZM for VR a lot, with both Oculus DK2 and Vive. But it's a secondary system and if it didn't work I still needed it for other purposes so it wouldn't be a loss. I wouldn't want to risk a laptop as my only means of VR)


For the Direct To Rift and Unreal problems, could you list some of the actual games that are failing and which oculus runtime you are running (you said "an older runtime"). Direct To Rift executables are from older runtimes, and any Unreal game made before UE 4.11.2 (just weeks ago) won't work with Oculus runtime 1.3. It's most likely a version issue.

[popit42]

kojack said:

For the Direct To Rift and Unreal problems, could you list some of the actual games that are failing and which oculus runtime you are running 

Well, they weren't any specific games, just every single one that I downloaded with either a regular exe and d-t-r.exe or UE4, and even if it was a few specifically, I couldn't tell you because not only did the new installer wipe the 'Oculus' folder clear of all files, but about a day or two after that, I got hit with ransomware that seems to have consumed at least 1/4 of my laptop.  Also I appear to have forgotten to mention that whenever I attempt to run the new oculus runtime it says that it can't find my graphics card and all progress halts there, but this problem, I think, was 0.7 and 0.8, I'll try switching back and forth, but I'm rather certain they only worked with 0.6 which may not work with Windows 10

[OccUpied]

Heck my 780 TI works great 🙂