As it stands, i'd only really be interested in VR if SC supports it, but the one thing that concerns me is that the issue of character movement in VR is horrible, to the extent that games would rather let you teleport a couple of meters to the side, than let you walk there.
Im not sure im ready to drop the sort of money required on VR if it doesnt enhance the whole SC experience more than triple-screen shall. Flying, gunning etc should be amazing, but the VR industry needs to solve the freedom of movement issue (is it just even higher refresh rates and panels that can go there, or a bigger underlying issue behind it, like inner ear confusion?).
Theres absolutely no way CIG will implement these 'teleport me over to that spot' solutions, and i honestly think thats one of the reasons why they're in no rush to implement it into their engine correctly, because it was fine for use when we only had Arena Commander and you were bolted to the seat, but with a first person universe all the technical issues still exist and make it unmanageable.
Buying a VR headset now specifically for SC is nuts and a sure fire road to disappointment in my opinion. There has been absolutely zero sign of any development on the VR side and comments about it are both vague and few and far between.
I do believe it will come, not just because it was one of the reach goals but because I honestly believe Chris Roberts is an enthusiast (who also owns a rift) that sees what VR can bring to his dream. However I think you may be waiting a
very long time for support as it simply isn't a priority. Indeed we may very realistically be on CV2 and Vive 2 before you see VR in SC.
I think SC is going to be fantastic - I'm totally sold on it's potential. It is not however currently a VR game and future support is currently only a little more than a pipe dream... in other words don't hold your breath!
Games like Elite give a good taste of what a future VR SC might be like, but you need to be happy playing what is actually currently available before committing to a purchase in my humble opinion - don't buy on a future promise that could very well not materialise at all, let alone in a reasonable time frame.
As for your other questions, the motion sickness you are talking about isn't really an issue of display refresh rates or anything like that, it's a result of your eyes telling you that you are moving while your other senses are telling you that you aren't. If you are moving around in room scale this isn't an issue as your movements are 1:1... when you introduce artificial locomotion that your body is not actually experiencing this is where the problems tend to start for people. Generally people cope better if there is a fixed frame of reference (e.g. the car cockpit in racing games, or the ship cockpit in space sims) for people to fix their world model on. It's generally when they start running around in FPS type mode that most people suffer real discomfort, and the majority seems to come from yaw. I myself don't ever feel sick (it probably helps that my body is used to ignoring the other senses and relying on visual cues due to my job) but I do occasionally find yaw unsettling or uncomfortable when running around using e.g. an xbox controller.
Teleporting isn't the only solution to the first person artificial locomotion issue. First of all some people are fine with first person movement and VR... others find it barf city. If you are one of the lucky ones then it's not a problem at all.
Besides simply leaving it to those that can handle it, there are other techniques such as tunnelling which work by reducing your FoV (like tunnel vision) as you move and then widening back out as you stop. Apparently that reduces motion sickness significantly - its certain that more techniques will come to light with further research.
You can avoid the problem entirely for the more sensitive users by other means. For example as you exit your ship, you could transition into a virtual cinema where you are then playing the "on foot" parts on a large screen. Think like mine craft where you can play on a virtual TV then walk into the screen to then enter the world.
Technological advances further down the line will also potentially solve the problem. Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation can make you feel like you are moving (it can also be used to steer someone by remote control to hilarious effect) and could be built into headphones to give your body the feeling of motion to match the game.
