2019-21 VR headsets and PC2 discussion

[RobPhoboS]

I'd love to hear about this, as I'm contemplating getting a Vega 56 (good price now!), updating my old workstation and try VR with PC2.

[morpwr]

just looked no deals now . thanks anyway .

Id keep checking.

[bporion]

another ' through the lenses ' vid this time its the S vs the Vive Pro vs Odyssey plus . the frigen S is killing me it looks great compared to the other 2 .

[gregc]

Saw the through the lens video earlier in the week, the Rift S does look pretty good - I may well upgrade my CV1 later in the year.

For now - my Quest will be arriving on Tuesday and I'm really looking forward to it. Can't wait to be untethered

[morpwr]

another ' through the lenses ' vid this time its the S vs the Vive Pro vs Odyssey plus . the frigen S is killing me it looks great compared to the other 2 .

I hadn't seen those before. It looks a lot better then I expected.

[RobPhoboS]

Any comments about Vega 56 and VR ?
(it's the most likely card I'll choose at the moment, good pricing)

[John Hargreaves]

I came across this Spanish review of the Rift S, it has a lot of good detail and right at the end there's a Sim Racer's perspective on the new unit.

https://translate.google.co.uk/trans...ift-s-analisis

[DaWorstPlaya]

Reviews for the Rift S seem horrible. The sound output is horrible and the headband design seems to make it hard to use good headphones over it. 80Hz is kinda low, IMHO. LCD screens with poor dark areas. No manual adjustable IPD.
I'm avoiding that VR HMD and am disappointed with Oculus with their "upgrade". I was expecting much more from Oculus.

I do have the Index on preorder but I'm not sure it will be an upgrade over the Vive Pro with Gear VR lens.

I wanted to order the HP Reverb because of the massive resolution bump but didn't. It has too many issues, horrible WMR tracking, mura issues, horrible sound, no manual adjustable IPD, small sweet spot and finally weird mounting angle. Tomshardware couldn't get PCars2 to launch with the headset. I could deal with all the other issues but PCars2 not running on it was a deal breaker.

I currently use the Vive Pro with Gear VR lens mod which is AWESOME! OLED screens with great blacks. No god rays and super large sweet spot. Seems like I might skip this generation altogether.

[PawelK]

I currently use an Odyssey+, but I have pre-ordered the HP Reverb because I'm drooling over that high resolution.

I use the Odyssey+ too, managed to buy it pretty cheaply right when it came out. Compared to some other headsets I tried before (Vive I think) I liked how, despite similar resolution, the Odyssey+ is able to hide pixel borders better. I'd love to have better resolution, but I am also very aware that I would have to buy not only a new headset but also a new graphic card or maybe an entire new PC. Not ready for that yet.

What I would really like to see in new headsets, in addition to obvious things like higher resolution, is getting all technical glitches out, as they diminish the the user experience a lot.

For example, if I want to play PC2, the procedure is as follows:.

1.Check in the mixed reality portal if things are working, sometimes it has a message of driver failure, then I have to go to Device Manager. uninstall the headset, and the Scan for hardware changes for it to re-install.

2. Click "wake up" in mixed reality portal and immediately put the headset on.

3. Wait until it starts and then do the "look to the sides and to the floor" thing for the headset to orient itself.

4. In about 10% of cases it fails to do so, and I have to take the headset off and do the boundary setup, i.e., walk around the room with the headset in my hand. Because otherwise it defaults to the seated mode which, surprisingly, is not good for seated simracing. Because in the seated mode it does not support head movements forward and back, and that ruins everything.

5. Once I get the headset oriented in the normal standing mode, it displays the boundary. Which is stupid and annoying when simracing, I don't need it, I am seated, I won't trip over a sofa or run into a wall. So I have to take the headset off, and turn the boundary off in mixed realty portal

6. Then I go to Steam and start Steam VR. After it started, I check if the default windows audio output switched from my regular sound card to the headset. Per Steam VR setting it should, but in 20% of cases the headset audio remains disabled after the headset is woken up. In such case I have to go to Sounds, and enable that audio output manually

7. Then I start PC2 and put the headset back on (I do not start the game from VR, e.g. from Steam VR Home, because that requires using headset controllers, and I have them in a drawer, because I do not use them for gaming or anything).

8. I wait until PC2 gets to the menu and I check if the mouse is working. In 10% of cases, it is not working with headset on, only with headset off. In those cases I have to close the game, take the headset off, close Steam VR, and start again at 6.

9. If I am lucky, I can race.

I really wish it was a simpler and less error-prone process.

[DaWorstPlaya]

PawelK this is exactly why I'm staying away from any WMR headset. You don't need to do any of that with the Oculus Rift CV1 or the HTC Vive Pro. They just work and you're racing instead of troubleshooting. I would be so frustrated if that happened to me, you have to ask yourself what is your time and sanity worth.