Vive 'Pro' Users

[Wasp0]

Hi fellow Vive 'Pro' users, thank you for reading and hopefully you will be able to guide me in getting the best out of my Pro.

Just got the 'Pro' yesterday and setting it up this morning. Have 'UPGRADED' from the Rift, and i must say initial impression are a huge step up from the Rift. (Still have the rift if anyone is looking for a pre-owned one? Contact via PM to discus ).

However, it is completely different from the Rift and i would like some advice/Help/assistance in getting the best from it. I have a Lens change mod coming soon as i ordered it 2 days ago and has just been made and dispatched from Florida USA.

I am using the good Dr Kaii's profile editor, but have had to lower the SS and HMD setting by one step each using the Pro, assume this is because of the extra resolution?

SS = 1.0
HMD = 1.5
Most other important things on High
AA disabled

My rig is:
i7 Coffee lake O/C to 5.1Ghz
GTX 1080Ti O/C to very near max
M.2
SSD

So rig is is fairly meaty.

Would like some advice on what setting to put into the Steam VR for the performance and visuals
Would like some advice on the audio, as compared to the Rift the Pro headphones are tinny and no Bass at all
Would like some advice on general performance improvements
Would like some advice on any other good mods/fixes for the Vive (Have kept up to date with the rift Mods etc, but ignored everything Vive) Have looked at the sticky's on the VR but they seem quite old (2016-2018) so not sure if they are relevant
Would like advice on Vive equivalent to Oculus Dash (Virtual Desktop)

Would like any other tips on the Vive Pro, that ANYONE has please,

Initial Impression of Pro.......

1. The sharpness of the text and picture overall is a real step up from the Rift, although the sweet spot is smaller than the rift, but hoping the lends mod will sort that out. God ray and screen door still there, but IMHO less than the rift, and again i read the Lens mod will alleviate some of this as well making it even better.
2. I miss the little nose gap the rift had as i have a few keyboard and Fight panels on my desk which operate many of the game features...Wondering if i cut of the little nose flap rubbers if this will give me the nose gap i want bacl???
3. The audio sucks compared to Rift
4. The headset getting on is more cumbersome than Rift, but i ma just getting used to it and keep trying to put it on the same way i did the Rift
5. The mic is not so sensitive as Rift (Use Voice Attack and now have to say commands louder than did in Rift (Need to tweak Mic Settings in Windows)
6. The comfort of the headset is just lovely, gorgeous. The Rift was not uncomfortable as i used to long 7 hour game sessions, but the Pro is well 1st Bloody Class !!
7. Easier than i thought, but will have to get used to SteamVR over Rift Home
8. Gonna miss Dash, as i used to switch to dash Virt desktop in game to look at 3rd party apps (EDEngineer etc). Never used the in game pinning ability of dash, so won't miss that aspect

Overall......Expensive, yes undoubtedly no arguing there and with no deals around paid over £1100 for this experience....Worth it??? HUGE YES. In Game picture is stunning even with the crappy Fresenal Lens....Should i have waited for Pimax 5K+ I'll never know. Pimax peeded me off big style. I so wanted them to get back to me with an estimated delivery date, but the fact they IGNORED ME TOTALLy left me wondering what their after-sales/Support would have been like? I won't send any money to a company who can't won't even acknowledge my 5 emails/forum request for information! They either want to succeed or Die. For me this left a bad taste in my mouth.


I had people telling me to wait until Pimax was sold on Amazon, but i wanted an upgrade to my excellent first VR...The Oculus Rift, and wanted it either now of a few months down the line, not sometime maybe if we can be bothered!!

So Pro users, Please advise this New Pro user with ANY help guidance advice you have, all will be most welcome.

Thank you and Fly Safe o7

 

[CylonSurfer]

Hi fellow Vive 'Pro' users, thank you for reading and hopefully you will be able to guide me in getting the best out of my Pro.

Just got the 'Pro' yesterday and setting it up this morning. Have 'UPGRADED' from the Rift, and i must say initial impression are a huge step up from the Rift. (Still have the rift if anyone is looking for a pre-owned one? Contact via PM to discus ).

However, it is completely different from the Rift and i would like some advice/Help/assistance in getting the best from it. I have a Lens change mod coming soon as i ordered it 2 days ago and has just been made and dispatched from Florida USA.

I am using the good Dr Kaii's profile editor, but have had to lower the SS and HMD setting by one step each using the Pro, assume this is because of the extra resolution?

SS = 1.0
HMD = 1.5
Most other important things on High
AA disabled

My rig is:
i7 Coffee lake O/C to 5.1Ghz
GTX 1080Ti O/C to very near max
M.2
SSD

So rig is is fairly meaty.

Would like some advice on what setting to put into the Steam VR for the performance and visuals
Would like some advice on the audio, as compared to the Rift the Pro headphones are tinny and no Bass at all
Would like some advice on general performance improvements
Would like some advice on any other good mods/fixes for the Vive (Have kept up to date with the rift Mods etc, but ignored everything Vive) Have looked at the sticky's on the VR but they seem quite old (2016-2018) so not sure if they are relevant
Would like advice on Vive equivalent to Oculus Dash (Virtual Desktop)

Would like any other tips on the Vive Pro, that ANYONE has please,

Initial Impression of Pro.......

1. The sharpness of the text and picture overall is a real step up from the Rift, although the sweet spot is smaller than the rift, but hoping the lends mod will sort that out. God ray and screen door still there, but IMHO less than the rift, and again i read the Lens mod will alleviate some of this as well making it even better.
2. I miss the little nose gap the rift had as i have a few keyboard and Fight panels on my desk which operate many of the game features...Wondering if i cut of the little nose flap rubbers if this will give me the nose gap i want bacl???
3. The audio sucks compared to Rift
4. The headset getting on is more cumbersome than Rift, but i ma just getting used to it and keep trying to put it on the same way i did the Rift
5. The mic is not so sensitive as Rift (Use Voice Attack and now have to say commands louder than did in Rift (Need to tweak Mic Settings in Windows)
6. The comfort of the headset is just lovely, gorgeous. The Rift was not uncomfortable as i used to long 7 hour game sessions, but the Pro is well 1st Bloody Class !!
7. Easier than i thought, but will have to get used to SteamVR over Rift Home
8. Gonna miss Dash, as i used to switch to dash Virt desktop in game to look at 3rd party apps (EDEngineer etc). Never used the in game pinning ability of dash, so won't miss that aspect

Overall......Expensive, yes undoubtedly no arguing there and with no deals around paid over £1100 for this experience....Worth it??? HUGE YES. In Game picture is stunning even with the crappy Fresenal Lens....Should i have waited for Pimax 5K+ I'll never know. Pimax peeded me off big style. I so wanted them to get back to me with an estimated delivery date, but the fact they IGNORED ME TOTALLy left me wondering what their after-sales/Support would have been like? I won't send any money to a company who can't won't even acknowledge my 5 emails/forum request for information! They either want to succeed or Die. For me this left a bad taste in my mouth.


I had people telling me to wait until Pimax was sold on Amazon, but i wanted an upgrade to my excellent first VR...The Oculus Rift, and wanted it either now of a few months down the line, not sometime maybe if we can be bothered!!

So Pro users, Please advise this New Pro user with ANY help guidance advice you have, all will be most welcome.

Thank you and Fly Safe o7

• Nose Gap: SteamVR Settings > Camera > Enable camera and Enable Room View by System Button Double-click. This will enable the stereo passthrough cameras, allowing you to see the real world at will.
• OVRDrop will allow pinning windows (Not as good as Dash though)
• You'll likely want to drop your SS and HMD Q to 1.0 and make sure SteamVR is set to 100% (Mine was set at 140% by default): SteamVR > Settings > Video > Enable Custom Resolution and set the slider to 100%. You can then set the SS rate for applications independently via SteamVR > Settings > Applications > choose your app from the drop down.
• Motion Smoothing is SteamVRs ASW, I turn it off globally from SteamVR > Settings > Video > Uncheck Enable Motion Smoothing, then enable it per game as required under SteamVR > Settings > Applications >.
• Make sure you have the right audio device selected in Windows, The Vive Pro has more than one and some sound worse than others.
• Make sure your headphones are as tight against your ears as possible
• fpsVR is a good tool for determining frame rates and CPU / GPU headroom.

Personally speaking I think your settings are way to high if you are trying to achieve a native 90FPS in game. My OC'd 8700K, 1080Ti and 32Gb of 3000mhz RAM stuggle in stations with anything above 100% SS and some of the other settings set lower, a busy high res with lots of ships and weapon exchange brings my frame rates down even on lower settings...So I recommend testing in many areas before settling on anything. Best to keep in mind that with the clearer picture its often fine to lower settings as you're no longer compensating for such a crappy image quality and things will look good even when lowered.

 

[Wasp0]

• Nose Gap: SteamVR Settings > Camera > Enable camera and Enable Room View by System Button Double-click. This will enable the stereo passthrough cameras, allowing you to see the real world at will.
• OVRDrop will allow pinning windows (Not as good as Dash though)
• You'll likely want to drop your SS and HMD Q to 1.0 and make sure SteamVR is set to 100% (Mine was set at 140% by default): SteamVR > Settings > Video > Enable Custom Resolution and set the slider to 100%. You can then set the SS rate for applications independently via SteamVR > Settings > Applications > choose your app from the drop down.
• Motion Smoothing is SteamVRs ASW, I turn it off globally from SteamVR > Settings > Video > Uncheck Enable Motion Smoothing, then enable it per game as required under SteamVR > Settings > Applications >.
• Make sure you have the right audio device selected in Windows, The Vive Pro has more than one and some sound worse than others.
• Make sure your headphones are as tight against your ears as possible
• fpsVR is a good tool for determining frame rates and CPU / GPU headroom.

Personally speaking I think your settings are way to high if you are trying to achieve a native 90FPS in game. My OC'd 8700K, 1080Ti and 32Gb of 3000mhz RAM stuggle in stations with anything above 100% SS and some of the other settings set lower, a busy high res with lots of ships and weapon exchange brings my frame rates down even on lower settings...So I recommend testing in many areas before settling on anything. Best to keep in mind that with the clearer picture its often fine to lower settings as you're no longer compensating for such a crappy image quality and things will look good even when lowered.

Cheers Cylon, to my rescue yet again! Immense are you

 

[HeavyGroovez]

Congratulations Waspo!

Like Cylon said, 100% SteamVR application resolution and HMD to 1 in game is where you want to be for a solid 90fps. The image is nice and sharp without the need to go nuts on the render target. Turn off motion smoothing its complete poo.

With your GearVR lenses on route i can give you one useful tip that i discovered the other day.

Because we have all been using the Rift for years it was a given that you would turn bloom off because the fresnels make it look awful.

With your new aspherics you will be able to go back to ultra bloom and enjoy all sorts of awesome lighting effects, it really changes the vibe quite dramatically.

 

[CylonSurfer]

Cheers Cylon, to my rescue yet again! Immense are you

No problem. If you haven't spent enough cash already, the offical Vive wireless adapter is epic for games like SkyrimVR and Fallout 4 VR. I even play Elite wireless these days. I have two Anker power packs that last between 5 & 6 hours each so no worries about loosing juice mid flight.

Enjoy your new purchase!

 

[Wasp0]

Congratulations Waspo!

Like Cylon said, 100% SteamVR application resolution and HMD to 1 in game is where you want to be for a solid 90fps. The image is nice and sharp without the need to go nuts on the render target. Turn off motion smoothing its complete poo.

With your GearVR lenses on route i can give you one useful tip that i discovered the other day.

Because we have all been using the Rift for years it was a given that you would turn bloom off because the fresnels make it look awful.

With your new aspherics you will be able to go back to ultra bloom and enjoy all sorts of awesome lighting effects, it really changes the vibe quite dramatically.

Same immense accolade to you too Heavy, your helpful post have been a great help.

I love this part of the forum, so many helpful people, just wish the main discussion pages where of such high quality and less toxicity.

 

[SimonNQ]

I have played with my settings quite a bit, and have achieved mostly 90fps... The lens mod makes the biggest difference... the sweet spot is bigger and the lack of god rays makes the entire game look far better..

First thing I did was remove haze as per this post, actually game me a slight fps increase as well..
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/470722-Graphics-Mod-to-Remove-Haze

I have set the Steam Application SS setting to 60%

In Game SS to 0.75 or 0.65 any lower and it starts to loose quality
HMD to 1.5
Shadows High
AA off
AO off
Blur Off
Terrain I currently have set to either medium or high
Volumetric to low <- Makes a huge fps difference in multiple ship combat scenario or when a ship turns around in front of you and boosts away etc..


Gives very sharp pictures but keeps GPU time around 6ms in space and around 9-11 ms in stations, so fps is mainly 90 with an occasional drop to mid to high 80's.

Currently I am testing with Smart Smoothing forced off, which so far has seem to smooth out blurring during turns etc..

I have set my textures to 4096 across the board ( low med, high ) and made quite a few changes to the GraphicsConfiguration.xml file as well, which has made a pretty awesome difference in the way the game looks. Changing the Textures value will also remove the 'line' that will appear across the skybox..

For the head phones I did see somewhere some small clip things that pull the headphones tighter to your ear which does improves the bass immensely, but it may hurt your ears after a while etc. Maybe a bandanna? I have pretty much got used to them but agree they are not as good as my Bluetooth set..

Edit: Forgot to add, my rig as very similar to yours but with a 2080ti...

 

[SimonNQ]

No problem. If you haven't spent enough cash already, the offical Vive wireless adapter is epic for games like SkyrimVR and Fallout 4 VR. I even play Elite wireless these days. I have two Anker power packs that last between 5 & 6 hours each so no worries about loosing juice mid flight.

Enjoy your new purchase!

This will be my next purchase as well , lost count of how many times I have stood on my cable in Arizona Sunshine !! lol

 

[CylonSurfer]

First thing I did was remove haze as per this post, actually game me a slight fps increase as well..
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/470722-Graphics-Mod-to-Remove-Haze

Yeah the haze really does drain FPS, the biggest culprets I've found for FPS drain are:

• Fog / Haze
• Shadows
• Engine Cones (when lots of ships are present)
• Weapons fire (when lots of ships are present)

Turning down volumetric effects appears to have a bug at the moment which makes the edges of asteroids under certain lighting conditions pixelate and look horrid. I really wish the mod you linked to disabled the asteroid fog as well as the stuff in station / on planets.

 

[SimonNQ]

Yeah the haze really does drain FPS, the biggest culprets I've found for FPS drain are:

• Fog / Haze
• Shadows
• Engine Cones (when lots of ships are present)
• Weapons fire (when lots of ships are present)

Turning down volumetric effects appears to have a bug at the moment which makes the edges of asteroids under certain lighting conditions pixelate and look horrid. I really wish the mod you linked to disabled the asteroid fog as well as the stuff in station / on planets.

Agreed, i have become used to the asteroids

 

[Wasp0]

I have played with my settings quite a bit, and have achieved mostly 90fps... The lens mod makes the biggest difference... the sweet spot is bigger and the lack of god rays makes the entire game look far better..

First thing I did was remove haze as per this post, actually game me a slight fps increase as well..
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/470722-Graphics-Mod-to-Remove-Haze

I have set the Steam Application SS setting to 60%

In Game SS to 0.75 or 0.65 any lower and it starts to loose quality
HMD to 1.5
Shadows High
AA off
AO off
Blur Off
Terrain I currently have set to either medium or high
Volumetric to low <- Makes a huge fps difference in multiple ship combat scenario or when a ship turns around in front of you and boosts away etc..


Gives very sharp pictures but keeps GPU time around 6ms in space and around 9-11 ms in stations, so fps is mainly 90 with an occasional drop to mid to high 80's.

Currently I am testing with Smart Smoothing forced off, which so far has seem to smooth out blurring during turns etc..

I have set my textures to 4096 across the board ( low med, high ) and made quite a few changes to the GraphicsConfiguration.xml file as well, which has made a pretty awesome difference in the way the game looks. Changing the Textures value will also remove the 'line' that will appear across the skybox..

For the head phones I did see somewhere some small clip things that pull the headphones tighter to your ear which does improves the bass immensely, but it may hurt your ears after a while etc. Maybe a bandanna? I have pretty much got used to them but agree they are not as good as my Bluetooth set..

Edit: Forgot to add, my rig as very similar to yours but with a 2080ti...

Thanks Simon, i believe we have been 'Chatting' on the Pimax forum on a thread i started there.

Having played now with the Pro, i must say that the 'Sweet' Spot is very small, and i am hoping the lens mod alters this as much as i have read.

Gonna have to change the headphones as so used to the Rift ones. Can't believe for that much money Vive have gone for the cheap low end tinny phones. If i had pick up the Vive from the start i might have been used to them, but i have been spoilt with the rift. Not sure how easy it is to take the default ones off, but i understand they are detachable. Google is my friend.

Thanks everyone for their input, it is most welcome.

 

[HeavyGroovez]

Having played now with the Pro, i must say that the 'Sweet' Spot is very small, and i am hoping the lens mod alters this as much as i have read.

Fear not, the aspherics will radically change your perception of what VR can be !

 

[SimonNQ]

Yup, the lens mod makes a huge difference... Especially the god rays, the sweet spot is bigger, but still not huge, but the lack of god rays makes everything so much clearer.. Sort of like looking at a screen without the torch turned on etc..

I got banned from the Pimax forums cause I said their headset was awful which one of the mods did not like, banned me for trolling cause I said the colours were awful... Mine tuned up and it is nowhere near as good as the Vive Pro with lens mod, bigger fov yeah, but awesomely uncomfortable, huge distortion around the edge which made me sick in about 5 mins and really poor colour especially the blacks. Not sure if it is faulty or just awful..

I have gone back to the Pro, it's still not perfect but it is usable... And doesn't make me sick LOL

This sounds interesting... https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/8b2iyx/is_there_a_way_to_change_vive_pro_headphones/

 

[Wasp0]

Yup, the lens mod makes a huge difference... Especially the god rays, the sweet spot is bigger, but still not huge, but the lack of god rays makes everything so much clearer.. Sort of like looking at a screen without the torch turned on etc..

I got banned from the Pimax forums cause I said their headset was awful which one of the mods did not like, banned me for trolling cause I said the colours were awful... Mine tuned up and it is nowhere near as good as the Vive Pro with lens mod, bigger fov yeah, but awesomely uncomfortable, huge distortion around the edge which made me sick in about 5 mins and really poor colour especially the blacks. Not sure if it is faulty or just awful..

I have gone back to the Pro, it's still not perfect but it is usable... And doesn't make me sick LOL

This sounds interesting... https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/8b2iyx/is_there_a_way_to_change_vive_pro_headphones/

Banned for telling the TRUTH?? Totalitarian or what LOL!

I was looking at this reddit post but can't get hold of the 'Audiolab USB-C DAC/Amplifier' mentioned in the bottom of this reddit thread. Its on Amazon.com and i can't get it shipped to UK from Supplier. Have found this on a UK supplier site and investigating this option... https://www.mytrendyphone.co.uk/sho...k_google.uk&refHost=https://www.google.co.uk/

It looks similar in what it does as the one mangamonster refers to I really can't stand the audio on the pro, it so damn tinny that i have gone back to my rift, till the lens mod arrives from Florida and this DAC amp arrives. Figured i'd mount the amp with Velcro to the head strap somewhere and then i can use any decent jack phones even a good pair of in ear phones would be better than the default Pro ones, Christ on a bike 2 baked bean cans and a piece of string would give better audio!!

Be interested to hear (Excuse the pun) of anyone's else thoughts on the audio and what they have done to improve/replace the audio?

I'll update as i get the mods in, but ya'll know about the lens mod and really looking forward to that coming.

 

[SimonNQ]

Banned for telling the TRUTH?? Totalitarian or what LOL!

I did go a bit overboard !! But it shows their customer support pretty well. Still haven't replied to multiple support tickets, after telling me to log a support ticket lol I think a part of it was recommending to you and another person to buy the pro instead.. LOL Apparently that is trolling...

Another idea for the headphones would be some Bluetooth earbuds or normal earbuds may work quite well, I am a bit worried that full headphones may impact the strap and be a bit uncomfortable etc.... Honestly, I am looking at doing the exact same thing !!

 

[HeavyGroovez]

Banned for telling the TRUTH?? Totalitarian or what LOL!

I was looking at this reddit post but can't get hold of the '[FONT=&]Audiolab USB-C DAC/Amplifier'[/FONT] mentioned in the bottom of this reddit thread. Its on Amazon.com and i can't get it shipped to UK from Supplier. Have found this on a UK supplier site and investigating this option... https://www.mytrendyphone.co.uk/sho...k_google.uk&refHost=https://www.google.co.uk/

It looks similar in what it does as the one mangamonster refers to I really can't stand the audio on the pro, it so damn tinny that i have gone back to my rift, till the lens mod arrives from Florida and this DAC amp arrives. Figured i'd mount the amp with Velcro to the head strap somewhere and then i can use any decent jack phones even a good pair of in ear phones would be better than the default Pro ones, Christ on a bike 2 baked bean cans and a piece of string would give better audio!!

Be interested to hear (Excuse the pun) of anyone's else thoughts on the audio and what they have done to improve/replace the audio?

I'll update as i get the mods in, but ya'll know about the lens mod and really looking forward to that coming.

Have you updated the firmware on the HMD ?

SteamVR => Devices => Update Firmware

Also, make sure you are using the Vive Pro/NVIDIA High Definition Audio driver not the Speakers/VIVE Pro Multimedia Audio driver. This can be setup in the sound control panel playback tab.

 

[Wasp0]

Have you updated the firmware on the HMD ?

SteamVR => Devices => Update Firmware

Also, make sure you are using the Vive Pro/NVIDIA High Definition Audio driver not the Speakers/VIVE Pro Multimedia Audio driver. This can be setup in the sound control panel playback tab.

All firmware is updated, but i'll try to fiddle with the High Def drivers to see if that makes it better.

Thanks again HG.

 

[Wasp0]

Have you updated the firmware on the HMD ?

SteamVR => Devices => Update Firmware

Also, make sure you are using the Vive Pro/NVIDIA High Definition Audio driver not the Speakers/VIVE Pro Multimedia Audio driver. This can be setup in the sound control panel playback tab.

Yep, already on High Def Audio

 

[Benji85]

Doesn't changing the lenses to gear vr ones alter the distortion profile completely? Couldn't this lead to undesirable eye strain, fatigue and potential damage to onces eyes?

I was tempted by Vive pro but this mod seems essential and got me worried as a lot of work goes into pairing the correct lenses that are made for each hmd specifically to make everything correct.

 

[HeavyGroovez]

Doesn't changing the lenses to gear vr ones alter the distortion profile completely? Couldn't this lead to undesirable eye strain, fatigue and potential damage to onces eyes?

I was tempted by Vive pro but this mod seems essential and got me worried as a lot of work goes into pairing the correct lenses that are made for each hmd specifically to make everything correct.

Not for me. The factory firmware distortion profile works with the GearVR lenses. Near field scale can be a bit off (objects appear slightly smaller) and menus can have mild barrel distortion but there is absolutely no warping.

I have zero fatigue or eye strain using mine on a daily basis. My IPD is 68mm.