There's a halfway house with a new HP Reverb G2 or a second hand Reverb G1, the resolution alone is imo worth the extra over the oculus.
First time in VR. Holy Mary, Mother of God.
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As a first experience Oculus is the best alll round system. VR is in no way shape or form mainstream. Oculus take you by the hand through the set up and make sure your 100% set. HP has support issues across the board with various games. Resolution is not even 50% of your VR experience don’t get sucked in by it.
never even thought of the G2.... Just researched a little, and crazy. Looks like they hit the deck running with this one. Just have to wait and watch and see when it becomes available! Thanks for the heads up, cudos +1
Honestly interested in why you think that?
There are pros and cons to all systems
Very true
HP Reverbs are plug and play.
The tutorials could use a little love but honestly I was up and running in Elite in less than 15 minutes.
Could you point me at those?
Admittedly I've only played 8-10 games but I've not experienced any issues specific to HP.
In Elite I think resolution is extremely important, and I don't have any issues with the rest of the experience.
What aspects of non Oculus systems give a subpar experience?
The only obvious one for the Reverb is controller tracking, and while it's not perfect it's more than good enough for Half Life: Alys, Skyrim etc
It's difficult. I'd love to go try them all and see just how they compare. In todays covid world it's impossible to get to the local shops let alone go all VR. Just have specs, spreadsheets and peoples words for things. On balance, the whole thing is messed up, what to get!!
I've got the G1 and honestly couldn't be happier with it for Elite and the other games I play. The G2 is the same resolution but improved lenses and audio.
It's a hard decision though and depends on your priorities/budget. They're all valid choices.
I really want to hear why @He$$eeTant thinks Oculus is the best experience as I've had no real issues with Windows Mixed Reality. There's some qol stuff I'd like to see improved but in terms of the function it works really well.
It's really liked in the reviews. Hard to contest it.
Currently HP Reverb G2 looks like one of the best VR headsets for the money if you’re in the consumer-facing market.
If you are a vivid VR player with a solid PC setup, G2 will provide you with the best in-game VR experience to date with its amazing visual and audio experience.
Regardless what happens, I need to upgrade my GFX card. That's going to be <> £500 I had about a grand reserved, so G2 is doable, Vive is totally not, so it really is Quest 2 vs G2 now. G2 probably stretching the limit lol.
THANKS OP, now look what you started! Good job though, always wanted to experience ED in VR. You just reminded me
Currently HP Reverb G2 looks like one of the best VR headsets for the money if you’re in the consumer-facing market.
If you are a vivid VR player with a solid PC setup, G2 will provide you with the best in-game VR experience to date with its amazing visual and audio experience.
Regardless what happens, I need to upgrade my GFX card. That's going to be <> £500 I had about a grand reserved, so G2 is doable, Vive is totally not, so it really is Quest 2 vs G2 now. G2 probably stretching the limit lol.
THANKS OP, now look what you started! Good job though, always wanted to experience ED in VR. You just reminded me
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Thanks for all the replies, interesting reads. My experience was a few years ago, it was a top of the line setup with room sensors etc. And some basic game moving boxes around a factory or some such. Can't remember the model unfortunately.
You'll probably be disgusted to hear I'm still playing on a 22" monitor, simply because it still works and I hate tossing working gear. Plan is though to upgrade to a 1440p 27" screen next year, which is a priority over a headset because I use the same screen for work.
My PC would most certainly run VR at decent settings (9700 i7, RTX2060s), however I continue to be lukewarm about it... difficult to explain and maybe a tad irrational but I think it's a certain aversion towards accumulating more gaming related plastic/tech (already own a T300 wheel and pedals which aren't in use as often as they should be, given the price it was and the space it takes even stored away). Feel similarly towards a HOTAS - I'm pretty sure it'd be a better experience but... my apartment is already full of enough other clutter, and my current setup is pretty serviceable and convenient (cheeky gaming session during work hours when it's quiet is not a problem for example).
I will keep an open mind towards VR for the future though (as long as it's not related to Facebook/Zuck), now that I have the hardware to be able to run it at decent settings - footage of people playing in VR always put me off due to the low settings especially resolution - if there's one thing I don't like it's aliasing, and even with AA applied Elite still has a noticeably jaggy look for some reason. I imagine things moved on since, and the Reverb could be an option some day, if I still play Elite then, that is.
You'll probably be disgusted to hear I'm still playing on a 22" monitor, simply because it still works and I hate tossing working gear. Plan is though to upgrade to a 1440p 27" screen next year, which is a priority over a headset because I use the same screen for work.
My PC would most certainly run VR at decent settings (9700 i7, RTX2060s), however I continue to be lukewarm about it... difficult to explain and maybe a tad irrational but I think it's a certain aversion towards accumulating more gaming related plastic/tech (already own a T300 wheel and pedals which aren't in use as often as they should be, given the price it was and the space it takes even stored away). Feel similarly towards a HOTAS - I'm pretty sure it'd be a better experience but... my apartment is already full of enough other clutter, and my current setup is pretty serviceable and convenient (cheeky gaming session during work hours when it's quiet is not a problem for example).
I will keep an open mind towards VR for the future though (as long as it's not related to Facebook/Zuck), now that I have the hardware to be able to run it at decent settings - footage of people playing in VR always put me off due to the low settings especially resolution - if there's one thing I don't like it's aliasing, and even with AA applied Elite still has a noticeably jaggy look for some reason. I imagine things moved on since, and the Reverb could be an option some day, if I still play Elite then, that is.
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
If gets better just make sure you stop as soon as you feel rough. Also lock the horizon in the SRV. Always good for new VR folk to join the fold. The more who do the more pressure there is on FD to implement the full ED:O in vr
The reverb is a great headset no doubt but I still think as a "my 1st VR headset" the quest 2 is where it is at (I have both so I don't think I am being unfair). Yes the reverb G2 is better visually once all set up but it's more of a faff to set up, the Oculus experience is just more polished, the tracking on the quest 2 is betterIt's really liked in the reviews. Hard to contest it.
Currently HP Reverb G2 looks like one of the best VR headsets for the money if you’re in the consumer-facing market.
If you are a vivid VR player with a solid PC setup, G2 will provide you with the best in-game VR experience to date with its amazing visual and audio experience.
Regardless what happens, I need to upgrade my GFX card. That's going to be <> £500 I had about a grand reserved, so G2 is doable, Vive is totally not, so it really is Quest 2 vs G2 now. G2 probably stretching the limit lol.
THANKS OP, now look what you started! Good job though, always wanted to experience ED in VR. You just reminded me
I love with my quest that I can take it with me and I have a nice collection of titles that don't need a pc. Even for PCVR once you go wireless it is hard to go back. Despite the visuals even some of my pc games will be played in the quest 2 just because of the wireless.
Bottom line, if all you want to play are seated experiences then sure get the G2. IF you have tried VR and are committed to invested in it and know what to expect then sure, get the G2
BUT if you want to really get a feel for all the aspects of VR the quest edges it, and is half the price too....
Obviously if you refuse to use Facebook then it's an easy decision as you can't get a quest 2.
I just had a mail 20 mins back that my advanced headstrap from ali express is now in the UK. £23 for a clone of the PSVR headmount. I am looking forward to it.
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I can do one better than that: I came from EDTracker Pro and 3D Vision, which means I had head tracking and I had stereoscopic 3D.
The combo was pretty cool!
But you are still staring at the screen. Instead of being in the cockpit.
I tried some of that on Elite and DCS, the enjoyment just wasn't there for me anymore, but to each of its own
I use pancake mode when editing mission in DCS for example, but not always. For Elite if I was doing something more than pure rank grind for the vette, I used VR. Mining is especially zen in VR I would steer clear from HTC but that's personal preference, my Vive broke three weeks in and was in RMA for a month and required sending abroad to Romania (I'm in Poland). The experience wasn't a smooth one. Nobody knew what is going on with my headset and I basically got a refurbished unit three weeks in ☹
Also HTC tried so hard to be the apple of VR it's not even funny, and it hiked up the prices sky-high until they were forced to go to somewhat sensible levels by Oculus lowering theirs.
There's no "python of VR" currently on the market, all have pros and cons.
Vive, Vive Pro, Cosmos, Elite I would steer clear from for the reasons outlined above. Worth to mention that they use laser based tracking (at least the vive family, cosmos needs a special faceplate available separately for $$$ IIRC).
Oculus Rift S - do not recommend currently as Quest 2 is cheaper and in almost all aspects better, also facebook stopped producing them IIRC.
Valve Index - pricey, has decent image quality which was top of the crop before HP Reverb came in. Pros include:
- COMFORT - index is really comfortable for long sessions (for me)
- laser-based tracking - this can be a pro and a con depending on your room. Basically Index uses two satellite stations called the lighthouses which you place on the opposite ends of the room, preferably on the wall or ceiling which shine laser rays which the headset and controllers pick up and calculate their position based on that information. The tracking is flawless and has no lags, meaning if somebody was brave around to throw a 150€ controller to you, you would catch it as you would in real life. It's sub-milimeter accurate. The satellites require only power and communicate over bluetooth to startup and shutdown
- high refresh rate mode which you can use to have stable 60 fps with reprojection in more demanding titles like DCS. But for me high refresh rates in VR aren't a factor worth too much consideration. It's double funny because I can detect frame dips in my fps games from 120 to 110 level and I love high fps gaming. But in VR it's almost unnoticeable...
- Index also had the best in class VR audio which is simply brilliant (BMR off-ear speakers), much much better in producing spatial audio than any headphones and much more comfortable than headphones. But Reverb G2 has that as they cooperated with Valve and used the same design.
- Very good FOV (both vertically and horizontally) and has best in class image clarity - the area you can look around moving your eyes, in other words how much of the screen isn't blurry.
- Index also has best in class controllers (the knuckles), with finger sensing. The first thing my wife noticed when I put her in Half-Life Alyx for the first time was "OMG I HAVE REAL HANDS!". It seems like a minor thing but these are the details that multiply the immersion far more than you can imagine. Going back to vive "wand" controller when my knuckles were exchanged was frankly terrible Which brings me to a con - their build quality is not aligned with their price to be honest. There are thumbstick issues. Better get those sorted before warranty runs out, because...
- There's no repair service post warranty(!), at least for controllers. IDK about HMDs. Which basically means after warranty if it breaks you will need to buy another one. Not cool Valve, not cool. VR365 youtuber Anthony (I recommend his channel btw.) has found out the hard way.
- very noticeable glare and some godrays
- steamvr software is not as sophisticated as oculus'
- cable might break on you as it did on me, causing "sparkling" or "snowing" image, it looks sturdy but you'd better be careful with it.
HP Reverb (G1 or G2, the later being much better) - the resolution king. The Reverb resolution (2160x2160 per eye, this means effectively 4k per eye, or 8k per stereo) is unparalleled. Some describe it as monitor quality, and it's certainly better than the 1080p real monitor setups
In fact most of current VR is better than 1080p in my opinion. I don't have personal experience with the headset (damn pandemic), however the clarity area is said to be smaller than on Index. Audio is the same as the index. Controllers are absolute abominations, no capacitive sensing whatsoever (what is it, 2016?), and tracking is heavily dependent on your room having enough stuff / lighting / whatever magic they require to work and is a hit and miss according to the reviews. HP Reverb is best for seated sim games like Elite, anything requiring motion controllers and movement tracking you're better off with other headsets. I'm toying with the idea of buying one after they become available. And since I mentioned unfair HTC practices, it is only fair to mention how HP deceived their backers (people who preordered and are waiting since June or July) and sent the HMDs to shops and not to them. It is absolutely inexcusable. There are also dead headsets arriving, and people RMA-ing them are informed of month long waiting queues while the shops have the units on the next day delivery. WMR software is also a con, being an additional software layer between your steamvr and oculus based games. Hopefully the arrival of OpenXR will sort things out for future games.The Pimax family of headsets is technically great on paper, but my personal experience with them was marred by horrible PiTool software and general jankiness and tinkering required to get them to work. They have the best in class FOV and some even use OLED screens (LCD seems to be industry standard as of now), though they're expensive. They also require lighthouse units like the Index and HTC hmds. Due to the fov, they are using canted screens, which at this scale requires special mode called "parallel projection" which saps the fps out of the games. Even the smallest fov setting on the pimax will be wider than the Index which is best from all listed so far. Skyrim VR on a wide-fov setting in the Pimax 5k+ was really something, though the thing where you appreciate this FOV the most is any driving sim. The more FOV you have, the more sense of speed you can convey.
And last but not least on this list is a device which is a standalone VR console (meaning it doesn't require a computer) - the Oculus Quest 2. It's my "silent favourite" in VR adoption. For Facebook hating people, you can stop reading at this point, because it requires you to use a real facebook account "in good standing" - so making a fake one can mean LOSING ACCESS to your purchased games! That's a huge con right off the bat. However what follows is a very nice, cheap (relatively) entry into VR for anyone. And the best part is, you can stream VR games to it from your PC! Meaning, all the "mature" headset titles like Elite Dangerous which you wouldn't even dream of running natively on the Quest can be played using it. Now this being streaming and either WiFi or USB-C link cable there will be some compression artifacts and whatnot, but you get pretty solid VR experience for a fraction of the cost, and a VR headset you can take on a trip with you. It doesn't require a computer, it doesn't require sensors, it's small and portable. And the basic version (64GB) costs 349€... This is a crowd favourite and it is climbing the SteamVR hardware survey like crazy. Facebook is also doing good work promoting VR to people, I think anyone of you watching TV from time to time has seen a Quest2 commercial at some point. And the resolution is only 25% less than the reverb, however keep in mind that the unit needs streaming from the pc, so it isn't a fair apples to apples comparison. The controllers being the progeny of the excellent Oculus Touch controllers are very good and feature capacitive sensors. The tracking is not as good as lighthouse and it can be spotty in some edge cases (aiming through a sniper scope in Onward for example), but overall it's great. Also Oculus' software is the best in class currently, nothing comes close.
If I had the money, I'd buy G2 for sims, Quest2 for on the go VR + wireless gaming, and Index for anything else. Sadly I don't have that much ;-) I'm frankly waiting for Gaben's answer to G2, but I'm not holding my breath. Current Index is on 8-weeks backorder, why should they release new unit when the current ones are flying off the shelves like crazy...
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The headsets improve the view in those sorts of spaceships. You can get closer to the windows to peer out, and pillars become less bothersome when you can move yer head to look around them. This also works with the holodisplay. If you ever have difficulty locating the docking slot on the Corriolis station you can get out of yer seat and look at the other side of the projected hologram
It very much looks like the HP G2 is becoming the choice for flight simmers. It was the first one that Microsoft announced would be compatible with their sim... and the nasty motion controllers you get with the HP headset is less of an issue when yer going to be using a HOTAS anyway
The Valve headsets are more for roomscale VR, and the Occulus headsets (while they still work) are more for giving all your personal information to Facebook
Oculus set up and introduction is like an intuitive iPhone app. It takes you step by step through all aspects of the system. The library environment is like the iPhone App Store. Each application is reviewed and approved by oculus so that you know it will work well with the headset and controllers. Further more with the wireless range Q1 and 2 they ensure that the apps run at good frame rates before allowing them to be published. On top of that safe and full environment Oculus also works with all other platforms - such as steam. This is in part due to Vive and Oculus being the brands that forged the world of VR we live today.
If you check popular resolution charts such as the one shown on Wikipedia linked here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_virtual_reality_headsets
As a casual observer you would be lead to believe that a user from Oculus CV1 going to Quest 2 ( twice the resolution) would be like a blind person finally being able to see. The truth of course is that while there is an increase in pixels its by no means night and day difference. So the small increment from Q2 to G2 while being real and absolute, in reality means very little. Far more important features are game support and then things like SDE, dark levels, cable thickness, controllers feel, sweet spot, infill software aka ASW, Motion Reprojection etc, comfort, sound and finally in country hardware and software support. These things make oculus a great first headset
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