Help me choose my first HMD, Info inside

Hi,

I am considering to buy my first HMD for ED since I've heard a lot of good things about the experience. I cannot decide on a model, so maybe you guys can help me out.
In terms of performance vs quality vs price I am looking for a well rounded compromise.
Please consider the following for my (maybe) future HMD:

+My System: i5-9600K@3.70; Geforce RTX2060@6gb; 32gb ram; only ssd; hotas

+Buying HMD only for ED, (MAYBE I will use it for other games in the future (so controllers are not THAT important now))

+I wear glasses (nearsighted)

+I don't know (yet) if i actually like the VR experience or if I can even endure it physically.

+I definitely will not pay more than 800-900 $/€/£ for my first hmd. If possible I plan to stay under 500.

+Headphones don't matter, sound is coming from speakers.

That's all I can think of for now.
What HMD (if any! "None!" is also an option!) would you recommend to me, considering my system, expectations and price range?
Can you get a reasonable vr experience in ED with my system and budget?

Thank you.
 
Depends what you call reasonable. I brought a secondhand CV1 from gumtree because I didn’t know if I would like it or get the use out of it. I have been blown away by the experience just at the point where I was considering mothballing ED for a while
 
Given your specs, the fact tgat you wear glasses, not interested in headphones and willingness to stay with the 500 mark price, i recommend the rift s.
Only one issue, what's your IPD?
 
You'll not want to use speakers with VR. I have a full surround cinema set-up, but I'll still use the headphones on my Rift as the immersion works better (sounds move as you turn your head).

I've used the Rift for the last couple of years, which has been great. However, just this morning my nice shiny new Odyssey+ arrived (which worked out at around £305 delivered from the US via Amazon - so cheaper than the Rift S), which I'm very much looking forward to testing out. First impressions (having not set it up) are that it leaks a lot of light, so I have just ordered the VRCover for it.

For the money, you can't beat the Odyssey+ on specification right now. I'll update later this evening on how I find it compares to the Rift (CV1).

Oh, about glasses. In my Rift, I had to use contact lenses until I got the VRCover that allowed enough space for me to wear my glasses. It still wasn't comfortable when wearing them, but it was ok for an hour or two (I can use VR for hours when wearing contacts). I don't think glasses will work well at all with the Odyssey+. Do you wear contacts at all?

The Odyssey+ is still available from Amazon for the bargain price of $299. It came to $386 including shipping and import fees. A bargain indeed.
 
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I own the CV1, the Origianl Vive, a Pimax 5k+ and now a Rift S.
The only real reason not to get the S would be if your IPD is out of the norm " http://doc-ok.org/?p=898 ", don't use the myriad phone apps, they tend to be off by as much a 10mm. I'm in the perfect range of about 64.5mm, anything between 61-69 would be an instant recommend, it does claim to support a few more mm in either direction, but that varies greatly between individuals and I would recommend trying it.

There is a reason why the O+ is being dumped in price, it's beaten by the S in nearly every way.

The tracking capabilities of the S compared to 1gen WMR is like comparing a bottle rocket with a Saturn.

The S can handle my new glasses with no problem or discomfort, all of the above cannot, my old glasses fit the cv1 fine.
The included audio is terrible, then again the headphones on the cv1 was far far from great either, you will use set of headphones.
My regular Logitech cans, actually fit even better than over the CV1, also just barely passable in audio, but hours and hours of play very comfortable.

That said, a 2060 is really on the low end for VR and Elite, regardless of HMD, even the old cv1 would struggle quite badly.

Another plus in the Oculus column is the oculus software, it is lightyears ahead of the steamVR UI at this point, that hasn't seen any real changes in 3+ years. I'm honestly embarrased on the Index's behalf.

Yes you are going to want the touch controllers, not to directly play ED, but they are the mouse and keyboard of VR.
 
Biggest question is what your IPD is. If it is 'average', and you want it pretty much for ED, I can recommend going ultra cheap. I bought my Lenovo Explorer new for +-$100 plus $50 to ship to Europe. The downsides are that there aint no controllers, and there is no mechanical IPD adjustment. In other words: awesome if you have average IPD and just want to play ED. If your IPD is above/below average you'll get a splitting headache within minutes though. In general, have your IPD measured so you know if you need adjustment. The Rift S also doesn't allow adjustment (software adjustment is NOT the same!), the Oddysey+ does.
 
That said, a 2060 is really on the low end for VR and Elite, regardless of HMD, even the old cv1 would struggle quite badly.

Are you sure? The 2060 is pretty much on par with my 1070ti, which is far above what is needed for ED, never mind with a CV1. People started ED VR with a 970, and the 2060 is almost twice as fast...
 
Wow guys, thank you all so much for your input!

You are right, I forgot to add my IPD. I will get it checked out professionally next week, some (funny looking) self made tests with a ruler and measuring tape show something between 65-68. But I will get a professional reading as well.

Another question: Can I just NOT use my glasses while in vr, like taking them off? Me being considerable nearsighted means everything is a blur unless it's very close to my eyes. A VR display should be close enough to appear in focus? Or doesn't it quite work that way?

Can I get some more opinions on required hardware for the Rift S and the Odyssey+? Those 2 are the main canditates at the moment. Which one is more hardware hungry? Either way, if my 2060 is going to struggle at average settings in ED already, I probably will cancel my VR experiment or at least delay it for a few years. Need to do some research on performance of the 2060 and ED in VR.

Thanks!
 
Yes you will need your glasses in vr.

The lenses focus the light in a manner so the light from the panels hit the eye same as with light from objects at about 2 meters of distance.

If you where farsighted you probably could have left the glasses, but for us myopic's, -4.75 here, we wouldn't be able to read the station menu without glasses.
 
As above, you will need glasses due to the focal point being more 'distant' than where the lenses actually are.

WIDMOvr make (IMO very affordable) prescription inserts for a variety of different HMD's, I have been using them with my Rift for a year or so now, they are very good. I did start off by wearing glasses inside the Rift, but that was a hassle and occasionally uncomfortable, and I wouldn't recommend it.

I can't really comment on whether the 2060 would be too underpowered for ED. I use a 1080, and userbenchmark shows that as being 14% better / more powerful. I get pretty decent performance with my Rift on typically High quality settings so I suspect you'd be down in the medium quality area...

I will say however that ED in VR is quite wonderful. I really doubt I'd still be playing, certainly not as much as I do if I were not in VR. :)
 
Having set my Odyssey+ up today, I can confirm that compared to the Rift CV1... Well, there is no comparison, really. The image from the Odyssey+ is superb. It's bright, and the colours really pop. Blacks are black (much more so than the CV1, which is also OLED).

I had a minor tracking issue while going through menus, and it took me ages to work out how to get it working with SteamVR (which turned out to be really simple - you need to download the SteamVR for Windows Mixed Reality app), but it was a lot easier to set up than the Vive was originally (I got rid of that).

Currently playing E: D on high settings, and my 980Ti has no problems there. I'll experiment with that some more over the next few days.

The only issue could be comfort, but I think it'll just take some getting used to. I've also ordered the VRCover for it to help with that.

All in all, it is well worth the money. I'm pleased I cancelled my Rift-S pre-order and went for the Odyssey+.
 
The lenses, full RGB stripe display, no mura, practically no panel latency at all, seriously there is no panel blur what so ever with this, and the tracking.
The only time you'd loose tracking is if the controllers are behind something between your HMD and them, and when they are in view, which is 99.9% of the time, they are dead on and noticeably more responsive than the old touch controllers.

And those blindspots are a lot smaller than I would expect, I'm having more loss of tracking with my vive\pimax than the S controllers and unlike the S, it's like having 5+ camera's mounted in terms of mobility.
 
The lenses, full RGB stripe display, no mura, practically no panel latency at all, seriously there is no panel blur what so ever with this, and the tracking.
The only time you'd loose tracking is if the controllers are behind something between your HMD and them, and when they are in view, which is 99.9% of the time, they are dead on and noticeably more responsive than the old touch controllers.

And those blindspots are a lot smaller than I would expect, I'm having more loss of tracking with my vive\pimax than the S controllers and unlike the S, it's like having 5+ camera's mounted in terms of mobility.

Is this your response to my question as to why the Rift-S is better? You are simply reeling off features that both the Rift-S and the Odyssey+ have. I have had only one tracking glitch with the Odyssey+ so far, and that was during set-up. Everything else you state doesn't give any indication as to why the Rift-S would be better (the lenses on the Odyssey+ are excellent, the display is stunning, I have no latency or blur issues, and the tracking is excellent too).

Now, I'll certainly agree that the Rift controllers are much better than the Odyssey+, but you've provided absolutely no information to justify your claims regarding the headset. I haven't tried a Rift-S yet - I had it on preorder, but cancelled when I discovered that the screen was not OLED. I rarely play games that require controllers, so those don't concern me at all.
 
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