Oculus rift S washed out colors?

[Dragool]

Hello commanders.

I have new HOTAS, and while memorizing new bindings I played with monitor instead of Oculus, which I normally use. Now after I went back to my Oculus, colors look washed out compared to IPS monitor (Acer Predator), should it be like that? Since I haven't basically played with monitor before, it's really hard for me to tell was the difference always so big, or did it change now, since NVIDIA had new drivers that I installed too? Or if it was before like that, is the difference in colors supposed to be so clear between monitor and Oculus, or do I have some problem? I have RTX 1080 Ti, and I start Elite from Steam when paying with monitor, and from Oculus library when playing with Oculus, if those makes any difference. I also use ED Profiler to change graphing settings when switching between them.

Now, the sky is still blackish in VR, not grey or anything, but for an example if I look PIP or radar color in my cockpit it's much more dull with Oculus, and sharp orange with the monitor. Difference is very clear. Now I'm confused if this is disadvantage of Oculus, or do I have some issue?

Other thing is, that every time I switch between monitor and oculus, I loose my HOTAS bindings Have to take a back up, but should it be like that?

 

[Arioch]

It’s just the Rift S display - not anything wrong with your kit or settings.

I moved from the Rift CV1 with its OLED deep blacks & rich colours to the Rift S, which looked “washed out” in comparison (as you describe) but with a really good increase in clarity, which I felt was worth the loss of vibrance. I’ve since moved to the Quest 2 which I feel is much better all around.

I altered the HUD brightness setting on the right panel in-game to give a similar orangey glow to the HUD - it goes a little way to mitigating the vibrancy difference.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

As Arioch said

Regarding bindings

Are you sure you have lost them? Sometimes mine messes up and I have to manually select "Custom" or "Twin Stick" or "T Flight" from the drop down menu depending on my config.

 

[Dragool]

It’s just the Rift S display - not anything wrong with your kit or settings.

I moved from the Rift CV1 with its OLED deep blacks & rich colours to the Rift S, which looked “washed out” in comparison (as you describe) but with a really good increase in clarity, which I felt was worth the loss of vibrance. I’ve since moved to the Quest 2 which I feel is much better all around.

Thanks for the answer. Okay, I kinda feel relief that it's not my kit or setting, and at the same time, before I was happy with the Rift S and now I feel like I need upgrade I have Pimax 5 in my thoughts, but firstly it is expensive as it is, and secondly, even more so because I don't think my RTX 1080 Ti runs it smoothly enough, and since GPU prices are sky high upgrading GPU is not my intention now. Now when it comes to Quest 2, I actually thought that as a stand alone device it would perform worse than Rift S, and never even considered it. Can you elaborate, how you find Quest 2 better than Rift S? This sound like an interesting option.

As Arioch said

Regarding bindings

Are you sure you have lost them? Sometimes mine messes up and I have to manually select "Custom" or "Twin Stick" or "T Flight" from the drop down menu depending on my config.

Yep! Controls menu doesn't even show "Custom" anymore, when I swap between monitor and VR. If I return backup, it won't notice that either. Will try to force "Custom" by editing Start file and see if that helps. But that falls to some other day...

 

[Arioch]

Now when it comes to Quest 2, I actually thought that as a stand alone device it would perform worse than Rift S, and never even considered it. Can you elaborate, how you find Quest 2 better than Rift S? This sound like an interesting option.

The display is sharper than the Rift S - I can hardly see the screen-door any more, I only really see it (if I concentrate) on solid blocks of light colour, and even then it’s very minor. I’ve started watching films on the headset now, which is something I didn’t do before on my previous HMDs due to the screen-door grid.

In-built sound is better than the S, though it couldn’t be much worse It’s good enough that I don’t use earphones with it.

Tracking is the same as with Rift S, and the new Touch controllers are slightly improved - the battery port doesn’t slide off anymore when swinging lightsabers around and the overall feel is just “better”

Using a Link cable (I bought the cheap Anker brand one) is very easy for seated play, but I use the new AirLink feature for standing games - going wireless was more of a game-changer than I was expecting. You’re constrained by battery life in WiFi mode though - I get roughly 2.5 hours play before needing to recharge (which is fairly quick) - and when wired up with the Link cable the battery still discharges but at a very low rate - single percentage digits after an hour’s play.

There are selectable refresh rates for Linked games, from 72Hz up to 120Hz, but I stick with the lowest due to my GTX 1080 - and I can’t tell any difference from the 80Hz Rift S.

I was surprised at the quality of the stand-alone games on the headset, and on the games that have both PC & Quest versions there’s not massive amounts of difference - it’s a bit like dropping down to Medium settings and switching off real-time shadows for the Quest version.

One thing to be aware of (if it’s the kind of thing that bothers you) - a linked Facebook account is now mandatory for new Quest headsets.

 

[Dragool]

Thanks @Arioch have to give this a serious thought, since colors of Rift S are now bothering me

 

[VR andysonofbob]

If you buy the Q2 from amazon, you can return it no worries if you aren't happy with it.

 

[Arioch]

Thanks @Arioch have to give this a serious thought, since colors of Rift S are now bothering me

The HMD is never going to compete with your IPD monitor, but andysonofbob makes a good suggestion if you’re on the fence.

If you do get one, I found turning the Quest 2’s brightness setting down to its minimum helped with general appearance - the default setting made everything too washed out in my view.

 

[Aio]

If you can find a Vive Pro, try it out. Maybe you can get a cheap second hand now when the Pro 2 is out. The Pro has OLED panels with perfect vivid colors. The Pro 2 has unfortunately LCD panels..