Thinking about upgrading from Rift S to Reverb G2 - stupid idea?

I think it is great. I had the quest 2 and it was a royal PITA with glasses hard to get it on and get them aligned . I ordered the inserts and it was much better. When I ordered my G2 I assumed I would have the same problem so I ordered inserts. However, I do not think I will need them with the G2. The glasses fit nice and are not uncomfortable at all. Still have not got the inserts yet but I ordered them and too late to cancel it. With the G2 you can pop up the headset and see the computer or others and still have your glasses to read the screen. With the quest and inserts I have to put on the glasses to do anything on the computer.
Thanks. My G2 is in the mail, should arrive today. Time to find out, I guess. But sounds great.

You have to buy the lenses from vr optician. Get your rx from your doc and they make a custom lense.
I know, I have lenses for my Rift S. Problems are a) they take 4-6 weeks to deliver and b) it's an extra 100 bucks. It was a real pain in the backside to wear glasses with the rift, hop it works better for the time being with the G2.
 
Okay, the G2 arrived today, and I've finished the setup and first round of tinkering with it. Here are my first impressions.

After completing the setup (and getting the headset properly on my melon and getting the sweet spot somewhat right) I launched ED without changing any settings, so this was with SteamVR SS at 100% and Elite's SS also at 100% and HMD Quality still at 1.25. After loading into the ship I was literally stunned for a minute.

The clarity, readability and sharpness was really astonishing. The display of the G2 is great. REALLY great. It was really baffling. Of course my PC was only pushing 25 to 35 frames per second, and that was in open space. To be expected, the 2080S is nowhere near being able to push 7k by 3.5k at 90 Hz.

I've played around a bit with the resolution and reprojection settings. First thing I noticed was that frame drops and the headset switching from full framerate to reprojection was nowhere near as jarring as on the Rift S. On the Oculus it always felt like a jolt going through my eyes, with the Reverb I notice it mostly through the artefacts that the reprojection produces.

If I set the SteamVR SS to 30% I'm in Rift S territory, regarding both performance and visuals. I get similar jagged edge shimmering as with the Rift S, text is a bit sharper and better readable. At 30% my system comfortably pushes 90 frames in most situations. I'm guessing in busy systems and RES sites it would drop more often into reprojection, I have not tested it yet. So far my GPU sat between 60 and 92 percent.

70% SS with reprojection is a nice middle ground. I get slight shimmering and jagged edges with stable 45 fps and around 70 to 80% GPU load. Exept when entering a station, there I got a few drops to 40. In stations it felt similar to my experience with the Rift S. The downside are the artifacts occuring mostly in vertical lines like in the HUD or vertical edges in the cockpit - sharp vertical edges tend to wobble, which could be really annoying long term.

I was really surprised about the total absence of the SDE. If I wouldn't know it from the Rift S I would not have known what to look for. And even with that knowledge I couldn't see it. I tried to find the pixel edges, but I couldn't. But then again I'm old and blind anyway :cool:.

Speaking of blind: There is no chance in hell I will wear glasses with the Reverb. The face gasket sits pretty tight on my face, and while I can get the glasses inside, the pressure on the frame gets very uncomfortable very fast.

I did not like the velcro straps for adjusting the headband size. In fact I hate them. Hopefully, after the face cushion settles down a bit, I won't have to touch them any more.

Sound is very good. I like the spacial arrangement of the speakers, I had a similar setup for my Rift with the Koss Porta Pros I mounted to it. The Reverb sounds aven better, as the Koss were a little harsh in the mids.

Last thing I noticed: The scale of the world feels different. I'm not sure if it really is, although I finally feel like my hands have the right size and my feet are the right distance from my butt. Everything feels a bit bigger. Adjusting the IPD has zero influence on that, neither with the Reverb's hardeware adjustment nor the Rift's software solution. With the Rift I always thought: Damn, people are small in Elite :) . With the Reverb, it feels... right.

So far I'm pretty pleased. I will have to decide if I want Rift S-visuals (but without SDE and better readability) and mostly great performance (30%) or a good sharp image with repro artefacts (70%). Running ED at 100% is out of the question, but I didn't really expect that anyway. I guess I'll have to play around with the settings a bit more. For now it's time to call it a night.
 
oh, one thing I forgot: The plastic smell of the headset is REALLY atrocious. Very annoying and disgusting. It's not even the nice, cancerous new car smell, but really nasty and nose biting. Thumbs down for that.
 
Okay, the G2 arrived today, and I've finished the setup and first round of tinkering with it. Here are my first impressions.

After completing the setup (and getting the headset properly on my melon and getting the sweet spot somewhat right) I launched ED without changing any settings, so this was with SteamVR SS at 100% and Elite's SS also at 100% and HMD Quality still at 1.25. After loading into the ship I was literally stunned for a minute.

The clarity, readability and sharpness was really astonishing. The display of the G2 is great. REALLY great. It was really baffling. Of course my PC was only pushing 25 to 35 frames per second, and that was in open space. To be expected, the 2080S is nowhere near being able to push 7k by 3.5k at 90 Hz.

I've played around a bit with the resolution and reprojection settings. First thing I noticed was that frame drops and the headset switching from full framerate to reprojection was nowhere near as jarring as on the Rift S. On the Oculus it always felt like a jolt going through my eyes, with the Reverb I notice it mostly through the artefacts that the reprojection produces.

If I set the SteamVR SS to 30% I'm in Rift S territory, regarding both performance and visuals. I get similar jagged edge shimmering as with the Rift S, text is a bit sharper and better readable. At 30% my system comfortably pushes 90 frames in most situations. I'm guessing in busy systems and RES sites it would drop more often into reprojection, I have not tested it yet. So far my GPU sat between 60 and 92 percent.

70% SS with reprojection is a nice middle ground. I get slight shimmering and jagged edges with stable 45 fps and around 70 to 80% GPU load. Exept when entering a station, there I got a few drops to 40. In stations it felt similar to my experience with the Rift S. The downside are the artifacts occuring mostly in vertical lines like in the HUD or vertical edges in the cockpit - sharp vertical edges tend to wobble, which could be really annoying long term.

I was really surprised about the total absence of the SDE. If I wouldn't know it from the Rift S I would not have known what to look for. And even with that knowledge I couldn't see it. I tried to find the pixel edges, but I couldn't. But then again I'm old and blind anyway :cool:.

Speaking of blind: There is no chance in hell I will wear glasses with the Reverb. The face gasket sits pretty tight on my face, and while I can get the glasses inside, the pressure on the frame gets very uncomfortable very fast.

I did not like the velcro straps for adjusting the headband size. In fact I hate them. Hopefully, after the face cushion settles down a bit, I won't have to touch them any more.

Sound is very good. I like the spacial arrangement of the speakers, I had a similar setup for my Rift with the Koss Porta Pros I mounted to it. The Reverb sounds aven better, as the Koss were a little harsh in the mids.

Last thing I noticed: The scale of the world feels different. I'm not sure if it really is, although I finally feel like my hands have the right size and my feet are the right distance from my butt. Everything feels a bit bigger. Adjusting the IPD has zero influence on that, neither with the Reverb's hardeware adjustment nor the Rift's software solution. With the Rift I always thought: Damn, people are small in Elite :) . With the Reverb, it feels... right.

So far I'm pretty pleased. I will have to decide if I want Rift S-visuals (but without SDE and better readability) and mostly great performance (30%) or a good sharp image with repro artefacts (70%). Running ED at 100% is out of the question, but I didn't really expect that anyway. I guess I'll have to play around with the settings a bit more. For now it's time to call it a night.

As somebody weighing up my next move from the CV1, I can’t tell you how useful this is for me. +1 to you sir!

Overall summary - are you happier with this than the Rift S? Do you need to upgrade your system to make it worthwhile?
 
Well I haven't really played with it for enough hours to make a fully qualified statement. From my initial impressions: I'd say getting rid (almost completely) of the screen door effect alone is worth it. Even if run at a resolution as low as the Rift S the image quality benefits from the high pixel count of the Reverb's panels.

I knew performance wise it would be an edge case. To unlock the full potential of the Reverb I would certainly need an upgrade. I guess that's another word for future proof. An upgrade is not happening for the near future for me though. I will skip this year's generation of cards and see how long the 2080S holds up.

One thing I also forgot to mention is the lenses' sweet spot. My impression was it is comparable if maybe a little smaller than the Rift S's sweetspot, and I noticed more chromatic abberation outside the sweetspot, more so towards the edge of the lens. Could also be that it's less noticable on the Rift because of the SDE and everything being blurrier. FOV seemed a bit larger than the Rift, depending on how hard you compress the face cushion. I might trying that mod replacing the face gasket with the VR Cover cushion for the Odyssey+, more so now that I know glasses are out of the question.

My guess is I will be pretty happy with the Reverb. I will need to fiddle with the settings some more, but the possible visual fidelity is stunning, and I am confident I will find a satisfying compromise between visual fidelity and performance. It's already pretty satisfying that star ports and space stations are no longer a shimmering blob and that my corvette finally has clear lines in front of me. I will have more time to play with it tonight, then I will know how it works out over a 2-3 hour play session.

TL;DR: So far I have no buyers remorse and don't think it was a waste of money. No dissapointment on my part so far.
 
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You chose well. A video of your G2 destroying the $10,000 VRGineers XTAL 8k headset. Initially the XTAL8K seems ok but as the video goes on the G2 is comprehensively trashing it in both colour and image quality. Don't know how VRGineers messed that one up as their last headset was great for it's time.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7nhlQciLlM


BTW your WMR headset has native Cortana support so you can just say things like 'Open'/'Close' or 'Launch <AppName>' to get your VR Windows menus and apps into any VR game. I use it to launch Edge or the Desktop into the game so I can have a cockpit panel to surf the net, play TV etc.

Another useful command is 'Torch On/Off'. It enables you to look at your desk without taking off the headset. I find it useful for typing.
 
Thanks.
I think the G2 might be the headset for me. But I’m only running a 1080ti, and will be buying a whole new system, including a 3090, and so it’s gonna be one hell of an investment.
I have to be sure... and you have helped a lot 👍
 
Thanks.
I think the G2 might be the headset for me. But I’m only running a 1080ti, and will be buying a whole new system, including a 3090, and so it’s gonna be one hell of an investment.
I have to be sure... and you have helped a lot 👍
I am using a 1080Ti with my G1 ( same resolution as the G2 so same compute requirements ) on an old 4790k. Enjoying it thoroughly
 
As a ex rift S and now G2 owner (same 2060rtx) same pc except I put a water cooler on the cpu and rearranged case fans for a better flow of ambient air.
Firstly the G2.
Runs alot hotter on the PC. But fully loaded ingame it won't go above 65°.
The rift never went above 55°.
The cpu runs hotter now too but only marginally.
It took me 2 weeks to finally get the G2 stable in elite without crashes etc now runs perfectly.
I do have a hotas and wireless mouse and keyboard all USB.
So power was an issue but an external USB hub fixed that.
The G2 looks gorgeous compared to the rift S. Sorry but it does. Colours and resolution are lovely.
The G2 sits better on my face and feels lighter.
I've ordered insert prescription lenses so l won't wear glasses as l think the rift S scratched mine. 2 distinct marks on my glasses perfectly aligned with rift S lenses.
G2 motion tracking was sorted using the motion control in steam.
Steam Ss set at 62% in my case, ingame set to 100.
Wmr set at quality rather than performance.
Don't use the controllers so cant voice an opinion on em.
G2 is much better in all ways. Perfect flawless play.
And I feel for those having issues. I did initially but after alot of fiddling with steam vr settings it's stable.
Do think alot of the issues I've seen posted might well be USB related namely not enough power especially if your psu is stock.
Mines an 800w beast that's shrouded in a sleeve to isolate it air flow wise so it don't contribute any hot air.
Ambient temp and airflow may well have to be addressed. At least take a look at cpu/gpu temp whilst playing elite in a furball or shortly after. You'll see how hot they are.
These are my experiences thus far. Hope it helps

o7
 
G2 motion tracking was sorted using the motion control in steam.
Are you talking about shifting or stuttering?

I had world-shifting problems (the world would shift as though my real life room confused it). So much so that I put it in a box and just went back to the Index.
 
I've got a Reverb G2 as my very first VR headset. So far it's pretty fun but I've noticed things like HUD text appears a bit more blurry than on a flat-screen. This occurs regardless of the graphics quality. Is this considered normal?
I laughed when I read this. Your observation is bang on, even the top headsets are not 'flat screen' quality for various semi-conductor/software/optical physics reasons. The grail is to achieve/exceed exactly what you've alluded to. I laughed because many of us have spent years tolerating blurry pixelated VR displays where reading text was almost impossible. That a new VR user with no bias observes that a G2 is 'not quite' as clear as a flat screen is testimony to how far VR headsets have come.

If you want to see the absolute best of the best, check out the Varjo XR3 below. Better than the G2, Pimax 8K, Star VR1. I nearly went for this one except that it's only 115deg ( same as a Reverb ) and the subscription is $1000/year - madness.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQP72oYkfk4
 
I nearly went for this one except that it's only 115deg ( same as a Reverb ) and the subscription is $1000/year - madness.
How much does it cost? I tried to find out on their website and could not figure it out. All I found was a contact sales button.
 
I got an email from System Active last week saying they were getting a batch of G2's in this week and they would release them for sale at 8pm on Tuesday. I got further emails two days on the trot apologising for the website crashing. I checked on Thursday and they still had them of sale so took a punt thinking I would be put on a pre-order list.
Got an email today confirming delivery on Wednesday so I will soon find out if it's better than the Rift S. (y)
 
You'd have to ask but I think it was ~£5400.
I really want one. If not for annual subscription maybe. But no even 5k is too much for a regular person.

While playing ED using VR my dream was always to see my throttle, stick and hands during gameplay. Because I often forget which button to push and I need to peek out of the VR helmet.
 
Any tips for setting it up
Mine only worked with native resolution. If I let Windows do the upscaling feature, the device would go crazy. I let Windows choose all the other settings and it seemed okay.

For some reason my Index does better at 80, while the G2 did better at 90. When I would force the G2 to 60 it would act crazy.
 
I really want one. If not for annual subscription maybe. But no even 5k is too much for a regular person.

While playing ED using VR my dream was always to see my throttle, stick and hands during gameplay. Because I often forget which button to push and I need to peek out of the VR helmet.
For the G2 ( or any WMR headset ) just say "Torch on" and the headset will let you see through the forward cameras.
 
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