Vive Pro Discussion Thread

[CylonSurfer]

My VP arrived yesterday. The image is absolutely wonderful. None of the Mura, color tint, blasted out high-gamma colors that should be near black, artificial sharp edges around cloudy things, color auras, etc that the various Rifts have had. The image is crisp, bright, and fades nicely to black. I only saw a minuscule amount of black smear, in one place, otherwise it hasn't been noticeable.

But nothing ever goes completely smoothly. I know people said that the audio isn't as good as the Rift. That's an understatement. The audio is pure junk. No bass tones whatsoever. It's only the tinny, high-frequency sound that gets through. It's as if they intentionally filtered the bass and some of the mid-range out. Googling shows this to be a widespread problem. Some people report that you just need to press the earphones closer into your ear, but this doesn't help much in my case. The frequency ranges are just missing. So for the moment I'm back on external headphones (which fit under the HMD strap better than over it, making for a compressed, tight feel. This is making me consider earbuds, even though I generally don't prefer those). For now it's a set of $25 Logitech headphones, and it sounds infinitely better.

EDIT: I haven't tried messing with bass boost, etc yet in Windows. I'll probably give that a try.

EDIT 2: I also tried a firmware update, and that didn't help.

Which audio output are you selecting in Windows? I use 'Vive Pro Nvidia High Definition Audio' and it sounds great. I had issues to begin with as 'Vive Pro Multimedia Audio' was selected, I disabled it and used the other option. All was good after that.

 

[Orvidius]

I tried using both of the Vive audio devices shown, and the sound was the same in both. However the "multimedia" audio device at least allowed me to add a Bass Boost, which helped a little. It was still pretty terrible.

I found this reddit thread and tried EqualizerAPO using their settings, and it sounds pretty decent now. Whew.

 

[rich.j]

Help choosing the right VR headset please!

Hi all,

I am new to this community, and I need some help choosing the right headset

I have been in a dilemma which headset to choose between VIVE Pro or Oculus, I did read some reviews about best VR headsets on https://focusonvr.com/

But, I would like some advice from people who use above mentioned brands.

Your input will be much appreciated.

Thank you kindly

 

[CylonSurfer]

Hi all,

I am new to this community, and I need some help choosing the right headset

I have been in a dilemma which headset to choose between VIVE Pro or Oculus, I did read some reviews about best VR headsets on https://focusonvr.com/

But, I would like some advice from people who use above mentioned brands.

Your input will be much appreciated.

Thank you kindly

I own both a Rift and a Vive Pro. In terms of visuals the Vive Pro is leaps ahead of the Rift, however the Vive Pro requires a much more powerful PC than the Rift does in order to run well. The Vive Pros montion Controllers also suck in comparison to the Rifts 'Touch' controllers so if you plan on playing more than just Elite in VR then that is worth consideration.

The Vive Pro is also very over priced making it more an item for someone who would fall into the 'VR Enthusiast' category, likely not the best first headset if you are not sure you'll like VR or play it that much. Unless of course money is not an issue for you.

Oculus are also planning a 'Rift S' for sometime Q1/2 next year, there are no real details just yet but the general theory is that it will have the same screens as the Vive Pro and would very likely be better priced.

 

[CylonSurfer]

BTW do the Gear VR lens mod, seriously. I am going to put a video up about doing it.
Makes a MASSIVE difference to immersion.

My GearVR lenses and 3D printed adapters arrived last week. I installed them and fired up Elite, I could not believe that the god rays had gone and that the image was so clear! The Vive Pros lenses were even worse than the Rifts for god rays in my experience so I was very glad to see that issue go!

That said after a few minutes I started to notice quite severe image distortion... so much so that when I took off the headset I felt odd, not sick, just disoriented and the feeling took some time to pass. I decided to go back to the stock lenses... but... a few hours later, after firing up Elite again and seeing those god rays I thought to myself I have to get the GearVR mod working better, I just can't go back now!

Lots of reading later and after taking some time I've slowly built a nice distortion profile for the new lenses by modifying a copy of my old lens profile as a base. I have it almost perfect now with just a small amount of distortion on the outer edge of the lens but you really have to look for it in order to notice it. I hope to get it even better but to be honest but I'm not in so much of a rush now that distortion is at an acceptable level.

So all in all the mod was very worth doing, if not a little daunting when I took a small screwdriver to my Vive Pros lenses for the first time...! The image quality is now superb, Elite has never looked so good, no more god rays shooting up from my lower vision and every other light in the cockpit, just very clear visuals which are simply stunning. I showed the mod to a friend who plays a lot of Elite on his Rift, he was also very impressed with the visuals and couldn't believe the lack of god rays!