VR upgrade. Wow.

Globusdiablo · Oct 30, 2022

TL: DR:

The HP Reverb G2 V2 is perfect for Elite: Dangerous

I just went from the Samsung Odyssey plus to the HP Reverb G2 (V2). Wow...

At first I was a bit confused, as I wasn't registering any particular impressions. And then it hit me. The Reverb actually gets it all right. Everything just feels "right".

Visuals are amazing (goodbye screen door and lens flare).
Audio is spectacular (I love the "off the ear" system).
Comfort is perfect (for me. Might be a bit snug for people with larger heads).

Note to potential buyers: The high native resolution means that you can get rid of most of the artificial super sampling, so remember to dial it down in-game and in the Steam overlay. I turned specific and global down to 80% in Steam, and super sampling and HMD quality to 1 in-game.

The high native resolution of the Reverb will push even the best PCs, but you can easily dial down to medium settings in-game and still achieve an excellent VR experience with fluid frames per second.

I recommend fpsVR to in-game monitor loads and heat, making it easy to dial in your personal preference.

For reference: i5 12600k, rtx 3070ti.

Fly safe commanders.

DeckerSolo · Oct 30, 2022

Globusdiablo said:
TL: DR:

The HP Reverb G2 V2 is perfect for Elite: Dangerous

I just went from the Samsung Odyssey plus to the HP Reverb G2 (V2). Wow...

At first I was a bit confused, as I wasn't registering any particular impressions. And then it hit me. The Reverb actually gets it all right. Everything just feels "right".

Visuals are amazing (goodbye screen door and lens flare).
Audio is spectacular (I love the "off the ear" system).
Comfort is perfect (for me. Might be a bit snug for people with larger heads).

Note to potential buyers: The high native resolution means that you can get rid of most of the artificial super sampling, so remember to dial it down in-game and in the Steam overlay. I turned specific and global down to 80% in Steam, and super sampling and HMD quality to 1 in-game.

The high native resolution of the Reverb will push even the best PCs, but you can easily dial down to medium settings in-game and still achieve an excellent VR experience with fluid frames per second.

I recommend fpsVR to in-game monitor loads and heat, making it easy to dial in your personal preference.

For reference: i5 12600k, rtx 3070ti.

Fly safe commanders.

Welcome to the HP Reverb G2 world, I ditched the Quest 2 for the G2 (v1) some while back and completely agree with you its picture & sound quality are superb.
I've very recently been lucky enought to upgraded to an RTX 4090 and can run steam VR at 150% with every in game setting at maximum, and wow its amazingly good.

aXeL · Oct 30, 2022

Congrats, I've got a G1 and a G2. Top tip: Care for your cable!! My G1 cable, over the years, went through enough movement that the contacts inside the middle plug became intermittent which affected the picture. On my G2, I taped the cable to the rear, side of the headset so that it doesn't bend where the cable emerges from the plug - I'm just paranoid that I need to care for it.

If you can find anywhere that sells them still, buy a spare cable ( V2 not V1 ) or two ( not cheap tho. ). The headset itself is an absolute gem. Maybe it's not just the Reverb though, the other vendors like selling spare cables.

The downside of Reverb ownership is that you're now ruined by good VR and will never want anything from Valve or Oculus again.

DeckerSolo · Oct 30, 2022

Thanks for the tip about the cable, will look at that now.
I did get a free v2 cable from HP Support because the v1 cable that came with my v1 headset was causing problems with AMD cpu's.

Globusdiablo · Oct 30, 2022

DeckerSolo said:
...I've very recently been lucky enought to upgraded to an RTX 4090 and can run steam VR at 150% with every in game setting at maximum, and wow its amazingly good.

Seweeeet!

Dragsham · Oct 30, 2022

I've had a g2 v1 for ages now. I too have it cranked up to 150%. OpenXR composite so its really rendering perfectly.
3090fe slightly oc, 9900k oc to 5k. Ddr4 4400mhz ram defo helps. 32 gig but honestly I think 16 would suffice.
AFAIK elite does not support dlss in any form. Which is a shame.
A fan curve req for heat hehehe. It's winter almost my rooms toasty.
Welcome to elite with the best reasonably priced headset money can buy.

o7

aXeL · Oct 30, 2022

DeckerSolo said:
Welcome to the HP Reverb G2 world, I ditched the Quest 2 for the G2 (v1) some while back and completely agree with you its picture & sound quality are superb.
I've very recently been lucky enought to upgraded to an RTX 4090 and can run steam VR at 150% with every in game setting at maximum, and wow its amazingly good.

I only have a 3090 so I hate you ( not jealous at all )

Dragsham · Oct 30, 2022

Axel.. are you saying your in vr with a 3090 and using a metaquestzzzzZzZz

Time to upgrade perhaps hehe

Don't think a 4090 is gonner make that much difference. What with the lack of dlss

DeckerSolo · Oct 30, 2022

Air cooled, not overclocked 4090 is giving about 60% better in game performance over my overclocked water cooled (active backplate) 3090 FE.

I noticed the in game difference immediately, so yes a 4090 does make a big difference, but given the prices of 4090's at the moment its probably not worth the investment over a well balanced 3090.

Globusdiablo · Oct 30, 2022

DeckerSolo said:
Air cooled, not overclocked 4090 is giving about 60% better in game performance over my overclocked water cooled (active backplate) 3090 FE.

I noticed the in game difference immediately, so yes a 4090 does make a big difference, but given the prices of 4090's at the moment its probably not worth the investment over a well balanced 3090.

The 4090 is a monster. Perfomance and price.

Edit: And you need a big case too. What is it? 3.5 slots?...

DeckerSolo · Oct 30, 2022

Globusdiablo said:
The 4090 is a monster. Perfomance and price.

Edit: And you need a big case too. What is it? 3.5 slots?...

Yes you do need a big case for a 4090.
My Asus TUFF RTX 4090 (L x D x H) 345 x 135 x 75mm, plus the stupid power connector sticking 90 Deg out of the top making an extra 30mm over the 75mm, Nvidia really screwed up that bit of the design.
I also upgraded my Seasonic PSU to 1000w. Seasonic provide a free 12VHPWR cable if you apply, which is a better solution that the stupid multi cabled monstrosity provided as standard.

Globusdiablo · Oct 30, 2022

DeckerSolo said:
Yes you do need a big case for a 4090.
My Asus TUFF RTX 4090 (L x D x H) 345 x 135 x 75mm, plus the stupid power connector sticking 90 Deg out of the top making an extra 30mm over the 75mm, Nvidia really screwed up that bit of the design.
I also upgraded my Seasonic PSU to 1000w. Seasonic provide a free 12VHPWR cable if you apply, which is a better solution that the stupid multi cabled monstrosity provided as standard.

Seasonic makes excellent PSUs. Good choice. Should keep you cooking a good few years, if you need it to.

aXeL · Oct 30, 2022

Dragsham said:
Axel.. are you saying your in vr with a 3090 and using a metaquestzzzzZzZz

Time to upgrade perhaps hehe

Don't think a 4090 is gonner make that much difference. What with the lack of dlss

Hah hah please don't use my name and 'Meta', 'Quest' in the same post - I need to go shower now

BigBANGtheory [VR] · Oct 31, 2022

DeckerSolo said:
I also upgraded my Seasonic PSU to 1000w. Seasonic provide a free 12VHPWR cable if you apply, which is a better solution that the stupid multi cabled monstrosity provided as standard.

Have you got your cable yet? I've not got any shipping info so far despite qualifying...

For others be sure to request the cable soon Seasonic said it would be a limited first come first served run of free cables for qualifying products. Pretty decent thing to do tbh I like Seasonic for that.

Dragsham · Oct 31, 2022

Think their gonner end up recalling 4090s to modify the mains power lead. Its pants, dangerous

DeckerSolo · Oct 31, 2022

BigBANGtheory [VR] said:
Have you got your cable yet? I've not got any shipping info so far despite qualifying...

For others be sure to request the cable soon Seasonic said it would be a limited first come first served run of free cables for qualifying products. Pretty decent thing to do tbh I like Seasonic for that.

No notification of shipping date yet from Seasonic despite qualifying, its only been a couple of days, though.

DeckerSolo · Oct 31, 2022

Dragsham said:
Think their gonner end up recalling 4090s to modify the mains power lead. Its pants, dangerous

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIKjZ1djp8c

playerwon · Oct 31, 2022

welcome to the club commander!
i upgraded to the g1 reverb (which i still use to this day) from the hp 1440... and never touched the other headset again. in fact, i couldnt even ask anyone for money for the old headset since the reverb was so much better so i just gave it away.
watch that cable tho... ensure that there are no sharp bends in it. it is braided cable inside, and bends will start snapping contacts inside the wire (get rid of that clip that holds the wire to the side of the headset! its designed to kill them fast! these things where made for commercial clients, not gamers... made to have failures that arent that expensive to fix compared to replacement of the unit, so companies would buy cables over and over and over) and again, make sure there are no sharp bends in the cable! if not, you will shortly lose your 90hz capability. you will see static on screen suddenly... generally red and green... this means your cable is breaking. to fix limit to 60hz and get a new cable while your warranty is still good!

BinakAlgo · Nov 5, 2022

I am considerign the Reverb G2 but everyone mention that the controls suck and I do want to play other things besides Elite. What's your experience with other games?

playerwon · Nov 5, 2022

BinakAlgo said:
I am considerign the Reverb G2 but everyone mention that the controls suck and I do want to play other things besides Elite. What's your experience with other games?

for games that require highly accurate controller tracking, anything that uses lighthouses is going to give you a better experience than anything that uses inside out tracking... reverb g2 uses inside out tracking.
having said that... i play a lot of skyrim vr, borderlands 2 vr... you know, the usual run n gun type games... .
and i find i have to adopt a specific stance to keep my controllers in the cameras viewing angle or they fly away randomly. i call it the "mr burns stance" cause i have to keep my hands in front of me instead of at my side.
beat saber... is going to be painful. inside out tracking is not good enough to always hit the blocks. ive been robbed of many a great score because of the gaps in the tracking space.