Oculus Rift (S) Pre-order announcement

[dburne]

25 minutes ago, Mephisto said:

Rift S arriving today. Yeah! 

 

You lucky dog!!

 

[JonRedcorn]

11 hours ago, dburne said:

And those to me look terrible.

Similar to the ones I saw posted about Rift and Vive a couple of years or so ago, if I had seen them before purchasing my Rift 

I likely would not have.

But the actual experience was much better than what I saw in those pics.

One just can not show an actual representation on a 2d image what one actually sees in the 3d environment.

It does however give a fair impression of which headsets have the better resolution. There is also more to a headset than just resolution.

 

In any event, I should know by week's end on the Rift S.

It will probably be decent. Again who knows what hes running those games at could be 100%. Just hope the comfort isn't an issue. I know the halo for the odyssey sucked until I put the big fluffy VR leather cover on it. It still sucks for watching movies because that big thing behind your head doesn't let you lean back in a chair. Which is disappointing because movies look amazing on big screen in the o+ it's literally like being in the theater.

[dburne]

Woohoo, the Rift S charge from Amazon has shown up in pending in my CC this morning - getting close!

Would love to get lucky and it ship today , it would be here Wed then and I have nothing going on Wed.

#fingerscrossed

[FTC_Mephisto]

Package delivered and I am stuck at work.... 

[Nibbio]

glowing review from a user:

 

 

[dburne]

Sounds promising!

[Blitzen]

7 hours ago, Mephisto said:

Rift S arriving today. Yeah! 

Did you get a notification from Oculus about delivery today? Last week I was told by Oculus support deliveries wouldn't start until the 21rst, yet it seems a few have already received theirs by USPS or UPS(?)

     (Just got the word from Support : they will be shipping tomorrow so...maybe by Wednesday.....?)

Edited May 20, 2019 by Blitzen
added info

[JonRedcorn]

This guy wasn't as stoked about his... Sounds more like how I'd imagined it.

 

My Rift S came in today and after spending a quick couple of hours with it here are my take aways.

NOTE: I need to spend much more time in the headset but here are my initial thoughts/ramblings.

Optics

WOW, the best part about the Rift S by a long shot. I have a 63 IPD so right on the money and the edge to edge clarity is quite a large jump up from the CV1.

The LED panel does seem a bit of a drop in quality from its younger brother but the clear optics are something else. It’s almost too clear at times as I do see some aliasing.

One concern I have is the refresh rate, not so much if you are hitting 80 but when ASW kicks in it’s not as smooth as when running on CV1. This may be down to early software support? I hope so. But it’s one of my main concerns at this point.

I was able to use my desktop in OH though and comfortably read text. The jump up here is quite remarkable.

Audio

The audio solution is quite frankly crap. A 3/10 at best. I really hope we have some 3rd party options here.

Comfort

It’s fine while the headset is on and you are using it. For me it’s about the same comfort as CV1. One thing I noticed though, you can’t take it off and rest it on your head. I did this frequently with the CV1 so that I can control my pc. It does seem to put a bit of pressure on my forehead, not sure how I’ll go after a long session. I also maybe need to spend more time on how to adjust it for comfort.

Tracking

It’s been flawless so far but I haven’t really spent too much time testing it out. Early signs are good.

Summary

Early signs are positive but I’m already preying for a decent 3rd party strap with good audio, and possibly a redesigned facial mask. I would say Oculus have provided optics, tracking and touch. Lenovo probably looked after the rest.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/bqv9e2/my_early_impressions_of_the_s_from_a_cv1_owner/

Edited May 20, 2019 by JgonRedcorn

[dburne]

I guess I read it a little different, sounds like the image clarity is really good which is what I am most excited about.

I have already ordered earbuds to take care of the audio.

ASW - I normally run with it off, so will remain to be seen how that works for me with the Rift S. Has not been an issue with the Rift CV1.

[FTC_Mephisto]

Here we go...

[dburne]

Woohoo, just got an update from Amazon - mine did ship today and is arriving tomorrow!!

 

[Herne]

I placed an order with oculus yesterday. Email says ship by 29th.

[chiliwili69]

20 hours ago, JgonRedcorn said:

because that big thing behind your head doesn't let you lean back in a chair.

 

Yes, this is another thing which I didn´t like in the VIvePro. My back head was constantly touching my upper playseat. Vive, Rift CV1, Reverb, Pimax are quite ok on that. Rift S, and also Index, are not good on that item.

[dburne]

Should be an exciting day in the VR forum as Rift S devices begin to arrive today.

I have been running my Rift at 1.6 SS in OTT and on Ultra graphics settings. 

If I can get the same performance from Rift S with it at same graphics level but running at 80 Hz, I will be one very happy camper.

Also I typically prefer to run with ASW off, so will be interesting to see how the Rift S handles that with the lower refresh rate.

 

I will probably start out with no SS and see how the image and performance compares. If good will slowly add some back in.

Hoping for:

Better image clarity

Less SDE

Better spotting/target identifying

Solid tracking

Similar performance as CV1

 

Hopefully before this day is over my CV1 will be officially retired.

 

Edited May 21, 2019 by dburne

[FTC_Mephisto]

So I was able to spend some time with Rift S yesterday. I made sure to fly the same quick mission (4 vs. 4 intercept) on CV1 before installing Rift S. I only used Rift devices before (DK2 -> CV1 and Rift S now), so below is a very subjective first impression after maybe 30 minutes use. I can't draw any comparison with other VR solutions, just with the original Rift CV1. 

 

Set-up: Very easy and simpler as compared to CV1 given that there are no external sensors. I didn't need to install any new software. Plug, follow steps on the screen, update the firmware and set-up the guardian zone. Real world rendering is shown through the outside cameras as soon as you cross the virtual border. Nice feature for more active VR experiences. I skipped the tutorial at the end. Rift S worked Steam VR and I was able to directly jump into IL-2. I didn't touch the IPD settings and all worked fine. 

 

Headset: No issues in putting the headset on and adjusting the halo strap, visor fits the face as good as CV1. The new nose piece closes almost perfectly, no light bleed. If you want to do something outside game you need to take the visor off to find the key. Overall sweet spot seems to be larger so it is much easier to put the Rift on and off and then return to playing. With CV1 I always needed to adjust angle to get the right quality of the picture, with Rift S the overall sharpness seems to be less dependent on the exact position / angle of the screens.  

 

Performance: I run i7 7700k OCed at 5Ghz and OCed MSI 1080Ti. 160% in Steam VR, game setting as per "copy & paste" thread from this forum but with shadows_quality to 4,  land_tex_lods = 3, draw_distance = 1.00000 and gamma at 0.6. AWS is on and I use the migoto mod to remove the prop / add zoom features. Overall performance in the quick mission is very similar to my experience with CV1. It seems that the lower refresh rate (80 Hz vs. 90 Hz) compensates the higher resolution (2650 vs. 2160).  Migoto zoom feature doesn't work correctly (left and right eye images don't match), I assume some adjustments are needed in the settings. 

 

Image quality: A clear improvement compared to CV1 already at the set-up stage. In the initial Rift tutorial with the droid I could see a major difference in the substantially reduced SDE and increased sharpness of more distance items. FOV seems to be slightly larger, but this is probably more driven by overall increase in the sweet spot size. You still need to move the head vs. moving the eyes. In IL-2 the picture just looks cleaner and sharper across the board, initial impression after just using CV1 is as if you doubled the resolution in the game. Contact spotting and identification is easier as objects sharpness at the distance is much better. Almost no SDE from my perspective, very crisp and sharp image of the instruments. When you move forward to the gauges the sharpness seems to increase further w/o SDE. 

 

Audio: Only negative point is that my Rift S produces crackling noise. Apparently some users had similar issues already with CV1. Re-plugging and playing with the setting didn't help so far. When there was no crackling the overall audio delivery was OK, but hard to say in IL-2 as mostly you hear the engine. Need to test further if this is the device or settings issue. 

 

Initial conclusion is that an upgrade from original Rift makes sense as the quality of the picture is substantially better as expected if only just looking at the resolution improvement.

 

More testing today. 

 

[dburne]

Nice feedback thanks!

I am reading some very positive things(with exception of audio) on couple of forums so far this morning.

I am most excited about better clarity and better seeing at distances. 

 

Edit:

Woohoo it is here, just arrived!

Never thought I would see it this early.

Edited May 21, 2019 by dburne

[kestrel79]

Just bought one today. Should get here in a few days. I don't expect killer performance with a 2060...but should be fun to mess around with until I upgrade.

[dburne]

Got mine all hooked up and running for first time , Oculus Home certainly looks better on image clarity.

 

Oh and these Klipsch R6 II earbuds - sweet!

Short break then get my controllers hooked up and check out in IL-2.

[Alonzo]

9 hours ago, chiliwili69 said:

 

Yes, this is another thing which I didn´t like in the VIvePro. My back head was constantly touching my upper playseat. Vive, Rift CV1, Reverb, Pimax are quite ok on that. Rift S, and also Index, are not good on that item.

 

I was playing Elite Dangerous as my main game before IL2, and for that you are constantly looking upwards in a dogfight. I ended up swapping out my "racing" style high-backed chair for one with a mid-back. It's just a boring office chair and the back comes up to just above shoulder height only. No issue looking upwards any more.

[MercCrom175]

So issue with clearer image is much worse aliasing.  You rift s owners notice this also?  It’s a major problem in dcs world and Some in il2. Thoughts?

[JonRedcorn]

8 minutes ago, MercCrom175 said:

So issue with clearer image is much worse aliasing.  You rift s owners notice this also?  It’s a major problem in dcs world and Some in il2. Thoughts?

Gotta crank up that super sampling. I notice this in my odyssey + as well. That's why I say the o+ needs at least 150% SS to start really looking good. 

[MercCrom175]

5 minutes ago, JgonRedcorn said:

Gotta crank up that super sampling. I notice this in my odyssey + as well. That's why I say the o+ needs at least 150% SS to start really looking good. 

Yup same with mine, funny you get a higher res but the overall picture looks crappy with all the aliasing swimming across the screen.

[OrLoK]

im already impressed with the S's screen without SS, ill try it with it on later 

 

My only gripe is that it doesnt feel as posh as my OG rift.

[dburne]

Ok flew a PWCG Cold Start Campaign mission.

 

I just left my Oculus Tray Tool settings and graphics as they were, 1.6 SS, ASW off, and Graphics on Ultra.

Performance was good, I would say on par with what I was getting with the CV1. Of course rather than getting 85-90 fps where I would in the CV1, I was 

getting 75-80 fps due to lower refresh rate in the Rift S. Performance was very smooth.

In heavy battle it would drop down to like 60 fps or so, but still smooth.

 

Some observations after this flight:

Need to adjust a little to make sure you are in sweet spot. Also use the Depth Adjustment Button on the headset to get the lens close as can after tightening

the headset up on the head.

 

Clarity - Nice improvement over Rift CV1.

I was behind a 109 in my Spit , laid into him with my cannons and set the 109 on fire. Watching that pilot bail out was quite a treat with the better clarity.

I think he flipped me off LOL.

Understand the clarity is not leaps above CV1, but a nice little improvement. I can read the instruments in the Spit quite well.

 

Comfort - Seems pretty good, will know better after some extended play sessions.

Need to adjust it carefully after putting on head to get in the sweet spot - once adjusted and tightened, it will stay put.

Nose gap - virtually none, not so easy to peek at keyboard. Have not tried the Pass Through feature yet to see how that might do for 

keyboard input with headset on. If not doing so yet, you will want to have all your needed inputs on your HOTAS setup for ease of use.

 

FOV - seems same to me as CV1, maybe a little more in the vertical but horizontal seems the same.

Tracking - I had no issue whatsoever with tracking so far with the Rift S, seems very solid. Will see how it does with some of

my Oculus Touch games.

 

Audio - I understand the audio strap is pretty bad - so I had already ordered Klipsch Earbuds to use with the Rift S, and just started using them immediately.

Positional audio is awesome, sound is quite good.  In my CV1, the audio was ok but even at 100% it was still a little quiet for my taste.

Not this setup with the earbuds, 100% blasts my ears big time so had to crank it down some.

 

SDE - There is still some there, but certainly less than CV1. To tell the truth I got to where I hardly noticed in CV1, so I am sure not going

to notice much in the Rift S.

 

Black Levels - checked out Star Trek Bridge Crew briefly , looked better than I had expected considering the LCD display.

God Rays - none that I have noticed, however I never noticed them too much in the CV1 either.

 

Installation was a snap -  unplugged the CV1, plugged Rift S in, did a firmware update through Oculus Home, and off I went.

So far I am pleased with my purchase.

 

Edit: Oh and the Map and the Briefings, so much easier to read!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2019 by dburne

[Nibbio]

Quote

Understand the clarity is not leaps above CV1, but a nice little improvement. I can read the instruments in the Spit quite well.

 

Bit disappointed, I was expecting more than just "a nice little improvement" over the CV1, based on other reviews.

I may hold on a bit more with the old CV1...

[dburne]

13 minutes ago, Nibbio said:

 

Bit disappointed, I was expecting more than just "a nice little improvement" over the CV1, based on other reviews.

I may hold on a bit more with the old CV1...

 

Keep in mind that can be very subjective to the individual also.

It is a nice improvement, but not what I would consider a huge improvement.

I certainly at least at this point, am not disappointed and glad I got it.

[Blitzen]

It just arrived...now to dismantle old Rift...install new!

[dburne]

7 minutes ago, Blitzen said:

It just arrived...now to dismantle old Rift...install new!

 

 

Have fun!!

[JonRedcorn]

2 hours ago, dburne said:

Ok flew a PWCG Cold Start Campaign mission.

 

I just left my Oculus Tray Tool settings and graphics as they were, 1.6 SS, ASW off, and Graphics on Ultra.

Performance was good, I would say on par with what I was getting with the CV1. Of course rather than getting 85-90 fps where I would in the CV1, I was 

getting 75-80 fps due to lower refresh rate in the Rift S. Performance was very smooth.

In heavy battle it would drop down to like 60 fps or so, but still smooth.

 

Some observations after this flight:

Need to adjust a little to make sure you are in sweet spot. Also use the Depth Adjustment Button on the headset to get the lens close as can after tightening

the headset up on the head.

 

Clarity - Nice improvement over Rift CV1.

I was behind a 109 in my Spit , laid into him with my cannons and set the 109 on fire. Watching that pilot bail out was quite a treat with the better clarity.

I think he flipped me off LOL.

Understand the clarity is not leaps above CV1, but a nice little improvement. I can read the instruments in the Spit quite well.

 

Comfort - Seems pretty good, will know better after some extended play sessions.

Need to adjust it carefully after putting on head to get in the sweet spot - once adjusted and tightened, it will stay put.

Nose gap - virtually none, not so easy to peek at keyboard. Have not tried the Pass Through feature yet to see how that might do for 

keyboard input with headset on. If not doing so yet, you will want to have all your needed inputs on your HOTAS setup for ease of use.

 

FOV - seems same to me as CV1, maybe a little more in the vertical but horizontal seems the same.

Tracking - I had no issue whatsoever with tracking so far with the Rift S, seems very solid. Will see how it does with some of

my Oculus Touch games.

 

Audio - I understand the audio strap is pretty bad - so I had already ordered Klipsch Earbuds to use with the Rift S, and just started using them immediately.

Positional audio is awesome, sound is quite good.  In my CV1, the audio was ok but even at 100% it was still a little quiet for my taste.

Not this setup with the earbuds, 100% blasts my ears big time so had to crank it down some.

 

SDE - There is still some there, but certainly less than CV1. To tell the truth I got to where I hardly noticed in CV1, so I am sure not going

to notice much in the Rift S.

 

Black Levels - checked out Star Trek Bridge Crew briefly , looked better than I had expected considering the LCD display.

God Rays - none that I have noticed, however I never noticed them too much in the CV1 either.

 

Installation was a snap -  unplugged the CV1, plugged Rift S in, did a firmware update through Oculus Home, and off I went.

So far I am pleased with my purchase.

 

Edit: Oh and the Map and the Briefings, so much easier to read!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return it and get the reverb!

[dburne]

19 minutes ago, JgonRedcorn said:

Return it and get the reverb!

 

Nahhh, just spent most of afternoon flying PWCG campaign with it and am quite pleased. I be hooked.

Think I will hang on to it. Plus I have several Oculus Touch games I will enjoy with it.

Will wait on getting another headset until I see them out and get user reports.

 

 

[JonRedcorn]

Just now, dburne said:

 

Nahhh, just spent most of afternoon flying PWCG campaign with it and am quite pleased. I be hooked.

Think I will hang on to it. Plus I have several Oculus Touch games I will enjoy with it.

Will wait on getting another headset until I see them out and get user reports.

 

 

Yeah true, was only 400 bucks right?

 

Not that bad to have it. Hows the 80hz feel any different?

[dburne]

16 minutes ago, JgonRedcorn said:

Yeah true, was only 400 bucks right?

 

Not that bad to have it. Hows the 80hz feel any different?

 

I can't notice any difference.

[Blitzen]

Less SDE for sure & better clarity AND worked straight out of the box with no problems...?

Edited May 21, 2019 by Blitzen
missplelling

[Rjel]

Would one of you be able to compare your Rift S visually to what I would see at 1080p on a monitor? In other words would you say it's visually better, worse or comparable to that resolution?

[MercCrom175]

get mine thursday, will replace my Odyssey Plus.  Excited, WMR runs like crap with motionvector and more cpu overhead compared to oculus software so win win

[BP_Lizard]

In stock on Amazon and two day deliver with Prime. Could they actually deliver as claimed? 

Any Prime members here who got it in two days?

[FTC_Mephisto]

13 hours ago, Nibbio said:

Bit disappointed, I was expecting more than just "a nice little improvement" over the CV1, based on other reviews.

 

I would say it is a sufficiently large improvement which justifies the extra spent and replacement of CV1. I would even go further and say that I would recommend this VR device to the first time users of VR coming from PC. It is reasonably priced, easy to install / use and delivers a much better picture quality compared to CV1. On CV1 many first time users (not simulation addicts and enthusiasts as us) were actually disappointed due to (i) set-up complexity and (ii) poor image quality due to SDE. I think from business perspective Oculus made the right move, combination of Rift S for PC users and stand-alone Oculus Quest might be the right way to push VR into mass adoption. More high end and enthusiast users will profit from this as more money will be pumped into the sector to also develop premium products and more importantly software developers will take VR into account when developing games. I might imagine that in 1-2 years any AAA title would need to have VR support out of the box. 

 

Another important element is the performance, Rift S delivers on this one. I can run it without reducing my settings. HP reverb sounds fantastic on paper but who will be able to run it? I did pre-order index and will re-asses at that point in time again.

 

 

More information on Rift S performance and picture quality from DSC forum:

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=238589&page=51

 

Seems to be much more VR users there... 

[chiliwili69]

26 minutes ago, Mephisto said:

I would say it is a sufficiently large improvement which justifies the extra spent and replacement of CV1

 

I am happy to see people is happy with the purchase of the Rift S, but in my opinion, if you just want a headset for IL-2, there could be other options in the market which fits better for this. Afterall IL-2 is what it matters here.

If there would not be any other headset in the market, then all Rift CV1 users will need to "die" into the Rift S as a logical upgrade in clarity (thanks to LCD panels, not resolution bump). Fortunately for us, there are other contenders out there which are trying to go to the state-of-the-art VR.

I will not forgive this small step of Oculus (I had been a big fan of Oculus from the DK1 backer) for not trying to go further in resolution and FOV and put worst audio. (people can always use subsampling if GPU is low range). I am really disappointed with Oculus. I understand now why Brendan left.

 

It would be nice if someone can produce through-the lens pictures with camera to compare RiftS with CV1, both with the same number of pixels being rendered.(ie same load to GPU)

Please, can any Rift S owner put a screenshoot of SteamVR, option Settings, Video, and show the calculated pixels when you set the Supersampling bar to 100% and 150%. (Having OTT SS=1.0).

It is just to know the internal supersampling ratio that the Rift S is using.

Thanks

[Herne]

11 minutes ago, chiliwili69 said:

 

I am happy to see people is happy with the purchase of the Rift S, but in my opinion, if you just want a headset for IL-2, there could be other options in the market which fits better for this. Afterall IL-2 is what it matters here.

If there would not be any other headset in the market, then all Rift CV1 users will need to "die" into the Rift S as a logical upgrade in clarity (thanks to LCD panels, not resolution bump). Fortunately for us, there are other contenders out there which are trying to go to the state-of-the-art VR.

I will not forgive this small step of Oculus (I had been a big fan of Oculus from the DK1 backer) for not trying to go further in resolution and FOV and put worst audio. (people can always use subsampling if GPU is low range). I am really disappointed with Oculus. I understand now why Brendan left.

 

It would be nice if someone can produce through-the lens pictures with camera to compare RiftS with CV1, both with the same number of pixels being rendered.(ie same load to GPU)

 

I have seen through the lens comparisons on YT.
 

 

[dburne]

The one thing I love about this Rift S, is the ability for me to be able to run IL-2 at the same Ultra graphics settings

and 1.6 SS while still getting good performance and a smooth experience as I did with CV1.

 

Edited May 22, 2019 by dburne