An Idiots Comparison of Rift S,Pimax5K and Reverb

[Blitzen]

(A disclaimer : I am an older PC illiterate.Everyting I know about PC's has come from playing various flight sims ( esp Il-2) over the years and thanks to the "generosity of strangers" so to speak.That being said I barely know te difference between "over-clocking: & "over-winding." )

Short version: The RiftS is the best deal for the money.The Pimax 5K is the best for gameplay with caviats..the Reverb is anyone's guess.If you have time for my questionable views read on.

 Rift S : Its quite a deal and I'd say a big if not full improvement from the original Rift which I used & enjoyed since day one.Its reasonably(?) priced, it is a quality piece of hardware.It is so easy to install ad use in just minutes.It would seem to be ideal for first time VR buyers.Although the Screen Door Effect is stll there,but much improved...maybe some day there will be a bigger improvement?Someone said its like a Rift 1/2 S,and thats about right.It does away with the tracking towers and the pupil distance slider ( some people don't like this , but I didn't think it was a big deal say compared to the adjustable Pimax adjustment feature.) and well-designed hand controllers. I can't say enough good things about Oculus Support & its nearly perfect interface with its buyers...to me its been just terrific.Its draw back : the Field of View is still about the same as the original.I understand this might be able to be adjusted with a mod, but I never worked out how.The headstraps are real quality & fit tight,so much so that th light leaks I depended on in the original Rift to peek at the keyboard are no longer there & I was being forced to finaly give up on my beloved MS Force Feedback.

Pimax 5K- (Another disclaimer : I got a pretty good discount on the 5K through a flash sale on Amazon-without this discount I may not have jumped on the rather pricey 5K. I had ordered & cancelled an order for the 5K back when release news was announced late last year.This was after a negative review or two online stating quality issues with head straps and imperfect SDE ( that is not much improvement in same.) 

 My 5K came last week & I have been wrestling with it for the last week and had much help from several people here to get it working properly.It comes with a minimum of install instructions ( but they are avaiilable in vids on line) -it does NOT come with hand controllers and most importantly "Base Station ,that you must have to get full use of 3D experience.The headstrap they do give you is really cheap piece of ill-fitting fabrick junk ,which is difficult to adjust to my fat head & does not have headphones( I could use my cheap headphones I use for jogging in conjunction with the headset tho.)

( Since receiving the 5K I have had to order the Base Station & power cord for an additional $110.00 and sprung for a replacement used Vive headstrap & conversion clips (yet to arrive) for about $120.00,So I am nearly touching $1000.00-pricey indeed!)

 So if you are stll with me ...The headset itselfis a kind of a "wow' and has a a veryfuturistic look.It is supposed to be heavier than the competition, but this may be an issue because of the crummy head staps.I am hoping when installed the better fit will slove the weight issue...ditto the ill fitting foam face cushion which doesn't want to stay where it should be.I've come to really hate the head strap & Foam cushion - for the price these are simply sub- standard.The good news you ask? Well the SDE is much reduced maybe a bit but just a bit better than RiftS.I've had so many other things to fine tune that I haven'y really dwelled on this effect.The real "WOW" is the Field of View- it is such an improvement.Its is impossible to state how much better this increase is in flying & fighting in this game.With Rift you head turn give you about 90 degrees left and right off center.Just enough to let you see your 3 or 9 o'clock without having to take your feet off the rudder pedals an uncomfortabbly twist in your chair or swing around in it. This is really a problem in th flying Circus aircraft or say the I-16 where checking your rear is necessary for survival.The 5K solves most of this with 3 different settings that you can choose from .Its now a synch to check you 5 & 7 o'clock with the 'Normal" settings and nearly all the way around with the "Wide" setting programmed.After installing the Base Station that is ,which took a bit of doing in my confined space .I had help do do this & you must have about 6 feetin front or to the side in which to place the Base Station looking down on your seated position.If you don't havethis dimension I would seriously consider not buying the 5K or the Vive that also has Base Stations you ave to use for 5K ( this is another advantage to the RiftS which will work nearly everywhere.)Like the Rift which has the Oculus Tray Tool ,the 5K uses the Pitool to fine tune it with say Steam VR and In-Game Settings" This is a good thing in terms of balancing FPS and image quality, but after a week of so I'm still trying to get the balance exactly right.When I do I'm going to weld it!!!I'm still trying to figure out how to acturately measure my pupil difference measurement- there is a handy dial on the headset that does give the distance between sweet spots as you turn it but never confirms when you have it right for your eyes, its not at all like the hady one you had with the original Rift or the automatic one in the RiftS.There is a third party one that you can insert into the game folder ,that would seem to make this task easier , but I ma still trying to get that to work properly as well...When i do I'll write the measurement down & weld it oo.I do have an eye doctor's appointment on Thursday..maybe he'll do it for me?

Pimax5K has not been easy but as I said at the outset I'm no PC genius, but at this moment I wouldn't go back to Rift or Vive- the FoV makes it a keeper for me! I sent the RiftS back.

Reverb- You probably know where this is going...I ordered the Reveb as soon as I could for May delivery...it was postponed & posponed again.Since then reports on those who did get it somehow have been less than wonderful.So becuse I never got it & have no idea when I would have gotten it and at best promised the same FoV as the RiftS,and so dear reader I regretfully cancelled my Amazon order.

( Post script : "It Figures Dept:"Just as I had at last sorted out a way to make the head strap sorta fit bfore  the new Headstrap arrived,my hard drive crashed.I ronically it was in the middle of an HP upgrade.....

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Blitzen
additional info

[BlackMambaMowTin]

Was hoping you would compare the PiMax 5K with the Reberb. I've heard a lot of good things about the Reverb especially from flight / racing simmers. 

[Blitzen]

2 minutes ago, BlackMambaMowTin said:

Was hoping you would compare the PiMax 5K with the Reberb. I've heard a lot of good things about the Reverb especially from flight / racing simmers. 

5 minutes ago Amazon contacted me again informing me the Reverb was till unavailable & asking if I still wanted to cancel this order. Enough is too much....

[Horna]

I want to get rid of my Rift CV1 and it seems people speak quite highly of the Rift S. I wonder if i should just sit on my money for a while or just go for it and order one right away. I don't like the idea of being forced to order a 2080TI too, the price is just outrageous. I have 1080TI now and it'll have to do for now. Any thoughts?

[Alonzo]

42 minutes ago, Horna said:

I want to get rid of my Rift CV1 and it seems people speak quite highly of the Rift S. I wonder if i should just sit on my money for a while or just go for it and order one right away. I don't like the idea of being forced to order a 2080TI too, the price is just outrageous. I have 1080TI now and it'll have to do for now. Any thoughts?

 

1080ti is plenty for the Rift S. Because of the refresh rate reduction from 90 to 80, if you're happy with the performance of your 1080ti with the CV1, you'll be happy with the Rift S. I am using an RTX 2080 (~same as 1080ti) with the Rift S and it looks and performs great. I sold my full Rift CV1 kit to offset the cost of the upgrade.

 

BUT. If you have IPD outside of the 'core' range for Rift S, you might have problems. At least one of my squad mates is returning the Rift S because their IPD is < 60 and it just doesn't work for them comfortably. My IPD is 64.5 so pretty close to average, and it works great for me.

[Horna]

11 minutes ago, Alonzo said:

 

1080ti is plenty for the Rift S. Because of the refresh rate reduction from 90 to 80, if you're happy with the performance of your 1080ti with the CV1, you'll be happy with the Rift S. I am using an RTX 2080 (~same as 1080ti) with the Rift S and it looks and performs great. I sold my full Rift CV1 kit to offset the cost of the upgrade.

 

BUT. If you have IPD outside of the 'core' range for Rift S, you might have problems. At least one of my squad mates is returning the Rift S because their IPD is < 60 and it just doesn't work for them comfortably. My IPD is 64.5 so pretty close to average, and it works great for me.

Thanks for reply. IIRC my IPD is quite similar to yours so I got that covered. And performance wise, I'm quite pleased with CV1 performance, I get quite steadily 90fps using lefu's mod, running a 8700K at 5.1Ghz. The one thing buggering me is, should I wait for the rumored super cards from Nvidia, they are supposed to be cheaper than 2080TI. But this itch for a new set is killing me, You know how it is ?

 

[TCW_Brzi_Joe]

Setting the right IPD is a must for me. It is a pitty that some new HMDs do not have that slider. If somebody has "close" to average ipd, he "should be able" to use it, but for how long? For sure not in 1-2hrs sessions few times weekly, as we play IL-2.

 

[dburne]

1 hour ago, Horna said:

I want to get rid of my Rift CV1 and it seems people speak quite highly of the Rift S. I wonder if i should just sit on my money for a while or just go for it and order one right away. I don't like the idea of being forced to order a 2080TI too, the price is just outrageous. I have 1080TI now and it'll have to do for now. Any thoughts?

 

I found the Rift S a nice improvement over my CV1, and with the lower refresh rate of 80 Hz I am getting very similar in performance as I was getting with the CV1.

I did not need to reduce any graphics settings for the Rift S. I did reduce SS from 1.6 to 1.4, image looks great to me.

[Horna]

2 minutes ago, dburne said:

 

I found the Rift S a nice improvement over my CV1, and with the lower refresh rate of 80 Hz I am getting very similar in performance as I was getting with the CV1.

I did not need to reduce any graphics settings for the Rift S. I did reduce SS from 1.6 to 1.4, image looks great to me.

How do you find spotting ground targets and distant planes, better or much better?

[chiliwili69]

13 hours ago, Blitzen said:

the FoV makes it a keeper for me! I sent the RiftS back.

 

That´s a good conclusion of your review

[Helo]

So as I watch all the discussions and reviews about Virtual Reality and the 2019 news, it's a disaster. What has one has no other and what has the third has no first or second ... For three years since the publication of Oculus Rift, Vive, etc. the engineers did not invent anything properly and what they did not even produce, or did not reach the end, they still made it some kind of hybrid ... It is all waste that is not worth the money and I would rather stay at Oculus Rift and hope that some engineer will come up with something it will produce something really good and not bad.
Normally I'm starting to think about XTAL if it were 3000.-EUR I don't hesitate for a minute ...
Sorry for the English is not my native language I write through the translator.

[HunDread]

4 hours ago, Helo said:

Normally I'm starting to think about XTAL if it were 3000.-EUR I don't hesitate for a minute ...

 

I don't really see anything justifying the 3000 EUR price tag, let alone the 4900 they are selling it for. 

 

EDIT: 4900 excl VAT, so closer to 6000 incl it.

Edited June 19, 2019 by HunDread

[Dutch2]

3 hours ago, HunDread said:

 

I don't really see anything justifying the 3000 EUR price tag, let alone the 4900 they are selling it for. 

 

EDIT: 4900 excl VAT, so closer to 6000 incl it.

 

This HS was more for business application, I do not hear from them anymore, but I know that XTAL was also busy in making a gamer HS. 

Sure some Google findings about the progress will be around on the web. 

[HunDread]

14 hours ago, Dutch2 said:

 

This HS was more for business application, I do not hear from them anymore, but I know that XTAL was also busy in making a gamer HS. 

Sure some Google findings about the progress will be around on the web. 

 

Well, my opinion is that the "targeted for business or enterprise use" is mostly just a trick to sell expensive stuff which otherwise have no market at all. Enterprises might buy them purely out of prestige but even they don't need these. Especially if we are talking about toys like VR HMDs and Joysticks.

 

Even if the materials in the XTAL are so expensive that they justify the high price, it still remains just a well built Pimax. There is no reason to buy it for that kind of price difference (unless buying it for your wife who can wear it as a big fancy and flashy necklace on the next ball).

 

I am happy to see new and new HMDs released because they help competition which eventually brings down prices and offers options, but these kind of companies hurt that kind of competition. 

[TCW_Brzi_Joe]

HunDread, there is a big difference between xtal and pimax, take a look on Swevivers xtal review. In xtal you see almost 100% screen pixels evenly distributed and pretty clear. In pimax you see your screens only partially, like 70% or similar, and picture must be scaled a lot (+supersampling a lot too), to be visible. I hope pimax will buy lences from xtal...

 

ps: Of course, price for xtal is not fair.

Edited June 20, 2019 by Brzi_Joe

[Alonzo]

7 hours ago, HunDread said:

Well, my opinion is that the "targeted for business or enterprise use" is mostly just a trick to sell expensive stuff which otherwise have no market at all. Enterprises might buy them purely out of prestige but even they don't need these. Especially if we are talking about toys like VR HMDs and Joysticks.

 

If a car manufacturer can use VR to design a car virtually instead of requiring physical prototypes, they will save millions and be able to bring new cars to market faster. This is exactly the use-case for headsets like Reverb as well as higher resolution gear like XTAL. I hardly think a rational corporation would buy expensive high-def headsets for "prestige" or that a VR headset is a "toy" to them.

Edited June 20, 2019 by Alonzo

[YoYo]

On 6/18/2019 at 6:43 PM, BlackMambaMowTin said:

Was hoping you would compare the PiMax 5K with the Reberb. I've heard a lot of good things about the Reverb especially from flight / racing simmers. 

 

The quality of picture in Reverb is a lot better than Pimax 5k+, the FOV is smaller but for me I prefer better picture than FOV.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Do you have both? I thought it hadn't released in Poland yet?

[HunDread]

13 hours ago, Alonzo said:

 

If a car manufacturer can use VR to design a car virtually instead of requiring physical prototypes, they will save millions and be able to bring new cars to market faster. This is exactly the use-case for headsets like Reverb as well as higher resolution gear like XTAL. I hardly think a rational corporation would buy expensive high-def headsets for "prestige" or that a VR headset is a "toy" to them.

This is what VR companies say. I believe a physical prototype is used to test physical attributes.

But I am not saying there is no use in VR for businesses. There must be. I'm just saying I do not see any ground breaking technology invention in the XTAL. Not even in the resolution space. 

 

In addition - I don't have this kind of opinon on Varjo because they at least seem to offer a technology that others don't 

[-332FG-Gordon200]

15 hours ago, Alonzo said:

 I hardly think a rational corporation would buy expensive high-def headsets for "prestige" or that a VR headset is a "toy" to them.

 

[TCW_Brzi_Joe]

I work as a 3D cad designer. The flat screen is good enough for that. We also have VR googles in a firm, but it is just to impress some guests. Nobody wants to be vr 9hrs every day for job. Also I still use paper a lot (printouts for checking, sketches, or for anything), together with msoffice files, it is still not possible to work complex things without paper.

Edited June 21, 2019 by Brzi_Joe
x

[[PFR]Sarpalaxan]

As a building service engineer I can say that we only now start to transfer everything to 3D and to work with parts that have Background data. If I had to bet on something it would be AR Technology. First to show and sell your work to clients, then to visualize and control your work on the screen and much later maybe even for the workers, giving them points in the eel world on which they can orient themselves. I don't think it will become an 8-9 hours a day thing but maybe a 10 minutes per 2 hours' tool. But people watching the first screens probably couldn't imagine looking into one for most of the day.

[fiddlinjim]

The PIMAX 5K+ normal FOV is so excellent in a dogfight, I can finally keep track of the enemy and their wild movements and my six is not a big source of concern as when I used 

my Rift.   I thoroughly enjoyed the Rift CV1 for years but the scuba mask effect was always a real detriment to me personally and Pimax has solved the problem while simultaneously giving a big increase in clarity and very reduced SDE.    Unfortunately Oculus appears unconcerned about increasing the FOV for the  limited flight simmer population.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Oculus wants to saturate the low-end consumer market, which is fine. For the pricepoint, they're selling fantastic products. Just look at the Quest - as long as you can sideload Apps into that, that'll be fantastic. You can stream games from your PC, wireless with a little sideloaded App, as well. For 499,- ? Who else can do that right now?! ?

[AuburnAlumni]

I'm a Rift CV1 owner and I bought a quest as well at launch.

 

I decided (since my Index isn't coming until Sept/Oct) to pick up a Rift S to upgrade my Rift as I got to try it out when my brother picked it up and I really liked it.

 

Once I bought it...I reiterate....I really like it.  It's much more comfortable to wear than the original and the picture is a big upgrade in clarity IMO.  I'm running an i7-8700k with a 1080ti and I have a beautiful, clear picture now in IL-2 with SS in OTT at 1.4 with great frames as well.  

 

For the clarity of the picture, the library of native Oculus games, etc. you simply can't beat a 400.00 price tag.  I still plan on getting an Index and trying it out for myself..but the Rift S is definitely a very good HMD to use with IL-2 IMO.

[Lusekofte]

On 6/19/2019 at 12:31 AM, Alonzo said:

returning the Rift S because their IPD is < 60 and it just doesn't work for them comfortably. My IPD is 64.5 so pretty close to average, and it works great for me.

 

I borrowed a rift for several month and it worked great. But I had great difficulties in regard of spotting ground targets and found it inadequate for taking a short look at the instrument. 

In short I simply did not find it worth while except from po2 and ww1 ac. 

I am thinking Rift S improve this and it got a price worth buying. 

How can I find what my IPD is? And what is IPD

you can see my system on signature

[SvAF/F16_Goblin]

@LuseKofteIPD is Interpupillary distance, that is the distance between your pupills. In reality the distance is sometimes not uniform and thus the best had been if the two lenses in the HMD was independently adjusted but we'll have to settle for a uniform adjustment. You optometrist can measure it correct for You. There is ways to do it by yourself with a ruler and mirror but not so correct. Some of the new headsets have software calibrated IPD instead of mechanical (Rift S for instance) and that mean a smaller adjustability and a not so good adjustability. Mechanical adjustment is preferable since it is a true compensation in regards of the lenses. Check RiftS specs with regards to IPD to find out what the range is.

Edited July 15, 2019 by Goblin

[seafireliv]

I personally believe the RIFT S is the one that just might kick VR on its way. It`s not only because of the clarity (even better with a little super sampling), but the lack of leads except for one. Not having to deal with 2 or more satellites (inside-out tracking)will be a big draw for many. I know there`s VR that has no leads at all (The Quest I think?), but it is battery powered which hugely lmits it on what it can do and isn`t good for proper pc gaming like IL2 in my opinion. I`m not a huge fan that the Rift S is from Facebook, but at least you`re not forced to use it... yet.

 

Give it 5-10 years and we may see some amazing improvements. I just hope the costs do not outweigh the good.

3 hours ago, LuseKofte said:

 

I borrowed a rift for several month and it worked great. But I had great difficulties in regard of spotting ground targets and found it inadequate for taking a short look at the instrument. 

In short I simply did not find it worth while except from po2 and ww1 ac. 

I am thinking Rift S improve this and it got a price worth buying. 

How can I find what my IPD is? And what is IPD

you can see my system on signature

Just the distance between the pupils of your eyes. You can pop by an opticians or do it yourself, but better at an opticians. Find it out first before getting a Rift S.

Edited July 15, 2019 by seafireliv