Recommended VR?

[martinlb]

Hi, I'm probably going to get a VR system.  At this point I don't know much at all so I'm hoping I can get some help.  Can I get what VR you think is best, and why?

 

Information will be much appreciated!

[E69_Qpassa_VR]

17 minutes ago, martinlb said:

Hi, I'm probably going to get a VR system.  At this point I don't know much at all so I'm hoping I can get some help.  Can I get what VR you think is best, and why?

 

Information will be much appreciated!

HP reverb G2 will be released in 70-90 days, it is better if you can wait. These have supposedly the best clarity and nice sweet spot for less than 600€.

 

 

 

[martinlb]

Thanks E69.  I can wait; I'm very new to these games.  I'll definitely look into that!

[chiliwili69]

21 minutes ago, martinlb said:

I can wait

 

Be aware that IL-2 VR require a decent PC specs.

I saw you have a 9900K CPU not overclocked.

You will benefit a lot from overclocking in IL-2 VR. You can put a good CPU cooler and learn how to overclock during this wait.

Edited July 8, 2020 by chiliwili69

[[-=BP=-]Slegawsky_VR]

Resolution of the Reverb is best on the market BUT quality is a big problem. 

Cheap plastic everywhere and if warranty runs out replacement cable costs £100!

New gen Reverb however looks promising, cable connection might have been left out tho.

[firdimigdi]

At this moment of time for LCD displays with inside-out-tracking that won't really tax your system the most bang for buck is likely the Rift S if you want a decent all-rounder and don't want to fiddle with things too much. A great intro to VR without being too expensive and will help you decide on what you find more important for your enjoyment. Provided of course you are not someone with a larger-than-average IPD delta.

 

[dburne]

1 hour ago, Firdimigdi said:

At this moment of time for LCD displays with inside-out-tracking that won't really tax your system the most bang for buck is likely the Rift S if you want a decent all-rounder and don't want to fiddle with things too much. A great intro to VR without being too expensive and will help you decide on what you find more important for your enjoyment. Provided of course you are not someone with a larger-than-average IPD delta.

 

 

+1 for the Rift S. It would be a great first VR system and one can run IL-2 GB with it with good performance. They are a little hard to find in stock currently, but if you keep checking Oculus website you can snag one. They typically get some in stock on Tuesdays but they tend to go fast.

Then if you find you really like VR when the Reverb G2 does come out later in the year can always upgrade to it and sell the Rift S probably close to what you paid for it if stock situation remains as is.

[spitfirejoe]

I would wait for the new Reverb Gen2 coming in September. I have the Reverb and it is a great VR Headset, besides the cable quality problems with the Gen1.

I have an i-7 8700k with a GTX-1080Ti and must admit that this is the minumum spec to run the Reverb, IL-2 works very good, DCS not at all ( they did not do their homework, the optimization for VR really lacks ). iRacing as a Simracing title works really great ( best performance ).

 

I never tried the Rift S, but I had an Oculus Rift and was very pleased with it´s tracking and performance and the Oculus Software.

The Rift S is for sure a VR Headset which works easily and with a great performance. I am sure I would like it too, but being spoilt from the great Resolution of the Reverb I don´t want to have a lower resolution anymore.

 

For people with a weaker PC Hardware, the Rift S would be first choice, for people with a High End PC better get a Reverb Gen2 I would say.

[martinlb]

20 hours ago, chiliwili69 said:

 

Be aware that IL-2 VR require a decent PC specs.

I saw you have a 9900K CPU not overclocked.

You will benefit a lot from overclocking in IL-2 VR. You can put a good CPU cooler and learn how to overclock during this wait.

I'm maybe showing my age but I've always been wary of overclocking.  But...  I believe my CPU came with overclocking built in to the stuff that came with it.  I think that's a pretty good sign.  I'll look into it.

[E69_Qpassa_VR]

3 hours ago, martinlb said:

I'm maybe showing my age but I've always been wary of overclocking.  But...  I believe my CPU came with overclocking built in to the stuff that came with it.  I think that's a pretty good sign.  I'll look into it.

Your CPU could reach 5.0-5.2 but you probably should invest in a better cooler. Overclocking is a bit messy and you have to invest time, but it's the only way to squeeze the performance of it.

Edited July 9, 2020 by E69_Qpassa_VR

[E69_Qpassa_VR]

Check this

 

[martinlb]

So the upcoming HP Reverb G2, coming this fall will have better specs than anything available now?  $599 seems less expensive than I'd expect for something that will blow anything already available. 

[HunDread]

38 minutes ago, martinlb said:

So the upcoming HP Reverb G2, coming this fall will have better specs than anything available now?

 

In this kind of price range it definitely appears that way now. 

[Alonzo]

2 hours ago, martinlb said:

So the upcoming HP Reverb G2, coming this fall will have better specs than anything available now?  $599 seems less expensive than I'd expect for something that will blow anything already available. 

 

No. As with everything, there are tradeoffs. To evaluate a headset you probably want to consider, at least:

• Price
• Pixel density / resolution
• Field of View
• Quality of lenses (glare, sweet spot, edge-to-edge clarity)
• Adjustability for best clarity (IPD, eye relief, etc)
• Tracking (outside-in vs inside-out, number of cameras if inside-out)
• Sound
• Comfort (of head attachment, of eye cups)
• Software ecosystem
• Hardware quality
• Warranty / customer service
• Availability
• Upgradeability / modularity

Where the G2 falls on these various criteria will depend on your use-case and in some cases are quite subjective/personal, for example whether your face/eyes 'fit' the way the headset is designed.

[Beazil]

Have a look at the Pimax Artisan.  You just need a single basestation for seated games.  

[Alonzo]

12 hours ago, JG51_Beazil said:

Have a look at the Pimax Artisan.  You just need a single basestation for seated games.  

 

I have one, and at the moment I can't recommend it. The FOV is great, but:

• Edge-of-FOV is blurry, so although it has high FOV the 'usable' FOV is quite a bit less.
• They haven't fixed the case cracks, even months/years after discovering the problems.
• Head strap is garbage and you need to either jury rig a DAS, get an addon strap, or wait for the official rigid headbands to be available (adding $100+ in cost)
• Onboard USB audio crackles, so you probably need to add your own audio solution, wireless headphones = $100
• IPD adjustment claims to go down to 60mm, but my IPD (as measured by my optometrist, so it's accurate) is 62.8mm and I can't get the lenses close enough together -- avoid Pimax if you have < 64mm IPD
• The software is flaky, and the most recent (last 4 months+) builds have some kind of bug where they can't use 100% GPU, so you lose framerate.
• IL2 support for the Pimax canted headsets is weird, zoom doesn't work, VREM doesn't really correct it properly, and you might end up using parallel projection mode instead which requires 40% more pixels rendered (= performance drop).

But the FOV, did I mention how awesome it is? To be not looking through little binoculars at the world? It's great, really adds a lot to immersion.

 

Most of these issues have workarounds, but they aren't free.I think the Artisan and the Index end up costing about the same amount, when all is said and done. If you have $1000 to spend and can wait, I think the Index full kit is probably a better option. But I'm still waiting on mine ?

[Beazil]

Interesting.  I've had a 5k+ for about a year now.  One of the most satisfying purchases I have made.  I had the luxury of upgrading from a vive, so it was an easy choice and one I don't regret in the least.  To the point I would never use a 100-ish degree field of view again.  I thought for the price the artisan would have been a good choice, but again I'm anti low fov.  I don't like the horse blinders that come by default with other headsets.  I am honestly shocked that noone else is making a wideview headset besides these guys, but here we are.  The headstrap is not great, but it is (more or less) the same as the one I got with my original vive.  I have a rigid audio strap on order for mine and a comfort kit, which is probably standard on newer models.  The best thing I do for comfort is double up the foam. It works in the meantime.  Plus with each software release things get better.  I went from a 90hz display to 144hz via software and firmware updates.  Never got that from my Vive.  I'm not being a Schill, just sharing my experiences.

[Alonzo]

6 minutes ago, JG51_Beazil said:

Interesting.  I've had a 5k+ for about a year now.  One of the most satisfying purchases I have made.  I had the luxury of upgrading from a vive, so it was an easy choice and one I don't regret in the least.  To the point I would never use a 100-ish degree field of view again.  I thought for the price the artisan would have been a good choice, but again I'm anti low fov.  I don't like the horse blinders that come by default with other headsets.  I am honestly shocked that noone else is making a wideview headset besides these guys, but here we are.  The headstrap is not great, but it is (more or less) the same as the one I got with my original vive.  I have a rigid audio strap on order for mine and a comfort kit, which is probably standard on newer models.  The best thing I do for comfort is double up the foam. It works in the meantime.  Plus with each software release things get better.  I went from a 90hz display to 144hz via software and firmware updates.  Never got that from my Vive.  I'm not being a Schill, just sharing my experiences.

 

Yeah absolutely, and I haven't given up on the Artisan just yet, I promise! I have an additional strap on the way from that New Zealand outfit that does soft-strap addons, and I have a Vive Pro "thin foam" on the way to try to get my eyes closer to the lenses and improve edge-to-edge clarity and distortion. And of course I'm crossing my fingers for software updates both to PiTool and IL2 to better support the thing. I think I knew what I was getting into with all that.

 

The one thing that has massively reduced my trust in Pimax is the casing cracks. To say they had fixed that, then produce an Artisan headset with cases that have that same problem? Totally kills all my faith in the company. Even if they didn't intend to do a bad thing they must have lost track internally of their "bad batches" of casings, and now I'm looking at a 2 week old headset that has already started to crack. I don't think I'm unlucky, I think they either chose to or accidentally pumped out a bunch of headsets with problems and are going to RMA for noisy customers or hope people don't notice. That's pretty crummy.

 

Again, I'm not anti Pimax. They are frankly the only company pushing the envelope on VR. They demoed dynamic foveated rendering with eye tracking, producing a 40% performance uplift in games, at the driver level. That's amazing and something I expected we'd have to wait to see from Oculus. I just think a lot of Pimax owners are going to be fiddling or adding money to their headset to get it to a level (comfort, visual experience) that other headsets achieve out of the box. I consider myself a well-informed VR veteran and frankly I underestimated the amount of messing about I'd need to do with this headset. (Fenris tried to warn me, of course! ? )

[Beazil]

Oh regarding (your?) comment about IPD; I set mine at minus 2 for rendering, so I set my IPD at 58.  I have a wee melon.

[chiliwili69]

15 hours ago, JG51_Beazil said:

I am honestly shocked that noone else is making a wideview headset besides these guys, but here we are

The Index is really apart from all others "binoculars" headsets, not as large as the Pimax but something in between.

In fact, I think the FOV of the Pimax is unnecessarily large. They waste a lot of resolution around the edges and sacrifice pixels at the center of the view.

I never used the large FOV option of my Pimax5K+.

The vertical FOV is also important (I would say even more important that horizontal. And the vertical FOV of the Index is really great, not lower than Pimax:

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/52371-valve-index-vs-pimax5k-which-one-to-pick-through-lens-pictures/?do=findComment&comment=795606

 

15 hours ago, Alonzo said:

Again, I'm not anti Pimax. They are frankly the only company pushing the envelope on VR. They demoed dynamic foveated rendering with eye tracking, producing a 40% performance uplift in games, at the driver level. That's amazing and something I expected we'd have to wait to see from Oculus. I just think a lot of Pimax owners are going to be fiddling or adding money to their headset to get it to a level (comfort, visual experience) that other headsets achieve out of the box. I consider myself a well-informed VR veteran and frankly I underestimated the amount of messing about I'd need to do with this headset. (Fenris tried to warn me, of course! ? )

 

Don´ worry about that. They should replace you that faulty unit.

But independently of that, you have just check that currently the Pimax is something for enthusiats. But it should now be like that. I think Pimax can go to the mass market (were the big money is) if they follow just four basic steps:

- Reduce portfolio of options and products (just Pimax8KX and Pimax5K+)

- Change pricing (put the price of Pimax5K+ to 8KX, and price of Artisan to Pimax5K+)

- Put all "must have" options out-of-the-box ( no elastic badn, confort kit, Audio?)

- Work on quality issues