Collection of Vive Pro 2 Reviews (List)

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Hey guys,

 

since there are two more days of being able to pre-order HTC's new headset for the discount of €60, I thought we should get a place in which we gather reviews of the Vive Pro 2. The headset seems to be interesting naturally to us as Enthusiasts, and there was quite a turmoil after the first reviews so people were uncertain of what is actually true and what is false.

 

There has been some false information spread around, so I'll add a small fact-check to each review to point out false information.

 

Then the rest can speak for itself. I'd like to ask you guys to keep it objectively. I've seen both fanboys and haters. We as a FlightSim community are better than that, and should be interested in objective facts only. 

 

So let's see what kind of reviews we have yet, and criticize the critics!

 

 

Review by AggressiveHair/Hare (recommended by IDCP)

Spoiler

Pretty thorough information! 

Mentions soft factors like: Isolation from Lighthouse Wine.

Lightest cable to date

Goes through the first impression, adjusts the weaknesses (fit, audio), and benefits.

 

Recommends soft factors of quality (see spoiler)

Thinks audio would be better than Index' due to isolation from LH wine, however - objectively - without a bass boost the audio is of less low range than the Index' though.

 

 

Review by French YouTuber ETR VR with lab measurements , available with proper English subtitles

Spoiler

Results on FOV with 6mm Vive Pro cushion: 118° / 98° 

With lab measurements, using a 6mm face cushion

Passed fact check avec bravoure!

 

Virtual Reality Oasis Review

Spoiler

No actual information on hFOV or vFOV or technicalities

Used 55% of the native resolution (nerf sharpness and edge-to-edge clarity, equals Vive 1 OG resolution). Forgot to update his Nvidia drivers to 466.27 - a requirement for VP2! This directly affects the distortion profile, which is mostly pronounced in the peripheral bent of the rendered scene, hence minimizes sweetspot/clarity in the periphery.

Falsely claimed Motion Smoothing would not be available.

 

 

MRTV Written Review with video clips

Spoiler

Review discussion both beneath his article and on Reddit 

 

Most thorough technical information so far

 

Results on FOV with 6mm Quest 2 cushion: 116° / 96°

For performance comparison of VP2 vs G2 did not use an equal resolution. Used higher resolution on G2, so G2 performed "worse" fps-wise, while VP2's picture was "less sharp").

 

Voodoo Review

Spoiler

There is a large discussion on Reddit between haters of HTC, people that want the correct information to be spread, Voodoo's fans, and some trolls that love the warmth of the everlasting fire. Please do not drag this stuff over here and remain civil.

Used false measurement for FOV h/v, according to his own post. Doesn't understand nor accepts that 1 eye's ≠ 2 eyes' FOV.

Used upsampling mode in his review (resolution similar to Vive 1 OG), according to his own post. Forgot to update his Nvidia drivers to 466.27 - a requirement for VP2! This directly affects the distortion profile, which is mostly pronounced in the peripheral bent of the rendered scene, hence minimizes sweetspot/clarity in the periphery.

 

Provoked Prawn Review

Spoiler

Edit: More details in a written article!

Only one to show the AR passthrough feature, and the special ability to dock a clear real-life passthrough camera-feed to a controller at 18:59 min:sec

 

Can't really get fact checked as he didn't mention technical details. Only one who shows the 2 different passthrough features (spoiler).

 

Tech Spurt Review

Spoiler

Not a lot of hard facts information

Can't really get fact checked as he didn't mention technical details.

 

Tech Radar written article

Spoiler

Pretty standard copy&paste information

Best pixel density of all headsets is not entirely correct: Even if it's by less than a pixel per degree, the G2 has slightly more horizontally (vertically the VP2 by a rather larger amount).

 

 

Let me know if there are more reviews coming out, we can add them here 

Edited June 10, 2021 by SCG_Fenris_Wolf

[Jade_Monkey]

Thanks for compiling all the reviews!

 

It's too bad that there are some concerns with fov and overheating.

 

However, the main reason i decided to order mine was for the better resolution. As much as I like my Index, the screen door effect is really noticeable and I look forward to the upgrade. I've never been too picky with fps, im happy with 45fps.

 

[dburne]

17 hours ago, Jade_Monkey said:

Thanks for compiling all the reviews!

 

It's too bad that there are some concerns with fov and overheating.

 

However, the main reason i decided to order mine was for the better resolution. As much as I like my Index, the screen door effect is really noticeable and I look forward to the upgrade. I've never been too picky with fps, im happy with 45fps.

 

 

Even Reverb G2 is much sharper in cockpit clarity than Index.

I have both and is the reason I use the G2 for flight sims and Index for made for VR games with the great Index controllers.

I am hoping I can go back to one headset with the VP2.

[Jade_Monkey]

6 minutes ago, dburne said:

 

Even Reverb G2 is much sharper in cockpit clarity than Index.

I have both and is the reason I use the G2 for flight sims and Index for made for VR games with the great Index controllers.

I am hoping I can go back to one headset with the VP2.

Yeah, keeping the same lighthouse and index controllers was a big part of my decision making, it made it so much easier to pull the trigger.

[dburne]

Man if I could run the VP2 in flight sims with 120Hz and Motion Smoothing forced on and maintain the 60 fps I am thinking that would be just ideal.

[chiliwili69]

On 5/29/2021 at 10:59 PM, SCG_Fenris_Wolf said:

For performance comparison of VP2 vs G2 did not use an equal resolution. Used higher resolution on G2, so G2 performed "worse" fps-wise, while VP2's picture was "less sharp").

 

In the MTRV video, Sebastian is using a videocamera to asses on the edge-to-edge clarity (this is called sweetspot in many other videos).

I don´t think a camera is the proper tool to diagnose the edge-to-edge clarity. The geometry of a camera is very different than human eye.

 

I remember that he was also using that camera to asses on the edge-to-edge clarity of the G2, and what I saw in the G2 was not what he was seeing with his camera.

 

Unfortunately, none of the videos out there is doing a proper edge-to-edge clarity test  with human eye, for example using the LensToolROV or similar.

 

One of the reasons I didn´t cancelled my pre-order is because I just want to test it with my own eye, which is nothing special but unique. So, I will be sure if this is for me or not.

 

If the edge-to-edge clarity is as good as the Index, even if I loose some vertical FOV and sound quality I might consider keeping the VP2. Honestly, my expectations reharding edge-to-edge clarity are not high. But I will be more than happy to be surprised.

12 hours ago, dburne said:

Man if I could run the VP2 in flight sims with 120Hz and Motion Smoothing forced on and maintain the 60 fps I am thinking that would be just ideal.

 

Yes, probably this could be the most appropiate mode for VP2 in IL-2 even with high end CPUs and GPUs.

 

Top GPUs (like 3080 or 3090) struggle to keep 90fps with 19.5million pixels per eye with high/ultra settings (like High/Extreme clouds or some MSAA).

 

On the other hand, latest CPUs (Zen3 or Intel 11th gen) also struggle to keep 90fps with maxed-out settings in dense scenes.

 

So, we will need to rely on the 120Hz mode and Motion Smoothing.

 

With the Index I prefer the 80Hz mode and no MS, rather than 120Hz with MS. But unfortunately the VP2 has not a 80Hz mode.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Motion smoothing gets more accurate and less artifacty the higher the temporal and pixel resolutions are.

 

Pretty much looking forward to try it.. 

[blue_max]

I've been using 60hz/120hz with my oculus quest 2 since the 120hz mode came out recently. I think indeed the artifacts became a bit less than 45/90hz, but... somehow the lag is a bit more so even though I think it looks a bit smoother in movement, I actually feel a bit nauseous after flying for half an hour, which never happened with 45/90hz framerate. So there's that. But of course that might be because oculus does a bunch of compression voodoo which the VP2 won't have.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

In the Quest 2 the benefit of less artifacts for motion smoothing by running a higher refresh rate, may be offset by the increase of more compression artifacts when running the Quest 2 on higher refresh rate.

[chiliwili69]

I have been looking to the FOVs reported by several reviews all of them using HMDTest 1.2 tool.

It is clear that using a thiner pad is a must in this device. All of them report a FOV increase (in the graph you can in same color from circle to triangle). In fact, they (MRTV, French, Fenris) are the maximum achivable by the headset.

Ben, from RoadToVR, didn´t use a thin pad, but his face or eye shape prevent him to get more.

Unfortunately I will not be able to measure that when my VP2 will arrive since I have not controllers.

 

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

I think you should at least get 1 Controller. It allows you to enter browser in VR, dock windows to it into your cockpit (for example, a map), and use pass-through to find the beer.

[ICDP]

I felt this was a good write-up from someone comparing a G2 and an Index to his new VP2.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/HPReverb/comments/nviiwh/a_positive_vive_pro_2_review_from_former_g2_and/

 

[dburne]

1 hour ago, ICDP said:

I felt this was a good write-up from someone comparing a G2 and an Index to his new VP2.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/HPReverb/comments/nviiwh/a_positive_vive_pro_2_review_from_former_g2_and/

 

 

Awesome read, gives me some better hope going into tomorrow. Hopefully my VP2 will be here at some point tomorrow.

I intend though to put several hours into it and get into the weeds for tweaking and tuning before posting my main impressions.

I may post a little here and there as I go...

 

I did get all my controllers set back up for IL-2 now so will be able to do some good testing with it as well.

Man it is gorgeous in the Reverb G2. Can't wait to compare.

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by dburne