VR!

[Raid]

They certainly look comparable to the Oculus Touch controllers (which I quite like), and I could see the adaptive triggers being a little bit of extra immersion in VR (I've not used a PS5 controller yet, is the feature worth talking about?). They look even more awkward to store though.

[Animalmother]

https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/hellgate- ... 3-03-2021/
Remember that game that came out about 15 years ago then disappeared? It's getting a VR reboot...

[Alan]

Next Quest 2 update enables 120hz mode and native wireless VR. Starts rolling out tomorrow.



Timely as I now have a Quest 2


First impressions, not keen on the controllers, headsets nice if a little front heavy but to be expected with the hardware in it - not to the point its interfering with play because of the weight but you feel aware of it from time to time. The controllers feel a bit cheap and they are child hand size and super slippy. It does what it says on the tin and it does so pretty well. The hand tracking is quite impressive in its accuracy and fairly lag free nature.

Bonus points for the box it comes in being a viable storage solution on a day to day basis.

[Raid]

I actually really like the second-generation touch controllers (I think they're identical to the Rift S ones which I own).

I've actually had no end of trouble with my VR setup in the last few months. I think it's related to the USB issues on AMD 500 series motherboards, for which a fix has just been released (I just haven't had time to install it yet), but under heavy system load the audio cuts out and the Oculus runtime can just completely restart meaning it loses connectivity to the game I'm running and I have to restart the software. This isn't an issue for most games, but when you've just flown a 90 minute multiplayer mission in DCS World and there's no ability to reconnect in the same place, it's quite frustrating.

[Alan]

That does sound rather infuriating. For the controllers I just find the surface slippy and the way the curve in before where my pinkie reasts means that if I squeeze they'll just pop out like a cartoon banana. Ok, squeezing isnt a mechanic I have to deal with but the smoothness is and I've actually started using wrist straps for the first time ever in VR. The top part of the controller is fine layout wise though I'm not fond of the grip buttons.

I've just been playing Pistol Whipped and that sure is a John Wick ass feeling game. It needs a little more space than I have to comfortably play it and also the dog thing is an issue when you have to move quite a bit left and right at times but its still a whack of fun and a good old work out. After an hour I pretty much collapsed back on the sofa on my fat arse to catch my breath. One thing that really surprised me was the in built audio. Its much much better than I expected. Its lacking a bit of bass but the spacial awareness is great and the sound quality is good, all things considered. Good enough that for a lot of things I might just default to that to be honest.

I tried the cable link with what I'm pretty sure is a 2.0 USB cable and Oculus detected it as such but it still worked very well for the short time I tried it. I got a horrific graphic glitch during loading but other than that it seemed fine. Hopefully the wireless works good enough for me not to bother with buying a proper one.

[Raid]

I'm definitely interested in your experience with the wireless link. I'm not sure if the Quest 2 will really be a suitable upgrade from my Rift S, in fact I've been concentrating more on the Reverb G2, but it'd be nice to have options. The cable isn't that big a deal for the simulator stuff I tend to use my current headset for as I'm always sat down, but I want to play stuff like Half Life Alyx and Beat Sabre in the future when I have more space.

I'm actually surprised by your comments on the audio. The Rift S uses, as far as I'm aware, a very similar system (speakers in the headset piped through the headband) and it's dreadful compared to the original CV1. It's one of the big draws of the Reverb G2 for me (which uses the same off-ear speakers as the Index).

[Me99]

The wireless was perfect for me. I played the entirety of Half Life Alyx downstairs on wireless with my PC upstairs. No issues as I'm right next to the virgin box. If I try it up stairs though its no good, I have to use the knock off link cable I got. That works pretty well but weirdly it wont send the audio to the quest, but wireless does.

[Alan]

The standard virgin router? Good to know that cash on the wifi6 router I bought with this in mind wasn’t wasted

[Me99]

Well, it'll probably cover rooms further away better. Have you got Virtual Desktop going or are you waiting for the official one?

[Alan]

I'm just waiting. I'm tight and 15quid is 15quid.


Just patiently waiting for their dumb rollout to select me. ;_;

[Alan]

Yeah, works great. It freaks out for me if I look around fast while its loading but I'm sure thats just my aging PC struggling to both load and encode the video for the headset at the same time. I dont detect any lag in the headset and theres a minimal lag in the controllers which I can only really feel/see when controlling a cursor on the virtual desktop. Seems very usable and the quality is good though a definate downgrade from the link cable but again that's probably my aging PC trying to keep up with the encoding and the rendering at once. Still hate the controllers but with the value of what you get here vs other headsets I can live with it.

[Alan]

Ok, Beat Sabre music is out of sync for me, just a fraction of a second but playing natively on the headset vs via air its noticable. Again, this may be my PC not encoding quickly enough.

[Drarok]

What's the spec of your PC, out of interest?

[Alan]

Devils canyon i7 (I forget the number), 1070 and 32gb.

[Drarok]

Ah, this one? Seems pretty old, aye. I'm running several generations newer than that, also i7. Yours could well be the bottleneck indeed, I think more modern ones handle video encoding substantially better, in that they have some dedicated bits in them for the task?