Rift and Odyssey, Tried Both

Most of this is from my reddit but figured I'd post the review here as well.

I picked up the odyssey today because it was on sale for $399. For one, the odyssey is heavier even though the parts it is made of feel light and don't look premium but it's well built, just not as uniform as the rift. Headphones that it comes with seem like they would be great but they are not as deep as the rift. I prefer the headphones of the rift honestly but the odyssey can get loud if you turn it up. The rift has better sound dynamics.

As for the controllers, prefer the occulus touch controllers as they are smaller and easier to use. I installed revive and can play robo recall and other rift games but the controls are difficult to use with the odyssey controllers. Some of the mappings are reversed for the buttons. The joystick are fine and work well for moving around. But not a big deal considering I can play my old rift games. But I only got VR in the first place to fly and that's 99% of the time what I'm using it for.

Visuals on the odyssey are much better. Although 2.5 in dcs at night still makes it very dark and hard to make things out in the cockpit. Field of view in the odyssey is much better for sure. Text such as voice over and mission briefings on the top right is very clear not fuzzy like it was on the Rift. Not really fuzzy but the screen door effect made it less clear. On the odyssey it's crisp.

The labels and switches in the A10, Mirage2000, and viggen are much clearer and I can see them easily. Everything is much easier to see and make out compared to the rift. The odyssey also has a more saturating color gamut so blacks look black and the rest of the colors are more vibrant. This ties in nicely with the ability to also read the cockpit clearly. Could it be better of course, it's not monitor clear but better than the rift as far as I could tell. The rift also had colder colors over all.

The only few things I don't like is the setup and the required steam VR for windows app. The regular steam VR app never picked up my headset. And oculus home always opens when dcs starts up for some reason. Tracking seems good, but asw on the rift made things smoother. After a bunch of reboots and messing with graphics settings I think it became better. Make sure you are in a well lit room too. I believe steam VR now has asw but I have no idea how to check if it is actually using it. At first when I turned my head it would show some line for a split second on both left and right side. I'm using a Pixel density of 1.5 and the same graphics settings I had on the rift.

I've got it smoother by tinkering with some settings. Something's it's also a matter of restarting the windows VR app again.

Settings are everything high except shadows, civilian traffic off, flat shadows, heat blur off, lens flare off, msa X2, deferred shading on, gamma 1.7, AF x16, preload radius high and grass a bit over half way, global cockpit illumination off.

Looks great and runs decent but head movement could be better. I feel like higher settings makes it slow down a bit more so that it's not jittering when moving your head fast. It looks great though, Nevada is sharp and you can easily make out the ridges and bumps on the mountains. Objetcs and terrain is easier to spot and just sharper. Making gun runs in the A10 is a lot easier.

Also I had some issues where some cockpit potions in the odyssey had you off center. Pressing 5 to reset helped a little but it's as if your position shifts when you look in a different direction. I dunno but it's not as centered. I noticed the same thing in the mirage and in the viggen the HUD symbology needs to be lower but I didn't know how to lower my seat in the viggen. Once lowering the seat in the mirage it was fine I suppose. Wondering if there is a trick to getting it nice and centered..I felt like the rift seating position was the same all the time and pretty much centered.

The most annoying part of the odyssey is getting the sweet spot setting on your head. Man what a pain, on the rift the straps held it much better and once taken off and put back on, you don't have to adjust. On the oddysey I like how they have a tightning wheel on the back but it needs to be adjusted each time you put the hmd on. Too tight and you are too close to the lenses so stuff is blurry, too high and same thing it's not as clear. The best position I found is top cushion part up and the odyssey hmd pushed down on your face, then tighten but not too much. Makes visuals like the cdu in the A10 much more clearer. But it's very hard to get the headset sitting on your head like that.

It's almost like something's more clearer if I press it in just a bit. Adjusting it after this is tricky but sorta doable. So it sucks having to adjust the odyssey each time I'm in dcs to get the correct clearer visuals that were not there in the rift. Once you get it, it's definitely a difference you can tell compared to the rift. I just hate adjusting it each time because I dunno I don't have a big head so I feel like it moves more.

My PC specs are Asus z370e mobo, 8700k, 32gb ddr4 and a 1080ti. Pretty much everything on ssd. Felt like the rift had smoother performance. The supersampling doesn't seem to do much on the odyssey whereas it would slow the rift down going past 1.5. I tried 2.0 and it wasn't a big difference in visuals on the odyssey and also didn't give me the black lines when turning my head. But overall the odyssey has the better visuals for sure. I prefer how a bit more crisp everything is.

If any of you also have one, what tips and tricks or settings do you use? I've never used steam VR so i wonder if there are things I should be looking at to better optimise it if it's possible.

Overall it's a very nice improvement in visuals and fov but getting that requires you to get this damn thing on your head right each time. Much more enjoyable flying experience I felt like compared the visuals on the rift.

For anyone interested I have onboard Bluetooth in my mobo. The controllers would not get paired or even picked up. The onboard Bluetooth only picked up my desktop's klepsch speakers. I had to buy a 4.0 Bluetooth adapter and disable onboard Bluetooth. I use the insignia one and it worked fine for pairing the controllers.

Tried elite dangerous too on ultra quality and no hiccups, tracking seems to be a lot better too for some reason. Not sure why that is..I even upped the density to 1.5 for Elite too and it didn't create lines on the side when turning your head like it did for DCS.

I'm keeping both headsets, but I will mostly fly with the Odyssey now until Google and LG's HMD comes out. The clarity at least for me, seemed to make it much more enjoyable. The annoying part is centering the Odyssey on my head each time and adjusting it for the best visuals..didn't have to do that so much with the Rift.

I spent hours testing Rift and Odyssey side by side and sent the Odyssey back. Marginal improvement in visual, marked degradation of motion tracking.

For me the visual improvements is enough because I run mostly high settings anyway. Not sure why the tracking is smooth as silk in elite dangerous but sometimes choppy in dcs. I also did not have issues tracking with the controllers playing robo recall.

My room has a huge window in front of my PC so there is a lot of light which helps improve the tracking.

I've messed with it some more and now it tracks fine when I'm playing dcs. A few friends also mentioned the tracking was fine for flying but they mostly had tracking issues with controllers, which I barely use.

I spent hours testing Rift and Odyssey side by side and sent the Odyssey back. Marginal improvement in visual, marked degradation of motion tracking.

I wonder if people are getting lemons. I have also tried both the Rift and Odyssey and find the tracking in the Odyssey perfectly adequate. It runs into problems more often than the Rift, sure, but those are edge cases not worth caring about. 99% of the time while sitting at your computer it is exactly the same.

Coupled with dramatically better visuals, it was an easy choice for me.

I think I may know why others have tracking issues.

When I set it up I chose to set it up as standing for room scale. This made the tracking in dcs very weird. I would look left and the cockpit would look like it was shifting away from me to the left..look right same thing, and down it looked like it was getting further away.

Tried messing with the force IPD of whatever value was in dcs at the time but that didn't help.

Turns out I had to click run setup again in windows mixed reality portal and select the seated setup profile. Once I did that, tracking was great, smooth as the rift. Only time it is bad is if there is no light source in your room. If it's very dark, you're going to have a bad time.

Because it uses the internal cameras, you need light and point of references like a wall, windows, doors, etc.

Also I turned off advanced supersampling in steam VR..not sure what that does but with that on, I never saw a difference when changing pixel density in dcs. With it off, I can see that changing pixel density does have an effect. There is also reprojection which I left on, it was on from the beginning but I'm sure what that does or if it improves/degrades anything.

I wonder if people are getting lemons. I have also tried both the Rift and Odyssey and find the tracking in the Odyssey perfectly adequate. It runs into problems more often than the Rift, sure, but those are edge cases not worth caring about. 99% of the time while sitting at your computer it is exactly the same.

 

Coupled with dramatically better visuals, it was an easy choice for me.

Don't think it was a lemon. It just isn't up to the Rift when it comes to overall experience. The Odyssey is a compromise trying to deliver a higher resolution and capture market share with a low price point instead of putting together a fully capable HMD like the Rift or Vive.

It isn't a cheaper Vive Pro.

If you are happy with the performance, more power to you and if it is your only VR headset and you are happy, that is great. My experience was that it was not any improvement on the Rift and not worth the cash outlay since I already own the Rift and in many ways the Rift is better.

That is why I am holding out for a true second generation device, I am quite happy with my Rift for now.

That is why I am holding out for a true second generation device, I am quite happy with my Rift for now.

Same, and I hope they hurry up lol. I want me Rift 2.0

This will hold me over until the Google/LG headset. Luckily, I'm not experiencing any of the tracking issues. Or better said I don't notice a difference in tracking from the Rift. Once I get the next hmd I'll probably sell both the rift and odyssey.

Interesting.

I already have an Oculus DK1 & CV1. My Odyssey will be here tomorrow. I actually got it to use with my non-flight gaming rig but will be trying it with the flight rig as well.

Interesting.

 

I already have an Oculus DK1 & CV1. My Odyssey will be here tomorrow. I actually got it to use with my non-flight gaming rig but will be trying it with the flight rig as well.

Looking forward to your review. I hope. :thumbup:

Interesting.

 

I already have an Oculus DK1 & CV1. My Odyssey will be here tomorrow. I actually got it to use with my non-flight gaming rig but will be trying it with the flight rig as well.

Waiting here for your review.

I may get odysey just for flight simming. If dcs runs nice with it.

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Looking forward to your review. I hope. :thumbup:

Waiting here for your review.

 

I may get odysey just for flight simming. If dcs runs nice with it.

It will probably be a few days to a week before I test with DCS. I have lots on my plate right now including my income tax prep (which is a bit of a pain in the ass). Yes, I do wait until the last minute since I usually owe something. :)

It will probably be a few days to a week before I test with DCS. I have lots on my plate right now including my income tax prep (which is a bit of a pain in the ass). Yes, I do wait until the last minute since I usually owe something. :)

Also curious what you think about it. I'm enjoying it a lot so far.

I am looking forward to it. The reviews are good and my non-flight rig is in a location that makes the sensors, required by the rift, nearly impossible. Unfortunately, that rig is in a corner 12 feet away from where I sit and needs a USB card installed along with a different Bluetooth solution. Nothing is ever simple. :)

I am looking forward to it. The reviews are good and my non-flight rig is in a location that makes the sensors, required by the rift, nearly impossible. Unfortunately, that rig is in a corner 12 feet away from where I sit and needs a USB card installed along with a different Bluetooth solution. Nothing is ever simple. :)

If you set it up for room scale in dcs the views are messed up. For example in room scale setup if you lean towards an instrument, the cockpit moves away from you.

I had to run the setup for sitting then it's fine. It is a bit quirky but I hope WMR updates their software to allow for both set ups in case you wanted to play a standing up game, it's annoying to run the scale setup again.

No onboard bluetooth but the dongle that is currently in use is not compatible though it works great with my AfterShokz Trekz headphones. Luckily, I already have an unused, but compatible, dongle. Video cable length is going to be the biggest hassle with that rig. Again, my stock of cables and adapters/gender menders should be sufficient to overcome that obstacle. I have a very well stocked excess hardware supply.

I may do room scale on the non-flight rig but the flight rig uses a VolairSim pit and it is not something that you can just stand up in front of as you could with a regular chair.

I know Steam VR didn't care how different controllers you have so if you still have your Rift sensors you can try using them for the touch controllers while using the Oddessy.

I know Steam VR didn't care how different controllers you have so if you still have your Rift sensors you can try using them for the touch controllers while using the Oddessy.

The flight rig has the Rift sensors but I had planned on disconnecting them when testing the Samsung.

cichlidfan, take my advice. I notice from multiple reviews right first impressions disappointed from previous Rift or Vive users. Even for Vive PRO.

But after sometime when they use it and then go back to previous VR realize a real difference.

Take your time as long as you need, get used to it and make fine tuning to find your sweet spot. After that go back to Rift and then make the conclusion.

Cheers m8.

cichlidfan, take my advice. I notice from multiple reviews right first impressions disappointed from previous Rift or Vive users. Even for Vive PRO.

But after sometime when they use it and then go back to previous VR realize a real difference.

Take your time as long as you need, get used to it and make fine tuning to find your sweet spot. After that go back to Rift and then make the conclusion.

 

Cheers m8.

Thanks for the advice. I like to think that I can have an open mind about this but a reminder never hurts.

I would rep you but...

I do want to say that in order to get the crisp visuals you do need to adjust the hmd properly on your head for the sweet spot. Takes a few times to get it right. Those with bigger heads may have an easier time because for me it's hard to keep it tightly on my head in the sweet spot.

I've got it down finally and isn't as annoying to adjust the sizing as it was in the beginning when I first bought it.

It will probably be a few days to a week before I test with DCS. I have lots on my plate right now including my income tax prep (which is a bit of a pain in the ass). Yes, I do wait until the last minute since I usually owe something. :)

A shame DCS isn't deductible as a "medical" expense. :)

Here is a good review from a Driving simmer and Vive owner. There is some good screen shoots true lenses and comparison of the details.

Driving simmer has the same need for some details as we flight simmer's doo, after all, check it for your self.

Meanwhile I found this interesting video but I get impresionit is made to fast without much spend time on Oddisay. So watch it, take it with reserve and be patient with cichlidfan.