VR Newbie.

Have just started thinking about buying my first VR headset, I have been put off in the past due to performance issues and the low resolution. However now that I have a decent computer I'm slowly warming to going VR.

I have absolutely no experience of VR but from what I have read the Samsung Odyssey seems like a possible contender.

I use VAICOM PRO so it's built in microphone would be useful and I believe it has built in motion sensors, so there’s no need for external sensors.

The total sum of my VR knowledge is around two hours of googling, reading a couple of Odyssey reviews and posts within this forum so any advice on which headset to buy would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

At this point I would hold off on any VR headset. I believe that the next generation version of the hardware is just around the corner.

Don't get me wrong, I love my CV1 and the experience that it offers. If you feel like you can't wait for the next gen, which may be months away, go ahead and get the Rift. So far it has the best experience for DCS. The Odyssey has the best image at this time and someone who owns that can provide more details on that headset.

I would still highly recommend the Oculus Rift. I have been using mine since Jan of 2017 and still can't seem to get enough of it. I use it practically on a daily basis. And they are a lot cheaper today than what I paid for mine.

Mine has been rock solid since day 1 and never really had any issues with it, and I even enjoy some of the other VR games now also. The hand controllers (Oculus Touch) are about the best on the market at this time, and DCS has some support for them. Plus they are a blast in some other games that support them.

If you think all you will ever do is say flight or racing sims , then certainly the Odyssey is an alternative. It has a little better resolution. Having had the Rift, I would not want to give up what I have for it. It does moderate size room scale very well, and the positional tracking is incredible. I don't think a true second generation PC-VR device is likely to arrive anytime soon. Maybe late 2019 or early 2020. When it does though, I will be all over a Rift CV2.

And yes the Rift has a built in mic also that is quite good.

Have not been able to go back to any sort of gaming on a monitor since I got my Rift, absolutely love VR!

At this point I would hold off on any VR headset. I believe that the next generation version of the hardware is just around the corner.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love my CV1 and the experience that it offers. If you feel like you can't wait for the next gen, which may be months away, go ahead and get the Rift. So far it has the best experience for DCS. The Odyssey has the best image at this time and someone who owns that can provide more details on that headset.

I think it's going to be much longer than a few months. More like mid to late 2019 and that's just a guess. I suppose we'll see some announcement before Christmas from Oculus. Again, a guess on my part.

Odyssey doesn't come with a sensor, and is easy to setup. But that causes it to lose tracking every once in a while. Is it a major deal? I didn't think so. But when it happened, it was a little annoying. Moving my head easily sync'ed it back up. I couldn't tell the difference in resolution from CV1 but then I don't have 20/20 vision. Others have noted much clearer picture from Odyssey.

Rift support *is* the strongest with DCS at this point. So if your primary use for VR is Rift, I would consider the Rift. If you live near a Microsoft Store, you should be able to demo the Odyssey. Or at the very least take it back for a full refund if you don't find it to your liking.

It may be best if you try out both since you can get a full refund in most cases.

Best of luck and enjoy it!

there is always something better coming sometime soon’ish or maybe later.

buy the rift and enjoy it. you only live once.

if they do come out with a new model next year or year after, you can ebay the one you have and get a bunch of your money back.

My first VR experience was at a Red Bull booth at a concert ~4 years ago. They were giving some sort of demo on an Oculus DK2 I think. It was terrible. Washed out fuzzy image of late 90's 3D graphics. After about 30 seconds I took it off thinking it'll still be a long time before VR is consumer ready...

My first VR experience since then was just a few days ago. I got an Odyssey for $350 and I'm mostly impressed with it. I'll give you a rundown as a fellow noob:

The Good:

Setup in Windows was mostly a breeze. Plug it in and it works. I'm actually typing this reply right now on a floating virtual desktop within the Windows Mixed Reality Portal. Basically, I'm in the future. The 'screen quality' is excellent. Blacks are black, colors are accurately rendered and vibrant, the terrible Oculus DK2 screen door effect is absent. Tracking is fine, I don't have varied experiences to compare it with but when I move my head there is no discernable latency or glitches in the view.

Overall immersion, as has been stated many times, is truly remarkable. It's nothing like watching a 3D movie where the effect is gimmicky and mostly forgotten about after a little while. It's extremely difficult to describe other than to say you really are inside the goddamn cockpit. I keep trying to rest my arm on the canopy rail or grab the canopy bow when my wife interrupts. : )

The Bad:

Getting the Odyssey to work with DCS was an entirely different matter. It took me an entire day of screwing around, google searches and forum posts to get the Odyssey to work with DCS. I'll save you the trouble:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3611619#post3611619

Post #9 is all the info you need, and for some reason this isn't readily available information, in a sticky, or easily searchable here on the forums. I guess it's just assumed that everyone has Steam.

While the screen door effect is gone, I can still clearly see individual pixels. Even though the Odyssey has a resolution on the higher end of consumer headsets...it still sucks. It'll probably be at least two generations, another 5+ years maybe, before the resolution even approaches what we're used to on just a 1080p monitor. The image is fuzzy as a result and target spotting is much more difficult.

The headset lenses, though I hear they are of comparable quality to Oculus and Vive, still kind of suck. You have a sweet spot of clarity directly in front of your eyes but everything on the periphery is blurry. I understand this is a currently unavoidable result of all headsets using Fresnel lenses.

My conclusion:

It's still a major trade-off and compromise, which I expected going in. I was playing pretty close to max settings before switching to VR, but now my settings probably average around 1/3 max. The good news is that the image is fuzzy enough due to resolution and lense limitations not to be able tell your settings are significantly lowered. I'm still super green and adjusting and tweaking, as is ED, so hopefully improvements will keep coming. I'm going to try Kegetys' Shaders Mod tonight.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=215373

Overall the immersion really does overpower almost all the drawbacks. Another oft repeated saying here is that once you go VR you'll never go back to a 2D monitor. I'm beginning to believe this is true.

Thanks for all your replies, much appreciated.

Just some basic questions to get me started and then i'll start doing my own digging for answers.

1) With regards the Rift what tracking sensors are required, I will only ever use it for flight sims..... i.e sat in a chair.

2) Do the sensors work in a darkened room or do you need strong light ?.

3) How many USB plugs are required and of what type USB 2/3.

4) What video output is required and I'm guessing that I will still be able to switch back to my desktop monitor easily when I'm not using the VR headset.

5) No doubt some modules will probably be better than others but on average how easy is it to read the instruments and radar displays etc.

6) I hear a lot about ASW is this unique only to the Rift ?, if so what are the other manufacturers doing when their headsets are not being fed 90FPS ?.

7) Recently I have had to start using reading glasses as I am now mildly "long sighted". I have no bother seeing distant objects but nearby words can be slightly out of focus, is this a possibly going to cause me problems when using a VR headset.

Thanks.

Thanks for all your replies, much appreciated.

 

Just some basic questions to get me started and then i'll start doing my own digging for answers.

 

1) With regards the Rift what tracking sensors are required, I will only ever use it for flight sims..... i.e sat in a chair.

The sensors come with the rift. If you don't care about walking around, the Windows headsets might be a better choice.

2) Do the sensors work in a darkened room or do you need strong light ?.

Rift and Vive, yes. WMR not much, you need some light.

3) How many USB plugs are required and of what type USB 2/3.

3 USB 3 for the Rift and 1 USB 3 for WMR.

4) What video output is required and I'm guessing that I will still be able to switch back to my desktop monitor easily when I'm not using the VR headset.

You are supposed to have it plugged at the same time as your monitor. They all use HDMI.

5) No doubt some modules will probably be better than others but on average how easy is it to read the instruments and radar displays etc.

Hard to say, it depends mostly on the resolution, but the lenses are important as well. Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey are the ones with the highest resolution, followed closely by the Lenovo Explorer and another couple of WMR and then the Rift. Generally the Rift's lenses are considered to be very good though.

6) I hear a lot about ASW is this unique only to the Rift ?, if so what are the other manufacturers doing when their headsets are not being fed 90FPS ?.

They all have equivalent technologies that work more or less the same.

7) Recently I have had to start using reading glasses as I am now mildly "long sighted". I have no bother seeing distant objects but nearby words can be slightly out of focus, is this a possibly going to cause me problems when using a VR headset.

Yes, you are going to have exactly the same problem that you have in real life. However you rarely read text close by in VR so it shouldn't be much of an issue. You can use most headset with glasses also, and exist custom frame to add prescription lenses as well.

In my opinion, if are not interested in other aspects of VR that are not vehicular simulation, i.e. you are not interested in room scaling and controller, I would definitely go for some WMR. No hassle with external tracking and they are often much cheaper than the rest, lately the Lenovo Explorer without controllers was less than 200$.

Thanks Mesenzio for your informative reply, I can get my hands on a Rift from the local shop down the road. However the Odyssey with the in built sensors is appealing.... I'll start doing some reading :)...

I bought a Lenovo Explorer on Amazon without any hand controllers because I’m only going to use it with DCS for only $118. I’m very pleased with it so far. DCS is very different in VR, in a good way! Setup was a breeze. I do kind of miss how pretty DCS was on my monitor but the immersion is so cool that I’ll never go back. Yesterday when I was starting up my F-18 Hornet, when the canopy was lowering, i actually moved my hand because I was afraid the canopy was going to come down on my hand, yes,it’s that real. Whatever you get I’m sure you will enjoy it.

My only experience is with Rift CV1. Like you, I have a 8700k & 1080Ti and 16Gb RAM and I am more than happy with my DCS experience. Thrilled in fact!

This setup allows decent super sampling in DCS (via pixel density slider in GUI) to improve perceived resolution. But I found higher is not always better and use a pixel density of 1.3 as my sweet spot between resolution, spotting ability and smoothness. And this pushes the 1080ti really hard, so I would not recommend waiting for next gen VR as this will be even more taxing (I expect a new GPU will be needed to run next gen, so might as well get the most out of your current GPU in the mean time).

One thing to note though; if you have been playing DCS for a while, be prepared to unlearn most of what you are comfortable with and go through a whole new learning curve. At first (after being blown away how it feels to be sitting in the plane), you may struggle a bit to get to grips with using controls etc. using mostly just touch or voice (already using viacom should give you a good leg up here though!). And you may feel a bit queasy and have eye strain initially. But stick with it and it and it soon will feel very natural and immersive.

I'm at the point now that when I (very occasionally) go back to using a monitor and track ir, I simply can't cope without 1 to 1 head tracking and the depth perception of VR ... it feels unplayable (even though the graphics are undeniably more stunning)!

If you get the Rift, I doubt you'd ever regret it!

In the current generation of the Rift, all images are effectively placed at exactly the same distance from your eyes, 2m IIRC.

I am long sighted and so use reading glasses, but as the Rift's focal length is outside of the range that I struggle with, I can use the Rift fine, without glasses. It might seem counter intuitive, but my son, who is short sighted, would need to wear glasses, to get the best from the Rift.

Edit: btw, it is this fixed focal length that could make long term usage a bit a problem for youngsters, whose eyes might suffer from being fixed at the same focal length for long periods of time.

I understand that the next generation of headsets, certainly the Rift, will introduce technology that will allow for variable focal lengths. They might even preclude the need for glasses, regardless of whether you are long or short-sighted.

I tried my Oculus with the hornet for the first time today just for kicks, after a long hiatus with VR in general. For the past year or so I have been running DCS on a 34" Ultrawide monitor with TrackIR. I turned away from VR because I wanted the best possible graphics, and the Oculus simply cannot deliver that.

But I must admit I was blown away (again) with the true sense of scale, depth and spatial awareness in VR that I simply cannot replicate with a 2D screen. Air to air combat is so immersive "pressing my face" against the glass trying to get a good look for the bandit and really cranking my head and body to maintain visual. And the sense that you are really in the virtual world....

I think I have found renewed love for simming in VR again!

In the current generation of the Rift, all images are effectively placed at exactly the same distance from your eyes, 2m IIRC.

 

I am long sighted and so use reading glasses, but as the Rift's focal length is outside of the range that I struggle with, I can use the Rift fine, without glasses. It might seem counter intuitive, but my son, who is short sighted, would need to wear glasses, to get the best from the Rift.

 

Edit: btw, it is this fixed focal length that could make long term usage a bit a problem for youngsters, whose eyes might suffer from being fixed at the same focal length for long periods of time.

 

I understand that the next generation of headsets, certainly the Rift, will introduce technology that will allow for variable focal lengths. They might even preclude the need for glasses, regardless of whether you are long or short-sighted.

I am short sighted (around -1.25) and have a large head so wearing glasses and the Oculus together was extremely difficult and uncomfortable with the glasses pressed up hard against my nose and touching the goggle lense which I didn't like.

So I took my spare pair of thin framed glasses, unscrewed the arms and blu tacked the frames inside the goggles. It's not the most elegant solution but it costed me nothing and improved the visual clarity a lot :lol:

The VR experience as available now via CV1, Vive etc. is amazing. Don’t listen to the people who say wait.

I understand that there are also commercial solutions to this issue, that allow prescription lenses to be inserted into the rift, but if your solution works, paying for something else wouldn't be necesary.

The VR experience as available now via CV1, Vive etc. is amazing. Don’t listen to the people who say wait.

+1

Thanks for all your replies, much appreciated.

 

Just some basic questions to get me started and then i'll start doing my own digging for answers.

 

1) With regards the Rift what tracking sensors are required, I will only ever use it for flight sims..... i.e sat in a chair.

 

2) Do the sensors work in a darkened room or do you need strong light ?.

 

3) How many USB plugs are required and of what type USB 2/3.

 

4) What video output is required and I'm guessing that I will still be able to switch back to my desktop monitor easily when I'm not using the VR headset.

 

5) No doubt some modules will probably be better than others but on average how easy is it to read the instruments and radar displays etc.

 

6) I hear a lot about ASW is this unique only to the Rift ?, if so what are the other manufacturers doing when their headsets are not being fed 90FPS ?.

 

7) Recently I have had to start using reading glasses as I am now mildly "long sighted". I have no bother seeing distant objects but nearby words can be slightly out of focus, is this a possibly going to cause me problems when using a VR headset.

 

Thanks.

Just a little info in addition to Mesenzio's excellent reply.

The Rift comes with two sensors, while just seated game you can get by with one, the Touch Controllers need the two. I would highly encourage you if you go for Rift to go ahead and set up both controllers whilst your setting it up.

In regards to monitor, I have two monitors. My GPU only has one HDMI port. I used Display Ports for my two monitors, and HDMI for the Rift. Best to use HDMI for the headset.

I too need reading glasses to read what is on my monitor, however I was grateful to find I did not need them in my Rift.

I think in the end my choice of VR headset will come down to whatever is readily available to me for a fair price.

I can buy a Rift for £400 from Argos (UK Shop) just down the road from me, I've seen the Odyssey for £500 and the Lenovo for around the same price, both mail order.... so the WMR headsets are not that cheap here in the UK.

A question for any UK VR users on here :-

Where did you buy your VR headset from ?.

Thanks.

I think in the end my choice of VR headset will come down to whatever is readily available to me for a fair price.

 

I can buy a Rift for £400 from Argos (UK Shop) just down the road from me, I've seen the Odyssey for £500 and the Lenovo for around the same price, both mail order.... so the WMR headsets are not that cheap here in the UK.

 

A question for any UK VR users on here :-

 

Where did you buy your VR headset from ?.

 

Thanks.

John Lewis in Milton Keynes about a year and a half ago. Went to one of their in-store demos and handed over the cash on the spot :thumbup:

I now play exclusively RIFT VR on my gaming PC.

I think in the end my choice of VR headset will come down to whatever is readily available to me for a fair price.

 

I can buy a Rift for £400 from Argos (UK Shop) just down the road from me, I've seen the Odyssey for £500 and the Lenovo for around the same price, both mail order.... so the WMR headsets are not that cheap here in the UK.

 

A question for any UK VR users on here :-

 

Where did you buy your VR headset from ?.

 

Thanks.

Direct from Oculus as there was no other option at the time.

I suggest you get off down to argos.

Hi

got mine from amazon uk £399, about 9 months ago.

Neal

I understand that there are also commercial solutions to this issue, that allow prescription lenses to be inserted into the rift, but if your solution works, paying for something else wouldn't be necesary.

I have looked into commercial plug and play solutions, but living in Australia far away from the rest of the world, the shipping cost is quite substantial.

My home baked solution is fully functional, just not all that polished with the blu-tack holding the prescription frames in place lol.

I've been looking around and it looks like i'll be going to Argos in a weeks time once I get home from work to buy myself a rift :).

Unfortunately reading some posts on here it looks like I haven't picked the best time to go VR as it seems that the rift guys are having a bad time with the latest version of DCS.

Just wondering what the sound and microphone quality is like with the rift ?.

I've been looking around and it looks like i'll be going to Argos in a weeks time once I get home from work to buy myself a rift :).

 

Unfortunately reading some posts on here it looks like I haven't picked the best time to go VR as it seems that the rift guys are having a bad time with the latest version of DCS.

 

Just wondering what the sound and microphone quality is like with the rift ?.

Most the VR bugs for the Rift were fixed today. Only issue remaining is if monitor is higher res than 1080p can be clicking problems in menu, I am sure they will get that addressed soon also.

Sound and Mic in the Rift are very good.

You are going to love the Rift, congrats!