Odyssey vs Rift IMO

Having sold off the 3 Vives we had, and kept the 3 Rifts, we've been waiting to see how things settled out in the WMR landscape. I really wish we'd kept one Vive, now that Vive 2.0 requires the magic wall boxes to function (ordered one, and had to buy the sensors again, blarg, be here next week). In the meantime picked up a cheap used Samsung Odyssey, and decided to try it out.

Wow - anyone IMO who thinks the Rift has equal or similar visuals needs to see their eye doctor. While not a revolution in graphics compared to the Rift, the increase in resolution and detail is markedly improved, certainly worth the cost of the Odyssey (I got it for $325 USD with about 2 hours total use on it, like new). I really liked the Rift, found it to be a better cockpit device than the Vive, and since we don't really do the room scale thing, where the Vive has some advantages, we ditched all 3 Vives and kept the Rifts as I said. Rifts have been working great with Aces High and DCS, Project Cars too, and a few shooters like Onward. Now, depending on how the Vive 2.0 looks and works - and honestly, for the price, I can get 2 Odysseys easily for one new Vive - I'm going to replace all 3 Rifts with the Odyssey. I like it that much.

Only neg is that my $400 Asus motherboards Bluetooth don't work with the Odyssey controllers, and I had to buy a $20 dongle which worked instantly - pretty common problem, but man, you would think that such expensive MB with the wireless antenna attached MIGHT just actually work. Unsure if it's a driver issue with Asus or what, reports online vary, I just know that the $20 Staples Bluetooth wireless dongle worked within 1 minute of installing it with both Odyssey controllers.

Anyhow, just my take, great tracking so far in DCS with the Odyssey, significantly improved graphics/visuals, which was my major complaint with VR - nice to see some incremental improvement, while I doubt the Vive 2.0 will be much better, I am looking forward to future advancements on this front. Very pumped to fly VR in DCS right now thanks to Samsung and the WMR experience.

Anyone here try the lower cost WMR sets as well as the Odyssey? I only ask since there are refurbished units for $175 USD and even less that have come up for sale recently, and if the experience is even close to the Odyssey, I'd like to be able to recommend to others on tight budgets in other games I play to go that route.

Having sold off the 3 Vives we had, and kept the 3 Rifts, we've been waiting to see how things settled out in the WMR landscape. I really wish we'd kept one Vive, now that Vive 2.0 requires the magic wall boxes to function (ordered one, and had to buy the sensors again, blarg, be here next week). In the meantime picked up a cheap used Samsung Odyssey, and decided to try it out.

 

I assume your references to Vive 2.0 are referencing the newer Vive Pro?

Vive Pro 2.0 kit, yes. Gets here tomorrow, should be interesting.

Reprojection?

Gman, I have a question for you. How does Samsung handle the reprojection? As I am not able to maintain a constant 90FPS in all situations in DCS that is my main concern. As far as my research goes Oculus' timewarp is much superior to HTCs reprojection. How does Samsung compare to the two?

Hey Kirin (fellow AH 109 pilot of yore). IMO the Odyssey is very close to the Rift, far better than the Vive in terms of reprojection. When I get back home from travelling for the holiday I'll post more details, but reprojection issues is not something that I find to be an issue at all with the Odyssey, I haven't had any of the stutters others have had with shadows enabled either, not yet anyway.

the only thing that stops me use the rift all the time and use my monitor and track ir is the resolution

however the immersion is great

Hey Kirin (fellow AH 109 pilot of yore). IMO the Odyssey is very close to the Rift, far better than the Vive in terms of reprojection. When I get back home from travelling for the holiday I'll post more details, but reprojection issues is not something that I find to be an issue at all with the Odyssey, I haven't had any of the stutters others have had with shadows enabled either, not yet anyway.

Pretty sure the Odyssey uses the same exact steam VR software (except it's been modded to work with WMR) that the Vive does. Which means it has the same limitations. I don't believe they have the asynchronous warp tech, however both my odyssey and Vive deal very well with frame rates below 45. It only gets choppy below 30 FPS.

I have found with my odyssey that is ASW is better than the rift as long as you dont go crazy with PD. So my rift is permanently collecting dust. Also i just switched from standalone dcs to steam version and its much better and streamlined with the WMR than with standalone. Loads and runs faster on my end.

I have found with my odyssey that is ASW is better than the rift as long as you dont go crazy with PD. So my rift is permanently collecting dust. Also i just switched from standalone dcs to steam version and its much better and streamlined with the WMR than with standalone. Loads and runs faster on my end.

There's this thing called Ebay…

:smilewink:

I have found with my odyssey that is ASW is better than the rift as long as you dont go crazy with PD. So my rift is permanently collecting dust. Also i just switched from standalone dcs to steam version and its much better and streamlined with the WMR than with standalone. Loads and runs faster on my end.

Hrrm, interesting. Never thought of trying Steam DCS over standalone, I may give that a whirl and see the results. Heh, after switching everything over to stand alone, it'd be Murphy's Law to have to switch back, and par for the course.

My Rift is also collecting dust (we have 2 others, lots of PC gaming stations at our places for the kidlets, wifee, and me). Going to replace the 2 remaining Rifts with Odysseys, luckily 2 of my newphews are in school and I'll get the student discount from Microsoft, as I doubt I'll find another used one for as good a deal as I did my current Odyssey.

Regarding Ebay, I may sell my 2 remaining Rifts, donated one to another simmer that desperately wanted one but is out of work right now, my good deed for this year. If anyone knows anybody around these parts in need of excellent condition Rifts, I'll have 2 for sale shortly, and please shoot them/me a PM.

Hi, I've just borrowed an Oculus DK2 from a friend and have blown away by the immersion in VR even with the low native resolution (I usually sim in 21:9 at 3440x1440 and thought that was good!)..

After doing a bit of research I'm now considering buying an Odyssey but can't seem to find a UK supplier.. Anyone have any decent links?..

Thanks.

Gerrard, I ordered one to Switzerland through these guys: https://www.bigapplebuddy.com/

Not cheap. But very fast an reliable service.

Cheers

Tried to price them out, but it just keeps saying “Oops, please try again”.

They just updated their website - maybe it's wonky. Try this mail: support@bigapplebuddy.zendesk.com

They just updated their website - maybe it's wonky. Try this mail: support@bigapplebuddy.zendesk.com

Hi, I have e-mailed them for a price.. Thank you !. :)

Are you happy with the Odyssey for DCS?. I'm using a DK2 and while it's a great experience it does tend to leave my eyes feeling a bit heavy after use - which I think may be more the low resolution than the actual headset.

Hi, I have e-mailed them for a price.. Thank you !. :)

 

Are you happy with the Odyssey for DCS?. I'm using a DK2 and while it's a great experience it does tend to leave my eyes feeling a bit heavy after use - which I think may be more the low resolution than the actual headset.

Ouch. I don't remember my experience with my DK2 and DCS but I do remember going from DK2 to CV1 in Elite Dangerous. There was a big difference in the ability to read text.

I exclusively use my Odyssey with DCS now. The only thing I don't care for is that if there's some lag the visuals stop and drop to the SteamVR space temporarily. It's a bit jarring but seems like it hasn't happened much recently. I wish it behaved a bit more like the CV1 in that regard, but I agree with OP that the visuals are much better in the Odyssey.

Ouch. I don't remember my experience with my DK2 and DCS but I do remember going from DK2 to CV1 in Elite Dangerous. There was a big difference in the ability to read text.

 

I exclusively use my Odyssey with DCS now. The only thing I don't care for is that if there's some lag the visuals stop and drop to the SteamVR space temporarily. It's a bit jarring but seems like it hasn't happened much recently. I wish it behaved a bit more like the CV1 in that regard, but I agree with OP that the visuals are much better in the Odyssey.

Hi, thanks for the info. The guy who I borrowed the set from told me it just takes a bit of getting used to - I'm used to near 4k detail on a curved 21:9 so it's probably just the culture shock - forward to the past - :)

Big Apple Buddy are quoting the Odyssey at $400 but are a little vague on import duties etc, quoting $80 to UK plus $50 service charge - which I think would be reasonable at roughly £400 GBP all-in. The hype around the new Oculus is tempting though. I just wish they had a definitive date.

Did not have time to try the Odyssey yet - also I've been waiting for the VR Lenslab Frame which arrived now. Will do some testing next week.

Ouch. I don't remember my experience with my DK2 and DCS but I do remember going from DK2 to CV1 in Elite Dangerous. There was a big difference in the ability to read text.

 

I exclusively use my Odyssey with DCS now. The only thing I don't care for is that if there's some lag the visuals stop and drop to the SteamVR space temporarily. It's a bit jarring but seems like it hasn't happened much recently. I wish it behaved a bit more like the CV1 in that regard, but I agree with OP that the visuals are much better in the Odyssey.

I found that by taking off the headset and Alt+Tab to DCS, Then Alt+Enter to stretch the view to full screen went a long way to help this issue. I also added another 16Gb of ram which made the issue all but non-existent.