HP's Reverb VR Pro Headset

[Rosebud47]

When the windows for the Mixed Reality Portal opens on the desktop, there´s a button in the left down corner ( as far as I remember ), which brings you to the WMR Settings.

There you could adjust the ´Quality´ from low, med, high, experimental.

In anyway experimental should be selected.

 

You could also set the frequency there 60 or 90 HZ and some audio settings, as far as I remember.

 

With the app Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR you could further on set the render target by overriding option, what is recommendable. SteamVR is not too bad - in contrary, it´s very good, well maintained, updated frequently and the general GUI to interact with OpenVR, which then interacts with DCS.

[Harlikwin]

OK, so my Reverb has arrived and I've spent about 2 hours using it so far. Coming from using on the Rift CV1 in the past, here are my initial thoughts.

 

Build quality

 

Overall very good. I think the head strap could be a bit better though. It feels sturdy enough to me and the materials feel robust.

 

Comfort

 

Marginally less comfortable than the Rift CV1, as the head strap doesn't curve to accommodate the ears, which may seem like a minor point but it does have a detrimental effect. That said, once I got stuck in to using the headset I didn't give it much thought and it hasn't been a problem in 2 hours of use.

As someone else has pointed out, the cable is a bit thick and heavy, so it feels cumbersome when you're moving around. But for use in sims that's not really a problem.

 

SDE

 

SDE has NOT been completely eliminated but you really have to look for it, to the point where it has a tendency to disappear from view even when I do manage to spot it. It's more noticeable on large plain surfaces but in all honesty it's no longer on my mind in any meaningful way.

 

Overall visual quality

 

I think it's a bit of a stretch to describe this as 'near monitor quality' but it's still a really significant improvement on the CV1. What was strange was that at first it barely registered that the graphical fidelity had improved. It just felt very natural to be sat in a cockpit with fully readable gauges and nice clear MFD displays. But once I started to pay attention it became increasingly apparent how much better everything is visually. Looking outside the cockpit I can see much further in much greater detail. Identifying ground and air targets is so much easier also. My gunnery in the A10 improved quite a bit on the first attempt.

So while I do feel the graphical upgrade has been a bit over hyped in places I'm still really happy with it.

 

FOV

 

I wouldn't say it's any better than the CV1 to be honest. If you move the headset a bit you will see the edges of the panels but again you have to look for it. It didn't spoil my aerial fun time at all.

 

Audio

 

This is a weak point. The sound quality is acceptable, but the earpieces are pretty rubbish. They just don't press comfortably on my ears, no matter what I do to adjust their position. The CV1 did this much better. I think this is caused by the same problem previously mentioned re the shape of the head strap. Because the pivot point of the headphone arms is right next to your ear it has to press in at a steep angle to come into contact with your ears. It's poor design for certain.

The good news is that the earpieces are really easy to remove and so I'll use my much better bluetooth headphones instead.

 

Performance

 

I'm running a 1080 ti and the performance at PD of 1.5 was just fine. I did a low flight over Vegas and experience no frame stutter. Likewise on the Caucasus map, it's really been surprisingly smooth. I haven't measured the frame rates yet but I'll do that another time. I haven't tweaked my setting in any way. They're far from being way low though. I've set the PD down to 1.0 and it still looks great while being slippery smooth.

 

WMR controllers

 

Meh, pretty rubbish but I never intend to use them anyway.

 

Tracking

 

Very good in DCS. No complaints there at all. A bit spotty when you start walking around though. I'm using it in a pretty dark room and overall it's fine for my purposes.

 

Conclusion

 

As an early adopter when VR is still very much running at the enthusiast level I'm very happy with the experience overall. It could be slightly more comfortable, and the audio is a let down but I bought this headset simply for the improved resolution in a sim environment and I got exactly what I wanted out of it. Given that this is barely 2nd gen VR I think there's plenty to be optimistic about.

 

Thanks! But a few questions.

 

Hows instrument readability between the two? Spotting?

 

What are your other settings? Msaa? Shadows?

[Panthera_Tigris]

Still, I think that the VP has the edge in terms of clarity.

 

Damn, now that's a show stopper.

[YoYo]

OK, so my Reverb has arrived ....

 

Thx!

[fearlessfrog]

I don't own a WMR headset so I am not sure how that works?

 

The 'Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR' app allows WMR to be used on Steam/OpenVR API games. All DCS World WMR users have to use it, until we get a native WMR use.

 

The 'renderTargetScale' setting value is used to tell WMR an internal resolution to use before it is either up or downscaled and given to SteamVR to use. It is separate and before anything you do in either SteamVR or DCS PD settings. Info on the values it uses here.

 

In the latest Win10 1903 release there is a bug that locks renderTargetScale to a maximum of 1.0, meaning that the back buffer can be no larger than 1657x2065 per eye. This is lower than native res for the Reverb. Microsoft have acknowledged the bug but no fix as yet, other than rolling back to Win10 1809. More info on that here.

 

Sorry guys, I didn't make that clear. I was running with SteamSS at 150%, i.e. 1972x1928 on the Reverb.

Since then I have experimented with SteamSS between 150% and 200% (2280x2224), and DCS PD of between 1.0 and 1.8. Tried all sorts of combos to get to the max % on the GPU/CPU.

My point is, that with both the Vive Pro and the Reverb running at the highest to make the GPU/CPU max out, that is what the tests were. Still, I think that the VP has the edge in terms of clarity.

Someone asked about running both at PD of 1.0, then yes, of course, the Reverb will win out. It's only when the VP is stretched to similar res (via software processes) that my conclusion makes any sense.

I've attached the settings I tend to use.

 

What release of Windows 10 you using imacken? 1809 or the latest 1903?

[sohei]

Thanks! But a few questions.

 

Hows instrument readability between the two? Spotting?

 

What are your other settings? Msaa? Shadows?

 

Instrument readability is just fine, I can read all the useful and important numbers in the cockpit without issue. Some of the very small gauges I have to peer in a bit for if I want to read them (think oil pressure gauges and similar). Likewise spotting. I no longer feel like I'm aiming at a distant furry turd. A tank looks like a tank from a few miles away. I've removed the labels.lua file from the game as it's simply no longer needed.

 

BTW I checked and realised that I was running SS in SteamVR at 150%. I've now set it to 188% and it still runs smooth but I haven't stress tested it in a really busy battle environment. There was no discernible difference in performance while flying over Vegas.

 

Here you go, settings attached ...

 

https://ibb.co/syLf1K9

Edited June 7, 2019 by sohei

[imacken]

What release of Windows 10 you using imacken? 1809 or the latest 1903?

 

1903

[Zoomer]

Instrument readability is just fine, likewise spotting. I no longer feel like I'm aiming at a distant furry turd. A tank looks like a tank from a few miles away.

 

Here you go, settings attached ...

 

https://ibb.co/syLf1K9

 

I see you have 4k resolution on the monitor, personally I reduce it to a minimum to give max gpu power to the HMD.

[imacken]

I see you have 4k resolution on the monitor, personally I reduce it to a minimum to give max gpu power to the HMD.

 

Don't think that makes any difference as it's only mirroring, but I guess it doesn't do any harm to lower it.

[sohei]

I see you have 4k resolution on the monitor, personally I reduce it to a minimum to give max gpu power to the HMD.

 

My understanding was that it's not relevant when running an HMD. Does it definitely make a difference?

[sze5003]

My understanding was that it's not relevant when running an HMD. Does it definitely make a difference?

No this doesn't make any difference as you are in VR anyway.

[sohei]

No this doesn't make any difference as you are in VR anyway.

 

Thought so. ta.

[Gizzy]

May be of interest to some...

 

[fearlessfrog]

May be of interest to some...

 

 

That looks good Gizzy. I'm surprised that even the 2080Ti can burn through that enough for a MSAA x2. Impressive.

 

The DCS Pixel Density and SteamVR will always be combined if used, so keeping it to PD 1.0 and then adjusting on the SteamVR side just makes the math easier.

 

In WMR any SteamVR reprojection settings are ignored anyway, it always just uses the WMR settings 'auto' value for reprojection alone.

 

In the SteamVR settings section, under 'Video' what does that report as 'per eye' resolution on the Reverb at 188%? Thanks for posting your settings.

Edited June 7, 2019 by fearlessfrog

[hansangb]

Just a friendly reminder than you need 188% SS in SteamVR just to get to the native resolution of the Reverb (because SteamVR subsamples it by default).

 

Since you tested at PD 1.3 in DCS that comes to 169% SteeamVR SS so you were below the native res.

 

My conclusion are based on the resolution values shows in this video using fpsVR:

 

 

 

Huh. You're saying that because Vive is at 1200 and that's what SteamVR defaults to? I would have figured that if you left it at 100% it'd just pass it at whatever HMD is set at.

[hansangb]

The 'Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR' app allows WMR to be used on Steam/OpenVR API games. All DCS World WMR users have to use it, until we get a native WMR use.

 

The 'renderTargetScale' setting value is used to tell WMR an internal resolution to use before it is either up or downscaled and given to SteamVR to use. It is separate and before anything you do in either SteamVR or DCS PD settings. Info on the values it uses here.

 

In the latest Win10 1903 release there is a bug that locks renderTargetScale to a maximum of 1.0, meaning that the back buffer can be no larger than 1657x2065 per eye. This is lower than native res for the Reverb. Microsoft have acknowledged the bug but no fix as yet, other than rolling back to Win10 1809. More info on that here.

 

 

 

What release of Windows 10 you using imacken? 1809 or the latest 1903?

 

 

Uh oh. that's no bueno for me.

[Gizzy]

.....In the SteamVR settings section, under 'Video' what does that report as 'per eye' resolution on the Reverb at 188%? Thanks for posting your settings.

 

2212 x 2152 Fearless..

[fearlessfrog]

Huh. You're saying that because Vive is at 1200 and that's what SteamVR defaults to? I would have figured that if you left it at 100% it'd just pass it at whatever HMD is set at.

 

It's worse than that. :)

 

SteamVR by default will set the resolution dynamically based on your hardware profile (mainly just the GPU you have) and nearly always gets it wrong. If you have a 1080/2080 class card it will probably default to 150% for all WMR devices, even if they have different native panel resolutions.

 

For sims it is best to tick 'Settings / Video / 'Enable custom resolution' otherwise SteamVR will adjust it per title in the 'Applications' area. It works ok for general VR games, but for extra clarity it is nicer to adjust manually.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/games/250820/announcements/detail/1661138371528106606

 

The base Vive uses a 1.4 x that resolution to account for barrel distortion (sometimes called pre-warp), while on the WMR side that is 'renderTargetScale' set in the 'default.vrsettings' file in your \SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\MixedRealityVRDriver\resources\settings location. That's the bit that is broke on Win10 1903 so far.

 

It's quite complicated, and it will be great when DCS goes native WMR calls. Props to ED for looking at that.

[fearlessfrog]

Uh oh. that's no bueno for me.

 

I'm still trying to even establish if the Reverb is impacted by the bug. It would seem likely as the other WMR headsets are, plus might explain why people get different results, as many are still on Win10 1809 while others manually updated or fresh installed to 1903. For my Odyssey Plus it was very noticeable, to the extent I went back to my Rift. It was only finding out later than it was a 1903 WMR bug literally making things fuzzier in DCS.

 

2212 x 2152 Fearless..

 

Thanks!

[hansangb]

It's worse than that. :)

 

SteamVR by default will set the resolution dynamically based on your hardware profile (mainly just the GPU you have) and nearly always gets it wrong. If you have a 1080/2080 class card it will probably default to 150% for all WMR devices, even if they have different native panel resolutions.

 

For sims it is best to tick 'Settings / Video / 'Enable custom resolution' otherwise SteamVR will adjust it per title in the 'Applications' area. It works ok for general VR games, but for extra clarity it is nicer to adjust manually.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/games/250820/announcements/detail/1661138371528106606

 

The base Vive uses a 1.4 x that resolution to account for barrel distortion (sometimes called pre-warp), while on the WMR side that is 'renderTargetScale' set in the 'default.vrsettings' file in your \SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\MixedRealityVRDriver\resources\settings location. That's the bit that is broke on Win10 1903 so far.

 

It's quite complicated, and it will be great when DCS goes native WMR calls. Props to ED for looking at that.

 

 

Thanks appreciate the detailed explanation. Mine always default to 168% (maybe 166%) for some reason. I've been yanking it down to 1.0 and setting the PD in DCS. I'm going to have to play around tonight.

[sohei]

I've a had a few moments where DCS is no longer the current application and I lose mouse/keyboard control. If I alt tab back to DCS everything is fine, but most recently This coincided with a SteamVR crash. I'm guessing native support in DCS will overcome problems like this.

[Zoomer]

My understanding was that it's not relevant when running an HMD. Does it definitely make a difference?

 

Well you are using more gpu/cpu power to have that 4k res on your monitor (which is really surplus to requirements) than to have a lower res on same. It may be just a few fps, but I`d rather have it in the HMD.

[sohei]

It doesn't push that resolution to my monitor when in VR though. It just shows a windowed view of one of the eye panels, so I think it's just projecting what's already rendered in VR. A few other people seem to think this is the case also. I seem to remember experimenting with this a long time ago and it seemed to make no difference. I'll give it a go though.

[Zoomer]

It doesn't push that resolution to my monitor when in VR though. It just shows a windowed view of one of the eye panels, so I think it's just projecting what's already rendered in VR. A few other people seem to think this is the case also. I seem to remember experimenting with this a long time ago and it seemed to make no difference. I'll give it a go though.

 

Yeah I`m aware of the mirroring, I just try and keep the overheads to a minimum, even though I`m running a i7 plus a 2080.

[eaglecash867]

Just checked my order status on the HP US site and got a pleasant surprise. My Reverb, which was scheduled to ship on June 18th, shipped today! :D:punk: