Vive Pro 2

[SneakyBastd]

Yeah 150% supersampling looks very nice. It's 45fps for me in freeflight, but haven't tried online just yet. Still can't turn this seemingly default motion compensation on or off. It's always locked at 45fps.

 

I did just get my VRCover pads for the Oculus Quest 2, which I tried on my VP2. The thin one is too thin, and the nose flap thingies get in the way and are annyoing. The thicker one, which is still thinner than the default gasket, is just right. Better fov and I can also keep the headset against my face when looking down, keeping clarity. I strongly recommend it!

Edited June 11, 2021 by SneakyBastd

[Supmua]

10 minutes ago, SneakyBastd said:

Yeah 150% supersampling looks very nice. It's 45fps for me in freeflight, but haven't tried online just yet. Still can't turn this seemingly default motion compensation on or off. It's always locked at 45fps.

 

I did just get my VRCover pads for the Oculus Quest 2, which I tried on my VP2. The thin one is too thin, and the nose flap thingies get in the way and are annyoing. The thicker one, which is still thinner than the default gasket, is just right. Better fov and I can also keep the headset against my face when looking down, keeping clarity. I strongly recommend it!

 

 

I can turn mine on/off just fine.  Perhaps you mean reprojection?

 

[Full Refund]

After (just) three days:

 

I love the resolution and colors but hate the small sweet spot and glare.  It seems like the LCD panels are great but the lenses suck.  I also feel like I get a lot of eye strain with the VP2.  Never had that with the Index or Reverb.  
 

I’m running everything on high detail and getting 45-50 FPS.  It’s smooth enough I don’t notice it.  When the picture is good it’s really good. But every time I put it on I’m fiddling around trying to eliminate blur, glare, and double vision.  Tonight I realized I had it on so tight I was getting a headache!
 

My jury is still out.  May keep it. May return it. 

[SneakyBastd]

3 hours ago, Supmua said:

 

I can turn mine on/off just fine.  Perhaps you mean reprojection?

 

 

Yeah reprojection, though vive console seems to call it motion compensation? Confusing name, that is usually to help with motion simulation rigs.

Motion compensation seems to do nothing in my case. Can you play and not be locked at 45fps?

[dburne]

Fed Ex tracking this morning now shows it is actually on Fed Ex vehicle for delivery.

So maybe I will in fact get it today - day 4 of my 2 day delivery...

[Supmua]

4 hours ago, SneakyBastd said:

 

Yeah reprojection, though vive console seems to call it motion compensation? Confusing name, that is usually to help with motion simulation rigs.

Motion compensation seems to do nothing in my case. Can you play and not be locked at 45fps?

It’s strange that it doesn’t do anything for you.  My DCS and MSFS experiences were terrible until I turn motion compensation on (it was off by default).  Without it turning my head side to side, the cockpit console would become a fast paced slideshow due to latency as I wasn’t able to achieve 90 fps.  Flying low looking down at ground objects that are close to the plane also exhibit stuttering artifacts.  Vive Pro 2 + motion compensation + Reshade CAS gave me the best DCS VR experience out of any headsets that I own so far, although it could probably be better if Steam’s motion smoothing is used.
 

This explains why it is helpful, probably not using exact same tech, but Vive does call it ASW in their config files.

https://developer.oculus.com/blog/developer-guide-to-asw-20/

Edited June 11, 2021 by Supmua

[Baldrick33]

My experience was that with motion compensation on or off I was still locked at 45fps in DCS and it was a similar smoothness to having reprojection on with the G1. Still some ghosting if say an aircraft passed below you at speed. Turning motion compensation just seemed to add some liquidity to objects which was a bit nausea inducing, so I turned it back off. All locked at 45 fps running at 90Hz. If it dropped below 45 then it would stutter (as expected). I was never able to turn off whatever caused it to run at 45 to see how it handled between 45 and 90 as  described in the post above.

[Supmua]

The ghosting stuff from very fast moving objects is to be expected because it’s filling in the missing frames, but liquid artifact should not happen unless you can’t maintain stable 45 fps. You might get an avg 45 fps but frametime and frame pacing could be uneven. If you turn on the headset frametime display in SteamVR developer tab you can easily monitor for this. 
 

I’m not sure if you can completely turn off reprojection in the Vive Pro 2, because it is not quite fully supported by SteamVR and Vive is currently automating a lot of things in their current iteration of software. 

Edited June 11, 2021 by Supmua

[A2597]

So spent about an hour in VR "desktop" mode while working, because...I wanted to play with my headset but also have to get my billables in.

My observations are I have a little side to side wobble I need to figure out.

Audio is perfectly fine for me.

Clarity is amazing in sweet spot, but does fall off pretty quickly. Wouldn't want to work in MS Office for a long time with it.

 

Hoping they can tell us what is causing the headset displays to break so I know if I have a headset that will last, or if I'm waiting on it to die and RMA...

[dburne]

Well finally after Fed Ex taking 4 days with supposed 2 day shipping, my Vive Pro 2 has arrived.

Much to do so may be a while before I can offer some first impressions.

I guess I will  do a complete wipe of WMR and Steam VR so I know I am starting fresh with it.

 

All I can say is after all this , it better be able to replace my Reverb G2 and Index.

[Supmua]

40 minutes ago, A2597 said:

So spent about an hour in VR "desktop" mode while working, because...I wanted to play with my headset but also have to get my billables in.

My observations are I have a little side to side wobble I need to figure out.

Audio is perfectly fine for me.

Clarity is amazing in sweet spot, but does fall off pretty quickly. Wouldn't want to work in MS Office for a long time with it.

 

Hoping they can tell us what is causing the headset displays to break so I know if I have a headset that will last, or if I'm waiting on it to die and RMA...

Bring up the in-headset GPU frametime display if it’s hovering up and down above and below the 11.1 ms cutoff it can create visual artifacts when you turn side to side quickly. For watching video, desktop operation, etc. you will want it consistently below 11.1 ms for smoothness. 
 

My headset was on for almost 12 hours on the first day (with periodic sleep mode when I took a break) and no issue so far, so I think I got a good one. 

[A2597]

1 hour ago, dburne said:

Well finally after Fed Ex taking 4 days with supposed 2 day shipping, my Vive Pro 2 has arrived.

Much to do so may be a while before I can offer some first impressions.

I guess I will  do a complete wipe of WMR and Steam VR so I know I am starting fresh with it.

 

All I can say is after all this , it better be able to replace my Reverb G2 and Index.

Good luck! And be sure to report back based on your experience with both G2 and Index.

[dburne]

Ok so I wanted to start fresh with the Vive Pro 2.

I removed everything WMR and Steam VR. Deleted leftover files in appdata folders.

Rebooted and installed the Vive Console and Steam VR beta. Also opted in to beta of Vive Console.

Headset is setup and working properly. Index controllers paired and working.

Starting out at Ultra setting with 90 Hz.  Motion Compensation On.

Steam VR seems to want 150% SS ( 3900x3900 per eye). Going to back that down seems would be a bit much.

 

Going to give this some time in couple of flight sims so may be a while, I want to tweak and adjust to what feels best for me.

I will report back when I feel I can speak to it.

Also have the Kiwi pads I will do testing with also.

 

 

Edited June 11, 2021 by dburne

[Supmua]

1 hour ago, dburne said:

Ok so I wanted to start fresh with the Vive Pro 2.

I removed everything WMR and Steam VR. Deleted leftover files in appdata folders.

Rebooted and installed the Vive Console and Steam VR beta. Also opted in to beta of Vive Console.

Headset is setup and working properly. Index controllers paired and working.

Starting out at Ultra setting with 90 Hz.  Motion Compensation On.

Steam VR seems to want 150% SS ( 3900x3900 per eye). Going to back that down seems would be a bit much.

 

Going to give this some time in couple of flight sims so may be a while, I want to tweak and adjust to what feels best for me.

I will report back when I feel I can speak to it.

Also have the Kiwi pads I will do testing with also.

 

 

 

If you want the best possible image fidelity that’s the resolution. Check it out for awhile before bringing it down to appreciate the best this headset can offer…and realize how much more powerful setup you will need to drive this headset at full res. 

[A2597]

With my 3070 I have yet to find the settings to maintain 45FPS, let alone 30.

I'm guessing I'll have to under-sample it.

[dburne]

Did just a little quick action in another sim, so far looking pretty darn good to me.

Again I will get more into the weeds with it tomorrow and report back, so far though I am very impressed.

[Supmua]

49 minutes ago, dburne said:

Did just a little quick action in another sim, so far looking pretty darn good to me.

Again I will get more into the weeds with it tomorrow and report back, so far though I am very impressed.

 

I see, so far you're impressed like me.

 

I think the key ingredients to really enjoy the Vive Pro 2 are.

1. Powerful enough rig to get the rendering solution as high as you can.

2. Thinner facepad (to get the eyeballs as close to the lens as much as possible).  This makes a huge difference in image clarity, FOV, and glare reduction.

3. Motion compensation for DCS and MSFS.

4. Facial structure that is compatible with this headset.

 

There's this much talk about 200% trick in the other sim that is supposed to improve clarity and even framerate smoothness in VR, not sure if you tried that, it's all over the VR forum.

 

BTW, if you want to be more impressed may I suggest "The Great C" title on Steam.  It is one of those VR movie experiences that you can run at 150% SS without performance tax and it will show what this headset can do at optimal resolution.  Try it head to head vs your Index and see the results for yourself.

Edited June 11, 2021 by Supmua

[dburne]

43 minutes ago, Supmua said:

 

I see, so far you're impressed like me.

 

I think the key ingredients to really enjoy the Vive Pro 2 are.

1. Powerful enough rig to get the rendering solution as high as you can.

2. Thinner facepad (to get the eyeballs as close to the lens as much as possible).  This makes a huge difference in image clarity, FOV, and glare reduction.

3. Motion compensation for DCS and MSFS.

4. Facial structure that is compatible with this headset.

 

There's this much talk about 200% trick in the other sim that is supposed to improve clarity and even framerate smoothness in VR, not sure if you tried that, it's all over the VR forum.

 

BTW, if you want to be more impressed may I suggest "The Great C" title on Steam.  It is one of those VR movie experiences that you can run at 150% SS without performance tax and it will show what this headset can do at optimal resolution.  Try it head to head vs your Index and see the results for yourself.

 

 

Will do.

Based on what I am seeing so far this will easily replace my Index headset for those made for VR games that utilized the controllers.

Verdict is still out on replacing the Reverb G2 but initial impressions are very promising.

I will get a lot more time with it tomorrow, so I don't want to expand any further until I get more time, especially in DCS.

 

 

Edited June 11, 2021 by dburne

[Supmua]

I've been testing an alternative way of settings.  The idea is to leave the general SS to 150% and per-app to 100% (default) in SteamVR, and only change the rendering resolution or pixel density using that particular game's software.  This works really well so far for me in MSFS and DCS, the menu screen and title screen remain tact sharp.

 

For example, in DCS I leave SS at 150% (for me it's 4020x4020, sometimes a tad lower) and use PD 0.6.  The reason for 0.6 is that I can get the frametime that doesn't drop below 22.2ms in Syria Hornet free flight with nice headroom (mostly around 19ms).  At 0.7 it becomes 23ms which goes beyond 1:2 reprojection ratio and results in latency artifacts when turning side to side.  The perfect PD for me is probably around 0.65 which cannot be set in DCS (can probably be approximated by raising Steam's per-app SS slightly above 100%, but still more testing to do).  At PD 0.6 the ground objects become a bit blurry without Reshade, but with Reshade CAS it's pretty good and very smooth.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Supmua

[Brainfreeze]

7 hours ago, Supmua said:

For example, in DCS I leave SS at 150% (for me it's 4020x4020, sometimes a tad lower) and use PD 0.6.  

 

I hope imacken does not read that  ... he's written a lot about SS vs PD to remove confusion about what does what and explain the actual resolution achieved.  Bottom line, leave PD alone at 1 and use the steamVR SS

[Supmua]

There is no right or wrong way to achieve certain things as long as you know how they work, and frankly I do not see anything wrong about doing various testings.  This is how I learn and discover various bugs or flaws.  There is one shortcoming with SteamVR, if you change the SS the effect does not fully happen until after you restart the game, so when testing for clarity or performance with various SS it can be annoying with multiple restarts.  Now if you just stick with one setting and play then it is a different story, but as I said I’ve been testing not playing.  Point number 2, I find PD to be superior to SteamVR SS in terms of shimmering reduction when used for upsampling (not talking about performance here) but my personal verdict is still out there with downsampling.  Point number 3, we don’t really know how well SteamVR works with the Vive Pro 2 as it is very new and certain functions such as motion smoothing isn’t even supported even though it is a SteamVR headset, fixed throttling doesn’t work either.  Point number 4, Steam SS default at 150% is actually what HTC recommends for optimal use because it allows the headset to fully deal with geometric distortion and rotation/motion compensation but of course it won’t work well with demanding titles such as DCS.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Supmua

[Supmua]

New update for Vive console, haven't tested it yet since I have to go to work.

 

There's also a Steam forum for Vive console now with a beta branch coming out soon for user feedback and preview of newer functions, so it seems HTC is putting more effort into this.

[dburne]

16 minutes ago, Supmua said:

New update for Vive console, haven't tested it yet since I have to go to work.

 

There's also a Steam forum for Vive console now with a beta branch coming out soon for user feedback and preview of newer functions, so it seems HTC is putting more effort into this.

 

Yeah it updated firmware also, will be testing again shortly.

 

Also a nice feature for those like me that prefer other audio solutions - Vive Pro headphones can easily be removed and replaced with included caps. Helped lighten it just a little also.

https://www.vive.com/hk/support/vive-pro-hmd/category_howto/removing-the-headset-earphones.html

[dburne]

VIVE Software 2.0.17.3/2.1.17.3 – Beta Release Notes
Released June 12th 2021

Vive Pro 2

[Firmware]

Updated firmware to improve device performance and stability

Vive Console

[General]

Fixed flicking loading scene upon app launch (ex. Mona Lisa)

[Vive Pro 2]

Enabled “High” option in display setting when using wireless adapter

Fixed error code URL to correct product page

Fine-tuned error code 224 mechanism for more cases
If you are using NV card and still experiencing 224 error code after reduced the plugin monitors, please report here for more support

[Vive Lens]

Fixed Grip button no function when using remote desktop mode

 

Edit: Be aware it resets your Vive Console settings to default.

Edited June 12, 2021 by dburne

[dburne]

Seems downsampling is not working properly for me with the VP2 in DCS.

I get better results just reducing the global resolution setting to what I want rather than leaving the global at default and reducing in the per game setting.

 

Still testing... more will follow later today or tomorrow.