1. Grahad2

    Grahad2 Red eyes from too much anime

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    GearVR works fine with glasses and has a control patch on the side if you don't have the controller handy. It get a wee bit stuffy around the eyes but I'm sensitive to that so you may not be. Worth seeing if any Samsung user near you has a pair to try first considering how much Samsung loves bundles.

    I haven't handled the Daydream View though.
     
  2. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Get an avegant glyph if you want to just watch movies. It's not a VR headset but it's awesome for that purpose. It's like having a large television projected onto your retinas.

    You can also adjust the focal length so you don't need glasses with it.
     
  3. rshuck

    rshuck Friend

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    I recently picked up the Oculus Go and I am pretty happy with it. It's not the fastest device around, but it's pretty decent for the price.
     
  4. bengo

    bengo Friend

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    Well, some time has passed and I now have at home a Vive + TPCast setup...

    I'm inclined to agree with @Kattefjaes that the standard audio strap is not great (especially it doesn't fit over the back of my head snugly) and having the little TPCast receiver on top probably does nothing to help this. I have the TPCast v1 with the battery/wireless USB on a belt loop, I think the newer model mounts the battery at the back of your head.

    Surprisingly, none of the problems I expected actually turned out to be a big deal. The wireless latency/tracking is fine IMO, and stable. Battery life is plenty. The stock wireless router works. So I didn't feel any strong compulsion yet to flash the unit with to OpenTPCast, or replace the router (it's worth noting my wi-fi is 2.4 GHz only and the TPCast router is set to 5 GHz).

    I have even tried a thinner eye pad. This does allow, in some circumstances, to see a fuzzy green band at one edge of the image (a known artifact of the wireless video). While it is obviously a bit less comfortable due to the reduced padding, I didn't usally notice the green band in practice, so I've stuck with the thin foam which gives a bit more FoV.

    The TPCast transmitter when in use does whine noticeably louder than the Vive lighthouses. You might hear it if you use semi-open headphones with the volume at a lower level. You also need reasonable line-of-sight, I recommend mounting the video transmitter high on a wall. In practice I manage to forget about it though, which I guess means that it works pretty well.

    As for the experience, for some games it's a lot more fun leaping around on the couch un-tethered, while for Elite Dangerous (etc) you are probably better to put the money towards a cabled Odyssey or Vive Pro setup.

    I'm finding right now that I'm limited by eye strain to quite short sessions. Could also be that later evening at the end of a day in the office is not the best. Did anyone else experience this with the (original) Vive? Did you manage to improve it? Are other PC headsets much better?

    The next generation or two, if they can fix the basic issues with visuals/comfort and maybe add built-in wireless tech, have the potential to be an awful lot of fun.
     
  5. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    I wear glasses, and got some prescription inserts made up, with the Zeiss Blueprotect coating- I found it reduced eye strain massively.

    I'm using the original Vive- after fitting the deluxe audio strap (and replacing its padding with plusher wipe-clean stuff and putting a wipe-clean cover on the facial interface foam), it's incredibly comfy. Not having to fight with headphone cables and the flapping 3.5mm socket is well worth the price of entry. All about the comfort. It's so much nicer than it was stock. I think I like it more than I did the Rift CV1. However, better controllers are long overdue, fed up with having to strip the wands to fix the click issue on the awful directional pad.

    https://www.imore.com/valve-knuckles-controllers-everything-you-need-know
     
  6. Ruined

    Ruined HD700 ruined my ear holes

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    From your data-privacy friends over at facebook:

    https://uploadvr.com/oculus-quest-2-leaked-by-facebook/



    Some notes (this is the semi reliable leak data but may not be 100% accurate):
    * Price appears to be insane if leaks true - $299 for local storage 128gb version, $399 for 256gb version; loss-leader console style pricing
    * Hybrid standalone (wireless & no PC required, built-in storefront) + able to hook to PC via USB-C for PCVR via Oculus Home/Steam
    * No room sensors required like Quest 1, all inside out tracking in the headset; IR tracking camera positioning layout looks like a hybrid of Quest 1 and Rift S
    * Qualcomm XR2 chipset - means should be able to potentially do full-quality PCVR over USB-C unlike Quest 1 which was heavily compressed
    * 6GB RAM
    * Improved controllers from Quest 1 (and those were already great)
    * Able to use both with controllers and without controllers (hand tracking)
    * Improved refresh rate from Quest 1 (90hz)
    * Near-4K resolution
    * RGB stripe subpixel layout LCD panel, so no screen door effect
    * Built-in positional audio via open-air drivers in headset; no word if bass/fidelity will be improved from Quest 1 which was okay but not spectacular
    * Much reduced weight, strap now similar to old Oculus Go strap
    * 3-position physical IPD adjustment to cover a wide range of face configurations
    * The one downside, requires a facebook account to use. Don't worry, you have one anyway even if you never signed up for facebook ;)
    * 9/16/20 is official announcement date

    Very exciting for VR fans! And should be an excellent intro to VR for new folks who never tried it before...
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2020
  7. Acoustic Taser

    Acoustic Taser New

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    Their announcement that a FB account will be required for new and current users is disappointing. But, my grandchildren will benefit from this new policy on Christmas.
     
  8. Ruined

    Ruined HD700 ruined my ear holes

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    Yeh i was kind of annoyed but truthfully for me that announcement didnt matter much, as whether an oculus account or facebook account it became the same thing when facebook bought oculus back during OG Rift years ago. Yeah an oculus account wasnt technically a facebook account but unless you logged into oculus with a VPN at all times and used a fake email address facebook would link the two (or your shadow FB account if you never signed up for FB) on their back end anyway since they owned oculus.

    I've also come to grips with the fact that any company that has a true interest in pushing VR forward will also have a financial investment in data mining. I know there are other companies like Valve but that is more a defensive play to do the minimum possible to protect the steam storefront sales from Oculus than to actually move VR forwards... Data mining business perfectly aligns with the future of VR, companies like valve would let VR tech stagnate or die on the vine cause 30% cut of a game doesnt matter if the cut was vr or non-vr game and vr hardware dev very expensive.
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2020
  9. Ti_Leo

    Ti_Leo Almost "Made"

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    Oh yeah! I'd love to have some cameras from Facebook to track my body movement, and I have to use my FB account, love it!

    Jokes aside, that leaked price is insane, and all those upgrades look really good. Just don't know about the hand tracking, I heard that the first gen hand tracking wasn't so good?

    And I found that the XR2 platform is 5G-enabled... Why 5G? So I can use the headset on a bus? Weird...
     
  10. Ruined

    Ruined HD700 ruined my ear holes

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    I've had all the Oculus headsets and used them extensively so I can comment on this

    The hand tracking is actually excellent, the problem is not many (almost zero) games took advantage of it because it was an add-on like 9 months into the device's lifespan. Hopefully with it being built into Quest 2 games will use it more. There are still tons of games that are going to be better on a controller, though, as buttons/sticks just work better than gestures for lots of games.

    One of the main benefits of XR2 over previous platforms is it allows to stream video from the PC over USB-C without tons of compression like previous Qualcomm chipsets. Basically when using PCVR on the original quest via USB-C quest link, the PC would render the video, then it would be compressed heavily, sent over USB-C, then decompressed on the headset - all of that adds a lot of lag and fidelity loss, and this can be bypassed with XR2. There is even chance with this new chipset of wireless PCVR streaming [at an additional add-on cost] in addition to the wireless standalone capability it has. I doubt the 5G modem will even be activated in the firmware.
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2020
  11. Ti_Leo

    Ti_Leo Almost "Made"

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    Ah! Thank you for your extensive explanation!

    I realized that they mentioned that the... “VR capture”? The playing Beat Saber in front of a green screen and you can broadcast yourself thing, can go wireless now. I didn't pay attention to it, but as you mentioned it, if it can be connect to a PC without a cable, that's just too good to be true!

    5G in a VR headset is just a weird choice for me... I believe Oculus won't activate it (at first). But this Quadcomm's choice is... I don't know... maybe it's like "yes, our 865's got a 5G modern, let's just leave it on XR2"...

    Anyway, OMG, there seems to be a lot tech stuff appear on 16th: Oculus Quest 2, Apple Watch, and Nvidia 3080 review embargo lift. I will be busy watching and crying for my money.
     
  12. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Sold my Quest and deleted my account over it.

    It's a great headset but I'm not using facebook just to play VR games.
     
  13. Ruined

    Ruined HD700 ruined my ear holes

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    Yeah, although technically you could already do that with the Quest 1, the idea is with this new chipset in Quest 2 you will be able to do it with far higher quality with far less lag. The original quest when playing PCVR you could definitely feel the lag, even though it wasn't terrible; quest 2 should have much less lag and higher quality with PCVR using XR2.

    The problem is you can't just turn on 5G and have it work, you need to have a mobile provider to do something useful with it. Like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc - and no one is going to pay for that unless it has some purpose. Given you can download games onto the Quest 2 via wifi, it seems there would be little advantage over wifi using 5G plus it wouldn't give Facebook anything useful data wise that they can't already get via wifi and other sensors in the unit. So i don't see much use of 5G in the Quest 2; oculus just buys these chips because they are off the shelf ready - for instance in Quest 1 Carmack basically hacked the qualcomm chipset's DSP processing hardware and repurposed it to power the Quest's inside out tracking routines.

    Yeah and there is news of new sennheiser headphone announcement, the SNK NEO GEO bar-top / 3/4 home arcade preorders just went live, argh there goes the bank account!
     
  14. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    To be clear, the XR2 is an 865 with all the telephony/modem stuff released.

    This is awesome as hell. I'm a day 1 preorder. Been doing HIIT workouts in VR and will be dumping my gen 1.
     
  15. Ruined

    Ruined HD700 ruined my ear holes

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    I sort of get this "in spirit" but in practice I don't understand it. You don't have to have an active Facebook profile available for the world to see, you just need a facebook.com user account. Given how many companies Facebook owns (incl Oculus, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc) and the fact they are heavily integrated into most websites with open graph, there is basically no hope of avoiding them from tracking you; even if you never make a facebook account, they make a shadow one for you and track you that way. Prior to this announcement they took your oculus data and linked it to that shadow account on the back end, so really not much has changed other than the branding and not having to maintain a seperate set of logins on facebook's part.

    At the end of the day, there really isn't much difference with logging in as facebook-owned oculus account (like you used to do with Quest), vs actual facebook.com account - its just one more account you need to make (and you could close oculus account if you wanted so it would be a net of 0). Until there are really strict data privacy laws put in place, there is basically no hope of facebook and other big tech not getting your data unless you don't use a smartphone and have a VPN on your home PC at all times. Plus even if you did all of that they would simply buy your data from Amazon, Google, your ISP, or someone else.

    All that being said it was smart to sell when you did because after Wednesday Quest 1 value is going to plummet.

    The only practical use I can think of the 5G modem is if they are able to repurpose it for local wireless PCVR streaming to a proprietary oculus wireless box hooked up to one's PC. Otherwise I don't see the benefit of a mobile data connection for Quest and the costs that will add per month at least given what the first one did. I mean, I dunno I guess you could stream videos on the bus or something, but you could simply tether for that via your smartphone wifi and not pay a monthly fee for another 5G device - I don't see something like Quest replacing a smartphone until its WAY smaller and more practical to carry around.
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2020
  16. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    I'm not worried about them tracking me. I have a facebook account, which I use to promote my youtube channel. A necessary evil.

    I sold my headset and canceled my account because I'm not going to reward facebook any further for forcing a transparent corporate strategy on people to use their headset. There are other VR options that don't employ facebook's methods.
     
  17. BenjaminBore

    BenjaminBore Friend

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  18. Ruined

    Ruined HD700 ruined my ear holes

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    You are right that Facebook is very transparently planning to use VR as a springboard for social media, facebook, "more intimate" data mining, corporate greed, etc. As noted in the above link, the alternative to Facebook is not great either, in fact using a "big picture" approach I would say its worse.

    The only real alternative is Valve. What has Valve done for the VR space? Their first headset, they didn't want to invest the money in the hardware so they basically licensed their design out to HTC to manufacture (Vive). Same for their 2nd headset (Vive Pro). Their 3rd headset Index, they were forced to produce for themselves because HTC basically gave up on the consumer market - but other than incremental feature improvements, its not much different than their 1st headset. Still uses external tracking. Still requires controllers (which there is a giant problem with, some people are on their 10th set of index controllers). Still tethered to a PC. There is a reason there is very little revolution in Valve's VR headsets, its IMO because they don't actually care about VR. they are only making them to block Oculus/Facebook from dominating VR game sales, in case someday VR game sales become a larger thing than they are now they want to protect Steam. What happens if Oculus dies tomorrow? Does Valve have any incentive whatsoever to create an Index 2? 30% of a VR game sale is going to be the same royalty as 30% of a non-VR game sale. Therefore if VR dies tomorrow, Valve shrugs their shoulders and moves on. You are essentially supporting the company that has zero financial incentive to continue VR development, or put better Valve has a financial incentive to kill off VR once there is no competition since there is only a financial downside for them with it given the hardware development costs and no software royalty difference. If SteamVR dies tomorrow, Facebook aint gonna stop with their VR development, they are gonna keep going because its a pillar of the company.

    Facebook yeah has data mining and will use Oculus to promote social media/Facebook, but at the same time that means it actually is something that they financially care about and aligns with the future of their company. While you are still strapped to a PC with an Index, Facebook long ago moved onto standalone wireless headsets as you know. That's not a cheap thing to figure out and offer up to the public at $299. We also have full tracking of the hands, no controllers required, etc - and the ability to transform it into a PCVR headset on top of it. VR is aligned with the future of Facebook.

    Is it really better to align with the company that financially makes no difference if VR lives or dies (Valve)? Or is it better to align with the company whose future partially depends on VR success (Facebook)? In my opinion the latter is going to be a wiser choice if you care about VR continuing to grow. Yeah, its going to feel more gross, but the product you get in the end will be a more innovative product. Do you really want to be that guy that ditches a smartphone for a flip phone because the flip phone has less corporate overreach embedded in it, if ya know what i mean?

    My thought, what we have now is very primitive, even Quest 2. I want to see something far more innovative, like we see in scifi movies. But Valve isn't the company for that; Facebook is. If I stick with Valve I will have exactly the same experience as I'm having now 5yrs from now except with the features incrementally improved, or no VR at all if Facebook gives up.
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2020
  19. HotRatSalad

    HotRatSalad Friend

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    Isn't there an episode or 2 from black mirror about this stuff ..
     
  20. Ruined

    Ruined HD700 ruined my ear holes

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    Just watch the movie "The Congress" (2013) and you will see what I am after :)
     

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