*** HP Reverb G2 Owners Thread ***

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HP Reverb G2 Owners Thread

The G2 will start shipping tomorrow so I figured it was time for a thread away from the launch speculation thread.

The HP Reverb G2 is HP's next generation virtual reality HMD developed in collaboration with Valve and Microsoft. Marketed by HP as the "No compromise VR headset", featuring a high resolution display and improved tracking.

Highlights:
  • Resolution: 2160x2160 (Per eye)
  • Refresh rate: 90hz
  • IPD Adjustment: 60-68mm (Hardware adjustable)
  • Tracking: Internal (4 Cameras)
  • Audio: Built-in over ear speakers
  • Connection: USB 3.0 Type-C, Displayport 1.3 (6M cable, Requires AC Power also)
b60f62ecbd8ffb4dc3be2cb515a958fb.md.png


Anyone who pre-ordered by the end of July should receive their G2 on Tuesday 1st December, those after that should receive them 10th December and onwards. Post here when you receive yours and post your initial impressions.
 
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Good idea. Hopefully we can share mods/accessories, tips and tricks etc in here.

I'm going to be on the lookout for a lower profile facial interface - sounds like there's significant FoV left on the table due to the distance the standard interface places your eyes from the lenses. If not I'll have to design something, but it sure would be helpful if HP could give us mere mortals the CAD files they supplied to other companies.
 
it boggles me that there is wasted FOV in the headset..... i really dont want to butcher mine but i am confident something will be made overseas in china.

i currently have a fantastic looking replacement headstrap - a clone of PSVR one - and a replacement faceplate on the way for my quest... hopefully they will do similar for the G2.

I am very much a general user so for me i have big questions over the controller tracking, i will definitely post my thoughts here..... only thing for me is i am not a competative gamer, i am more arizona sunshine than i am population one.
 
Looking forward to mine being delivered, managed to bag a 3080 as well so that should be here Friday.

The tracking is an interesting one, lots of different opinions out there but I think for my use it will be fine, non-competitive and mostly using it in sims (can't wait for MS Flight Sim VR to go live on the 22nd Dec.)
 
Seems like the tracking issues are down to room lighting. At least judging by MRTV. If your a YouTuber used to having lots of Bright light and infrared tracking then the G2 falls apart in those conditions. But if you are happy to close the blinds and keep lighting levels low, then the G2 seems to be fine. I guess we will all fi d out this week.
 
Seems like the tracking issues are down to room lighting. At least judging by MRTV. If your a YouTuber used to having lots of Bright light and infrared tracking then the G2 falls apart in those conditions. But if you are happy to close the blinds and keep lighting levels low, then the G2 seems to be fine. I guess we will all fi d out this week.


Seems a strange move not to use IR tracking.
 
Just seems an odd choice. According to the YouTube video I saw If you have the room too dark the cameras can't see your surroundings and too bright and tracking is compromised.

That goes for IR too... I’ve had controller tracking problems with both CV1 and Quest with bright sunlight. While darkness didn’t affect CV1, because the Quest moved to inside-out if it’s too dark then the headset also can’t track and it will disable tracking.

One of the neat things about using IR though is that the cameras obviously don’t have any IR cut filter on them, so if you wanted to you can illuminate your play space in IR light and you’ll be able to track again, while keeping the room visibly dark.

IR may be a little more robust as interior energy efficient lightbulbs such as LED especially don’t tend to put out much outside the visible spectrum, but it isn’t immune to the same problems. Bright sunlight especially has plenty of IR along with it and can readily swamp out the controllers.

No idea why in particular WMR decided to go with visible vs IR, but I think a lot of the problems with various environments really comes down to robustness of the tracking model rather than the specific choice of wavelength for LED tracking.
 
That goes for IR too... I’ve had controller tracking problems with both CV1 and Quest with bright sunlight. While darkness didn’t affect CV1, because the Quest moved to inside-out if it’s too dark then the headset also can’t track and it will disable tracking.

One of the neat things about using IR though is that the cameras obviously don’t have any IR cut filter on them, so if you wanted to you can illuminate your play space in IR light and you’ll be able to track again, while keeping the room visibly dark.

IR may be a little more robust as interior energy efficient lightbulbs such as LED especially don’t tend to put out much outside the visible spectrum, but it isn’t immune to the same problems. Bright sunlight especially has plenty of IR along with it and can readily swamp out the controllers.

No idea why in particular WMR decided to go with visible vs IR, but I think a lot of the problems with various environments really comes down to robustness of the tracking model rather than the specific choice of wavelength for LED tracking.


Fair points, especially about the type of tracking being used. I have a friend who is getting their G2 tomorrow and I am interested to see how he gets on with it, his main use is sim racing so he isn't too bothered about tracking.
 
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OK I just snagged an hr break so set up the headset.
Some issues along the way, mostly my fault!...... 1st off my right controller would not come on, what a pita... it seems some prat (AKA me) put one of the batteries in the wrong way. be careful if you do this its not as easy as you may think to remove them.

It is so comfy, definitely the most comfy headset i have ever used....... inside it is pitchblack. great for immersion with zero light bleed but i will miss a sneaky glance at the keyboard from time to time.

once that was done software installation was painless everything was automatic BUT beware it takes a while. I thought something had gone wrong, it was stuck on 48% for about 10mins before i googled and it seems it is normal. in that time my pc did not seem to be doing much... bottom line, get the install going then once you get the counter, step out and have a brew.

setting up guardian seemed easy. it is odd, unlike the oculus setup you dont use the motion controls you carry the headset at waist height. Also once it is mapped you cant (or if you can its not obvious) tweak your boundaries. i didnt spend long on that so dont take that as gospel.

1st time loading in after setting up the boundary it did not detect it... so i did it again. it seemed to work fine then so i imagine it was an installation issue (1st time was before software install 2nd time was after)

into windows home, seems nice enough, had i of come direct from my rift image quality wise i would have been hugely impressed, it is nice and sharp and you can easily read text.

But the quest 2 took the edge off that as that blows the rift / vive out of the water as well......... which then goes to the FOV. 1st thought was dissapointment. when MRTV 1st did a test he had it as significantly better than CV1. others have said not much in it, and i am afraid to say i agree with the latter.
BUT really squeeze your face in and it does make a big difference. I am not gonna butcher my faceplate but i can imagine some improvisation and you could get the FOV noticably better. If i keep the headset hopefully someone oversease will make a cheap replacement with thiner foam. i would lose some comfort... So the FOV CAN be quite good (albeit you get vertical edge of screen if you concentrate on it) but it isnt at stock.

sound works. i am confident it will be as good as everyone says but i only had a short time......

the tracking................... I dont think I will have any issues at all with the tracking. I fired up arizona sunshine - after installing some software on steam - and holding both 1 and 2 handed guns is fine. perhaps not all games will be as good but that game shows it CAN be just fine

BUT (and i noticed this in windows home as well) whilst the hands track nicely they do stutter a bit, fully usable but not something i have experienced with rift or quest 2. i also had some dropped frames in arizona sunshine. it looks super crisp however, i dont think it could be much better displaywise to be honest, those panels and lenses are A*

is my 1080ti at fault for the jitters.. maybe. i have to check steam isnt supersampling too much, but that would not explain the hand jitters in windows home.. (they are tiny but noticable)

so where am I at with it..... well I am confident to say that

if you dont want to splurge £920 on an index, and you dont want to sign into facebook but you want to upgrade your rift or vive (or are a 1st timer) you are probably going to love the Reverb G2. in many ways it feels like the spiritual successor to the rift, almost like to me the xbox felt like the dreamcast 2.0.
in that camp i would say the Reverb G2 is hugely tempting. I am confident for all but the most competetive gamer the controller tracking IS good enough with the right lighting. Yes you can make it lose tracking and yes it is a smaller area than the quest.... but not by much.

BUT The quest 2 really does throw the cat in with the pigeons.... if you dont mind signing into facebook and you only want 1 headset, and for, lets say £350 after you get a cable and head strap then Personally I dont think that sexy display, sound and comfort would be enough to make be choose a Reverb over standalone VR, wireless PCVR (which makes the cable somewhat optional in my £350 above), oculus touch controllers and native rift games with ASW 2.0

The FOV on the quest is a little smaller at stock, tho that gap will be increased for most i think by modding the faceplate of the G2.

So where am I on this.?? As a quest owner for £639 RRP knowing what i know now i would definitely pass.
BUT I have it now, and it did "only" cost me £553 (due to a refund on Bestware not giving me full money back due to currency conversion.... my problem but it IS what i paid. + £40 on batteries and charger

knowing I could get my money back (I think) quite easily by selling it for £600 I am still on the fence. I will try yo have a play again tonight. Honestly its not that much better than quest 2......... but it probably IS a bit better for me when taking into account pluses and minuses... just not necesarily better enough to justify owning it as a 2nd device.
 
Well I'm up and running. Was worried it was DOA for a while until I figured out I hadn't pushed the headset connector in firmly enough. That was a relief.

Other than that software setup was very straight forward. Initial impressions are great, however I'm gonna have to do some reading up about settings. Having got a 3080 last month and finally found ACC playable on the Vive Pro, vastly more pixels mean I'm back to square one.

Looking forward to trying DCS and Star Wars Squadrons this evening.
 
@bigmike20vt thanks for the impressions. When you set up the boundary, how does that work? Does it scan the area as you and and automatically add in a margin of error so you don't punch walls, or do you have to trace the boundary you don't want to exceed yourself?

I have to admit, the latest Q2 update is making it tempting. But I'd go for the larger capacity variant, plus strap and link cable. At that point it's getting awfully close to the £525 I paid for my G2 and I do think I will spend more time sim racing where the G2 hopefully shines. So long as my kids can enjoy the VR games then we'll be good. We've never tried VR before! We only have a 2070 Super at the moment, constantly hunting for a 3080. Hoping I can get AMS2 and Race Room to run well on it though. Maybe RF2 and the original AC. I don't think there's much chance of ACC running well.

Mine hasn't turned up yet - not even made it from the national hub to the delivery depot, so I don't think it's coming today.
 
you set the boundary manually. hold the headset in front of you and walk around the area..... its............. functuonal but not a patch on the oculus setup where you have like a spray paint can and draw an area out with your controller (and you can tweak it afterwards - everyone at 1st cuts it too fine so you punch your wall , its a rite of passage :D )

IF you own a G2 i think there is still a strong case to own a quest, the other way around is what I am struggling with. regarding storage. its a git your cant upgrade the storage later, truth is i suspect 64gb will be ok for a lot of peopl eand many of those 256gb units will go largely unfilled..... but i would say that as i only have 64 gb :D
 
Thanks. So just trace the boundary with my feet whilst holding the headset at waist height? Sounds easy enough.

If I tell my wife we need two VR headsets, having just bought two PS5s and an XsX I'll get shot. Especially as we are still hunting down the 3080. Maybe I'll wait for a Quest 3. :D
 
Well I'm up and running. Was worried it was DOA for a while until I figured out I hadn't pushed the headset connector in firmly enough. That was a relief.

Other than that software setup was very straight forward. Initial impressions are great, however I'm gonna have to do some reading up about settings. Having got a 3080 last month and finally found ACC playable on the Vive Pro, vastly more pixels mean I'm back to square one.

Looking forward to trying DCS and Star Wars Squadrons this evening.

There's a setup guide on YouTube. He found that it was massively over Super-Sampling and you need set Resolution per Eye slider to 50% to get native res in Steam.

 
Thanks. So just trace the boundary with my feet whilst holding the headset at waist height? Sounds easy enough.

If I tell my wife we need two VR headsets, having just bought two PS5s and an XsX I'll get shot. Especially as we are still hunting down the 3080. Maybe I'll wait for a Quest 3. :D

IF you can only have 1 my honest (very early) view so far is stick the headset on ebay (or AV Forums classifieds if you can as there are no fees) - if you are nice for RRP - and buy the quest 2. (I would say the classifieds here but i dont think you have the post count to do it)

the Reverb G2 edges the quest 2 in terms of image quality and sound, and maybe FOV, but its all pretty subtle.

the quest has better motion controllers, slightly better tracking, native access to the oculus store, offers standalone VR and wireless PCVR and is cheaper.

if you can own both then fab, but me, if i could only own 1 it would be the quest, and it would not even be a hard decision for me

the biggest downside to the quest is forced facebook and if you are ok with that then imo its simples.

I am not knocking the G2 at all. It IS in many ways the best headset i have ever used.................. but the Quest 2 frankly knocked my socks off considering its utility and price.
 
Yeah, thing is, I'd end up spending £540 on the 256gb Q2, Link Cable, and Elite strap. That's more than the G2. It might well be the better option for my kids, but selfishly, I think the G2 is the better option for sim racing. Yes, I could get the 64GB and take that price down to £440, but that's still awfully close to the G2 price of £525. That said, if the tracking is terrible then that would be the way to go. I need to try it for myself first. Heck, I may just vomit all over my desk and never use it again. Who knows, right?
 
There's a setup guide on YouTube. He found that it was massively over Super-Sampling and you need set Resolution per Eye slider to 50% to get native res in Steam.

Was aware of the resolution issue but didn't think image quality looked good enough for that to be happening. Will watch the video anyway, thanks.
 
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