Anyone who wants a Reverb for sims should probably look at the:
1. Index
2. Pimax Artisan
3. Pimax 8KX/8K+
They are the best sim-headsets IMO with better ecosystems than WMR. I'd say the Pimax headsets are probably best in class for sims because the clarity is reportedly astonishing and the extra FOV will give you a much better immersion factor for velocity etc. However it comes at the cost of build quality, customer service, software support and price.
The Index is a good place to invest but there ARE hardware issues and Valve will not advance RMA any of your issues but instead put you through a month long RMA process. And no, I'm not biased. I own one and have those issues.
If I was starting over in VR and had the money, I'd probably edge towards waiting for the 8KX and throwing my money that way.
I don't quite agree with that summary, each to their own, but I spend a lot of time in iRacing, PCars2 and AC in a dedicated sim rig and whilst of course I'd love to upgrade from my samsung odyssey it has opened up my eyes to the current considerations that most people need to practically consider.
1. Resolution - more is good, but you have to be able to drive it. Many people complained when the 1600 x 1440 Samsung Odyssey / Vive Pro came along and to some extent they where right. I have a Titan Xp (~1080ti) and it's quite a job getting a good set of compromised settings, some super sampling to make the most of the resolution, but keeping 90hz requires a lot of graphical options turned down. I thought of upgrading to an RTX2080ti, but I've decided to wait for the RTX3000 series as even the 2080ti stuggles in many sims.
2. Framerate - For sims it's not the same as twitch shooters, I accidentally had my HMD set at 60hz which was noticeable but surprisingly OK for a sim, I played for a week in around 10-12 races before realising and put it back to 90 which feels so smooth, I don't remotely notice anything but the fluidity (in sims). I think room scale may be where its more important, I do sense that 90 is great, but would like to try 120hz.. But, another 30 Hz means more GPU power again..
3. FOV - Something I was eager to try going for super wide and went to try a PiMax 5K (seriously considered this one) to see how it would fair. Immediately the extra GPU required meant significant tweaking of settings to the point it looked ugly, jaggy, etc and whilst noticeable, it actually added far less then I thought. Lots of VR sim racers comment that they notice the FOV when trying a pimax, but actually they just rationalise the narrower FOV as like wearing a helmet, which is mandatory in almost all forms of track racing. I think that's a bit of an excuse, however even when I went back to my regular FOV it didn't take long before I forgot about it. The other aspect is when we wanted to get reasonable visuals/fps on the 5k, we ended up having to reduce the FOV, this just left it with the slightly nicer optics (IMO).
4. Tracking - I started out in VR by borrowing my brothers HMDs (CV1, then Vive), each time on the sim rig getting reliable tracking wasn't so easy positioning the , when you move all over the sim rig (maybe you just look over the side of your single seater car, oggling at the visual quality of the suspension) the tracking sometimes get obscured and getting it 100% reliable wasn't quite smooth sailing. By contrast, Inside Out tracking just works 99.9% of the time.. Currently with WMR you don't even need to calibrate anything if you configure it as seated, just put the headset on and look down, then left/right and it auto calibrates (The plus side is I can quickly use it in my office chair as well which is close by, but facing the opposite direction) so I can have seated VR experiences on the desktop.
5. PiMax - Are exhibiting the traits of most Chinese companies, throwing new hardware out each year and often a bit ill thought out (the first gen 8K with not enough video bandwidth?), This approach annoys me with my Chinese Android head unit in the car, rather than improve firmware/features on the unit, they just knock another improved in some ways, broken in others unit out and ignore what they've already peddled. Now, I think PiMax aren't quite that bad, but I prefer the Valve/HTC approach of newer headsets every few years, put a bit more time in to development and making the best of the hardware. I actually worry about the PiMax eco-system, it actually detracts and puts me off investing at this moment.
Now, I am itching to upgrade my Samsung Odyssey, the main thing would be improved optics, getting larger sweet spots to me would be something I'd notice more of the time, and I think this generation of headsets has improved in that area.
I also like what is happening with tracking (fingers etc) and the controllers, nice refinements, and whilst these are probably really not a sim thing, when you do the room scale stuff, it's nice to have.
Sim racing friends have come around to try my setup, and they get immediately hooked.. The 1600 x 1440 is a bit of a push for most people's current GPUs, but it is about the minimum resolution I feel gives enough clarity that you aren't constantly getting bothered by large jaggies..
The issue has been for them choosing a new headset..
A couple opted for the Occulus Quest (odd choice IMO) on the basis it was getting PC connectivity (which turned out OK I think) and allowed a super casual way of getting in to VR in general.
One went for the Rift S for the IO Tracking and as they liked the brand, felt it would be well supported (which no doubt it will be)
3 of them have actually got the heavily discounted Samsung Odyssey+ ($229 + import fees + shipping) for £280 (Actually I'd say almost compellingly cheap, and extremely well supported in Steam VR)
All of them decided the PiMax was not for them (GPU, brand, etc) and nearly all considered the Valve Index but felt £900 was too much, they would rather upgrade their GPU and spend £400 on a Rift S / Odyssey.
The Reverb I mentioned just to give them all options, but the resolution and GPU situation killed it completely, the current generation GPU's are not able to get the best out of that, and they aren't thinking oa spending well over £1000 on a 3080 (or whatever transpires)
The ones who bought the Odyssey's are mainly for Sims although they have all borrowed my Steam library to try the room scale games, the Rift S owner wanted a more mixed seated/room scale experience.
Just some thoughts, and I have zero issues with opposing opinions on this, we all have different priorities.
