looking to upgrade from Quest 2

[DaYteX]

Hi all,

I recently discovered DCS world using my quest 2, and it's amazing, clocking in 100 hours in little over 2 months its fair to say i'm hooked.

Problem is the quality from the quest 2 isn't the best, some text and details are not in focus unless I get really close, as well as details outside the plane are poor, from looking online I can see that the VR quality can be better than this. Also wearing the quest for a few hours is uncomfortable and leaves terrible marks on my face.

So now im looking to upgrade to something better, but i'm struggling to understand what to look out for, the specs of the quest 2 seem to be better than many of the competitors which are double the price, It makes me think I'm comparing them incorrectly.

Has anyone here upgraded from a quest 2, Id be keen to know what for and if there was a visual difference?

I was looking at the HTC Cosmos Elite but the specs seem to be worse than the Quest 2, I did look at the HTC Vive Pro 2 but the price tag is a little scary.

The PC im using is a 10th Gen I9, 3080TI, 32GB RAM

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

 

[DaYteX]

So the quest pro is good then? I read some user reviews which we not very complementary of it. Is the Quest pro comfortable to wear?

I ruled the pro out due to some bad reviews but mostly the price, would the performance of the quest pro be that much better than the HTC Vive Pro 2? which is a few hundred quid cheaper.

Would there be anything in the sub £1000 mark which would offer a better performance and greater comfort over the quest 2?

 

[DaYteX]

Firstly, Thank you all for the suggestions.

Im worried investing in the best headset like the Quest Pro, or the Pico G2, ill then be needing a new GPU and before you know it ive gone done the rabbit hole.

Ive not heard of Pico before, they seem to have a few options, I wouldn't need it to work as a stand alone headset however this is an advantage as long as the weight isnt to much. The pricing seems to be more what I was looking for and the screen res seems to be an improvement on the quest 2, Which would be best in my situation, the Pico 4 or the Pico neo3 link or neo3 pro eye? do they all have a display port connection?

Finally are the Pico comfortable to wear for a few hours at a time? The design looks just like the quest which after 30 mins I have marks on my face and after an hour I need to take a break.

 

[DaYteX]

Since you have the Quest 2 already, I would try to improve that first. Have you messed about with Oculus Debug tool to change the encoder bitrate etc? There are some changes there that make a big difference to the visuals.

In the Oculus App, what resolution are you using?

As you might be able to tell, I'm a total VR noob, and i didnt know you could change anything, Stupidly i assumed the image you got was the image. Are they any useful videos on how to get the best performance you can out of your quest?

I've read some good stories of people getting brand new unopened Quest Pros off eBay at a cheap price.

I didnt think to look at this and your right, the market is flooded with them, which is good but also worrying as to why.

The neo 3 link would be the best in your situation, per the hardware you have and the game you wish to play. Performance for me (3090 same CPU) was greatly improved swapping out the G2 for the Neo3 in DCS with no noticeable difference in visual quality. We're all made different, so i wouldn't comment if you could wear it for hours.

The quest pro is a bit of a dud, there's a reason they knocked £300 off the price. If you really did wish to blow 1.5k, wait on the Crystal.

I very nearly bought the Pico 3, but my worry is that on paper its the same as i already have but with a display port, is it really worth around £200 after i sell my quest to upgrade for this? The pico also dosnt have many aftermarket options for head straps while the quest has loads, and it seems this sort of design really messes with my face, I have to time my gaming and avoid using it when I know im due to go out in an hour or so.

The Vive Pro 2 really looks like a headset which was designed for full immersion and is comfortable for long hours of use, but £1200 for a 3yr old bit of kit is silly, plus them controllers are horrible.



I find myself drifting back towards the Quest Pro now the price isnt so much of an issue. The one thing im getting mixed vibes on is the lack of a display port cable for it. Id assume this is an issue from some of the comments but others above seem to suggest that you can get just as good of a rate due the chip in the quest pro helping with the compression? or is this the GPU helping with this in which case would my 3080TI be ok?

Or as someone mentioned before, just avoid anything without a display port cable.. ?

 

[DaYteX]

I won't be able to find anything this evening, but, I will take a look tomorrow and see if there is any simple guides out there for getting the best out of your quest 2.

If you haven't changed anything, not even in the Oculus App, then I think you are going to be in for surprise. There is a big difference.

No ive never changed anytrhing,

I did the link test and got 1.7Gbps is this bad?
The graphics setting are both set to recommended, 72Hz at 4128x2096

 

[DaYteX]

Ok, We are going to change two settings. You should notice a big change in image quality when you change both of these.

First of all. Go into the Oculus App on your PC and set the render resolution to the highest it can go. When it makes the changes close the Oculus app.

Now open up the Oculus debug tool. The debug tool is located in your Oculus install folder. It's usually the C: drive. So if you have installed Oculus on the C: drive, the Oculus debug tool would be found in C:\Oculus\Support\oculus-diagnostics

Look for "Encode Bitrate(Mbps)" It should be 0. Change this to 500, hit enter. Then go to service on the top menu and hit restart Oculus Service.

Then try your game and see how it looks and how it runs. If you are not happy with the performance, go into render resolution and reduce it one notch.

If you are getting audio dropouts and strange stutters, then reduce the encode bitrate by 50 and try again.

If any of this doesn't make any sense, just ask here and I will try to explain it better.

Wow, Thank you for the advice, This has made a big difference to the textures inside the cockpit, Outside is still abit fuzzy, but its loads better. I turned the encode bitrate down to 450 as I was getting some stutters effects and I think this is better.

I am using a cheap cable as I assumed the £90 Oculus one was an over the top rip off, Would I get better performance using a more expensive cable?

Im thinking now of holding back to see what the quest 3 and Crystal are like as there seems a lot of buzz. I might look to get a good after market head strap to help with how uncomfortable I find the quest and then maybe a better cable if its likely to make a difference.

That being said, Im also very impatient and I might just say to hell with it and get the quest pro next week, but it seems the sensible option is to maybe wait.

Thank you for all the help and advice.