newbie which vr headset and what to upgrade to

barbel · 28 Dec 2020 at 11:44

i have a i7 4770 cpu , r90 290tri gpu they past the index test ok but i suppose they need upgrading to get the best from a vr headset .

i only play fps sand was looking at
HP Reverb G2
or rift s

or what headset would you recommend ( think the index is out of budget at mo).

will the cpu be ok as i believe vr games dont use to much cpu power ?
what would be a good gpu(prefer amd but may go nvida) to start sort of mid range poss give me a choice .
i only have 8gb ram but will go to 16gb is that enough ?

anything else that i have forgot ?

thanks for any help

ray

lokiss · 28 Dec 2020 at 13:37

Honestly your best of picking up a Quest 2. If first person shooters are the preference, then there's a decent selection of native titles to the Q2 that you can play without the need of your PC. The graphics card you have is rather dated, and if you could strip the PCVR versions of those games down to run on the PC, it's likely they'd look no better if they'd run at all. The chip you have is manageable, but you'd want to look at upgrading graphics and more than likely the ram. Recommended specs are i'll leave to somebody else, we all have differing opinions and budgets.

While native Q2 releases of the mainstay VR fps like Pavlov, Contractors, Onward, Saints and Sinners, and maybe Population One don't compare to the games graphically on the PC, it's a good option to have while you probably look at upgrading the PC. A good many games if bought on the Oculus store allow cross buy, so you get the PC version too. People more versed in the platform can guide you with that.

The Q2 won't go anywhere, it'll be useable on the PC with a little extra spend and is probably a better option than the Rift S going forward.

Ask more questions if you're unsure.

zero71 · 28 Dec 2020 at 19:23

Q2. Definitely. My G2 tracking wasn’t that great. Returned. Q2 has been brilliant. I thought the option to play untethered would be nice occasionally but I’ve ended up using it that way way more than wired to PC.

egraphixstudios · 28 Dec 2020 at 20:49

Quest 2. Works brilliantly standalone (wireless) and also via usb c link or wifi from PC. You would have to get virtual desktop to get it working wirelessly if thats what you are looing for.

Q2 works also works with Steam games with quest side loader. so you get the best of both worlds.

As for graphics- you would need a decent GPU - 2070 or 3070 minimum to push the 5k+ resolution on higher graphic intensive games liek alyx. If its basic games then 2060 or 3060 will do.

barbel · 28 Dec 2020 at 21:15

egraphixstudios said:
Quest 2. Works brilliantly standalone (wireless) and also via usb c link or wifi from PC. You would have to get virtual desktop to get it working wirelessly if thats what you are looing for.

Q2 works also works with Steam games with quest side loader. so you get the best of both worlds.

As for graphics- you would need a decent GPU - 2070 or 3070 minimum to push the 5k+ resolution on higher graphic intensive games liek alyx. If its basic games then 2060 or 3060 will do.

OK so everyone keeps saying get a quest 2 why not a rift 2 is there a big difference between them and why had the quest 2 goy memory can you load stuff onto it

Unseul · 28 Dec 2020 at 21:22

barbel said:
OK so everyone keeps saying get a quest 2 why not a rift 2 is there a big difference between them and why had the quest 2 goy memory can you load stuff onto it

Quest 2 is standalone. Meaning you can load games directly onto it, no need for a PC. Completely wireless.

You can also use it as a wired headset, not quite as good as a regular wired headset in terms of efficiency, it's still better visuals than the rift S. However, as it's got wifi, you can sacrifice a bit from the graphics and continue to play PC games wirelessly.

barbel · 28 Dec 2020 at 21:54

Unseul said:
Quest 2 is standalone. Meaning you can load games directly onto it, no need for a PC. Completely wireless.

You can also use it as a wired headset, not quite as good as a regular wired headset in terms of efficiency, it's still better visuals than the rift S. However, as it's got wifi, you can sacrifice a bit from the graphics and continue to play PC games wirelessly.

And I would want to play half life alyx would that be wireless or with a link cable and does wireless loos a lot in the graphics
Also if I use it linked to a pc are the graphics better than the rift s

mushtafa · 28 Dec 2020 at 23:36

Another vote for the Q2.

Had mine almost a week now and it's amazing. The wire free play is brilliant, and the fact I can take it to friends/family to play without the need of a PC etc is great.

lokiss · 29 Dec 2020 at 09:00

barbel said:
And I would want to play half life alyx would that be wireless or with a link cable and does wireless loose a lot in the graphics
Also if I use it linked to a pc are the graphics better than the rift s

Alex you can do with either. Beyond setting up a an original Quest for my folks it's difficult to speak with much authority, i had limited experience with wireless that didn't work out despite being functional and in the alleged green zone of performance. Opinions you see across the board pretty much tells you it does work for a lot of people though, whilst not everybody has favourable experiences such as myself, which is probably one of the reasons why Oculus don't officially support it at this time.

Difficult to say anything about the link, never done it myself. You see varying opinions over the reddit subs with people saying some games work well with it some work better over the wireless, you have to remember a lot of VR software was swimming around before either of those existed.

What Unseul said is a fairly basic summary, in general the panels, resolution, pixel density ect... dump all over the Rift s from a great height, so visually it's by far the one to get from that respect despite the compression in the connection.

A more authoritative opinion from the eleven table tennis developer on the link/wireless/native:

Many users are getting the game for steam, to play on their quest through Virtual Desktop or Oculus Link. I highest suggest getting it natively on the quest instead. When played through a computer, there is a lot of latency added as part of the encoding/decoding/transmission process. This latency then needs to get offset for controller/headset tracking purposes, which results in significantly worse tracking for games that require fast accurate motion.

Personally i don't think you'll have any issues with that whilst playing the more mundane games like Alex or other FPS, but worth taking in to account as you've asked.

barbel · 29 Dec 2020 at 10:43

the other thing i need to find out is i need to wear glasses for reading will that effect my use of a quest 2 and as the screen is so close would i need different glasses
and what about amd graphic cards ?

lokiss · 29 Dec 2020 at 14:31

The panels might be close but actual perception through the lenses is several feet or something, not sure on the actual distance. You'll probably will need the glasses. The Q2 i believe comes with a spacer in the box to bridge the distance between the lenses to stop any damage, though you can get focal inserts to negate the need. There's a thread on the board that'll guide you with that.

AMD cards i can't help you with, sorry.

Ravenger · 29 Dec 2020 at 19:55

barbel said:
the other thing i need to find out is i need to wear glasses for reading will that effect my use of a quest 2 and as the screen is so close would i need different glasses
and what about amd graphic cards ?

Quest focal distance is 1.5 to 2m, so most people use their distance prescription.

If you suffer from presbyopia, and need reading glasses then the fixed focal length of VR means you can actually read things without having to wear reading glasses. One of the big advantages of VR gaming for those of us with that condition.

Zairs · 29 Dec 2020 at 22:00

I've had several headsetsnkw,started with the Samsung Odyssey wmr headset, tracking was awful, then the Vive and the index, tracking was amazing especially with the knuckles althought they were overpriced and hated the god rays in the index. Now I use the q2 and I prefer it over the index,while the index was a better overal product the image is better on the ques, with clearer text and less god rays. The q2 isn't perfect but no headset is...
And then there's half lif alyx wirelessly

barbel · 30 Dec 2020 at 12:57

Zairs said:
I've had several headsetsnkw,started with the Samsung Odyssey wmr headset, tracking was awful, then the Vive and the index, tracking was amazing especially with the knuckles althought they were overpriced and hated the god rays in the index. Now I use the q2 and I prefer it over the index,while the index was a better overal product the image is better on the ques, with clearer text and less god rays. The q2 isn't perfect but no headset is...
And then there's half lif alyx wirelessly

So what gpu are you using to play alyx wirelessly and what frame rate do you get

danlightbulb · 30 Dec 2020 at 13:10

barbel said:
So what gpu are you using to play alyx wirelessly and what frame rate do you get

I think no matter which headset you choose, if you want to do PC VR games you will need an upgrade.

If you get the Quest 2, you'll be able to play native games without the PC for a while until you can upgrade it. It will also be cheaper, leaving more room in the upgrade budget compared to the G2 or the Index.

The Rift S is soon to be discontinued product, and is surpassed by the Quest 2 in terms of image quality. However, you could pick up a used Rift S for a good price as a starter, but I think you'll still need to upgrade the PC.

barbel · 30 Dec 2020 at 16:31

danlightbulb said:
I think no matter which headset you choose, if you want to do PC VR games you will need an upgrade.

If you get the Quest 2, you'll be able to play native games without the PC for a while until you can upgrade it. It will also be cheaper, leaving more room in the upgrade budget compared to the G2 or the Index.

The Rift S is soon to be discontinued product, and is surpassed by the Quest 2 in terms of image quality. However, you could pick up a used Rift S for a good price as a starter, but I think you'll still need to upgrade the PC.

so the image quality would be better on a rift s rather than a quest 2 and how near to image you see on a monitor will the image in the vr headset

danlightbulb · 30 Dec 2020 at 16:34

barbel said:
so the image quality would be better on a rift s rather than a quest 2 and how near to image you see on a monitor will the image in the vr headset

No the Quest 2 is better image quality, but you need a good PC to drive it for PC VR games. But you'll need a good PC no matter what headset you use.

The advantage with the Quest 2 is you can run it standalone, without using a PC at all. These games are lower quality but still very good. But you don't get the driving/flight sim type games that you get on the PC which are really well suited to VR.

In VR, the image you see is proper 3D, its nothing like looking at a monitor.

mushtafa · 30 Dec 2020 at 16:38

Take a look at the Oculus store online to get an idea of native games you can play without a PC.

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/

GW4R786 · 30 Dec 2020 at 17:07

I had a the Lenovo explorer WMR headset, then the original Quest and now moved to Quest 2 and have to say just the freedom of the wireless VR experience is fantastic and makes it better than being "stuck" to your PC. The upgraded visuals are crisp and Quest 2 has been a real improvement in tracking and controller battery life, I've the Q2 since Oct launch day and still showing 100% charge. You will need to invest in Virtual Desktop app to stream your PC games to the headset, this is straight forward and loads of vids online to guide you. I'm currently upgrading my PC, but found my current GPU (GTX 980TI) is sadly no longer sufficient for the newer VR titles coming out to consistently run at 90fps which you will want the game to run at. Especially noticeable dropped frames/low frame rate with the more triple A titles e.g. Asgard's Wrath. The only downside to the Q2 I found is the FOV which after using other headsets seems a little small, you do get over this over time.

barbel · 30 Dec 2020 at 17:19

Yes need to upgrade my gpu and wondering if I need to do the whole pc or if I can get away with a bit extra ram and gpu may try that first and see so a mid range nvida would be a 3070 is that right and if so what would be a mid range amd gpu
Or what are you using