Oculus Go - Oculus unveils $199 stand-alone VR headset "Oculus Go"

Well I've just ordered a Go. (Hopefully my wife won't kill me :eek:, but it's often better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. :rolleyes: :D)

I'll let you know what I think as a Rift owner how it compares in image quality and audio.
I'm mainly going to using it to watch videos and play the occasional game. We'll see how that works out.

As a glasses wearer with WidmoVR lenses in my rift it'll be interesting to see how the Go copes with my glasses compared to the rift which was an enormous faff.

I'm hoping to use it to get my wife into VR. She tried the rift once but found it a bit overwhelming. Maybe this simpler and more convenient experience will work out for her and we can play some games together.

I've created a separate Oculus account especially for the Go so it can be used for MP gaming with my Rift in those titles that support cross-play.
 
Got my Oculus Go today. Not had much time to play but here are my first impressions:

Setup:
Easy to setup via a mobile Phone (you can't set it up without one though.). Takes about 3 hours to charge though.

Comfort:
Way easier to get on and off than the rift. Very soft facial interface (though has a bigger nose gap than the rift). Easily usable with glasses (with the included spacer).

Visuals:
Much sharper and crisper than the Rift, with much less apparent SDE. God rays almost nonexistent. The lens sweet spot is larger, but the lenses also suffer from chromatic aberration at the image edges (apparently the Rift corrects for this, but it's too expensive for mobile class GPUs). I didn't notice any flickering with the display, despite it being 60fps for a lot of content.

Tracking:
The 3DOF works pretty well. Not as nice as the 6DOF of the Rift of course, but works well provided you don't try to move around. The 3DOF controller is pretty accurate. Takes a while to get used to but it's functional.

Audio:
The built in speakers are a bit tinny but incredibly convenient. None of the faffing about with headphone positions like the Rift. It is very leaky though, so headphones are recommended for using on public transport, etc.

Content:
I've only tried Netflix and Coaster Combat. Netflix looks really great. It's not blu-ray quality obviously but it looks so much better than watching videos on the Rift. Coaster combat is a really fun game. Ride procedurally generated fantasy rollercoasters and shoot things. Simplistic, but fast paced and enjoyable. The VR works really well here.

If I could sum up the Oculus Go in one word it would be 'convenient'. It's just so easy to get on and off without any faffing about. It definitely lowers the barrier to actually using VR regularly. It makes you realise how awesome a wireless Rift would be with the same lens and display technology. I'm looking forward to using this for watching media, and also for playing the odd game. It's not a substitute for my Rift but it's a good complement to it. Feels a bit strange (but very nice) to be able to experience VR when not at home.
 
Keep mulling whether I should order one of these for watching movies. I currently have a PSVR but find videos a bit too pixelated on that (even sideloaded locally at UHD resolution and downscaled) to be very watchable.

Is the Oculus Go substantially better than a PSVR in terms of visuals quality? I realise the resolution is higher but having compared lenses between a PSVR, Vive and Oculus resolution alone doesn't automatically mean better visual quality.

What's everyone's thoughts.
 
After using this for a few hours, some more feedback. I did find it giving me a bit of an 'eyestrainy' feeling at first, though this has got better as I have got used to it. My eyes aren't brilliant, (age related presbyopia, plus astigmatism, dry eyes, plus other issues), so it's never going to be perfect. My distance glasses seem to be too strong, my reading glasses a bit too weak. I'm thinking about getting prescription lenses (I have WidmoVR lenses for the rift, and they're great), though this will make it harder to demo to other people. It's still way sharper than the rift though.

I'm finding the facial interface presses down on my cheeks a bit. Not managed to find a strap setting or headset tilt that's quite right yet. Maybe it'll wear in, but there is an alternative facial interface available now, which may be better.

I tried some SBS 3D movies copied from my PC, and they look amazing. Very watchable. Netflix is ace, though you can't download locally. I wish there was an Amazon Prime Video app.

I'm still hugely impressed by the internal speakers. I prefer to use the Go with those, but have to use headphones when other people are nearby due to the sound leakage.

I tried watching movies while in the car to work (I car share - I wasn't driving, honest!). Works great except for having to keep on resetting the view as it changes as change direction. I know netflix has a way around this (the view drifts towards your centre of vision over time), but it'd be nice to have other movie apps do this.

I'm finding the trackpad on the controller is awful. It doesn't seem to respond to swipes properly, so navigating with it is a pain. I hope this can be sorted out via some sort of SW update.

I'm looking forward to having some time to evaluate an app called ALVR that allows you to stream Steam VR games to the Go (if you have Windows 10 and a modern Nvidia card). Apparently it works really well. Of course you can't use the touch controllers, and it's only 3DOF, but cockpit games or other games that use a gamepad should work well. It'll be interesting trying Elite on it, as the sharper display could make a huge difference.
 
Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it.

I'd be interested to know how wirelessly streaming from a PC to the device works. I'd contemplated trying connecting my PSVR headset to my PC.

As you say I fancied trying elite but the low resolution of the PSVR headset I currently have put me of trying it in such a text heavy game with a lot of small writing and instruments.
 
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So it's possible to stream from a PC?
Would I be correct in assuming that this would require the PC to create an on the fly VR stream?
I'd be very curious about:
- Bandwidth over Wifi. Is there enough?
- Horsepower required by the PC to create the required stream. Is that basically the same as if the PC were streaming to a Rift/Vive?
- Visual quality. Would that be on par with a natively run game, or does the streaming process result in "lossy" data processing
- Latency. I assume that it would introduce some. How bad is that?
In principle, sounds like a great idea. How well does it work in practice?

On a positive note, the Go does imply that the screen technology to improve the existing Rift is already available and at low cost. Does that mean that we could have a Rift 1.1, to consist of the existing tracking technology, but then have the new Go screen and allow it to be direct connected to our PCs.
If Oculus are not planning to give us this, that would rather suggest that they've got something even better in development.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
On a positive note, the Go does imply that the screen technology to improve the existing Rift is already available and at low cost. Does that mean that we could have a Rift 1.1, to consist of the existing tracking technology, but then have the new Go screen and allow it to be direct connected to our PCs.
Click to expand...

Very much doubt from things they've said in the past (interviews with Tested etc) that there will be an intermediate Rift - the next will most likely be a proper 2.0 version.

As much as I like the screen in the Go, I also wouldn't like it replacing the ones in the Rift. Firstly, they use a single panel in Go, so no IPD adjustment (though I guess they would still go with double panels in a higher end headset).

However, the main reason is the black levels. While the screen looks great to use generally, swapping back and forth between a Rift and Go, and I can really tell that the LCD panel in the Go doesn't really cut it for dark areas. I can tell in the cinema/movie app, and in games like Coaster Combat when you're going through really dark caves, the shadowed areas look more dark grey than black and shadowy. In those areas as well, that lack of black in low light areas can really make the rest of a scene look a bit washed out.

Go certainly is a step up regarding SDE though, and in brighter scenes does look quite a bit better than Rift.
 
When I played my Rift last night after having used the Go for a while I was struck by how bad the god-rays were. I've disabled spud, which does make the god rays worse, but the lack of god rays on the Go is a massive improvement. The Go was definitely sharper too, especially for watching videos. However the Rift was still really great, and of course the 6DOF makes it a much better overall experience.

I tried Dreadhalls on the Go (I have the rift version too), and it looked great. Textures are lower resolution than the rift, but it's way easier to read the text. The controls weren't great on the Go Controller, mainly due to the not very responsive touchpad, but it was still playable. I guess a gamepad would be better, and I need to get one.

I also got a chance to try streaming Steam games to the Go, and I was amazed it actually works. The picture is a little soft (not had time to tweak the settings), but there was no lag when looking around. Again I need a gamepad to try this properly, but initially it looks promising.
 
Ravenger>
What's your take on the comparison of image quality on not only "dark" sequences, but light also?
If you could have the Go screen mixed with Rift tracking, would you do it?
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Ravenger>
What's your take on the comparison of image quality on not only "dark" sequences, but light also?
If you could have the Go screen mixed with Rift tracking, would you do it?
Click to expand...

I'd love to have a Rift with the same panel type and lenses as the Go (but of course with 90hz refresh, and variable IPD).

It's dark enough for me. Obviously I'd love perfect blacks, but everything is a compromise. The biggest issue for me is colour fringing at the edges. Rift compensates for colour fringing but this is generally too expensive for mobile hardware.

The Rift screens have contrast issues and visual issues when SPUD is enabled, which is the default setting. Black screens are dark grey, and full of speckles. With SPUD off you get full black, and no speckles, but you get colour posterizing/banding in dark colours. This looks particually bad in Skyrim for example.

On light scenes in 60hz I notice some flickering, which is a bit irritating. I hope we get more 72hz games to minimise this. I also noticed a solitary dead (black) pixel which is only visible in light scenes, but it's very hard to spot unless I'm looking for it so I think I'll live with it.

I'm definitely considering getting the 'fitted' facial interface. I'm not finding the standard interface very comfortable, as it's pressing on my cheeks, and also has a huge nose gap. Ideally the headset should ship with both so users have a choice, but of course that would increase costs.
 
I'm planning on ordering one of these when they've available via UK resellers on the 26th June. When it comes to playing and sideloading 180 degree 3D videos are they fully compatible with x265/x264 videos designed for the Oculus Rift or do you need to re-encode or download them in a specific format to playback on the Oculus go? Also, can you watch 4k x265 videos streamed over a wireless network or do they need to be sideloaded? I presume there's no issue with the hardware in the Oculus Go being able to cope with playing back 4k movies?

Wanted to get some advice from those who've bought one as I suspect my primary use for the headset will be watching movies when I'm travelling.
 
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Video compatibility is actually dependent on the movie app used. Most of the movie apps will play virtually anything, except they don't support audio codecs like DTS, so some movies play silent :(

The only app I've found so far that supports audio codecs properly is Skybox, which is free. However I do find 3D movies are slightly uncomfortable in Skybox due to the fixed IPD. Another non-free video player Pigasus VR supports IPD adjustment for 3D movies, but it doesn't support all the audio codecs, though apparently there's a way to mod that.

I've not tried movie streaming - I've sideloaded all my content (I recommend getting the 64gb version), but it's perfectly possible to stream video to the go using any one of several different apps.
 
If anyone hasn't yet, check out the 360 version of Henry for the Go. It's encoded by Carmack using his new method for 360 video, and is singularly the best quality 360 video I've ever seen in a HMD. Aside from being ever so slightly too close to the table in the scene, and the floor beneath you being really strange (I think the render camera was too close), it's really impressive. Probably the first video in VR that I'd ever consider using to demo to anyone.
 
FlukeRogi said:
If anyone hasn't yet, check out the 360 version of Henry for the Go. It's encoded by Carmack using his new method for 360 video, and is singularly the best quality 360 video I've ever seen in a HMD. Aside from being ever so slightly too close to the table in the scene, and the floor beneath you being really strange (I think the render camera was too close), it's really impressive. Probably the first video in VR that I'd ever consider using to demo to anyone.
Click to expand...

Yes it's very impressive. If you move your head quickly you can see the view render in low-resolution for a few frames, but it soon catches up. (Reminds me that ID's Rage did that when it first shipped. Funnily enough Carmack wrote that engine too :) ) Excellent demo material, as you say, despite the distortions.
 
That Vive Focus sounds mighty impressive looking at the spec sheet but I'm assuming it'll be substantially more expensive than the Oculus Go given the much improved hardware?
 
Has anyone tried Elite: Dangerous, Subnautica or similar cockpit games using ALVR? I'm wondering if the improved resolution of the Go makes text readable in VR for games like Elite as I never felt like the Vive I tried was sharp enough to use for playing the game? Are there any kind of latency issues when streaming the game over wireless?
 
FlukeRogi said:
If anyone hasn't yet, check out the 360 version of Henry for the Go. It's encoded by Carmack using his new method for 360 video, and is singularly the best quality 360 video I've ever seen in a HMD. Aside from being ever so slightly too close to the table in the scene, and the floor beneath you being really strange (I think the render camera was too close), it's really impressive. Probably the first video in VR that I'd ever consider using to demo to anyone.
Click to expand...

Henry is definitely better on the Go than the Rift. I've got a 4 year old niece who always asks to see Henry whenever she comes over. :)
 
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