Oculus Rift S

Demitri128 · 19 Oct 2020 at 12:58

So I'm looking to get into VR. Not bought anything yet and for months (nothing better to do during lockdown) been going back and forth between the various different offerings.

My most recent thinking is about whether or not picking up a 2nd hand Rift S is a wothwhile endeavour, especially given the costs of other systems. I should note that I would be using this mostly for sim type games so Quest 2 isnt floating my boat. Plus when factoring in costs of 256gb version, new strap and link cable, its almost the same price as a HP Reverb G2.

Thoughts appreciated.

andy_mk3 · 19 Oct 2020 at 13:11

I have a Rift S, I find the resolution too low for any kind of sim usage. I've got the G2 on order, and haven't used the Rift S in a long time. It's awesome for casual gaming but in sims where you need to see details like a track in the distance on racing games or text on displays etc, it's not so good.

But you can pick up a Rift S for £200 now, it's probably a great way to get into VR and upgrade in future if you like it. It's still usable in sims, just not an amazing experience IMHO.

danlightbulb · 19 Oct 2020 at 13:14

You don't really need the 256Gb version if you're mostly playing PCVR. That saves you £100.

Also there are other link options than the expensive Oculus Link official cable which will cost about £20. a) a 3rd party USB3 cable, b) Virtual Desktop wireless streaming.

It really depends on your budget, £200 for a rift S or £300 for a Quest 2. Personally I think the Quest 2 is the better starting headset at this point, even if using it for PCVR.

If the Rift S drops to £100 second hand then it would be worth picking one up to try it I think, but at £200, its too close to where the Quest 2 is.

melmac · 19 Oct 2020 at 14:20

Demitri128 said:
So I'm looking to get into VR. Not bought anything yet and for months (nothing better to do during lockdown) been going back and forth between the various different offerings.

My most recent thinking is about whether or not picking up a 2nd hand Rift S is a wothwhile endeavour, especially given the costs of other systems. I should note that I would be using this mostly for sim type games so Quest 2 isnt floating my boat. Plus when factoring in costs of 256gb version, new strap and link cable, its almost the same price as a HP Reverb G2.

Thoughts appreciated.

If you are mainly going to be Sim gaming then you don't need the 256GB version.

If the Reverb G2 is too expensive for you, then the next best option is the Quest 2 with the Link cable. Quest 2 64GB, Elite Strap and unofficial Link Cable will cost you ~£375. If you want to get the Official Link Cable instead of the 3rd party one then the price becomes ~£450.

Oculus are going to release an update for the Link cable that improves things. The current Oculus link settings are for the original Quest. The update will take advantage of the more powerful hardware the Quest 2 has, which should mean more bandwidth to stream and quicker encoding/decoding. Which should mean better performance and visuals from PCVR games.

Demitri128 · 19 Oct 2020 at 17:13

melmac said:
If the Reverb G2 is too expensive for you, then the next best option is the Quest 2...

Budget isnt so much the problem. I could probably strech to the G2 and if I'm being honest, that would be my prefered headset. I'm just thinking that it is a lot of money to drop on something that I may not like or use very often, hence looking at cheaper alternatives. I've never tried VR before so dont know if I would end up suffering from motion sickness or have issues with IPD etc.

Basically, I dont know what I dont know and because of that I'm thinking that not spending a boat load of cash is possibly a more sensible option.

danoliver1 · 19 Oct 2020 at 17:50

What gfx card to you have? The g2 is going to need a hefty gfx card to keep 90fps.

melmac · 19 Oct 2020 at 18:44

Demitri128 said:
Basically, I dont know what I dont know and because of that I'm thinking that not spending a boat load of cash is possibly a more sensible option.

You have two choices, the Quest 2 or the Reverb G2. One is £375 and one is £639.

For a person on the fence and new to VR, the Quest 2 is the one to get.

You will be completely blown away by VR.

Unseul · 19 Oct 2020 at 20:02

get the quest 2. Wait for the cable update. If you like it, consider selling and going for g2?

Demitri128 · 19 Oct 2020 at 20:12

danoliver1 said:
What gfx card to you have? The g2 is going to need a hefty gfx card to keep 90fps.

Running a Zotac 980ti at the moment but looking to upgrade that as well, tho that's been put on hold with the 3080 fiasco. Waiting to see what the Big Navi is looking like now.

So out of curiosity, how are folk finding the Quest 2? Has anyone moved to this from the Rift S and can say it's an improvement?

bicpug · 19 Oct 2020 at 21:05

Visually its a massive step up from my rift-cv1, but it looks like a battery pack will be a neccessity.

melmac · 19 Oct 2020 at 21:14

Demitri128 said:
Has anyone moved to this from the Rift S and can say it's an improvement?

I did. Was planning to keep both but the Quest 2 is better and I will be selling on the Rift S.

danoliver1 · 19 Oct 2020 at 21:25

melmac said:
I did. Was planning to keep both but the Quest 2 is better and I will be selling on the Rift S.

At the moment I would say for pc games the rift s is better. Just done a few laps in assetto corsa and the rift s is sharper even though it has more sde. Quest 2 has less sde but in the distance it looks too blurry. Its like when you run the wrong resolution on your lcd monitor and everything looks soft. @melmac is this true for you or am I doing something wrong. Even the oculus home srceen is noticeably less sharp in quest 2.

melmac · 19 Oct 2020 at 22:26

danoliver1 said:
At the moment I would say for pc games the rift s is better. Just done a few laps in assetto corsa and the rift s is sharper even though it has more sde. Quest 2 has less sde but in the distance it looks too blurry. Its like when you run the wrong resolution on your lcd monitor and everything looks soft. @melmac is this true for you or am I doing something wrong. Even the oculus home srceen is noticeably less sharp in quest 2.

I take it you are using the Link cable? That's the difference, I am running it on Virtual Desktop. The link still has that "soft" look

But there are somethings you could try.

set the refresh rate to 90hz using sidequest.

When you connect the link, start the Oculus debug tool and set the pixel override to 1.2 and also set encode resolution width to 3664.

3664 might be too high of setting for your GPU, but try it and if it is try a lower one like 2912 or 2784.

I think you can change these values in Oculus tray tool as well, you might have this installed already.

Zefan · 19 Oct 2020 at 22:26

danoliver1 said:
At the moment I would say for pc games the rift s is better. Just done a few laps in assetto corsa and the rift s is sharper even though it has more sde. Quest 2 has less sde but in the distance it looks too blurry. Its like when you run the wrong resolution on your lcd monitor and everything looks soft. @melmac is this true for you or am I doing something wrong. Even the oculus home srceen is noticeably less sharp in quest 2.

I haven't done it myself but you can make the resolution far more appropriate by changing encoding resolution to 3664 and scaling (or whatever it's called) to above 1 (people talk about 1.2-1.4 being good)

:edit: very beaten by far superior info ^