Play For Dream MR
- Thread starter LostCorpse
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Steve is very good for simming-specific info, but knows very little from a technical perspective, so take what he says with a pinch of salt because the video contains various inaccuracies about visuals and Wifi performance etc and he barely mentions the lenses.
Well guys, VD Monster Mode is out and it is glorious, the headset looks soooo much clearer and higher resolution and games look fantastic. It gives 40% extra resolution over Godlike so performance is heavy though, and depending on the game, details definitely need to be tweaked or SSW enabled even on a 5090. HLA looks amazing and the biggest surprise was how insanely clear NMS looks even when using DLSS. On my Quest Pro NMS looked so muddy and blurry but with PFD VD Monster it looks ridiculously clear and its a ridiculous leap in visuals due to the clarity and resolution with zero visible SDE. This is truly a leap in visuals over the Quest 3 if you have the hardware to run it.
I have slightly modded the facial interfact to relive pressure and get a bit closer to the lenses and although the lenses are not up to Quest 3 quality, when you get in the sweet spot they are sharp and clear enough for a good gaming experience, the glare is manageable and not very noticeable in most situations (you mostly just see it in very high contrast scenes) and I have decided that I can be satisfied with them. Just don't go expecting to be working and doing productivity on this thing all day as though you are on a regular monitor.
I am looking forward to the upcoming OS update to see what features are added and issues are fixed.
I have slightly modded the facial interfact to relive pressure and get a bit closer to the lenses and although the lenses are not up to Quest 3 quality, when you get in the sweet spot they are sharp and clear enough for a good gaming experience, the glare is manageable and not very noticeable in most situations (you mostly just see it in very high contrast scenes) and I have decided that I can be satisfied with them. Just don't go expecting to be working and doing productivity on this thing all day as though you are on a regular monitor.
I am looking forward to the upcoming OS update to see what features are added and issues are fixed.
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What are the visuals like in dark games, e.g. Metro Awakening, or in the Skyrim dungeons?
One of the reasons I prefer my Quest Pro over the Q3 is due to the local dimming giving far better contrast in dark games (despite not having enough dimming zones).
Have you tried movie watching yet? I'd love to watch a 3D movie in 4XVR on a headset like that.
One of the reasons I prefer my Quest Pro over the Q3 is due to the local dimming giving far better contrast in dark games (despite not having enough dimming zones).
Have you tried movie watching yet? I'd love to watch a 3D movie in 4XVR on a headset like that.
Agree with @Richdog the Monster mode in VD for the PFD enables significantly improved visuals and goes a long way towards justifying the purchase. I used it in Beam.NG last night and could see things I couldn't see before, it actually showed the low quality of some of the textures in the game, they looked sharper but I could see the crap quality of some things which I never noticed previously. Looking forward to playing Alyx and Fallout 4 with texture mods.
For Beam.NG I'm using AV1 @ 200Mbps, overall latency goes as high as around 35-40 ms (is it in ms? not sure) and the majority of that VD says its codec latency iirc.
Yes its so much clearer that I also started to notice a lot of low quality textures in games, was pretty funny to see. I need to start looking at getting texture mods where available.
AV1 is good for less complex games, but if you are playing something complex like Skyrim with lots of detail and foloage then HVEC10(bit) is far superior to AV1. AV1 shows a lot of compression artifacts in distant scenery whereas HVEC10 is much cleaner. H264+ is also very good but if you ramp it up past 400 then it causes serious latency and is imo unplayable.
The fact is that the PFD resolution is pushing the boundaries of what if possible with current SOC processing power and we need a new generation of Snapdragon to start unleashing visuals that get closer and closer to Display Port. I predict it will be another couple of generations of SOC before we see serious improvements, but I will be there for it.
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Oh and on this topic, full 4k80hz is coming in the next OS update!I am looking forward to the upcoming OS update to see what features are added and issues are fixed.
The difference between PFD and Meta is that you really get to contribute meaningful feature requests that they get worked on, whereas with Meta support there is zero support or feedback that will be listened to. If they bring AndroidXR to this headset later down the line it will be really fantastic, but it's not sure if that will happen yet.
The comfort of this headset it still bad and I am waiting on the new interface. However the back pad is also terrible and just constantly slides down the back of the head. A top strap is really needed and I will investigate solutions.
However, all things considered this is now turning into an absolute beast of a headset and the potential is now starting to be realized with the various software releases and OS upgrades and comfort mods becoming available. if you want fantastic wireless visuals and OLED panels, and are willing to accept the lenses are "unspectacular but good enough to do the job", then for now this is it.
PS: If anyone decides to take the plunge to buy this headset, please PM me and I can give you a discount voucher that covers the postage costs.
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Cheers I will try HVEC10(bit) and H264+. Yeh it's refreshing how responsive the PFD team seem to be. It's certainly a fast evolving headset, lots of promise.Yes its so much clearer that I also started to notice a lot of low quality textures in games, was pretty funny to see. I need to start looking at getting texture mods where available.
AV1 is good for less complex games, but if you are playing something complex like Skyrim with lots of detail and foloage then HVEC10(bit) is far superior to AV1. AV1 shows a lot of compression artifacts in distant scenery whereas HVEC10 is much cleaner. H264+ is also very good but if you ramp it up past 400 then it causes serious latency and is imo unplayable.
The fact is that the PFD resolution is pushing the boundaries of what if possible with current SOC processing power and we need a new generation of Snapdragon to start unleashing visuals that get closer and closer to Display Port. I predict it will be another couple of generations of SOC before we see serious improvements, but I will be there for it.
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my prescription lens inserts arrived today and have improved the visuals significantly which doesnt sound surprising but I am surprised because I was wearing glasses but inserts are much better. glare and distorsion much reduced and clarity increased. I think these lenses are now close enough to the Q3 lenses that I wont miss the Q3 lenses. 4K res @ 80Hz arrived today. Lesson to self - dont judge a VR headset when my eyesight hasnt been corrected properly
Edit - adjusting the IPD setting does similar to what the Q3 does, as in it doesnt make much difference because the sweetspot is so large. This is turning into a great headset for me now. Can recommend, expensive but remember the price on the website is usually what is paid in total because PFD are creative with the import documentation.
Edit - adjusting the IPD setting does similar to what the Q3 does, as in it doesnt make much difference because the sweetspot is so large. This is turning into a great headset for me now. Can recommend, expensive but remember the price on the website is usually what is paid in total because PFD are creative with the import documentation.
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That is a bad review and It doesnt do justice to the headset and will put people off unnecessarily.
He did a bad job of testing it, didnt even know how to configure and tweak it properly.
I agree, I also agree with some of his points, but to simply not thoroughly test the PFD's Monster mode in VD due to a 'flat battery' is troubling imo. Monster mode is 1 of the headsets major selling points, why didn't he just recharge it or use a power bank?
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i think the main point on testing Monster mode was the length of time it took to get it set up for one game. resulting in a flat battery, which at best lasted 70mins of use for him.
and its not a cheap headset, that means its really not a headset for the masses.
i'm not dropping 2k on a headset with out some really GOOD reasons. this really isnt a headset for the common person. Which i see is Meta's biggest issue they want to hand the torch over to some one else but there isnt any one else.
consider also the geo-politics its unlike Meta Horizons can be installed
it wasnt the best review but i felt it was an honest review.
and its not a cheap headset, that means its really not a headset for the masses.
i'm not dropping 2k on a headset with out some really GOOD reasons. this really isnt a headset for the common person. Which i see is Meta's biggest issue they want to hand the torch over to some one else but there isnt any one else.
consider also the geo-politics its unlike Meta Horizons can be installed
it wasnt the best review but i felt it was an honest review.
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Monster mode does not take any setup, its one click. The battery is weaker than average, it needs power banks to be used for extended PCVR sessions.
The ONLY reason to buy this headset is if you want OLED PCVR and/or high resolution media consumption/playback. That is its niche and nothing else.
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Yeah I assume they did it to keep weight down and the headset balanced. They also included a power bank with the kickstarter but not with the retail versions.
There's a really cool development happened with Steam Link (maybe in preparation for Steam Frame?) that enables Dynamic Foveated Encoding for PFD MR, allows wifi PCVR resolutions to go really high, much higher than the pre-set resolutions in VD. VD allows up to iirc 3800 x 3200 for PFD in "Monster" mode, with Steam Link now resolutions of 6k x 5k are pretty normal, some games are allowing up to 8k.
I'm not entirely sure what Dynamic Foveated Encoding is, there are explanations about, it's different from Dynamic Foveated Rendering, it happens on the PC and doesn't rely on the game to implement it so works for most (all?) games. I tried it at 5k on Beam NG and wow it's so sharp, things right on the other side of the maps are pretty much crystal clear.
Something about the way it works means the wifi compression issue is solved according to people who own a Super as well as a PFD (they've compared them). The way I understand it is is that there's no longer a need for the high max bit rate of DP because only a small portion of the screen is high resolution or something like that. In fact I will copy and paste the explanation from the PFD discord :
I'm not entirely sure what Dynamic Foveated Encoding is, there are explanations about, it's different from Dynamic Foveated Rendering, it happens on the PC and doesn't rely on the game to implement it so works for most (all?) games. I tried it at 5k on Beam NG and wow it's so sharp, things right on the other side of the maps are pretty much crystal clear.
Something about the way it works means the wifi compression issue is solved according to people who own a Super as well as a PFD (they've compared them). The way I understand it is is that there's no longer a need for the high max bit rate of DP because only a small portion of the screen is high resolution or something like that. In fact I will copy and paste the explanation from the PFD discord :
- Dynamic Foveated Encoding: This is a feature of Steam Link. Not available in VD or ALVR. It uses eye-tracking and reduces the bitrate of anything you are not looking at. This leaves more bandwidth which leads to the ability to run higher resolutions (technically up to Steam Link's limit of 8192 x 7576) and higher bitrates (up to 350 Mbps HEVC 10-bit). At the same time it frees a lot of resources on the headset for the decoder, meaning no stuttering caused by the headset, reduced generated heat and fan noise. It DOES NOT improve your game's performance (FPS).
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