PS(PC)VR 2, anyone interested?

Picked one up just before Christmas, Argos had it for an extra £10 off which tipped me over the edge. I needed a Bluetooth receiver which I picked up for £12 making the total cost thus far a smidge over £400. Set it up last night and did some testing in my current sim of choice, Le Mans Ultimate. My initial impressions in no particular order.

  • FoV: Disappointing. Nearly every user review I'd read made me think this would be a noticeable uptick from my CV1 but while the vertical may be a little bigger, I can no longer peak under the headset to see my keyboard, the horizontal is subjectively no different at all. At least it's not smaller which was my experience when I briefly had a Reverb G2. Guess my head shape must really suit the CV1.
  • Resolution/clarity: The pentile make up of the OLED display is the same as the CV1 so I knew what I was in line for, at least I thought I did, especially as I also have the original PSVR and a PS4 Pro. At first testing without my glasses I wasn't exactly blown away. Once I put them on then yes, the nearfield vision is a clear step up and it also made it easier to find the sweet spot. However the mid and far distance didn't look a whole lot different. Maybe if I used it for a few days and then went back it would jump out at me, I'd last used my CV1 on Christmas eve. This was true regardless of resolution, 50% (24xx x 24xx) looked the same as 150% (46xx x 46xx) to me :confused: Choice of game may also play a part, I'll do some testing in Automobilista 2 later. The display also has the same fine grained 'film effect' as the original PSVR which you notice on lighter colours when moving you head left and right. Not sure if this is what other people refer to as mura? I've seen people say turning down the display brightness helps with this, I've got it on the default 100% for now as it doesn't particularly bother me. I'll experiment later.
  • Brightness/colours: The display is bright and the colours really pop as a consequence. Didn't get round to testing night driving but expecting good things.
  • Comfort: Like the original PSVR no issues with the halo style headband for me. Surprisingly was able to wear my glasses OK and still get the lenses close although I'll be ordering some prescription lens inserts for the convenience and safety (don't want to risk scratching the lenses of either my glasses or the headset).
  • Setup: Bought the TP Link UB500 Bluetooth adaptor as it was the only one I could pick up locally. Downloaded the beta driver linked by Sony and thus far have had no issues. The PSVR app made setup a breeze and everything worked first time :)

TLDR; I'm a little non-plused at this stage, was expecting more, but it's early days, I've only tested on one game, and I don't think I'll be able to fully judge until I have prescription lens inserts.
 
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stephenb said:
TLDR; I'm a little non-plused at this stage, was expecting more, but it's early days, I've only tested on one game, and I don't think I'll be able to fully judge until I have perscription lens inserts.
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Yes not impressed with mine. In almost every way it's worse than my Quest Pro. I was expecting it to be much sharper than it is and it's just not comfy for me either, even with mods. Worst thing is the lenses which are awful. Terrible chromatic aberration and tiny sweet spot.

The add on comfort mod and headphones from Globular cluster are pretty good though. I'd say they're essential for the best experience.
 
Looked into prescription lens inserts. VR Lens Lab which I have for my CV1 seem very well regarded but a set with the thinnest lenses they offer is going to set me back north of £100 :eek: I'd figured on an all in cost of around £500 so we'll see. Tried AMS2 briefly, didn't think it was any better than LMU so went back to tinkering with that. Using mainly low settings, 4x MSAA with res of around 2600 x 2600 per eye I was able to run in the 120hz mode. This definitely had some advantages in terms of car control but strangely when I tried an online race at the same circuit I'd been testing at with AI performance was all over the place :confused: Moved back to more medium biased settings and upped the res to around 2900 x 2900 dropping back to 90hz. Just done another online race, this time with fpsVR running, and was getting a solid and smooth 90FPS. Ah well the game is still in early access. Will be interesting to test with AC Evo in a few weeks given that Kunos' new engine has been built with VR in mind from the get go.
 
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Ravenger said:
Yes not impressed with mine. In almost every way it's worse than my Quest Pro. I was expecting it to be much sharper than it is and it's just not comfy for me either, even with mods. Worst thing is the lenses which are awful. Terrible chromatic aberration and tiny sweet spot.
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THIS +1

The Quest 3 has ruined other headsets for me with it's pancake lenses.

I'm hugely sceptical how so many reviewers glossed over how small the sweet spot is on the PSVR2 headset and how blurry it is off centre. I can only assume they're inexperienced with VR and have never used another headset or , more likely, are on the payroll for Sony and didn't want to give any negative feedback.

I'm pretty disappointed with PSVR2 having picked it up at launch. Gran Turismo and the upcoming Aces of Thunder (which keeps getting delayed) are the only reasons I haven't sold the headset yet. THat and I keep hoping we get a new VR enabled Wipeout game during the lifespan of the PS5.
 
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The mura also ruins games with dark scenes too. It's very distracting. Metro Awakening looks awful due to the Mura. Mind you there is something about that game also makes the Quest Pro's local dimming look bad too. Potentially it's not actually rendering true blacks, which makes the mura and local dimming more noticable.
 
I may be coming round :p All my testing on Sunday was without my glasses. Popped them back on tonight and gave ACC a quick test on Nord's. No question this was an improvement over what I remember, ACC was always the most challenging of sims to run in VR although I still ran it almost exclusively for a couple of years. Gave it a quick test at night, as I've also done with LMU, and the OLED display really comes into its own.

Back in LMU and the graphics settings I dialled in yesterday must have helped. Back down to around 2600 x 2600 per eye to give enough headroom for night/rain conditions which are the most taxing. Also dialled the headset brightness down a little further to around 66%. With my glasses back on the film grain effect does immediately become apparent but I can live with it and mid to far distance clarity at Le Mans did seem improved from my initial impressions. The main issue is aliasing around white lines, armco barriers and catch fencing which clears up as you get nearer to them. Tried 8xMSAA but didn't see an improvement over the 4x I've been running. These always seem to be the hardest areas to clean up.

Might be time to order those prescription lens inserts after all.

I have wondered about ordering a Pimax Crystal Light, seems with their new subscription you effectively have 14 days to try it and decide if you want to keep it. Only problems are:
a) it's Pimax and they have a very mixed rep
b) the headset weighs more and looks considerably bulkier
c) more demanding to run although I think from memory you can't run full res at 90Hz, the headset has to upscale.
 
Well I bit the bullet and ordered prescription lenses from VR Lens Lab. They arrived yesterday. Just done my first race in LMU since installing them. What can I say, they perform as advertised. I had been running without glasses prior to this so with the lenses in the field of view horizontally is a hair less, vertically seems no different. Comfort fine and it's good to to back to being able to see into the distance!
 
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