Rift S R.I.P.

[aoaaron]

So what now??

Haha now we are out of luck. Its either cough up the cash for a Reverb or Index or go down the video-encoding route of the Quest.

I HOPE they'll mature the Quest 2 wireless PCVR place and use wifi 6 to make wireless streaming possible or increase the utilisation of bandwith the video encode on the Quest 2.

However they did promise improvements to Link which never came properly on Q1 so I wouldn't hold my breath as standalone VR is clearly their priority.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

To be honest, I don't think Facebook realised how successful the Quest 2 would be. They were caught by surprise and couldn't manufacture enough to keep up with demand.

However you are right. If the Rift S had been a clear upgrade to the CV1 then they might have been dominating in PC VR as well as standalone As it was the Rift S was more of a sidegrade with only the sharpness and lenses being massively better. Even the controllers were a step back, being unbalanced, more cramped layout and less robust than the CV1 controllers.

I agree about the cv1 controllers, I preferred them over the Quest/Rift s ones. However the Quest 2 controllers are better, with a larger thumb rest area and better balance. The only thing I don't like about them is they don't have the slight rubberised texture on the palm side that the Quest/Rift S controllers had, but I've solved that with some very thin temoveable grip tape. With that small mod I think they are better than the CV1 controllers.

 

[kinger8938]

As long as they keep supporting the games, I'm happy with the Rift S.

I'm fairly new to VR, and so far have been very impressed with the unit.

It's a shame to see them move away from dedicated PCVR but the option with a cable helps that.

I just need a game to use mine more, hardly used it for about 2 months now

 

[Lokken86]

As long as they keep supporting the games, I'm happy with the Rift S.

I'm fairly new to VR, and so far have been very impressed with the unit.

It's a shame to see them move away from dedicated PCVR but the option with a cable helps that.

I just need a game to use mine more, hardly used it for about 2 months now

Think I'm with you there. I'm curious about how good the quest2 will be with that cable but I'm happy with the RiftS. To me the visual quality is completely fine. Very good when you apply some SS.

 

[Ravenger]

One things for sure, there's going to be a lot of second hand Rift S's and Quests on the market soon. That too should have a good effect on VR adoption.

 

[Slam62]

the rift s value should stay strong as the real alternatives are expensive and demanding on hardware.
The quest2 is not viable pc headset. Its just for social media fights.

 

[Lokken86]

the rift s value should stay strong as the real alternatives are expensive and demanding on hardware.

Exactly. It's not too tough on the old 1950x and with the refresh rate being on 80hz that's even less pressure on the cpu.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

The quest2 is not viable pc headset. Its just for social media fights.

Nonsense.

One things for sure, there's going to be a lot of second hand Rift S's and Quests on the market soon. That too should have a good effect on VR adoption.

Yup - I sold my Rift CV1 and Rift S.

Just keeping my Go, Quest and Quest 2. I've even stopped developing for desktop VR - Quest only now.

 

[Unseul]

Nonsense.

Yup - I sold my Rift CV1 and Rift S.

Just keeping my Go, Quest and Quest 2. I've even stopped developing for desktop VR - Quest only now.

There's a quote from Guy Godin (think that's right) saying that there's 10x more Quest users than basically anything else. That numbers only going to get bigger with the quest 2. Think the only way PCVR gets back into the game seriously, is when someone introduces a wireless link to a PC, even then it'll be tough (and quite possibly Quest regardless).

I would imagine developing for the Quest 2, even the quest 1+2, is far simpler than trying to develop something that will run well on all the different hardware configurations in PCs. It's like console vs PC. You can get far more out of hardware that you can focus all your optimization efforts on.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

There's a quote from Guy Godin (think that's right) saying that there's 10x more Quest users than basically anything else. That numbers only going to get bigger with the quest 2. Think the only way PCVR gets back into the game seriously, is when someone introduces a wireless link to a PC, even then it'll be tough (and quite possibly Quest regardless).

I would imagine developing for the Quest 2, even the quest 1+2, is far simpler than trying to develop something that will run well on all the different hardware configurations in PCs. It's like console vs PC. You can get far more out of hardware that you can focus all your optimization efforts on.

Yeah, even our lab at Uni is ditching the Vives and replacing with a suite of Quests. Just much easier to run studies and demonstrations with them being untethered etc.

 

[Ravenger]

Yup - I sold my Rift CV1 and Rift S.

Just keeping my Go, Quest and Quest 2. I've even stopped developing for desktop VR - Quest only now.

I'm hoping I can retire my Go now. I really only use it to watch 3D movies, and the Quest 2 resolution should be a massive improvement. I'll miss the little remote, as that's more convenient for media playback, but possibly hand tracking will replace that.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

There's a quote from Guy Godin (think that's right) saying that there's 10x more Quest users than basically anything else.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more Quests than anything else but are you sure he wasn’t referring just to his Virtual Desktop userbase?

Given his side loaded VD is essentially the most recommended and well regarded way to WiFi stream PCVR games on quest I wouldn’t be surprised to see a significant skew towards Quest users buying his software for that sole purpose. The number of traditional PCVR users looking for virtual desktops (for which there is also competition software) is probably much lower.

 

[Unseul]

I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more Quests than anything else but are you sure he wasn’t referring just to his Virtual Desktop userbase?

Given his side loaded VD is essentially the most recommended and well regarded way to WiFi stream PCVR games on quest I wouldn’t be surprised to see a significant skew towards Quest users buying his software for that sole purpose. The number of traditional PCVR users looking for virtual desktops (for which there is also competition software) is probably much lower.

95% sure he meant 10x more quest users. He mentions developers of pcvr instantly giving themselves 1/10 of potential income etc.

 

[andybird123]

95% sure he meant 10x more quest users. He mentions developers of pcvr instantly giving themselves 1/10 of potential income etc.

this sounds exactly like console vs PC arguments, yet PC hardware and games keep increasing, quest is like "lego" versions of actual VR games... there are millions more people with mobile phones than gaming PC's, yet PC games still get made


almost all of my favourite VR games are actually PC flat screen games with added VR support

 

[Unseul]

this sounds exactly like console vs PC arguments, yet PC hardware and games keep increasing, quest is like "lego" versions of actual VR games... there are millions more people with mobile phones than gaming PC's, yet PC games still get made


almost all of my favourite VR games are actually PC flat screen games with added VR support

Well yes and no. Making a game for Pc still get huge exposure, you can invest millions and make it back. How many of those PCs are capable of Vr? How many people have a pcvr headset? I know you can use a quest for pcvr, and hopefully that'll do the trick, but creating a good pcvr game is going to take as much work as creating a good regular pc game, but with a far smaller market.

I don't think it's dead, but I think there'll be far greater focus on wireless titles.

 

[andybird123]

Well yes and no. Making a game for Pc still get huge exposure, you can invest millions and make it back. How many of those PCs are capable of Vr? How many people have a pcvr headset? I know you can use a quest for pcvr, and hopefully that'll do the trick, but creating a good pcvr game is going to take as much work as creating a good regular pc game, but with a far smaller market.

I don't think it's dead, but I think there'll be far greater focus on wireless titles.

As long as we keep getting more like HLAlyx and StarWars Squadrons on PCVR, I don't really care how many versions of beat saber they make.

 

[Unseul]

As long as we keep getting more like HLAlyx and StarWars Squadrons on PCVR, I don't really care how many versions of beat saber they make.

I don't know how much more Alyx there'll be, but (and this is from a position of complete ignorance), I would assume that integrating virtual reality for piloting/racing/vehicle sims, would be fairly straightforward, and potentially always worth the extra effort.

 

[andybird123]

I don't know how much more Alyx there'll be, but (and this is from a position of complete ignorance), I would assume that integrating virtual reality for piloting/racing/vehicle sims, would be fairly straightforward, and potentially always worth the extra effort.

Valve are very happy with the sale volumes of the Index, its even now still on massive back order, people are buying them faster than they can make them. I'm pretty sure Valve are going to support their own hardware with additional games.

But yes, even if we "only" get all the sim games with tacked on VR support I'll still massively prefer PCVR over the types of games we've seen on quest. We may even end up getting a Q2, if the PCVR support is decent on it (depends how bad the compression is).

 

[Ravenger]

I don't know how much more Alyx there'll be, but (and this is from a position of complete ignorance), I would assume that integrating virtual reality for piloting/racing/vehicle sims, would be fairly straightforward, and potentially always worth the extra effort.

There's also ports of existing 2D games like Skyrim, etc. which are relatively cheap to develop and which bring much bigger games into VR than could be justified by the number of VR capable PCs out there.