VR for Star Wars Squadrons

ninjabib

ninjabib

ninjabib

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Hello!


Apologies in advance for the boring nature of this question but i've pre-loaded SW Squadrons and i NEED to get VR for this game.

Would a RIFT S be ok? Whats the new Occulous Quest 2 all about? Looks stand alone so i wont be able to play PC games on it?
 
Rift S will be good for Squadrons, but it's EOL so isn't recommended unless you can get a cheap second hand one.
Quest 2 can play PC games via a USB link cable. That's out October 13 (if you can get one), but requires a Facebook account to use.
There are also lots of cheap Quest 1's going onto the second hand market now due the imminent Quest 2 launch, and they also can play PC VR games via a link cable.
 
In short yes, a lot of difference.

There are a couple of ways in which the Quest 1 was better (mainly continuous IPD adjustment with movable screens, better blacks with the OLED) and a whole lot of ways in which the Quest 2 is definitively better (muchmuchmuch more powerful chip with the XR2, lighter and more comfortable, significantly higher resolution - especially in subpixel counts, higher refresh rate panels, better PCVR headset due to significantly improved bandwidth on the XR2 which will allow link and wifi streaming to be improved, significantly better battery life on the controllers).

The Quest 2 is such an upgrade hardware wise that I personally really couldn't find myself recommending anyone buy an original Quest unless money is an issue and the price was really keen (I'd probably be looking to pay £150 max for a good condition one personally) and they just wanted to dip their toes in for a VR experience. At the moment technically a Quest can do pretty much what a Quest 2 can but at lower resolution/settings but given the sheer scale of the difference in capabilities you can't discount the possibility that there may well be Quest 2 only features/games in the future.

Obviously either route you have to be happy with the fact you are picking up a Facebook headset. If you have a strong dislike/distrust for Facebook then arguably don't buy any Oculus headset as ultimately there is no escaping them now.

Do you think you will purely be interested in PCVR or does the idea of standalone headset appeal too? One of the big selling points for the quest is obviously it's ability to be both... if you don't think standalone would appeal or don't like the idea of facebook then it might be worth looking at some other headsets, though few can match the sheer value proposition of the Quest 2 at this point in my opinion.

Just for an idea of the difference in resolution, have a look at this video here. Through the lens has distinct limitations so don't read too much into it as to overall experience, but it serves well enough as a relative indication between headsets.

 
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Thanks for the link and very informative post Zeeflyboy.

I don't have any issue with Facebook per se so i will wait a little while long and get the Quest 2 when it's out :)

One last question i'm assuming the 64gb/256gb variants are just internal storage? I can run Star Wars Squadrons off my PC and the Q2 storage isnt reduced for example. The storage would be for the stabd alone games?


Edit the 64gb one is £299?? Cheaper than Rift S?


EDIT 2- Just saw the USB cable to PC is £70!!! Is there something special about it or can i buy a cheaper generic version
 
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Generic cables seem to be fine. Their one is fibre optic so is apparently a bit thinner and more flexible. No guarantees for compatibility but virtual desktop allows a lot of games to stream over Wi-Fi to the headset with minimal latency if done well.
 
Yeah correct, if PCVR is your main reason for getting it then the storage is pretty irrelevant.

Most current Quest games are a few gb at most in my experience, but one new one did just release at 12gb which is far and away the biggest one so far to my knowledge... If that trend continues with future releases (likely given they now they can do higher res textures, more detailed models, bigger games in general as the market grows and can support more substantial game development costs) then you could fit maybe 4 big standalone games at one time on the 64gb, or 2 big games and quite a few smaller apps/games. I would suggest that's probably fine if standalone isn't going to be a focus for you.

Two main things to bear in mind:

- while none of us have had hands on with the Quest 2 yet obviously, every reviewer I've seen slags off the standard strap and basically considers the elite strap an absolute must buy (not the extremely expensive battery one, just the £50 or whatever one). I would personally budget that in because an uncomfortable headset is just not as fun.

- You need some way of connecting your new Quest 2 to your PC. You have two options here - official Link through any USB-C cable (3.0+ would be recommended) or their *very* expensive oculus link fibre optic USB cable, or sideloading something like Virtual desktop (about a £15 app) and getting yourself set up with WiFi streaming. The latter is arguably more finnicky for some, and introduces more latency which may or may not matter to you but has the obvious benefit of removing that wire from your experience.

Oh and do yourself a favour and pick up Half life Alyx as well as squadrons ;)

Just out of interest what spec is your PC? Going to run everything ok?
 
Thanks again for your input.

I won't use VD/Wi-Fi. I will use a cable that's a definite.

My current spec would probably struggle with the game in VR to be honest but I'm due an upgrade. I've got about 1.2k to spend on the base unit so as I'm going to wait for the Q2 I will wait and see what the new AMD cpus are like next week before making a decision.
 
The last two reviewers I've watched didn't get the elite strap for free. Both said the strap it comes with isn't perfect but isn't awful either. One says that as the q2 is lighter and shorter ( so less weight far from your face) it's more comfortable than the original quest cable.

If you aren't buying for a while, I'd wait and see what 3rd party accessories come along since the attachment is extremely straightforward I'd imagine there'd be a few coming. Maybe including better audio.
 
X wing was my milk as a nipper!

It's downloading now, but I've never used VR before and wondering if I should wait for my quest 2 order to arrive, hmm...
 
Buddy said:
Hi just to jump in and for someone considering a quest 2 for this game. Would my system be good enough?

X2700 16gb 1070ti
Click to expand...

Recommended spec for "VR" are: 2700X, 16GB, 1070, so in broad brush strokes you should be good, however as VR headset resolutions range from 1440p to 4k+, your mileage varies dependent on your chosen headset. They've recommended the Rift S for this (likely for no other major reason than it was what they used in development), which I assume means they're working their recommended VR specs based on 2560x1440, whereas the Quest 2 runs practically double the pixels at 3664x1920... this could be the difference between playable and non-playable FPS. Let's go deeper...

In the main thread there's people talking about their performance, and although it won't scale exactly linearly, it won't be far off. I did some fag packet maths for this the other day based off relative performance figures and guesstimated pixel count, let's see if I can recreate it here.

One user reported 160fps @ 3440x1440 with a 2070 super:
3440x1440 is 4,953,600 pixels vs the Quest 2's 3664x1920, which is 7,034,880. That's a 42% increase, therefore at that res you can expect a (rough) 42% decrease in performance, around 93fps. Now to compare the 2070 super to the 1070ti. This res, although not quite 4K, is closer to it than 1440p, therefore it is the most reasonable metric to use.

30bcdze.png

So, using a .7 multiplier against the estimated performance of the 2070 super, 92.8 * 0.7 = 64.96; 65 fps is the ballpark for what I'd expect with a Quest 2.

Obviously a severe approximation, running at max settings and using a relative performance figure based on multiple games. I'd guess you'd be able to squeeze at least 10fps out of turning some settings down and, due to the extremely high resolution, dropping a lot of AA (although, not being a VR user at all as of yet, I have no idea whether VR shows aliasing more than flat games). That would bring you to mid 70s, which is the most you'll get from the Quest 2 at the moment without using special test builds of VR desktop (as far as I'm aware, someone else is likely more knowledgable on the experimental 80/90hz modes).
 
How is this for motion sickness? Hoping it's terrible as that will dissuade me from getting the PC version.

We will probably grab this on PS4 so that my two sons and I can each play with our own game save - which will mean no VR. It would be nice to get it on PC to sample it in VR, but I'm not willing to buy 3 copies so it can run on 3 accounts on the same PC. I really hate that about PC gaming.
 
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