I see these sell for anything from £250 to £300 at the moment, but there are different specs like 65Gb vs 128Gb, with/without controllers. Some adverts even state that they include the cable.
What do you actually need for MSFS? Anything to watch out for?
I ‘hired’ a rift CV1 from ebay a few years back, buying it, finding my previous GPU wasn’t up to the task in xplane-11, then selling it again on ebay. I see many adverts for quest 2s saying ‘hardly used’, ‘uwanted gift’, ‘not for me’ - there seems to be a high turnover on them. Is there any way to check ‘number of previous owners’ when setting up?
Unfortunately theres no carfax for VR headsets that you can check previous owners. Im confident that would breach some privacy laws somewhere.
I don’t know too much about the quest otherwise, but a link cable will be handy as the quest is not powerful enough to run certain PCVR games on it’s own since it uses a literal Cell phone processor, flash memory and integrated graphics. To put simply (and i wouldn’t mind being corrected if i’m wrong) the Link cable basically allows the Quest to run games with different APIs (OpenXR, SteamVR, WMR etc) instead of running everything through the headset natively (or otherwise through the Oculus API).
If you only plan to use the headset for FS2020/flight simming, you don’t “need” the controllers especially if you have physical hardware. They are nice to have in the event you purchase another game meant for VR like Beatsaber or something. Other than that, make sure you research how to properly get the Quest to work with FS2020, though its not overly difficult. Storage space only matters if you plan to buy/download games directly to the quest through the Oculus Store
Its anyones guess though as to why it’s “not for them.” Some common reasons are “it makes me sick” “All the games are expensive” “I don’t want to spend $70 more on a cable i shouldn’t need” “It doesn’t work” “I’m not interested in it” “Theres no games that interest me” Literally the list goes on. I think when people say “it’s not for me” either experienced bad motion sickness or they got a bum headset. I think the majority of people who believe they got a bum headset really are just experiencing a UGI (User Generated Issue)
I’m sure i have more to add, but i need to go back to work. Hope this helps!
Sooo the headset is standalone and you will need the controllers to use it and to navigate both its internal menu / environment as well as the PC Home / environment. You can connect to the PC either wirelessly - with the right parameters, or via the cable. If you are able to go wireless I recommended it for sub 2hour game play as it’s nice not to be tethered. The cable is ok and will additionally charge the headset during use allowing you greater than 2 hours gameplay in a single sitting. Note you can also buy external battery packs that will provide you with >2hr gameplay.
As for memory but the most you can afford but don’t stress over it. If all you plan to do is play PCVR (pc based games) then the only thing you’ll be loading to the headset is it’s operating system which any of the headsets will comfortably host. Also note the standalone quest games are fairly small in size and you’ll be able to put many of them even in the smallest memory available.
Connecting wirelessly ideally requires the router sitting in front of you or at least in line of sight to the headset.
Why buy from ebay? Oculus/Meta are now selling refurbished units at £250 - that’s 128GB headsets. So you get a warranty included and no worries about buying used and possible faults.
edit: seems they are currently unavailble - I only read about them a few days ago so I’m wondering if they sold out fast or if they didn’t get stock yet…
I strongly disagree about that requirement with the router. I have a standard router for my connection and it’s upstairs in my VR room - but I frequently use my Quest 2 downstairs in the living room and have zero issues at all.
If you need to be that close to your router, then it can only be due to poor WLAN performance. I had that same issue with my original Quest (and returned it because of it) but when I bought a new router the wifi was so good I bought a Quest 2 and it’s a massive difference.
I see you can actually get the 128Gb one new for £299, so might go with new.
I see the cable is USB, can someone explain how it actually works then and makes use of your graphics card (mine has just DP and HDMI ports) ? Is the USB just for keeping it charged or does it carry display data?
I use a Quest 2 in MSFS, love it and very happy with the VR performance.
The Quest 2 can run wirelessly or via USB cable.
I mainly use the cable because it maintains the headset at optimum battery charge and improves the image quality (accommodates a higher bit rate).
I use the official link cable, it’s USB-C to USB-C.
It’s very thin, fibre optic I believe, convenient, and is 5m in length.
The cable plugs into a spare USB-C port on the back of my PC/motherboard (not graphics card) and the other end into the side of the Quest 2, via a right-angle plug, to keep it compact. The Oculus software then sends the image signal from the graphics card to the headset via the cable (USB-C has high data transfer speeds).
You can also get USB-A to USB-C cables, and I used to use one. I got a generic one off eBay, non-Oculus. Generally speaking it was fine, I just didn’t like the thickness/inflexibility of the cable for prolonged use so I paid the extra money and got the official cable.
I like to look around a lot in the virtual cockpit and I don’t notice the official link cable I use now. If I’m showing VR to friends/family, I simply unplug the cable and switch over to wireless mode so the person can walk around the cockpit of a 787 or A320 during takeoff. I also have a Rebuff Reality power pack attached to my head strap, it is a fantastic counterweight and gives me hours of wireless play time with the Quest 2.
The link cable just allows the video to stream over the cable rather than WiFi.
The processor in the headset isn’t used for streaming games at all. But it may factor in to provide frame processing or other corrections. So in that regards, the onboard CPU can be an advantage to share some minimal workload.
Official Link cable do not charge, and cost 80 €. Common USB C 3,1 5 meter long cost about 15 € and charges. And works better. I got both. And i use the cheap one.
Strange, my official cable charges my Quest 2 whilst I’m flying. Once it hits around 80% charge it maintains that for the entire session, which can sometimes be 5+ hours.
Yes, the cable is more expensive than alternative options.
New is best with the Quest2. Just look for deals on the usual price comparison apps/sites. You’ll probably find that when you register the headset, you’ll get discount offers for games. New price is the same as Ebay.
Double check the Data rate of any USBC cable you buy. Go for the higher speeds like 10Mbps.
Scratches on the lenses from use with glasses and sun burn marks on the lcd screens from being placed in direct sunlight for hours, are the only major issues I’ve seen with them (apart from physically damaged controllers) if buying second hand
A cheap usb C cable from ebay will run and charge them simultaneously. I’ve tested with several cheap cables which all worked for both and kept charge around 80%
I agree about buying it new and unless second hand price is less than 2/3 of new price and in immacualte condition, the warranty with new is worth the extra imho
