There are a few, and some are applicable to some types of games and not others (seated vs full-room, etc)
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The amount of time to set up, and technical issues, like you mentioned. For example, the Reverb G2 that I just received simply would not be recognized by WMR or SteamVR until literally the 5th USB port I tried. And it’s not just me - there’s a whole reddit thread on the subject. Also I had someone taller than me try HL Alyx and it was almost unplayable because the height wouldn’t set up correctly until we completely cleared my room settings in WMR and completed the setup again. Even seated, at times I will start a flight sim and my head will be in the completely wrong position. And I have to remember if that particular sim has a quick-center keybind or if I have to exit and set it up again in WMR. Sometimes pairing the controllers wouldn’t work until we removed them in the device manager and added them again. And there are so many layers, especially with WMR. There’s WMR, Steam VR for WMR, etc.
Those are just recent technical issues that I’ve had that I can think of at the moment. And I’m not exactly a noob when it comes to these things - I’ve built many PCs over many years and have a bachelor’s in Computer Science. -
The cable. Sitting on my chair, the cable gets caught sometimes and it’s impossible to move my head to one side or the other. And in standing applications, sometimes people trip over it or get it wrapped in their legs, since they can’t see it. I haven’t solved the chair issue completely yet, and hanging from the ceiling like some people isn’t an option for my location.
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The weight of the headset, and the heat and sweating. Though the Reverb G2 is much better than my previous headset, Samsung Odyssey.
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It is much more hardware intensive. People who aren’t experienced in this will receive a shock when they see their frame rates in VR in MSFS. I have two sets of settings in DCS and in IL-2 GB that I have to use depending on whether I’m in VR or monitor. And neither of those apps make it easy to have two easily-accessible settings. I have to use a 3rd-party utility for DCS, and change a config file’s name in IL-2. With the Odyssey, seeing the instruments or identifying other planes was difficult to near-impossible, but that is much better with the Reverb G2.
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The aforementioned motion sickness. Even my wife, who doesn’t experience motion sickness in any other area of her life, sometimes feels it in VR. I’ve gotten much better since ‘training’ myself over time. And it’s not necessarily a frame-rate issue on my part. I can destroy HL Alyx performance-wise, but had to train myself to use the normal locomotion (vs teleport) little-by-little. Similarly, Aerofly FS2, which runs like a dream in VR, at the beginning I would get sickly-feeling simply while rolling a C152 a few degrees. It can be overcome, as I’ve proven, but it is a daunting barrier nonetheless for those who are afraid of being nauseated.
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Being cut off from your environment. This may be a plus for some
But I like to hear my surroundings (wife, kid, phone, etc), not to mention that not being able to see your own hands, for flight sim and seated purposes, limits what you can do. That means each and every anticipated key must be mapped to something you can get to easily. And you can’t eat or drink while playing. The headphones in the G2 and Index are great, in my book, in part because I can hear my phone ringing, or my kid calling my name, or my wife telling me that I’m about to run into the wall. -
Checking your six (especially in combat sims). Easy with TrackIR. Difficult in VR. And it’s like wearing a scuba mask, which exacerbates the issue, where your fov is quite limited unless you have Pimax or whatever it’s called.
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Glasses. I have to put contacts in when I play because my glasses are horribly uncomfortable under the headset. I do anticipate buying prescription lenses for the G2 when they are available.
Those are the cons I can think of at the moment. There are pros of course, which is why I venture into VR in the first place, but this is for all those who constantly say “when you go VR you never go back” which I see all the time on the various forums. I’m not the only one who loves my TrackIR + ultrawide monitor as well as delving into VR occasionally. And as I mentioned some of these items are being improved over time with new hardware.