Nothing is black and white, but having both the G2 and the Index I must say the experience is not just higher resolution panels.
- G2 tracking in FS2020 is constantly lagging behind, Index is instantaneous and spot on.
- G2 controllers can’t rival with Knuckles (although for FS2020 it is a moot point, there is no controller support)
- G2 ecosystem/tools is like everything MSFT: they know better than you and are only offering pre-configured options and a few bread crumbs for the user, Valve ecosystem is open with lots of 3rd party tools and SteamVR own tools allowing you to adjust and tweak a lot of items.
- G2 controller mappings are not all working, there is hardly a game without Index controller support.
- G2 tracking is shifting the ref point (just rotating the head moves the view point), the Index is tracking both rotation and position consistently.
- WMR reddit is not very active, HP Reverb reddit is littered with problems and HP intervene just for PR show (VoodooImaxx was very active and helping prior the G2 launch though), Index reddit is very active with lots of useful infos and help.
- G2 headset cracks and squeaks whenever you move it, Index plastic/straps are 4x thicker and don’t bend.
Sure the Index resolution is lower but I must say when trying 200% TAA it was nearly as legible as the G2 in the center (my 2070S can’t cope with 200% though). This was the main thing I’ve noticed in the end:
- G2 center (clarity disk) is small but high def compared with Index, but the effective perceived resolution falls off quickly off center to the point at maybe 40% off center you’re seeing less details than Index, with a lot of blur.
- Index resolution is uniform nearly edge-to-edge (for me up to about 85% off center).
- In turn, I have more resolution in the overall image the Index is showing than with the G2, which leads to naturally turn the eyes, not the head, to focus your attention to. It just feels natural.
Hard choices…
PS: I’ve forgotten: I can achieve the following HFOV:
- G2 with gasket: 85 deg
- G2 without gasket (eyes close to the lenses): 98 deg
- Index with gasket: 105 deg
I didn’t measure VFOV but to put it simply, the Index topmost is at the limit of putting my eyes up, the bottommost is close to my eyes down, whereas the G2 is severely shorter vertically.
In addition, the Index is using 5 deg canted displays whereas the G2 is nearly parallel. I didn’t think about this too much before but in practice, it makes the Index image enveloping you more with a very small black edge to the external sides (between the panel image and your peripheral vision), whereas the G2 black edge to the sides is much wider and contributes a lot to the “binocular” view.
Last but not least, I don’t know how they manage to fail this one, but the G2 image size is noticeably smaller than the Index. It doesn’t mean much, but with the addition of the binocular sensation, it just makes you feel the world and the environment is smaller, whereas in the Index it feels life-like (I believe they are spot on vis-a-vis the human eye focal length and conveying a natural scale). In turn, when flying with one of the other, I always feel like “looking at things” with the G2, and “being there” with the Index.
PS: for info about the physical HMD FOVs:
HMD Geometry Database | Collected geometry data from some commercially available VR headsets.