Thought id just put a few of my thoughts down having been using an HP Reverb G2 (version 2) for about a month now, in case it will help anyone considering changing VR headset at some stage. Of course its probably dependent on hardware and other factors.
Hardware Ryzen 9 3900
32GB RAM
3080ti
Background; I have had an Oculus Quest 2 for about a year now and been using it primary for flying in msfs, mostly on vatsim and with a variety of aircraft and scenery. I basically enjoyed it but always felt it was somewhat lacking. Spent a lot of time tweaking graphics settings and found gradually with each update after su6, I would have to lower the VR graphics settings in MSFS to give a decent performance most of the time. OpenXR toolkit made a difference and as long as I didnt fly around heavy airports such as Gatwick, Sydney etc it was okish. I would average around 20-25fps outside of those heavy areas, but my 3080ti was hardly breaking a sweat. In high detailled airports I was getting around 10-15fps which was painful. I was using the genuine (expensive) link cable (airlink was worse for me) and tried ASW on and off (on was slightly better). The main reason for looking for another headset was to see if I could improve FPS, plus improve the washed out sky and shimmering especially when flying low level.
I couldn’t afford to jump up to a Pimax let alone Varjo Aero but was concerned the improvement for the Reverb would be minimal.
Let me tell you its not minimal, its a HUGE difference. Anyone thinking of making the jump, and can afford it (and has a decent gfx card) I would say definitely go for it. You wont be disappointed.
Did you ever use Virtual Desktop for the Oculus? The experience between the native Oculus streaming and Virtual Desktop is huge! The native software is terrible. For me the cable is even worse than the Airlink.
The Oculus 2 is supposedly quite good at smoothing the frames since it has onboard hardware.
I’m sure the G2 is better! But for $20 the Oculus 2 can reach it’s true potential.
The Quest 2 runs a processor made by a company that makes CPUs for smartphones as the major selling point of the Quest 2 is it’s portability and wireless capability. This generally limits the hardware you can use with it because you can’t make it a 20 pound helmet. I have a Rift S and it is pretty playable on medium settings. I fly at 35,000 feet normally anyway and i don’t even do full commercial flights in VR, just take off and landing usually. By comparison, I’ve been flying the new Apache in DCS in VR and asw off w/ 45hz on makes it run smooth enough to not induce nausea (but my eyes start hurting after 45 minutes). Not to mention it looks pretty good to me one way or another.
Anyway TLDR: Using your Standalone Desktop will always provide a better picture and higher performance than a mobile platform running mobile hardware
I’ve had the G2 for a while now & happy with it, & I just noticed this, if I start task manager shortly after starting VR I see “360 degree videos”, & something called “new for you” running. Does anyone see that? I’m win 11, don’t know if it happened with win 10.
It’s definitely software related. VD isn’t a solution for all since it requires Ethernet and good WiFi 6 router. But at most it will use 150Mbps. The Quest 2 looks worse over Airlink or cable on a 3080ti than it does over a 1070 and Virtual Desktop.
I’m all high or ultra settings and 100% scaling and get a stable 30fps. I think keeping SSW on with the headset limited to 60fps keeps it locked there.
I’ve gotten it into the 40s when running 90 or 120Hz but couldn’t detect much benefit.
At some point I’d like to get a G2 so I can eliminate the Ethernet cable run. But it seems the sweet spot for many is to knock the resolution down to the Q2’s level. I guess a 40 series card would pair nicely.
I went from Rift S to Quest 2 to G2 to Pimax 8kx to Varjo Aero. Biggest jump so far, atleast in clarity, is the Aero. But Q2 to G2 was also a decent jump in clarity. Really rate the G2.
Yes i ran the Q2 with VD, yes it might be better with the link cable, some people say it is.
Just to add I was impressed with the Q2 coming from a Rift S. Q2 is a great all round headset but the G2 (imo) is better for simmers.
Thanks, that’s helpful. I’ve been contemplating getting the G2.
I can’t figure how some people are getting good results with the link cable. It’s always grainy, washed out and has artifacts. I’ve tried on multiple setups and cables. There may be a particular hardware setup that’s optimal for it.
Yeh the link cable gets mixed results. Now i’m thinking about it i did try a cable connection once, it was a recommended 3rd party 1 cable (Anker maybe), not the oculus cable. I remember results were not good. I’ve used VD & Airlink before though and results were ok. I don’t remember tinkering with any settings using any of the connection methods.
I’ve tweaked a bit on the VD settings. They mostly helped with reducing latency, adjusting gamma and color.
How is the smoothness of the frames? My other worry of switching from VD was that it was working some magic on the frame smoothing. For some reason it can feel like 60-90 fps native rendering.
Great buy especially at a discount, the G2 is ideal for msfs. It’s been a while (last sep) since i used a G2 with msfs, i can’t remember how bad the shimmering was.
Just got a G2 and only tweak I’ve made from Q2 is to set my render scale to 85%. At 100% it was super clear but FPS was unusable.
Now at 85% it’s a little better to on par with the Q2. I’m also getting higher framerates with occasional dips I didn’t see before. The Q2 was solid at 30fps on the low end.
However, even with the higher framerates it feels way less smooth. I’m seeing actual frames now where before the Q2 looked smooth.
Quite a bit more shimmer too. Now I see what everyone is complaining about.
Do you have the official OpenXR-Tool installed with it’s reprojection turned on (different program to the Openxr-toolkit).
If not installed, presently you may not be getting any reprojection, which you would have been seeing on the Q2 in some form (I don’t think it could be completely turned off). You may not be getting %100 render scale either, as apparently it auto throttles the scale unless you override it in the app and set a fixed value.
The WMR reprojection can generate 90fps from as low as 22.5fps from the game (with some wobbles and artifacting) so you should be able to achieve smoothness with your system
Yes, I have the tool. I tried the reprojection option but I was getting wobbly distortions with it on. It reminds me of what the native Quest software looked like.
I’m currently dialed in at 90%, scale and 95% FOV and a 40% reduction in motion tracking. The FOV scale seems to help with NXi button readability.
I’m getting used to the narrower usable viewing angle.
I’ll say after some use the G2 is better. But it has the narrow sweet spot problem and suffers from rougher software (compared to Virtual Desktop).
I’m new to wmr but I don’t quite trust MS to improve/support it. They have a history of not following through on such products.
