Plenty of posts around this subject, but I suspect there are also many who are considering a move from the Quest 2, up the headset food chain to something ‘better’.
So this is my experience in going to the G2 from the Quest 2.
Main thing for me about MSFS with the Quest 2 was the amount of tweaking I had to do - tweaking of the sim rather than for a specific headset, or so I thought.
And this was chiefly around getting a more stable framerate as a fraction of refresh rate, utilizing techniques such as FPS capping, and turning off hyperthreading.
These things worked well, but when I got the G2 it hardly seemed to matter. Straight out of the box with no FPS capping, no motion reprojection, one thing was very noticeable - it was a lot smoother, even with the FPS wobbling all over the place.
Not sure I can readily explain that, but one thing was clear - the G2 was pushing my 3080ti to the max - the i9 CPU as well. Makes me wonder if pinning the CPU and GPU to the ceiling like that actually helps stabilize things because there is no room for maneuver.
It also, for me, casts an eye of suspicion onto Oculus Link, and whether or not it is the source of some of the judder/stutter I was experiencing.
The G2 is also a lot sharper - though it is a higher res headset. As for the much smaller sweet spot - I definitely noticed that out of the box, but I quickly got used to it.
Yes, there is still some stutter and judder, and while I had a lot of success minimizing this with the Quest 2, the G2 was still an improvement on that without having to do, well, much of anything really.
I do use the Open VR Toolkit, but the only thing I have adjusted is the FSR scaling factor and sharpness. In time I will look at trying the tricks I was using with the Quest 2 - but there is no pressing need.
I get a very good experience with the G2.
But not ‘twice’ as good - the G2 being twice the cost of a Quest 2, which is why I think the Quest remains an amazing headset for the money.
Some other things:
- You get maybe a very slight improvement in FOV, but overall the G2 is still a pair of goggles.
- Removing the G2’s inner faceplate to improve FOV wasn’t very satisfactory for me - I could see the square screen edges, making it feel unreal.
- Personally, I think it runs hotter than the Quest 2, and I feel that on the face.
- I found it a more fiddly setup with two cable connections to the PC and a breakout box - quite different to the Quest 2’s Air Link, which works well for me
In conclusion, though, and as others have said, MSFS would seem to demand the more advanced headsets. The Quest 2 gives you a real wow factor, but moving onto something like the G2 starts to make the sim really come alive.
So if you are already a dedicated simmer looking at moving to VR, the G2 might be a better starting point. Unfortunately, though, there is a huge subjective factor to VR headsets - so if you can ‘try before you buy’, all the better.
The question now is whether to go down the Pimax or Aero routes.