Im thinking of getting VR, but HP Reverb G2 is $1k. The Oculus Quest 2 with pc link cable is $500 ( Australian $$)
Is there a half a grand improvement for the G2? Or would the Quest 2 be suitable for flight sim? I believe the resolution isnt amazing. But that based on the rift. Maybe it’s better? Anyway have any idea if it’s worth going for the Quest2 now? I’d like it for the holiday. But don’t want to be disappointed.
The quest will be a pain in the … to get working properly with your computer. The quest is primarily a standalone device. Get the HP Reverb G2.
Thanks for that. Wasn’t that an issue with the first version, and the Quest 2 has resolved it? Or is that still an issue?
I have the Quest 2 and it as simple as anything to set up, even for a pensioner like me. It’s a massive improvement over the original Rift. I use it wirelessly for Xplane, but you can use a link cable plugged into a USB 3 port, however I find it makes it heavier. The G2 cannot be used wirelessly.
The G2 has better contrast and deeper colours and you’ll have to make a decision about the money side of things. It also has higher resolution but you’ll need summat beefy to get the best out of it.
For my part, I am delighted with the Q2, and recommend it highly.
I’m running a new RTX3080 so my video card will hopefully handle either. The price is a major factor as I need to get this past my wife. I said the video card was my last purchase for a while. But now, that isn’t quite true. 
Do you know if you can see the information on say, the G1000 , without having to lean in? Or will you need to lean in to see that stuff?
That’s really the main factor for me. With my current ultra wide 34” monitor, I need to zoom in, so I wouldn’t be a major loss.
And the scenery- would that be pretty clear regardless?
I’m running a 3070 on an old 5820 i7 O/C to 4.1ghz and it’s fine. I wear glasses and I can read the G1000 by leaning in a bit, but with the Rift I had to put my nose right up against the screen , so to speak. Depending on your eyesight, I would say you might have to lean in a little, but not much. I have to do that in real life anyway!
As for the scenery it seems pretty clear and sharp. I have the texture quality turned way up and Vulkan in Xplane handles the draw calls well.
I am not in the FS Beta program so don’t know how the scenery will look. I did see a comment on here from a Beta tester that indicated it was good.
I fly exclusively VFR low and slow and don’t touch airliners, just not my thing, so ground details are important to me.
With the oculus quest 2 or reverb g2 - how do you change, for example, the heading? Is there a way to twist a knob or press a button? Or do you need to use the mouse or keyboard?
It will depend on how the developer set it up. You use the hand controller to focus on the knob and either twist the wrist while holding the trigger (or it binds, depending on the setup), or you move the controller laterally or vertically.
In Xplane you can use a mouse in the headset but I don’t know in MSFS.
An ideal solution is to use a Knobster: https://www.siminnovations.com/hardware/product/57-knobster
Thanks for asking the same question I’ve been pondering. I’ve been using MSFS since version 2.0, but am completely new to VR. I hope to upgrade to the RTX3080 soon and am trying to decide between the Reverb G2 and the Quest 2. Based on what I’ve been reading on here, you can’t go wrong with either one. I’ve watched a number of reviews on YouTube, but they left me more confused than when I started.
I’ll never buy a Quest 2 because of the Facebook thing but you can’t deny the value for money and versatility.
I have a G2 and there are things I’m not too impressed by. The FOV is very stingy for me at least and focus falls off extremely rapidly so you have to move your head rather than eyes. Build quality is not at all reassuring either.
For half the cost I’d do the Quest myself, especially if you want to do more in VR than just sit still.
For what it’s worth, and your mileage may vary of course, but my Reverb G2 stopped working after 2 days. Error 4-1 and says the USB 3 connection is no good, no matter what port or combination, BIOS setting or drivers I try. The problem appears to be rampant with numerous posts in support threads on the same issue. I just built an entirely new rig, and others with the same motherboard, cpu, and gpu are reporting no issue, and the issue is meanwhile affecting AMD and Intel users alike. That makes me suspect HP has some faulty hardware going into their product. Just something to consider before you buy.
Reverb G2 is a hot mess at the moment. I had mine for 4 weeks and never was able to get it to work as it would crash my system with BSOD. It works with systems running NVIDIA cards, but not with AMD GPUs. I know there are plenty of AMD users having no issue, so this is not a driver issue but hardware issue. People had working headset that all of sudden stop working. USB issues, black screen issues, blue screen issues, you name it. I returned mine and bought Q2, and it’s been fantastic. The resolution seems a little blurry for reading the panels without leaning in, but i have nothing to compare as my G2 never worked. I am running 6800XT with 9900K and have my fps locked at 45. On DCS, it’s buttery smooth with clarity from edge to edge without having to lean in. So I am sure ASOBO will continue to optimize visual rendering, I hope.
I just tried a PCI-e USB 3 host card to see if that fixed my 4-1 error, and nope can’t even get the card to work. Tried to disable Gen4 support in the BIOS, and reinstalled the USB host drivers from MSI and Microsoft. Nothing. I’m guessing the G2 hardware or cable is faulty.
Having done two flights in the G2, I don’t know if I can settle for a downgrade in resolution to be honest. I feel like that’s the one thing that made VR acceptable: the G2 is just sharp enough. Meanwhile the FOV and sweet spot still leave much to be desired. I’m returning this thing back to HP, and maybe I’ll come back to the Flight Simulator VR scene months or years later when the dust has settled, there are reliable products out there, hardware that can properly handle it, and a simulator that hopefully isn’t still half baked.
Were you able to read G1000 or G3000 on the display without leaning in? In Cessna 172 or TBM 390, I cannot make out the button labels without having to lean in halfway to the panels. I am not sure how much improvement G2 visuals can make at native resolution. I am currently running at 1 to 1 native on Q2 and no amount of SS will improve the pixels that are not there.
Never had the chance to fly a glass panel in VR. To be honest, I was only going to really use it for the Cessnas and cubs with analog gauges. I also didn’t get a chance to fully push my graphics settings to see what the G2 could actually do. However, I can’t imagine a G2 will get you that much more clarity. It’s got a few more pixels than the Q2, but not hugely more.
So are we hardware limited at the moment? As in, we cannot possibly see dials and buttons clearly from a normal head position - until hardware allows for higher resolution? Or - can it be fixed with software?
G2 if you got the juice to run it
G2 owner here. The clarity on the G2 is very good if not excellent. From a natural seating position (i.e. without leaning in) I can clearly read all of the text on the G1000/G3000, all of the text on the MFD (even the tiny green text), and all of the text on the G1000/G3000 in the copilot’s seat (from the pilot’s seat without leaning towards the copilot’s display).
My biggest complaint with the G2 is a small sweet spot as compared to Oculus headsets. This together with all of the great things I have been hearing about the Quest 2 asynchronous spacewarp (ASW) prompted me to buy a Quest 2 to see if better lenses would make up for the resolution disadvantage vs. the G2 and provide smoother gameplay.
I tried it out, adjusted a few settings per online recommendations and I can say without qualification that the Reverb G2 is in a whole 'nother league than the Quest 2. I didn’t really appreciate how sharp the G2 is until I got a chance to A/B compare. The biggest indication of the difference is that I can clearly read the pink text across the top of the copilot G1000 with the G2. On the Quest, it is a pink blurry mess that is clear enough to guess what it says but really requires you to lean in to be sure. On the G2, this text is easily legible with no straining whatsoever.
The best way I would describe it is it’s like the G2, without the really sharp sweet spot in the center.
Needless to say, I returned the Quest 2 and will need to learn to better appreciate what the G2 has to offer.
It’s hard / impossible to know if the quality I am seeing in my quest 2, is the best I can get. I have a 3rd party USB-C cable. Could a bad cable cause image quality loss?
But for those with a Quest 2 - are you able to see text on buttons on the G1000? Or do you need to lean in quite close to the buttons to be able to read the text clearly ?
Interesting post. I too currently have a G2 and a Quest 2 sat next to me right now, the aim was to send back whatever one I don’t decide on keeping. After the original hiccups of having a X570 board with the G2 and having to use a PCI USB card the G2 is now working as it should be.
However I’ve spent 3 straight nights now, 6-7 hours per night trying to decide which one I want to keep and I can’t pick.
I put the G2 on for example in a driving game, I’ll use ETS 2 as an example because on the G2 this looks ridiciculously sharp, I mean crazy PIN SHARP, however I only need to move my eyes slightly and boom i’m in blur and chromatic abberation land, so everytime I want to glance at my speed and/or GPS/Satnav it goes from pin sharp to blurred, it’s not totally unreadable but it is extremely immersion breaking.
So then I put the Quest 2 on in the same area of the map etc, and yes it’s not so sharp, but the uniformity of the picture remains the same throughout, and I can glance down and across to my gps and speedo and remain fully immersed, I can move my eyes as far as I humanly can and the Quest 2 remains unblurred. At this point I decide, yes i’m going to keep the Quest 2 and send the G2 back.
Then I put the G2 back on, and boom I’m hit with that crazy pin sharp picture, and I’m all the way back to sqaure one, I’ve been doing this now like I said for 3 nights in a row, only difference is the games I try.
I am trying to convince myself I will get used to the tiny sweet spot on the G2, get over it you know, and not be so bothered about it, but everytime I keep trying to tell myself that and try to get myself immersed, it repeatedly keeps breaking my immersion and enjoyment.