Had to RMA my G2 due to connectivity issues. I was just starting to really get into it too and I’m missing VR already. I’d take another G2, but HP has really shaken my confidence in their build quality, and I’m afraid I’ll just get another lemon.
Are there recommendations for a suitable alternative? I felt like the G2 was just barely sharp enough, so I’m also reluctant to downgrade on the resolution. On the other hand, the FOV on the G2 seemed rather restricted. I really miss seeing the runway out the side windows with my peripheral vision on the flare, and it was a bit of a let down there with the G2’s blinders like feeling.
I was thinking an Index with its wider FOV, but with the resolution of the G2 would be the idealized dream. So maybe the recommendation is to just sit out VR for awhile, wait for a new iteration of the Index, and hang out with TrackIR in the meantime?
You said it : “The Reverb is barely sharp enough”. I’m afraid you won’t get lucky with any other headset out there at the moment. Waiting is always a brilliant idea if you can
Or go for the cheap Oculus Quest 2, same FOV problems and worse resolution, but for $300 you get a great headset with awesome build quality and great tracking which you can even use as a standalone device or as a wireless PC headset (with a paid app of $20). While the resolution is worse than the G2, it isn’t that far off and you can get quite good results if you use super sampling. I can comfortably read most instruments in the cockpit without having to lean in and even the outside looks quite crisp with the right settings.
I think it’s a good headset to fill the gap between what we have now and where we want to be in a couple of years if you don’t mind the mandatory Facebook account.
The fact that it is wireless will certainly help to try out other VR experiences, you can for example use it as a casual device in your living room or when traveling. It is by far the most versatile VR device on the market.
Well if Valve is coming out with something new I will be very interested in it. I would love to see an improved Index with maybe inside/out tracking to reduce the cost and complexity of setup. I would be all over that.
I’d prefer they keep it instead because this makes a dramatic difference with all applications, especially FS2020, when comparing G2 and Index. The former is constantly lagging any head movement as if the cockpit is attached with dampeners and springs to your head, whereas the later is spot on always.
I believe the problem is that WMR inside-out tracking is effective but only if the computer has the processing power left to do so. When using FS2020 you’re sucking up all available CPU/GPU resources to the point WMR has to deal with really a minimum. Otherwise if by any event WMR is “reserving” some of the CPU/GPU resources for its own computations, these are resources which become unavailable for FS2020 conversely. Not much probably, but enough to see a huge difference in tracking accuracy and lagging between the G2 and the Index.
Actually all WMR headsets should include Valve tracking in my opinion. In effect, adding 6DOF tracking to the G2 using the LightHouse base stations is very cost effective.
For example the electronic component for this is very cheap and integrated:
Even not expensive with just photo-diodes at retail prices:
In the end, this just need some software development to gather the data and compute the position/rotation of the headset.
The advantage of WMR as far as I understand is that you mostly just need to assemble the “capturing” hardware (cameras, accelerometers, gyros), send their raw data and WMR does the rest for you. Whereas with LightHouse tracking I believe they would have had to put some of the logic in the HMD firmware in order to pre-process the raw data from the sensors. Not much of a task in the end for such product though, and immediate benefit for those of use wanting to make the tracking better.
Thanks for the responses all. I think I’ll wait a bit in the short term while Nvida works on new drivers for the 3000 series, Asobo works on some updates, and maybe a headset announcement.
How much do you have to drop the render scaling to make that work?
I keep at 100% but my specs are Asus rampage VI Econcore/i9 10980XE @ 5.0 all 32 cores/Evga RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Hybrid. 65 of 2800 gigs mem. getting around 30/35 FPS. MSFS2020 medium setting. PS I keep my FOV at 170.
Valve index is an excellent headset. Slightly lower res (but impact is minimal) but higher fov, refresh rate and much better controllers and movement tracking.
When you say it wasn’t sharp enough what was the issue? I have no problem reading dashboard text in the index.
There isn’t any major headset on the market right now with a significant increase in resolution compared to g2/index. I consider the pimax more of a tech demo right now, not really mainstream.
So maybe wait, but personally I can’t imagine going back to flying in 2d now.
You are right as long as you define 598ppi vs 1057ppi as “slightly lower”.
Besides all of its weaknesses, the g2’s image quality is top gear at the moment.
But if Valve come around with an Index2 later this year I will have an very eye on this
Just sharp enough. A caveat is needed here though as I didn’t get a chance to really hone the ideal settings before my G2 died. Analog gauge text was readable, but that and scenery were still a bit blurry. I expected this of course, but the image quality was the one thing the G2 really had going for it. It would be a bit disappointing giving that up I think, but I guess every headset is a compromise in some way as the perfect one just doesn’t exist. It’s nice to hear that the text is still quite readable with other headsets though.
I’d love to just try another G2, but I’m dreading spending weeks with shipping and returns only to see the exact same error message pop up on the screen.
