Anyone planning on getting this? If the recent hints by the devs regarding an increased FOV (which would take it to almost equal of the Quest Pro and bigger than the G2) are true, and ignoring the slightly outrageous price for what you are in effect getting in terms of actual hardware and functionality, it should be pretty amazing for MSFS, no?
I’m a bit concerned about the low brightness and not-quite edge-to-edge clarity (at least compared to QPro/Crystal), but I feel like there are no real alternatives to look forward to.
I’ve tried 2 HMDs with compression now (Pico 4, QPro) and it’s simply not feasible for me in the long term, even at what are currently the highest bitrates.
For the QPro, this is compounded with low resolution. Edge-to-edge clarity is superb, but not worth much when anything further than “very close” looks extremely pixellated/grainy/blurry/unrealistic and generally lacking detail and the pseduo-photorealism that the G2 offers.
I think the size, weight, looks, build quality, battery requirement and more of the Crystal are ridiculous when you consider the price. Also, I don’t want a 1.2kg “stand-alone” brick, all the standalone stuff is just deadweight to me, at least with this form factor. There also seems to be an overall air of jankyness surrounding it that I’m not ready for when paying ca. 1800k euro.
Taking all this into account, I thing the BB looks like a viable option, even if a single base station is required and the audio solution costs extra. Especially the QPro made me realize again how important comfort is, even with a comfort mod it’s temperamental at best and requires a lot of readjustment. The G2 is MUCH more comfortable and easy to use.
As a reminder, the pro’s are:
2560x2560 micro-OLED displays
Pancake lenses
Insanely small/comfortable form factor, almost like wearing glasses/extremely small skimask
I mean as someone who wears glasses and opts not to purchase Rx inserts it’s gonna be blurry regardless. I can wear my specs with my G2 just fine (though i get fogging when playing something physical like Beatsaber or something violent like Blade and Sorcery).
These might alleviate that since my big forehead isn’t gonna condensate the inside of my forehead
What i’m trying to say is: Looks nice, I want it, but I can’t justify a new VR headset when the G2 is doing good for me (originally an upgrade from Rift S)
I was following the BB with great interest for a while. It’s a very inviting idea, especially with all the user specific measures etc. However, the need for a base station put me off completely. No idea why they couldn’t go with inside-out tracking. Really disappointing if you ask me.
Yeah Basestation req sucks. But since you only need 1 I’ll consider it if everything else looks good. Wouldn’t even get controllers initially, if ever.
I am very close to replacing MRTV with you. you’ll become my go-to guy for VR hardware reviews as it seems you’ll soon try every set out there lol :DDDD
Haha not quite, wasn’t that many compared to some!
Gear VR - > Rift S - > G2 - > second hand Pico4 (not for long) → QPro (triggered my return today, only had it 3 weeks).
But yeah, if the Beyond was already out I’d probably buy it… It’s all MSFSs fault!
I hadn’t heard of this unit yet. I tried the G2 for about 5 minutes but the small sweet spot and LCD screens where a big turn off. And the Aero doesn’t support AMD GPUs. So I’ve been sticking with my O+.
The price looks good even with the Rx inserts and audio strap add-on. I’ll wait for the official launch and a few reviews before I buy though. I’m still holding out hope for a Samsung Odyssey3.
I’ve only had WMR headsets so far (Dell Visor before the G2) and you know what i was thinking these days… Perhaps we’ve been going through this the wrong way, always waiting and thinking about future VR headsets. When i swapped my Dell Visor for the G2 which has substantially higher resolution, i have to say MSFS was the most dissapointing in terms of visual results. I was expecting G2 to somehow look massively better and it just didn’t. And to get the same clarity based on barrel distortion i had to run the Visor at 3000x3000 per eye, whereas i have to run the G2 at 4000x4000 for comparable clarity. The truth is, if you set the supersampling resolution high enough on an older headset like that, it doesn’t even look any worse than G2 for example. The real trick however is the performance. It’s a given that even with a higher supersampling ratio, you’ll have an easier time getting better performance with an older headset. And there were some very interesting headsets out there. A good example is the Odyssey (not the + one, but the original one). It’s supposedly got a really stunning picture quality because of the AMOLED screens. I’ve read a post from someone that still has it and swears by it (in comparison to the G2 for example). You could also get a used one dirt cheap these days. Not a fan of buying used VR headsets though. In any case…in regards to performance…perhaps we should start thinking in that direction…until we have like rtx 5080
Hm I get your point but with the QPro I found the opposite: due to its lower res, it looked really bad at the same upscaling vs the G2 (for example, 4200x or 4000x). So if you have a higher res headset, it can actually look a lot better than on a lower res one, even when running a lower resolution than on the lower res headset! Even pushing the Pro to 4700x + it still looked like garbage unless you are looking at quite close objects/scenery, and even the cockpit was nowhere near as clear as in the G2.
I think the Beyond would be a big step up VS both the G2 and Pro as it combines displayport, high res and pancake lenses, and the amazing form factor, plus the micro OLED.
And it can do 75hz. If the G2 could do 72 or 75hz, it would be a slightly different story.
And the impact of good pancake lenses cannot be overstated!
That’s true. But while i have no experience with wireless headsets, i think any kind of comparisons between a headset that uses compression vs displayport is pointless. At least judging from what users like yourself are saying. Meanwhile lower res displayport headsets don’t look much worse than g2 on lower resolutions since the matrix is smaller, and you need less pixels to fill it. From my personal experience Dell visor which has a native res 1440x1440, upscaled to 3000x3000 looks very very close to what G2 looks like at 4000x4000. Mind you, i’m not talking about picture quality properties (brigthness, colors, etc), just from a clarity point of view. It’s really unfortunate that you can’t run G2 on 60hz though…from a performance perspective it would be a straight win. Since there’s not much motion, i’m sure 60hz would do just fine…if it only wasn’t for the ■■■■ unbarable strobbing. So, i imagine BB running at 75hz could potentially be a huge factor when it comes to performance.
Wish there was a 65hz mode or something, might be the sweet spot between smoothness and a high def image. Not sure whether 60hz in VR in general always strobes or it’s specific to the G2.
indeed. Well…if people can handle 72hz in Oculus headsets, i have to assume the bloody strobing on 60hz in WMR headsets (it was the same on my previous WMR headset) must be somekind of WMR issue. I find it hard to believe this strobing is noticable on 60hz but it wouldn’t be obvious on 72hz. It’s mind boggling though, that there are actually people out there that don’t notice the strobbing on 60hz. Brain is a wierd organ.
Edit: This is what a user wrote on reddit about the 60hz WMR…
"This has everything to do with WMR and Windows. Back in Win 10 1903, MS made a bunch of changes to 60Hz rendering, downgrading every aspect, assuming it would only be used on low end machines not capable of 90Hz. A year later (in version 2004), they finally fixed the FOV problem (after a year of complaints since the launch of 1903), but the rendering still flickers.
This is kind of hard to prove with the G2, since it won’t run on the older builds, but a Samsung Odyssey+ runs perfectly fine at 60Hz on build 1809. The only difference between 90/60 is the FPS cap. Sure, it’s not “as smooth” as 90Hz, but it certainly doesn’t flicker. Running that same O+ on 2004 or later flickers to to point that I can’t comfortably use it.
I understand why people think this is normal, since with a G2 you wouldn’t have seen it any different, but I assure you it is not! MS broke it two years ago, and it remains broken. "
@mbucchia Hello Matthieu… Could i please ask you a question on the above topic. How complicated is it from a technical perspective to add a certain refresh rate option? Is this something that’s technically hard to implement or…? It would be so awesome to have something like 72 or 75hz on the G2. Well…or no flickering at 60. Do you have any means of doing something along these lines? Would be another awesome Mbucchia magic trick to gain performance Best regards
Regarding your question to our lord and savior, I’ve looked into this before and unfortunately the G2 Hardware is apparently hardlocked to 60 and 90hz only =(
And yes, 72hz is not just bearable but absolutely amazing!
I’ve read that there are hardware limitations in terms of just adding native 72hz support through some magic firmware. However, back in the day i remember there were tools with which you were able to force certain refresh rates on monitors. “Upscaling” was a huge problem, but forcing a lower refresh was very doable if i remember correctly. Maybe it’s possible that with godlike powers like our lord and saviors’ something like this could be done on a VR headset as well.
