Rift S (1 Viewer)

[SlowBloke]

I got the Rift S delivered today.

Kinda underwhelmed - I was expecting more after GamerMuscle was rather positive about it.

Visuals - It is definitely clearer than the original Rift CV1 but I could still notice more SDE than what seems to be the going details.
Sound - for basic stuff absolutely fine - for sim racing not suitable - have to use headphones.
Colours - I really did not notice a difference regarding the whole OLED vs LCD - even the blacks at night were absolutely fine for me.
80 FPS - not a problem at all.
Comfort - not as good as the CV1 imo
Glasses wearers - miles better than the CV1 where I had to get inserts.
FOV - no real difference but at times I felt aware in my peripheral vision on the outside that there was a definite line rather than natural curved outer edge of FOV
Tracking - did not notice anything negative vs Rift but most of what I do is sitting down
IPD - Image sweet spot was good - Im 65mm and hence I cant comment on much different IDP
Value - If I did not have the Rift CV1 then 400 pounds is ok to get on the ladder

As the HP Reverb was finally available to order the same day as I got my Rift (today!) I am returning the Rift S and have ordered the reverb - just hope performance wise I can figure something out !

Thought people might want to know in case they were also on the fence...

 

[Jomba]

Did you try the reverb yet?

 

[SlowBloke]

Did you try the reverb yet?

I did - alas it went back a few days later...

Clarity - amazing and very comfortable.

Could not use my glasses but was able to squeeze my CV1 lens inserts into them although its not a great fit...

Performance wise not usable in the slightest for sim racing unless you are happy with 60hz refresh.

Some people may be ok with it but I felt sick within seconds - Im fine with 45fps ASW on Rift.

A lot of VR artifacts and image problems with the same settings as I use with my Rift and very low frame rates at notable increase in resolution over the Rift (using 6700k and 1080ti).

At the time WMR did not have working ASW and no updates on working on it anywhere to be found online - which was probably a significant part of the problem.

I could of course drop in game settings and steam vr resolution significantly but for the perrformance / experience to be comparable to Rift it actually looked worse meaning completely pointless to have the Reverb.

In addition the WMR+Steam VR software is really poor in comparison to Oculus - lots of PC crashes, Communication failing to headset and other general usability issues including the view all of a sudden looking like a TV with no signal requiring restarts etc..

The controllers were terrible but tracking was fine for sim racing.

If the WMR/Steam VR combo software wise improves significantly and the headset becomes reliable then it would be a great purchase but as is imo its not fit for purpose.

Of note I now have a Valve index with a single base station. Only problem is I cant use it because my glasses do not fit and without its a complete blur

The actual headset is miles ahead in quality over the competition. I did find performance took a hit over Rift and felt ASW in Steam VR to be of a lesser standard to Oculus by what appeared to be microstutters sometimes but until I can see whats going on I really cannot judge.

Have ordered these: https://vr-lens-lab.com/product/vr-frames-virtual-reality-glasses/

Once they arrive I will update with my views on the Index

 

[Puffpirat]

Of note I now have a Valve index with a single base station.

Wait that works!? Would I need HTC/Valve controllers? Only Index and 1 base station would bring the price a good bit down compared to the 1079€ for the complete package!

 

[Jomba]

Wait that works!? Would I need HTC/Valve controllers? Only Index and 1 base station would bring the price a good bit down compared to the 1079€ for the complete package!

Since you are considering this upgrade, I take that you are not completely satisfied with Rift S? Why is that?
(I'm asking these questions, because I'm also considering to upgrade, just not sure what; new headseat or CPU upgrade)

 

[Puffpirat]

Ah no the Rift S is fine The sound is shit but I have a beyerdynamic headset that fits great over the halo headstrap so that's not a problem for me.

It's just that the Index is a lot more tempting for 700€ than for 1080€ Price vs performance nothing beats the Rift S but the Index is surely the better headset, not by much though.

 

[Jomba]

Looks like you did your research.
What is your opinion on Samsung Odyssey+?

 

[SlowBloke]

Wait that works!? Would I need HTC/Valve controllers? Only Index and 1 base station would bring the price a good bit down compared to the 1079€ for the complete package!

For sim racing only you are 100% fine with 1 base station and the index headset.

Im not clear on what other controllers work but think its safe to err on the side of caution and assume not.

Once I can see what the hell Im doing (VR glasses in transit) I will test with XBox controller to see what can be done. Im not overly fussed as Ill keep my Rift for room scale stuff as a I rarely do that. I dont like the sound of the Valve controllers. Plenty of issues being reported and they seem too gimmicky to be main stream which I think will mean few developers will really go with it.

Post automatically merged: Jul 12, 2019

Looks like you did your research.
What is your opinion on Samsung Odyssey+?

I have not tried it - but again WMR puts me off .... a lot. It just does not sound like Microsoft is serious about progressing it and my experience software wise in the Reverb was really the worst of all the headsets Ive tried (I would really miss ASW - other people prefer no ASW).

One guy was pretty vocal about it not being comfortable at the back of his head sitting down in a high chair.

Also see a fair few reports that the visuals tend to be a bit out of focus/fuzzy - although the SDE / resolution is much better vs 1st gen headsets.

Still a fair few people swear by them over their 1st gen Rift/Vive.

 

[SlowBloke]

Right then as promised - I had the prescription lenses delivered Friday hence my Valve index ramblings below....

Best build quality of all HMD I have tried
Its also the heaviest - for experiences where you move around a lot I can see that getting to be a pain as it moves around a bit unless you really have it tight - for sim racing no problems.
Sound - better than CV1 and Reverb - MUCH better than Rift S
Visuals - I can still see SDE but much reduced vs CV1 - not as good as Reverb about same/bit better than Rift S
Colours - PCars 2 seems a little more washed out but not much in it. No noticable difference in iRacing / AC
SteamVR - Still lagging behind Oculus but much better than WMR
ASW - Again not as good as Oculus but doable - have to find right resolution / game settings - just coming from a Rift and expecting to use the same will result in bad performance.
Extra FOV - Nice but no game changer.

Game specific:
Resolution @ 100% unless stated (2016x2240) - if I go significantly lower although less SDE it looks worse than on Rift = pointless.

Project Cars 2: Significant performance hit. Certain conditions I cant even maintain ASW. General day time 20 cars even Long Beach its ok with ASW. The real performance hit is shadows - with that off its generally smooth with no artifacts but out goes significant immersion.

AC: Having hassles with sound not coming through the Index speakers - but generally performance seems fine.

ACC: Forget it - with 1080ti frequent 25fps dips with a lot of artifacts - vomit inducing within 30 seconds.

Iracing: Holy shitballs ! Now this is a real upgrade.... This is the one where I really notice the difference vs the Rift. 90fps with my mixture of low-high settings during this weeks Sebring in the Skippy... I can even set the refresh to 120 and hold it under those circumstances. Yes the Reverb has significantly better clarity but at the cost of not being able to play anything at all due to performance / bugs / random issues.

However if I load a night time @ Daytona Road Course replay of a Le Mans series race it was struggling - but no more than I was with the Rift. So for night time racing I would need to drop shadows/few other bits.

I dont know for iRacing if the Single Pass Stereo is the major difference or something else but I get no performance drops compared to the Rift and that btw is at 150% resolution (2468x2740).

Not something I had considered before but apart from the iRacing visuals/performance the other main reason why Im sticking with the Index.......eye comfort.

With the Index - I do not feel the eye strain / issues at all so far and I definitely did with the Rift - I us eye drops after a rift session - I do not need to do that with the Index at all - a big change for me.

This headset + sims begs for more power than an 1080ti can deliver.

Generally ASW is doable but you really dont want to go there if you dont have to - where as with the Rift imo 100% ASW is absolutely fine as a normal setting

Frankly I would think even a 2080ti can be brought to its knees quite easily if you want to see the higher resolutions in PC2 with eye candy and scenes with significant lighting / shadows.

I would say the best choice for realistic good value /performance headset with the above taken into consideration for sim racing right now is the Rift S with your own sound solution. A 1080ti rocks that set up no problem and its smooth sailing for the most part with Oculus.

If you have that itch you cant scratch (and the spare pennies) - then I would say Index has more potential overall to look great but I think it will really need a 3080ti whenever that comes out to do it justice for what we do..... Buying an index with a lesser gfx card/cpu that you cannot upgrade imo will result in disappointment.

 

[SlowBloke]

Well I just keep on going..... just in case anyone is interested

As I said iRacing really is as good as it gets on the Index for me either with 1080ti or 2080ti....Ive been using it for a few weeks now but even then every time I do it I am amazed at how much clearer it is than anything else (whilst still being useable vs Reverb).

However I just have not been overly happy with PC2 on Steam VR. Its ok but there are significantly more stutters / ghosting / anomolies in Reprojection / Smoothing (even with 2080ti) and colour balance issues such as:

Black writing on white on track the blacks dont show until its too late mainly (not good for brake signs)
Washed out colours losing immersion - make trees look very unrealistic and the buildings on Long Beach on back straight almost look like Ridge Racer scenery without textures.

Sooo.. I thought... do I buy another base station and controllers for 400 quid for non sim stuff (when there are a lot of posts about controller issues) or do I just buy a Rift S as well....

That way I could also do non sim stuff without additional trackers.

So I went for the Rift S and I think it was the right decision....

For PCars 2 - imo the Rift S is 100% the way to go - the image I can get is really really good, smooth, very immersive. yes I lose FOV but I am more than happy to pay the price for just how smooth and solid it all feels in the Rift vs the Index. I am significantly more immersed in the Rift S for Pcars 2.

I do not for a second blame the Index for that - I think Steam VR needs to catch up with Oculus software in numerous areas and until that is done if you just want something that works - the Rift S is the way to go even with less FOV and crappy sound which you can get round by plugging in half decent earphones.

Im keeping hold of the index but it will only really be used for iRacing until Steam VR catches up with Oculus.

 

[Mark]

I’m glad to read that, having just taken the plunge myself into a rift S. Not had a huge amount of time to use it yet but so far I’m really happy with it.
If you’ve got any tips or anything on tweaking the setup to get the maximum out of the thing I’d very much like to hear them.

 

[SlowBloke]

@Mark I guess it depends on your PC specs and sensitivity to ASW - assuming your after game settings ? Also which game your most interested in and under what circumstances....

For PC2 the best test imo is Long Beach at night with storm and as many AI as you expect to race normally and just see where you are with current settings FPS wise and go from there. Algarve at sunset also seemed to hammer the Index so probably a good test too. As long as those run well the you should be fine for anything else.

iRacing - harder to test but I found a Le Mans Endurance at night hammered my system the most so had to turn some settings down/off - where as my normal settings or even higher were fine with Skippy races anywhere.

So its a bit of a toughie really. I dont think I am qualified to give specific input on individual settings / PC settings to really get the most out of things.... more often than not when I try settings other people say is amazing its kinda pants

 

[Mark]

Thanks mate. Sounded like you know what you were talking about above so thought I’d ask. Certainly seem a lot more clues up than me that’s for sure.
I’ve got a Ryzen 7 2700, gtx 1070 and 16gb of 3200 ram. Nothing special but it seems to run fairly smooth on Monza which will be my first race with it this Sunday night.
I’ll be using pCars mostly and a bit of assetto corsa and Competizione hopefully soon. No iracing though unfortunately.
So do the graphics settings in PCars make a difference in vr ? I mean the low/medium/high settings. I’ve got the slider up on 2.0 in the vr setting and a pretty low resolution on the monitor screen. Not had a huge amount of time to test much really but I will give those scenarios you mentioned a go over the weekend. Cheers.

 

[SlowBloke]

With a 1070 - By slider if you mean Pixel density - I would knock that down to 1.2 maybe even 1....

I would start with everything on low and first..
pixel density 1.2
Anisotropic filtering x 16
Texture Resolution High / medium
See if you can get MSAA at medium or even high (but this will eat resources)...
Shadows Off - they are a real killer (although they add a lot of immersion so maybe try low)

See what its like with Visual Effects > post processing on and off with the above...

Then bring up
Track Detail Medium ideally high
car detail medium
Enhanced mirrors
reflections
environment map

You may already be ghosting etc.. by now or before but I would say work with that lot first in terms of visual quality in that order.... at least thats what I would do.

You will firmly be in ASW but if you are ok with it (I am on rift) its essentially allowing you to have twice resources for visuals with imo very little if any drop in smoothness. Thats the gift of the Oculus Rift vs Index where I am sensitive to it more.

 

[Mark]

Thanks very much for that. Seems I’ve got a bit of work to do! Not least googling what ASW and ghosting is lol.
Really appreciate your time putting that together for me though. Will give it a go as soon as my wife falls asleep

 

[Havocc]

I think my rig (in sig) deserves a index but they're actually sold out

Edit: @SlowBloke are you still preferring rift s over index after 6 months?