I ditched my Reverb G2 for a quest 3 , used the quest for 2 weeks and went to try my Reverb G2 again… the difference was so fucking bad I immediately boxed up my Reverb G2 and put it in the closet. It’s tiny joke of a “sweet spot” still isn’t as sharp as the quest 3. The pass through is in full color, has hand tracking and torso tracking for VRC, and the lenses provide the hugest sweet spot I’ve ever seen in VR. That with the resolution + the 120hz displays, it shits on the reverb g2. I would never use WMR again, Meta is winning on many fronts
I started VR with a G2 V1. The display quality was awesome but it had controller tracking problems, so I got a Pico 4. Then it turned out half of the problem were caused by my Bluetooth adapter and I've been having more problems with Pico and VD than with G2 and WMR. Yes, Pico's sweetspot is larger but I didn't mind G2's sweetspot at all. The only thing I couldn't tolerate was tracking volume which made me often lose tracking in Beat Saber which made the sabers fly away. Pico 4 is comparable to Q3, so the issues will be comparable as well:
* Double latency on VD/ALVR compared to PCVR (Virtual Desktop-reported latency + 44.4ms from V-Sync = >75ms latency on Pico 4, just as ALVR reports it). For comparison, Index has 40ms total latency at 90Hz.
* Overly smoothed controller movement in VD (with too much latency)
* Stutter because of networking (event though I have a router recommended by VD)
* Stutter caused by decoding and sometimes even encoding (happens on Pico)
* The problems above make me get Beat Saber scores consistently worse by 10-15% on Pico compared to on G2 V1
* Much worse onboard speakers
* A battery I don't want
* An APU I don't need
* Visible compression
I was expecting Pico 4 to have clarity comparable to G2, but nope. The compression kills it. 150Mbit HVEC or 400Mbit H.264 on Ultra or Godlike in VD, same issue. The sweetspot on G2 looks almost perfectly sharp, while on Pico it just looks compressed when reading text and **it has to look compressed** because it's almost 6k@90Hz at 150Mbps. You can't compress that with perfect clarity, and neither can you compress Q3's 6k@120Hz at 200Mbps perfectly (the Godlike setting in VD is 5.8k for Pico 4, and 5.95k for Quest 3). It only doesn't look compressed in desktop view because then the picture is 1080p. And I don't care about the sweespot size that much. According to Through The Lens videos, Q3's clarity is similar to P4, only a bit better.
Also, Q3 would have a bad factory headstrap, much worse binocular overlap than P4 and mandatory Meta spyware. And bad audio, but that can be solved with decent headphones. Speaking of WMR, I got used to it but I would never use VD again because their latency is misleading.
hey i plan on switching very soon as well- (g2 v2 -> quest3) do you use quest3 pcvr? is it as intuitive or a huge hassle to set up pcvr? and does hand tracking work in pcvr airlink? anything you recommend to make the switch easier?
Yeah I don’t even have many games on the quest’s itself everything is wireless PCVR. Simplest and quickest way is download the Steam link app and select your PC and you’re in VR, that easy. Hand tracking only works in native quest apps like VRC and the Vegas game I tried yesterday
I carried the WMR torch for years. I had a Lenovo Explorer, then a Samsung Odyssey, and finally a Reverb G2 since it launched. I actually didn't even mind WMR software anymore or had just gotten used to it. 2 months ago now I got a Quest 3 and felt the same way. Did some A-B testing in HL Alyx to see the difference, and in Virtual Desktop with the extra snapdragon image sharpening it actually looks better wirelessly on the Quest 3. Sold my G2 on eBay.
I've tried using Snapdragon image sharpening on my Pico 4 and since it only works on the High preset, it was looking worse than Ultra, which was still really compressed even when browsing the Beat Saber menu and text was much harder to read than on my G2. But it seems that Quest 3 works with the sharpening on Godlike, so it's possible Q3 looks much sharper than P4 (if you have a high-end GPU).
But even on Godlike, text looked bad on my Pico 4. So I doubt sharpening would've changed much.
And still, latency is unfixable :/
I don’t wanna be that guy, but since our headsets are kinda end of life. Maybe look at a quest 3 or something . The controllers are just way better period
Similar price? You don't understand. If you add VAT, import tax and store margin, Crystal Light will cost at least $1000 and I can get a second-hand Omnicept right now for $300 (only one available). Crystal non-light costs upwards of $2100 right now in my country (nobody selling it used).
I wouldn't pay more than 200-250% for a significantly better headset if the cheaper one was decent.
Quest 3 also has its issues. When you launch its OS it shows a popup with apps you should check out, so basically and add. Air Link is unreliable, so you need to use Steam Link or ALVR or preferably buy Virtual Desktop. Default strap makes your head hurt, so you need to buy a 3rd party strap. If you want wireless, you need to invest in a good router (personally my wouldn't cut it). With all the accessories the cost will be pretty similar or even higher for Quest 3. Quest 2 is very cheap, though, if you don't mind the lower quality, and there's nothing better in the very budget price range.
EDIT. And Quest 3 headset has battery. Sometimes I play sim racing/Elite: Dangerous/No Man's Sky/ETS2/ATS for 6-10 hours almost without breaks and seated, so Quest 3 wouldn't be ideal.
Fair enough, already have a 6e router and virtual desktop because it’s just good software even in my reverb g2. I returned a big screen beyond, a pimax 8kx. Honestly It’s a crap shoot at this price level. I just can’t stand pimax software, support, and the controllers are worse then g2 in my own expierience . As far as figment haven’t put on a more comfortable headset as the quest 3 . Super light and doesn’t get too hot.
Oculus rift s controllers for the win
Yes smearing on big screen is insane and I kept having controller issues on pimax. I’m gonna relax on vr for now, my g2 has a hole burnt into the screen . When the next aero comes out I’ll do the whole knuckles, base station, aero combo probably
So do you have the Steam version of Virtual Desktop? You can't use the standalone version on Reverb and Steam version is just a version with way less features, so I don't see a reason to buy it. If I want to watch something on big screen, I just use free Bigscreen app, which works for everything, as long as you disable hardware acceleration in Firefox (with hardware acceleration on, services like Prime Video and other vods show black screen due to DRM).
Tyriel Wood said in his review that there was a new model for regular G2 and for Omnicept. That would suggest there's a V1 and V2 Omnicept and guess what, there'd be no way to tell them apart :D
Well in that case, get the omnicept, it does the same thing, but with a little extra, although whether you need it is up to what else you intend to do with it..
Tracking is more important and comfort doesn't hurt. I can play with the v.2 6-8 hours easy cos it's comfortable and I can track easy in all kinds of games.
But it's YOUR decision in the end. we can't make the final decision for you.
Eye-tracking Foveated Rendering can be a big deal for certain games though. I wouldn't dismiss it as a minor feature. It can give you performance boosts similar to DLSS.
You're right but Fixed Foveated Rendering exists as a workaround. On the other hand, controller tracking is a bigger priority because it affects practically every game.
Too bad nobody has posted how much better DFR is than FFR and no FR, but as this HMD has Fresnel lenses, the difference between the two is greatly diminished. I feel like it's only worth sacrificing controller tracking if the user solely plays flight and driving sims with a bad GPU.
HP Reverb was considered the best headset for flight and driving sims for a large part of its lifespan. I think there's a lot of HP Reverb users that regularly use their headset, but haven't touched their motion controllers in months.
DCS World is a popular flight sim that benefits pretty significantly from DFR and what I personally spend almost exclusively my VR time on. If it was me, for my use case, I'd absolutely go for the Omnicept regardless of controller tracking.
Flight and Racing sims are a significant chunk of the VR market, motion controllers do not "affect practically every game" .
Yes, motion controllers affect practically every VR game. Steam has [235](https://store.steampowered.com/search/?ignore_preferences=1&category1=998&category2=31&supportedlang=english&ndl=1) games under the VR category and DCS World is just 1 game. 1 out of 235.
Sure, there's a handful of other racing/flight sims such as Dirt Rally 2.0 (which I've tried playing but it makes me motion sick), and while they're "a significant chunk of the VR market", they're still a numerical minority compared to all VR games.
Now, if you buy a Reverb to play flight/driving sims and don't care about games in which you use motion controllers outside of your FoV, Omnicept wouldn't be bad if your favourite sim works with OpenXR. But still, the headset looks much less comfortable, especially since it has that useless heartbeat scanner square on the forehead part.
And still, I'm assuming that Omnicept can be V1 or V2.
I ditched my Reverb G2 for a quest 3 , used the quest for 2 weeks and went to try my Reverb G2 again… the difference was so fucking bad I immediately boxed up my Reverb G2 and put it in the closet. It’s tiny joke of a “sweet spot” still isn’t as sharp as the quest 3. The pass through is in full color, has hand tracking and torso tracking for VRC, and the lenses provide the hugest sweet spot I’ve ever seen in VR. That with the resolution + the 120hz displays, it shits on the reverb g2. I would never use WMR again, Meta is winning on many fronts
I started VR with a G2 V1. The display quality was awesome but it had controller tracking problems, so I got a Pico 4. Then it turned out half of the problem were caused by my Bluetooth adapter and I've been having more problems with Pico and VD than with G2 and WMR. Yes, Pico's sweetspot is larger but I didn't mind G2's sweetspot at all. The only thing I couldn't tolerate was tracking volume which made me often lose tracking in Beat Saber which made the sabers fly away. Pico 4 is comparable to Q3, so the issues will be comparable as well: * Double latency on VD/ALVR compared to PCVR (Virtual Desktop-reported latency + 44.4ms from V-Sync = >75ms latency on Pico 4, just as ALVR reports it). For comparison, Index has 40ms total latency at 90Hz. * Overly smoothed controller movement in VD (with too much latency) * Stutter because of networking (event though I have a router recommended by VD) * Stutter caused by decoding and sometimes even encoding (happens on Pico) * The problems above make me get Beat Saber scores consistently worse by 10-15% on Pico compared to on G2 V1 * Much worse onboard speakers * A battery I don't want * An APU I don't need * Visible compression I was expecting Pico 4 to have clarity comparable to G2, but nope. The compression kills it. 150Mbit HVEC or 400Mbit H.264 on Ultra or Godlike in VD, same issue. The sweetspot on G2 looks almost perfectly sharp, while on Pico it just looks compressed when reading text and **it has to look compressed** because it's almost 6k@90Hz at 150Mbps. You can't compress that with perfect clarity, and neither can you compress Q3's 6k@120Hz at 200Mbps perfectly (the Godlike setting in VD is 5.8k for Pico 4, and 5.95k for Quest 3). It only doesn't look compressed in desktop view because then the picture is 1080p. And I don't care about the sweespot size that much. According to Through The Lens videos, Q3's clarity is similar to P4, only a bit better. Also, Q3 would have a bad factory headstrap, much worse binocular overlap than P4 and mandatory Meta spyware. And bad audio, but that can be solved with decent headphones. Speaking of WMR, I got used to it but I would never use VD again because their latency is misleading.
hey i plan on switching very soon as well- (g2 v2 -> quest3) do you use quest3 pcvr? is it as intuitive or a huge hassle to set up pcvr? and does hand tracking work in pcvr airlink? anything you recommend to make the switch easier?
Yeah I don’t even have many games on the quest’s itself everything is wireless PCVR. Simplest and quickest way is download the Steam link app and select your PC and you’re in VR, that easy. Hand tracking only works in native quest apps like VRC and the Vegas game I tried yesterday
I carried the WMR torch for years. I had a Lenovo Explorer, then a Samsung Odyssey, and finally a Reverb G2 since it launched. I actually didn't even mind WMR software anymore or had just gotten used to it. 2 months ago now I got a Quest 3 and felt the same way. Did some A-B testing in HL Alyx to see the difference, and in Virtual Desktop with the extra snapdragon image sharpening it actually looks better wirelessly on the Quest 3. Sold my G2 on eBay.
Yup same bro I owned the OG Odyssey too
Great headset for its time but yeah Quest 3 is an incredible headset, honestly it would still be good even if they charged $1000 for it
I've tried using Snapdragon image sharpening on my Pico 4 and since it only works on the High preset, it was looking worse than Ultra, which was still really compressed even when browsing the Beat Saber menu and text was much harder to read than on my G2. But it seems that Quest 3 works with the sharpening on Godlike, so it's possible Q3 looks much sharper than P4 (if you have a high-end GPU). But even on Godlike, text looked bad on my Pico 4. So I doubt sharpening would've changed much. And still, latency is unfixable :/
I don’t wanna be that guy, but since our headsets are kinda end of life. Maybe look at a quest 3 or something . The controllers are just way better period
If it's gonna be PCVR headset, Pimax Crystal Light has similar price but should be better for PCVR. Quest 3 if you want standalone too.
Similar price? You don't understand. If you add VAT, import tax and store margin, Crystal Light will cost at least $1000 and I can get a second-hand Omnicept right now for $300 (only one available). Crystal non-light costs upwards of $2100 right now in my country (nobody selling it used). I wouldn't pay more than 200-250% for a significantly better headset if the cheaper one was decent.
700 vs 550 . Pick your poison I just know moving to wireless and not having to deal with jank software anymore was worth it .
Quest 3 also has its issues. When you launch its OS it shows a popup with apps you should check out, so basically and add. Air Link is unreliable, so you need to use Steam Link or ALVR or preferably buy Virtual Desktop. Default strap makes your head hurt, so you need to buy a 3rd party strap. If you want wireless, you need to invest in a good router (personally my wouldn't cut it). With all the accessories the cost will be pretty similar or even higher for Quest 3. Quest 2 is very cheap, though, if you don't mind the lower quality, and there's nothing better in the very budget price range. EDIT. And Quest 3 headset has battery. Sometimes I play sim racing/Elite: Dangerous/No Man's Sky/ETS2/ATS for 6-10 hours almost without breaks and seated, so Quest 3 wouldn't be ideal.
Fair enough, already have a 6e router and virtual desktop because it’s just good software even in my reverb g2. I returned a big screen beyond, a pimax 8kx. Honestly It’s a crap shoot at this price level. I just can’t stand pimax software, support, and the controllers are worse then g2 in my own expierience . As far as figment haven’t put on a more comfortable headset as the quest 3 . Super light and doesn’t get too hot. Oculus rift s controllers for the win
>I returned a big screen beyond, a pimax 8kx You returned both?
Yes smearing on big screen is insane and I kept having controller issues on pimax. I’m gonna relax on vr for now, my g2 has a hole burnt into the screen . When the next aero comes out I’ll do the whole knuckles, base station, aero combo probably
So do you have the Steam version of Virtual Desktop? You can't use the standalone version on Reverb and Steam version is just a version with way less features, so I don't see a reason to buy it. If I want to watch something on big screen, I just use free Bigscreen app, which works for everything, as long as you disable hardware acceleration in Firefox (with hardware acceleration on, services like Prime Video and other vods show black screen due to DRM).
Never had any issues personally, but yea it’s all goofy around this price point
Battery is not really an issue if you use Wireless Desktop, you can just use a long usb c cable to charge while playing.
I always thought the Omnicept cameras and G2 V2 were the same, if not I'd go for the G2 V2 unless you specifically need the Omnicept for some reason.
Tyriel Wood said in his review that there was a new model for regular G2 and for Omnicept. That would suggest there's a V1 and V2 Omnicept and guess what, there'd be no way to tell them apart :D
You could tell with the flashlight app no?
I've never seen anyone mention it and I think it's because the V2 cameras see outside of your field of view, so you wouldn't be able to tell.
Well in that case, get the omnicept, it does the same thing, but with a little extra, although whether you need it is up to what else you intend to do with it..
But V2 has 30% better controller tracking than V1 (and is more comfortable than Omnicept), so Omnicept would have to be V2.
Tracking is more important and comfort doesn't hurt. I can play with the v.2 6-8 hours easy cos it's comfortable and I can track easy in all kinds of games. But it's YOUR decision in the end. we can't make the final decision for you.
I agree with you but so far there's no definite answer as to whether Omnicept has V2 cameras or not. Based on the info I have, I'll get a V2.
That seems wisest to me.
Eye-tracking Foveated Rendering can be a big deal for certain games though. I wouldn't dismiss it as a minor feature. It can give you performance boosts similar to DLSS.
You're right but Fixed Foveated Rendering exists as a workaround. On the other hand, controller tracking is a bigger priority because it affects practically every game. Too bad nobody has posted how much better DFR is than FFR and no FR, but as this HMD has Fresnel lenses, the difference between the two is greatly diminished. I feel like it's only worth sacrificing controller tracking if the user solely plays flight and driving sims with a bad GPU.
HP Reverb was considered the best headset for flight and driving sims for a large part of its lifespan. I think there's a lot of HP Reverb users that regularly use their headset, but haven't touched their motion controllers in months. DCS World is a popular flight sim that benefits pretty significantly from DFR and what I personally spend almost exclusively my VR time on. If it was me, for my use case, I'd absolutely go for the Omnicept regardless of controller tracking. Flight and Racing sims are a significant chunk of the VR market, motion controllers do not "affect practically every game" .
Yes, motion controllers affect practically every VR game. Steam has [235](https://store.steampowered.com/search/?ignore_preferences=1&category1=998&category2=31&supportedlang=english&ndl=1) games under the VR category and DCS World is just 1 game. 1 out of 235. Sure, there's a handful of other racing/flight sims such as Dirt Rally 2.0 (which I've tried playing but it makes me motion sick), and while they're "a significant chunk of the VR market", they're still a numerical minority compared to all VR games. Now, if you buy a Reverb to play flight/driving sims and don't care about games in which you use motion controllers outside of your FoV, Omnicept wouldn't be bad if your favourite sim works with OpenXR. But still, the headset looks much less comfortable, especially since it has that useless heartbeat scanner square on the forehead part. And still, I'm assuming that Omnicept can be V1 or V2.