2nd gen VR headsets

[DarrenM]

That sucks. I was hoping they'd announce an over ear addon but Quest seems to be getting all the love now.

I'm waiting for it to go on sale. I think it will before the end of the year so we'll see.

[norbs]

Anyone with a Rift S using the Virtual link on their graphics card?

[Cursed]

I'm not using mine. That's mainly because its a USB-3 type-C connector and I just don't have many cables/devices to make use of it. I didn't seek out a type-A to C adapter for the Rift-S because I wouldn't want to impact the signal quality over such a long cable.

My motherboard had plenty of type-A USB-3 ports available.

[Cursed]

Thought I'd show how I ended up solving the Rift-S crappy sound issue, since Norbs asked last week during FNF:


I'm using some velcro ties and the earbuds that came with one of my phones. It's not pretty, but it is fairly functional. The S10 buds aren't terrible quality if you can get them seated properly in your ear canal. If you bundle the wires up and tie them in place then you don't get the noise of the cables rubbing on things being transmitted into the earpiece during play.

The location of the microphone on the phones is irrelevant as it would seem that the Rift only uses the audio-out poles on the earphone plug. The Rift's built-in microphone continues to work and it is pretty clear.

There's another tie on the right hand side to hold the wire to the right earpiece near where your ear would be.

[norbs]

I'm not using mine. That's mainly because its a USB-3 type-C connector and I just don't have many cables/devices to make use of it. I didn't seek out a type-A to C adapter for the Rift-S because I wouldn't want to impact the signal quality over such a long cable.

My motherboard had plenty of type-A USB-3 ports available.

I was more thinking about using it instead of the Display port it takes up. My OCD is kicking in knowing I have 2 monitors on Display port and one on HDMI because I needed the 3rd display port port for the Rift.

I grabbed a Displayport - USB C adapter the other day, just been to lazy to plug it in and see whats what.

[norbs]

Rick and Morty VR on sale on Steam. 80% off

[DarrenM]

I've pre-ordered a Reverb G2. Should be a big upgrade in image clarity over the CV1.

There's a coupon 'REVERB' to get them for $899 until the 30th Sep, but they're not shipping until November.

https://h20386.www2.hp.com/AustraliaSto ... t=&sel=ACC

[Sarsippius]

Yeah I ordered one a few weeks ago when they first opened pre-orders here in Aus, I'd pretty much decided on one eventually and with $200 off it was hard to pass up. During the ordering process it said mid-late Oct but I felt that was probably a bit optimistic and there's no mention in the confirmation email.

The Rift S is a good headset and I've owned the DK1, DK2, CV1 and S but it seems time to say farewell to Oculus. The things that sold me on the Reverb were:

Increased resolution
Increased FOV
Return to 90Hz
No halo headband (although it remains to be seen if I'll like the Index one, the CV1 headband is pretty much my ideal)

I won't be using the headphones so fingers crossed my M40X's fit over the headband ok, I had Arctis 5 phones but had issues with them fitting over the S halo, which was one reason for getting the M40X's.

I'm a little dubious about switching over to steam vr as it doesn't sound as seamless as oculus but I'm sure I'll get over it

[Cursed]

I'm in no urgent rush to get the next headset. My Rift-S is plodding along okay at the moment, although the headphone socket is a bit iffy. With the user accounts in Oculus going over to Facebook in the nearish future, I'm happy enough to let them go, although I'll still need to maintain an account of some kind over there so I can access my game library (if that's still going to be possible with an un-Oculus headset).

I'm pretty keen to see how it goes for everyone.

[DarrenM]

Found something out about the WMR/Reverb G2 controllers. They need 1.5V batteries or they go into a low power mode.

https://reverb.danol.cz/battery-buying-guide/

If you put 1.2V batteries in the controllers, the controllers think the battery level is low and enter power saving mode. In the power saving mode, haptics (vibration motors) are disabled and the tracking LEDs have their brightness reduced, making the tracking less reliable. This is the same across all Windows Mixed Reality controllers.

[DarrenM]

Reprojection seems to be disabled by default for WMR which makes it super choppy below 90fps. This got it smooth for me (thanks to BenC)

Install OpenXR developer tools on the windows store
In developer settings turn on Use latest preview OpenXR runtime and set Motion Reprojection to Automatic.

For steamVR change these lines in
steamapps\common\MixedRealityVRDriver\resources\settings\default.vrsettings

"motionReprojectionMode": "auto",

Ben also suggested these but I'm not sure if they're necessary or not. Puts a little display top left corner to see if reprojection is active.
"motionReprojectionIndicatorEnabled": true,
"indicatorAreaSize": 0.002,

[Sarsippius]

In the iRacing forums I'm sure the thread for WMR suggests disabling reprojection, is this perhaps why?

Unfortunately with my G2 the screen misalignment in iRacing is too much for me so I'm still using my Rift S atm while waiting for the fix in the next iRacing patch. Any issues for you Darren?

So far I seem to be able to maintain a steady 90fps but my 1080 isn't quite up to the task, needing to use about 70% SS but I'll give this reprojection fix a try once I've got the G2 hooked back up.

by the way that default.vrsettings file will get overwritten with any MR for SteamVR update and you'll have to reapply any changes made. I tried the rotateintereye something setting to get SPS to work on my 1080 in iRacing.

Another issue I need to sort out is I can't get overlays to work for some reason, the main SteamVR overlay doesn't work and I've tried the Racelabs ones as well but I guess they don't work for the same reason. Interestingly in the SteamVR developer options I can enable the gpu graph so maybe I'm just missing some obscure setting somewhere.

[DarrenM]

Reprojection makes it smooth when you drop below 90fps. It's the equivalent of ASW Oculus headsets have. Not sure why people would suggest disabling it, but you wouldn't want it forced on or you're essentially playing at 45fps all the time. You want it auto so it only cuts in when necessary.

I haven't tried iracing yet but in Automobilista 2 I couldn't get 90fps on some tracks (also with a 1080) so reprojection is a must.

[Sarsippius]

Yeah it certainly helps although I try to make sure I can always maintain the headset fps, at least with Oculus I could tell when ASW was kicking in and preferred to avoid it if possible. The LOD settings in iRacing have helped a lot with this, I can't even recall that last time I noticed ASW kicking in.

You possibly already know this but you can set your global SS in SteamVR and then set it for individual games/apps as well, ie run global at 100% and iRacing at 70%.

I thought the 1080 might just be able to handle the G2 as it seems it was enough for the G1 but I'll have to upgrade it seems, I'm going to give it a few months at least for the GPU market to hopefully settle down and probably get a 3060ti.

[Sarsippius]

Reprojection seems to be disabled by default for WMR which makes it super choppy below 90fps. This got it smooth for me (thanks to BenC)

Install OpenXR developer tools on the windows store
In developer settings turn on Use latest preview OpenXR runtime and set Motion Reprojection to Automatic.

For steamVR change these lines in
steamapps\common\MixedRealityVRDriver\resources\settings\default.vrsettings

"motionReprojectionMode": "auto",

Ben also suggested these but I'm not sure if they're necessary or not. Puts a little display top left corner to see if reprojection is active.
"motionReprojectionIndicatorEnabled": true,
"indicatorAreaSize": 0.002,

So I was playing around and tried to get reprojection running, all I had to do was change motionReprojectionMode to auto, I then enabled it in SteamVR and it's working. I enabled the little indicator as well but will probably turn that off in general.

If you get around to trying iRacing there's a couple things to do, first I was getting some serious screen misalignment which is related to an OpenVR bug. It gives you a bit of a cross eyed effect, you can test how much misalignment you have or not by turning on an overlay, lining the edge of it up with something in game and alternate closing each eye, one after the other. It will look like the objects in game are moving up or down relative to the overlay. It can give you some serious eye strain.
They've put an option in the rendererDX11.ini to deal with this bug, change FixGetProjectionRawBug to 1.

Next was to get SPS working with my GTX 1080 which I mentioned briefly above, first off edit that same default.vrsettings file adding iRacing to the NoInterEyeRotation area like so

Code: Select all

    "NoInterEyeRotation" : {
        "battlezone_dx11.exe" : true,
        "battlezone_dx12.exe" : true,
        "iRacingLauncher64.exe" : true,
        "iRacingSim64DX11.exe" : true,
        "DOOMVFRx64.exe" : true,
        "Fallout4VR.exe" : true
    }

Then in the rendererDX11.ini I also had to change AlignmentFix to 3. Now SPS works fine without clouds and UI elements looking off (for me, SPS with the GTX 1080 reintroduces some screen misalignment without this fix).

Something else I'd heard about and have just had a little play with is fpsVR which you can buy for $6 on steam, it shows you performance graphs and other data to help optimise your in game settings, I want to use it to do a bit of benchmarking of my 7600k vs my new 5800x.

[Duke]

Is this considered 3rd Gen & is anyone ordering one (5K Res, 120Hz wired & 90Hz w/less with adaptor, 120FOV)?

VIVE Pro 2

[DarrenM]

Not sure it's 3rd gen, but it seems up there with the Index and has the benefit of being sold here.

Super expensive though. That $1300 doesn't include base stations or controllers. Those are $200 each, so add another $800 for a full setup if you didn't have a previous Vive.

[Brett_S]

Just ordered a Reverb G2 - any common issues, things to look out for?

[DarrenM]

Some people have usb connectivity issues with AMD motherboards, particularly the 570 chipset. I updated my B550 bios before I got the headset and it's been fine. Occasionally when I turn it on I get audio cracking or it says usb is not connected but turning it off and on again fixes that.

I had to manually enable reprojection but I think that's been improved now. Should be able to do it via the wmr app/settings.
viewtopic.php?p=467713#p467713

Apart from that it's been smooth sailing, but I already had SteamVR set up for use with Oculus so it was basically a drop in replacement.

[Brett_S]

Thanks DM, going well so far - I have a PSVR which sort of lost its appeal after having issues with tracking

Played both Raceroom and Skyrim VR today - controls are a bit of a pain in Skyrim tho

[Brett_S]

Having issues with controller mappings in some games - seems to change the mapping depending on how it's launched

If I start Skyrim via Steam or Nexus some of the buttons aren't working
Start Windows Mixed Reality first and then start Skyrim using the desktop view the mappings are correct....

Google Earth VR is basically unusable - can't seem to get it working.