2nd gen VR headsets

[Cursed]

TO answer a question asked while racing on Friday night (not sure if it was Box or Doc), the rubber nose flap can be easily removed, to restore the ol' nose gap. Interestingly the Rift-S is very modular. The facial interface, nose flap, cable and halo can all be easily disconnected from the HMD. Makes me think we'll see some upgrades available down the track.

[Exar Kun]

My Rift S arrived whilst i was out of town so only had a chance to (briefly) try it today. Felt much more comfortable than the Vive. The only VR capable sim i have on my PC is PC2 and when I try to run it in VR mode it says it doesn't support the headset - anyone got any ideas why?

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[DarrenM]

Have you checked the unknown sources setting in Oculus Home desktop app, Settings->General? You need that on to use any VR launched from Steam etc.

[Exar Kun]

Yep, I've checked that box but still nothing.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[Cursed]

Just click OK. The game will start up just the same. At least that's how I remember it worked for me. It did this for SteamVR games (PCARS 2 and Skyrim VR were the only ones that I tried)

[DarrenM]

PC2 has native oculus support. Right click the game in the library list and select Launch in Oculus VR mode.

[Exar Kun]

Darren - yep, that's what I I'm doing. If I click okay then nothing appears in the headset still.

Not sure what else I can try but I'll play around with it tomorrow.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[Cursed]

Well I definitely ran on Friday night and all I did was that I clicked OK on that pop-up window. I consciously had selected the Oculus VR running option. The first time I tried to run it, I don't think it did start after the message, but on subsequent attempts it did. I can't remember doing anything magic to get it going.

[Exar Kun]

Got it working today. First attempt i got a flashing grid and then after another reboot it all started working. Weird.

In any case - pretty awesome!

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[Sarsippius]

So mine arrived today, I had time for about 40 minutes in iRacing to see how it is.

Visuals are good, it's a big step up from the CV1, the first thing you will notice in a game like this is wheel displays, tachos etc are all now crisp, clear and easily readable. None of the blurriness from the CV1, I actually felt things were too sharp at first and turned of sharpening in the iRacing options. I jumped out of the car and was in chase cam and the car looked great.

The middle ground is where I felt things dropped away a bit but this could be an iRacing thing, maybe from 20-30m or so ahead some of the clarity is lost, I might need to adjust the ppd and I feel like it could just be graphics engine shortcomings that are now noticeable when they weren't with the CV1.

Brake markers are definitely more readable but I don't think they are so much more so that you can simply rely on reading them from a far distance. I guess I was at Le Mans in the HPD so you're doing 300+kph in the major braking zones, if you wait to read the marker your virtually at your braking point already. Once they do come in to view they are clear vs the CV1 where they were always blurry and difficult to read. SDE is still there, it's not totally gone but it's pretty minimal now will be easily forgotten.

At first I thought I could notice the 80fps but I think it might actually be the tracking, I feel like it's a bit more sensitive so if my head is shaking slightly when steering that translates and affects the visuals. I noticed this a little on the CV1 as well and it could also be some vibration from my transducers. If my head's still everything is crisp but if not some detail is lost.

The fitment is so so, I'm just barely able to accommodate my headphones but can achieve a comfortable all round fit. Something I didn't expect was the HMD part is actually pressed to my face much more so than the CV1 which only rested on my face. The closer the screens are to your face the wider the FOV so I basically push in the button, press the thing as close to my face as possible and release the button before letting go so that it doesn't spring back due to the force of the compressed foam. I can actually get it close enough that looking straight ahead I notice the outer edges of the screen but that goes as it moves slightly away once I stop pressing it on.

So this combined with the halo and the headphones actually feels a little bit like wearing a full face helmet. It's fine although I would probably like a facial interface with thinner foam, this would also help with putting the thing on as even turning the dial on the halo and extending the HMD forward there's still not all that much room and the foam basically slides down over my face when putting it on.

At first I felt like the halo was going to squeeze my temples a bit too much once I got the headphones on but I could actually loosen it off some and tighten the top strap and get a comfortable fit.

I'm not sure what to do with the cable, a clip attaches to the halo to route it towards the rear but I had to take that off for the headphones to fit properly and now I'm not sure on the best way to route it behind me without it getting in the way of the headphones.

So this was a bit of an info dump of what are very early impressions but overall I'm happy with the upgrade and in terms of visuals it's a big jump up compared to the CV1 and well worth it in my opinion.

[Cursed]

S
I'm not sure what to do with the cable, a clip attaches to the halo to route it towards the rear but I had to take that off for the headphones to fit properly and now I'm not sure on the best way to route it behind me without it getting in the way of the headphones.

I'm thinking a Velcro cable tie or two to route it along the top surface of the halo strap rather than along the outside. This is just an idea I had sitting here at work, so it might not actually work in reality

[Sarsippius]

I have just enough space to fit the cable in between the halo band and the ear pads of my headphones, I think I'll just have to position it manually each time as I don't think it will work quite right if I zip tie it to the band. I can actually fit the headphones onto the Rift and then put it all on and take it all off at once which works ok, almost like putting on a helmet. The only real issue now is the ear pads sit a touch away from my head and don't block out as much sound anymore.

I think the issue I mentioned above which I put down to the tracking is actually more to do with the fps like I first thought. I realised it was the head wobble setting in iRacing that was giving me this bit of a blurry effect, I reduced that down and it seems to have helped but I think it is related to the fps where fast movements aren't as clear compared to the CV1. I watched the tested review of the Index and they mentioned something similar when comparing the different fps setting from 80 to 144Hz.

I've only spent another hour or so with it practicing for the Le Mans 24hr but I've quickly got accustomed to it and will use it in the race. It's still a big jump over the CV1, to me it reminds me of each successive step from the DK1 -> DK2 -> CV1.

[Duke]

[Sarsippius]

I used the S in the LM24 without much issue but I've discovered one fairly significant drawback with the screen when racing during night time. LM is quite dark through most of the track and I guess it's just down to an LCD not turning completely black, it's like looking through a very slightly opaque piece of glass. I suspect the effect was worsened because the HPD is an open cockpit prototype, so much of the view is very dark, if I'd been in a GTE you probably wouldn't notice so much as you would have more of a contrast of the somewhat bright interior of those cars and the dark outside. I'm not sure how guys playing games like Elite are finding it.

The other problem I came across is I forgot about guys having issues in a dark room, as I was driving in the late afternoon my room got a bit too dark and the guardian stuff dropped out, the tracking went all wonky and then I dropped out to the pass through view. Luckily I was able to pull up and not crash but I had to tow to pits and then switch the light on and redo the guardian stuff before continuing on. Just something to remember, either always put the room light on or make sure to put it on if there's a chance the sun will go down while your playing.

[petey]

Have played Elite with the lenovo explorer (cheap 1st gen WMR I am aware) which is also LCD, the not black-black is annoying however you do get a little used to it. I do see it as a big enough drawback that I will not buy another headset with LCD.

[Sarsippius]

All the new headsets coming out are all LCD as far as I know so there may not be much choice for OLED going forward.

[DarrenM]

People have commented that the Reverb panels still have good dynamic range. It needs a beefy machine to run sims with it though.

My 2nd rift has that spud thing enabled which keeps the back light on, so my blacks aren't that great with it. Until they added dynamic time of day I could race iracing night in cars with no lights. Now it stays bright until 11pm or so before it switches to proper blacks.

[petey]

Interesting to note, to be fair I have not tested the OLED I think Samsung Odyssey. Only going on forum/reddit opinions but I did see most people raving about the blacks. (pls do not take out of context)

[Cursed]

Okay, so I had some consternation at the headphone/sound options on my Rift-S. None of my headphones really fit perfectly and using little earphones from my phones never really did it for me. Darren's suggestion on 3D printed options sent me down a rabbit hole.

Important background - the headphones on my CV1 had stopped working due to a fault in the headset. I liked those headphones and I wanted to re-use them.

I found this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3674713
I bought a 3.5mm cable and M3 thumb nuts.

I printed. Then I took all day yesterday to assemble:




Happy times!

[Duke]

That is awesome cursed, well done.

I think back to when I was a lot younger & had so much more time on my hand wishing I could fix plastic stuff that broke. 3D printing FTW!!!

[DarrenM]

Nicely done. Better than a bought one

Do you take orders?

[Cursed]

Do you take orders?

With my handyman skills, I'd be wary about saying yes. You did see the bit where I said it took me all day to put this together, didn't you?

I mean parts and shipping would come in well under $10 but can you imagine my labour cost?

Still, I might be convinced to help a fellow ARSE out.

[DarrenM]

I don't have a new headset yet but this solution makes it a lot more tempting. Was thinking just the 3d printed bits from you if I get one, then I'd get the other bits from elsewhere and bodge it all together myself.

[Cursed]

I could do that and give you a choice of white or orange. I could throw in the nuts because I can't imagine I'm going to have much use for the remaining 8 or them that I have.

[Cursed]

Well, that was short-lived. So progressively over the last month I noticed that sometimes the right headphone would be quiet or completely cut out. It would come back to life with some tapping or twisting or moving the headphone up and down on its built-in rail. I just figured that this was down to my lack of soldering skills. So this morning I decided to open it all up and track down the bad solder joint or broken wire.

It turns out it is the right headphone itself that is the problem. I disconnected the right headphone and hooked it up to a multimeter. I found that it would go open-circuit as I slid it up and down on its rail. There doesn't appear to be an obvious way to disassemble it. After my investigation, the headphone is permanently open circuit. I expect a broken wire inside there.

It appears that the Oculus store no longer offers replacement CV1 headphones

I've contacted Oculus support to see if I can purchase a replacement. We'll see, but I'm not hopeful.

If I can't source replacement headphones I could send along the assembled parts to anyone who is interested. (Darren maybe?)