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VR headsets, what do I need to know?
I had last year my first and only experience with VR, at home with a friend. I dont even remember what the product was, but the experience was just amazing. Ever since I wanted to get a Headset myself, but now I don't even where to start.
What do I need to know to make a good decision, as these products are quite expensive?
What should I look for? What are important details?
I want mainly to play some games. That one day we just played beat saber and superhot.
What other experiences are worth exploring?
I have an ok linux (gaming) pc, it was beefy once, but it got quite some years now :-)
I saw there are standalone products as well?
Your choice of headset is always going to be a compromise between the advantages and disadvantages of each. Here's a primer I wrote a few months ago on reddit in portuguese with the headsets people are actually buying. I hope I translated it properly. Everything here is to the best of my knowledge at the date; those in the know can let me know if I made any mistakes.
PSVR2 (additional costs: PS5) - Well received. Good graphics. A big advantage is that it comes with an initial catalog of high quality games. A disadvantage is that it's an isolated system not compatible with other ecossystems (not swappable), including those that might give you access to social VR. Literally everyone I talked to who used one has told me the facial interface is not very good and the headset makes them sweat (there's a penny arcade strip about it too!)
Valve Index (additional cost: good PC) - SteamVR ecossystem (PCVR). Wired headset, so no worrying about batteries or latency. Since its release 4 years ago it's considered a leader in comfort and audio quality (including mic). Still has some of the best controllers in VR. Valve provides five star tech support (at least in europe) including unlimited replacements of all malfunctioning equipments during the warranty period. The field of view is one of the highest on the market. SteamVR's lighthouse tracking still sports the best tracking quality to date (unless the vision pro is better?) and supports additional devices for full body or object tracking, however it requires base stations in your playspace (on tripods or wall mounted). Other disadvantages: no access to exclusives from PSVR (which are good) or the Quest store (which are many). A huge disadvantage is that its panel resolution is now considered quite low by modern standards. It's expensive as it has never once been discounted for any reason. If you really want something like the Index, you might want to wait for its successor (no known release date yet).
Meta Quest 2 (no additional costs for stand alone Quest ecossystem, or SteamVR/PCVR over cable/wifi with additional costs of a good PC and a good router). - Facebook's flagship headset, wireless. Fairly good graphical quality. Great third party accessory market AFAIK, due to being the world's most popular VR headset by far. Stand alone app store with many exclusives, however stand alone VR quality in general is weaker due to limited hardware in the headset as well as low battery capacity (can be extended with additional battery systems or powerbanks purchased separately). Requires a Meta account to be used. It has been cheaper before, the price has gone up! If connected to a PC, you can play any SteamVR game with it. Not a bad choice if you don't hate Facebook!
Pico 4 (additional costs: good PC and good router) - Bytedance's headset. Very similar to Quest 2, with a slightly higher resolution (similar to PSVR2), pancake optics (clearer), considerably better battery, and cheaper (same price range though). It's more open; can function without an internet connection and any Android app can be installed on it. The biggest disadvantage is that the built in store isn't very useful; if you buy it, you want to connect it to a PC and use it as a SteamVR headset, which then gives you access to SteamVR games. If you don't care about exclusives this is the cheapest high quality headset on the market.
HTC headsets: They keep making them! They have two product lines: Stand alone and wired with base stations (Vive/Pro). They have their own store Viveport, which you normally don't want to use, and are compatible with SteamVR. The original Vive helped launch VR, but normally I judge its successors to be a bit too expensive for what they're worth. They usually have the same advantages and disadvantages: Good comfort especially backstrap (I miss it!), excellent durability (best I've seen!) Decent resolution. Disadvantages: Tend to have bad to horrible controllers (not unique), weak audio quality and terrible microphones (see also the Rift S), model-dependent glitches, completely ignore what users actually want out of a headset out of a misguided sense that they're for "professionals". The upcoming XR2 Elite has interesting attributes though (it's a Quest Pro competitor).
Bigscreen beyond (additional costs: headphones or audio strap, SteamVR kit, good PC): A weird upcoming wired PCVR headset, optimized for... watching movies? Sounds like the Apple Vision Pro! Price competitor of the Quest Pro. Advantages: Absurdly high resolution (like the AVP), pancake optics, the lightest device on the market, good facial interface custom-designed for the buyer, native diopter adjustment with no attachments (the only on the market!) Disadvantages: No included audio system or controllers. No Interpupilary Distance adjustment at all after purchase (all other headsets including the AVP have IPD adjustment). Low FOV (the Pico 4 has the highest FOV for pancake optics).
Pimax headsets (additional costs: good PC): This company makes wired, semi-expensive PCVR headsets known for their ridiculously high FOV (best in market), favored by simulator players such as racing game players. Normally have good base hardware specs like resolution or refresh rate, but known for poor build quality and terrible firmware and tooling making it hard to set up. Some models come with the brand's own low reputation controllers, others just include Index controllers (good!) or nothing at all (you can buy Index controllers separately).
HP Reverb G2 (additional costs: good PC): The most reputable Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) headset. Ageing, but decent resolution, with its own fans who swear by it. It's also reputed for its terrible tracking (argh). Reasonable price! Since it's a wired headset, it's yet another PCVR/SteamVR headset.
Varjo Aero: Ridiculously expensive headset that's reputed to be really good. No bells and whistles. I've never tried it.
And of course the upcoming Apple Vision Pro, amply discussed here already (my opinion).
A note on PCVR/SteamVR: Other than the PSVR2 all other headsets can be used to access SteamVR, an open platform that runs on Steam. SteamVR combines its own VR game compositor, Steam's input bindings system (like for the Steam controller, etc.) and lighthouse tracking support, their system with the above mentioned base stations - fancy IR beacons. An advantage of the lighthouse system is that it lets you mix and match devices from distinct sets and brands as long as they are compatible. That means for example swapping controllers, or even using lighthouse controllers instead of native non-lightouse controllers, or adding trackers, which can make future upgrades cheaper. Only thing to keep in mind is that if your VR kit doesn't already include base stations, these must be purchased for any lighthouse device use to be possible. You can, however, play SteamVR without any lighthouse devices or base stations by using various methods for connecting Quest, Pico and wireless HTC headsets to your PC.
VR and SteamVR on Linux: Still in early stages, but there are a number of people using, or attempting to use, VR on Linux. I'm told currently the best software for connecting a headset to a PC running linux is ALVR. If you join this Discord you can find people who might be able to help you!
I have experienced some drifting with lighthouse tracking too!
To expand on your expansion! Lighthouse tracking uses the IR base stations as beacons for reference points. Callibration lasts in perpetuity if you don't move the base stations. Like you said, this allows it to be (at the upper limit) more accurate, and it also has a higher update rate (good for rhythm games). If you have the recommended minimum two base stations in opposite locations, lighthouse tracking is supposed to allow you to move your tracking devices (such as controllers, headsets, full body trackers, etc.) anywhere in your playspace, such as for example high above your head or behind your back. It resists changes in lighting conditions very well - you can even play in the dark! There are two things it's weak against, though:
Inside-out tracking uses cameras in the headset to detect features around the headset and to see the headset's controllers. It doesn't require base stations and doesn't suffer from any issues with reflections (responsible for the random drifting), which is very nice. And camera based feature detection can be surprisingly good under optimal conditions. It is, however, vulnerable to:
For my ex I suspect it was the giant living room window that I suspect has a partial IR filter on it. From what I understand if that's applied to the outside it can end up reflecting marginal amounts of IR from the inside. Maybe something similar to that?
The VR market is dominated right now by
OculusFacebook. Their most popular headset is the Quest 2. For some time it was an incredible proposition for the price (basically unbeatable). Nowadays I don't know that much (a Quest 1 owner, I've left the honeymoon phase a long time ago, and I don't follow the newest release as religiously as before). On the gaming side, they've invested to most and own a lot of popular VR devs.Quest 2 is a standalone product: it can run many games (including Beat Saber) on its own. It doesn't have the firepower of a dedicated PC though. It's basically a beefed up version of an Galaxy S20 equivalent. Expect something akin to PS3 graphics for photo-realistic games.
Like Quest 1, and like most headset nowadays, it has "inside-out tracking", meaning you don't have to setup beacons/sensors around your room, and you can play basically anywhere. I have a few hours logged in in my underground parking lot playing Vader Immortal because there's more space than in my flat.
Now, most stand-alone headset nowadays can connect to a PC. Ideally you'll want a cable for maximum quality, but I played through the entirety of Half-Life Alyx through wi-fi. It probably depends on your access point, how far it is from your headset, etc.
Speaking of Half-Life: Alyx: it's a must-play. A quadruple-A experience with all the firepower Valve could deploy with their infinite time and money. It's the most polished game you can play in VR by far. I have an aging i5-4670K with a 1660 Ti and I could play it fine. There's a Linux client. Go play it.
Back in the day the resolution was a spec to look for to avoid the "screen-door effect" (basically seeing the pixel matrix). Nowadays I think it's mostly a solved problem for gaming (you still need higher resolution to decently emulate a computer monitor; not so much to represent an undead knight).
Field of view is another parameter to take into account. Microsoft Hololens famously have a tiny projection area (basically the equivalent of a postcard at arms length). It's not that bad for VR, but it can be noticeable and kinda hard to describe. Being more or less blind without my glasses, I naturally have a reduced field of view; but if you've looked through the viewfinder of an entry level vs pro level camera or binocular, it's the same feeling. As said somewhere else in this thread: if you can try it, try it !
Speaking of glasses: I can wear my Quest 1 over my glasses without problem, but depending on your glasses (if need those) this might not fit. Some company sell prescription optics just for VR.
Lastly, refresh rate: higher refresh rate can help with motion sickness. I'm used to the 72Hz of my Quest 1, but I've tried 90Hz on a Quest 2 and it's noticeably more comfortable.
About motion sickness: you've played Beat Saber and Superhot; those two game are stationary and very unlikely to provoke a bout of motion sickness. However there's many game where locomotion is needed, and so there's going to be a mismatch between what your eyes see and what your inner ear feels.
It depends from person to person and you can build some tolerance over time. I find that some kind of movement are worse than other. Personally I'm okay almost every kind of movement except rotation around my cranio-caudal axis (in other words: I don't like turning on an office chair). Some game are also naturally more prone to motion sickness. Boneworks is famous eliciting motion-sickness because there's a lot of non-player driver movement (since everything in Boneworks is a physics object, including the player). I enjoy doing crazy stunts in my fighter jet in Project Wingman, but don't get motion sickness at all because in reality I'm too focused on trying to get the little green diamond (the missile lock) to stick one of those the little green square (a target marker).
By far the most barf-inducing experience I had was NomaiVR, the VR mod for Outer Wilds. Since you're playing in a scaled down solar system, everything is constantly moving with no fixed reference point. It's the only game where I nope the hell out of there. It's sad because it's otherwise an excellent mod, probably one of the best VR mod out there (with intelligent motion control support and all).
Did I say mod ? Yes, there quite a lot of VR mods out there. I haven't tried a lot of them because I suspect my PC isn't beefy enough (we're talking about Devil May Cry V, Elden Ring, GTA, Street Fighter, ...) but I have played Subnautica Below Zero in entirety in VR (as my first run). It single-handedly change my appreciation of the game (from "disappointment" to "pretty ok"). Linux support is on a case-by-case basis though.
Other experiences: Welcome to Light fields and Immersive Light Field Video
with a Layered Mesh Representation are two jaw-dropping tech demo that hopefully offers a glimpse to come. It's basically VR photo and VR video.
Otherwise: playing around with Google Earth is fun. There's a good collection of 360 videos on YouTube.
Other games I like:
VR can make full or at least significant use of those theoretical massive throughput limits from modern wi-fi specs. The problem is that most consumer devices don't really support the full spec because the manufacturer cut corners, perhaps in the CPU or cooling for instance, or the firmware is bad.
The ideal hardware setup for wi-fi VR, for a headset like the Quest 2 or newer, is as follows: Plug your PC's network interface (at least gigabit) to a previously vetted, mid or high end router with a network cable (at least cat5e). This router is going to be a dedicated VR antenna; don't plug or wirelessly connect anything else into it! It must support at least wi-fi 5 (ac) or higher.
Typical ideal settings:
Plug the router's WAN port into your real home router (for providing internet to your desktop computer). Set your home router's wi-fi network to 2.4ghz only (for providing internet to your other wireless devices). The VR router should ideally be in plain sight of your VR playspace (no walls). Walls will interfere with the signal, but if they are absolutely unavoidable it might sometimes be best to lower the channel bandwidth.
Here's a list of recommended routers for VR wi-fi posted by the developer of Virtual Desktop in the Virtual Desktop discord (disclaimer: opinions mostly not mine)
In practice I am fairly close to /u/Protected recommendation. My setup consists of my ISP-issued modem-router (Huawei OptiXstar EN8245X6s-8N), emitting on 5 Ghz, probably on ac or ax (I have no control over this; it says wifi 6). My PC is wired to it with a cat5e cable. It works fine even though it has to go through one wall. I'm using Virtual Desktop.
God I wish they would make more games like Half Life Alyx. I understand its not a money maker but damn was that game immersive and fun, a truly unique experience I will never forget.
The Quest VR is versatile; it can run independently or on a PC. That's the one I would recommend for anyone new to VR and want affordability.
600.- is not that affordable anymore, but yes i see, there are products that cost thousands.
Its just that its a facebook product that makes it a bit icky for me, but does that affect the experience at all?
Is that in CAD? The yet to release quest 3 is $500 USD. But they’re also still selling the quest 2, and slashed the price back down to $300. If you’re looking for something affordable, the quest 2 is the best option by far.
You’ll have to make up your own mind about meta but the quest headsets are unrivaled at these prices.
ah no, that was just some bad offer I found, I can get the quest 2 for 350 here.
There's some good deals out there second hand from people (like me) who bought one and then after the few months went back to other consoles.
Yes, but probably not in the way you’d think. The Meta involvement means it’s squarely a pick up and play consumer product, rather than a “tech” product, and I’ve been extremely surprised at how much difference that actually makes.
Even though the resolution, refresh rate, FoV, and tracking on the Quest are measurably, noticeably worse than a SteamVR headset, it’s the Quest that I’ve logged probably 4x as much Beat Saber on because there’s zero overhead to just grabbing it for a 10 minute break between doing other things.
Admittedly mine predated the whole rebrand away from Oculus and associated FB account merge debacle, and I can absolutely respect anyone’s decision not to buy one for any number of ethical or philosophical reasons around their ownership, but from a purely practical point of view Meta’s giving you a bargain on the hardware and well above average UX to go with it.
I don’t want to recommend a Zuckerberg product, but if you don’t already have a PS5 you’ll be hard pressed to find anything better value. The Valve Index is all round better quality, but priced to match at well over the $600 bar you set.
Seconded. I bought my Quest with the cable to play a much wider library of PC games but the fact that I needed to have a cable plugged in AND clear room in the same room as my desktop PC as opposed to just marking out some free space anywhere in the house meant I just always opted for the simpler headset-only games instead.
You can do Airlink or the third party Virtual Desktop with the Quest (certainly the Quest 2, not sure about the Quest 1) to play wireless PCVR.
The biggest advice I can give is: TRY BEFORE YOU BUY.
Wear it, play some games, get a feel for how it feels on your head. Everyone’s head is different. What is comfortable for one person might not be for you. It’s hard for me to recommend a headset based on how it feels for me.
How? I was looking into VR around the launch of the Index, and unless you've got someone who owns them all (which ironically i just met someone who does...) where are people able to try these?
We have a quest 2 that’s pretty much used three times a year when people come over and want to try it. We would be happy to let our friends borrow it if they wanted. I have a feeling people may know some friends in a similar situation.
I promised myself this wouldn't be me but in the end it was lol. Wound up selling it to a mate who wanted to try it for $200 on the theory that if I ever want to try it again, technology will only be cheaper (and then literally the same month I shipped it they announced a $100 price rise lmao)
If you live in a big city, sometimes they will do pop up demo events. Or if you have a friend with one, try the model they have to see what you like.
And if you’re okay with it…you can always buy and return if it doesn’t feel good.
The PS VR2 is damn good. The headset is $550 (USD) and you'll need a PS5 to use it (starts at $400). So if you're not already in the PlayStation ecosystem it'll set you back a chunk. But I'm convinced it's the best sub-1k headset on the market.
The only reason why I haven't picked one of those up is the closed ecosystem. I don't want to buy one of those and not be able to play a game because they didn't want to pay the Sony tax (not to mention the development expenses of optimizing for a console). I also really don't want to lose access to my old games because it's locked to an old piece of hardware that I don't want to have hooked up in my living room.
I have heard that PSVR2 is amazing, I was left wondering if hardware hackers were trying to break it free from the Playstation ecosystem though... maybe there's not much demand for that but if it's such good hardware it almost seems wasted if it doesn't work on PCs.
I had a Quest 1 and now have a Valve Index.
The Quest series is legitimately great. Solid hardware, mature software. It’s polished, relatively inexpensive, and is an all-in-one device. It’s portable, you can play it pretty much anywhere, and it’s by far the easiest way to get the VR experience everyone wants. I get that Meta gives you pause (same here) but it’s worth looking into as a starting point.
The reason I say starting point is because VR is a very deep pool that you can dive into, but not everybody wants or needs to do that. A lot of people got Quests, thought they were cool for a bit, and now they’re gathering dust. The novelty of VR can wear off quickly for some people. If you’re one of those people, it’s easy enough to sell off the Quest or gift it to a friend.
If you were to buy in to something like the Index, it requires a lot more of you. My Index essentially has its own room. I had to get an expensive computer, the expensive HMD and controllers and base stations (and an extra base station to cover some blind spots). The whole setup is locked to the room it's in, and you can't really use that space for anything else. If you decide it's not for you, it's a lot harder to come back from all of that buy-in.
Now, that said, I love my Index, but that's because VR was for me and I didn't bounce off of it after 20 hours. There are some people who get pulled into VR and can play a single game for hundreds or thousands of hours. My Quest was essentially little more than a Beat Saber machine for years.
The coolest thing about VR is that it has these specific niches that can't really be replicated elsewhere. Flight and racing sims are unlike anything else in VR. Rhythm games, shooting gallery games, and fitness games all have robust homes in VR.
I got my Index back in November and I've used it almost every day since then, mostly for workouts. I justified the space and high cost to myself by looking at it as exercise equipment -- like if I were buying a stationary bike or a treadmill. Those would be similarly pricey and also eat up a whole chunk of my house. When I look at things that way, my VR space feels less like a dead space in my home and more like a place of robust opportunity, given the sheer number of different things I can play in that area.
If I were in your shoes, I'd consider starting with one of the Quests, see if it sticks with you, and if it's meeting your needs (again, the Quest line is really good!). If you find after a bit that you're hitting its limits or you want more, then it might be worth buying in to something more robust or powerful.
Do you wear corrective lenses? Are they glasses or contacts?
I've got a Vive Pro and my glasses barely fit in them. I've taken to wearing my contacts on days I want to use the headset since that's more comfortable. But in general these days I prefer glasses due to my aging eyes and not really enjoying multifocals.
I got prescription VR lenses through Reloptix for my Index, and I love them. You put a magnetic adapter around the lenses, and then the prescription lenses magnetize onto them. Works perfectly for me, and the lenses are super easy to remove if someone else wants to use the headset.
VROptician also sells prescription lenses for headsets, but they don’t use the magnet setup, so they’re a bit harder to take out and put in. If you’re the only one that uses the headset though, they’re probably a good option as well.
Yeah, I got prescription lenses from VR Lens Lab for my Vive Pro. It's honestly hard to say whether they or the wireless adapter were the more worthwhile upgrade but both are strong candidates. It makes a huge difference in terms of comfort, and not worrying about damaging the headset or glasses by wearing one inside the other. Lastly if you play active games like Beat Saber, it's easy to have glasses fog up and the prescription lenses don't.
Interesting, I'll have to check that out, thanks.
Here's a list of VR headsets I've used and owned and my comments on them:
First experience was on a friend's HTC Vive around when they first hit the market. It was pretty amazing, but was never an option for me because 1) I use Linux, 2) I didn't and don't own a graphics card, and 3) you basically needed to set aside a whole room for VR because of the requirement to set up cameras everywhere for tracking.
Second experience was buying the original PSVR. Played it a ton, loved it. It also uses external cameras for tracking, but just one that you can set on top of your TV assuming you have enough room there. As a result, the tracking is quite bad--it loses track of your hands a lot and you can't really move around much or you step out of the camera's visible area. The PS Move controllers are also not great, since they only have buttons and triggers and no joysticks.
Next I got a first-gen Quest, and it made me truly realize just how terrible the PSVR tracking was. The Quest is a standalone headset (basically a phone processor stuffed into some goggles) and while it can't reach anywhere near the same graphical quality as the PS4, the resolution is better, and having the tracking cameras embedded into the headset itself means it's far more convenient and the tracking is night and day more reliable. Meta doesn't support the original Quest anymore and newer games and stuff won't even run on it, so it's not worth getting now even if you can find one dirt cheap.
Current headset is a Quest 2 which is pretty similar to the first Quest but with beefier specs and a better resolution. I highly recommend it, it's basically the only option for a good, affordable standalone headset right now.
I haven't tried the PSVR2, but I understand it also has cameras in the headset so I assume the tracking issues of the first PSVR are fixed, and the PS5 can probably push some pretty jaw-dropping graphics to that thing. The main downside I can see is it's still tethered to the PS5 via a cable, but if that doesn't bug you and you have a PS5 already anyways then maybe that's a better option than the Quest 2.
As for other PCVR headsets, forget about it on Linux. There is basically zero support for VR gaming using a Linux PC--your only viable option is probably to dual boot Windows. The Quest and Quest 2 also have various ways to plug your headset into a computer or even ways to use it for PCVR wirelessly, but none of that works on Linux, at least as of the last time I looked into it.
I'll post a separate comment about Linux later, but I just wanted to correct you about the Vive. The base stations are not cameras, they're simple infrared beacons used as reference points and you can technically speaking play with a single one, mounted on a movable tripod!
thank you for your complete answer.
regarding linux and VR I found these two ressources:
https://github.com/alvr-org/ALVR
https://gitlab.com/vr-on-linux/VR-on-Linux
so there is something moving but it seems slowly
Can I het the falling/flying experience from lawnmower man?