I’ve been on the fence about buying VR for like half a year now, this might give me a reason to give in. Are there any ideas on what VR headsets might be supported so I can look at a price range?
2 Likes
I assume it’ll be any VR headsets you can plug into your computer and play steamVR games on, but i dont think a full list of supported headsets has ever been shown yet or anything. at the very least the trello card for VR mentions valve index stuff so that’ll definitely be supported
5 Likes
SteamVR is an almost entirely modular system. If the headset has SteamVR compatibility (basically any that connect to your PC have this feature) Controllers and Headsets are supposedly intercompatible if they share Base Stations (Lighthouses), but I haven’t tested that. I’m not sure if Base-station tracked controllers are compatible with internally tracked headsets, however.
The best bang for your buck may be the HP Reverb G2, it uses internal trackers so no base stations are required (however, I’m not sure about the future-compatibility as mentioned above). Despite being about 200 bucks cheaper than the Vive’s launch price, it has a larger screen resolution. The Valve Index is currently becoming the standard in terms of its headset, and it has the unique feature of finger controls (something that’ll become more common in the future) at the price of being 1000 for the whole kit.
I got a first-gen Vive a year back and its screen resolution is much lower than any current headset (it suffers from the “Screen Door Effect”, which is when you see the lines between each pixel… something that current headsets supposedly ironed out). I will give you one piece of advice: do NOT go with Vive controllers. Vive controllers have the least amount of buttons available and instead opted to combine the joystick and trackpad into one. This isn’t a problem in most games that built around this… but it can be especially annoying in games like VRchat where Gestures are also bound to your movement.
3 Likes
I have heard that it’s possible to set up the Valve Index controllers with Windows MR headsets (e.g. the HP Reverb G2, as mentioned), but it’s a bit finnicky to set up and requires the controllers + lighthouses + an extra dongle.
However, regarding the G2, I’m not sure if it’s the best option available budget-wise. It goes around $550 new and $350-400+ used, which is still a bit higher than some other headsets you can get used.
In comparison, I have a Samsung Odyssey+ (also a Windows MR headset) that I got used for around ~$200 (which is pretty standard). Although the resolution is lower (1440x1600 per eye vs 2160x2160 per eye), it still matches the resolution of the Index while also having an AMOLED screen, unlike the Index and G2 (which means blacks will actually be pitch black, rather than lit up by the backlight). Refresh rate is also 90 Hz, which, although lower than the Index, matches the G2. It also has an anti-screen door effect filter, which helps to eliminate the effect, although I’ve heard it does make the display a bit blurrier. I don’t have any other headset to compare it with, so I can’t comment, but I haven’t run into any issues regarding blurriness.
G2 apparently has a wider controller FOV (area in front of the headset that the controllers are tracked in, due to the inside-out tracking), but the controller tracking in general seems to be a bit worse for the G2. Limited controller FOV is a general issue with any headset that uses only inside-out tracking, and is a bit of a pain to deal with in more action-oriented games (e.g. if you want to try reaching behind your back), but it’s fine in normal gameplay, and you do end up adjusting your movement to compensate for it anyways. Of course, if you really want to, you can upgrade to the Index controllers + base stations and eliminate this entirely.
There are also other Windows MR headsets out there (e.g. the Acer or Dell Visor), which can be a bit cheaper (if you can actually find anyone selling them, given they’ve been discontinued a while back), but as they have fixed lenses, you can’t adjust the physical IPD of the headset to match your head, which can be an issue if your IPD isn’t close to the IPD the headset was manufactured for. Also, they don’t have built-in headphones, unlike the G2 and Odyssey+.
Only other budget option outside of Windows MR I can think of is the Quest 2, but given it’s owned by Facebook, I can’t really recommend it.
1 Like
Yea I can confirm this, I have an odyssey+ headset with index controllers rn, its kind of a weird setup but it works pretty much perfectly
1 Like
Oculus quest is good. No need to set up base stations, and you can connect it to your computer. And if that’s not available, you still get an experience in standalone.
Wireless PCVR is also a feature of the quest
2 Likes
Really anything that works with SteamVR and plugs into your PC will work just fine. I have the Oculus Rift S which costs around $300 if I remember correctly. I bought mine for $400 cause I got mine the week it released.
2 Likes
As a former Rift and Vive owner and current Quest 2 owner, Quest 2 is pretty much the best headset you can get right now.
1 Like