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VR Kits

  • text_fish
  • March 24, 2020 at 11:24 AM
  • text_fish
    • March 24, 2020 at 11:24 AM
    • #1

    So for those of us who have yet to experience the delights of HL:A, can "those in the know" share their thoughts on whichever VR kit they own? I refuse to spend the cost of a powerful new gaming rig just to play one game (especially as my industry has shut down for 4-5 months for covid-19 ?) so ideally I'd like to hear peoples thoughts on the budget end of the range, however any info that helps to round out the picture is very welcome.

    Please enlighten a complete VR numbskull!

  • will2k
    • March 24, 2020 at 5:17 PM
    • #2

    Someone posted in the Alyx thread about the VR kits and requirements. I guess this will help

  • Zarsky
    • March 24, 2020 at 6:24 PM
    • #3

    I got the Oculus Quest headset and Link cable. The benefit of Quest is that it's a standalone headset that is able to play games without a PC, but because of the android based hardware, it won't run all games tetherless. With the addition of the Link-cable you're able to attach it to a PC and utilize all the power your PC has to offer. Then you'll have access to Oculus PC and Steam VR titles.

    It costs about 500$/570€ (64GB with the Link-cable).

    In my experience it has been great, but I might have a different opinion if I've tried the Index.?

  • -HP-
    • March 24, 2020 at 6:51 PM
    • #4
    Quote from Zarsky

    27 minutes ago, Zarsky said: I got the Oculus Quest headset and Link cable. The benefit of Quest is that it's a standalone headset that is able to play games without a PC, but because of the android based hardware, it won't run all games tetherless. With the addition of the Link-cable you're able to attach it to a PC and utilize all the power your PC has to offer. Then you'll have access to Oculus PC and Steam VR titles.

    It costs about 570 bucks (With the Link-cable).

    In my experience it has been great, but I might have a different opinion if I've tried the Index.?

    Nice, how's the quality of that cable? Is it USB? I wonder if a simple cable can sucessefully stream all the data that VR needs (Sensors, screens, controllers, etc) as well as the regular Rift S.

  • Zarsky
    • March 24, 2020 at 7:19 PM
    • #5
    Quote from [HP]

    40 minutes ago, [HP] said: Nice, how's the quality of that cable? Is it USB? I wonder if a simple cable can sucessefully stream all the data that VR needs (Sensors, screens, controllers, etc) as well as the regular Rift S.

    I actually bought from Amazon a 3rd party 3m cable (which is a bit too short tbh) for 1/6th on the price, because I'm a cheap ass. That cable has been great quality wise. Runs PC VR without a problem.

    The Oculus Link cable is a USB-C 3.0 spec custom optical fiber cable. I'm thinking about getting the official Oculus Link cable or a similar 5m cable so I can stumble around more freely when the Headcrabs jump at me. Another option would be to buy an active USB3 extender and plug the 3m cable to that one, which could give more than 5m of range.

  • dux
    • March 25, 2020 at 2:45 PM
    • #6

    I have an Index. I've never used a headset since my trip to valve back in 2017 to try their original vive and make jokes about HL3 to an irritated looking valve employee who was our contact for the trip

    Pros:

    • Very well packed and put together.
    • Pretty straightforward to setup and plug in. You trace your room space with the controller, very cool.
    • Excellent sound.
    • Good visual quality (I guess? I don't have anything to compare it to but the original vive from several years ago).
    • The headstrap is nice and adjustable
    • The padding around the lenses is very soft and comfy and is magnetic so you can change it or clean it, etc.
    • You don't have to use buttons on the controller, you can use your actual hand motions to pick stuff up and that's really cool. It's not perfect as my hands are weird so it doesn't always react to my hand gestures.
    • The headset is surprisingly light and isn't a huge weight on your neck. (Cable different story)
    • High refresh rates.
    • Walking around a room inside vr is really something else.

    Cons:

    • Kinda blurry. From watching all the trailers I expected the same sort of visual quality. Again, I am very new to vr so just assumed what I saw is what you got. Not quite.
    • If you wear glasses the headset can get uncomfortable after a period of time as it pushes my glasses into my face and it starts to hurt kinda bad after 30 mins.
    • The cable is very annoying. It wraps around my shoulder and legs constantly and sometimes winds up into a tight loop so you can't walk around until you stop and untangle it.
    • The controllers aren't perfect for my hands. The menu button is awkward to press for me, I have to sort of loosen the controller so I can slide my hand down the controller to hit the button with my thumb.
    • You gotta fiddle a lot with the headset to get a perfect balance. If it's too high or too low the lenses go out of focus.
    • Glasses again, I can't wear the headset for long without them. If I play without glasses my eyes start burning after about 30 minutes and go super dry.

    So from my experience what I think needs to happen for future headsets is:

    • No cables
    • Improved comfort for users with glasses
    • Higher resolution (can you imagine the day we have 4k headsets? holy fuck)
    • Better button layout on controllers
  • PogoP
    • March 25, 2020 at 2:56 PM
    • #7

    +1 to a lot of Oli's issues. I don't get all of those things myself, but the comfort with glasses definitely needs improving.

  • FMPONE
    • March 25, 2020 at 3:19 PM
    • #8

    I have a Valve Index.

    Pros:

    The Index is a pretty heavy fucker, my neck gets a good workout from it... but I think that might be a feature rather than a bug, because I think it will probably give posture benefits in the long term building up those neck muscles.

    The knuckles are excellent to hold, very light, very comfortable, superb in that regard.

    Set-up was easy.

    I agree with Oli that the sound is incredible. I love the way the speakers hang, amazing work there.

    Cons:

    I agree that the Index is surprisingly blurry. I wear glasses with a very, very mild prescription, but I feel like a 90 year old man looking at my Index screen sometimes. Because my prescription is so mild I just take the glasses off, because I don’t notice an improvement with them on, and because it hurts to wear them.

    Perhaps we just aren’t there with resolutions yet to make things feel appropriately sharp and defined. For instance, in HL:A I took an old rotted apple out of a cupboard and held it up to my face to inspect it, and I started to hallucinate because it just felt so fucking blurry and weird. It’s like, good enough to give presence, not good enough to withstand close scrutiny.

    The cable is annoying, but since I have limited space I use the quick turn function and therefore don’t have too many issues with it. I agree that VR needs to go wireless ASAP.

    I also agree that the button layouts on the knuckles are pretty bad. The track pad is garbage, throw it into the trash. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea? The placement of the “start/select” type button is also terrible, makes no sense and is incredibly hard to reach with your finger tip. There are two perfectly good buttons on the controllers, but I think Valve doesn’t want people to use them because then it would just feel like you’re in a video game. Instead they want you to use the trigger or the bizarre track pad.

    I lose tracking sometimes, mostly when I get close to one of the base stations.

  • Radu
    • March 25, 2020 at 3:27 PM
    • #9

    Wireless would be a significant step forward to increasing comfort and making it more appealing to people. I can live with blurry image as long as I don't have to battle with the cable :D

  • dmu
    • March 25, 2020 at 6:01 PM
    • #10

    I run a 2017 HTC Vive + Deluxe Audio Strap with Valve Index Controllers

    The controllers are very nice, and the tracking + audio works good to. I'd say the Vive was a good choice back when other options weren't around. Nowadays I would rather shell out an additional 200 for a full Index instead of buying any of the HTC headsets. I haven't looked at the specific specs for HTC, but I'm pretty sure they are worse? Overall, its a good set up that still works very well after 100s of hours of play.

  • leplubodeslapin
    • March 25, 2020 at 10:56 PM
    • #11

    I have the index too. The tracking is excellent and very cool to have if you can get some free space for it (2m x 2,5m is a gooood start).

    The picture quality got really improved compared to the Vive, and even if the resolution is similar to others (1600x1400 per eye), it is the best panel with the least noticeable grid effect.

    But that's because it's not an OLED panel like it used to be on the Vive/Vive pro and Occulus headsets, which makes it not as good as the others for dark environment (which is present in HL:A) but allow for very high refreshrate (Occulus headsets are at 72 Hz, The index default refreshrates are 90 and 120 Hz, and can even go up to 144 hz).

    So for the headset i'm pretty convinced by the Index but I think Occulus is probably great too (and less expensive).


    For the controllers, I'm not a fan of the knuckles , as said they fit very well in your hands but have poor button/pad placements. But the finger tracking is a disappointment to me. I expected to be able to control precisely every finger but you can almost only detect if a finger is closed or open and that's it. And if your thumb isn't on the top but on the side (which feels more comfortable to me), then it's not detected as closed at all (wtf ?!).

    I've read good feedbacks on the occulus controllers and they now have good finger tracking too. So maybe it's a really good option.

  • -HP-
    • March 25, 2020 at 11:28 PM
    • #12

    Could you use a Oculus Rift S and Valve Index Controllers? I'm assuming you can, otherwise valve wouldn't bother putting the individual parts for purchase on their page?

    https://store.steampowered.com/valveindex

  • Zarsky
    • March 26, 2020 at 3:57 PM
    • #13
    Quote from [HP]

    16 hours ago, [HP] said: Could you use a Oculus Rift S and Valve Index Controllers? I'm assuming you can, otherwise valve wouldn't bother putting the individual parts for purchase on their page?

    https://store.steampowered.com/valveindex

    You might be able to, but Oculus uses insideout tracking, which means you need to buy the base stations to track the Index controllers.

  • blackdog
    • March 26, 2020 at 4:38 PM
    • #14
    Quote from [HP]

    17 hours ago, [HP] said: Could you use a Oculus Rift S and Valve Index Controllers? I'm assuming you can, otherwise valve wouldn't bother putting the individual parts for purchase on their page?

    https://store.steampowered.com/valveindex

    I assumed the controllers where for those wanting to keep their Vive and improve controls, but who knows.

  • madgernader
    • March 27, 2020 at 7:26 PM
    • #15
    Quote from [HP]

    On 3/25/2020 at 4:28 PM, [HP] said: Could you use a Oculus Rift S and Valve Index Controllers? I'm assuming you can, otherwise valve wouldn't bother putting the individual parts for purchase on their page?

    https://store.steampowered.com/valveindex

    You can, its a bit cost prohibitive though.

    Vive / index controllers need either a vive/index headset to sync to or you can use vive tracker / steamcontroller usb dongle where you need 1 per controller. You then also need at least 1 lighthouse to actually track the controllers.

    Steam vr should then be able to detect the oculus headset and then detect the vive / index controllers.

    The piecemeal sales are more because the index controllers can be used with vive / vive pro systems that already have lighthouses and such.

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