so whats the verdict? Oculus or Vive?

Hey, Gents -

I've been out of the loop for so long I feel like I've just signed up for the forum again... I'm slowly catching up on things

Fired up the CV1 for the first time in FOREVER and saw that the S is out. (That's how much out of it I've been )
Has anyone bought the Rift S and how does it compare to the Oculus CV1?

I considered the HP Reverb but I read it has poor tracking on games requiring fast movements (Beat Saber / Arizona Sunshine)?

Keen to hear other peoples experiences off all or just comparisons to S and CV1.

I haven’t personally tried Rift S but fly with a couple of people who have it and they really like it. Oculus switched to inside-out tracking with HMD cameras. The cameras around the play space are gone. They only fly, though, so aren’t so interested in large movement tracking and haven’t reported on that. From their descriptions on what they see in the cockpit, it sounds like they are seeing about the same resolution as what I see in the Vive Pro but that’s secondhand verbal comparison and I’d take it with a huge grain of salt. Since S is RGB, even though its slightly lower resolution than Pro/Odyssey, I’d expect the effective resolution would appear slightly better than Vive Pro or Odyssey. But neither of them like the built-in speakers and are working on finding the best alternatives. One is using ear buds and the other headphones.

I’m waiting on a Valve Index which has the same nominal resolution as the Vive Pro but is also RGB stripe so should look even better. But it has off the ear speakers instead of headphones so I’m wondering how much I’ll hear my computer and motion rig fans. Time will tell and we should start getting shipments very soon. The Index also supports all sorts of frame rates so it can more closely match the system and application performance. Still waiting on more details on what those capabilities are beyond the reprojection capabilities in each main frame rate.

Reverb had a false start and apparently HP pulled them back for various issues. But the high resolution displays may be both blessing and curse. The through the lens photos look amazing but what I’ve heard is that the resolution puts a very high load on CPU/GPU and frame rates suffer.

All in all it looks like an incremental VR update across the board with some nice upgrade potential.

Thanks a lot @Zed - I'm actually going to box up my CV1 and throw it on Ebay and punt for the Rift S. My room is a nightmare with the 3 webcam trackers all over the place so the inside-out tracking of the S is a real plus.

Hey Archie, I haven’t tried personally, though. Just relating what they said. Cheers!

I can confirm the Rift S is a lot clearer as I have just got one and for me its night and day without ss switched on, its like if you put the ss to 1.5 say but as stock. only had about 20mins with tbh so not really had a play yet but its defo better. no headphones is abit crap tho.

Right just to add to this I have ditched the Rift S and gone back to my CV1 headset.
I have found it's far too sensitive to the seat mover and jitter about far too much to every tiny head movement, so it's just a mess while driving you just can not drive with it being so sensitive, i was on dirt rally and it's crazy needs like some kinda stabilising adding to the camera tracking.
I Put the cv1 rift back on and I am happy again smooth and drivable.

I will this as a thread now.

I thougth this overview of currently existing VR goggles was interesting, at least for me it is

Once you have seen the clarity of a Reverb there is nothing that comes close to it, a little more FOV would be nice but with mainly only using it for driving games it doesn't matter too much the.

Just hope they can iron out the few teething problems they have

Just for info. I owned my Vive for a year & was very happy with the over quality & performance. I had no tracking issues when racing on my rig and after a week or so of adapting to VR, I was able to use it for hours in complete comfort.

Unfortunately I had a fault with my hmd and had to have it repaired and later replaced. It didn't put me off the Vive at all, I rate it quite highly. But the service received by HTC was quite shocking and eventually pushed me to sell my Vive.

Just thought it was worth mentioning because reliability is worth considering and I ended up wasting dozens of hours with HTC.

I have read through all the comments here, so thanks. I am considering a Rift but might just put VR on hold for the moment...

My reverb arrived today...still in the box. I am wiring up a Sabertooth 2x60 as an upgrade and then I will give the Reverb a try. Very excited

maybe both?

I confess, I am floored. The Reverb really does have monitor clarity. Just...wow.

is that one from the new batch of reverbs? and any issues? im on the fence. i have the rift and need an upgrade. ive tried the rift-s and hated how the feel of wearing it but the clearity was nice. still sent it back . ive been on the fence of getting the reverb because of the issues ive heard of.

this is a cross of the rift-s modified with htc deluxe head strap. good idea that im really looking into.

Hi All,
Has anyone thought about how the VIVE Cosmos will go with inside out tracking and the cameras?? without base stations how will the tracking go??

I just bought a reverb. I'll give a mini-review this week hopefully.

I got my reverb set up a couple of days ago and did a few back to back comparisons against the rift cv1. I bought the reverb brand new, but the right headphone came broken with the wires exposed. I couldn’t snap it back in place so I just removed the headphone from that side. If I decide to keep the reverb, I’ll end up having to exchange it for another one.

Swapping between the two headsets in project cars 2 was a bit of a hassle, but defiantly showed the strengths and weaknesses of the reverb.

The rift felt more comfortable. The straps had more give, the fit felt more glove-like. That may be because I’ve used the rift exclusively since I launch it and it just feels “right” on my face. That’s not to say the Reverb was uncomfortable. The Reverb was very light and I got used to the new headset pretty quickly.

The display is razor-sharp. I was blown away with how much detail I could see on the track. It was amazing!

The horizontal FOV was slightly better than the CV1.. maybe like a degree or two. Not noticeable. I didnt pay attention to the vertical fov.

I could see the edges of the display panels on the reverb which was distracting at first and a little annoying, but when racing it all fades away.

I had no issues with my headset tracking during the race with my 3 dof motion rig (although my motions are pretty small).

The colors on the Rift were much better. The reverb's color seemed harsher compared to the rift. I may try reducing the gamma in-game.

The sweet spot was easy to find because it’s so apparent when you are not in the sweet spot. The only time I noticed the blurriness during a race was when I was trying to look down with my eyes to my gauges, otherwise, I’m usually looking straight ahead where the reverb really shines. I don’t think the small sweet spot is a deal-breaker for me at this moment.

As a sim only headset I think this is a winner despite the questionable build quality and small sweet spot. As a general use vr headset, I think you should look elsewhere. The controllers are ergonomically uncomfortable, and have very poor tracking.
90% of my time right now driving so I think I will be keeping it.

I still have to find time to compare it to my friends Rift S this weekend. I’m excited to see how it stacks up to the reverb.

First impressions with the Rift S were generally positive..
-Much more clear and sharp than the Rift CV1
-Headset felt higher quality than the Reverb
-Colors seemed better than the Reverb
-FoV seemed Lower than the Reverb

God rays are more apparent on the Rift S than on the Reverb, but godrays never really bothered me while racing so that was a non issue for me.

I could not maintain 80fps on the Rift S no matter what settings I used in Project Cars. I had to download oculus tray tool and manually disable AWS to get high frame rates with high graphics settings.

Switching back and forth from the Rift S to the Reverb made it apparent that the Reverb really does have the crown on clarity and sharpness. The other cars on the grid were just a little fuzzier on the rift s. I also noticed more aliasing artifacts along the edge of spoilers and fences.

I will say the gap in clarity between the CV1 and the Rift S is much bigger than the gap in clarity between the Rift S and the Reverb. I think going from a Gen 1 headset like the Rift CV1 or a HTC Vive to the Rift S is a meaningful upgrade.

I was also able to correct the colors on the Reverb by reducing the exposure compensation from 1 to .8 or .7 in the settings in pcars2.

In the end, I still think the Reverb is the best sim racing headset out there from what I have tried personally (CV1, Rift S, and Reverb). The clarity is just amazing and can't be matched. If you plan on using your headset for more than racing, the Rift S performs admirably with superior tracking, controls, and ecosystem.

PC Specs
Mobo: Asus Crosshair VI Hero
CPU: AMD R5 3600x @ 4.3Ghz
GPU: EVGA RTX 2080ti
RAM: G.Skill TridentZ 3700Mhz DDR4 16gb

Settings Used
Rift S
In Game Super Sampling: 1.3
Texture Resolution: High
Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 8x
V-Sync: No
MSAA: High
Reflections: High
Environment Map: High
Car Detail: High
Track Detail: High
Enhanced Mirror: Yes
Shadow Detail: Low
Detailed Grass: Off
Particle Level: Low
Particle Density: Low

Reverb
In Game Super Sampling: 1
Steam Super Sampling (WMR for Steam Beta): 90%
Texture Resolution: High
Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 2x
V-Sync: No
MSAA: Medium
Reflections: Low
Environment Map: Low
Car Detail: Low
Track Detail: Low
Enhanced Mirror: Yes
Shadow Detail: Low
Detailed Grass: Off
Particle Level: Low
Particle Density: Low

Testing
Track: Long Beach
Time: 18:00
Car: Renault RS.01
5 AI cars - Start from behind.

I have the HTC vive and also the Rift s In my opinion the rift s is much more superior in every way as the clarity of the images in racing games is a lot better and also no need for base stations just plug in the headset and it works fine, the Rift s is my favorite goto headset I also own the Pimax 5k which i hate because the headset is so uncomfortable so right now i am in the process of fitting the Pimax 5k into a racing helmet with fans and speakers hopefully i will have the project finished in a week or 2.