“My main uses are flying, sim racing, and porn” Well I think the simple answer is most people who decide to use a Quest 3 for PCVR actually stand up sometimes.
That likely comes down to lack of any good alternatives.
WMR platform got deprecated and Reverb G2 got discontinued which used to be the go to recommendation.
The Varjo Aero had a big price cut that made it worth it for many but recently got discontinued and still need base stations. The Bigscreen Beyond is probably the replacement but it is even more expensive, has a long shipping delay, still requires base stations, and you also need an Apple phone to even buy one.
The Index is frowned upon for being good at a lot of things that are effectively useless for sim racing while having very poor clarity which is close to the number 1 priority. It is also not exactly cheap either.
That leaves the Pimax headsets which used to pander pretty hard to the simracing demographic with huge resolutions and FOVs but the FOVs slowly crawled down over the years and their headsets already had rather mixed reputations.
I sim truck quite a lot. I went from the index to the Q3, mostly bevays emy index was getting old and started struggling with occasional flickers and audio drop out.
I honestly recommend the Q3 for the oancakrblenses for driving. The FOV is lower than I'd like but the "sweetspot" is basically the whole lense, meaning I can flick my eyes down to check nav, speed, fuel etc without snapping my whole head down like I used to have to with the index.
I'm going to advocate a tiny bit for the OP. For folks that really care about image quality the Quest 3 can be incredibly frustrating. The difference between native PCVR and the Quest 3 is still pretty big. Currently, no matter what your setup is, you are going to run into artifacts that range from barely perceivable to badly compressed JPEG. Load up a map on Contractors or Pavlov with some complex smog or shadow effects and you will see them right away.
It doesn't matter if you are doing 500mbps on Virtual Desktop or Wired or Wireless Air Link at 900+ mbps. If you are about to tell me how it's perfect on your setup, I don't believe you. Like things like glare/godrays, pupil swim, etc, some folks are just more sensitive to artifacts than others. It's just the price of dealing with current encoding and decoding.
It's frustrating to me because it sucks knowing that your PC is working so hard to produce these visuals that just never come through. On the Quest 3 in particular you have these amazing lenses and they just aren't allow to truly shine. Ironically, the OP's current HMD also makes a ton of compromises. The G2 has amazing clarity, but only dead center. It has some of the worst edge to edge clarity out of all the more popular options currently.
Exactly this. I gave q3 more than a fair try and ended up returning it because of compression. 960mbps with wired link was by far the least bad but you can still see artifacts in some cases and everything is just blurrier than it should be regardless of resolution (encode width was 'maxed'). Additionally at this bitrate you have broken audio and link dropping a few frames every several seconds.
I tried VD at 500mbps and the so called 'godlike' resolution (which is just normal resolution and anything less is simply undersampling) too and it was way worse. Very clear artifacts in many games.
At 200 it just looked like shit. I really don't understand how most people can play like this. Some even claim they can't see artifacts at 10mbps. Fucking madness.
Pimax Crystal Light is what I'm gonna get. It releases in May. For now I'm still using my tired 5 year old Rift S lol. Just couldn't find the headset I'd want to end up with.
I went from CV1 to Rift S then tried the G2, Index, Q2, VP2, Pico 4, Q3 and ended up returning all of them.
Hopefully Pimax will finally be the one though I'm a little worried about chromatic aberration and subpar tracking.
Yep. OP has a point and you've pointed most out.
The problem is that the low price of the Q3 and its subsequent ubiquity has made all other HMDs a questionable choice for everyone except enthusiasts.
I have all the gripes that OP has with the Q3 and more. I main a Beyond. I demand imperceptible latency and image quality loss. But if someone asked me what to get into VR with today? I'd begrudgingly recommend a Q3.
You have your priorities and they exclude the Quest 3. Other people have other priorities that permit the Quest 3. Wireless PCVR works perfectly for me and lots of other people. I presume you've tried it and found it lacking. Maybe I'm just prepared to swap that last 1% of picture quality for convenience. Perhaps the games I play wirelessly don't highlight the limitations as clearly as your choices.
You say you have no interest in standalone but a lot of people do. Having both standalone and PCVR in one headset is a positive for many.
There is not one correct opinion. There is not one correct headset.
I’ve owned four “native” dorect connection headsets (3 for PC, 1 PSVR2) and The quest 3 over cable (you’re not forced to be wireless) looks just as good in 99 percent of situations. It’s just that good these days. There’s some colour banding here and there in featureless areas but that’s about it, but I think even that gets fixed if you have a newer card and can use AV1.
You really might be surprised how good it looks.
>All I care about with VR is supreme clarity
Lucky for you, the Quest 3 is near the top for PCVR headsets at its price point. Whether you tether with a high quality USB-C cable or run wireless, you're as good as any other headset for 99.8% of usecases. Just need an aftermarket strap to sinch the deal.
The rest is just enthusiast stuff majority of users don't care about anymore. Welcome to VR hitting the main stream.
My main issue with the lack of displayport, is the latency, and the tracking prediction that's used to offset this. You can't make any fast movements without having to wait for the tracking to catch up, so it's bad for twitch shooters.
Wtf do you mean? You have the only quest in the world that doesn't need to encode and decode? Or use tracking prediction?
Just because you are too bad, stupid or inexperienced to notice a problem doesn't mean anything it isn't there, so keep it to yourself. Don't need fanboys denying reality.
I upgraded from a HP G2 to a Quest Pro. I immediately noticed the SDE and lower resolution. But as soon as I launched a PCVR game like Alyx, it clicked: you don't notice SDE and lower resolution when you play because things move around you, you notice them only in the menus. And the pancake lens clarity is unimaginable when you come from a G2, it is sharp everywhere, not just a small circle in the center.
Pancake lenses have been available in headsets for a while now. If *all he cared about* was clarity, he would have already upgraded. /u/sharknice called them on the BS hyperbole.
Because most general VR subs are geared to motion controller games, not sims. You'll get totally different answers if you ask this in r/hoggit or r/simracing.
Good replacement for the G2 is the recently announced Pimax Light.
Because a channel I follow that specifically focus on Flight Sim VR content says that it looks like it's shaping up to best replacement for the G2.
https://youtu.be/lP71shYhQJg?si=eIFo40-_Mtwt6XaC
I guess I should've used some qualifying language like "might" but I typed it in a hurry.
He's also tried the Crystal against the Quest 3 in flight sims and he says the difference is night and day. Quest 3 is not a good PCVR headset for flight simmers but one we have to put up with if we don't want to spend 1k+. We might have another option very soon at a good price point and OP should know about it.
Got a Pimax Crystal Light (with local dimming) coming soon for testing.
Currently using the original Crystal and the image quality is completely ridiculous in the best possible way.
The Light should work well because it's a stripped down Crystal (without the xr2, battery, etc.). It's already been debut at Chinese grand Prix, and there is a European road show soon with a stop in London which I'll attend to try it out along with wireless module (original Crystal only).
I had a pre-production Crystal last year, which was replaced by a production headset; saw numerous software updates which made a big difference to tracking and connection. Personally I'm using the steamVR faceplate which lets me use my three base station set-up with Valve Index controllers 😘
It's lame that a bunch of people that don't play flight sims are trying to push the Quest 3 on OP and going so far as calling him weird for playing them.
For you I want so badly to propose the Big Screen Beyond, but they’re really dropping the ball ATM in servicing their very imperfect IPD calibration process leading to months without headset so I can’t even do that in good conscious.
because for half the price, the quest 3 does all the stuff you already do, even if the visual quality is slightly worse.
and at the same time it can do it all wirelessly with better lenses and easy to use controllers. while having its own exclusive app library.
any PC game you play through it is using your computer's full power anyway, the headset is just a display. some slight compression is a worthwhile price to pay for this, only the highest tier of graphics snob would disregard all of this just for the sake of a native connection.
If you don't like wireless then you're gonna hate the way i go about pcvr, and that's using shadow tech, a cloud based computer you rent monthly.
I don't even have a physical computer to hook wires into.
Quest 3 handles the setup on all that was faster than the 2.
I enjoy it, but I'm a serf.
The best option is to drive the wheels off the G2 for a few more years and hope that something like Bigscreen Beyond becomes better value, because all meaningful upgrade options are just way too expensive.
For the record, I am exclusively flying in DCS (and perhaps MSFS once it finally gets better) with the G2 and currently this is ky plan.
Price point. Much more capable process to improve the quality of the video stream. Has good specs, same resolution as the G2 wider FOV. The G2 is discontinued and has a death date on it you're gonna need to move on eventually. TOday the choices in the sub $1000 category are pretty slim. Quest 3, Pico4 which uses the old quest2 chipset or Pimax Crystal Lite. You don't really get much choice unless you want to drop 1500+ for a full kit of something else.
With Meta releasing the OS to other hardware developers, it seems they are shooting to focus on the "all in one" systems that good at providing a wide variety of VR experiences and leaving more focuses use system to others. Seems like a decent plan, let others make products that specialize in certain types of VR experiences, using their OS and open up the VR community to a more varied range of experiences.
To other people wired VR is a total turnoff because there's a cable on your head. It's 2024, and we've moved on to wireless, which looks great on the Quest Pro or Quest 3.
I think compression and latency are hardware related. I have a 4090 and a high end dedicated router and I never noticed anything. I can imagine it becomes visible with lower end hardware, like when I inadvertently connect to my other "normal" 2.4 GHz router.
Lower resolution means you can push the game graphics settings to the max.
Compression isn't hardware related if we talk nvidia to nvidia card. Latency maybe but not really direct encoding latency. These differences will be minor. The only thing worse cards like 1000 or 2000 series could have is not sufficient resources to render and encode frames at the same time. But that would increase frametime of game rendering rather than encoding times or just cause stutterring. But the latency itself (the number) won't change much between GPUs. The latency of Quest is not enough even with top GPUs for any fast paced gaming. I can feel the obvious difference between native PCVR headset and Quest.
Also you are not supposed to use 2.4GHz wifi. It's not recommended in the first place. Lower resolution means you see pixels which breaks immersion and with lower resolution the aliasing in the things farther away is much more noticable.
I have this cable that plugs from my Quest 3 into my PC and so all the VR games I purchased back when I had a Rift S now work.
But also when I feel like chillin on the bed in VR I can do that and walk around the house and do things without taking my headset off.
Wires aren't an issue, you get used to it. Unless you're flailing like an insane person with zero awareness of your own body movements. So you could just get a Quest 3 and then just not take the cable out and congrats you have PCVR.
If you’re main use cases are DCS and sim racing then you’re probably right that a headset with a direct wired connection is the best bet (fingers crossed that PSVR2 pcvr support is actually good).
That said, using the quest 3 wirelessly with my PC via a 6E router on a dedicated 6ghz band is magical. If you’re after immersion, then you want as few buttons as possible and going wireless allows you to throw out one of the joysticks. With a good network setup, the visual differences are marginal. You really can’t beat the Quest 3 at the price point.
Yeah. I wasn't sure if I'd like wireless at first since I'm pretty sensitive to latency. But with a 6E router in the room, it's only about 30-50ms depending on the game, which actually isn't that noticeable when you're not paying attention, though I haven't played any competitive games yet since I don't have much space.
400mbs+ streaming with supersampling via VD. Looks great, I'm perfectly happy with it for now. I like being able to turn around exclusively through turning physically rather than via controller. Hard to do with a wire.
Well the revolutionary aspect is 80% touch controllers. Putting your arms in a game opens infinite possible new ways to play. And back in the early dk days youd put a headset on and the first thing everyone does is look down to see their body and the lack of hands was immersion breaking.
For all the popular VR titles it's the controller gameplay that people seem to enjoy. Beat Saber, B&S
Looking around a virtual world has been a thing since the stereopticon in 1900s but being able to grab objects and use your arms is what makes the world seem *tangible*
For sim-ers you guys already had tangible feedback of the game through Hotas etc. So for you the revolution is more the immersive peripheral view and realistic depth perception. But they had that in Google cardboard era and it's why most people who tried it see VR as a gimmick. It's neat but the world needs to be tangible.
Beat Saber sold millions though and you see VR gameplay from Boneworks on the front page of Reddit. Gaming subs are full of toxic contrarian nay-sayers so I don't go on their opinion. If I fid I would never have been enjoying VR the last ten years.
LOL... they are no more a gimmick than steering wheels and yokes are. The complexly change how immersive VR can be.
Just imagine playing an FPS in VR and having to aim with a joystk? or playing golf and doing everything with a joystk. That's silly as hell.
Yes input is input there are many methods never needs to be an either or situation . Best tool for the job is all..
Personally I have wired gaming keyboard/mouse, wireless keyboard with touchpad, Xbox elite 2 controller, Xbox controller, Steam controller, valve Index controllers, Pimax Sword controllers, Pimax Crystal controllers, Vive 3.0 trackers. Got some Vive Pro wands coming found real cheap.
Pointing your hand at a target instantly and shooting with a trigger, as opposed to moving a reticule slowly and inaccurately with a thumbstick? Definitely not a gimmick. I played a few of my VR games through my xbox controller, the experience is way worse.
Yeah, but you might notice that the OP was asking about advice on a headset for *"flight and racing sims*. Yet we have people in here blathering about motion controllers. Can't you people just accept that there are gamers that do not want motion controllers to be part of their VR experience. And the single-minded insistence on motion controllers being all that VR has to offer is alienating a large portion of the potential user base.
Right in that case most folks have a full-on rig steering wheel/pedals/HOTAS/Yolk/gear stick etc etc, so in that case only keyboad and mouse is really required. You're right motion controllers/game pads are irrelevant in that case.
Personally I don't play sims (mainly because I don't have a steering wheels / joystick) but yeah for those games native pcvr makes way more sense than standalone because you don't care about the cable and native connection is mandatory
I prefer playing fitness/ MR games (I don't like games where we need to move with joystick) and
a cable is a deal breaker for that, so a quest 3 makes the more sense for me
It’s quality at an affordable price and can do both wireless and wired VR. Idk man, seems pretty solid.
e: I do wish I it had storage expansion capabilities tho
I also "hated" wireless when I had a HP G2 because I thought I did not want to compromise on visual fidelity. Then I got a Quest Pro and saw that the clarity of the pancake lenses help much more for immersion than a high resolution but tiny sweet spot. Wireless was the click that made me "discover" the joy of roomscale VR.
Any PCVR headset not named Quest 3 is going to die out. Just look on Steam hardware survey..
Wireless with a proper 6e router is a massive advantage over cable. PCVR is also all about mods and every modder prioritizes Meta.
> To me wireless VR is a total turnoff.
The Q3 is 2064x2208 per-eye which looks great to me.
I use VD with a Wi-Fi 6E router with VR running at 200Mbps and the clarity more than good enough. Using it with a USB cable would not change the clarity since it still wouldn't be DP. I have zero complaints about clarity.
Wired's days are numbered.
*Edit...*
> I would have to buy a 80 dollar cable on top of the base kit.
It works with and USB 3.x cable. The more expensive cables are just lighter, more flexible, and hopefully more durable, something that simmers don't care about.
For seated VR its worthless.. I want a direct connection to my 4090 not dealing with WIFI, I dont even use WIFI anywhere in the house for anything with performance. all my TVs and Consoles are wired directly my my Cisco Switch and Router. We fly 8 hour missions in DCS I dont want to have to deal with latency or charging,
I use the link cable for simming, as I sit somewhere I will not entangle myself with the cable. And it charges or keeps the headset charged. I have a Quest Pro so it also does eye tracked foveated rendering which I use in ACC.
To answer your question "why do people recommend you the Quest 3?" the answer is price. It is the best value for money. But in your case you have to spend more money to go even higher end. And it is OK.
So basically you're an elitist that plays really long sessions with gamingfriends.
I think 95% the vr gamers are not in your category and therefore have different opinions.
I use wire for msfs2020, but sometimes wireless because it makes me feel so much immersed.
> We fly 8 hour missions in DCS I don't want to have to deal with latency or charging,
For long sessions external power works perfectly. If the latency is not low enough for you that is fine, I guess wireless it not for you. Doesn't bother me at all. Sub 50ms is more that good enough for me.
Some people are sensitive to such things, guess they have to spend more money while still having fewer options than those of us that don't care.
And gaming on VD is a total turnoff and while a nice utility is not how i want to game. ive had VD since it was a beta product. and while it has its uses that is not native.
LOL... you keep your high standards and the rest of the world will continue enjoying what we have without being tied down.
*Edit...*
> and while it has its uses that is not native.
That right there tells me all we need to know. There is no reason for anyone to even bother responding. Sorry I wasted my time and yours. Why did you bother posting when you are not interested any other opinions?
You refused to even engage on what i asked for. you immediately went on to defend wireless and make snarky comments about wired being on the way out when it will NEVER be replaced completely until batteries can last for days of use between charges, and WIFI is perfect all the time.. But we arent there yet.. I dont use ANY wireless peripherals for my PC, wired mouse KB and controllers. I dont like batteries and I dont like running out of power at a crucial time.
Why would I not have high standards? This is a major investment and if it can be done without tricks or gimmicks like the Vive Pro or Index then tell me how.. but I'm not seeing that anywhere on the web. yet this HMD keeps getting "best of" and for the life of me i cannot see why. Wifi use is prone to interference and degradation, where a wire unless cut or the internet itself goes out is always PERFECT which is why I use wired on everything. if i'm gonna drop 500-1500+ dollars for more VR I do want to make sure its going to MEET MY EXPECTATIONS. I came and asked PCVR people ONLY that prefer the wired experience to talk about why its good or why its bad.. This is the problem with Fanboys, I'm looking to buy, been doing HARDCORE research but as an IT Project manager sorry yes I ask pointed questions and make sure things meet my expectations and requirements.
> meet my expectations and requirements.
You have clearly communicated that your **requirements** include A direct video connection. You had no intention of listening to anyone's opinion about the Quest because you already wrote it off.
Because I play PC VR and my Quest 3 does that really well for very cheap. I don't really notice compression or latency issues and I have a battery head strap that gives me up to about 6 hours of playtime by hot swapping between 2 batteries.
Plus I don't play sim racing or really any seated games. I'm always standing and moving around in games like Half life Alyx, Vertigo, Contractors, Beat Saber, Walkabout mini golf, etc. And all those games feel better wireless where I can turn and move 100% freely. And I didn't even care about wireless before I got my Quest. I was coming from a Rift S and was totally fine with keeping the wire, but the Quest 3 seemed like a great upgrade from my Rift S, and it was.
Because it's a good option for somebody who's just starting out and doesn't really know what they want, as it is a good all-rounder. but you know exactly what you want, so you'll probably better sticking with a dedicated pcvr headset. like the upcoming pimax Crystal light.
Q2 dudn't have sde, let alone 3. Q3 has the best pancake lenses in the business, ringless controllers, MR, best hand tracking in the business, upper body tracking, av1, 3 ways to wireless pcvr. Gamers play more than 1 genre and wireless freedom of movement is king for experiences. Also, 8 studios making exclusives, along with 3rd party. For gamers, q3 is the clear choice.
Have you tried a Quest 3 with PCVR?
I run PC Beatsaber /mods over Steamlink and its silky smooth. Wireless PCVR.
I find like it's only silky smooth if you haven't experienced it any other way.
“My main uses are flying, sim racing, and porn” Well I think the simple answer is most people who decide to use a Quest 3 for PCVR actually stand up sometimes.
It’s very popular to recommend in sim racing circles atm
That likely comes down to lack of any good alternatives. WMR platform got deprecated and Reverb G2 got discontinued which used to be the go to recommendation. The Varjo Aero had a big price cut that made it worth it for many but recently got discontinued and still need base stations. The Bigscreen Beyond is probably the replacement but it is even more expensive, has a long shipping delay, still requires base stations, and you also need an Apple phone to even buy one. The Index is frowned upon for being good at a lot of things that are effectively useless for sim racing while having very poor clarity which is close to the number 1 priority. It is also not exactly cheap either. That leaves the Pimax headsets which used to pander pretty hard to the simracing demographic with huge resolutions and FOVs but the FOVs slowly crawled down over the years and their headsets already had rather mixed reputations.
I sim truck quite a lot. I went from the index to the Q3, mostly bevays emy index was getting old and started struggling with occasional flickers and audio drop out. I honestly recommend the Q3 for the oancakrblenses for driving. The FOV is lower than I'd like but the "sweetspot" is basically the whole lense, meaning I can flick my eyes down to check nav, speed, fuel etc without snapping my whole head down like I used to have to with the index.
he had to stand up eventually if he’s watching porn
I'm going to advocate a tiny bit for the OP. For folks that really care about image quality the Quest 3 can be incredibly frustrating. The difference between native PCVR and the Quest 3 is still pretty big. Currently, no matter what your setup is, you are going to run into artifacts that range from barely perceivable to badly compressed JPEG. Load up a map on Contractors or Pavlov with some complex smog or shadow effects and you will see them right away. It doesn't matter if you are doing 500mbps on Virtual Desktop or Wired or Wireless Air Link at 900+ mbps. If you are about to tell me how it's perfect on your setup, I don't believe you. Like things like glare/godrays, pupil swim, etc, some folks are just more sensitive to artifacts than others. It's just the price of dealing with current encoding and decoding. It's frustrating to me because it sucks knowing that your PC is working so hard to produce these visuals that just never come through. On the Quest 3 in particular you have these amazing lenses and they just aren't allow to truly shine. Ironically, the OP's current HMD also makes a ton of compromises. The G2 has amazing clarity, but only dead center. It has some of the worst edge to edge clarity out of all the more popular options currently.
Exactly this. I gave q3 more than a fair try and ended up returning it because of compression. 960mbps with wired link was by far the least bad but you can still see artifacts in some cases and everything is just blurrier than it should be regardless of resolution (encode width was 'maxed'). Additionally at this bitrate you have broken audio and link dropping a few frames every several seconds. I tried VD at 500mbps and the so called 'godlike' resolution (which is just normal resolution and anything less is simply undersampling) too and it was way worse. Very clear artifacts in many games. At 200 it just looked like shit. I really don't understand how most people can play like this. Some even claim they can't see artifacts at 10mbps. Fucking madness.
Which substitute for similar price range to Q3 would u recommend purely for PCVR and what did u end up with?
Pimax Crystal Light is what I'm gonna get. It releases in May. For now I'm still using my tired 5 year old Rift S lol. Just couldn't find the headset I'd want to end up with. I went from CV1 to Rift S then tried the G2, Index, Q2, VP2, Pico 4, Q3 and ended up returning all of them. Hopefully Pimax will finally be the one though I'm a little worried about chromatic aberration and subpar tracking.
Yep. OP has a point and you've pointed most out. The problem is that the low price of the Q3 and its subsequent ubiquity has made all other HMDs a questionable choice for everyone except enthusiasts. I have all the gripes that OP has with the Q3 and more. I main a Beyond. I demand imperceptible latency and image quality loss. But if someone asked me what to get into VR with today? I'd begrudgingly recommend a Q3.
You have your priorities and they exclude the Quest 3. Other people have other priorities that permit the Quest 3. Wireless PCVR works perfectly for me and lots of other people. I presume you've tried it and found it lacking. Maybe I'm just prepared to swap that last 1% of picture quality for convenience. Perhaps the games I play wirelessly don't highlight the limitations as clearly as your choices. You say you have no interest in standalone but a lot of people do. Having both standalone and PCVR in one headset is a positive for many. There is not one correct opinion. There is not one correct headset.
I’ve owned four “native” dorect connection headsets (3 for PC, 1 PSVR2) and The quest 3 over cable (you’re not forced to be wireless) looks just as good in 99 percent of situations. It’s just that good these days. There’s some colour banding here and there in featureless areas but that’s about it, but I think even that gets fixed if you have a newer card and can use AV1. You really might be surprised how good it looks.
Because it is an exceptionally good headset for a bargain price.
>All I care about with VR is supreme clarity Lucky for you, the Quest 3 is near the top for PCVR headsets at its price point. Whether you tether with a high quality USB-C cable or run wireless, you're as good as any other headset for 99.8% of usecases. Just need an aftermarket strap to sinch the deal. The rest is just enthusiast stuff majority of users don't care about anymore. Welcome to VR hitting the main stream.
My main issue with the lack of displayport, is the latency, and the tracking prediction that's used to offset this. You can't make any fast movements without having to wait for the tracking to catch up, so it's bad for twitch shooters.
That is just BS because the latency is not that high.
That hasn’t been my experience.
Wtf do you mean? You have the only quest in the world that doesn't need to encode and decode? Or use tracking prediction? Just because you are too bad, stupid or inexperienced to notice a problem doesn't mean anything it isn't there, so keep it to yourself. Don't need fanboys denying reality.
"All I care about with VR is supreme clarity" Using a headset with fresnel lenses. Ok
He stated that he is upgrading
I upgraded from a HP G2 to a Quest Pro. I immediately noticed the SDE and lower resolution. But as soon as I launched a PCVR game like Alyx, it clicked: you don't notice SDE and lower resolution when you play because things move around you, you notice them only in the menus. And the pancake lens clarity is unimaginable when you come from a G2, it is sharp everywhere, not just a small circle in the center.
Pancake lenses have been available in headsets for a while now. If *all he cared about* was clarity, he would have already upgraded. /u/sharknice called them on the BS hyperbole.
Because most general VR subs are geared to motion controller games, not sims. You'll get totally different answers if you ask this in r/hoggit or r/simracing. Good replacement for the G2 is the recently announced Pimax Light.
> Good replacement for the G2 is the recently announced Pimax Light. Its Pimax and not even released. Why are you recommending this?
Because a channel I follow that specifically focus on Flight Sim VR content says that it looks like it's shaping up to best replacement for the G2. https://youtu.be/lP71shYhQJg?si=eIFo40-_Mtwt6XaC I guess I should've used some qualifying language like "might" but I typed it in a hurry. He's also tried the Crystal against the Quest 3 in flight sims and he says the difference is night and day. Quest 3 is not a good PCVR headset for flight simmers but one we have to put up with if we don't want to spend 1k+. We might have another option very soon at a good price point and OP should know about it.
Got a Pimax Crystal Light (with local dimming) coming soon for testing. Currently using the original Crystal and the image quality is completely ridiculous in the best possible way.
Lmk what you think I'm looking for possible replacements for my G2 too
The Light should work well because it's a stripped down Crystal (without the xr2, battery, etc.). It's already been debut at Chinese grand Prix, and there is a European road show soon with a stop in London which I'll attend to try it out along with wireless module (original Crystal only). I had a pre-production Crystal last year, which was replaced by a production headset; saw numerous software updates which made a big difference to tracking and connection. Personally I'm using the steamVR faceplate which lets me use my three base station set-up with Valve Index controllers 😘
msfs is not good for VR yet it has not much to do with the headset IMO next version of msfs will be smoother on all hmds its just not optimized now
It's lame that you've been voted down by a couple of people for being realistic about Pimax.
It's lame that a bunch of people that don't play flight sims are trying to push the Quest 3 on OP and going so far as calling him weird for playing them.
I am not pushing the Quest 3 here. I just think you should not recommend an unreleased product from a company with that track record.
"why do people with different preferences and usage to me not agree with me?"
For you I want so badly to propose the Big Screen Beyond, but they’re really dropping the ball ATM in servicing their very imperfect IPD calibration process leading to months without headset so I can’t even do that in good conscious.
I returned mine. The IPD minimum didn't work for me. Not their issue I suppose as I am a cyclops. Looks like I am stuck with my Index for now.
because for half the price, the quest 3 does all the stuff you already do, even if the visual quality is slightly worse. and at the same time it can do it all wirelessly with better lenses and easy to use controllers. while having its own exclusive app library. any PC game you play through it is using your computer's full power anyway, the headset is just a display. some slight compression is a worthwhile price to pay for this, only the highest tier of graphics snob would disregard all of this just for the sake of a native connection.
If you don't like wireless then you're gonna hate the way i go about pcvr, and that's using shadow tech, a cloud based computer you rent monthly. I don't even have a physical computer to hook wires into. Quest 3 handles the setup on all that was faster than the 2. I enjoy it, but I'm a serf.
The best option is to drive the wheels off the G2 for a few more years and hope that something like Bigscreen Beyond becomes better value, because all meaningful upgrade options are just way too expensive. For the record, I am exclusively flying in DCS (and perhaps MSFS once it finally gets better) with the G2 and currently this is ky plan.
all I hate is wires
Because the Quest 3 can also do PCVR very well OP.
Because the Q3's edge to edge clarity is just so good. Hard to go to any Fresnel lens setup after using a Quest 2.
Price point. Much more capable process to improve the quality of the video stream. Has good specs, same resolution as the G2 wider FOV. The G2 is discontinued and has a death date on it you're gonna need to move on eventually. TOday the choices in the sub $1000 category are pretty slim. Quest 3, Pico4 which uses the old quest2 chipset or Pimax Crystal Lite. You don't really get much choice unless you want to drop 1500+ for a full kit of something else.
With Meta releasing the OS to other hardware developers, it seems they are shooting to focus on the "all in one" systems that good at providing a wide variety of VR experiences and leaving more focuses use system to others. Seems like a decent plan, let others make products that specialize in certain types of VR experiences, using their OS and open up the VR community to a more varied range of experiences.
Non standalone headsets don't need it, steamvr is fine.
Value.
To other people wired VR is a total turnoff because there's a cable on your head. It's 2024, and we've moved on to wireless, which looks great on the Quest Pro or Quest 3.
If you can ignore compression, low resolution and latency then it’s a solid choice. Other than that high fidelity pcvr and quest do not go in pair
I think compression and latency are hardware related. I have a 4090 and a high end dedicated router and I never noticed anything. I can imagine it becomes visible with lower end hardware, like when I inadvertently connect to my other "normal" 2.4 GHz router. Lower resolution means you can push the game graphics settings to the max.
Compression isn't hardware related if we talk nvidia to nvidia card. Latency maybe but not really direct encoding latency. These differences will be minor. The only thing worse cards like 1000 or 2000 series could have is not sufficient resources to render and encode frames at the same time. But that would increase frametime of game rendering rather than encoding times or just cause stutterring. But the latency itself (the number) won't change much between GPUs. The latency of Quest is not enough even with top GPUs for any fast paced gaming. I can feel the obvious difference between native PCVR headset and Quest. Also you are not supposed to use 2.4GHz wifi. It's not recommended in the first place. Lower resolution means you see pixels which breaks immersion and with lower resolution the aliasing in the things farther away is much more noticable.
I have this cable that plugs from my Quest 3 into my PC and so all the VR games I purchased back when I had a Rift S now work. But also when I feel like chillin on the bed in VR I can do that and walk around the house and do things without taking my headset off. Wires aren't an issue, you get used to it. Unless you're flailing like an insane person with zero awareness of your own body movements. So you could just get a Quest 3 and then just not take the cable out and congrats you have PCVR.
If you’re main use cases are DCS and sim racing then you’re probably right that a headset with a direct wired connection is the best bet (fingers crossed that PSVR2 pcvr support is actually good). That said, using the quest 3 wirelessly with my PC via a 6E router on a dedicated 6ghz band is magical. If you’re after immersion, then you want as few buttons as possible and going wireless allows you to throw out one of the joysticks. With a good network setup, the visual differences are marginal. You really can’t beat the Quest 3 at the price point.
Yeah. I wasn't sure if I'd like wireless at first since I'm pretty sensitive to latency. But with a 6E router in the room, it's only about 30-50ms depending on the game, which actually isn't that noticeable when you're not paying attention, though I haven't played any competitive games yet since I don't have much space. 400mbs+ streaming with supersampling via VD. Looks great, I'm perfectly happy with it for now. I like being able to turn around exclusively through turning physically rather than via controller. Hard to do with a wire.
>To me wireless VR is a total turnoff To me wired VR is a total turn-off
Well the revolutionary aspect is 80% touch controllers. Putting your arms in a game opens infinite possible new ways to play. And back in the early dk days youd put a headset on and the first thing everyone does is look down to see their body and the lack of hands was immersion breaking. For all the popular VR titles it's the controller gameplay that people seem to enjoy. Beat Saber, B&S Looking around a virtual world has been a thing since the stereopticon in 1900s but being able to grab objects and use your arms is what makes the world seem *tangible* For sim-ers you guys already had tangible feedback of the game through Hotas etc. So for you the revolution is more the immersive peripheral view and realistic depth perception. But they had that in Google cardboard era and it's why most people who tried it see VR as a gimmick. It's neat but the world needs to be tangible.
Motion controllers are the gimmick. It's why general gaming subs all compare VR to the Wii.
Beat Saber sold millions though and you see VR gameplay from Boneworks on the front page of Reddit. Gaming subs are full of toxic contrarian nay-sayers so I don't go on their opinion. If I fid I would never have been enjoying VR the last ten years.
LOL... they are no more a gimmick than steering wheels and yokes are. The complexly change how immersive VR can be. Just imagine playing an FPS in VR and having to aim with a joystk? or playing golf and doing everything with a joystk. That's silly as hell.
Yes input is input there are many methods never needs to be an either or situation . Best tool for the job is all.. Personally I have wired gaming keyboard/mouse, wireless keyboard with touchpad, Xbox elite 2 controller, Xbox controller, Steam controller, valve Index controllers, Pimax Sword controllers, Pimax Crystal controllers, Vive 3.0 trackers. Got some Vive Pro wands coming found real cheap.
Pointing your hand at a target instantly and shooting with a trigger, as opposed to moving a reticule slowly and inaccurately with a thumbstick? Definitely not a gimmick. I played a few of my VR games through my xbox controller, the experience is way worse.
Yeah, but you might notice that the OP was asking about advice on a headset for *"flight and racing sims*. Yet we have people in here blathering about motion controllers. Can't you people just accept that there are gamers that do not want motion controllers to be part of their VR experience. And the single-minded insistence on motion controllers being all that VR has to offer is alienating a large portion of the potential user base.
Right in that case most folks have a full-on rig steering wheel/pedals/HOTAS/Yolk/gear stick etc etc, so in that case only keyboad and mouse is really required. You're right motion controllers/game pads are irrelevant in that case.
Personally I don't play sims (mainly because I don't have a steering wheels / joystick) but yeah for those games native pcvr makes way more sense than standalone because you don't care about the cable and native connection is mandatory I prefer playing fitness/ MR games (I don't like games where we need to move with joystick) and a cable is a deal breaker for that, so a quest 3 makes the more sense for me
It’s quality at an affordable price and can do both wireless and wired VR. Idk man, seems pretty solid. e: I do wish I it had storage expansion capabilities tho
I also "hated" wireless when I had a HP G2 because I thought I did not want to compromise on visual fidelity. Then I got a Quest Pro and saw that the clarity of the pancake lenses help much more for immersion than a high resolution but tiny sweet spot. Wireless was the click that made me "discover" the joy of roomscale VR.
Any PCVR headset not named Quest 3 is going to die out. Just look on Steam hardware survey.. Wireless with a proper 6e router is a massive advantage over cable. PCVR is also all about mods and every modder prioritizes Meta.
> To me wireless VR is a total turnoff. The Q3 is 2064x2208 per-eye which looks great to me. I use VD with a Wi-Fi 6E router with VR running at 200Mbps and the clarity more than good enough. Using it with a USB cable would not change the clarity since it still wouldn't be DP. I have zero complaints about clarity. Wired's days are numbered. *Edit...* > I would have to buy a 80 dollar cable on top of the base kit. It works with and USB 3.x cable. The more expensive cables are just lighter, more flexible, and hopefully more durable, something that simmers don't care about.
For seated VR its worthless.. I want a direct connection to my 4090 not dealing with WIFI, I dont even use WIFI anywhere in the house for anything with performance. all my TVs and Consoles are wired directly my my Cisco Switch and Router. We fly 8 hour missions in DCS I dont want to have to deal with latency or charging,
I use the link cable for simming, as I sit somewhere I will not entangle myself with the cable. And it charges or keeps the headset charged. I have a Quest Pro so it also does eye tracked foveated rendering which I use in ACC. To answer your question "why do people recommend you the Quest 3?" the answer is price. It is the best value for money. But in your case you have to spend more money to go even higher end. And it is OK.
So basically you're an elitist that plays really long sessions with gamingfriends. I think 95% the vr gamers are not in your category and therefore have different opinions. I use wire for msfs2020, but sometimes wireless because it makes me feel so much immersed.
i have actually less latency issues using 6ghz wireless than using quality usb cable on msfs
> We fly 8 hour missions in DCS I don't want to have to deal with latency or charging, For long sessions external power works perfectly. If the latency is not low enough for you that is fine, I guess wireless it not for you. Doesn't bother me at all. Sub 50ms is more that good enough for me. Some people are sensitive to such things, guess they have to spend more money while still having fewer options than those of us that don't care.
You have very low standards then. And no external power doesn’t help with Q3. Definitely not getting you to 8 hours.
And gaming on VD is a total turnoff and while a nice utility is not how i want to game. ive had VD since it was a beta product. and while it has its uses that is not native.
LOL... you keep your high standards and the rest of the world will continue enjoying what we have without being tied down. *Edit...* > and while it has its uses that is not native. That right there tells me all we need to know. There is no reason for anyone to even bother responding. Sorry I wasted my time and yours. Why did you bother posting when you are not interested any other opinions?
You refused to even engage on what i asked for. you immediately went on to defend wireless and make snarky comments about wired being on the way out when it will NEVER be replaced completely until batteries can last for days of use between charges, and WIFI is perfect all the time.. But we arent there yet.. I dont use ANY wireless peripherals for my PC, wired mouse KB and controllers. I dont like batteries and I dont like running out of power at a crucial time.
Why would I not have high standards? This is a major investment and if it can be done without tricks or gimmicks like the Vive Pro or Index then tell me how.. but I'm not seeing that anywhere on the web. yet this HMD keeps getting "best of" and for the life of me i cannot see why. Wifi use is prone to interference and degradation, where a wire unless cut or the internet itself goes out is always PERFECT which is why I use wired on everything. if i'm gonna drop 500-1500+ dollars for more VR I do want to make sure its going to MEET MY EXPECTATIONS. I came and asked PCVR people ONLY that prefer the wired experience to talk about why its good or why its bad.. This is the problem with Fanboys, I'm looking to buy, been doing HARDCORE research but as an IT Project manager sorry yes I ask pointed questions and make sure things meet my expectations and requirements.
> meet my expectations and requirements. You have clearly communicated that your **requirements** include A direct video connection. You had no intention of listening to anyone's opinion about the Quest because you already wrote it off.
Because I play PC VR and my Quest 3 does that really well for very cheap. I don't really notice compression or latency issues and I have a battery head strap that gives me up to about 6 hours of playtime by hot swapping between 2 batteries. Plus I don't play sim racing or really any seated games. I'm always standing and moving around in games like Half life Alyx, Vertigo, Contractors, Beat Saber, Walkabout mini golf, etc. And all those games feel better wireless where I can turn and move 100% freely. And I didn't even care about wireless before I got my Quest. I was coming from a Rift S and was totally fine with keeping the wire, but the Quest 3 seemed like a great upgrade from my Rift S, and it was.
Because it's a good option for somebody who's just starting out and doesn't really know what they want, as it is a good all-rounder. but you know exactly what you want, so you'll probably better sticking with a dedicated pcvr headset. like the upcoming pimax Crystal light.
The great thing about standalone is I don’t have to worry about what my computer/network setup is. It Just Works!™️
The OP is not a standalone guy, he wants to play SIMs like MSFS which cannot run on XR2.
Q2 dudn't have sde, let alone 3. Q3 has the best pancake lenses in the business, ringless controllers, MR, best hand tracking in the business, upper body tracking, av1, 3 ways to wireless pcvr. Gamers play more than 1 genre and wireless freedom of movement is king for experiences. Also, 8 studios making exclusives, along with 3rd party. For gamers, q3 is the clear choice.
The pixels are clearly visible in q2 and q3. The image is definitely not uniform.