Has anyone had a positive PC VR experience?

Hey Folks,

I keep hearing about how great PC VR gaming is, and during the last 3 years I tried the Oculus Rift S, the Oculus Quest, and more recently the Valve Index. I had the same issues with all of them:

• The resolution is terrible. You can easily see the pixels.
• Aliasing is terrible too. Straight edges are full of crawling pixels.
• The focus is terrible as you look away from the center of view.
• Internal reflections cause huge amounts of glare.
• Text is barely legible in older games.
• The number of true VR games is limited.
• You can play some older games, but only by purchasing extra software like VorpX or Virtual Desktop.
• Getting games to work is a chore. For example, Star Wars Squadrons is supposed to support VR. However, out of the box it is unusable. After doing some some online research I discovered that you have to edit a text file in the program folder, find the entry for disabling HDR, and toggle that value before the game will be playable in VR. I had similar experiences with other games.

I'm just curious: Has anyone here purchased a VR headset for use with their PC, and used it for more than a month or two before going back to playing on a 2D monitor? I just don't get it. The quality is sooooo much higher when playing on a monitor.

Sorry for the buzz kill. :)

Here is a video that shows what I'm talking about in regards to glare. This is because most VR headset use Fresnel lenses:

https://youtu.be/n6seDmtwWMQ?t=454

I was shocked by how bad the Valve Index was. It's considered by many to be the best VR headset, and it costs $1000, so I was expecting $1000 worth of optical quality. Instead, I put the headset on, saw all the glare, could barely read the menu text in games, and honestly thought I had a buggy unit. As it turns out, it's just a regular Valve Index, and most VR headsets have this problem.

Next I'm going to try the HP Reverb G2 and see how that goes. It has far less glare, and has a much higher resolution display. However, I hear it has some controller tracking problems. That doesn't concern me so much, because I'll be playing Star Wars Squadrons and MS Flight Simulator, which don't use hand controllers. I'll report back later, and let you know how it goes.

In the mean time, I'm waiting for someone to build a VR headset with high quality lenses. There is always the Varjo VR3, but it costs $3200, and requires a subscription. No thanks. However, at least it shows that high quality VR is possible. I'm sure in a few years this quality will cost $1000 or less, and I'll finally be happy. Here's another video that talks about the Varjo VR3.

https://youtu.be/2Ah1faUUCwI

Jeez, I had the same experience! When I saw a couple of 3D movies in theaters several years ago, I was so impressed, I wanted to bring that home. It worked well, as you say when the movie was in 3D originally. I thought it was great quality, and very realistic.

I guess they just didn't sell enough units of either the TVs or the DVDs. Drat! It was very good IMHO.

VR doesn't seem like it will be anything I will be doing for a while either. Cool concept and may be really functional some day unless it becomes like 3D TVs.

James,

Let us know how the HP Reverb G2 works out for you. The Digital Storm Forum is the best place to get the real information on new build suggestions and review of products Gamers have actually put to the test while Gaming!

Well, I have bad news. The HP Reverb G2 has all the same problems that the other headsets have. I'm finally giving up on VR.

The HP had glare, poor focus off-center, and the pixels were clearly visible. It also had the additional problem of being a Windows Mixed Reality headset. That's just another layer of complications. For example, if you want to adjust the resolution of the headset, you can do it in Windows Mixed Reality, SteamVR, or in-game. They all stack on top of each other, and it's really confusing.

Out of the box I couldn't get Star Wars Squadrons to play until I edited one of it's profiles with a text editor. And then performance was abysmal on my RTX 3090. It only got 50 FPS which looks really bad in VR. I think that means it was only getting 25 FPS per eye.

I played with it for a couple of hours, read a lot of posts online, and finally figured out how to lower the resolution to a point where I could get 90 FPS (45 per eye). I'm really shocked that a popular VR game requires all this research and editing to run properly. It drives home my opinion that VR is a gimmick at this point, and is only for enthusiasts who are willing to tinker.

I asked a few questions online about why text is so blurry. One of the responses was, "It's not too bad. You just have to remember to look with your head, and not your eyes." Ugggh. I'm not willing to play games that require me to look with my head. VR feels like a beta, or a technology demonstration at this point.

James,

With that Beast of a system you have I would have hoped that the VR experience would have been like those alluded to in movies where you literally feel like you are there.

Obviously the VR technology just isn't ready for prime time and if it wasn't an amazing experience on your well equipped machine it would be absolutely awful on what the average Gamer might be using.

This really is an important thread and hopefully it will be updated by others with more input as time goes by. You have provided technical details of the situation that will be valuable for people to consider before venturing into VR.