If you touch type, it’s not so hard. I don’t yet have a headset that has external cameras, but I imagine it’s even easier with those, just toggle the camera on while you check.
But the short answer is to put as much as possible on the HOTAS. The only things I use the keyboard for at the moment are time acceleration and toggling the external view, and I plan on putting at least the former on to the HOTAS at some point (probably not until they patch in the in-game sim speed indicator)
Two weeks which should be enough time to try out Saints and Sinners, Moss, and although it is terribly reviewed, the Doctor Who escape room thing.
Editer
4540
Has anyone used ReVive after leaving the Oculus ecosystem? I bought a lot of stuff from the Oculus store early on, and not sure if I need to keep my Rift S around or if ReVive works well enough that I can sell it…
I’m also curious about that. Also, I notice that when MRTV is streaming he is able to bring up the chat window on his wrist/palm. Is that a WMR thing, or Virtual Desktop or what? I don’t care about chat, but it would be nice to be able to do that for an arbitrary window, as opposed to pinning it to the side of my view like I currently do in Oculus.
UK Reverb G2 shipping update:
1000 apologies for asking something I’m sure has been asked before. I have little experience with VR (I own a PSVR, which I rarely use) but after becoming obsessed with MSFS and ETS2/ATS I preordered a HP Reverb G2 in mid-October, so hopefully will receive it before Christmas. I know virtually nothing about setting up or using VR on my PC. I recently built the PC, so while it’s not top of the line, it has reasonably good specs specs (GPU is a GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER). Is there a good starter guide or some reference I can look at while I wait?
Use will primarily be for cockpit driving and flying, but I expect I’ll pick up Alyx and anything else that is highly recommended (so I’ll take recommendations for must-have games as well). I’ve got a reasonable amount of open space in the office where I’m going to set up.
Also, skimming through this thread, I’m seeing recommendations for AA batteries. Am I to understand that this sort of hi tech modern equipment doesn’t have rechargeable batteries built in? Is it still 1990?
Finally (probably not finally), I’m reading that the weak spot of the G2 is the controllers. I’m guessing controllers can’t be mixed and matched - I can’t buy a superior controller and use it with the G2, correct?
You can. However, all actual WMR controllers are a bit crap, it seems. Supposedly the G2 controllers are the best ones, despite their limitations. The “good” news is you can use WMR headsets with the Index’s excellent Knuckles controllers, but you need to have/buy the base stations too. So you’re basically adding £500 to the cost unless you already bought an Index.
Also, if you’re primarily playing ETS/ATS/MSFS, you won’t be using VR controllers at all.
AA batteries is fine, it is much easier to just swap out for a fully charged set than to have to stop playing and wait for controllers to recharge.
The problem is the controllers/software moan about the voltage if you use rechargables and Microsoft haven’t bothered to fix it yet.
But as @Ginger_Yellow has mentioned it sounds like you won’t be using the VR controllers for most things anyway.
Alyx uses them, beat saber etc obviously use them. But almost all flight sims use traditional HOTAS controls rather than the VR controllers.
Notable exceptions:
New Virtual Desktop version:
Added new Modern Apartment environments
• Added Performance overlay option in the Streaming tab
• Added Reset to defaults button in the Streaming tab
• Reduced latency when streaming VR games
• Displayed VR latency is now more accurate and represents the total motion-to-photon latency
• Virtual desktop microphone no longer gets disabled on disconnect
• Fixed game compatibility with: Stormland, The Climb, Star Wars: Squadrons (Steam), Hellblade, Rez Infinite, Bigscreen (Steam), Pulsar Lost Colony, Propagation VR
Proper motion to photon latency! Now people will be able to do real comparisons with Link. And compatibility with Stormland! That’s one of the big Oculus games that still wasn’t compatible.
Getting 2Gbps with the link cable, best I can get is 833 Mhz with VD. Cable doesn’t bother me that much.
What are the best free multiplayer games on the Quest for kids to play with friends? Do any even exist aside from Rec Room? Google is failing me.
Editer
4548
Spent a couple of hours with the Reverb G2 last night. Quick impressions:
- The video quality is game-changing. It’s amazing. Coming from the Rift, it’s like going from a composite CRT TV set to an OLED flat panel. It’s that dramatic. You’re just looking at image, not at pixels. Alyx, IL-2, DCS, and AeroflyFS2 looked absolutely amazing. Image quality is there, future progress needs to be in having more of your view filled.
- I’m pretty sure the YouTube reviewers complaining about tracking either are coming from Valve setups with base stations all around the room, were using batteries that threw the controllers into low-power mode, or had lighting issues. So far, I don’t notice any difference between the tracking quality on my Rift S and the G2, though the only VR controller game I spent much time in was Alyx. Only issue I had was that I need to move my floor up a bit.
In the case of the Reverb G2, if its controllers only sense 1.2V, they assume the batteries are wearing down and go into low-power mode, which dims the tracking lights and lowers the feedback intensity. So NiMH and Eneloop batteries look like dying batteries to it. The solution is to use rechargeable lithium or NiZn batteries, which maintain 1.5/1.6V while charged.
Do you think they will patch this? It sounds like a software issue rather than an actual power issue.
Editer
4550
I guess it depends on whether it’s built into the hardware or something that can be adjusted in firmware. It might not be considered a “bug” since AA voltage standard is 1.5V and those work fine. NiMH/Eneloop batteries are actually out of spec for AA; they just happen to work okay in most devices anyway.
Here’s the explanation and some batteries that work: https://reverb.danol.cz/battery-buying-guide/
From that page, sounds like it’s a universal issue with WMR controllers.
Not a big deal on my end; just added to my rechargable battery collection.
Thanks, just trying to determine if I need to prep by buying new batteries! Guess it can’t hurt.
(though these good li-ion batteries seem bizarrely hard to find in Au…)
Editer
4553
There are some AliExpress links in the buying guide above, worst-case scenario. And it does come with four disposable AAs, so you won’t need the rechargeables until you’ve been playing with the headset for a little while anyway.
Thanks to the buying guide, it seemed those Jugee are quite good. I like how they hold 1.5 for most of their life before dropping down. And the charger is USB so no power plug compatibility shenanigans.
Managed to get 8 of them plus the 4-slot charger from eBay.
Editer
4556
Norm is one of the few hardware reviewers that I trust completely.
Interesting the issues he had with the controllers. I think our varying critiques come from the fact that I’m coming from Rift S controllers, and he’s comparing them to the Valve Knuckles controllers. Yes, those work better, and they should, given that the controllers and two base stations will run you $575 together, with no headset.
He seemed to compare them to the Quest 2 controllers, for at least the battery life aspect. Which is a fairer test, since they use the same tracking tech.
Obviously Oculus Insight is superior to Microsoft’s version, it suffers less from the occlusion and blind spot issues he mentioned (never mind far longer battery life using a single AA in each controller, even 1.2v NiMH!).
