cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

HP Reverb First Impressions Thread (Gen 1)

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Some very quick first impressions and that's without experimenting with Super-sampling.

Ok, well I have that horrible vertical line in my headset which hopefully I'll get fixed or replaced but despite that. Wow, just wow. One word..."clarity".

More words.

Very nice headset all-round. Reasonably comfy but that cable is awful. I mean really bad and terribly distracting. Needs to be fixed to something to not become a hindrance. Headphones feel cheap  and the red smear is not very good when you abnormally move your head from side to side all fast like. In normal situations you won't notice it so much. SDE is so minimal it's the finest mesh like silk. Mura is there for sure such as looking at the sky you will notice it quite a bit.

Fallout 4 VR - Holy crap. Now this is how it's meant to be seen. Mindblowing, and I rarely use such hyperbolic phrases. Up close detail you'll see the textures as you would playing on a monitor. Distance details are just perfect now. NO MORE BLUR you can easily define medium range and long range objects which gives the game a complete overhaul on the visuals. Wonderful and if you're a FO4VR fan then nothing beats this crisp display.  Period. 

PCARS 2 - Ok I struggled a little to find the right sweetspot and keep it there. But once there this is it guys. The game just looks like it's meant to be on this headset. Nice details on the track and close up cars. Distant cars also look much better, they still can get fuzzy but none of that blur you might be used to. This is pretty awesome now and just looks great.

SLR APP/Movie viewing - Nice sharp visuals but you are restricted to the quality of the source material. The SLR thumbnails look fantastically crisp and the videos great. I ran a 4K gameplay video from one of my recordings and it looks really nice, so much clearer than any other VR headset. So if you have 4K movies then they are going to shine on this headset. I tried some older 1080p 3D movies but they didn't look much different to other headsets.

Desktop - wow now this is really nice. You can actually work with this now. Comfortably. See all the text and no shimmer or SDE to mess up your view. Really workable as an alternative to a monitor now. Nice vibrant colours and good contrast. I do notice what seems to be a fixed foveted rendering technique though where the center focus is incredibly sharp and when you move your eyes and head to another part of the screen it seems to catch up and then focus really sharp.I think HP talked about this with the way the screens are calibrated. 

Elite Dangerous: OK you're still getting these LCD blacks but the text readability is fantastic now without a shadow of a doubt. No distorted letters even in the info pane which has the smallest text it's easy to read, no leaning in. I just docked with one of the space stations and whilst there is still some shimmer on some finer lines/edges (there's a technical name for that which escapes me) it's nice a crisp and looks like a space station rather than a blurry mess of lights and protracting parts. Really clean. Upon entering the opening into the docking area...mind-blown! I really loved the extended FOV of the Pimax 8K in Elite D, made it feel more real, but I think I would sacrifice that for this wonderful clarity. I'll say it again if Pimax 8K X delivers the FOV and the same clarity then wowsers. I'm not holding my breath though, focusing on the here and now.

Even with the negatives, I can see this being a really great headset for the VR connoisseur. I am wondering how close the Pimax 8KX can match this as its increased FOV will stretch the pixel density. Either way, £600 well spent thus far and I will no doubt get lots of use from this headset and sadly the Pimax 8K will get boxed. Quest/Reverb combo for the win here for anyone serious about VR.



System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.
376 REPLIES 376

forestguy
Expert Protege
Yes I have a simlar Quest/Reverb combo, both fulfil different needs. Just sold my Pimax 5K+ on Ebay. To be fair to Pimax they did push the bounderies and tried something other companies didn't/couldn't do e.g. 170 FOV, however both the Quest and the Reverb are so well constructed and offered something a little better. For me Quest for roomscale (you can't beat wireless), and Reverb for seated experiences (clarity is awesome)...so over to you Valve Index.

Techy111
MVP
MVP
My humble not so large as above impressions 🙂

Holy shit.....yes the clarity is fricking amazing......Flyinside flight sim is outstandingly clear. Steady 80 fps with settings nearly maxed on my 2080ti and every single gauge is readable.

DCS Standalone ( Yes @RedRizla you can) Works a treat with the WMR Steam App. Little bug though, you have to lift your headset whilst in the UI menu to get the interaction dot to work but fine in game. Distant sceney is incredible, I noticed a very tiny amount of shimmering but I was looking for it. It "feels" right in VR now the gauges are crystal clear.

Flyinside and FSX.....oldie but a goodie, super sharp but seems dated now LOL

PCARS 2 As above sweetspot is a little hard to find but once there it is fantastic.

The CV1 looks pretty poor in comparison in sims to the Reverb.

Controllers, don't use them so won't comment 😉

Anything anyone wants testing or has a question, please ask.....and @vannagirl get saving girl 😉
A PC with lots of gadgets inside and a thing to see in 3D that you put on your head.

Jotokutora
Adventurer
Excellent man. How the FOV fair for you? You have my same Specs, so you can technically supersample, and perhaps Project cars far away distance get improve even more

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Another thing to add. I especially like the little flip-up motion. Because when you place it back down it really seals you in nicely blocking out all of the light from outside. As a Pimaxer, yeh FOV is a downgrade but the clarity is well worth it. It seems on par with current headsets that aren't going ultra wide fov.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

Jotokutora
Adventurer

forestguy said:

Yes I have a simlar Quest/Reverb combo, both fulfil different needs. Just sold my Pimax 5K+ on Ebay. To be fair to Pimax they did push the bounderies and tried something other companies didn't/couldn't do e.g. 170 FOV, however both the Quest and the Reverb are so well constructed and offered something a little better. For me Quest for roomscale (you can't beat wireless), and Reverb for seated experiences (clarity is awesome)...so over to you Valve Index.


Why did you sell the Pimax 5k +. I own the XR version

Jotokutora
Adventurer
Skyrim VR should look amazing with the Reverb

Anonymous
Not applicable
I can't remember, have either one of you got the Rift S? Was just wondering how it compares.

I can't go back to the blur of the Rift after experiencing the clarity of the Rift S, I'm guessing you guys are the same with the Reverb too..?

It's akin to me not wearing glasses for two and a half years and then picking up a new set of specs from the Optician, stepping outside and having to pick my jaw up off the floor lmfao 😄

pyroth309
Visionary


Some very quick first impressions and that's without experimenting with Super-sampling.



Very nice. As a person who is very much bothered by SDE, I was ripped for always harping about getting the resolution/ppi/ppd up on these headsets but this is exactly the kind of impact I knew it would have. Great days are ahead for VR. 

I may still end up with a Reverb if the Index visuals aren't clear enough for my liking. Valve has recently done some work to SteamVR to make using base stations with WMR a better experience. We shall see in a couple of weeks. 

Techy111
MVP
MVP
I had the S but I (the missus) couldn't justify 2 new headsets. I had one black screen but that resolved by itself and of course, the white glitches. I loved it over the CV1 but sent it back when the reverb was ordered. Now I have the reverb I'm glad I did. As you say @snowdog it's like not wearing glasses for 2 years then putting them on (reverb) it's a bloody awesome headset, the resolution is without doubt, second to none at this time.
A PC with lots of gadgets inside and a thing to see in 3D that you put on your head.