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My Odyssey+ review

maxpare79
Trustee
Alright long time Rift owner (since DK2) used to be a mod around here (yeah I am not dead), I decided to give the Odyssey+ a try since Microsoft Store will let you return it for free during the first 30 days so why not.

Long story short, don't believe the hype...
Screen:
Being a sims guy I was intrigued mainly by the screen, and was really excited to try it on. The display on the Rift never bothered me, once you wear it for a while you tend to forget the imperfection. I wasn't blown away by the Odyssey+ screen like I thought I would. You can still see the pixels and the difference is definitely not night and day with the Rift, but the difference might be more noticeable to a Vive owner (I also play with one regularly and find the screen on the rift sharper). FOV might be a bit larger if you can succeed at getting the damn thing close to your eyes (more about that later). Colors are great, I can sometimes see the fresnel ring during bright scenes, god ray don't bother me but again I was never bothered by those as well on my Rift. 

Sweetspot:
Alright in the Rift you can move your eyes to look around without any problems, in the Vive you actually have to move your head to look around, in this, it's between the 2, you can move your eyes a bit, but it get blurrier if you go to the full extent of your eyes movement

Tracking:
Tracking was spot on, and responsive, I would only loose tracking behind my head and with the controller directly in front of the headset (example if you would try to take something and eat it in job simulator, you might loose tracking near your mouth) Other then that I really didn't find any problems with it in my 2x3m space. I dimmed the light in the room to a minimum and it would still work so I was impress by inside out tracking, was expecting it to be a load of crap but I can see it being the future now, one more camera on the headset at the back and I believe this might be the future.

Controllers:
Again was expecting a subpar experience, but the controllers are actually fine, plastic feels cheap and they do require 2 batteries each, but the egonomics is just a bit below the Touch but better than the Vive wands, what is weird is that these IR lights on it are actually real leds, the controllers light up like a christmas tree. On a side note my hands are small so experience might differ for somebody with big hands.

Audio:
I am not an audio guy, headphones are good, on par with the Rift

Setup:
Literally 5 mins and your good to go, kudos there

And now here comes the bad news:

Headset construction:
What can I say, this thing is friggin huge, I find it gigantic compare to my Rift, it's bulky and massive, if I could compare the construction of this thing it reminds me of the first gearVR but bigger (same type of plastic)

Fit and comfort:
Alright from different reviews I could tell that you had to have a specific head shape for this, it seems I am one of the lucky winner, I have a big head, as a reference, if I put a baseball cap on, I have to enlarge it by 2 pins (the plastic thingy at the back of the head). I have seen mods online to remove light leaks from this thing, luckily I had no more light leak then on my Rift (through the nose), I didn't experience leak on the side of the headset.
My main problem with it is that this weight all sits on your forehead, and to get the sweetspot right you have to install the strap at the lowest spot possible at the back of your skull, which actually makes the HMD tilt up from your cheek, you have a weird feeling that this thing is dangling in front of your face rather then wearing it as a hat like the rift. I now understand why people made mods for the original odyssey to push the headset on the cheeks with straps going around the head and so on...If you push it hard enough on your cheek you notice a wider FOV, but getting it to stay there is another matter.
Maybe it get some use to but the pressure on the forehead is really annoying...

Software:
Jesus, I love my Rift now more then ever because of this thing...Alright where to start...I might not know all the tips and tricks around the WindowsMR user experience, but I should not have to do research as well...
First you start WindowMR, then you can start SteamVR for WindowMR, thing I experience is that I would loose audio in the headset as soon as SteamVR started, I said to myself alright not the first time I have to mess around SteamVR audio settings, I will just choose the right audio source, then 2 things happened, 1st when you have a WindowsMR headset on, Windows 10 actually locks itself up, you have to press window+y key to gain control back of your desktop...annoying, second, when looking at my audio source I can't find anything related to the Samsung headset, only my regular audio source are present, don't ask me why...
Listen I already find that the SteamVR experience is clunky compared to Oculus Home/Dash, now you have to clunky experience on top of one another. Everytime I want to start a game I have to mess around to get it to work, which does not happened on the RIft and not as much on the Vive for that matter. One example is for some games you will have to remap the controllers in steam because the dev didn't have the WindowsMR headset in mind when they designed it.

Conclusion
2 days with it, it's in the box back to Microsoft, if the screen would have been a much better improvement I would maybe have stick with it and the clunkyness of the interface and the comfort, but it's not worth it, don't believe the hype. I wouldn't even call this Rift 1.5. But if a refresh of the Rift comes out with a screen that compares to this I might consider it if it's in the 250-300 ballpark (old joke, smaller park). But I really don't get how Samsung could issue a product so uncomfortable with all these headset already out there that they could just copy...The ease of use of the Rift really shines when you come face to face with something like this. I wish Oculus Home would open the door to other headset natively so everyone could enjoy it.
I am a spacesim/flightsim/racesim enthusiast first 🙂 I9 9900k@5.0, 32gb RAM/ 2080ti Former DK2, Gear VR,CV1 and Rift S owner
40 REPLIES 40

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
@snowdog - If Oculus don't have Foveated Rendering ready by 2020, then what are they supposed to do other then release something like a Rift -S?  At-least it would bring it up to date with their mobile headsets like OculusGo & Oculus Quest.

Anonymous
Not applicable

RedRizla said:

@snowdog - If Oculus don't have Foveated Rendering ready by 2020, then what are they supposed to do other then release something like a Rift -S?  At-least it would bring it up to date with there mobile headsets like OculusGo & Oculus Quest.



I don't have a problem with the resolution or FOV of the rumoured Rift S. The problem I have is with the tracking. It isn't going to be a high end PC VR headset with inside out tracking, even with four or heck, even with 6 cameras including two at the back. With the best cameras in the world you'll lose tracking when the controllers are too close to the headset.

Any headset without fully accurate 360 degree tracking is NOT a high end PC VR headset- it's mid-range. And I'm not going to buy a mid-range headset next gen.

Anonymous
Not applicable

snowdog said:


RedRizla said:

@snowdog - If Oculus don't have Foveated Rendering ready by 2020, then what are they supposed to do other then release something like a Rift -S?  At-least it would bring it up to date with there mobile headsets like OculusGo & Oculus Quest.



I don't have a problem with the resolution or FOV of the rumoured Rift S. The problem I have is with the tracking. It isn't going to be a high end PC VR headset with inside out tracking, even with four or heck, even with 6 cameras including two at the back. With the best cameras in the world you'll lose tracking when the controllers are too close to the headset.

Any headset without fully accurate 360 degree tracking is NOT a high end PC VR headset- it's mid-range. And I'm not going to buy a mid-range headset next gen.


Some of that you could address with adding more IR so it knows what it is looking at with in the sample image. Then there is the idea of placing the cameras on the controllers and feeding the headset the information. So always possible to have the best of both worlds. Also, this would be a design limit that devs would just have to think about - but - there really shouldn't be many reasons to have your hands that close to the headset in the first place.

For me - if we see a Rift 2 - is I really want to have a higher res so the image is more sharp with maybe focal point view for easier text and focus reading. That is my only real beef with the current headsets. The image quality still feels sub 1080p. I like to get least get that for movies or games. Following that a easier in and out design and strap. I like to start using VR as another monitor instead of just when I want to play games.

pyroth309
Visionary

Mradr said:

For me - if we see a Rift 2 - is I really want to have a higher res so the image is more sharp with maybe focal point view for easier text and focus reading. That is my only real beef with the current headsets. The image quality still feels sub 1080p. I like to get least get that for movies or games. Following that a easier in and out design and strap. I like to start using VR as another monitor instead of just when I want to play games.


That's my main problem with VR right now. A lot of games feel like 480p or worse even with supersampling jacked up because it's so hard to see small details or read small text. I don't enjoy Sims as much as I should as I'm always at a disadvantage for target identification and it's a pain to read gauges without moving close to them. At the same time, it's become apparent that until we get a lot more power from GPU's or something like foveated rendering is introduced, going up on resolution and FoV increases the power requirements dramatically. As the Pimax 5k+ is showing, it's beyond what even a 2080TI can do to maintain 90 fps in games. It likely will be beyond what next gen GPUs can do as well in games like fallout 4 without some ASW 2.0 like help. 

TomCgcmfc
MVP
MVP
Wow, the VR glass is half empty for some, lol!  Me, I’m just enjoying the current generation of VR with my CV1 and my mid-spec’d PC.  I’m happy to play with that for at least the next 2-3 years.  It’s going to take big improvements  before I’m prepared to go gen2.
i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers

Anonymous
Not applicable

TomCgcmfc said:

Wow, the VR glass is half empty for some, lol!  Me, I’m just enjoying the current generation of VR with my CV1 and my mid-spec’d PC.  I’m happy to play with that for at least the next 2-3 years.  It’s going to take big improvements  before I’m prepared to go gen2.


A lot of people have had their VR for a while (day one supporters). I am not saying we don't enjoy iit - what I am saying - going forward - is that we need to focus on the ability to start looking at text and other small details to start bring it to a point that it is used outside of just gaming. The problem is - gaming alone doesn't get people stay in VR and as such - you get post of people saying their VR unit is collecting dust or delay in using theirs for a period. 



There has to be a way to increase resolution without taking much resources outside of just ET/FOVR. I do wonder if there is a way in DLSS to maybe do it on texture to fill in the gaps or a "baking system" to bump stuff up without it destroying cards. I know a few tricks - but they still end up costing "cost" to have them down on the hardware level.

pyroth309
Visionary

TomCgcmfc said:

Wow, the VR glass is half empty for some, lol!  Me, I’m just enjoying the current generation of VR with my CV1 and my mid-spec’d PC.  I’m happy to play with that for at least the next 2-3 years.  It’s going to take big improvements  before I’m prepared to go gen2.


Wouldn't say it's half empty, I do enjoy VR and considering I own more than 100 premium titles between Oculus Home and steam, I've experienced the best of what VR has to offer. For me, I'm just pointing out why it's it's not good enough for me to be a full time VR gamer  or user so to speak. I hope to get to where it takes me permanently from flat screen gaming. That's not to say I don't enjoy VR as I do but my desire to play with my rift has been steadily decreasing. Ready for some next gen stuff to roll out to get my excitement going again. 

TomCgcmfc
MVP
MVP
Ok, back on topic.  This headset might be the best resolution out there but it is still WMR .  It's unlikely to be more stable than Oculus imho.
i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers

OmegaM4N
Expert Trustee
^^Having a WMR myself i can say that for me personally it was very
stable, and i was really surprised at how good this thing actually
worked, and yes external sensors do still offer the best tracking, when
they function as they are supposed to do, but i think the sweet spot for
Vr tracking could be a mix of inside out and external sensor, with say
one sensor positioned above you, i think that might actually be VR
tracking at it's best without having mutiple cables and sensors locking
you into one specific area that you can never move from, which is one of
the features i love about this WMR headset as i can actually go and sit
on my recliner and enjoy dirt rally or ETS2 because i am no longer
constricted to where i set the senors up of say my rift, i like that
freedom about inside out tracking.

But whatever
they do i wish they would pull the finger out, i want 4k, unlimited
FOV, no cables anywhere, i want full fat mixed reality as standard, i
want the earphones that look like human ears and i want the whole thing
to fit into a pair of normal glasses, so noone suspets is a walk along
the road i have them in my V.A.T.S, and i want the whole lot to cost 
£99 and come with a 5 year warrenty........now i don't think i am being
unreasonable, right, you want my £99 you better work for it. B)

CV1/Vive-knuckles)/Dell Vr Visor/Go/Quest II/ PSVR.

pyroth309
Visionary
Hmmmm So I was peeking at the Black Friday deals for samsung as I'm in the market for a new TV...and I spotted this.


299? lol, I will be rebuying it for that price.