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Rift S - Please read before you buy - Tracking problems with realistic FPS sims & Archery

SkScotchegg
Expert Trustee
EDIT: NEW UPDATE PLEASE READ - Read this first before continuing - Oculus has now released a new beta update called 1.39 which fixes many of these issues - I have eddied my main post of this thread so newcomers to Rift S can read this good news on how to fix their issues before continuing...You have to go into your Oculus software, click settings, click the Beta TAB at the top, click the button next to "Public Test Channel" which will automatically download Oculus software 1.39 and restart Oculus. Once you have installed this software update you will see that tracking has been massively improved for FPS games when holding two handed rifles and aiming down scopes. I have tested this on Onward today and played for over 3 hours and now the game is very playable. Before this update I couldn't play any FPS with two handed weapons, now they all seem to work fine!! Well done Oculus devs and thanks for the software update!  🙂


Original post below:
Hey everyone, I got my Rift S on launch day and was initially really impressed. But since then I have tried a wider verity of games and have since discovered a glaring issue with Rift S which is the tracking.

Before Rift S launched I was worried about the sound, that was my only concern, and yeah the sound isn't great but when I used my own headphones that solved the problem so when I was playing Robo Recall, Beat Saber, and Audica etc it all looked and performed fantastic and I soon forgot about the sound as I was enjoying the games so much.

But last night I bought Contractors on Steam which appears to be a great multiplayer FPS with great graphics but unfortunately is completely unplayable on RIft S! There's simply no other way to say it.

FPS games like Onward, Contractors, Pavlov and Archery games like In Death/Sacralith just aren't going to work with Rift S. You can't aim down the sites, soon as you hold your right hand up to your face in the normal position to look down the sites of a rifle or to look down an arrow the tracking freezes in place and stops working and makes it impossible to aim.

So after playing with Rift CV1 for the past 2.5 years this is completely dreadful. And btw the first year or so with CV1 I only had 2 front sensors which worked perfectly, the only reason I bought a 3rd sensor in the 2nd year was for pavlov so I could pick up weapons from the floor, so since then I used 3 camera setup in my dinning room and the Rift tracking was 100% perfect and never lost tracking for me.

If your planning on only playing Arcade games like Robo Recall, Superhot, Beat Saber and Audica, you will be fine, go ahead and buy Rift S and enjoy the amazing clarity of the optics and increased resolution.

But if you want to play FPS games or Archery games, your basically buying a product that does not work, your wasting your money and would be better buying a 2nd hand Rift CV1 off ebay/amazon.

Of course we heard in the past that Oculus could enable the old CV1 room sensors through software, I desperately hope they do this, otherwise for people like me that enjoy FPS/Archery games as well as the usual Arcade games, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, because I like Rift S, but what am I suppose to do? Use Rift CV1 for half my games library??

I'm quite shocked and hugely disappointed by this, I think maybe what other people were saying about Lenovo was right, I don't think Oculus/Facebook should have partnered with them because if this is the outcome then, well, no thanks.

I feel sorry for everyone who has pre-ordered expecting to play Onward/Contractors/Pavlov/In Death/
Sacralith etc and expecting this to be good. I think we need to all sign a petition to Oculus to enable the old CV1 room sensors for proper tracking otherwise they will have a lot of refunds going in and also this is very bad for people new to VR. In fact I'd go as far as to say that all FPS and Archery games should be taken off Oculus store for Rift S owners until this is resolved because otherwise what's the point? Everyone buying those games will have to refund I suppose.

Sorry for the rant guys, but I felt compelled to inform the community of this. People need to know how bad this tracking really is.

And also before Rift S was released people were saying the future is inside/out tracking. Well I'm sorry guys, but you couldn't of been more wrong. Inside/out tracking only works for Arcade games, sim racing games, elite dangerous and maybe Quest if Quest mainly uses Arcade games too? I'll leave that part for Quest users to comment on.

I own Rift CV 1, Oculus GO and now Rift S, was planning on buying Quest too but I'll hold off on that for a while until I read more reviews. 
UK: England - Leeds - - RTX 2080 - Rift CV1 & Rift S - Make love, not war - See you in the Oasis!
356 REPLIES 356

Anonymous
Not applicable
People install surround sound systems without complaining. Personally, I have no issues setting up lighthouses or sensors. I'm a big boy...I don't mind spending 10 minutes of my life to get the best tracking available.

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
@CrashFu - To be fair there's both pro's and cons to both Rift S and Valve index when it comes to tracking. But Rift S has fallen short of what some people expected because they thought the tracking on the Rift S was going to be suitable for the games they like to play. 

You talk about the Valve index like it's a failed tracking system, but say nothing about the Rift S tracking problems at all. Instead you choose to say we should all wait and it will come good in the end. The Rift CV1 required you to have 3 sensors for room scale, I used trunking to hide the usb cable and it took me no longer then 30 mins to setup.

Most rooms have wall sockets at either end, so the setup for Valve index shouldn't be a problem. You could use a double adaptor or even extension lead if need be. In fact I would find it easier to set up the Valve index then Rift CV1, because I had to run the Usb cable from my computer to the other side of the room when I setup Rift CV1. 

You tell people to wait till the end of the year, but nobody told Oculus to release Rift S right now. Why didn't they just wait till the end of the year when it was all good? 

Edit; Valve index is great if you have a VR room and Rift S is great if you just need to set it up when you need it, but it has problems right now. If Valve index has problems then I'll wait this time around and stick with Rift CV1, which is an awesome VR headset in it's own right. It might have godrays and a lower resolution, but that's my go to headset right now.


CrashFu
Consultant

RedRizla said:


You talk about the Valve index like it's a failed tracking system, but say nothing about the Rift S tracking problems at all. Instead you choose to say we should all wait and it will come good in the end. 



That would be because I have yet to experience any significant tracking problems with Rift-S, other than the ones I was able to easily remedy within minutes, and haven't experienced since.  In fact, Rift-S tracking is already better overall than my CV1's tracking ever was, and I didn't have to spend hundreds of  dollars on extra sensors, wall/ceiling mounts, extension cords, and PCI-USB cards to achieve that.   And I shouldn't have to.  The whole point of the switch to Insight is that everyone can get good, 360-degree, room-scale tracking without having to buy extras or engage in a fricken' home renovation project.   Every user is on the same page, right out of the box, and developers know what to develop for, without having to account for 2-sensor users differently from 3+ sensor users, etc.

Meanwhile, the various issues with Lighthouse tracking are well known, and likely part of the reason that Vive sales completely stagnated after their first run of orders, and why the Vive Pro never took off at all. And yet, you pretend that those issues don't exist and talk about the Index like it will have perfect tracking, despite it using that exact same tracking system, with all its flaws.

You tell people to wait till the end of the year, but nobody told Oculus to release Rift S right now. Why didn't they just wait till the end of the year when it was all good? 

You seem to think that Oculus just pulled a big oopsie woopsie and released the system with broken tracking software.  On the contrary, most of the tracking problems people have experienced aren't problems with Insight itself... they're due to interference from third-party programs or windows settings, use of an insufficient USB port, outdated drivers, out-of-date Windows versions, trying to play in insufficient lighting, etc. To be fair, the headset cables might not be attached securely enough when shipped, and if so that's on the manufacturer, but you can fix that just by unplugging it and plugging it back in.

In other words, it wouldn't have mattered when Oculus released Rift-S ... you still would have experienced the same problems, because the problems are on your end.  They're problems that Oculus likely never would have caught in the closed testing environment, and that only affect some of their users, or rare use-cases that they hadn't accounted for.  In this case, releasing any later would have been detrimental, because they would have had less time to sort out these issues before certain major game releases or the holiday season.

So now what they have to do is find solutions to those rare-use cases, and resolve the third-party conflicts, and work with Windows and Nvidia and AMD etc. to resolve conflicts in those companies' software.  But they'll also keep improving things such as the overall tracking accuracy, and predictive algorithms, and ability of the cameras to track the controllers in less-than-ideal positions (IE, close-up)   because software can always be improved.

In other words, the problems with Rift-S are purely temporary. They'll be fixed before long, and Rift-S' tracking will just keep getting better and better.  But Lighthouse?  It has fundamental flaws in the design of the hardware itself, which means that any system using it will never have better tracking than the original Vive.
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

parsecn
Heroic Explorer

jab said:


 I'm hoping it will be exactly the same tracking quality as CV1 but slightly larger FOV, slightly better resolution. 


Then I can guarantee that you will be happy with Lighthouse tracking. It is arguably the best VR tracking system (performance wise, and most convenient to install for external tracking) of all the platforms currently available.



Bit of a hijack, but I'm moving to Index from CV1 and wondering how 2x lighthouse 2.0 compares to a 4-sensor CV1 setup in terms of raw tracking fidelity? Any experience with both?

Anonymous
Not applicable

RedRizla
Honored Visionary

CrashFu said:

That would be because I have yet to experience any significant tracking problems with Rift-S, other than the ones I was able to easily remedy within minutes, and haven't experienced since. .



I'll agree that some people have problems with tracking for other reasons too, but this thread isn't about those particular tracking problems, it's about tracking in FPS games.This is why the Onward devs had to come up with their own fix for the problems people were having and not us. The problems I'm having are the same as what the OP described and I've clearly stated this in my posts. I also said I wasn't happy with the Onward patch because it still prevented me from moving my eye closer to the rifle scopes and there are problems with the bipod.

Meanwhile, the various issues with Lighthouse tracking are well known,
and likely part of the reason that Vive sales completely stagnated after
their first run of orders, and why the Vive Pro never took off at all.
And yet, you pretend that those issues don't exist and talk about the
Index like it will have perfect tracking, despite it using that exact
same tracking system, with all its flaws.

I don't pretend lighthouse tracking doesn't have problems like you've suggested. I've never read about lighthouses or even used them, so how would I know if they have problems with tracking or not? Where exactly have I said that lighthouses don't have tracking problems or even said Valve index will have perfect tracking? All I've said is that I'm going to try a Valve index this time around and see what Oculus comes up with for Rift 2.

The whole point of the switch to Insight is that everyone can get good,
360-degree, room-scale tracking without having to buy extras or engage
in a fricken' home renovation project.

I like my Rift CV1 tracking and if Valve index has anything like the Rift CV1 tracking then I'll be happy with it. I have a VR room, so setting up external sensors is not a problem for me and it took me less then 30 mins to setup the CV1 sensors. If for any reason I don't like Valve index, then I will just return it for a refund and stick with my Rift CV1 for now.


Anonymous
Not applicable
The QUEST uses PREDICTIVE TRACKING. The RIFT S needs to adopt this too as there is no reason to have your hands do something really weird and jump or suddenly spin around! Seems all the hard work goes into that device instead.

SkScotchegg
Expert Trustee

CrashFu said:


 In fact, Rift-S tracking is already better overall than my CV1's tracking ever was...



Mate seriously, come on, I've no idea what your talking about. How can you say such a thing? If you really believe that you must have either setup your Constellation sensors wrong for Rift CV1 or there was some other kind of issue on your side. Because honestly Constellation was 100% perfect for me for all these years, so how can you even say that?

Have you been suffering with bad tracking on your CV1 for all these years whilst other gamers like myself have been playing perfectly fine and having a great time? Maybe it was your sensor placement or maybe something was wrong on your side?


CrashFu said:

In other words, the problems with Rift-S are purely temporary. They'll be fixed before long...



That is a bold statement. Your assuming so much.

I feel like your fighting hard to say "Rift S is amazing, it has perfect tracking for me and everyone else can stop complaining" and "everything will be solved eventually".

But for those of us who bought Rift S and do have problems with dozens of the top popular games in VR then of course we expected better from Oculus. It's not our fault they released two headsets at once, it wasn't our decision to use Insight tracking when they already had a great tracking system already called Constellation.

And it wasn't our fault they partnered with Lenovo if that's what caused this whole debacle.

From what I've read Quest has tracking issues too but Quest has been praised by many and has less tracking issues then Rift S. I wish Oculus had worked on Rift S themselves and then maybe the tracking would have been as good as Quest, who knows.

I don't think Rift S was ready for release as it is for both new customers to VR and old customers like us. They could have taken more time, added more cameras and done more testing. They should have tested it for top 10 or top 20 games in VR and made sure everything worked as expected.

I really don't know what your trying to argue about, I've bought other products in life before that also were faulty and had issues and I complained about them and returned them too. Like one time I bought a Sony phone and the sound didn't work. One time we got a new TV and the black levels were rubbish and the sound was crackling so we returned it.

Why you trying to defend Rift S so much? Why do you want to wait for fixes to tracking that might never come? And if they do come they could only fix some of the issues but not all. Why not refund and just stick with CV1? 


CrashFu said:

That would be because I have yet to experience any significant tracking problems with Rift-S, other than the ones I was able to easily remedy within minutes, and haven't experienced since. 



Also your doing that thing where you and other people say, "oh it's not an issue, it only took me a short time to work around the problems with the tracking." But why are you forcing yourself to hold a gun or a bow in a weird way in order to play the same games you've been playing for years?

Why should any of us have to do that? Including yourself. It's like your so determined to overlook it's faults, especially with tracking and your determined to just carry on regardless.
UK: England - Leeds - - RTX 2080 - Rift CV1 & Rift S - Make love, not war - See you in the Oasis!

CrashFu
Consultant
Scotch, has it ever occurred to you that maybe everyone isn't experiencing the same problems you are?  Did you ever think that maybe the problems are on your end, and affecting a smaller portion of Rift-S owners than you think?   Look at the poll in the following thread: https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/76655/how-many-of-you-do-not-have-any-major-problem...    At the time of writing this, 2/3 of Rift-S users have no significant problems...  and almost all of the people who stated they do have problems are forum newbies, so I'm guessing that many of them are new to VR altogether and aren't tech-savvy enough to perform any of the easy fixes.

And really, what possible motive would anyone  (even a die-hard Oculus fan like me)  have for pretending to have fewer problems than they really do?   If you look at my post history, I've freely admitted the small issues I have experienced, and even that I had tracking problems before I took the time to look for solutions.

If none of the commonly suggested fixes work for you, I suggest you get in touch with Oculus Support. They should be able to figure out why your tracking isn't working as well as it should be.   Or, you can just give up on the Rift-S and go buy another headset, I really don't care.  But honestly, if you aren't even going to bother finding a fix for this headset,  what are you going to do if the next one doesn't work right, straight out of the box?  Return it and look for a third option?

(That's a rhetorical question, by the way.  These debates are cutting into my VR time, and I want to get through more of my back-log before Stormland and Asgard's Wrath come out... Good luck finding a solution, or replacement, to your problems though.)

It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
@CrashFu- Has is occurred to you that people are talking about a different type of tracking issue with FPS, and that's why the Onward devs had to put out a fix for Rift S? These are the issues the OP is talking about as far as I can tell.
For me the virtual stock fix in Onward still doesn't address some of the other issues though, like moving your head closer to look down the scopes and the bipod is still broken. That isn't something we as users can fix at our end, it has to come from the games devs or even Oculus.
Hopefully the Onward devs can put out another patch for those issues at some point in the future.