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[Rift S Review] From CV1 to S

xWildchildx
Explorer
Hi all,
time to spend my 2 cent on a small review.
In the past weeks I've read a lot of review focused on "from CV1 to S worth it?", and now that I took the S from Amazon on Black Friday with 50euro discount, I can post my consideration.
I have the CV1 since something like "day 1" (maybe day "2" let me say).
I saw all the software evolution, I remember every single update and phase of the CV1 history, the bad updates and the good one.
Oculus effort was AMAZING during the last years, so massive improvements was done since the day one! 
Now, the S come out. I've read all the review and basically the "CONS" considered by most of that review is:

1) no OLED, so black is not black but "greysh";
2) audio quality from the "non-headphones;
3) sensors tracking sometimes not perfect (latest updates should mitigate/fix this);

My "S" arrived last Saturday at me. I was excited, not like the first day with the CV1, but excited.
Package is really good, let me say that CV1 was AWESOME, but the S one is really good. But we don't care about the package...right?
So, connecting the S to the PC (i7 6700k, 16GB RAM, Nvidia 1080Ti)...Oculus Home didn't open itself as I expect. Mmm. I open it manually.
Ok! Found the Rift S! It ask me firmware and driver updates. Let's do this. It takes a long time, after some Oculus Home restart...it ask me to...restart Oculus Software. Again. And again. And again. And again.
Ok. Shit. Maybe a clean Oculus installation is preferred. I can accept this since I never needed to re-install it clean since CV1 "bug" a long time ago (do you remember that update? 🙂 ).
Ok, clean install! Insert Rift "S"..."can't track your movement" (or something like that...) and again, ask me for software restart loop.
So angry. It takes me hours on this, then after "usb out/in" and "display port out/in"...SBAM! It works! Finally! I can try it!

I'll be very short:

1) OMG...that's CRISP. I can finally rad every single row of text! It's AMAZING from CV1 experience! WOW!
2) Colors are OK, let me say, I can't tell you if there's some difference from CV1 on this...really.
3) Black: meh...I think this is the major big problem (after the software and connection...that is THE major). For many games/experience is fine. For example, on daytime in Pavlov VR or Onward, it's really fantastic...you'll don't miss the OLED "true" black. But...in the dark scene...you'll miss it. A lot. This will break your experience. On Arizona Sunshine dark scene for example, Onward night time (without night vision on, of course). On Project Cars 2 and Assetto Corsa you can notice it, but it's not so important as I could expect. It's OK. Just OK. Not so bad on that kind of game. Vader Immortal instead break your immersion a lot cause the dark environment around you.
4) Audio: OMG. Why? Why Oculus decide to go with this SHIT instead of the "near-perfect" headphones in the CV1? Because I can't give to this other name other than shit. It's pure shit. Lack in bass. In clarity. In dynamics. It lacks everything you could expect for a GOOD audio experience. You need the headphones in order to avoid any nausea and so I tried it with my small AKG K328 earphones. But the problem is that every time you put your Rift S on, you need to insert the earphones. And again, when you take it out, the same. Annoying as hell.
5) Refresh rate: for the most part, I can't notice difference from CV1 90hz to Rift S 80Hz. Most, but not all. It works fine for Project Cars 2 and Assetto Corsa where I originally expect issues. It's fine. I can't believe but I don't notice so much difference. In Onward, by the way, it's MASSIVE difference. Rift S movement it's bad against CV1 "perfection". Very strange, tried several time but that's it. Annoying. 
6) Tracking: sensors are the only issue that sometimes the CV1 gives to me so I was really excited from inside tracking of Rift S! Ok, it's fine for most of games like Project Cars 2 and Assetto Corsa. Let me say, it's fine for all games without the touch needed. Because the touch movement it's not good as the CV1. A lot. In Onward for example gun/rifle movements are not natural at all. In CV1 it's almost perfect, in Rift S so disappointing. Also, you need the full lights on in the room, if you lower it the tracking simply stops working at all. I've read so many reviews and most of all says that the latest updates improved this a lot, I tried the beta update channel of course but it's simply not working as good as CV1. No near miss, but very distant from the CV1.
7) Comfort: I think this is personal, but for me the CV1 it's so much better in comfort and easy to put in/out.

So that's it.I love the screen resolution and sharpness. It's night and day from CV1, for sure. The sound it's so awful but ok, you can use your headphones. 
The refresh rate can be "good" for 90% of games. The "true black" lacks too. 
But the software...the drivers...OMG...this is a nightmare. Why? Why Oculus???

Final consideration: probably I will return it to Amazon due to connection issues. I don't want to fight everytime I want to play
For 10 mins play you need 30mins fight with connection. Unacceptable.
I hope they'll fix this issue, otherwise Rift S is already dead.

After connection...I think that if you come from CV1, the Rift S it's simply not your way to go. If you played a lot like me in the CV1, black lacks, refresh rate and tracking will make too much impact on your experience.
But, if you're new to VR, Rift S will be AMAZING experience because you cannot compare it to the CV1 experience.

P.S.: after 2 days of play, I took back the CV1 for comparison. Simply put the USB and HDMI. It works like a charm. At first try. CV1, my old love, missed you so much.
Thermaltake Element G - Corsair TX850W - ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero - Intel Core i7 6700K@4.5GHz (1.230V) - Noctua NH-D15 - 16GB DDR4 3.466Mhz Corsair (2x8GB) CAS16  - Samsung 950 PRO  M.2 NVMe 256GB - GTX 980Ti Inno3D iChill Black Accelero Hybrid S - Windows 10 PRO 64bit - Panasonic CXM710 50" 4K LED - Oculus Rift CV1
54 REPLIES 54

Ray_Sover
Expert Protege

Netheri said:

What you mean? 😄 1cm is 10mm.



I know. I just wasn't sure that you knew when you stated that the maximum IPD for the Rift S is 62.5mm when it's actually 72mm.
Intel i7-6700K OCed to 4.7GHz (all cores) @ 1.37V with Corsair Hydro H60 Rev.2 liquid cooling | Sapphire Pulse RX Vega 56 OCed to 1.7GHz boost clock @ 1.05V | 16GB (2x 8GB) HyperX Predator DDR4-3333 CL16 RAM | Gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3 motherboard | Win10 Pro 64-bit on 500GB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 NVMe SSD on PCIe3.0 x4 | Corsair RM750x PSU | Oculus Rift S

Netheri
Rising Star
Actual maximum IPD is fixed 64mm. Software IPD range is not something what's the actual IPD range with moving lenses would be. But i get your point @Ray_Sover.
i9-9900K@ 5GHz, ASUS Rog Strix 2080 Super OC , 32gb 3466MHz DDR4, ROG Strix Z390 E Gaming, 1 x Inateck 4 port USB 3.0 card, 2x3.1, USB, 6x3.0 USB on mobo, 1x USB-C on G-card, Reverb G2

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
I'll be buying another Oculus CV1 if the current CV1 goes kaput and I'm forced into getting another VR headset. Oculus themselves admitted the Rift S was not an upgrade to the CV1, so I'll wait for the updated one to hopefully arrive. Give me something like a Rift S Pro with 2k per eye displays and headphones and I'll purchase it tomorrow.

Netheri
Rising Star
@RedRizla i'm going for the same road. Unless i win in lottery and then i'll jump to Valves train while still waiting for the real 2nd gen.
i9-9900K@ 5GHz, ASUS Rog Strix 2080 Super OC , 32gb 3466MHz DDR4, ROG Strix Z390 E Gaming, 1 x Inateck 4 port USB 3.0 card, 2x3.1, USB, 6x3.0 USB on mobo, 1x USB-C on G-card, Reverb G2

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
@Netheri - I just hope Oculus continue software support for CV1 and outside in tracking until that something does come along.

Anonymous
Not applicable

RedRizla said:

I'll be buying another Oculus CV1 if the current CV1 goes kaput and I'm forced into getting another VR headset. Oculus themselves admitted the Rift S was not an upgrade to the CV1, so I'll wait for the updated one to hopefully arrive. Give me something like a Rift S Pro with 2k per eye displays and headphones and I'll purchase it tomorrow.

Goodness I think my Rift S looks way better than my CV1.

RedRizla
Honored Visionary

dburne said:


RedRizla said:

I'll be buying another Oculus CV1 if the current CV1 goes kaput and I'm forced into getting another VR headset. Oculus themselves admitted the Rift S was not an upgrade to the CV1, so I'll wait for the updated one to hopefully arrive. Give me something like a Rift S Pro with 2k per eye displays and headphones and I'll purchase it tomorrow.

Goodness I think my Rift S looks way better than my CV1.



Yeah, but I like the blacks in the CV1, headphones and the tracking. Depends what you like the most I guess and there the things I like most. I also have a HP Reverb for Sims and 2k per eye is where VR needs to be right now imo. That's if you want VR looking near enough to a 1080p monitor in VR. Sadly - HP Reverb isn't great for room scale though due to having just 2 camera's.

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
CV1 really needs to use ss 2.0 to reduce the blur as much as possible, so when someone says that one hmd is much better than CV1 without specifying ss level it does not really provide me with much info - and the same logic really applies to using lcd hmds - always remember to mention the ss levels used (Index res 100% is extremely much different from res 200%). 
I think CV1 ss 2.0 in some games looks more sharp than Index res 100%. CV1 ss 2.0 vs Index res 100% is a clear win for CV1 in Stormland, but that's also due to temporal antialiasing (CV1) vs. SMAA (Index). Using CV1 ss 2.0 I was watching some birds fly at a long distance in Saints and Sinners yesterday, and although the SDE and res could be better the birds were really sharp and clearly delineated against the sky - also the cable lines looked unbelievable thin, but still were clearly defined like 50-100m away as they vanished into the horizon. But in the very long distance and when increasing res Index wins bigtime in bright conditions, and when ultra-high-res textures are used Index has no competition, but so far only Boneworks seems to qualify for such textures. Lcd also wins big in bright games like Lucky's Tale and Pistol Whip, especially due to SDE - but also in sharpness when you start to increase ss a lot (I use res 200% in several Index games and still get solid 90 fps - in fact even in Boneworks).  
When the darkness comes CV1 has little competition from lcd hmds. Went directly from Index to CV1 yesterday after testing voice immersion in Saints and Sinners, and no matter how I set brightness levels in-game, this game at night is completely ruined using lcd.
But you might never know if you have not directly compared using CV1 ss 2.0 (or similar oled hmds, but you really need asw 2.0 when pushing Ultra settings and ss 2.0 in Saints & Sinners - maybe not if you have a 2080 Ti, but I don't think 2080 is enough in all locations). 
And don't get me started about lcd hmds and temporal antialiasing again, lol - although I do love that subject 😉
Lcd hmds may be the future, when games are made from the ground up using lcd hmds - optimizing brightness levels for lcd hmds. And when getting rid of temporal antialiasing completely - but we're far from there yet. And even when/if we get there, there will still be tons of older VR games optimized for oled hmds. Having a nice CV1 at hand (or Quest Link) doesn't seem like a bad idea for the next years. 

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

Anonymous
Not applicable
Yeah in addition to my Rift S I also still have my CV1, and also have Quest with Link.
I like the Quest for some games that have more darker areas, like Vader Immortal. Have also used Quest with LInk with Asgard's Wrath which looks really good in it. 
CV1 though has been officially retired and is put away in it's box.

Umpa_PC
Rising Star

dburne said:

Yeah in addition to my Rift S I also still have my CV1, and also have Quest with Link.
I like the Quest for some games that have more darker areas, like Vader Immortal. Have also used Quest with LInk with Asgard's Wrath which looks really good in it. 
CV1 though has been officially retired and is put away in it's box.


I only have RiftS and Quest.  Can you give a comparison between the Quest display and the CV1 for me plz.  I would like to know what the differences are and in your opinion which has the better display.  I'm not talking about graphics as the PC will be better, but I mean clarity colour and perceived resolution.
Cheers

Oculus Rift S - Oculus Quest 128GB
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