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Lo, a Quest (two)! My first impressions

Pixie40
Expert Trustee

Now that I'm well rested and no longer cranky, time to put my new Quest 2 through it's paces. I'd left it plugged in and turned on overnight in order to install all my Quest apps, so everything was ready to go immediately. All the setup had already been taken care of too, other then signing into my facebook account in the Quest.

 

Let's start with comfort. I expected it to be pretty comfortable. I'd taken the time last night to adjust the straps to fit me, thus it's snug and secure without being too tight. That last one has always been an issue for me with the PSVR and Cosmos. The hard plastic halo strap needs to be too **bleep** tight to keep it secure, thus I quickly develop a headache. Because there is no forehead pad like what halo straps use it's comfortable for extended use too. Those forehead pads on halo straps tend to cause me problems. The light weight also means that when properly fitted my head doesn't feel like it's getting pulled downward like with the Cosmos or PSVR.

 

The controllers feel comfortable in my hands, which I'd expected. Are they a bit shorter then the Quest 1's touch controllers? Not entirely sure on that. It feels like it, but I could be wrong. The improved ergonomics do feel good though, less awkward to hold. The buttons and thumb sticks are all easy to reach and responsive. If I have any complaints, it's that the clip that came with my Oculus Link cable doesn't fit on the straps due to them being wider. That could be a minor issue with roomscale PCVR. I'll have to look into a solution there, probably twist ties or zip ties. I ordered some VR Cover facial interface replacements, but they haven't arrived yet. The stock interface is a lot more comfortable then the Quest 1's facial interface, even if it's just as unhygienic. All in all, a solid 4/5.

 

Next up is Tracking. I'd expected it to be good. The Quest 1 had **bleep** good tracking after all. The first thing I did upon waking up (other then getting dressed) was to load up Beat Saber, redo my favorites list, and go through a 15 minute (okay, 16 minute) session for an aerobic workout. Last night I had noticed the tracking was good enough that even in a very low light environment it didn't lose track of the touch controllers. Possibly because they are stark white instead of black. Thus there's more contrast. This morning the tracking was again spot on, despite the early hour and not turning on any lights. I had to turn a lamp on when I messed around a bit with hand tracking. But that's not really an issue. Lighthouse tracking may be more precise, but I can't tell a difference. All in all another 4/5 from me.

 

Audio quality is also pretty **bleep** good. I haven't experimented with the built in microphone yet, but the built in speakers provide a good solid audio experience. Music was crystal clear when playing beat saber. And when I loaded up something with directional sound I could easily tell what direction the sound came from. Not sure how, but it even was easy to tell if sound came from behind me. The speakers are a bit loud, so I had to turn the volume down quite a bit. Otherwise, nothing too spectacular. But then again it's mostly when there's a problem that audio systems become noteworthy. All in all a good solid 3/5. Not the best sound quality I've experienced, but not the worst either. Pretty middle of the road, which IS a good thing.

 

Image Quality is the final thing I wanted to cover. **bleep** is that some crisp images. I'm not a pixel or frame rate snob by any means. If something looks good, I don't really care what the resolution is. And this looks **bleep** good. Sure, it's a higher resolution then the Quest 1. So of course it should look better, right? For me at least the biggest issue with other VR headsets was that I have widely spaced eyes. 80 IPD, in fact. Which was just a bit wider then the best the Quest 1 could do. And far wider then the best the HTC Cosmos can do.

 

I'd initially been concerned because the Quest 2 has only 3 settings. Well, technically it could be 9 settings, I suppose. To my surprise and delight the widest setting is perfect. Which means there's no out of focus blur that I'd gotten use to seeing in VR. Because of this, I'm surprised to say I'm giving visual quality a 5/5.

Lo, a quest! I seek the threads of my future in the seeds of the past.
3 REPLIES 3

lensmandave
Superstar

Just a quick piece of advice....don't use cable ties to secure your link cable. Get some 2cm wide Velcro strapping, it's much kinder to the cable, less chance of developing stress kinks 🙂

Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.5GHz. Asus-Z170-PRO MB - Nvidia RTX 3080 ti - 16GB DDR4 2666MHZ HYPERX SAVAGE.

kojack
MVP
MVP

Do you see the screen edges? That's my main issue with the Quest 2, the hard screen edges (made more obvious by LCD black levels) are clearly visible in my peripheral vision. I haven't had that on an Oculus headset since the DK2.

 

"Last night I had noticed the tracking was good enough that even in a very low light environment it didn't lose track of the touch controllers. Possibly because they are stark white instead of black. Thus there's more contrast."

The controllers use IR lights in the ring, so white would actually make it worse due to less contrast between the controller body and the IR lights. In theory tracking for controllers should be fine in complete darkness. But head tracking (and hand tracking) rely on external lighting, and it all adds together (game position of controller is tracking of controller added to tracking of head). The cameras can see both IR and visible spectrum lighting, so you can light your room with regular lighting or get an infrared source.

 

Author: Oculus Monitor,  Auto Oculus Touch,  Forum Dark Mode, Phantom Touch Remover,  X-Plane Fixer
Hardware: Threadripper 1950x, MSI Gaming Trio 2080TI, Asrock X399 Taich
Headsets: Wrap 1200VR, DK1, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, GearVR, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Reverb G2

Pixie40
Expert Trustee

Not sure why my response didn't get posted before, but no I don't see the screen's edges.  About to jump back into VR for a bit now. Aside from wanting to work out, I feel like playing Orbus for a bit.

Lo, a quest! I seek the threads of my future in the seeds of the past.