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First time VR with Rift S (what a deception)

comatrix
Protege
Hi all,
I finally tried for the first time ever, the VR concept, and with the Rift S, there are positive and negative points, but overall it is a deception, not for the Oculus itself, but about what companies and reviewers claim to be the VR today..., I expected REALLY better than this, A LOT better.
Positive points:
- They do what they claim, I mean the VR concept, it is really addictive, it real feels to be there
- I had no negative points about controller flickering, even if it was not easy to understand at the beginning, how to run games in VR (for example in Assetto Corsa you need to select Rift Rendering, otherwise it will not work even if you start the games from the Oculus itself)
- The wearing of the Rift S is pretty good, even if when it is hot like today, the lenses mist up; it is pretty light to me and the adjustment assets are ok
- Luckily I have an IPD of 65, so it is ok to me
- very nice the pass through implementation, really really good, congratulations developers

Negative points
- First of all the most annoying even irritating point: every time I close a game (app), if you try to start another one it always says that it is not suggested to run multiple apps together for the PC resources, this stay ALL the time, even if you wait 2 hours (some people told me that this depends of SteamVR), you need to close manually every single VR process from the task manager
- Second the graphics aren't great at all, BUT AT ALL, you can see CLEARLY the screen door effect, it is like if you are sleeping under a mosquito met all the time, unless you are on dark areas, there the door effect is less visible but for obvious reasons, after I compared the game graphics on the screen and the same game on the Oculus and OMG, even the HD 1280*720 display is better, but A LOT Better, it seems to play on an OLD 4:3 TV on the Oculus
- The textures aren't displayed in a correct manner, if you approach the object near the Oculus, than the screen door effect almost disappear and you can appreciate REALLY the good work of the developers, but all the rest OMG, on Alyx, which is renowned to be one of the best VR games with best graphics, the cables were flickering on first area, you can see clearly the pixels if you watch far away buildings, even the ALYX text on first screen had some blu/orange halo, depending on how do you move the head and so on (on first thoughts I was thinking it was me not configuring correctly the Rift S, I read a lot on the net and no, the setting were even pushed on high, like 1.5 supersampling for example, 2k resolution and so on (I tried even 4k with same results), it was a REALLY bad experience I'm sorry, to me it's a NO on this aspect
- it is beautiful talking about a real 3D immersive world (and this is the positive point as described before), but you can clearly see that you are inside a cartoon like world, don't get me wrong, I don't mean like a cartoon, I mean you can clearly see that it is not real, not even approach the feeling about it
- I have no idea why, but today I had to do again and again the safe area (like 6/7 times), why it does forget continually the safe area?
- I have a powerful PC, not the top of the top but a high one (CPU AMD 3700x, Asus Strix 2080 Super 3 fans, 32GB of RAM 3.600 CL 19, the maximum on the third generation AMD processor can support on infinity fabric, higher is almost useless, 1.000w PSU, 1TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 and 2TB SSD 3.0, x570 E Gaming motherboard, 10 Fans Airflow from 240mm to 70mm), that said my GPU reached almost 88 degrees Celsius all the time (190° Fahrenheit), even if I put the graphics on 800x600 and disabling the supersampling (0), is it me or what? If it is, can someone explain me how to low that before I can cook the eggs on my GPU? Thanks a lot
- the dashboard inside the Rift S view is often misplaced, totally on the left or on the right and you can't move it
- often the controller (hands ingame) are misplaced, I mean they are under some objects, walls or under the floor and so on, and you can't restore them if not closing the Oculus software and restart it

OK stop talking because there are other negative aspect to say, but I think you get the message, I mean the idea.
To my humble opinion, the VR concept is really good one, but the development is not even a beta, I feel like it is on a  PRE RELEASE APLHA TEST, not even a complete alpha, but I bought it because I'm an enthusiast, but it is correct to say the truth about it
  • VR Headset Oculus Rift S
  • CPU AMD 3.700x - GPU Asus ROG Strix 2080 Super - MB Asus ROG Strix X570 F-Gaming
  • RAM 32GB G.Skill 3.600mhz CL 16 - Storage 1TB NVMe M.2 2280 - 2TB SSD 3.0 - 3TB HDD
  • Cooler Dark Rock Pro 4 - PSU Corsair HX 1.000i Platinum Modular
  • Fans Hub DeepCool FH-10 - Case Cooler Master H500P Mesh Option
  • Airflow 2x240mm in, 4x120mm out, 2x135mm CPU, 3x85mm GPU, 2x35mm MB
73 REPLIES 73

comatrix
Protege
Preface
As I said on my previous post, I'm not yet an owner of a VR, it will arrive next week, but I'm here to explain my reasons why I chose a Rfts S instead of Quest (or any other VR), even if I read and watched videos with all the issues reported from customers and reviewers, about the lack of Oculus to fix them and support the product (it's up to you Oculus, it's called reputation and what consequences could succeed).
Those thoughts are made in this period right now, not set on future VR Headset, what companies offers right now in this moment, but also watching to the future as well (long term use).
One last thing: I'm not English, so sorry if I will make some mistakes ^_^

My reasons
Couple weeks ago, I decided to enter the VR world, I managed to have some extra money (luckily), and I questioned myself which one could be the best choice. I surfed the web and read a lot about it, before deciding, of course on actual time, the best VR Headset goes to Valve Index, no doubt about it, but is this the best choice? I love games, but that does not means throwing away money, VR Headset are expensive today and that's the biggest reasons why they are not so widespread, consequences means to choice the correct VR Headset compared to the best price that the market offers, and that's why I pointed on Oculus, it is one of the best experiences described from reviewers and owners, compared to their product prices (and I hope mine will be too).
That said, the rest is to chose what Oculus should be the best to buy, in terms of:

1. Longevity: this is the first point to consider, because VR sector is a pretty new platform compared to the game industry, so imagine how much they can improve the products and games in future
2. Reliability: how much the product can be reliable compared to the game industry
3. Quality: how much the product can afford in terms of usability
4. Fruition: what you can do with the product

On first thoughts, my choice went to the Oculus Quest, better support, better improvements and so on, meanwhile it seems the Rift S is abandoned from Oculus, but the more as I read, the more I changed my mind thinking about the 4 points explained before, here's why:

1. In terms of longevity it goes to Rift S, simply because the Quest has a processor inside, considering that the VR is a pretty new sector, can you imagine how the future improvements could render obsolete the processor itself in couple years, not being able to manage future games? Meanwhile the Rift S is a simple screen, the improvements come from the computer not from the VR itself. Of course, you can use the new Oculus Link software on the Quest, but first you have to buy a cable and it's a new expense (I suggest to buy the original cable from Oculus, so in case of problems they cannot say anything about it), you are now like the Rift S not any more wireless, finally in terms of graphics/performances, you are connected to a USB not to a Display Port for future improvements (being inferior to the Rift S under this aspect)

2. In terms of reliability it goes 50/50 or may be to the Quest but absolutely not to the Rift S, not because Rift S is less reliable, but because of the lack from Oculus not supporting the Rift S correctly apparently, because if they support it like the Quest, of course the things could change drastically (I remember that the Rift S has only 1 year life....)

3. In terms of quality Right now it goes to Rift S, the fact that Rift S has better graphics because it is only a simple screen and can manage better the render, meanwhile Quest needs to manage a downscale graphics when used wirelessly and when connected to the computer from Oculus Link, as we said before, it's less performant than a Display Port (check on the net some videos about it, you will see it by yourself)

4. In terms of Fruition it goes to the Quest, because thanks to the Oculus Link, now you can afford to play wireless games and also the catalogue game from Rift S on PC

So the question is pretty simple:

If I wish better graphics and enjoy the maximum and longevity I should go Rift S. but I should remember that I'm connected to a cable and I need a good PC, if I wish let's say a "Console" VR, well Quest is the solution even wireless, but I remember also that I have to buy the correct cable if I wish to afford Rift S catalogue on PC and also it's less performant than the Rift S under this aspect.
Personally I prefer best performances and longevity.
Peace and Love ^_^

P.S. Please no flames answers, but constructive ones thanks

  • VR Headset Oculus Rift S
  • CPU AMD 3.700x - GPU Asus ROG Strix 2080 Super - MB Asus ROG Strix X570 F-Gaming
  • RAM 32GB G.Skill 3.600mhz CL 16 - Storage 1TB NVMe M.2 2280 - 2TB SSD 3.0 - 3TB HDD
  • Cooler Dark Rock Pro 4 - PSU Corsair HX 1.000i Platinum Modular
  • Fans Hub DeepCool FH-10 - Case Cooler Master H500P Mesh Option
  • Airflow 2x240mm in, 4x120mm out, 2x135mm CPU, 3x85mm GPU, 2x35mm MB

McNutts
Adventurer
If you can only get one VR headset and have ANY disire to play away from your computer the Quest is the headset to buy period.

If you are never going to want to play VR away from a computer then the Rift S is the headset to get period.


Now that's out of the way here are some pros and cons of the Quest. I owned the Oculus Go, Quest, and Rift S and these pros and cons are based on everything I have experienced and what I have read. I have been working at home for the past 4 months and I have been reading to much about VR.



Quest Pros and Cons:

Pros:
1)Higher resolution screen when compared to the Rift S.
2) OLED screen which give great color reproduction and perfect blacks.
3) Supports wired PCVR officially with the cable that comes with the Quest in the box over USB 2.0 cables.
4) Supports wireless PCVR unofficially with a $15 app called Virtual Desktop. It works better than the Oculus Link in my opinion.
5) Since it supports PCVR gaming it has access to more games that the Rift S.
6) Gets more support than the Rift S. It really seems like the Rift S is an after thought when compared to the Rift S.
7) Has a manual IPD adjustment so a wide range of people can use the headset
😎 Have a lot of 3rd party products to adjust the headset to your liking be it visually or functionally.
9)Comes with everything you need out of the box to play VR games on the Quest and PCVR games. This wasn't the case until they let users use USB 2 cables for the Oculus Link feature
10) The optics are great compared to older headsets I have used (DK1, DK2, CV1, PSVR, Gear VR)

Cons:
1) It uses a non-RGB sub pixel display. This makes it so you will never get sharp images when compared to the Rift S even though the Quest has a higher resolution.
2) The weight distribution isn't all that great for a lot of people. Because of this a lot of the weight can rest on the users face in an uncomfortable way. This can be fixed with 3rd party products and mods but without those fixes it can be hard to play for more than 30 minutes at a time.
3) The refresh rate of the displays are 72Hz. This makes it so you can see the choppiness of the display in some games. This becomes especially noticeable in your peripheral parts of your vision since that section of your vision has a higher motion resolution than the center of your vision. It's very noticeable to me when I use my Quest after using my Rift S that has an 80Hz display and will be even worse once I get my Valve Index after I wait 14 weeks.
4)The audio is just go enough. You can hear whats happening in games but its far from immersive like it should be. I'm a big believer in the fact that audio is more important that the video. This can be fixed by using a 3rd party product like headphones.
5)  The cloth that wraps around the Quest can be difficult to clean if it gets dirty especially when compared to the plastic found on most other headsets.


Now when it comes to the reliability of the two headsets I don't have access to the numbers that only Oculus really has access to. Based on my very own experience I have never had any issues but that doesn't mean much since I only have access to a sample size of 5. I have helped 4 friends of mine build a computer to run their Rift S headsets. Each time I made sure they had computers that had USB 3 ports that connected directly to the CPU (Ryzen 7 CPUs) and they had a GPU with a USB-C port (Nvidia GPUs). Every time I was able to connect the Rift S to their computers and it worked great.

I'm not saying that there aren't issues people are having with the Rift S due to product defects. I'm sure there are some out there. I think that there are a lot of people out there that have issues that are due to user error. And before anyone comes at me with a reply saying I'm wrong just know that I'm not talking about you then obviously.

With that said as long as you don't get a defective unit you shouldn't have any issues after the first few days since they are both solid state devices outside the mechanical audio slider and IPD adjustment on the Quest. If you take care to not scratch the camera lenses and the display lenses you shouldn't have any problems with the units outside the cable on the Rift S. 

The Rift S uses a cable so you will have to be mindful of how you are moving that cable. If you twist it to much that can decrease the life. If you roll over your chair over the cable while your'e sitting in the chair that will decrease the life of the cable. I could come up with more examples but I hope you get the point.

The last thing that is SUPER IMPORTANT is that the Rift S can not work well with people that have a large IPD. The Rift S has a fixed IPD of about 64-65. If your IPD is below that it can work well for you from everything I have read. If you have a large IPD (68+) then no matter what you do you're not going to get a good view experience using the Rift S. I remember reading that the original developer of the Rift couldn't even use the Rift S because it lacked a manual IPD adjustment and his IPD was like 72. This meant no matter what he did the image would look blurry because his eyes could never be in the "sweet spot".

So now I come back to my first statements. If you can only afford one headset get a Quest if you ever want to play away from a computer and get a Rift S if your IPD is around 65 and if you're never going to want to play VR away from a computer.












Ryzen 7 5800X | 3090FE | 32GB@3600MHz | Rift S | 128GB Quest1 | 256GB Quest2 | 64GB Go | PSVR | Index

comatrix
Protege

McNutts said:
Now when it comes to the reliability of the two headsets I don't have access to the numbers that only Oculus really has access to. Based on my very own experience I have never had any issues but that doesn't mean much since I only have access to a sample size of 5. I have helped 4 friends of mine build a computer to run their Rift S headsets. Each time I made sure they had computers that had USB 3 ports that connected directly to the CPU (Ryzen 7 CPUs) and they had a GPU with a USB-C port (Nvidia GPUs). Every time I was able to connect the Rift S to their computers and it worked great.
Thanks for your answer, I will contact you in case I have problems, because we have a very similar PC and, reading what you wrote, you have much more experience than me.
You suggest to connect directly to the CPU, but how? From Motherboard USB 3? The 2080 Super has a USB Type C port, why not connect it directly to the Display Port on GPU?



P.S. My PC: AMD Ryzen 3700x, Asus Strix X570 E Gaming, Dark Rock Pro 2 140mm fans, Asus Strix 2080 Super 3 fans, G.Skill 32GB RAM 3.600 CL 19, 1TB NMVe Sabrent Rocket, 2TB SSD Toshiba USB 3.0, 3TB HDD Seagate Barracuda, case Cooler Master H500P Mesh Option 220mm x2 fans in, Airflow x3 120mm fans out + 140mm rear out, Corsair HX 1.000i Platinum, INternal USB, FH-1' Deep Cool integrated HUB for Fans, Windows 10 Pro 64bit
  • VR Headset Oculus Rift S
  • CPU AMD 3.700x - GPU Asus ROG Strix 2080 Super - MB Asus ROG Strix X570 F-Gaming
  • RAM 32GB G.Skill 3.600mhz CL 16 - Storage 1TB NVMe M.2 2280 - 2TB SSD 3.0 - 3TB HDD
  • Cooler Dark Rock Pro 4 - PSU Corsair HX 1.000i Platinum Modular
  • Fans Hub DeepCool FH-10 - Case Cooler Master H500P Mesh Option
  • Airflow 2x240mm in, 4x120mm out, 2x135mm CPU, 3x85mm GPU, 2x35mm MB

Mushroomies
Heroic Explorer
I own a HTC Vive,
My Vive has been trouble free and I have acquired a very large amount of VR content for this Headset. My guess is somewhere around 700 Gb's of Content. Some programs alone are very large for example Half Life Alex is 67.7Gb's on my computer. That is a lot for just one VR program.
A week ago I decided to give Oculus a try, I considered Oculus Quest but also gave some thought as to how many games can be stored in the headset before you end up having to connect it to your computer or something else to load content or change Headset content.
I decided to go with the Oculus Rift S. It has been a week now since my order and I will soon know if I made a good choice. Most of my content for VR will work for the Rift but very little of it is made to work with the Quest.

If I can find this post when it arrives, I will come back and let everyone know if I am happy with my choice. 
You see, I did not really need a Oculus because my Vive works just fine. It is also trouble free but I wanted give the Oculus World a try.
Anyway, Stay safe my VR Friends

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

McNutts said:

If you can only get one VR headset and have ANY disire to play away from your computer the Quest is the headset to buy period.




I think that this is a bit inaccurate. With Quest, you are not getting away from your computer at all; instead, you are simply wearing your computer on your face (which increases the discomfort). More importantly, you will be stuck with a default 2.5 total playtime due to the battery life. You can extend it longer with a battery strapped to the back of your head, but this is still quite small in comparison to the Rift, where you can play for 6-10 hours (or longer for the hardcore gamers) in amazing experiences like Asgard's Wrath, Walking Dead, Mage's Tale, SkyrimVR, FalloutVR, etc.

If mobility is a concern, I would modify your statement to say this instead:
  • If you can only get one VR headset and have ANY desire to be mobile, then Rift-S with a VR Laptop is the setup to buy, period.
There's nothing on Quest that a Rift user is missing out on. But there is a ton of goodness a Quest user misses out on compared to a solid PCVR setup.

Also, Rift is far more future proof (like the OP pointed out) than Quest. PCVR is vast and limitless. Quest is very limited.

I own a Quest, and the best way to view a Quest is to see it as a "Prototype Test Platform for PCVR." 

Things like hands-free tracking get tested on Quest first. Then when it's stable, it will come to Rift. To own a Rift is to own the primary device and platform to experience the best that VR has to offer.

The only thing better than Rift is another PCVR headset from a competitor that appeals to your own personal preferences; such as Index or HP Reverb.

ShocksVR
Superstar
Quest features the old tech Pentile display - which  means less clarity regardless of what the on paper resolution say; yes it has less clarity than the RIft S. Also factor in the DOUBLING of latency going from Rift S to Quest+Link, then you'll see there's major trade offs with the Quest while in PC mode. Also, lets not forget the Link feature uses more PC processing overhead (encoding/decoding), than using a native PCVR headset (so you'll have decreased performance in games).

I agree if anyone wants to play standalone VR, then the choice is Quest. But if they plan to play exclusively PCVR, then a proper native PCVR headset is the way to go.

@OP - congrats on your Rift S.  It's a pretty good value headset, affordable and offers a good range of features, and it's a native PCVR headset (which the current Quest just can't beat the Rift S when it comes to PC games; maybe with the Quest 2 that'll be a different story).  I really like my Rift S and it was a pretty big upgrade over my previous Rift CV1.

i7-7700k, Zotac RTX 3080 AMP Holo (10G), QuestPro, Quest 2
Previous: Oculus GO, Oculus RIFT - 3 sensor Room-scale, Oculus Rift S

comatrix
Protege
Everything is arrived, Included the Oculus Rfft S B)
Saturday stream B)

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  • VR Headset Oculus Rift S
  • CPU AMD 3.700x - GPU Asus ROG Strix 2080 Super - MB Asus ROG Strix X570 F-Gaming
  • RAM 32GB G.Skill 3.600mhz CL 16 - Storage 1TB NVMe M.2 2280 - 2TB SSD 3.0 - 3TB HDD
  • Cooler Dark Rock Pro 4 - PSU Corsair HX 1.000i Platinum Modular
  • Fans Hub DeepCool FH-10 - Case Cooler Master H500P Mesh Option
  • Airflow 2x240mm in, 4x120mm out, 2x135mm CPU, 3x85mm GPU, 2x35mm MB

crossmr
Protege
I'd still choose my original CV1. I've got a large IPD, I have to keep it at the max to be comfortable. I also greatly appreciate the exterior tracking. I know some people say "it's just fine" on the other ones, but I trust the exterior more.

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Seems like someone should have gotten a Reverb G2 instead 😉 And no, VR will not be like the real world. 

In here many of us have been using VR for years, I don't see anything surprising in your post about image quality - but of course interesting to read about your experience and opinions. 

Notes.

1. Assetto Corsa isn't a real VR game, don't judge VR on that title. 

2. Of course you get SDE with Rift-S. Try Reverb G2 this autumn instead.

3. Alyx uses adaptive super sampling and that game does not care about the res you set in SteamVR.

4. You should not get an error about running multiple apps. You should not need to set up safe area 6-7 times - then something is not working correctly, contact Oculus Support. Your issue with the Dashboard seems odd too. I think something isn't working correctly on your rig - or the hmd could have issues.
In 3 years I've set my safe area 3 or 4 times, I never get an error about running multiple apps, never had flickering controllers, never had Dashboard problems - it's in front of me and I can move it. My hands are never misplaced inside VR.

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"