One positive thing about the vive pro 2 is that i can set the steam sampling to let say 70% and still have a good picture on the ultra setting… It saves performance for the more demanding games…
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The fact that they are artificially increasing contrast by using dynamic brightness is another huge blow for me, personally. I’m not a fan of the effect on a static television, always turn it off, and I can’t imagine how annoying it will be in the fluid, up close and personal environment of VR.
This means we are now at 3 massive cons IMO, that get skipped over a bit in reviews:
- increased binocular contention, more noticeable if you have smaller IPD or recessed eyes
- lowered clarity per rendered pixel due to SDE diffusion filter a la index and forced DSC even at 90hz, vs G2 (this is in addition to all the issues people have rendering the vive pro 2 at the correct PPD vs G2, with dynamic render targets, different fov ratio, etc)
- noticeable dynamic brightness, where you look up at the sunny sky and then down at the ground and clearly perceive the drop in brightness, vs the G2, where it is static
Then there is the whole compositor synchronous vs asynchronous reprojection when holding frame below 90hz vsync buffer debacle. I still think it is likely a misconfiguration/legacy file issue, as it seems people who use fresh windows + steamvr are reporting the expected async rotational reprojection but don’t get the 45fps synchronous frame hold that people have been complaining about. Jury is still out, haven’t seen anyone with enough competency/documentation properly explore it yet and I’m still waiting for mine.
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I think dynamic brightness is an awesome idea if you can actually control the parameters in settings. Being this is a “Pro” headset, they shouldn’t be afraid to let us mess with it. I do hope they fix something with clarity by the time I get mine. I doubt they’d put a diffusion filter in a headset with pretty much the highest res panels out there…that would be so dumb.
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I got full hmdq data for Vive Pro 2 from @JoCool, who sent me all the modes for both min and max IPDs - thanks man!.
I was able to verify that there was no impact of the IPD on the geometry, as well as no impact from the different modes and refreshes. I put both 90Hz and 120Hz into HMDGDB though, just to make the point that they are the same. The different resolution modes I did not put in there, as they just change the recommended resolution.
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The oddest thing to me about this headset is actually what enterprise solution would this be better than a G2 for? All things considered, the G2 seems like a much better option for business.
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I would strongly disagree on your experience but only if you stick it so close its on the verge of hurting your face. Then and only then will the vertical fov be acceptable and its width is on par with the small fov.
As for sharpness and color it blows the 8kX out of the water and the sweetspot is quite large width wise but not vertically (when stuck as close as it can go physically and almost no foam) . There’s also essentially no distortion at all in the picture.
Also the potential for wireless isnt with less resolution but with 90HZ only.
My first impressions was pretty similar to yours but after a couple of days use i love the sharp picture and excellent blacks. The glare however is not great.
When i sat in my f16 cockpit yesterday i thought, damn this looks good and on the 8kX its just so so and even a hint of looking around with your eyes is blurry and distorted
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No offense but the 8kX colors is pretty bad compared to the VP2 and G2 for that matter and the VP2 blacks and colors are better than the G2
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For me on g2 the clarity sweet spot even if I put off the gasket and touch the lenses is quite small, like on vive with default foam, the rest of displays don’t look as blurry as on vive pro 1 but eg it’s not as sharp as in center. But displays isn’t the biggest complain for me for g2 , it’s microstutters on head turns, poor performance and very buggy software, black screens, need to replug cable to back hmd to on state on failures and so on, totally unusable, maybe I got a bad unit though but since months I received it got a bit better after updates but still far from acceptable usability point of view
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I dont agree on the FOV being almost the same. In my G2 i see the edges of the display if i just go a bit closer, it gives a tad extra but not much. Not so for the VP2. Its much larger. The vertical fov can however play tricks on your mind imo
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I got lucky that the stock gasket works perfectly for my head/face shape. I did buy the vr cover and did the direct attachment of the franken mod but my eye lashes end up smudging the lenses and there was barely any noticeable gain. So I get close to max fov and keep the comfort of the stock setup. Overall, super happy with the G2. One day I’ll pair the controllers and try something else in VR but so far, happy!
today got my VP2 finally shipped (preorder from HTC United States may 13).
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That’s fine, but you got to match pixel/deg then. So go 3450x3450 and try that for your breaking points.
Btw I think if you have a G2 there’s no need to upgrade/sidegrade to VP2 - unless you miss LH tracking and would like a slightly larger FOV. But if you have LH, boy, that’s the best you can get rn.
Well, I tried for three days.
But unfortunately for me the sharpness was just on par with the 8KX, not better (Ultra, 3100x3100 vs. PiTool 1.25 (even 1.00) Small/Large FoV - these are settings I can run smoothly on my system with the games I used for comparison). In Virtual Desktop it was pretty simple to compare the icon text (4K screen, at standard distance in VD): G2 was neat and sharp, Pro 2 and 8KX both noticeably blurrier. Clarity towards the outer edges (opposite direction from the nose) was better in G2 and 8KX.
In general I had to struggle with the Pro 2, it would be very finicky to get it properly placed on my face, with glasses, and maintain a generally good picture as it is intended. Once I had it, I even thought for a moment that it is cool and I will keep it - but then I started the comparisons, and was a bit disappointed. It does beat the others on colors (and of course horizontal FoV when using thin foam in comparison to the G2).
I wnated it to be good - it should have hit the sweet spot of wide FoV, great visuals, lighthouse, not as high maintenance as the 8KX with its PiTool settings, IPD woes etc… But unfortunately it was not meant to be. But it seems to be working quite differently for different individuals, so I do not doubt your findings. I just know that I wanted it to succeed but when asking myself if I would keep it, in which use cases would I actually prefer it over the G2 and the 8KX, I wasn’t sure it would be seeing any significant use by me as I felt that for most of the games I am interested in I would prefer at least one of the other two.
Good for you that it works better for you, I envy you. But there will be a next exciting headset in 6-12 months from some other manufacturer, and then in 24 months yet another, so I just park the money and hope for the next one to hit a home run with me !
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I’m right there with you. No matter what, on the long run the overall experience being paid for the Vp2 isn’t worth the asking price.
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Fair enough.
And truth be told while i do like it very Im kind of in the same boat as you. Im not quite sure on the upgrade and i do wonder if i should just hold on the the 8kX for another year. The Vertical fov is an issue and if we don’t vote with out wallets things tend to stay. If it wasnt for the eyestrain i get on the 8kX i would most likely keep the 8kX. Im just so sick of trying to tune this thing after 6 months+. Though choice
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I’m only really interested in the Focus 3.
It looks as though it shares the same screen and optics as the Vive Pro 2, but maybe it has some secret sauce that makes it better.
Too bad you’re not too happy with the headset. What was your IPD again? Not sure if it even matters but still, who knows, could be related.
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if you watch with subtitles - positive review for vp2 and he prefered it over g2 for sim racing (iracing)
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My IPD is 64. To be honest, I felt I could dial the IPD from 61 through 68 without really noticing much difference in the green crosshair thingie or the live picture. Weird stuff. But as it didn’t give me any discomfort either, I stuck to my measured IPD at the end.
The P2 remains a bit of a mystery to me. So promising and yet so - meh. And stubborn. Like an old mule. Each time I put it on it would summon something to complain about. God-awful fresnel glare, blurriness, even wobble in the middle when slightly rocking my head left and right, not allowing for the perfect fit on my head (same as Norm mention in his Tested review - I’d like to have tilted it forward a bit, but no sir, can’t do), acuity just not where I had hoped it would be (to convince me to let go of the G2, or to beat the 8KX). Sometimes I would think “this is good !” but next moment a random one of the issues rose its head again and back to square one it was.
Sometimes you just have to call it a day - first headset I actually return (but not the first time I lured myself into pre-ordering one with the promise to myself that I’ll return it if it doesn’t beat the sh!t out of the others… first time was the og Vive - wanted to get the Rift anyhow, but was too curious. Of course the Vive stuck around, after all it had VR controllers !).
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I think we need to wait for an hmd that unlike the VP2 is not doing something odd to get 117 wide FoV. With square panels there either cropping the image(loss of vertical panel utilization) or producing a stretched warped image for the optics. Square panels will not give wide FoV without loss of stereo overlap near nose or having the optics warp the image. I am guessing the optics arw warping it horizontally and is why the area outside the sweetspot(center of lens) is blurred.
Square panels equals more or less gen1 FoV. You need wider panels than vertical unless vertical and horizontal FoV is close in value.
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