John Hargreaves

Best off topic on topic post ever. My guess would be the updates will be out at the same time as the Rift S.

It feels like there is even an NDA regarding when the reviews embargo is going to be lifted. If the Reverb is coming in the next week or so, you would imagine that those in the loop will already have theirs on the bench for testing and writing the reviews. Usually with tech we at least get a date for when the embargo lifts, but for some reason, gen 1.5 VR is total radio silence.

I think we will need Sweviver more than ever in the next few weeks, he uses all my favourite sims and always goes into great detail. Glad he's back in the game.

Beer makes most things better. I have been checking every couple of days for Reverb news and it has been almost silent across the whole internet since the first reveal at the end of March. The only significant thing that has come out since was the Tested article. I'm leaning mostly towards the Reverb, but there are too many other possibilities coming this summer to just pull the trigger at the first opportunity, however tempting it might be. I just wish they would get their fingers out and release all the gen 1.5 HMDs and be done with it, then we could just buy the one we like best without all this confusion and speculation.

It might not need to be as expensive as a full on module, it just depends how much work goes into it. I'd much rather pay a fair price and get something decent. The current carriers are ok, but they feel a bit lifeless to me. It would be great to feel like you are in a living environment with crew and stuff moving about around you along with a really detailed 3D model. That level of detail costs money to make, so it's only fair to pay for it.

I wonder if there is some kind of review embargo in place for the reverb, it's due out in a couple of weeks and it has been pretty quiet since the release announcement.

Exactly this. There is a lot to like about the Oculus system over and above just the hardware spec sheet, but the S just doesn't feel like much of an upgrade compared to the Reverb and the other higher res units popping up. If the S had the 2160 panels we would have jumped all over it, but it's clear their strategy is more about getting more people in at the bottom end, fair enough. Personally I blame Nvidia more than Oculus for the lack of progress. The entry point for viable VR is still too expensive, where three years after release we might have predicted that a £150 graphics card would handle a Rift, but Nvidia has chosen to continue to charge high prices for little improvement in return for the gamer.

Great to see things moving on the hardware front after three years of relative calm. So much choice coming up

Good to see Sweviver back in the game, he always covers DCS and AC/Project CARS, which are some of the most important VR titles IMO. Thanks for posting.

Which is all we need to keep us going for a week or two. The info is very much appreciated, certainly sparks the curiosity, and adds to the overall fun of anticipation :thumbup::thumbup:

What he said

Just a figure of speech. I've had all sorts of Hewlett Packard gear over the years and I have been consistently impressed with their products. The 'job' in question is that of being a brilliant HMD, which is what I suspect the Reverb will be.

I guess we'll have to wait for reviews, but it's hard to imagine HP putting out something half baked and not up to the job. All the stuff I've ever had from them has been really well made.

I'm just very pleased that ED seems to believe in VR and is still trying to find optimisations. They could have left it where it was a couple of years ago but thankfully there is more to come for VR, and I'm very much looking forward to how the next wave of HMDs will give us that much longed for improvement in image quality. You kind of know that the definition and clarity is there in the sim, but the jam jar lenses haven't let us see up 'til now.

I agree it must be incoming quite soon, it doesn't make sense to announce it otherwise.

I'm really pleased that ED believe in VR enough to dig down and find the root of the performance optimisations. I rarely fly DCS in 2D any more, but if I ever do it reminds me why I use VR. Thanks Wags and the team.

Any improvements that make better use of multi core CPUs will be great for VR, but they will also be really good for the regular game in 2D. There is a lot of untapped potential still to reveal in current hardware.

I'd guess that they mean 'with properly optimised software a 1070 should do fine.' DCS is still on a journey for VR performance, so shouldn't be taken as an example of what is typical. It's good that ED seem to believe in VR though, at least they are putting dev time into improvements.

I got my Rift when they first came out, so I paid full whack for it. I considered it to be the same sort of purchase as a new TV and have zero regrets that I didn't wait until the price fell, it's been worth every penny. Best to wait and see what comes out and also match it to your PC specs as well, although when I first got the Rift I started with a GTX970, then went to a GTX1070 before the RTX2080, so your intended upgrade path should also be a factor in the decision. We are living in great times for sim gaming.

IMO Rift S looks the best entry level option, but there are some cheeky looking higher end devices coming along too. Best wait for a few weeks and observe.

I know that I get god rays in my actual eyes even when I'm not wearing the rift, so that has never bothered me :)

That's actually a helpful comment just on its own. I have seen some clips of the Pimax in action ( I think it was a Sweviver video) and there seemed to be a stretched out wide angle lens effect at the edges of the captured view, but it wasn't so clear whether it carried over into the actual headset or not. Thanks for sharing all your comments anyway, it's very interesting to read.

That does look very impressive indeed, could you try to capture what the distortion at the edges looks like if you get chance? Thanks for posting this it's as good as anything I've seen.

I'd guess the 1070Ti+Reverb would be fine for any software designed to make the most of modern cpu/gpus. How some flight simulation software performs with it could be another matter, but these platforms are evolving all the time and are updating their game engines to adapt to how hardware has evolved.

That's the way I see it :)