Baldrick33

I got two base stations and a single controller off of eBay. During setup I bricked one of the base stations doing the recommended firmware update. I didn't need the controller at all. One base station ran fine. I later fixed the other one by finding out how to copy the firmware from the good one to the bad. I noticed no difference in tracking with the second one connected. I never did use the controller. Regarding controllers the Vive Pro 2 has a system button on the headset, the only thing I used a controller for the Reverb for - to set up options in Steam dashboard. This is a plus and minus - you don't need the controller but it is easy to hit putting on the headset but a swine to find to turn it off!

For exclusively DCS I would recommend the G2. It is plug and play in terms of the WMR software then you just need a couple of free Steam apps and you are good to go, all will be loaded when you fire up DCS. The inside out tracking is fine for seated applications and the so so controllers will just sit on a shelf. You don't need to rig up and power base stations. Having tried Reverb G1 & G2, Index, Pimax 5K+ & recently the Vive Pro 2 the Reverbs provide a clearer image in spite of the extra resolution of the Vive Pro2 and just has a greater wow factor for me in a DCS cockpit. That is at some cost of FOV but I would always put image quality over FOV, at least whilst I can move my head around comfortably. Speaking of which the Reverb is a lot lighter and for my head much comfier although it will vary by head shape etc. The Vive Pro 2 has a clear distinction where the lenses overlap (like binoculars) which bothers me, doesn't bother others, whereas the Reverb has much more of a single viewport to the virtual world albeit a smaller one. The Vive Pro 2 will definitely need to be modded in terms of face plate as crazily they have cut holes in the sides to allow for glasses which allow a huge amount of light in. If you have a window or bright lights it will create terrible reflections of your room in your view. Not a great issue as face plates from other devices fit and are readily available . The Vive Pro2 is a big headset with a lot sticking out the back so if you have a high backed seat it is easy to keep hitting the headset on it as you look around. Not a deal breaker but the Reverb (even the G1 with its clunky connector) is less obtrusive. By now you will gather I don't really like the Vive Pro 2. It didn't fit my head very well even with a variety of different width face plates, I ended up stuffing foam to fill the gaps between my face and the plate to stop reflections even after ditching the stock one with cut outs. It was hot and uncomfortable after 15 mins or so. It doesn't play nicely with iRacing needing revive to make it run as an Oculus. I frequently lost tracking for a few seconds if I touched the headset (EMF interference with my sim racing kit I believe - I have had that with every headset using base stations). I had a few extra steps to remember - turn on the link device, power up the base stations. Hardly a big deal in the scheme of starting up aircraft in DCS but personally more of a faff then WMR. Plus in an effort to get close tp the image on my G1 I had to crank up the settings really high with the inevitable impact on performance. At the same settings the VP2 looked woefully inferior. That said the G2 lenses are designed to use higher supersampling than the G1, so the G2 vs VP2 performance may be closer. The problem we all face is a lot of what I have said is subjective, some of it probably irrelevant (EMF issues) and some definitely down to my head size and shape, maybe even my eyesight (I actually find it easier to read the writing on the dials in a DCS cockpit with my G1 than I do my real world car!). However, I do remain convinced the Reverb display is of a higher quality then the VP2 regardless of resolution, much like a top of the line 4K TV is a better picture than a budget 4K TV when you look at them side by side in a store. Also the other benefits of tracking and controllers become irrelevant if it is seated use only.

I am using this: https://github.com/fholger/reshade/releases/tag/openvr_alpha2 I assume this is the same thing being referred to for VR? Just copy the contents of the zip file into the DCS World bin folder

I think it depends how much you value extra FOV an edge to edge clarity over clarity in centre. FOV wise personally I have a dislike for a binocular type view where the there is a clear distinction between the lenses constantly in view. No amount of IPD or eye relief can overcome that. I disliked it on the Pimax 5K+ when I had that and it was very noticeable on the VP2 coming from a G1. The Reverb has a more circular telescope type view - which some will dislike, but I never see the distinction between lenses. My recollection of the Index was similar - just a bigger circle which I thought was excellent. Clarity wise for my long sighted near 60 year old eyes the VP2 falls well short of the Reverb. I don't think any amount of software updates will change that, the panel and lenses just seem inferior in spite of the resolution. I mention long sighted as my gut feel is the focal distance is shorter on the VP2. Some Googling seems to confirm that Vives are lower distance than Reverbs but there is some conflicting reports. So maybe what I see is different to someone with perfect or near sighted vision comparing the two? With the caveat of the paragraph above, image wise the VP2 is a downgrade from the G2 in my view.

Have you tried the alignment tool in DCS? Some more fiddling around but it is pretty flexible. Edit: although it says WMR it should work for any headset I believe.

My experience was that with motion compensation on or off I was still locked at 45fps in DCS and it was a similar smoothness to having reprojection on with the G1. Still some ghosting if say an aircraft passed below you at speed. Turning motion compensation just seemed to add some liquidity to objects which was a bit nausea inducing, so I turned it back off. All locked at 45 fps running at 90Hz. If it dropped below 45 then it would stutter (as expected). I was never able to turn off whatever caused it to run at 45 to see how it handled between 45 and 90 as described in the post above.

I have and I thought it was the best made headset and the closest at being good at everything of all the ones I have tried. Ultimately the image clarity of the Reverb won me over, most especially in iRacing which is my other favourite sim, the Index suffers from some image alignment issue with it which quickly becomes tiring. I was really hoping the Vive Pro 2 would be like an Index with better clarity. I guess I will have to wait for an Index 2 and hope the G1 keeps going until then!

Doing some simple maths for my simple mind I kind of thought the VP2 at 2448x2448 per eye with a FOV of 10-15% more than my G1 at 2106x2106 per eye would yield a similar quality image with similar performance. Sadly this hasn't worked out. As others have reported the VP2 sits somewhere between the G1/G2 and the Index, in my experience it falls well short of the G1 quality wise and trying to get close with bumping up supersampling just cripples the performance. For my head the VP2 doesn't fit well, after hours of adjusting. the standard faceplate has gaps cut in (for glasses?) which allow light in and reflect parts of your room onto the image. I tried various VR covers eventually stuffing in material between the gaps between my head and the cover to stop light getting in. It kind of worked but I found the headset hot and uncomfortable after a short stint. I then had the issue with grey outs which in fairness I have had with every base station setup - Pimax & Index - so I guess this is an EMI issue my end. My G1 is now out of warranty and it has not been very reliable (I am on the fourth headset under warranty) so I was looking for a solid replacement and hoped this would be it. Sadly not and I am returning it. VR is a very personal thing, I can see that some will prefer the colours and FOV, the base station tracking and maybe it will fit their head perfectly but not for me.

I have spent ages fiddling to get this comfortable. I realised what I thought was glare was a reflection on the lens slipping through a gap between my head and the padding. I recognised a strip of a picture on my wall behind me! My solution appears to be using the VR cover I had on my G1 which I think was designed for the original Rift. After dismissing it as uncomfortable it is now ok. Not easy to put on like my G1 but once in place it feels ok. In my case it seems to need to feel fairly loose fitting but doesn't move around as I look around.

I get a different resolution in SteamVR too, with a custom set in Vive Console. Also I see reprojection (half hz fps) independently of motion compensation which I can visibly see the difference if I turn it on (liquid buildings etc.)

I am pretty sure motion compensation and reprojection are two different things. I just got mine and tried at 120Hz with motion compensation off and it was running at 60 fps. Earlier I tried at 90Hz with motion compensation on and I was getting 45 but some odd fluid like effects as the motion compensation kicked in.

Going all serious for a moment but if you want F-14s and real training then I found Speed & Angels quite compelling. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112756/?ref_=tt_urv

I missed trying Reshade VR when I first heard of it, promptly forgot about it so thanks for the reminder. Just tried it and it really is very nice for the G1, definite bump up in clarity and makes it more vivid and less washed out. Thanks again! When you say native values do you means the native panel resolutions or the native panel resolution with the standard 100% SteamVR setting? The latter is variable depending upon the amount of barrel distortion super sampling considered correct (Steam don't always get it right, especially at first it seems if I recall correctly with the G1 being at 188% just to hit its native panel resolution, though they seem to have sorted it now).

Amazon UK are saying Tuesday 8th delivery. Hope that is the case!

It spreads those extra pixels over a wider fov plus it could be that the G2 simply has better lenses. Also worth considering the G2 uses a lot of super sampling at SteamVR 100% default compared to the G1 at the same panel resolution which appears to be by design of the newer lenses. Higher overall number of pixels rendered it would appear than the Vive Pro 2 at the same 100% setting at its highest panel resolution, hence the reported performance improvement of the Vive Pro 2. I do wonder what they would look like applying the same resolution multiplier in SteamVR for comparison and how sweet spots will compare. Only time will tell when the headsets get out more in the wild!

Thanks, very useful I wouldn’t have thought of that.

Some useful info here on the difference between 1.0 and 2.0 base stations. I have also heard the 2.0 are as noisy and in some examples considered more noisy than their 1.0 counterparts. https://forum.vive.com/topic/7656-10-vs-20-base-stations-whats-the-real-difference/

The 2.0 allows for more base stations in large areas. As I understand it more for corporate and demo setups. For typical home use, especially for seated applications i don't think there is much if any advantage. Do you need a controller? My understanding was it could be setup without for seated use.

Another review, this one actually refers to running DCS: https://vicbstard.medium.com/htc-vive-pro-2-vr-headset-review-vic-bstard-s-state-of-play-61991a50e0ac

I believe you need some kind of Vive control panel which manages settings for the device driver.

The multiple buttons are far more than necessary, that is just using what I had. The aim was to have a button I could press or rotary to turn roughly in the vicinity of the perceived location in the cockpit. On further trialling I have found I only really need buttons on the left and right side. The MFDs I used because I had them, to be honest I was only using them because they were there, using a button box on left or right and looking at the virtual MFD works just as well immersion wise for me. So I am considering dropping the front panel completely and using the boxes left and right. From a muscle memory perspective this probably is a better design. The extra buttons are handy for things like F1-F12 for comms although I use VAICOM where possible plus stuff that is hard to access like the canopy in the Spit and so on. The vertical mouse movement allows for some adjustment to get to things towards the back of the cockpit, e.g. the OBOGS switch in the F18. I find it a bit hard to easily get the cursor everywhere otherwise. It is only used for those extreme cases. Using generic keystrokes assigned to buttons works very well as you suggest, for example I have right shift P assigned to a button so in every module I can show/hide the pilot body.

Isn't that the purpose of the beta - to identify bugs and the devs to fix them? We could have a different discussion about stable but when we sign up to beta we choose to have a role in reporting bugs, or just enjoy the game with the knowledge of risk bugs may exist. In the corporate world it isn't unusual to have user groups as part of the testing process prior to release. So yes, people might feel excited they have played a role and the issues that have been discovered have been fixed.

Maybe it is and is still in progress whilst other activities have become ready to deploy? Would it make us happier if they put the patch on hold until a priority fix was ready? Probably not...

I have been chasing down blue screen issues with my Reverb G1 for several weeks now. What makes it especially hard is that I am convinced I have had three distinct issues: 1/ I have the original G1 cable (with a replacement newer headset). I could make the headset blue screen by wiggling the cable connector near the headset. I taped this up and that seemed to have solved it. 2/ I had SteamVR crashes which caused the Reverb to restart (initially blue screen). This seems to be an issue with the WMR for SteamVR beta. Rolling back seems to have stopped that 3/ I have had emf issues with my sim racing rig in the past with previous headsets (Pimax & Index) which would grey out when I touched certain parts of the headset. I tried ferrite cores but the only resolution was gloves. This seems to have become an occasional issue with the Reverb. I touch the headset and it would blue screen with no pull on the cable. So maybe I need to wear gloves like a real pilot! The 4th issue would appear to be DCS causing a SteamVR crash if it repeatable at the same point, possibly a combination of versions of WMR Portal, WMR for SteamVR, SteamVR, graphics drivers, Windows updates etc.