HP's Reverb VR Pro Headset

[John Hargreaves]

Thanks for the review! BTW, what is your IPD?

 

I'm about 62, I did struggle to get a stable sweetspot with the S, but the Reverb feels better in that respect, but I'm not seeing equal clarity from edge to edge, if you keep your head still and move your eyes to the edge, there is a noticeable drop in sharpness, edges are kind of like CV1 in the centre, but smooth without the screen door, and a bit of chromatic aberration. I guess we have got into the habit of moving our whole head to look at things in VR, and that isn't quite over yet.

[Willie Nelson]

Hi John, can I ask are any of your devices overclocked and perhaps get an indication of the FPS you’re getting please? Thanks for the great review, you sure you don’t work for HO right? ;-)

[Panthera_Tigris]

I couldn't get Dirt Rally going in VR, is that Oculus only?

 

 

 

Thanks for your review of the Reverb! Going to buy it as soon as avialable!

 

Yes, DIRT Rally is an Occulus exclusive but it is my favourite driving game in VR - better than PC2, Asetto Corsa etc. All you need to run it perfectly in SteamVR are just two things:

 

1. A software called Revive

2. Two .dll files form Occulus software:

 

Took me less than 5 minutes to get everything set up.

[boedha68]

I'm about 62, I did struggle to get a stable sweetspot with the S, but the Reverb feels better in that respect, but I'm not seeing equal clarity from edge to edge, if you keep your head still and move your eyes to the edge, there is a noticeable drop in sharpness, edges are kind of like CV1 in the centre, but smooth without the screen door, and a bit of chromatic aberration. I guess we have got into the habit of moving our whole head to look at things in VR, and that isn't quite over yet.

 

Well this view is for pimax, less Sharp. I am only go go for the sharpness. I must wait till next week till the mailman, thank you. :D

[John Hargreaves]

Hi John, can I ask are any of your devices overclocked and perhaps get an indication of the FPS you’re getting please? Thanks for the great review, you sure you don’t work for HO right? ;-)

 

 

I have my 7700K running slightly over at 4.6ghz, other than that it's all stock speeds.

 

 

I'll do a more detailed look over the weekend, I'll run a stock mission and post settings. That was just my very first impressions that I wanted to share. No affiliation with HP, I got the Reverb because the Rift S is giving me bad headaches, otherwise I think I would have been happy with it.

[Willie Nelson]

I have my 7700K running slightly over at 4.6ghz, other than that it's all stock speeds.

 

 

I'll do a more detailed look over the weekend, I'll run a stock mission and post settings. That was just my very first impressions that I wanted to share. No affiliation with HP, I got the Reverb because the Rift S is giving me bad headaches, otherwise I think I would have been happy with it.

 

That’s awesome, I can do the same! Thanks very much and enjoy.

[NebuCat]

Definitely is this the consumerversion. It should be E 600,00 and not E 650,00

 

Article number is different then mine: 2CZ77EA#ABB :D

I have ordered the 2CZ77EA#ABB in the German hpstore and am not 100% sure what I will get. HP wrote delivery will be around 19 June

 

Beschreibung Produkt Voraussichtliches Lieferdatum

HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset VR1000-200nn 2CZ77EA 19 Jun 2019

 

I’ll let you know what I receive. Would be nice if anyone who ordered the same could say what they receive.

[Soma888]

Ended up cancelling my amazon order and will go with shopblt. Thanks to the person that posted letting us know that they are going to stock them. For some reason Australia isn’t considered part of the world..... as HP here advised we probably won’t get them :wallbash:

Edited June 7, 2019 by Soma888

[boedha68]

I have ordered the 2CZ77EA#ABB in the German hpstore and am not 100% sure what I will get. HP wrote delivery will be around 19 June

 

Beschreibung Produkt Voraussichtliches Lieferdatum

HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset VR1000-200nn 2CZ77EA 19 Jun 2019

 

I’ll let you know what I receive. Would be nice if anyone who ordered the same could say what they receive.

 

I am sure you get the consumerversion. I have the other one. It says specific PRO at my side. :D

[samo]

Is there a solution to order from the hp german store if we are not in germany ?

[33-DFTC]

Nope, they do not deliver outside Germany. I wanted to order from various HP european stores and the customer support always told me it was impossible to process the order outside their respective country.

[Gizzy]

Tried the Reverb with SteamVR Beta & reprojection with it set to auto...

these links referes.. Specs and views are there..

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3938601&postcount=1192

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3938994&postcount=1208

 

 

For me, Beta, did not go well... set the auto mode and sure pegged at 45 but a lot of blur with head movement... everything was very light no matter what the gamma setting but the biggest negative was the headset lost the link with DCS sporadically or if you crashed or changed roles... so something was not connecting quite right within my system.

 

Had to uninstall everything and start afresh and then all was good, mental health was restored ha ha.

 

Checked the speeds, CPU straight lining at 30 - 34% no matter what (same as in the Rift) and the GPU varying between 25% > 85% and frames varying 40 > 90+ but all perfectly good even at the lower frames as your head is not moving much...

[Mr_sukebe]

Can one of you with decent frame rates in the Reverb post a screenshot of your video settings and also confirm the GPU in use.

 

I get that the resolution is much better than a Rift, I’m rather surprised at the comments of maintaining frame rate when moving 2-3 times more pixels. In theory, I’d expect it to be the equivalent of downgrading from a 2080ti to a 1070ti, ie a significant slug to the frame rate.

[sze5003]

I have my 7700K running slightly over at 4.6ghz, other than that it's all stock speeds.

 

 

I'll do a more detailed look over the weekend, I'll run a stock mission and post settings. That was just my very first impressions that I wanted to share. No affiliation with HP, I got the Reverb because the Rift S is giving me bad headaches, otherwise I think I would have been happy with it.

Thanks a lot for the feedback. Will be waiting to see what settings you have under the dcs graphics options and the more detailed info on performance but it seems it didn't give you too much trouble.

 

It may seem like I probably won't get the Reverb here in the US until late July maybe August seeing how I have not found it in stock anywhere.

 

I've already put my Rift up for sale but these things are hard to sell because no one wants the old model anymore.

[sze5003]

Can one of you with decent frame rates in the Reverb post a screenshot of your video settings and also confirm the GPU in use.

 

I get that the resolution is much better than a Rift, I’m rather surprised at the comments of maintaining frame rate when moving 2-3 times more pixels. In theory, I’d expect it to be the equivalent of downgrading from a 2080ti to a 1070ti, ie a significant slug to the frame rate.

I had the same thought too. Maybe it's down sampling in wmr or steam vr? Even though steam vr sampling is default at 100% my guess is it would automatically downsample in the wmr software if the system isn't powerful enough?

 

If I ever end up finding one to buy the first thing I would do is uninstall wmr from windows so it removes all the Samsung drivers and then plug int he Reverb and set it up, but I'd run DCS with the same settings I used on the Odyssey which would give me a baseline. Which is basically PD of 1.5, shadows low, msa x2, civ traffic off, water low or medium depending where I'll be flying, and everything thing else set to high.

[gabgio]

I have ordered the 2CZ77EA#ABB in the German hpstore and am not 100% sure what I will get. HP wrote delivery will be around 19 June

 

Beschreibung Produkt Voraussichtliches Lieferdatum

HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset VR1000-200nn 2CZ77EA 19 Jun 2019

 

I’ll let you know what I receive. Would be nice if anyone who ordered the same could say what they receive.

 

I did the the same, expected delivery on 21th June, we'll see what kind of surprise we get. Best case scenario is the Consumer version, I'll happily settle for that

[eaglecash867]

And yet look at the post directly above the one you posted. I believe I answered the question he asked as one of the more pressing ones for a lot of people who wear glasses.

 

.......

 

However....

 

It seems I must try harder. :doh:

 

I for one thought your initial impressions were very informative for the amount of time you had, and thank you for posting in the midst of the chaos. Its the jackwagons like the one you responded to that make me debate posting my own impressions of the Reverb once I get it. You put time and effort into doing something for the community, and there's always somebody who has to whine about it not being good enough for his tastes. Yet, those same jackwagons invariably prefer to sit back and let others do the leg work for them. Go figure. :doh:

[Harlikwin]

Can one of you with decent frame rates in the Reverb post a screenshot of your video settings and also confirm the GPU in use.

 

I get that the resolution is much better than a Rift, I’m rather surprised at the comments of maintaining frame rate when moving 2-3 times more pixels. In theory, I’d expect it to be the equivalent of downgrading from a 2080ti to a 1070ti, ie a significant slug to the frame rate.

 

Most 2080ti guys were pushing the same pixels by using really high PD rates. PD 1.9 on the rift is the same as running the reverb at pd 1.

[p1t1o]

Some people are posting informative reviews while others are giving their verbal version of an unboxing video, which I always find moronic. Informative info for those of us waiting to purchase same and less waffle should be the order of the day.

 

WOW

 

I can [anyone could], and really want to, destroy this comment on so many levels.

 

Thats not a really healthy thing to do to a forum thread though.

 

Kids eh, amirite?

[Mr_sukebe]

Most 2080ti guys were pushing the same pixels by using really high PD rates. PD 1.9 on the rift is the same as running the reverb at pd 1.

 

That would make sense, but would be useful to know.

Strikes me that the Reverb is the right solution if you have a top end card, and the RS for the lower end.

[eaglecash867]

Most 2080ti guys were pushing the same pixels by using really high PD rates. PD 1.9 on the rift is the same as running the reverb at pd 1.

 

The good thing is, that in theory, it shouldn't be equal in the amount of processing power required. We're no longer having to waste CPU and GPU processing cycles on upconverting and downconverting. I hope anyway. :D

[VitS]

Tried the Reverb with SteamVR Beta & reprojection with it set to auto...

these links referes.. Specs and views are there..

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3938601&postcount=1192

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3938994&postcount=1208

 

 

For me, Beta, did not go well... set the auto mode and sure pegged at 45 but a lot of blur with head movement... everything was very light no matter what the gamma setting but the biggest negative was the headset lost the link with DCS sporadically or if you crashed or changed roles... so something was not connecting quite right within my system.

 

Had to uninstall everything and start afresh and then all was good, mental health was restored ha ha.

 

Checked the speeds, CPU straight lining at 30 - 34% no matter what (same as in the Rift) and the GPU varying between 25% > 85% and frames varying 40 > 90+ but all perfectly good even at the lower frames as your head is not moving much...

 

People fail to realize, that in order for re-projection to work game actually should be able to run at 60 fps. So basically if you only get about 50 fps with re-projection disabled re-projection will cause bloor etc.

[Gizzy]

Most 2080ti guys were pushing the same pixels by using really high PD rates. PD 1.9 on the rift is the same as running the reverb at pd 1.

 

Hitting the nail on the head I reckon...

 

With the Rift all my DCS settings were maxed (including all preloads) excepting MSSA which was 2 with shadows flat. PD was 2.0 Side stutter was very evident and DCS frames varied 25 - 45 with of course ASW but, for me, this was acceptable for low down Helo work - in jets higher up, it was fine with higher frames.

 

With the reverb I left the settings the same bar PD which I have at 1.0. Steam settings are default, as installed.... DCS indicated frame rates are higher of course as no ASW but smoothness is vastly improved, no side stutters, sharpness and clarity is great as expected.

 

YMMV...

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3938601&postcount=1192

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3938994&postcount=1208

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3939913&postcount=1247

Edited June 7, 2019 by Gizzy

[sze5003]

Hitting the nail on the head I reckon...

 

With the Rift all my DCS settings were maxed (including all preloads) excepting MSSA which was 2 with shadows flat. PD was 2.0 Side stutter was very evident and DCS frames varied 25 - 45 with of course ASW but, for me, this was acceptable for low down Helo work - in jets higher up, it was fine with higher frames.

 

With the reverb I left the settings the same bar PD which I have at 1.0. Steam settings are default, as installed.... DCS indicated frame rates are higher of course as no ASW but smoothness is vastly improved, no side stutters, sharpness and clarity is great as expected.

 

YMMV...

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3938601&postcount=1192

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3938994&postcount=1208

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3939913&postcount=1247

Yea my idea would be to use PD of 1.5 we the reverb and check for stutter. But when and if I get it, I'll probably run it at 1.0 in dcs to see if I like what I'm viewing. I imagine 1.5 may be a bit too much if it is already running native at 1.0.

[imacken]

My thoughts on the Reverb vs Vive Pro after a day or so.

Let me say from the outset, that I am not feeling any kind of wow factor after my first couple of days with the Reverb. It doesn’t feel like a great leap forward compared to the Vive Pro. In fact, in some ways it is a backward step, in my opinion.

My comments here all relate to the Vive Pro vs Reverb. If you are coming from a 1st gen Vive or Rift, then you will be amazed by the difference in clarity with the Reverb, but compared to the Vive Pro (or Odyssey +, I guess), I’m not so sure.

For the purposes of this post, I am not going to moan about Windows Mixed Reality too much, because I am going to put effort into familiarising myself with it for a couple of days before saying anything! However, it just feels really clunky having to load the WMR portal and then SteamVR on top, etc.

1. Setup. The Setup was pretty straightforward. I selected the seating position as I tend to (mostly) play DCS and Project Cars II etc., it downloaded the software and the whole process was painless. Really nice that it only requires a DP and 1 USB cable.

2. Hardware and Comfort. At first, I was unimpressed, as the Reverb felt light and flimsy compared to the VP. It was more like my old Rift. Still, it feels reasonably comfortable wearing it for a long session, but I’m afraid not as comfortable as the VP. The biggest issue is the main cable. It is horrible! It is really stiff and thick, and gets in the way when you are turning or moving your head around. Also, there is quite a lot of pressure near the top of my forehead. I think this is to do with the face being so close to the lenses. A lot of heat seemed to get generated at the top of the HMD as well and that didn’t help either.

3. IPD. A big issue here. As we all know, there is no hardware adjustment, and we were told that is not a problem as it can be adjusted in software. Well, that is true, but Windows only allows the adjustment to go between 59mm and 67mm IPD. Now, I am 69mm and I didn’t feel totally comfortable with the HMD set to 67mm. This needs to be sorted out by allowing a wider range in Windows settings.

4. Audio. First issue I had was that the audio earphones wouldn’t fit over my ears in the correct position. They just wouldn’t go down far enough. However, I loosened the overhead strap and pulled the HMD down a bit and all was well on that front except that the overall position of the HMD didn’t feel naturally correct. I must say that although the audio is pretty good, it doesn’t compare at all well to the High Definition Audio in the VP earphones. The sounds are less well defined and lacking in range in comparison, but I don’t see that as a major issue as the sound is OK.

5. Image Quality. Here is where I struggle. The first thing I noticed, was the lack of dynamic range in the image compared to the VP. Everything just looked a bit flat and grey, with colours not leaping out of the screen at me. I guess this is down to the LCD panels in the Reverb compared to the OLED in the VP. To me, it is very noticeable. Also a slight issue is that you can see the edges of the display panels at times. Not a big deal, but noticeable none the less.

6. Clarity and Resolution. I am struggling again here. I was expecting to put on the Reverb and be blown away by the improvement I would see. Well, I wasn’t. I honestly feel that the clarity as not as good as the VP. I think the issue is that with my hardware I am able to run the VP at high settings and MSAA x2 in DCS with a PD of 1.8. So, my resolution is already quite high. Probably more than the native res of the Reverb. Now, the difficulty here is that with my current VP settings, my GPU/CPU are close to the limit running at 45 fps. What that means is that pushing the Reverb to higher resolutions is not feasible given the current standard of hardware. So, I’m not seeing a great improvement in resolution and given the loss of clarity due to reduced dynamic range of colours, I’m not convinced about the benefit on this aspect over the VP.

7. Performance in DCS. As said above, I am getting a similar performance on the Reverb running high settings, MSAA x2 and a PD of 1.3 to what I see on the VP with same settings but PD of 1.8. In both cases, that gives me around 45fps with motion reprojection on. Does drop down to 35-45 over dense areas etc., but in general 45 is the norm. I didn’t really have any trouble reading cockpit dials and instruments previously, and that is still the case. However, I still feel – like I said elsewhere – that the image quality seems a loft softer and not quite so clear compared to VP. However, let me repeat, if you are coming from gen 1 HMDs like the Rift or the Vive, then you will be amazed at the difference.

8. Sweet Spot. Honestly, I can’t say that it is much improved compared to the VP. It might be slightly better, but difficult to see much of an improvement. Disappointing, really.

9. SDE. When reviewers say that the SDE has effectively disappeared with the Reverb, then they are not telling the truth! It has reduced hugely compared to the VP, but it has definitely not disappeared. However, it is at such a level, that it is not the distraction it used to be, so all good there.

I think in conclusion, I would say I am a little disappointed. I was wanting to be blown away, and I wasn’t. Having said that, the Reverb is a huge step up from the gen 1 HMDs and I would highly recommend the Reverb. Similarly, I would not recommend anyone to buy a VP over the Reverb as the HP is, marginally, a better (and cheaper!) headset, but if you already own a VP or O+, I’m not convinced I would recommend changing.

No doubt I might change my mind on some things over the next few days as I discover some new aspects, so we'll see!