Don't buy the G2

[franx]

Fellas,

 

I did six weeks of research on the various possible headsets when I retired my Oculus Rift original.  I settled on the G2 ($600).  I did it knowing that my 570 AMD board (32 gig RAM, 6800XT grafix card)  posed a problem, but that was resolved pretty quickly with workarounds.  I've now had the G2 for two months, and I've had nothing but constant hassles with Windows and Radeon software updates, and endless failures of WMR to recognize and play any Steam game (yes, I've tried both SteamVR and Steam VR beta, crawled through the various forums, etc.).  I've been video gaming for 40 years (no joke), so a newbie I'm not.  The G2/WMR combo is a complicated mishmash that seems to work great for some players, but for me it's been a nightmare of time-vampire software issues.  The cost in time and aggravation is not worth it.  Comradely advice: If you don't want to spend dozens of hours trying to figure out WTF is wrong with your system, do not go the G2/WMR route.  I've had it.  Unless someone has some magic cure you can share, I'm going with the Quest 2 this weekend.

[Arbitrary]

Troubleshooting these days can be a huge PITA; searching for any help makes you feel like you are browsing The Library of Babel. I'm sure there are some systems with software and hardware combinations that inexplicably are more of a hassle to figure out.

Don't let franx dissuade you from getting a reverb. The extra resolution is divine.

[eaglecash867]

Franx, not sure if you forgot to put it in your post, but I didn't see you mention the SteamVR for WMR plugin.  If you don't have that installed, that is probably what your issue is.  Once you get that installed, running DCS in VR is as simple as plugging your G2 in and letting WMR recognize it.  After that, what I usually do is just start DCS right before putting the G2 on.  Put the G2 on, get in your comfortable, sitting normally, looking straight-ahead position and wait a few seconds.  After a few seconds (when DCS finishes loading), you should get a nice tone in your headphones, along with an exploding sphere of triangles as WMR and SteamVR link up...then you should be centered in the DCS hangar and ready to go.  Its really not that much more difficult than starting an Oculus headset...just different.  Go on Steam and search for "Steam VR for WMR".  Download and install that, and you'll be in business.

[The_Nephilim]

franx, Do you get a 7-14 error in the headset? If so let me know.

[X_legio]

No big issues here with the G2, the resolution is unbelievable compared to the oculus, maybe your is just a unlucky combo....

 

Ryzen 5 3600

Rtx 3070

32gb 3200

B450 chipset 

 

 

[parxuk]

Franx

 

Sorry to hear you are having trouble, but please dont put people off of the G2 just because of your experience. I was setup within an hour or so without any grief.

 

I have had the G2 for 4 months. Have had no issues and the quality/performance of GFX over the Rift S is night and day.

 

Hope you rectify your problems soon.

[franx]

Thanks guys, yes, I Dl'd the WMR program for Steam and have used it since the gitgo.  When the combo works, things look great.  But it mostly doesn't work.  The integration of WMR with Steam and Windows 10 seems to be whacked genetically.

 

[Habu_69]

I also gave up on the G2 after about 3 months of troubleshooting with HP. To HP's credit they gave me a full refund. I was a victim of WMR failing to recognize the headset, with X570 mobo. Believe me, I tried every published trick and hardware accessory. Now, I realize my experience was atypical.  YMMV.

[C3PO]

Is it a G2 + Radeon GFX problem?

 

I got my G2 a few weeks ago and after a couple of days of playing with the settings ... and lots of reading ... I have my G2 working great and have very few problems. You sure there is not an issue with your system? My process:

 

1. Turn on PC

2. Switch on G2 headset --> WMR automatically fires up

3. Launch SteamVR

4. Launch DCS.

 

That's it. I make sure I keep my head very still from the point you see the Steam dark landscape and everything loads up, otherwise head position can get screwed up, but apart from that works as advertised. 

 

I use an add-on USB 3.0 PCI-E card in my PC - and plug the G2 into that USB 3.0 slot using the adapter that comes with the G2 (ie not the USB-C plug vanilla and USB-C slot).

Edited May 27, 2021 by C3PO

[DarkStar79]

My G2 works perfect! No problem at all. Using I9 cpu and GeForce 1080ti.


Skickat från min iPhone med Tapatalk

[dburne]

Yep been using my G2 almost daily since getting it around the end of the year, has been working flawlessly for me.

[Eugel]

13 minutes ago, C3PO said:

IMy process:

 

1. Turn on PC

2. Switch on G2 headset --> WMR automatically fires up

3. Launch SteamVR

4. Launch DCS.

 

Same here. Works fine (with an AMD X570 board - after praying to the machine god to bless one of my USB ports)

But one question: How do you switch on the G2 ? I find it quite annoying that WMR always automatically starts with WIndows as long as the headset is plugged in. So far, I haven´t found any solution other than to plug/unplug the USB cable every time. 

[franx]

Thanks fellas.  My AMD 570 board does not seem to be the problem.  My headset works fine, every time, using a powered USB 3.0 brick.  I'm convinced it's a chronic software/driver mix.  I've updated everything -- Windows, Steam, and all my AMD drivers.  The various elements of software just don't play nice together.  My frustration is that I now have a $600 piece of plastic that's effectively useless and has already eaten days of my time trying to simply make it work.  Technology should make things easier, not worse.  I'll give it another day of trying.    Then it's adios HP.

[Lurker]

The horror stories about setting up the G2 and WMR are putting me off on getting one. Even though it's probably the best VR headset available currently. 

[peachmonkey]

I have MSI 570 (MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk) and the 5900x AMD CPU.  The main difference from your setup is I have the 2080ti graphics card.

 

No issues with WMR whatsoever, but please read on.  There are some quirks with the WMR start up, however if you found the sequence that works then usually the sequence continues to work fine time after time. I've been through 2 different sequences due to Windows installation:

 

1) first start-up sequence that worked for ~6months. 

• Start Steam
• launch "Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR" app
• the Mixed Reality Portal starts up automatically
• launch/play the game

If I started the apps out of above described sequence (i.e. Mixed reality Portal first then "WMR for SteamVR") there were all sorts of problems. The image in the HMD would get 'stuck', or games would launch on the monitor instead of HMD, etc.

 

2) current start-up sequence after I had to rebuild Windows due to blue screen crashes (unrelated to WMR):

• Start Mixed Reality Portal
• Start Steam
• Launch "Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR" app
• launch/play games

Now if I do it out of this order there'd be all sorts of game issues as well, i.e. the game would start on Monitor, but the sound would go through the HMD, or the game would start in HMD (i.e. not on monitor), I could hear the game sound, but HMD would be dark/blank.

 

The point is the WMR+SteamVR integration leaves a lot to be desired.

 

I know this is a last resort (at least for me), but have you tried reinstalling Windows completely? The reason I'm saying this is WMR has a veeeery deep integration with the underlying OS. It's not just the Mixed Reality Portal & Driver that makes WMR happen, there's a rather serious VR environment codebase that is part of the Windows core OS, i.e. reinstalling the WMR driver or the Mixed Reality Portal covers ~10% of WRM environment. That's the main reason why I hate MS and their WMR, i.e. if the core WMR environment gets corrupted there is no other way to remedy it except for a complete Windows rebuild.

 

Edited May 27, 2021 by peachmonkey

[C3PO]

After reading Peachmonkey's post, I'm pretty sure there is an embedded Windows issue - go for a Windows reinstall then at least you can rule that out. What you're experiencing clearly shouldn't be happening under normal conditions. My rig has very little extra installed on it as it is only a couple of months old - so OS is "untarnished" - if that's the term.

Edited May 27, 2021 by C3PO

[peachmonkey]

11 minutes ago, C3PO said:

After reading Peachmonkey's post, I'm pretty sure there is an embedded Windows issue - go for a Windows reinstall then at least you can rule that out. What you're experiencing clearly shouldn't be happening under normal conditions. My rig has very little extra installed on it as it is only a couple of months old - so OS is "untarnished" - if that's the term.

 

 

yup, I've had the experience with WMR corrupting itself when I used Odyssey+ a year back. Reinstalling Mixed Reality Portal and drivers didn't help, I spent 5-6 hours trying to rebuild the WMR environment using MS enterprise WMR dev kits but no luck. Blowing up the OS did resolve it in the end.

[C3PO]

2 minutes ago, peachmonkey said:

 

yup, I've had the experience with WMR corrupting itself when I used Odyssey+ a year back. Reinstalling Mixed Reality Portal and drivers didn't help, I spent 5-6 hours trying to rebuild the WMR environment using MS enterprise WMR dev kits but no luck. Blowing up the OS did resolve it in the end.

 

Did you go for the keeping data option on the drive or nuke everything and install from scratch?

[peachmonkey]

Just now, C3PO said:

 

Did you go for the keeping data option on the drive or nuke everything and install from scratch?

 

I just nuked everything from the orbit. Reinstall is always a last resort, hence I don't want to repeat it if I don't have to.

[ShaunX]

I'd be pretty sure it's the known x570 mobo usb issue. Some boards work on all ports, some on just one or two, some work with a PCI-E card.

 

My G2 wouldn't work with any port on my x570 (Asus Prime X570 Pro), nor would it work with an installed PCI-e USB card. Then I plugged an external, unpowered USB 3.0 hub into a mobo port and the G2 has worked flawlessly through that ever since. Even then I believe it's somewhat of a lottery as there are reports of even external USB 3 hubs not helping.

 

Apparently the issue relates to certain x570 mobos with PCI-E gen 4 enabled. Some users have solved the problem by reverting to gen 3 in the bios as a workaround

 

Table of x570 mobos reported with and without G2 issues..

 

https://airtable.com/shrhQQFoy4SQKIrjZ/tblvehlveGY2s7cu5

 

 

[Thanatos31]

I feel you - but dont give up and do the above mentioned steps! 


My biggest challenge ist the 60 vs 90 hz - my system somehow always reverts to 60 and I dont know how to change that...(yes theres a systems setting...and thats on 90 - but steam VR says Im playing at 60...which causes an annoying flicekring 

 

[peachmonkey]

2 minutes ago, ShaunX said:

I'd be pretty sure it's the known x570 mobo usb issue. Some boards work on all ports, some on just one or two, some work with a PCI-E card.

 

My G2 wouldn't work with any port on my x570 (Asus Prime X570 Pro), nor would it work with an installed PCI-e USB card. Then I plugged an external, unpowered USB 3.0 hub into a mobo port and the G2 has worked flawlessly through that ever since. Even then I believe it's somewhat of a lottery as there are reports of even external USB 3 hubs not helping.

 

Apparently the issue relates to certain x570 mobos with PCI-E gen 4 enabled. Some users have solved the problem by reverting to gen 3 in the bios as a workaround

 

Table of x570 mobos reported with and without G2 issues..

 

https://airtable.com/shrhQQFoy4SQKIrjZ/tblvehlveGY2s7cu5

 

 

 

it's definitely something to look in to, however in my experience with x570 USB buggy chipset results in the HMD not being recognized on the USB ports period, i.e. it's not "works every other time" type of a thing, it simply doesn't work at all.  I have the G2 plugged in to the USB-C port on the 2080TI, which never gave me any problems.

 

[javelina1]

33 minutes ago, C3PO said:

 

Did you go for the keeping data option on the drive or nuke everything and install from scratch?

This is what I've done on one of my hosts in the past, and it worked quite well. 

[some1]

1 hour ago, ShaunX said:

Apparently the issue relates to certain x570 mobos with PCI-E gen 4 enabled. Some users have solved the problem by reverting to gen 3 in the bios as a workaround

 

Table of x570 mobos reported with and without G2 issues

This info may be outdated as the situation has improved with the recent bios updates. My X570 board can now run the G2 with no issues, while I had to set gen3 pcie on the older bios.

Edited May 27, 2021 by some1

[C3PO]

I downgraded the PCI-e slot for the add-on USB card (into which the G2 plugs in) from Gen 4 to Gen 3 via the BIOS. Obviously kept Gen 4 for everything else. Also avoid the beta of WMR ... that has issues ... but do use SteamVR beta version.

Edited May 27, 2021 by C3PO