Introducing Meta Quest 3

[Hoirtel]

9 hours ago, fastfed said:

Is it 30% better? lol I always said if my Quest 2 was 30% better overall in clarity, colors and such, I would be all about it.

 

 

I would say 30% improvement to clarity is about right. It is much better. Colors probably the same, maybe better, definitely not worse. Its the night time whwre I see the most difference, the night is still dark gray (no local dimming!) but the improvement in clarity/lenses makes the visible lights on other aircraft/airfields/towns etc much much better. I am really pleased with this. For me the Q2 lenses additional glare ruined the night lights a bit, now fixed! 

3 hours ago, Peedee said:

Strange… my Pico 4 is a big improvment over the Quest 2. I run it at 150 bitrate. But this is through Wifi Virtual Desktop and not Oculus app. I’ve always seemed to get better clarity through Virtual desktop.

I am going to try VD, it will be nice to know that I am using AV1 and get the extra info

1 hour ago, MilesD said:

Just took a few different aircraft up for a spin. For me, the Quest3 is a huge improvement over the Quest2 in the cockpit. The outside view does not seem as impressive.

 

I agree the outside is where it shows. This is where all my compression issues are. One of my test scenarios is in F16 low flying across normandy/london. The grassy areas look really very compressed at the moment. Much more tinkering to do though.

The cockpit looks great, but on a max res Q2 I could still read everything, Q3 is sharper and clearer no doubt at all. 

[Hoirtel]

1 hour ago, Dogmanbird said:

Id guess there's a generous amount of sharpening applied when connecting it via usb, as there is on the pro. Turning it off might help reduce the aliasing for distant objects / horizon etc

Argee - high on my list of things to tinker with next. I may have made a mistake thinking that I would start off with all my Q2 settings. Perhaps I should reset NVCP and clear directx cache/metashaders and start again.

Prob get 2.9 soon and then it will be all new anyway..

EDIT - BN just said not this week literally as I posted.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Hoirtel

[aleader]

8 hours ago, Hoirtel said:

I agree the outside is where it shows. This is where all my compression issues are. One of my test scenarios is in F16 low flying across normandy/london. The grassy areas look really very compressed at the moment. Much more tinkering to do though.

The cockpit looks great, but on a max res Q2 I could still read everything, Q3 is sharper and clearer no doubt at all. 

It would be nice to see some helicopter tests down low and slow instead of everyone in the F18 and F16 up high.

[winghunter]

 

[winghunter]

 

[dburne]

That guy - VR FightSimGuy mmm.  He starts out praising the image clarity, and then goes into critisizing it.

And he says the 128 gb version has less Mura and better image clarity than the 512 Gb version. Ok...

I would take his views with a grain of salt.

Edited October 11, 2023 by dburne

[sze5003]

That guy - VR FightSimGuy mmm.  He starts out praising the image clarity, and then goes into critisizing it.
And he says the 128 gb version has less Mura and better image clarity than the 512 Gb version. Ok...
I would take his views with a grain of salt.

Yea I think most of his reviews are all based on hype too if you check his other headset reviews. There's no difference in the 128gb version vs 512gb version in terms of Mura or screen door or visuals..not sure what he's talking about there.

[Bephott]

Here are some through the lens videos with msfs at the end.
Based on the videos where Pico 4 is mentioned, Quest 3 looks to be only a bit better, but the 3.5 jack, and the fact that Meta PCVR through USB was always better, makes me think about moving to this from Pico 4.
What do you guys think?

[Dogmanbird]

5 hours ago, dburne said:

That guy - VR FightSimGuy mmm.  He starts out praising the image clarity, and then goes into critisizing it.

And he says the 128 gb version has less Mura and better image clarity than the 512 Gb version. Ok...

I would take his views with a grain of salt.

 

i'll prophesise (though i'm probably stating the obvious)

- within the next 48 hours will be another video of how vrflightsimguy has discovered a new setting that has improved things and now looks so much better, but it's still not the best yet, because there needs to be a reason to create another 10+ minute video after that........my thoughts after 1 month!........Is quest 3 still worth it in 2024?...... 

 

[Picklesthedrummer]

First time quest user here (no experience in dcs VR).

 

I can't get DCS to load in VR.

On the PC I load oculus link, headset successfully connects to link. In the link app I have allow unknown apps checked. But opening DCS just loads it to my desktop. Also enable vr headset is checked in dcs settings. Any suggestions ?

[TimberWolf]

39 minutes ago, Picklesthedrummer said:

I can't get DCS to load in VR.

On the PC I load oculus link, headset successfully connects to link. In the link app I have allow unknown apps checked. But opening DCS just loads it to my desktop. Also enable vr headset is checked in dcs settings. Any suggestions ?

In the Oculus desktop app, in the Settings tab, under General, make sure that Oculus is set as the active OpenXR runtime. Also, if you are not running the multithreaded version of DCS, then make sure that you have forced enabled VR. I think the MT version of DCS doesn't need those parameters, but I added them just to be sure.

[TimberWolf]

Well, I've been playing with the Quest 3 for the past couple of days, mainly getting used to the Quest interface, standalone mode, and a bit of DCS. I'm a newbie for both DCS and VR in general. My only previous headset was a Reverb G2, which I didn't use much. Too many little issues, the headset wasn't particularly comfortable, and the small sweetspot all turned me off VR in general and VR in flight sims.

I do think that the Q3 is much better overall than the G2, and probably the best entry- to mid-level VR headset you can buy today, especially if you are in North America and cannot get a Pico officially. However, there seems to be a lot of hype as claiming that it is one of the best headsets out there. The Q3 is the literal definition of "Jack of all trades, master of none." It does a lot of things very well, but there are headsets that can beat it in one spec or another.

One aspect I do find extremely useful, especially for a DCs newb like me, is the use of passthrough and remote display. I can pause the game, tap twice to enable passthrough mode, then browse Chuck's Guide to learn various modes of the aircraft I'm trying to learn on the remote display. Then go back into the game. I'd imagine that this can still be useful once I've learned the aircraft module. Now, you can use passthrough to read your phone or tablet, but the image, while readable, isn't great. It's still nice to have, though.

I find the VR image sharp enough, with good enough resolution and the lenses have enough of a FOV, not to mention the clarity, that I'm satisfied with it. I might still end up getting the BSB in the future, especially if they develop a version 2, maybe with eye tracking, and can refine the lenses a bit more, but for now it's the Q3.

[Picklesthedrummer]

40 minutes ago, TimberWolf said:

In the Oculus desktop app, in the Settings tab, under General, make sure that Oculus is set as the active OpenXR runtime. Also, if you are not running the multithreaded version of DCS, then make sure that you have forced enabled VR. I think the MT version of DCS doesn't need those parameters, but I added them just to be sure.

How do I force enabled VR? I usually use the non MT version as I've had issues with screen exports with the MT version. But considering I don't need screens exported in VR I'll give it a shot tmrw.

 

I did successfully get it going by starting up steam VR and leaving that running in the background. To be clear I run the stand alone version so not sure why this worked. 

[dburne]

2 hours ago, Dogmanbird said:

i'll prophesise (though i'm probably stating the obvious)

- within the next 48 hours will be another video of how vrflightsimguy has discovered a new setting that has improved things and now looks so much better, but it's still not the best yet, because there needs to be a reason to create another 10+ minute video after that........my thoughts after 1 month!........Is quest 3 still worth it in 2024?...... 

 

 

I think you nailed it there partner.

[TimberWolf]

1 hour ago, Picklesthedrummer said:

I did successfully get it going by starting up steam VR and leaving that running in the background. To be clear I run the stand alone version so not sure why this worked. 

It sounds like you have SteamVR set as the app for OpenXR runtime. Yeah, it gets really confusing.

As I said, in the Oculus desktop app, make sure that it is set as the OpenXR runtime:

Next, make a shortcut of your DCS.exe file, from either the Bin or the Bin-MT folder:

Then right-click on the shortcut, click on Properties, and add " --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR" (without the quotes) at the end of the file target: As I stated before, I think you don't need to do this if you are running the multithreaded version of DCS, but it doesn't hurt.

[Eldur]

On 10/10/2023 at 5:36 AM, Eldur said:

Can't wait for DLSS support in DCS 2.9 either. I still don't know why, but ever since somewhere around late summer / early fall 2020 my DCS performance when using Quest headsets is completely abysmal and that issue has survived a few OS reinstalls, a completely newly built PC and the switch from Quest 1 to Quest 2. I can run DCS in the CV1 at 90fps, but only getting around 20 in the Quests at literally the same rendering res, same graphics settings. Regardless of the connection I use - tried them all - wired Link, Air Link and, of course, Virtual Desktop. When I got my Q1 in March 2020, it was just brilliant, for about 3-4 months... I'd just love to get my performance back at some point...

 

Am I just *bleeping* dreaming? I literally changed absolutely nothing, just kept updating DCS, my drivers occasionally and Windows regularly. My nVidia driver is 537.13 from late August (think it's the Starfield ready one, don't have that game though). The only notable thing I might have done was to wipe the driver and do a clean install that time... but I tried that without success before. I guess I'll up the res to somewhere around 2800-3100ish vertical which I already had been running my G2 at with good enough framerates (55-70ish) on that rig. Knock on wood, looks like I'm back in the 'pit again, finally! And DLSS hopefully will make it even goodererᵀᴹ!

And yes, this isn't even using the Oculus runtime, but I do have the "--force_OpenXR" switch in, but had SteamVR up and active as the OpenXR runtime while trying. No OXR Toolkit installed yet either, running the MT exe.

Oh, BTW. Night and Day difference with those lenses and the better FOV...

[Dogmanbird]

Thanks Eldur.

Are they photos through your lenses? If it is, it's doing a great job rendering the distant objects, even though the supersampling might be set a bit low at the moment?

 

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Dogmanbird

[Picklesthedrummer]

6 hours ago, TimberWolf said:

It sounds like you have SteamVR set as the app for OpenXR runtime. Yeah, it gets really confusing.

As I said, in the Oculus desktop app, make sure that it is set as the OpenXR runtime:

Next, make a shortcut of your DCS.exe file, from either the Bin or the Bin-MT folder:

Then right-click on the shortcut, click on Properties, and add " --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR" (without the quotes) at the end of the file target: As I stated before, I think you don't need to do this if you are running the multithreaded version of DCS, but it doesn't hurt.

Thanks dude super helpful. Excited to get it going after work today.

 

Is the a known/common issue? Seems like an easy fix on their part and a real pain in the ass to troubleshoot especially for the less technically inclined. I spent 2 hours trying to figure out why the hell the headset won't work for DCS, the primary reason I got it.

[samplethief]

14 hours ago, Dogmanbird said:

i'll prophesise (though i'm probably stating the obvious)

- within the next 48 hours will be another video of how vrflightsimguy has discovered a new setting that has improved things and now looks so much better, but it's still not the best yet, because there needs to be a reason to create another 10+ minute video after that........my thoughts after 1 month!........Is quest 3 still worth it in 2024?...... 

 

LMAO right on schedule

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2--gh-oPcRU

Edited October 12, 2023 by samplethief

[evilnate]

Does anyone know how the Q3 compares to the Q Pro?

[Dogmanbird]

Safe to say - visually an improvement over the pro, if not using DFR and not concerned about how black the blacks are

[Mr_sukebe]

34 minutes ago, evilnate said:

Does anyone know how the Q3 compares to the Q Pro?

 

My understanding is:

• Q3 has higher resolution by around 30% pixels, which is good for visuals, bad for needing 30% more GPU grunt to run it
• Q3 does not have local dimming, QP does
• Q3 does not have eye tracking, QP does, which means that the QP can support dynamic foveated rendering
• Q3 has a significantly faster on-board processor than the QP.  For standalone this will be VERY important.  For PCVR, not much
• The Q3 processor supports VR1 video decoding.  This was introduced as a capability with the 4* series Nvidia GPUs and "should" assist with the transfer of PCVR files via either USB cable or wifi.  In practical terms, could reduce encoding/decoding lag
• The Q3 has more weight over it's front.  Being fair, comfort appears to be very much person/headset specific.  I found the QP incredibly uncomfortable as stock.  Ended up using *3 expandable bungie style straps which completely solved that 
• The QP includes a charging dock, which is sold separately for the Q3 for $130.  I'm not sure that it's needed, but it's a nice to have.  For me, I wouldn't pay it if I had just bought a Q3
• The QP has better hand controllers as they have built in tracking, unlike those for the Q3

From a DCS perspective the QP will be significantly easier to drive due to it's lower resolution AND ability to use DFR.  The Q3 is significantly cheaper and will have better resolution, but worse black levels.

The other thing that I believe is worth mentioning is longevity.  The QP has never sold well and probably won't ever.  Chances are that Meta will either just kill it in the nearish future, or replace it with a v2 that has the newer processor and screens from the Q3.  The Q3 is clearly the "new kid on the block" and is likely to be around for 2-3 years before being replaced.  From a PCVR perspective, it's probably not a massive deal.  However, there is a decent chance that at some point some software enhancements will be delivered and only released for the Q3 and NOT the QP.  Additionally, the Q3 is almost certainly going to get newer software for standalone mode that either won't run on the older units, or will run with downgraded visuals

 

For ref, yes I'm a QP owner and not an unhappy one.  To me, the ease of powering it, DFR and better black levels are more important as DCS is pretty much my only usage.  If however I was a more mixed user and wanted to use the headset standalone, I would definitely go with the Q3.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Mr_sukebe

[sze5003]

Yea for DCS specifically the Pro is the way to go but unfortunately it will not age well when all the latest updates will go to the quest 3.

I think I'll try and get one used for a reduced price if that is what I decide. I'm waiting on one more guy to do a specific DCS comparison between the Q3 and quest pro and once he has that on YouTube I should have a better understanding of what I want to do.

[Dogmanbird]

vrfsg used the cable and mentioned sharpening, so I'll wager a "breakthrough discovery" of turning off the sharpening in his next video

[Mr_sukebe]

Just now, Dogmanbird said:

vrfsg used the cable and mentioned sharpening, so I'll wager a "breakthrough discovery" of turning off the sharpening in his next video

 

More likely a breakthrough in his sponsorship level...