Looking to try VR

[Hatch76 303]

Hi guys,

I’ve been interested in VR for a while, but just kept pushing it off. I’ve also been super turned off by the reports of motion sickness. But now I’m looking into getting a headset and give it a try, but keep seeing posts go back and forth between the latest reverb g2 and the pico 4. Has anyone had experience with both? You guys have more knowledge on VR than I do, so what would all of you say between the two? 

[rickjake 226]

Motion sickness can be a real thing in VR. Your eyes tell you you are moving, but your body is not.  I suffered a little bit in the beginning, but now it does not bother me at all.  The thing is, you will likely feel some level of discomfort in the beginning.  The trick is to start off easy, and for short durations. Don't start off using roller coaster type VR sims or space type sims, where there is a lot of fast movements, and ups and downs. This may put you off VR for good.  Start off with something slow, like walking around for 10 min at a time. Then maybe a short slow level flight in a Cessna before graduating to a dog fight in a F/A-18 Hornet (DCS). Some people will get over the motion sickness quickly, like I did, others may take a bit longer, depending on how vulnerable you are to it. But in the end, its just a matter of taking it slow, and in short durations,  so your brain gets used to it. 

I don't have the pico 4, so cannot comment, but the reverb G2 tends to be the gold standard for fight sim at a reasonable cost and I was very happy with it.

Edited March 14 by rickjake

[TheFamilyMan 239]

Motion sickness really varies person to person.  Thankfully VR in flight sims doesn't bother me hardly at all (even right from the start), and that's includes VR flying WWI kites in combat that are flipping around on all axes (RPY) at high rates.  But I'll feel quite 'green' right away in VR games if I'm being pushed/slid along in a manner that's not me controlling my body to naturally move along.  For either the Pico 4 or G2, consider your rtx 3080 the bare minimum needed to drive either of these adequately.  Some feel that the P4 needs at least a 4090 to really shine.  Overall I'm content with my 3080 ti driving my G2, though (of course) things could be better.

Edited March 14 by TheFamilyMan

[Hatch76 303]

3 minutes ago, TheFamilyMan said:

Motion sickness really varies person to person.  Thankfully VR in flight sims doesn't bother me hardly at all (even right from the start), and that's includes VR flying WWI kites in combat that are flipping around on all axes (RPY) at high rates.  But I'll feel quite 'green' right away in VR games if I'm being pushed/slid along in a manner that's not me controlling my body to naturally moving along.  For either the Pico 4 or G2, consider your rtx 3080 the bare minimum needed to drive either of these adequately.  Some feel that the P4 needs at least a 4090 to really shine.

Thanks for that. Also I should note that I’ve since upgraded to a 4080, just haven’t updated my signature yet (I’m on mobile browser most of the time…)

[Daube 254]

Concerning the remarks on the required graphic cards to drive a VR helmet, guys please keep in mind it vastly depends where you're coming from.

For those of us who used the first gen headsets (WMR headsets or any headset with 1400x1400 pixels per eye or so), the Pico 4 would provide an improvement even when not running at its native resolution (2160x2160 per eye). In fact I'm using it with a poor old GTX1070ti, running at a quite low resolution (less than 1800x1800 per eye or something like that), and it's still better than anything my previous headset (Lenovo Explorer) could do.

The comments saying that anything below 4000x4000 per eye at Ultra high settings is unusable is not valid for everyone. We don't all have 2000 dollars to spend on a graphic card. And if I would have that money, then I could buy a Varjo, not a Pico...

Edited March 15 by Daube

[TheFamilyMan 239]

That's the big trade off using the 4k per eye res HMDs.  Thankfully gone is the dreaded screen door effect (as I think is being pointed out), but as the scaling, i.e. resolution, is lowered to get playable FPS with a gcard, the image blurriness increases. Bottom line here paraphrased: beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. 

[Bilbosmeggins 216]

I own a G2, and am delighted with it. And, because it’s been around quite a while now, most of the issues have been ironed out, making it a very easy headset to live with. The Pico, on the other hand, is the new kid on the block, and I do see quite a few people having issues. Naturally, these will get addressed over time, but worth bearing in mind if you want the easy life. Not saying the Pico is inferior or anything.

Regarding VR sickness, I really wouldn’t get too concerned about it. You’ll almost certainly feel it to some degree in the early stages. And, as others have said, just avoid the more extreme experiences (for now), and break yourself in gently. Also, it was more of a thing back in the day when people had no choice but to run poor frame rates. That’s almost guaranteed to induce sickness. With today’s hardware things are running much smoother. 
 

But the great thing is, even if you do suffer a little, you’ll be so gob-smacked by the experience that you’ll be sufficiently motivated to push through. We all did, and very few of us went back to flat 😉

PS: The, often overlooked, sound on the G2 is killer 🙂

Edited March 16 by Bilbosmeggins
Omission

[turbomax 2,464]

if you wear glasses, you should get lens inserts like these instead while using the VR headset:

https://vroptician.com/

"The comments saying that anything below 4000x4000 per eye at Ultra high settings is unusable..."

those do not exist, other things are important though like non fresnel lenses, field of view, large sweet spot, fps etc.

 

 

Edited March 20 by turbomax