"Best" VR Headset for early 2024?

[Pete F 5]

Sorry this may be a question that gets asked a lot, but the field is constantly evolving and I couldn't find and recent posts.

I've been using P3D professionally as a study tool with Aerosoft A330 Pro. It's a good combination and mimics the real aircraft reasonably well. I've now been looking to take this to the next level with VR and borrowed a Quest VR headset to see if it works. After the usual fluffing around I got it to work quite well and I think this will be a great step forward. The main issue was the focus and resolution, which made the experience a bit clunky, somewhat difficult to read the FMA etc,  and required zooming in/out more than desirable.

I'm now looking for a better VR headset to use with P3D and wanted to find out what others were recommending? I can't claim the price isn't a consideration, but this is for personal professional use, so quality is going to be the #1 consideration. I wondered if the Oculus 3 would be an improvement over the previous model? I really don't want to be spending any time setting this up, as I just want to get on with my training, and thought the Oculus 3 would be a plug n play upgrade

[Mgard78 141]

So, you want something that will provide a good experience, but you don't want to "spend time setting it up"...

Yeah, I'm sure that's gonna turn out great...

[Pete F 5]

On 1/29/2024 at 3:16 PM, Pete F said:

I wondered if the Oculus 3 would be an improvement over the previous model? I really don't want to be spending any time setting this up, as I just want to get on with my training, and thought the Oculus 3 would be a plug n play upgrade

I sprung for the 3, and yes it did pretty much set up straight away, being recognised by the Oculus app as another device. It just needed the usual connecting to the network etc pretty much like any device needs these days

The quality is indeed much better than the 2, though not as good as I'd hoped, but there may be some tweaks still available. When used as a standalone product away from P3D the quality is VERY good. In fact for my eyes I find it easier to use the desktop through the Quest 3 VR than the focal distance of my monitor. Unfortunately that Windows computer only gets used for P3D so that won't help me, but I can foresee a day in the not too distant future where computer monitors or VR devices will be the option.

For anyone else wanting to go down this path, the only big issue I've had so far was the Quest 3 seems to push the pass-thru mode as a great feature, and one that's enabled by default. I couldn't find a way to disable that when linked to the computer, and that was very frustrating as it would constantly switch back to pass-thru. But it can be disabled when standalone, enabled in "immersive" mode, and that seems to carry through when linked to the PC/P3D.

Using VR devices is definitely getting very close to at least a full-flight sim experience (sans motion obviously), as it models some real-life nuances we deal with in the real aircraft. For example from the left hand seat in the A330, the pilot needs to lean over to see the switch positions of the transponder. The VR experience allows that leaning to happen. Other than that, there seems to be a few bugs with the Quest 3 firmware, and hopefully they will get ironed out. The edges of the screen can sometimes go "funky", when connected to the PC. It has crashed P3D a few times too, and that was definitely a Quest 3 or Link problem. 

So yeah, it turned out great 😉

Edited January 30 by Pete F

[spinoza 48]

@Pete F an excellent choice. Big bang for the buck.  If you need a PC link cable grab this in amazon:

Amazon.com: Syntech Link Cable 16 FT Compatible with Meta/Oculus Quest 3, Quest2/Pro/Pico4 Accessories and PC/Steam VR, High Speed PC Data Transfer, USB 3.0 to USB C Cable for VR Headset : Electronics

It's on sale now for U$17. An Amazon Choice.  And another amazing value. Compare that to Meta's version selling for $80.

I'm getting 2.1+ Gb bandwidth on a PC hardwired to the router two rooms away (about 30 ft).

The feeling of crampness in GA planes and the ability to lean over is one of those nuances that make VR as realistic as it gets.

Edited January 30 by spinoza

[Pete F 5]

Yes I also bought a PC Link Cable at the same time. It looks like a No Brand model but was recommended. Says USB 3.2 Gen 1 Cable

I'd been using the Quest 2 wirelessly and that was working quite well, with just an occasional dropout. The 90 degree USB-C connector on this cables is good, and seems to be designed to lock in to the Quest 3 so the connecter doesn't fall out. The reason I wanted to use a cable was to get charging, but that doesn't seem to work from the USB-A connectors, even when the Q3 is off. So with only 2+ hrs life, that's disappointing

[Pete F 5]

The consideration now is to get a wireless charging dock and extended life battery. That way I can store and charge it, and also get decent cycle time. However it looks like the Meta battery doesn't allow data passthrough ie if you use the battery you can't use the Link cable, and visa versa. I have no idea what they were thinking when they came up with that! Aftermarket alternatives may be able to provide data passthrough, and that's something I'll look into.

In the meanwhile I'm now trialling it wirelessly and so far it seems ok. The Quest 2 worked well in that mode and I didn't notice any latency, at least not for this type of flight sim. If that works I'll be able to add a battery pack. Initially I was getting some dropouts, but have pushed the data rate up to almost 200 MBS and it seems to be solid.

The only real issue now seems to be what I'm guessing is some form of lack of anti-aliasing. Not sure if that's the issue, but it's quite annoying and not seen on my monitor (which mirrors the VR image). It's seen as as high contrast lines effectively jumping around slightly on the VR image. It could also be a lack of resolution, but I don't recall the Quest 2 being as bad as that. I've gone through all the P3D VR settings and they don't seem to make any difference. I don't see this on other apps etc being pushed through to the VR headset

Any thoughts on this?

 

 

 

Edit: OT, but as another observation and aside for anyone going down this path, the O3 VR headset going to sleep will cause P3D to hang/crash.

[threexgreen 3,142]

What's keeping me from switching to a Quest 3 is all this messing around with the connection between the headset and the PC, instead of just plugging a display port cable into the GPU with an actual PCVR headset and be done with it. There are also no performance or graphics penalties this way and no thought has to be given to battery life.

Standalone headsets are a cool idea for lighter-weight-games on the headset that are played walking around, but for flight simming a cable is fine since you just sit in your chair and you don't have to put all that work and thought into connecting a standalone headset to the PC. Just my $0.02.

Edited January 31 by threexgreen

[Pete F 5]

10 hours ago, threexgreen said:

What's keeping me from switching to a Quest 3 is all this messing around with the connection between the headset and the PC, instead of just plugging a display port cable into the GPU with an actual PCVR headset and be done with it. There are also no performance or graphics penalties this way and no thought has to be given to battery life.

Yeah maybe I'll get an external battery pack at some stage, but I learnt that they generally don't need to be a specific brand ripoff, and many USB-C PD capable powerbanks will power them just fine. I saw a local review on Youtube of one where the guy powered it for something like 12-18 hours straight! You'd just need to have some arrangement to hold the battery and it would be completely portable. Seems that arrangement is good enough for Apple with their VR headset. In the meanwhile I just plugged the supplied 18W power adapter and cable into the headset and it maintains it at 100%. Happy Days 🙂

The connection to the PC is via the QuestLink app. The client is installed on the desktop and away it goes. It's not perfect, and when I turn my head quickly I can see some latency, but for commercial airline type stuff it seems ok. I have the connection on 100 MBS, and I think that's getting up there! The resolution of the A330 Pro isn't exactly stunning, and that's a bit of a disappointment. It's "almost' there but not quite. It looks much better on the monitor. There's absolutely no doubt Virtual or Mixed reality is the way it's going from a training perspective, so that may get better, but I haven't seen an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm from Aerosoft toward the A330, so if that end is the sticking point I'd say it's stuck.

Another thing to consider is the headsets can be used for other purposes. I'm not a gamer at all, but I occasionally watch Netflix, Youtube, etc. and a movie on the Quest 3 is supposed to be fairly awesome. I'm just installing now ... not sure when I'll get to use it, but at least it's there 🙂