HTC hinting at Ver 2?

Deimos said:
This thing is supposed to be shipping on April 5th? and I'm reading today that pre-orders were sold out? I ordered mine on Thursday and got it on the 4th of April NZST. The fuck?
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I suppose that's good news? :)
 
I can speak from experience the Vive Pro is totally worth it (if you have $800 to blow and are into VR). Holy shit it's like Space Pirate Trainer is a completely different game. Did you know you could shoot the enemy lasers with your lasers? lol...

It's not a crazy amazing increase and there is a little bit of "fuzziness" but it is way better.
 
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Dayaks said:
I can speak from experience the Vive Pro is totally worth it (if you have $800 to blow and are into VR). Holy shit it's like Space Pirate Trainer is a completely different game. Did you know you could shoot the enemy lasers with your lasers? lol...

It's not a crazy amazing increase and there is a little bit of "fuzziness" but it is way better.
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After a week with the Pro my thoughts are that the combination of the increased resolution and better comfort make it a solidly better headset than the original Vive. If HTC had kept the pricing at the level of the original Vive I think we'd see much better reviews on that is actually a great product. While it is an incremental upgrade it's kind of become a big deal one. I went back to test the original Vive over the weekend and the increased resolution makes a big difference know that I've gotten taste of it. So far I'm perfectly happy with the Pro and I certainly don't want to go back to the original.
 
the question I have with the new VIVE, will that incremental increase be benefitial to me? with my system..am I going to be able to drive it sufficiently? In my case probably the thing id use most is IRacing... or with my puny i7 4790s and 1070 should I stick with just the older vive, or rift.....
 
DigitalPanhandler said:
the question I have with the new VIVE, will that incremental increase be benefitial to me? with my system..am I going to be able to drive it sufficiently? In my case probably the thing id use most is IRacing... or with my puny i7 4790s and 1070 should I stick with just the older vive, or rift.....
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You might have to turn down AA or change your pixel per display settings a little but it should still work fine as iRacing is heavily cpu limited, which shouldn't change much with the new Vive. Turn on the cpu/gpu meteres in iRacing and see which one is limiting you, the R or the G meter. C is the physics and other calcs, but it's usually way lower than the R (render) meter. If your G (gpu) meter is higher than R, you might run into a limitation with the video card with upgraded headset. If the R thread is higher, it's your cpu that will limit you and the higher res headset shouldn't affect that.

For a more cost effective option you might want to look at the Samsung Odyssey as it's half the price with the same screen and good optics. I have an HP WindowsMR (1440x1440) as backup for my Rift and the head tracking is very good (the optics and screen not so great compared to Rift, still good but noticeably worse), so that's what I'd do for iRacing. The Vive gives you better hand tracking, but if you're mainly iRacing that doesn't really matter.
 
heatlesssun said:
After a week with the Pro my thoughts are that the combination of the increased resolution and better comfort make it a solidly better headset than the original Vive. If HTC had kept the pricing at the level of the original Vive I think we'd see much better reviews on that is actually a great product. While it is an incremental upgrade it's kind of become a big deal one. I went back to test the original Vive over the weekend and the increased resolution makes a big difference know that I've gotten taste of it. So far I'm perfectly happy with the Pro and I certainly don't want to go back to the original.
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I have read and seen a lot of reviews on Youtube regarding the HTC Vive Pro vs OG Vive. I´ve also read some impressions from different forums. What bugs me a bit, is that its not disclosed if they took the automatic/dynamic SS into consideration before they did the comparison as pointed out in the link below:

I consider ordering the HTC Vive Pro tomorrow, so if you or Dayaks could comment on this, it would be great! :)
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
I have read and seen a lot of reviews on Youtube regarding the HTC Vive Pro vs OG Vive. I´ve also read some impressions from different forums. What bugs me a bit, is that its not disclosed if they took the automatic/dynamic SS into consideration before they did the comparison as pointed out in the link below:

I consider ordering the HTC Vive Pro tomorrow, so if you or Dayaks could comment on this, it would be great! :)
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I tweak SS for each game. Most I run at 150% SS. It does help over default settings.
 
Dayaks said:
I tweak SS for each game. Most I run at 150% SS. It does help over default settings.
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Thanks. :) Did you do a comparison between OG Vive and the Vive Pro with a manual SS setting? Many reviews might be fundamentally flawed if they compared them with auto/dynamic settings on.
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
Thanks. :) Did you do a comparison between OG Vive and the Vive Pro with a manual SS setting? Many reviews might be fundamentally flawed if they compared them with auto/dynamic settings on.
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I ran both at max for a 1080ti.

At the end of the day like I said before it still has a little fuzziness but now you can actually make out projectiles / details more than a foot from your face.

For me the old Vive's resolution ruined a lot of games just because it was hard to make out key features (hard to dodge projectiles because you can barely see them). That's not a problem anymore. I also like the headset design since four of us use it and it's way easier to get it on/off the kiddos.
 
Dayaks said:
I ran both at max for a 1080ti.

At the end of the day like I said before it still has a little fuzziness but now you can actually make out projectiles / details more than a foot from your face.

For me the old Vive's resolution ruined a lot of games just because it was hard to make out key features (hard to dodge projectiles because you can barely see them). That's not a problem anymore. I also like the headset design since four of us use it and it's way easier to get it on/off the kiddos.
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Nice! :) I have the deluxe strap, so its already easy to take on/off kids. But, I do find it more tiresome that I have to get so close to objects and text to find it comfortable to look at (even though I have a 100% vision after laser surgery). Considering this is my main goal, would you find it worth the hazzle upgrading (I know what it cost, so price is not a factor)?
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
Nice! :) I have the deluxe strap, so its already easy to take on/off kids. But, I do find it more tiresome that I have to get so close to objects and text to find it comfortable to look at (even though I have a 100% vision after laser surgery). Considering this is my main goal, would you find it worth the hazzle upgrading (I know what it cost, so price is not a factor)?
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If price is not a factor then yes! lol. If you used the OG Vive a lot then you'll get your money's worth out of this.
 
Dayaks said:
I tweak SS for each game. Most I run at 150% SS. It does help over default settings.
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This is what I've run for some time with both the Vive and Vive Pro.

Dayaks said:
For me the old Vive's resolution ruined a lot of games just because it was hard to make out key features (hard to dodge projectiles because you can barely see them). That's not a problem anymore. I also like the headset design since four of us use it and it's way easier to get it on/off the kiddos.
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The resolution isn't a night and day difference but details are much clearer, text is much easier to read and when you go back the difference does sort of become night and day, at least I can't imagine too many people wanting to go back to the lower resolution. And comfort is like that also. The Pro simply fits better for me, especially around the nose and there isn't feel of the HMD pulling down on my face.
 
heatlesssun & Dayaks:

I got the Vive pro today! Been on a business trip today with plane back and forth, so I haven´t had time to properly test it and am a bit tired today. But, some short tests shows that the headset really does what I was hoping for. Unless the headset creates another set of issues, I would say it really was worth it for me, so thanks guys!
 
I finally got it working on my main gaming rig but it was a major pain in the ass to get working on my x99 system (Rampage V Extreme, 5960X @ 4.2Ghz, 1080ti) I swear this motherboard hates me.

I'm pretty sure the issues I'm having are only related to my motherboard. I have to use a USB hub to get it working and, while sound is working fine, as soon as you open steam VR it turns into a garbled mess on the vive and I just can't figure out why. Eventually I just gave up and removed the built in earphones, honestly, they totally suck compared to the Rift and I have way better alternatives anyway like the Shure SE846 and believe it or not, my Audeze LCD-X can be used with the new headband. I'll just have to use my external USB headphone amp. This is acceptable for now as I only use this PC for playing Elite Dangerous.

I also set it up on my HTPC which is a 7700K, Z270 (Asus Maximus IX Formula), GTX 1080 FE (WC at 2ghz core) and a clean install of Windows 10 and had zero issues.

The headphones really do suck and I'm honestly confused about why no one has said so. For anyone who agrees; I purchased a generic USB Type-C to 3.5mm jack and it works perfectly with my Shure SE846 however you must remove the built in headphones before you will get sound out of the USB port on the headset.
 
Deimos said:
The headphones really do suck and I'm honestly confused about why no one has said so. For anyone who agrees; I purchased a generic USB Type-C to 3.5mm jack and it works perfectly with my Shure SE846 however you must remove the built in headphones before you will get sound out of the USB port on the headset.
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My install was almost flawless. I disconnected the old Vive, connected the new one, waited through a lot of installation popups, updated firmware, followed by a restart of steamVR, lots of installation popups, manually selected output for sound and mic and done. The only thing I had to correct was to pair the wands again. Didn´t even bother to uninstall old vive drivers, since I wanted to test it fast.

I expected to run in to the headphone issues that you talk about and that many others have reported about. The headphones are pretty decent actually, so there must be some software or hardware variations that causes this for some people.

I haven´t gotten around to tweak the sound yet (since its already decent enough, its not what I want to start with), but at default (with sound lowered a bit, since it was way too high on default), using speakers (HTC Vive pro), not the Nvidia one, its actually better then the deluxe audio strap, since the Pro fits better on my ear. This is the youtube video I used for testing gives a good indication of gameplay audio capabilities (go to the 10 minute mark for some bass test):


A lot of other people also find the audio pretty decent, especially after the patch, so I guess either a bad batch has been sent out, or there are compatibility issues on some systems.
 
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Tamlin_WSGF said:
My install was almost flawless. I disconnected the old Vive, connected the new one, waited through a lot of installation popups, updated firmware, followed by a restart of steamVR, lots of installation popups, manually selected output for sound and mic and done. The only thing I had to correct was to pair the wands again. Didn´t even bother to uninstall old vive drivers, since I wanted to test it fast.

I expected to run in to the headphone issues that you talk about and that many others have reported about. The headphones are pretty decent actually, so there must be some software or hardware variations that causes this for some people.

I haven´t gotten around to tweak the sound yet (since its already decent enough, its not what I want to start with), but at default (with sound lowered a bit, since it was way too high on default), using speakers (HTC Vive pro), not the Nvidia one, its actually better then the deluxe audio strap, since the Pro fits better on my ear. This is the youtube video I used for testing gives a good indication of gameplay audio capabilities (go to the 10 minute mark for some bass test):


A lot of other people also find the audio pretty decent, especially after the patch, so I guess either a bad batch has been sent out, or there are compatibility issues on some systems.
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I got excited... I thought I somehow missed a VR Witcher. You just used it for sound test lol.
 
The only way I can get any low end out of the vive pro headphones is if I push them against my ears, if I don't do that they sound shit. I don't have this issue with the Rift. Perhaps it's just a poor fit for me but I'm far from happy with it. I'm happy to substitute my IEMs anyway.
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
My install was almost flawless. I disconnected the old Vive, connected the new one, waited through a lot of installation popups, updated firmware, followed by a restart of steamVR, lots of installation popups, manually selected output for sound and mic and done. The only thing I had to correct was to pair the wands again. Didn´t even bother to uninstall old vive drivers, since I wanted to test it fast.

I expected to run in to the headphone issues that you talk about and that many others have reported about. The headphones are pretty decent actually, so there must be some software or hardware variations that causes this for some people.
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Congrats again and glad to see you're having a good experience. The setup process you describe was essentially how it worked for me though I don't recall a lot of installation popups. The only thing regarding setup I don't care for, and it's not really a setup issue, is the move to DP over HDMI. I have three monitors connected via DP on my main GPU so I have to connect the Vive now to my second GPU which means that while in SLI I have to switch over to my 4k monitor from my three screen setup. An esoteric problem and not a huge deal as when I game now I'm always on the 4k screen anyway. But I prefer working with the 3x 1080p setup. Long story short, I would be nice if there were both a DP and HDMI port on the link box. I guess an adapter could work but those things can be tricky.

​
Tamlin_WSGF said:
A lot of other people also find the audio pretty decent, especially after the patch, so I guess either a bad batch has been sent out, or there are compatibility issues on some systems.
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I normally don't use the headphones and drive sound through my 5.1 surround speakers. In my limited testing on the headphones I find them sufficient but the sound does seem "tiny", definitely not on part with good cans.
 
Deimos said:
I finally got it working on my main gaming rig but it was a major pain in the ass to get working on my x99 system (Rampage V Extreme, 5960X @ 4.2Ghz, 1080ti) I swear this motherboard hates me.

I'm pretty sure the issues I'm having are only related to my motherboard. I have to use a USB hub to get it working and, while sound is working fine, as soon as you open steam VR it turns into a garbled mess on the vive and I just can't figure out why. Eventually I just gave up and removed the built in earphones, honestly, they totally suck compared to the Rift and I have way better alternatives anyway like the Shure SE846 and believe it or not, my Audeze LCD-X can be used with the new headband. I'll just have to use my external USB headphone amp. This is acceptable for now as I only use this PC for playing Elite Dangerous.

I also set it up on my HTPC which is a 7700K, Z270 (Asus Maximus IX Formula), GTX 1080 FE (WC at 2ghz core) and a clean install of Windows 10 and had zero issues.

The headphones really do suck and I'm honestly confused about why no one has said so. For anyone who agrees; I purchased a generic USB Type-C to 3.5mm jack and it works perfectly with my Shure SE846 however you must remove the built in headphones before you will get sound out of the USB port on the headset.
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On my X99 I had to turn off my camera on the Vive or it'd cause issues. I think I had the same board.

I just built a 2700x and I bought a dedicated PCIe USB card just for the Vive. Didn't actually use the USB card yet though... eventually I'll try it with the camera enabled.
 
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Deimos said:
The only way I can get any low end out of the vive pro headphones is if I push them against my ears, if I don't do that they sound shit. I don't have this issue with the Rift. Perhaps it's just a poor fit for me but I'm far from happy with it. I'm happy to substitute my IEMs anyway.
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How much better does it look over the Rift?
 
I'm seeing reports of people using the Samsung Odyssey with Vive wands. Interesting.

Hey guys! So like a lot of others I bought a Vive Pro and was immediately underwhelmed. I have a lot of issues with it that I will spare you, because this post is not about that. This post is regarding my second step to seek a better way to spend $800 in VR and get much more.

Step 1: TPCast for my Rift ($400. TL:DR I am so happy with this purchase. See my post history for more)

Step 2: Samsung Odyssey ($379, intended to use with my Vive Wands)

Ok, so I heard that it was possible to get a Samsung Odyssey working with the Vive Wands. I heard it was a bit tedious, but let’s save that for later.

First impressions of the Odyssey were amazing. The image resolution is the same as the Pro, but the lenses are vastly superior. The headset is more comfortable, the onboard audio is much better and overall after spending less than half game away very happy.

So that’s it, right? Let’s all go out and get Odyssey’s! Not so fast. The inside out controller tracking is DREADFUL for gaming (at least Onward, and I suspect other more intensive games).

Luckily, some very helpful people have figured out that you can use your Vive Wands and tracking with the Odyssey. Best of both worlds, right!? Well, depends. What EXACTLY do you have to do? Sounds too good to be true!

About half an hour worth of setup (barring some other issues that were my fault) and I was up and running in Onward with my Wands. Absolutely flawless.

Here’s the video walk-through. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/255408394

So, long story short, I ended up with a wireless Rift and frankly a better version of Vive Pro, all for the same cost as a single Vive Pro. If I were going to buy only one of the two things I bought, it would definitely be the Odyssey. $379 for a better version of the Pro, you can see how easy it is on my video!
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Hagrid said:
How much better does it look over the Rift?
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TBH I have not used the Rift since I got the Vive Pro. I made a good effort to setup room scale for both HMDs but I just havn't bothered to do a direct comparison yet.

My initial impressions are that he vive pro is better screen-wise but the Rift still has a slight advantage in terms of comfort and a massive advantage in the sound department. I also personally prefer the rift controllers but not everyone agrees.

The other thing I have noticed after setting up two seperate room scale setups (lounge and my office) is that the tracking on the vive is not too great in a larger space vs my smaller office. I really only have standing room in my office due to my massive desk but it tracks far better in that space (5x5 meters) than my lounge (6x12 meters). Hopfuly the new tracking hardware will improve things but when the hell is that coming?
 
Deimos said:
TBH I have not used the Rift since I got the Vive Pro. I made a good effort to setup room scale for both HMDs but I just havn't bothered to do a direct comparison yet.

My initial impressions are that he vive pro is better screen-wise but the Rift still has a slight advantage in terms of comfort and a massive advantage in the sound department. I also personally prefer the rift controllers but not everyone agrees.

The other thing I have noticed after setting up two seperate room scale setups (lounge and my office) is that the tracking on the vive is not too great in a larger space vs my smaller office. I really only have standing room in my office due to my massive desk but it tracks far better in that space (5x5 meters) than my lounge (6x12 meters). Hopfuly the new tracking hardware will improve things but when the hell is that coming?
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So far as looking better, would you say on par with the review of about 20% or so?
 
If oculus 2 doesn't come out I'm gonna get a Hires Vive 2 soon. Pending reviews. I play Elite Dangerous for hours on end in VR and love it.
 
tangoseal said:
If oculus 2 doesn't come out I'm gonna get a Hires Vive 2 soon. Pending reviews. I play Elite Dangerous for hours on end in VR and love it.
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Based on everything I've seen and read, Rift CV2 will most likely arrive (at the very earliest) in the second half of 2019. A more realistic guess would be early 2020. At today's F8 developers conference, Oculus showed off an early Rift 2 prototype codenamed Halfdome that brings with it some very interesting advancements, namely an increased FOV from 100 to 140 degrees, a varifocal display, and the ability to do much better hand and body tracking all in the same weight and form factor as the current Rift.
Video here:


Based on the slides/pics in the presentation, it looks like they redesigned the Rift's lenses and have possibly also incorporated eye tracking, so foveated rendering is a possibility as well. Odds are the display will have a significantly increased resolution per eye to support a 140 degree FOV... 4000x4000 has been rumored/talked about, and by 2020, I would think be very likely.

Anyway, lots more discussion on the Reddit here: www.reddit.com/r/oculus

There's also a great recap of what was covered at F8 concerning this over at Ars here: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018...type-moving-lenses-finger-tracking-wider-fov/
 
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Supercharged_Z06 said:
Based on everything I've seen and read, Rift CV2 will most likely arrive (at the very earliest) in the second half of 2019. A more realistic guess would be early 2020. At today's F8 developers conference, Oculus showed off an early Rift 2 prototype codenamed Halfdome that brings with it some very interesting advancements, namely an increased FOV from 100 to 140 degrees, a varifocal display, and the ability to do much better hand and body tracking all in the same weight and form factor as the current Rift.
Video here:


Based on the slides/pics in the presentation, it looks like they redesigned the Rift's lenses and have possibly also incorporated eye tracking, so foveated rendering is a possibility as well. Odds are the display will have a significantly increased resolution per eye to support a 140 degree FOV... 4000x4000 has been rumored/talked about, and by 2020, I would think be very likely.

Anyway, lots more discussion on the Reddit here: www.reddit.com/r/oculus

There's also a great recap of what was covered at F8 concerning this over at Ars here: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018...type-moving-lenses-finger-tracking-wider-fov/
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2020 is like a decade away lol

I lack patience
 
Just putting it here, in case Vive Staff said a little more then they indended to:

vive staff said:
These are likely related to a few known issues that we're working to resolve on an compositor level within the SteamVR ecosystem - they will be addressed by future software updates that also add additional functionalities unique to the Pro hardware.
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https://community.viveport.com/t5/T...-god-rays-quot/m-p/17398/highlight/true#M6192

vive staff said:
I think there will be a consistent a lag between when new SteamVR hardware launches and when it's fully adopted into the SteamVR ecosystem - there's lot of interdependencies in modern VR and we're set to see some major ecosystem changes in 2018
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https://community.viveport.com/t5/T...-god-rays-quot/m-p/17431/highlight/true#M6205
 
Deimos said:
The only way I can get any low end out of the vive pro headphones is if I push them against my ears, if I don't do that they sound shit. I don't have this issue with the Rift. Perhaps it's just a poor fit for me but I'm far from happy with it. I'm happy to substitute my IEMs anyway.
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You might be right thinking it is a matter of poor fit. :) Here´s a test of the headphones (in French) with frequency response measurements:

From google translate:

What is it? The answer to this question is twofold. In the absolute, the earpieces actually produce a sound of a quality quite recommendable. Compared to the headphones of the Oculus Rift or even the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap , the diaphragms of this Vive Pro have far better acoustic behavior: the distortion is perfectly controlled, the responsiveness and dynamics are excellent.
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So capricious, in truth, that depending on the shape of the head, positioning the earpieces correctly may simply be impossible.Your humble servant, for example, has never succeeded in obtaining only auricles in very slight contact with the pavilions;resulting in a desperately narrow perceived sound, completely void of bass and even low midrange (no presence below 300 Hz).Of all the people who tested the headphones at the editorial office, about half experienced this problem. It goes without saying that immersion takes a serious blow ...
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https://www.lesnumeriques.com/casqu...e-pro-que-valent-ecouteurs-hi-res-n73909.html

So in short, the audio of the Vive pro is better then the DAS and Oculus rift, provided it fits your ear. No wonder why there were conflicting reports about this. It annoyed me, since I found the audio pretty decent. :)
 
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THIS game, currently 60% on Steam is one game that shows me the comfort of the increased resolution Vive Pro gives. Everything looks so sharp and clear (I had to turn on night mode though because text was so bright):

 
Finally got mine today and I am loving it. The strap for your head is a significant improvement over the original and the resolution is definitely better even if I can still see the SDE, but that was expected. It makes a big difference in games like "In Death" where you can aim at far away targets. Its also much easier to pick out the arrows flying at you to know if it's going to hit or not. Text and looking at your desktop is now usable. I couldn't really use the desktop mode view mode because I couldn't really read anything on the desktop unless I could walk closer.
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
You might be right thinking it is a matter of poor fit. :) Here´s a test of the headphones (in French) with frequency response measurements:

So in short, the audio of the Vive pro is better then the DAS and Oculus rift, provided it fits your ear. No wonder why there were conflicting reports about this. It annoyed me, since I found the audio pretty decent. :)
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Yeah it's a poor fit for me (I have large ears) but there is a sweet spot but as I play a game it shifts, so in beat saber I have found that the sound quality shifts around from lacking bass and tinny to just right and it can get annoying. There are 2 issues one that can be fixed if they just sell some replacement pads that could make the headphones larger so it can be over the ear type headphones, another way would be to have a stronger clamping force kind of like how the back of the head strap works where you could tighten down the headphones to put more pressure to hold the headphones in place better. The latter would be problematic as it requires a new design, but the new pads might fix the problem if some larger replacements could be found. Ideally the same kind of material. The sound quality is there built into the headphones but it seems to shift for me.

Some other things I like about the Pro headset is the ease it is to use with glasses. Much better than the old one. And less shifting also when moving, like avoiding obstacles quickly in Beat Saber. The old one with the original strap always shifted and messed up my glasses position and made having obstacles very much a bad experience. I am using the thin VR Cover replacement pad and I love it in the Vive Pro with glasses.
 
LurkerLito said:
Unfortunately no 3D printer. :( It doesn't look like thingiverse sells prints.
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I have heard that some larger cities have "maker" space/facilities that are funded by the local government. Like at libraries or colleges or something.

For example, Fort Worth has one through the library system. Something like that, you may be able to take plans and simply rent the time on the tools to make what you need.
 
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