Considering a VR headset, want some opinions.

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Oniigumo

Limp Gawd
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Sep 25, 2007
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At the moment I'm considering getting a headset for mostly sim / seated play, but I may venture out into roomscale at some point in the future as well, but it's unlikely due to setup (the room it's going in is around 17'x22', but there's a pool table in the center of it, a bed in one corner, and a desk in the other. There could end up being a roughly 7'x8' "playable" chunk if I moved some stuff around, but that's it.) I was thinking about the Odyssey+ or Rift for that reason, but if you guys think roomscale is worth it, and a 7'x8' area would be plenty, I'd gladly consider the Vive as well. I'm hung up on whether to get the Odyssey+ for the visuals, the Rift for the ergonomics and cost, or the Vive for future upgrades.

Now that that's out of the way, I also have concerns about my rig. [email protected], 16gb DDR3, GTX 970, Win7 (can upgrade to 10 for the Odyssey+ if need be). Not exactly top end, but it's what I'm working with. I'm open to picking up another GPU, but I was really planning on holding out for the next gen. If I grab another GPU, will the 4690k still hold up? Even still (in your opinion), would it be better to wait for the true gen 2 headsets, save my money, and build a rig and get into it then since I don't know what I'm missing anyways? I don't really have the coin to drop on a full rig + headset now, so if the 4690k doesn't cut it, the plan will likely be to wait for gen 2.
If I truly end up enjoying VR (assuming I purchase a headset soon), I'll most likely end up getting gen 2 as soon as it drops regardless, assuming the improvements are there.

Main games I'm interested in: FO4 VR, SkyrimVR, ED (never played it, but it looked like a blast to play in VR)

I most likely won't be back on here to check replies for about 11 hours due to work, but thanks for any input.
 
Your rig should be okay to get you started. I had started out with a 970 and a RIFT and it handled a lot of the games decently. Lone Echo played pretty decently at medium setting. I just purchased ED and have been playing that on the VR.

You should do yourself a solid, if you have never experienced the full VR Experience, you should get a RIFT or VIVE. Honestly you can still do a lot in the playable space you have listed...as long as you are conscious of your space limits.

Nothing beats playing Lone Echo or Robo Recall w/ the touch controls.
 
You're right to not dive in with both feet, at the moment. Go for whatever headset you can get the lowest price on. If you don't need manual IPD adjustment, I would also suggest considering other WMR headsets.

I would say your current rig is right at the minimum for a decently payable experience in most current VR titles, including those you listed.

While plenty of games support room scale, most play just fine with standing room. It sounds like you have enough space for that.

There's plenty of solid VR awaiting you, but saving for next-generation hardware is the smart play. The functional differences between current generation headsets are generally overstated, imo.
 
The Rift is the best deal currently, IMHO. You'll want a third sensor for room scale, but it's worth the hassle of setting it up for games like robo recall and Lone Echo. I haven't bought a new one in a while, but they used to include the active repeater cable you need to mount the sensor far enough from the PC.

I'm not familiar with Fallout 4 and Skyrim's VR versions, but for Elite Dangerous, you'll need a beast of a graphics card, unless you're prepared to dial the detail way back. 1080 minimum. Even a 1080 Ti is really only "enough" in my opinion. In places where even a small number of other ships are around, you'll be dropping into reprojection with anything less, and this game makes it super obvious as a smearing of the heads-up display. With a 1080, I noticed it a lot, and it bugged me. A lot. The 1080 Ti is enough to make it mostly a non-issue, but it still happens sometimes, and it's still noticeable.

ED is somewhat unique in that it was designed mainly as a monitor game with VR support kind of tacked on. As such, few compromises were made in the name of performance for VR, and it's thus quite pretty, but also quite demanding hardware wise. Most games are not this demanding. For anything other than ED that I tried, my 1080 was plenty.
 
RazorWind said:
The Rift is the best deal currently, IMHO. You'll want a third sensor for room scale, but it's worth the hassle of setting it up for games like robo recall and Lone Echo. I haven't bought a new one in a while, but they used to include the active repeater cable you need to mount the sensor far enough from the PC.
Click to expand...

I just ordered a plain USB 3.0 6ft extender and a HDMI 6ft extender for the headset, cause the cord length they give you as standard...is just too short in my opinion, and I did not have any issues. And when I bought the 3rd sensor, they shipped an extension cable with it...will have to measure it to get the length of it, but it only "requires" a usb 2.0 slot.
 
I'm a long time rift owner, but the odyssey+ is a better headset. I can't go back to the rift. That said, the rift is more refined software wise while the odyssey has needed some tweaking. Room scale wise the rift touch controllers are better, but tracking is surprisingly good on the wmr to where I don't feel like i'm losing anything, even in games like onward. Room scale setup is light years better in wmr, takes 30 seconds and no sensors or lighthouses to worry about. Just need a well lit play area.

Your setup will be enough to get started and you'll probably need a GPU before cpu, game depending of course. I'm big into iRacing and that's a cpu demanding game more so than gpu, but it'll still work fine, just not at high settings.
 
So based on what I'm hearing, I think I'll hold out for the time being unless a good deal pops up on one. I know I JUST missed a few sales (Odyssey+ was 299.99 on black friday, it's 399 on samsungs website at the moment, and the Rift was 299 a couple weeks back, up to 399 again). I'll pull the cord if I can get any of the big 3 on sale again, and roll the savings into a GPU upgrade. It seems like you cant really go wrong with any of the sets, and if I end up with the rift I'll absolutely be picking up the third sensor. Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate the feedback :)
 
Recently I saw Lone Echo trailer and grabbed Oculus Rift with some Marvell game bundled. Will get it on Monday.
Reason for choosing Rift over Vive:
- controllers are supposed to be the best and have normal analog sticks for movement
- it is easier to run some games specifically made for Rift like Lone Echo than other way around
- cheaper - though I could grab barely used Vive with everything for less

Odyssey+ is not available in Poland at the moment.
I am not as much interested in room scale stuff but maybe I will be in the future then I will probably buy additional sensor.
 
XoR_ said:
Recently I saw Lone Echo trailer and grabbed Oculus Rift with some Marvell game bundled. Will get it on Monday.
Reason for choosing Rift over Vive:
- controllers are supposed to be the best and have normal analog sticks for movement
- it is easier to run some games specifically made for Rift like Lone Echo than other way around
- cheaper - though I could grab barely used Vive with everything for less

Odyssey+ is not available in Poland at the moment.
I am not as much interested in room scale stuff but maybe I will be in the future then I will probably buy additional sensor.
Click to expand...

The immersion and quality as to a VR experience that Lone Echo offers will blow your mind.
 
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The touch controllers for the Rift are amazing. I did not appreciate them until trying to play games with the move controllers on PSVR. I actually had my Rift for sale but after a few days with PSVR I returned it and set the Rift back up. Time for some more Lone Echo....
 
Have rift for about a week now. Truly awesome toy it is.
I am truly amazed how there is no perceivable input lag. Expected worse performance really. Sound from build in headphones is great, very immersive.
Will buy two additional sensors for proper 360 experience and some extension cables for rift itself.
I made as much space in my room as possible. It also improved aesthetic of my room, it is now more spacious :)
 
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