HP Reverb G2

My IPD is close to 70ish coming up from 69 o.0. What's your IPD and does a 2mm IPD difference on the low side of yours make a massive difference in clarity? It's a lot to ask but my only hesitation pulling the trigger on the G2 is that I'm out of the IPD setting range, but many people say that ±2mm should be okay. Thanks so much if you can test this out for me at some point!

The IPD is only one factor in finding the sweet spot. The fit of the headset and the shape of your head/eyes will all play a part. So nobody can really tell you how it will work with you. There will be people who have a 70 IPD who will say it's perfect, there are others who won't be able to play at all.

For VR, the only sure way to know is to try on the headset yourself. I would imagine you will be fine, most people are fine. You haven't too much too worry about, you can buy one, try it for a few days and if it doesn't work for you, send it back.
 
I am looking forward to upgrading to this headset. I would have liked for Samsung to have produced their own update with OLED but it seems the GS's LED is about as good as it gets for that display. The large "sweet-spot" reportedly is very good news. My Odyssey+ is very exact and always a bit of a struggle to get set up properly. As for the 4 inside-out cams that is great news. I never had issue with WMR's 2, so that sounds like good news.
Seems like a perfect match for the RX-6800XT I am hoping to snag.
So happy with my current setup, but this next level is so exciting. Especially for SIM'ers.
 
I'll make my impressions very short, as I really haven't had much time with the headset. I'm coming from a Rift S using a Radeon 5700 (non XT). At first, I was hugely disappointed. Seriously, I was a little sick to my stomach after all the hype and waiting and hours and hours researching which video card I'm going to upgrade to, if I should upgrade my CPU (R5 3600X) etc. I was expecting a huge upgrade, and to be honest, I could barely tell the difference. That, and the performance hit was causing stuttering like crazy, since it's rendering over 2x the pixels of the Rift S. I thought I had just made a $650 mistake.

The setup is terrible compared to the Rift S, as you have to walk around your place space with the headset. I game in a dedicated theater, with my PC setup behind the seating. I do my VR on the other side of my theater seating (where you would be facing watching a movie, since it's 3x the space of my PC sitting area), so this was a challenge doing solo, but I got it to work. The WMR home interface is also terrible; really terrible.

I have a mild prescription and wear glasses, and the Rift S allows me to wear them. Well, the G2 doesn't allow my glasses to fit so I had to take them off. Without glasses on I see very well, but things aren't sharp. With them on, everything sharpens up dramatically. So, disappointed on my lunch break, I went back to work.

At work, all that was on my mind was the huge disappointment the G2 was. I've held off playing VR games for a long time waiting on this headset and for what? Nothing. Well, near the end of work I remembered I had a pair of unopened contact lenses from a few years ago. I used to wear contacts, and quit after years of wearing them and getting tired of dealing with them. Glasses were so much easier, and were a little bit more sharp so I switched to those permanently. I decided that when I got home from work I would throw the contacts in to see if that would help.

HOLY SH*T! Huge improvement! I was absolutely blown away. This was me playing Skyrim VR with the only graphic mod being a landscape texture pack. The graphics are unreal; seriously. I've played the last two nights just walking around and looking at stuff. I catch myself making save games in certain spots because they look so beautiful, so I can go back and experience them again and also to show off to friends/family. I tried Skyrim VR originally on my Rift CV1, then again when I got my Rift S, and couldn't play either one due to the lack of resolution. I wanted my first Skyrim VR playthrough to be magical, and let me tell you, the G2 does just that. It's absolutely phenomenal.

SteamVR set my super sampling to 150%, which was rendering something like 4500x4500 PER EYE, causing me to get about 20 fps. I fiddled with it and found at 50% super sampling (going from memory here, like 2300x2300), I'm getting 80-90 fps, which is good for now. 100% super sampling is night-and-day better looking, but is unplayable until I get a new video card, which I'm going to do as soon as the 6800 XT launches. I'm going to camp out, which is something I never thought I would do, because I need to get a new video card before the holidays, when I get 16 days off work, which will be spent a lot in Skyrim VR, heavily modded.

So yeah, if you have the extra money, and the GPU horsepower, the G2 is a huge step up from a Rift S level setup.
 
Thanks for the review.

Just one small thing, if you need glasses for the Reverb G2 than you needed to be wearing glasses for the Rift S as well. So you probably were getting a subpar experience in the Rift S for the last year!!
 
Thanks for the review.

Just one small thing, if you need glasses for the Reverb G2 than you needed to be wearing glasses for the Rift S as well. So you probably were getting a subpar experience in the Rift S for the last year!!
I did wear glasses with my Rift S. From my first post:

"I have a mild prescription and wear glasses, and the Rift S allows me to wear them."
 
I did wear glasses with my Rift S. From my first post:

"I have a mild prescription and wear glasses, and the Rift S allows me to wear them."

Ah, sorry!! Missed that line. Maybe it's time for my annual eye check up!! :D
 
I'll make my impressions very short, as I really haven't had much time with the headset. I'm coming from a Rift S using a Radeon 5700 (non XT). At first, I was hugely disappointed. Seriously, I was a little sick to my stomach after all the hype and waiting and hours and hours researching which video card I'm going to upgrade to, if I should upgrade my CPU (R5 3600X) etc. I was expecting a huge upgrade, and to be honest, I could barely tell the difference. That, and the performance hit was causing stuttering like crazy, since it's rendering over 2x the pixels of the Rift S. I thought I had just made a $650 mistake.

The setup is terrible compared to the Rift S, as you have to walk around your place space with the headset. I game in a dedicated theater, with my PC setup behind the seating. I do my VR on the other side of my theater seating (where you would be facing watching a movie, since it's 3x the space of my PC sitting area), so this was a challenge doing solo, but I got it to work. The WMR home interface is also terrible; really terrible.

I have a mild prescription and wear glasses, and the Rift S allows me to wear them. Well, the G2 doesn't allow my glasses to fit so I had to take them off. Without glasses on I see very well, but things aren't sharp. With them on, everything sharpens up dramatically. So, disappointed on my lunch break, I went back to work.

At work, all that was on my mind was the huge disappointment the G2 was. I've held off playing VR games for a long time waiting on this headset and for what? Nothing. Well, near the end of work I remembered I had a pair of unopened contact lenses from a few years ago. I used to wear contacts, and quit after years of wearing them and getting tired of dealing with them. Glasses were so much easier, and were a little bit more sharp so I switched to those permanently. I decided that when I got home from work I would throw the contacts in to see if that would help.

HOLY SH*T! Huge improvement! I was absolutely blown away. This was me playing Skyrim VR with the only graphic mod being a landscape texture pack. The graphics are unreal; seriously. I've played the last two nights just walking around and looking at stuff. I catch myself making save games in certain spots because they look so beautiful, so I can go back and experience them again and also to show off to friends/family. I tried Skyrim VR originally on my Rift CV1, then again when I got my Rift S, and couldn't play either one due to the lack of resolution. I wanted my first Skyrim VR playthrough to be magical, and let me tell you, the G2 does just that. It's absolutely phenomenal.

SteamVR set my super sampling to 150%, which was rendering something like 4500x4500 PER EYE, causing me to get about 20 fps. I fiddled with it and found at 50% super sampling (going from memory here, like 2300x2300), I'm getting 80-90 fps, which is good for now. 100% super sampling is night-and-day better looking, but is unplayable until I get a new video card, which I'm going to do as soon as the 6800 XT launches. I'm going to camp out, which is something I never thought I would do, because I need to get a new video card before the holidays, when I get 16 days off work, which will be spent a lot in Skyrim VR, heavily modded.

So yeah, if you have the extra money, and the GPU horsepower, the G2 is a huge step up from a Rift S level setup.

Can you try watching movies through Bigscreen or Skybox VR Player? Can you see any glare/godrays during dark scenes? What about SDE, especially if you sit in the rear seats of the theater?

That said, I can already hear my GTX1080 vanilla weeping. It is weaker than 5700 and it is choking on heavier games like No Mans Sky. And this is just with Rift CV1 resolution without any supersampling. I guess I have to keep on the half resolution mode for the foreseeable future.
 
The impressions I keep seeing is that the clarity is good but everything else is kind of mediocre.
 
The impressions I keep seeing is that the clarity is good but everything else is kind of mediocre.
The impressions I've read are that the clarity is amazing, but everything else is not great or best in their category, but not bad by any means.
 
The impressions I've read are that the clarity is amazing, but everything else is not great or best in their category, but not bad by any means.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hp-reverb-g2

https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex...eived_my_preorder_for_the_hp_reverb_g2_today/

Narrow FOV and tracking issues seem to be common themes.

I dunno, it sounds decent for the money, but it sounds like if you have the extra it's a better bet to go with the Index. Though they are still 8+ weeks out, so...
 
Sigghh. As a first time VR user I have no idea what to buy. I have a Reverb on preorder but all the complaints about bad tracking and cheap controllers are making me second guess. People are like "it's great for sims". Well that's great and all, but shouldn't a $600 next gen headset excel in all games?
 
It gets quite a bit of praise accross most catagories. Very comfortable. Top class headphones. Mic is very good when set at proper levels (default should be fixed soon) Bright colours and deep blacks. No god-rays. No light leak. Very sharp image for entire FOV (may be reason it has a slightly lower FOV). Good price. And inside out tracking better then all first gen WMR HMD. What games does it not excel in? Is there particular games that are poor user experiences on the G2?
 
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https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hp-reverb-g2

https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex...eived_my_preorder_for_the_hp_reverb_g2_today/

Narrow FOV and tracking issues seem to be common themes.

I dunno, it sounds decent for the money, but it sounds like if you have the extra it's a better bet to go with the Index. Though they are still 8+ weeks out, so...

Here is also this written by MRTV Sebastian who does not have any issues. This applies to first gen WMR headsers too. TLDR: Because WMR uses visible spectrum of light for tracking it is finicky about your room enviroment. You need details around the room so barren empty walls (and green screens) and floors without carpets are bad. It also needs enough light that the headset knows where it is but not too much so it would not overpower those leds in the controllers, or have reflecrions to confuse it. Mirrors, bright studio lights and sunlights from windows are bad and cause controller tracking issued

Someone posted a tip that you can use the flashlight feature which allows you to see what the headset sees for finding lighting related problem areas. Anyway, it IS a bummer that the tracking is finicky. Apparently Oculus has a patent on much better infrared tracking which is much less finicky as we know. I wonder how such patent is even possible because Nintendo had IR tracking on Wii way before Oculus. Maybe someone should try it in court.

*Edit* oops. Forgot the link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPReverb/comments/ju21g0/blinded_by_the_light_g2_tracking_what_not_to_do/
 
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Sigghh. As a first time VR user I have no idea what to buy. I have a Reverb on preorder but all the complaints about bad tracking and cheap controllers are making me second guess. People are like "it's great for sims". Well that's great and all, but shouldn't a $600 next gen headset excel in all games?
If all you play is flight sims and race games it only needs to excel at those. I’m getting one just for flight sims. If you’re going to do room scale gaming you might want to look elsewhere. I’m coming from a CV1 so the FOV doesn’t bother me.
 
If all you play is flight sims and race games it only needs to excel at those. I’m getting one just for flight sims. If you’re going to do room scale gaming you might want to look elsewhere. I’m coming from a CV1 so the FOV doesn’t bother me.
It's literally advertised as a "no compromise" headset. If it pigeonholes you into playing a small subset of games, then that's a pretty huge compromise. Most people buying VR headsets aren't limiting themselves to sims. A VR headset should be like a game console. Able to play any and all genres.
 
If all you play is flight sims and race games it only needs to excel at those. I’m getting one just for flight sims. If you’re going to do room scale gaming you might want to look elsewhere. I’m coming from a CV1 so the FOV doesn’t bother me.
What’s your IPD if you don’t mind me asking?
 
It's literally advertised as a "no compromise" headset. If it pigeonholes you into playing a small subset of games, then that's a pretty huge compromise. Most people buying VR headsets aren't limiting themselves to sims. A VR headset should be like a game console. Able to play any and all genres.
It's "able" to play most/all VR games, it just may not be the best experience. I don't see how they can claim it has "no compromises", clearly some compromises were made to keep the price down.
 
Not gonna lie, the tracking worries me too. Not the quality of the tracking (although some have problem with that too despite trying to adjust their room) but the volume. I do play Blade & Sorcery quite a bit and I am wondering how well the tracking and prediction is going to handle some postures and strikes. Overhead strike might not be a problem because it is a quick swing and the prediction should be able to pick it up. But using a spear in undergrip might be impossible from now on, the side camera probably wont see down to my side. This might actually be a problem with all thrusting weapons if I am also using a shield so that the weapon is held back protected by the shield. It might put it away from the cameras vision. We'll see, I will test all of this thorougly when mine arrives.
 
I primarily will play at night with overhead lighting that is not too bright. Likewise I am sure firmware updates will come that will improve things so while nervous I am not going to worry too much about it until I receive mine and can try it for myself.
 
What’s your IPD if you don’t mind me asking?
My IPD is 64. I don’t have a Reverb yet. Waiting in line. My CV1 hdmi cable broke. I was happy with CV1 ergonomics and would’ve kept it. Low res was not so nice but the immersion factor trumps in combat space and flight sims.
 
It's literally advertised as a "no compromise" headset. If it pigeonholes you into playing a small subset of games, then that's a pretty huge compromise. Most people buying VR headsets aren't limiting themselves to sims. A VR headset should be like a game console. Able to play any and all genres.
Nobody is putting a gun to your head to buy this thing and pigeonholing you into playing anything.

I agree with you mostly on what they promised. From an advertising point of view they’ve come up short. It has compromises but within my niche I can more than live with those.
 
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What are you on about?
A small subset of games...ya VR!
* Small subset of VR games
But yeah, I'm just going to stop making assumptions because I haven't actually tried one. I'm just on the fence is all because I was all excited about getting this thing but then people started bringing up bad tracking.
 
It's "able" to play most/all VR games, it just may not be the best experience. I don't see how they can claim it has "no compromises", clearly some compromises were made to keep the price down.
The only thing they didnt compromise on was the resolution and optics.

Everyone knows the reverb is a sim headset, the G2 is no different. It is the best sim headset. They have improved the tracking a bit by adding cameras, they have improved the controllers a bit. But make no mistake, they compromised on the controllers, they compromised on the tracking, they compromised on the comfort of the headset the ability to adjust it (no eye relief, no rear adjustment knob). The only thing comfort wise it has going for it is that its slightly lighter than the index.

It has the best optics and best screen you can strap to your eyes and thats it. Thats why its the best for sims.
If they would put these screens and optics in the index, that would be the no compromises package.

As someone who owns both I would say stick with the index if you want to play made for VR experiences that generally dont really need high resolution displays to look good. But if you want to play with the highest fidelity graphics, sacrificing other areas for those graphics- for example the kind of person that mods the shit of skyrim and plays that in VR, or you like to play a lot of racing and flying sims, then the G2 is by far the better experience. I mean with the index you have to squint to read some gauges in aircraft, and even then its hard to make them out. With the G2 its finally like playing on a 1080p 2D monitor, the resolution is finally getting there.

Next gen headset from Valve or whoever will be amazing.
 
Only played Super Hot and some Electronauts thus far. Super Hot was great fun. Took a bit to get the IPD set and may need to adjust a bit more. Have to get used to not moving my eyes around as much or things get fuzzy and the blur wears on my eyes. They feel a bit fatigued now and tired.

I did notice some tracking issues with my overhead light on. Will give it a try without the light on tomorrow. Pain in the butt to take apart my NV Surround configuration to play and pack it all up so the kiddo doesnt mess with it in the morning but that is part of the benefit here in its not too bad to put away. I am glad I got this one thus far with the display quality being what it is. Lower resolution, screen door and other issues would probably induce a migraine for me.

Tracking in what I played was really not that bad. If my arms were too close to my body for too long that is when I noticed most of the issues. If they moved through then no big deal. I have a shooter game from the humble bundle so we'll see in a more focused game. The front got warmer than I would prefer but I was very impressed for my first modern VR experience and cant wait to try out some more games and tinker around with things. Do need to adjust my room mapping though.
 
I'm loving the visual fidelity improvement over my Rift S, but hating the hardware requirement. I'm running a 5700 (non XT) and have been playing a modded Skyrim VR almost exclusively. To maintain 90 fps, I have my SteamVR SS set to 50%, and I still get dips into the upper 70 fps at times. I decided to try lowering the WMR framerate from 90hz to 60hz and could tell the framerate difference, but not by much. I then slowly played with my SteamVR SS settings to see how much higher I could set it, while still maintaining 60 fps, and I've settled on 85%. I know the math doesn't work out, but it works. Going from 50% to 85% is a massive upgrade in visual fidelity, with a small sacrifice in smoothness of gameplay. This is only a temporary fix, until I can get my hands on a 3080 or 6800 XT, but it's making my Skyrim VR experience much better. I was at the point of not using it until I got a new video card, but this is working out pretty well.
 
I'm loving the visual fidelity improvement over my Rift S, but hating the hardware requirement. I'm running a 5700 (non XT) and have been playing a modded Skyrim VR almost exclusively. To maintain 90 fps, I have my SteamVR SS set to 50%, and I still get dips into the upper 70 fps at times. I decided to try lowering the WMR framerate from 90hz to 60hz and could tell the framerate difference, but not by much. I then slowly played with my SteamVR SS settings to see how much higher I could set it, while still maintaining 60 fps, and I've settled on 85%. I know the math doesn't work out, but it works. Going from 50% to 85% is a massive upgrade in visual fidelity, with a small sacrifice in smoothness of gameplay. This is only a temporary fix, until I can get my hands on a 3080 or 6800 XT, but it's making my Skyrim VR experience much better. I was at the point of not using it until I got a new video card, but this is working out pretty well.
how modded? i have had skyrim vr for over a year and never owned a hmd yet:) got it on sale and been waiting to enter the market ever since. but i normally mod my skyrim until it breaks, then go back one step:)

i have a 3080 on order and it should beat the g2 getting here by a wide margin it looks like and i can't wait for skyrim and fallout vr.
 
4k landscape textures, high quality meshes, realistic weather, ENB, realistic water. Those aren't the actual names (I'm not home right now) but I did install those types of mods. Just a quick and dirty to test out the G2. When I get a new video card, I'm going to do a fresh install of Skyrim VR and really sit down for a day and mod it one at a time and get it just how I want it. Then, I'll start a fresh playthrough. Playing as a stealth archer, with a bound bow, is so much fun. I just got to Blackreach last night and it's unreal in VR.
 
how modded? i have had skyrim vr for over a year and never owned a hmd yet:) got it on sale and been waiting to enter the market ever since. but i normally mod my skyrim until it breaks, then go back one step:)

i have a 3080 on order and it should beat the g2 getting here by a wide margin it looks like and i can't wait for skyrim and fallout vr.

Just so you know, Fallout 4 VR is a buggy and slow mess. Bethesda really screwed the pooch with that one and they never updated it properly. Hell, they never even released DLC's for it though with some tweaking (meaning copying the data files from vanilla FO4 and ini tweaks) some of them work somewhat well in it. Vanilla FO4 already had very bad requirements for both GPU and CPU (considering how the game actually looks) and VR version is worse, MUCH worse. I cannot run it properly with my Ryzen 5 3600 and GTX1080 unless I turn settings way down and downsample the resolution,with a god damn Rift CV1!!! If you have a beefy CPU then RTX3080 might just be enough for it, might.

Skyrim VR however is amazing, especially with mods. It runs well, looks amazing and while the UI still sucks (even more so than vanilla) the game feels like new in VR. Hihgly recommended.
 
More awesome hardware that's impossible to get! I was hoping to be upgraded to a 5950X, 3080 and G2 by now but none available...
 
Been out of this VR loop for 5 years. Bought a CV1 on release. Then went and bought 2 additional sensor thingies and did the whole room VR experience. Played it for 3 months and put it all away for five years. I decided it was just too damn blurry and never bothered with it again. Now I'm looking to get back into VR. Thinking about buying this Reverb G2. I don't plan on standing up or walking around or doing anything that requires physical activity. I plan on sitting at my computer with an Xbox controller in my hand. You guys think buying the Reverb G2 just for the headset is worth it? Doubt I'll ever use the controllers.
 
Been out of this VR loop for 5 years. Bought a CV1 on release. Then went and bought 2 additional sensor thingies and did the whole room VR experience. Played it for 3 months and put it all away for five years. I decided it was just too damn blurry and never bothered with it again. Now I'm looking to get back into VR. Thinking about buying this Reverb G2. I don't plan on standing up or walking around or doing anything that requires physical activity. I plan on sitting at my computer with an Xbox controller in my hand. You guys think buying the Reverb G2 just for the headset is worth it? Doubt I'll ever use the controllers.

For that I am 100% sure it is a perfect. G1 was already sim users favourite and G2 is better in every regard. Apparently the only problem with G2 is the limited tracking volume of the controllers but for sitting down and sim use it is the best HMD you can get unless you absolutely need a super wide FOV. In that case you want Pimax 8KX.
 
For that I am 100% sure it is a perfect. G1 was already sim users favourite and G2 is better in every regard. Apparently the only problem with G2 is the limited tracking volume of the controllers but for sitting down and sim use it is the best HMD you can get unless you absolutely need a super wide FOV. In that case you want Pimax 8KX.
I'm sure somewhere down the line, they'll make some VR gloves and that's when I'll get back into the whole stand up and move around experience. For now, I'm glued to my desk. Anything else to be released in near term that rivals or beats the G2 in terms of visuals?
 
I'm sure somewhere down the line, they'll make some VR gloves and that's when I'll get back into the whole stand up and move around experience. For now, I'm glued to my desk. Anything else to be released in near term that rivals or beats the G2 in terms of visuals?

Not that we know. Samsung maybe has something planned according to some leaked images but nobody knows anything about specs. Hell, maybe the whole thing was just a plan that was scrapped, who knows. And people have been talking about Decagear but it is a small company and it is unlikely that they manage to produce anything viable within the rather optimistic timeframe they have given.
 
I decided to cancel my G2 preorder as well. I have not yet gotten the Q2 but after some serious thinking no matter which one I buy I have a SEVERE need to upgrade my GPU. My GTX1080 non-Ti is not even nearly powerful enough to render G2 in full resolution nor Q2 because it also had to do video encoding on fly.

So I decided to gamble: put my VR money on Quest 2 for now and tomorrow when preorders for the RX6800 non-reference cards open I try to grab one. If I had kept my G2 preorder I could not have gotten a better GPU for quite some time.
 
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