Oculus Quest 2

I've been using Virtual Desktop with the new Contrast Adaptive Sharpening and damn it makes a massive difference. I had the render scale cranked before and could see the compression pretty easily depending on the scene, but with this sharpening algorithm I can lower the render scaling by a ton and it actually looks better. I don't see any compression artifacting at all (because very little compression needs to happen with high bitrates at lower resolution) and I get way higher framerates. It's a mind blowing difference. I can get 120 fps on games I would struggle to get 30 fps and the sharpening algorithm's artifacting is way less apparent than the compression artifacting.
I can see why Pimax and Valve are putting processors in their upcoming headsets for split rendering. Rendering out "retina" resolutions on future headsets actually seems plausible with this and foveated rendering.
 
As founder of Blur Busters, the "screen technology" in the Quest 2 is of very huge interest to me -- it is apparently one of the fastest LCD's ever released to consumers, with a virtually perfect GtG100% heatmap and zero strobe crosstalk top/center/bottom.

It's shockingly better than OLED (except blacks, but that will be fixed with FALD VR which I saw a prototype of). I've written about how LCD VR has out-engineered OLED VR, in this this post thread, where Oculus Quest 2 has only one-sixth the display motion blur of the original OLED Oculus Rift.

About battery talk -- my favourite USB battery for the Quest is is the Charmast 10400 which can output a whopping 18 watts. It's one of the world's smallest USB-C Power Delivery power bank containing a bidirectional USB-C port that can output/input power very fast. It can recharge the Quest 2 faster than it discharges. And the power bank can recharges faster on an 18W USB-C charger than the Quest 2 can discharge off a second Charmast 10400. So you can hotswap between 2 batteries all day for unlimited Quest 2 battery life, if you wished. Those power banks are surprisingly tiny for quite powerful ultra-fast-charging battery banks available on Amazon. It's just the right weight to counterbalance the headset, by using a velcro strap to strap the battery to the back of the Quest 2 battery strap at back of my head, along with an 8-inch USB-C cable. Or a 4 foot USB-C cable to my pocket, if I prefer not to wear the weight of the battery.

An interesting observation: My vision is farsighted (hard to focus on near-plane items), however, the way Quest 2 optics is designed seems to be far-sighted-friendly, because I can see close objects more clearly in Quest 2 than I can in real life (e.g. objects 12 inches from my face). It's very near-sighted unfriendly though without glasses.

One surprise I found with Quest 2 is that you can just mail an unopened boxed Quest 2 to a 70-year-old in a locked-down nursing home, and they managed to figure out how to set it up without IT technical support (As long as the glasses problem isn't a showstopper for the person). Not to mention that it's cheaper than an annual gym membership with exercise apps such as It's 10x+ easier to setup than any other VR headset, and provide a few nice 3D virtual vacation apps (like Alcove) and 360 degree videos, which probably partly explains why 50% of Quest 2 purchasers are non-gamers. No wonder Oculus Store sales are taking off...

What I would love to do is to see some GtG heatmapping done on the Valve Index LCD or the Quest 2 VR LCD, since at 0.3ms real-world MPRT, it's more than an order of magnitude superior to a 240Hz desktop gaming monitor in motion resolution, with some of the cleanest GtG I've ever seen on any retail LCD ever, and truly beats CRT motion clarity (without color compromise, without ghosting compromise, no duplicate images, no crosstalk!)

What piques my interest is combining these shockingly good VR LCDs with a full array local dimming backlight of several thousand LEDs (MicroLED FALD) -- preferably 100,000 dimming zones to go bloomfree. (Still cheaper than a direct-view MicroLED). I saw a prototype of FALD VR and I hope some vendor implements that for perfect LCD blacks, whether it be Valve Index 2 or Quest 3 or other.

The Quest 2 LCD is fantastic enough to be also a legitimate gaming monitor for regular PC gaming via Virtual Desktop. A bit laggy (but not as laggy as an LG OLED HDTV), but perfectly fine for solo games. Play Cyberpunk 2077 or other games on your PC, but wear your VR headset as your computer monitor staring at an IMAX-sized computer monitor with better quality and less motion blur than your original gaming desktop monitor. Make sure you do framerate=Hz to get the proper CRT effect, so fine-tune the refresh rate to match frame rate (or vice versa). It's like a Sony FW900 strapped to your eyes.

Also, another interesting discovery -- with a hack (i.e. VorpX) and a sufficiently powerful GPU, it will also support those old NVIDIA 3D Vision games (but no need for shutter glasses), viewing at a floating 3DTV screen in front of you that's more comfortable than shutter glasses. The simulated 3D stereoscopic PC computer monitor floating in front of you is visually massively more comfortable and visually less nauseating than Real3D or Disney3D cinema glasses or those old LCD shutter glasses. (Assuming, of course, the VR headset fits your vision profile fine; the headset is understandably heavier, it's much more visually comfortable to stare through than those old 3D movie glasses as it produces more realistic 3D more compatible with your human brain's processing of 3D)

I would like more choices (e.g. a Valve standalone headset etc.) since flexible VR headsets is the way of the future.
- Double as cordless gaming monitor for non-VR games
- Double as cordless stereoscopic monitor for non-VR games
- Double as cordless standalone VR, no computer needed
- Double as PC VR (official corded & unofficial cordless operation)
- Double as an offline movie viewer (sit in an IMAX theater in an airplane seat).

The Quest/Quest 2 is the only headset that can do all the above -- that said, given the Facebook angle -- I would like to see more choices (e.g. Valve standalone) of this incredibly good VR convergence, as much as I am fascinated by the blur-busting screen technologies utilized by VR.
I needed to read this thanks for your time
 
I've been using Virtual Desktop with the new Contrast Adaptive Sharpening and damn it makes a massive difference. I had the render scale cranked before and could see the compression pretty easily depending on the scene, but with this sharpening algorithm I can lower the render scaling by a ton and it actually looks better. I don't see any compression artifacting at all (because very little compression needs to happen with high bitrates at lower resolution) and I get way higher framerates. It's a mind blowing difference. I can get 120 fps on games I would struggle to get 30 fps and the sharpening algorithm's artifacting is way less apparent than the compression artifacting.
I can see why Pimax and Valve are putting processors in their upcoming headsets for split rendering. Rendering out "retina" resolutions on future headsets actually seems plausible with this and foveated rendering.
Just only seeing this now.

Co-GPU operation on both ends of a VR link is a good enhancement. It’s also a frame rate amplification technology path too, where the main GPU renders a lower frame rate and the co-GPU reprojects it to higher resolution and higher frame rate.

Concurrent DLSS and ASW syle algorithms can be offloaded to a display side co-GPU for spatial and temporal improvements over the next ten years. Ocukus AirLink is a great example of an early “co-GPU powered” system for this, with GPUs on both sides of a display cable/link/signal.

Through this method, we may be able to get low-persistence sample and hold with no need for flicker or strobing, as some can’t stand VR (eyestrain) due the lack of an option of concurrent blurless+strobeless. Low persistence sample and hold (strobeless motion blur reduction) requires quadruple digit frame rate at quadruple digit refresh rate, to do ergonomic PWM-free motion blur reduction.
 
Question: I have the CV1 and the Oculus account created a few years ago which is not tied to Facebook. If I update to the Quest 2 (which says a Facebook account is needed), will it force me to connect to FB or will the original Oculus account/software recognize the Q2 and just work without connecting to FB?
 
Question: I have the CV1 and the Oculus account created a few years ago which is not tied to Facebook. If I update to the Quest 2 (which says a Facebook account is needed), will it force me to connect to FB or will the original Oculus account/software recognize the Q2 and just work without connecting to FB?
It will convert your current Oculus account into a Facebook account if you want to use that account.
 
Question: I have the CV1 and the Oculus account created a few years ago which is not tied to Facebook. If I update to the Quest 2 (which says a Facebook account is needed), will it force me to connect to FB or will the original Oculus account/software recognize the Q2 and just work without connecting to FB?

If you are willing to wait a bit and you do not want to link your social media account to your Quest 2 Facebook did say that they will stop doing that at next year and conversion to Meta is fully complete. I mean, the company will still get all the data they want but at least they are finally realising that users want to keep Facebook social media activity separate from the VR enviroment. Right now it is incredibly risky because if you use FB actively and Facebook AI decides to ban you for some reason you will also lose access to all your VR games. This should stop from happening next year if I understood correctly.
 
Thanks. Which part was the most informative part for you?

The VR comfort info? The standalone VR idea? The VorpX app for 3D Vision?

(Just curious)
About the viewing while being nearsighted as well as the quality and comparison of the screen, the stand-alone info, and the VorpX app for 3D vision.
 
It will convert your current Oculus account into a Facebook account if you want to use that account.

If you are willing to wait a bit and you do not want to link your social media account to your Quest 2 Facebook did say that they will stop doing that at next year and conversion to Meta is fully complete. I mean, the company will still get all the data they want but at least they are finally realising that users want to keep Facebook social media activity separate from the VR enviroment. Right now it is incredibly risky because if you use FB actively and Facebook AI decides to ban you for some reason you will also lose access to all your VR games. This should stop from happening next year if I understood correctly.
Thanks. There is a deal going on right now so was going to jump on it, but i REALLY didn't want to link the FB account. Waiting to see what they do to the Oculus/Meta account instead of Facebook could take a while.
Thinking about it more, I do use the same email address on both. Would be naive of me to think they cant link them behind the scenes anyways if they wanted to.
Reading up on it more, seems I can change privacy settings on VR to not show FB info, and I can also limit VR activity being show in FB. I am a lurker on FB and mainly use it for Messenger with friends. Only thing on my page are happy b'day messages back and forth. Last actual information shared openly with friends was 12 years ago with pics of my first kid. Don't care to share VR stuff with anyone or even let them know.
Will probably jump on the Q2 128Gb this week.
 
Thanks. There is a deal going on right now so was going to jump on it, but i REALLY didn't want to link the FB account. Waiting to see what they do to the Oculus/Meta account instead of Facebook could take a while.
Thinking about it more, I do use the same email address on both. Would be naive of me to think they cant link them behind the scenes anyways if they wanted to.
Reading up on it more, seems I can change privacy settings on VR to not show FB info, and I can also limit VR activity being show in FB. I am a lurker on FB and mainly use it for Messenger with friends. Only thing on my page are happy b'day messages back and forth. Last actual information shared openly with friends was 12 years ago with pics of my first kid. Don't care to share VR stuff with anyone or even let them know.
Will probably jump on the Q2 128Gb this week.

Yeah I set the privacy stuff in the quest and none of it shows up in facebook or to any of my FB friends. I basically never use FB either.
I really wouldn't worry about the whole FB account thing unless you actually post on FB and engage in "controversial" conversations on it that would put your account at risk.
 
Yeah I set the privacy stuff in the quest and none of it shows up in facebook or to any of my FB friends. I basically never use FB either.
I really wouldn't worry about the whole FB account thing unless you actually post on FB and engage in "controversial" conversations on it that would put your account at risk.
That is exactly why I can't stand the idea with that FB link. I shouldn't speak up, stay quiet otherwise I won't be able to play with my toy? What is considered controversial vice the normal clear rules like this forum has? There isn't, it is basically whims of a group that can change focus and standards on the fly. Enough said. FB -> Nope. Meta???
 
I own the rift but i picked this up on black friday. Gotta say playing beat saber without cables is great and i actually found the tracking to be as good as my rift with 2 sensors. Seemed like i uad fewr misses even. So far i dont mind the basic strap bit the audio sucks compared to rift so i need a good set of headphones. Resolution is a nice bump up. Cant wait to get a link cable so i can try out and compare halflife alyx.
 
I own the rift but i picked this up on black friday. Gotta say playing beat saber without cables is great and i actually found the tracking to be as good as my rift with 2 sensors. Seemed like i uad fewr misses even. So far i dont mind the basic strap bit the audio sucks compared to rift so i need a good set of headphones. Resolution is a nice bump up. Cant wait to get a link cable so i can try out and compare halflife alyx.
Um you just talked about how good it was playing without a cable so why would you get the link cable for pc when you can just use airlink?
 
Um you just talked about how good it was playing without a cable so why would you get the link cable for pc when you can just use airlink?

Charge while gaming? The battery life in Quest 2 isn't very good. You can always go around with a battery bank in pocket. And surprisingly (at least in my system) Airlink performs better than Link cable.
 
For me there doesn't even seem to be a visual quality difference between wired and wireless (Airlink) on the Quest 2, even when I go up to 500mb/s with the cable, it seems like total overkill without much benefit.

And I'm not saying it looks perfect, video compression is definitely noticeable at times but just zero reason for me to play wired anymore (I do have an extra battery though, stock battery is definitely too small for some sessions especially with 120hz mode).
 
Um you just talked about how good it was playing without a cable so why would you get the link cable for pc when you can just use airlink?

I rent the basement suite and get my wifi internet from buddy upstairs. I prob need to arrange upgrading the router to get a good enough signal for air link. I will give it a try though.
 
I rent the basement suite and get my wifi internet from buddy upstairs. I prob need to arrange upgrading the router to get a good enough signal for air link. I will give it a try though.

A $70 wifi 6 router works really well if you're only a few feet away, and it's cheaper than the official link cable.
 
Figured I'd chime in here since I just got a Quest 2 to upgrade from my OG Vive. I have to say, it's been working better than expected.

The inside-out tracking isn't flawless, but it's maybe barely worse than the lightbox tracking of the gen 1 vive system. Not something I'd get hung up on if I were looking at buying it.

The controllers are way better than the vive controllers, but those OG vive wands have always been its weakest link IMO.

The screen quality upgrade from the Vive is pretty big. Much less "screen door" as people call it. The one oculus store game I have runs pretty smooth and looks great (robo recall).

The Air Link feature is the thing that made me want to get this system, though, and it hasn't disappointed. After the initial setup of enabling it, it's super easy and just flat out works. Once you've gone wireless there's no going back when it comes to standing/roomscale games. That's been a pretty huge drawback from the beginning on my Vive -- everyone hates worrying about the cord and tripping over it and having it get twisted up etc etc. For a living room device, this really changes everything. I can just turn on the headset, turn on the pc, enable airlink and go.

I was going to keep the vive and just move it to my desktop in the basement for seated games like sims and such, but now I realize how silly that idea is. I can just take the Quest 2 down there. . . it has better screens . . . I suppose I'll look into the index controllers and see how difficult they'd be to set up with the quest, since I already have the lighthouse boxes. Has anyone here done this? Is it worth it? Are there games outside of Alyx that take advantage? I'm playing through Alyx now with the Quest 2 controllers and it really works great, but I'm super curious about those index controllers lol.
 
Figured I'd chime in here since I just got a Quest 2 to upgrade from my OG Vive. I have to say, it's been working better than expected.

The inside-out tracking isn't flawless, but it's maybe barely worse than the lightbox tracking of the gen 1 vive system. Not something I'd get hung up on if I were looking at buying it.

The controllers are way better than the vive controllers, but those OG vive wands have always been its weakest link IMO.

The screen quality upgrade from the Vive is pretty big. Much less "screen door" as people call it. The one oculus store game I have runs pretty smooth and looks great (robo recall).

The Air Link feature is the thing that made me want to get this system, though, and it hasn't disappointed. After the initial setup of enabling it, it's super easy and just flat out works. Once you've gone wireless there's no going back when it comes to standing/roomscale games. That's been a pretty huge drawback from the beginning on my Vive -- everyone hates worrying about the cord and tripping over it and having it get twisted up etc etc. For a living room device, this really changes everything. I can just turn on the headset, turn on the pc, enable airlink and go.

I was going to keep the vive and just move it to my desktop in the basement for seated games like sims and such, but now I realize how silly that idea is. I can just take the Quest 2 down there. . . it has better screens . . . I suppose I'll look into the index controllers and see how difficult they'd be to set up with the quest, since I already have the lighthouse boxes. Has anyone here done this? Is it worth it? Are there games outside of Alyx that take advantage? I'm playing through Alyx now with the Quest 2 controllers and it really works great, but I'm super curious about those index controllers lol.

I know people who have both controllers who prefer the Quest 2 controllers and I know people who prefer the Knuckle Controllers. I think it depends on your hand size.

There aren't many games that take advantage of the knuckle controllers. I don't think they are that hard to setup and since you have the Lighthouses already, the only cost will be the knuckle controllers and the Steam Dongles. You might not even have to buy the Steam Dongles if you still have the Vive and the wands.

And, I am the same as you, the ease of use of the Quest 2 is just a huge plus. You will lose a lot of that if you go with the knuckle controllers. I think you have to recalibrate them every time you use them. Things might have moved on since I last checked this out.
 
A few times, airlink worked great, even with HL Alyx, but there are times you get the HMD not found error pop up. Once you launch Quest, what do you have to open, or sequence? Should I launch Oculus PC app, Steam and Steam VR first before trying to open any Steam games?
 
A few times, airlink worked great, even with HL Alyx, but there are times you get the HMD not found error pop up. Once you launch Quest, what do you have to open, or sequence? Should I launch Oculus PC app, Steam and Steam VR first before trying to open any Steam games?
I haven't used air link much recently, but that sounds right.

You might want to consider trying out Virtual Desktop. It's paid, but worth it IMO. All you need to use it is to run the Virtual Desktop app on your PC, then open it on your Quest 2. It will automatically start Steam VR or whatever you need to run games.

It has SSW, so basically when your Quest 2 isn't receiving frames fast enough it will interpolate and create frames on the Q2 hardware.
It also has Contrast Adaptive Sharpening which also runs on the Quest 2 hardware itself. So the upscaling of the image happens after the frame is sent to the Quest 2 instead scaling it on your PC then compressing it and degrading the image before it's sent to the headset, using more bandwidth causing more potential dropped frames, etc.


And they're working on adding more features, and have pretty much constant updates. For example they just added a video player for 3D or flat videos that lets you stream from your PC or save them to your Q2 and watch them without your PC.
 
I haven't used air link much recently, but that sounds right.

You might want to consider trying out Virtual Desktop. It's paid, but worth it IMO. All you need to use it is to run the Virtual Desktop app on your PC, then open it on your Quest 2. It will automatically start Steam VR or whatever you need to run games.

It has SSW, so basically when your Quest 2 isn't receiving frames fast enough it will interpolate and create frames on the Q2 hardware.
It also has Contrast Adaptive Sharpening which also runs on the Quest 2 hardware itself. So the upscaling of the image happens after the frame is sent to the Quest 2 instead scaling it on your PC then compressing it and degrading the image before it's sent to the headset, using more bandwidth causing more potential dropped frames, etc.


And they're working on adding more features, and have pretty much constant updates. For example they just added a video player for 3D or flat videos that lets you stream from your PC or save them to your Q2 and watch them without your PC.
Thanks I did get virtual desktop but may need some tweaking as you mentioned. I didnt try it enough. Would you suggest turning down settings in the game itself, and what about speeds to run it at?
 
Thanks I did get virtual desktop but may need some tweaking as you mentioned. I didnt try it enough. Would you suggest turning down settings in the game itself, and what about speeds to run it at?

I set it to 120hz and increased the bitrate a bit, I don't remember the exact number. I think most of my other settings are the defaults.

What you want really depends on your PC, router, and personal preference for framerate/latency/quality.

I think the default works pretty well, just depends if you want higher quality or lower latency, and maybe it depends on the game you play for what you want. I think there is also an auto bitrate option, but I haven't messed with it.
 
A few times, airlink worked great, even with HL Alyx, but there are times you get the HMD not found error pop up. Once you launch Quest, what do you have to open, or sequence? Should I launch Oculus PC app, Steam and Steam VR first before trying to open any Steam games?

You have to make sure link is enabled on the headset first - it disables itself (at least on mine) every time I reboot, which is a pita. I put the headset on, enable link in the headset, then launch the PC app and make sure it finds the headset and it pretty much always works unless a driver update is needed.
 
I got one for Christmas and not a huge fan myself. How is the secondary market for one of these?
 
What dont you like about it?
Well first off I despise Facebook and this was a gift as I would have never bought it in the first place. Second the games are just meh to me but again the concept seems awesome, just not for me.
 
Well first off I despise Facebook and this was a gift as I would have never bought it in the first place. Second the games are just meh to me but again the concept seems awesome, just not for me.
The on-headset games are very underwhelming. This headset shines when you do PCVR with it though, wireless VR is awesome. But yeah the Facebook requirement is tough to swallow.

Not sure about the second-hand market, but I'm guessing now would be a good time to sell. Kids probably see their friends getting them for Christmas and want to join the fun
 
A few times, airlink worked great, even with HL Alyx, but there are times you get the HMD not found error pop up. Once you launch Quest, what do you have to open, or sequence? Should I launch Oculus PC app, Steam and Steam VR first before trying to open any Steam games?
Late response but all you need to do is make sure the oculus app on your pc is running first.

Then just put on the quest 2 and activate air link from the in-headset menus. Then you can open a desktop view and activate steam and steam vr from there.
 
Late response but all you need to do is make sure the oculus app on your pc is running first.

Then just put on the quest 2 and activate air link from the in-headset menus. Then you can open a desktop view and activate steam and steam vr from there.
Those options for Air Link are in the "experimental" sections of the quest 2 and the Oculus app, just in case youre having a tough time finding them.
 
If you are on Win 10 then stick with it as Oculus is too fucking sorry to fix the Link issues on Win 11.
 
Those options for Air Link are in the "experimental" sections of the quest 2 and the Oculus app, just in case youre having a tough time finding them.

Oh, true, but that's just the first time you enable it. After that it's just a regular option when you open the "settings/options" window (I honestly can't remember what they call it but it's on the left side).
 
Anyone used one of these without setting up a FB account? I just learned that its a thing apparently since last year, using some sort of dev account. I would only care about using it via Steam games. Walmart had a $199 refurb deal last week apparently but if I can use this without FB, even $299 is tempting.

Supposedly they are going to end the requirement of using FB soon but that seems rumor from what I've read.
 
I got this headset from the Walmart refurb deal (which appears to keep coming in and out of stock)

Really nice playing games without a wire and local on the device. I did try Air Link but it was pretty choppy (apparently a known Windows 11 issue?). However, I got ALVR sideloaded and that runs super smooth streaming SteamVR. And it's free unlike Virtual Desktop.
 
I got this headset from the Walmart refurb deal (which appears to keep coming in and out of stock)

Really nice playing games without a wire and local on the device. I did try Air Link but it was pretty choppy (apparently a known Windows 11 issue?). However, I got ALVR sideloaded and that runs super smooth streaming SteamVR. And it's free unlike Virtual Desktop.
Do you have a good router? One that is capable of at min the cord speed is best.
 
Do you have a good router? One that is capable of at min the cord speed is best.

I have the Deco x20 which is WiFi 6 and fast.

Don't think it's possible to ever theoretically hit cord speeds on WiFi, and I don't need to as it's capped to <100mbps I believe (at least I set it in that for ALVR.)

As I said ALVR works well and I bet Virtual Desktop would if I paid for it, there seems to be a bug with AirLink but I'm not going to uninstall Windows to confirm that.
 
For those of you that have tried the prescription lens addons: did you get the blue light filter and does it affect the color of the screens?
 
I have the Deco x20 which is WiFi 6 and fast.

Don't think it's possible to ever theoretically hit cord speeds on WiFi, and I don't need to as it's capped to <100mbps I believe (at least I set it in that for ALVR.)

As I said ALVR works well and I bet Virtual Desktop would if I paid for it, there seems to be a bug with AirLink but I'm not going to uninstall Windows to confirm that.

If you have an AMD card, that would explain the problem you are having with Airlink and why you are capped at 100Mbps. Nvidia's Turing and Ampere cards can go to 200Mbps.
 
If you have an AMD card, that would explain the problem you are having with Airlink and why you are capped at 100Mbps. Nvidia's Turing and Ampere cards can go to 200Mbps.

I have an Nvidia card. Truthfully I didn't play around with it too much, it did not feel laggy or with graphical artifacts, it just felt choppy / microstuttery. I don't have the problem with ALVR which is also wireless.

I'll try again. I also just discovered my mobo does not have a usb-c port so I can't even test that out.
 
I have an Nvidia card. Truthfully I didn't play around with it too much, it did not feel laggy or with graphical artifacts, it just felt choppy / microstuttery. I don't have the problem with ALVR which is also wireless.

I'll try again. I also just discovered my mobo does not have a usb-c port so I can't even test that out.

Sorry, I didn't read your signature!! It's odd, Ampere cards normally work very well with AirLink.

You don't need a USB C port to connect with a cable. Anker and Kiwi design make cables that are USB A to USB C for the Quest 2.
 
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