VR Headset options

Psittac · July 15, 2022

I have the original oculus rift that I got a number of years ago, and I haven't really used it a whole lot. Recently I got into DCS world and for the first time I have a legit use for it, however the screen door effect and low resolution makes it impossible to make distant objects out, ex: when I'm practicing takeoff and landing I don't see the airport until it's way to late and my approach angle is way off.

So I'm wondering what my options are for an upgrade.

I'm not OVERLY concerned with price but it does matter and my system is competent enough for anything I'd be doing with it. 3900x 32gb rtx3080 nvme

I'm also going to be building a sim rig this year or next so something good for that would be nice.

I'm not a fan of inside out tracking and I don't have any desire for stand alone

Is there something current or upcoming that should meet my needs? I mean the quest2 seems like an overall upgrade but I'd like to spend a little more and get something a little better.

TheChromaBristlenose · July 16, 2022

I'd go with the HP Reverb G2 if possible. The image quality is the best you can get without splashing out a few more grand on top, and when it comes to DCS resolution really is critical. The Quest 2 isn't bad either and it's certainly a lot cheaper, but the image compression artifacts you get through Oculus Link is pretty terrible in that game.

As for your rig, you should be fine but definitely don't expect to run everything on max settings. DCS is just terribly optimised for VR (and in general), and 10GB of VRAM at these resolutions will become an issue in multiplayer or crowded missions. Dropping terrain textures to low would be the first thing I'd do if you run into performance problems.

trufret · July 20, 2022

I'm currently using a Reverb G2 for DCS and for price to performance for for racing and flying, it's probably where you want to go.
There is a caveat though, even with the extra cameras the tracking of the controllers isn't great. I found that out playing VTOLVR and lose throttle tracking regularly when looking up. If you're only playing with a HOTAS or Racing wheel in sims then it's not really an issue and you should be fine.

If you plan to play any roomscale games with tracked controllers you may be better off with a lighthouse based system like a Valve Index although the screen isn't as clear or a Pimax although it's a more finicky setup with their Pitool. The HTC Vive 2 would give you a good combo of high screen resolution and good tracking although the price is pretty high and I'd still want the Valve controllers over the HTC wands

I upgraded from a 3900X to a 5900X and noticed a decent frame rate improvement paired with a 6800XT although I'd think the 5800X3D with the extra cache would be a better bet right now than the extra cores. There is a slight GHZ drop from the 5900X though.

VRPerfkit or the OpenXR toolkit (If you go Reverb G2) are also some options to up the FPS in VR by using AMD image up-scaling (No DLSS support in DCS yet) or cutting out the SteamVR layer respectively.