Feedback wanted for Rift S

[UMC 22]

Greetings all,

After two and a half years of use my Rift is having a few issues. Chief among them is that I lost audio in the right earphone yesterday. Given the importance of audio for situational awareness in simulations, this constitutes a game-breaking problem. It's actually a known flaw with the Rift, and if you're willing to jump through a few hoops you can get a workaround/fix for free. However, given my headset's other minor issues I think it's time to bite the bullet and get a new one. I'm looking at the Rift S for two reasons, the price and the fact that half the VR games I own are via the Oculus store.

I realise there's plenty of sources for info out there but I prefer opinions from a community I know, especially since sims account for the bulk of my VR use. So to those who own one already, what do you think of it? How does it compare to the previous Rift? How is the tracking in movement-heavy games (eg, Beat Sabre) since it no longer uses external sensors? Are the old motion controllers compatible? Any noticeable drop in performance? (I'm on a i7 and 1060.) How are the lenses with an IPD of ~60mm?

Note that I'm only looking for feedback on the Rift S, so please don't suggest other headsets. I can neither afford them, nor do I want to lose my current library of games.

Thanks in advance!


Edit 03/03/20:

In case anyone else is looking for feedback, here is mine having now bought a Rift S.

So far I've tried BeatSaber, IL-2 Sturmovik, and R3E. There's plenty of full reviews out there, so I'll stick with the pros/cons as I see them:

• Pro: Graphics. The S only has a slightly higher overall resolution than the CV1, but the difference in sharpness and clarity is like night and day. I was genuinely surprised by the massive improvement!
• Pro: Tracking. No more constantly resetting my VR position, and no more weird hand movements. An indication of how much better the tracking is is that I beat nearly all of my old highscores in BeatSabre on my first go with the S.
• Pro: Comfort. The S may look bulkier than the CV1 but it doesn't feel it. The "halo" system is superior to the old headstraps, as well as being instantly adjustable for any user.
• Pro: One cable, one USB port. No more wires all over my walls and ceiling to achieve room-scale gameplay!
• Pro: No misting! For whatever reason the lenses didn't mist up once, unlike the CV1 who's lenses would mist the moment I put the thing on my head.

• Con: Audio. The built-in speakers are absolutely terrible. Oculus clearly knew this, which is why they've provided a headphone jack built into the headset. Using it with your own headphones is a must.
• Con: No mechanical IPD adjustment. With an IPD of 60mm I'm inside the "compatible" zone, but by deliberately mis-adjusting the headset I can see how terrible it would look to anyone who falls outside.
• Con: Controllers. Compared to the CV1 they feel light, somewhat flimsy, and are probably easily broken if accidentally slammed into a wall... something my old controllers have miraculously survived many times without issue.
• Con: Colour. The colours aren't quite as deep and vivid as in the CV1, though if you'd never used a CV1 you probably wouldn't even notice.
• Con: Audio. The built-in speakers are absolutely terrible. Worth mentioning twice because they're really that bad for anyone who wants any semblance of bass in their audio experience.

Overall the S is a definite upgrade over the CV1, and I'm perfectly happy with it. The graphics are better than expected, and the audio is as bad as expected, so there were no negative surprises. Given the easy fix to the audio by using your own or doing this, I don't consider it a reason not to buy one. A tiny part of me is glad my CV1 decided to become defective, despite the cost.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Thanks for this down to earth mini review Ross.
Maybe I should use the time until Pimax get their things together (8KX) and introduce myself to VR via the S.
Hehe maybe

 

[Calvyn White]

@Calvyn White, when the lenses are fit, is there much room left between them and your eyes? I ask because I find that with no extra lenses my eyelashes already brush the lenses sometimes which can be quite irritating. (Yes, I have rather long girly eyelashes compared to most men!) I can't speak of the length of my mate's eyelashes because we generally don't get that close to each other, but it might be something he needs to be aware of.

Sorry, but I can't tell you about the eyelashes touching the prescription lenses. Even though I've got them more than 7 months ago I'm yet to try them. In fact, I have spent part of the day trying to find them. Just to pop them in so I can answer your question. I will have another look tomorrow.

 

[BrunoBæ]

In fact, I have spent part of the day trying to find them.

There you see @Ross
Just as I told you that when you get older you more or less loose all your personal memory blocks.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Sorry Calvyn I couldnt help it. But I was proving something to the stubborn Ross

 

[Hawker77]

For the CV-1 audio cutting out - mine did that a couple of nights ago. I put on the headset after it worked perfectly the day before, and was like WHAT??? The fix is simple. Each earphone has a black flathead plastic screw holding them on. Those can become loose. Simply carefully tighten them and viola, back in business. Worked for me.

 

[Calvyn White]

Sorry, Ross I totally forgot about the lenses until I saw @Hawker77 post. Which I hate to think that it would have been that simple to fix the issue considering after the hassle and expense you've gone through.
Anyway, about lenses I cannot find them for love or money. I'm starting to think they may have been thrown out whilst moving my rig from my office to my games room and back again. Which meant cleaning and tidying up and disposing of rubbish. I'm wondering what else was thrown out, time will only tell.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Which meant cleaning and tidying up and disposing of rubbish. I'm wondering what else was thrown out, time will only tell.

Hey Calvyn
Are you sure your wife is still around?

 

[Calvyn White]

Hey Calvyn
Are you sure your wife is still around?

Well, I had a wife but since the divorce, she really hasn't been seen, since. And the only thing I got out of it was a brand new concrete floor for my basement.
Which reminds me I must go to the basement in feed my partner, she likes it down there, she really does.

 

[UMC 22]

For the CV-1 audio cutting out - mine did that a couple of nights ago. I put on the headset after it worked perfectly the day before, and was like WHAT??? The fix is simple. Each earphone has a black flathead plastic screw holding them on. Those can become loose. Simply carefully tighten them and viola, back in business. Worked for me.

That is one of the things that causes a loss of audio with the CV1 yes, but that wasn't the issue for me. Trust me, it was the first thing I tried. I even tried swapping the earphones over to see if it was the actual earphone that was broken or the wiring inside the headset headband. It was the wiring in the headset headband, a known quality flaw which Oculus never bothered to fix unfortunately. It can literally happen to any CV1 at any time, though well-used headsets are more likely to suffer from it.

 

[Calvyn White]

If or when I ever find my lenses I will set it all up again but now I'm afraid to look at it, let alone touch it. Admittedly I've never used the headphones that come with the Oculus anyway I preferred my 7.1 headphones. And to be honest I never thought the Oculus Rift was built with quality in mind. You get what you pay for but that still makes the price a little high. Consumerism built to last as long as the new one comes out.

 

[Hawker77]

Well, my cord gave out too, finally. Right where it comes off the back of the headset a severe kink developed over 1.5 years. I saw a post somewhere that said if you write a kind "help" email to support, they may be kind to you. That worked! I told them how much my rift meant to me and what a great piece of hardware it was, they asked me for my address and after about a week a brand new cable arrived in my mailbox for FREE. So they do have some good people there.

Thanks for the info on the Rift-S. I'm torn between it and the HP Reverb Pro.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Well, I had a wife but since the divorce, she really hasn't been seen, since. And the only thing I got out of it was a brand new concrete floor for my basement.
Which reminds me I must go to the basement in feed my partner, she likes it down there, she really does.

OK sorry Calvyn for my goofy assumption.
But ok at least it sounds like you are better off than me.
I only have a hamster

 

[BrunoBæ]

Thanks for the info on the Rift-S. I'm torn between it and the HP Reverb Pro.

Have you checked the Index @Hawker?
There is a guy owning such a device in the iRacing forum and it sounds like this VR kit is so good that it crushes everything else.
Both on this planet but probably also in any extra terrestrial worlds.
Hehe because he is able to include its name in all his posts - even if the post has only something to do with his prefered pets

 

[Calvyn White]

Well, I've been looking at this and I may accidentally have more than looked for too long.

HTC VIVE PRO EYE Eye Tracking Room Scale VR Headset Bundle Including Controllers and Base Stations

Precision Eye Tracking, Foveated Rendering, 2880 x 1600 Combined Resolution, 32' x 32' Room-Scale Capabilities, Ready for Extended Sessions in VR, Hi-Res® & Surround-Sound Audio

www.overclockers.co.uk

 

[BrunoBæ]

I thought this Foveated Rendering was something that wasnt implememnted yet in any consumer VR

EDIT:
Ok I researched a bit and found that it is not purely sf anymore

Released last year, Vive Pro Eye features the same dual 1,440 × 1,600 AMOLEDs as Vive Pro, although it includes integrated eye-tracking created by the Sweden-based company Tobii. Eye-tracking has a number of potential uses such as like foveated rendering, user-intent analysis, and gaze-based interactions.