HP Reverb G2

To try 60 Hz, go to Windows Settings then Mixed Reality and finally Headset Display.

I use 60 Hz with X-Plane. It’s unplayable otherwise on my system. One thing I have noticed with the G2 is that because the screens seem a little brighter than the Rift S, there is a barely perceptible flicker if you look at a bright area (such as the sky)…but it isn’t too bad. With reprojection and 60 Hz, you only need a steady 30 fps with X-Plane.

1 Like

Awesome, thanks!

Wow, first time I’ve heard anyone say that. Note I’ve never used Oculus; WMR is all I know.

Yeah, I close my eyes. Seems that the only ‘fix’ for now.

On the O+ I experimented with this starting in WMR (Headset option I think): my choices were 90 or 60. 60 was terrible. Was hard on my eyes. Image was smaller. Never tried that again.

Right behind ya.

I dropped FB years ago. How did I survive?!

Has any Index owning Mudspikers jumped on the G2 wagon so far?
I would not like to part with the FOV and relatively big sweetspot of the Index (compared to Rift S) but the higher resolution of the G2 does make me curious.
Would it be worth it, or maybe wait a couple of years for next gen? hmm…

1 Like

Thanks! Will try.

That’s all I could think of too.
SteamVR was the same with the Rift S. But if you used native Oculus rendering, it was smooth…

I’m still on Facebook, but I dislike the idea of having to link Oculus with FB. Why?

I doubt it… You would gain resolution but lose FoV. My guess it would probably be better in some ways and worse in others.

1 Like

I think this setting helps a little - it is because DCS is hanging like it’s 2006 on the main UI thread.

Note that on a Reverb G2, the 100% SteamVR resolution is already the 1.4x ratio to allow for distortion. This is different from the G1 and Odyssey etc that need to be about 140-150% to be ‘native resolution in the middle where you look’. You can probably go down to about 50-60% on the G2 and it’ll look very clear in the middle.

Also, use the beta version of SteamVR and WMR for SteamVR apps in Steam (right button on their entries in your Steam library, chose ‘Properties’ and then the ‘Beta’ tab. Both have major updates for reprojection and performance.

For lots of reference info, check here for how it all works:

WMR has several types of reprojection, the ‘hard’ 45 fps limit and the more Oculus ASW like one that needs to be opted in. WMR is moving over to OpenXR (as is SteamVR) so it really isn’t too long before they all use the same API anyway. MSFS uses OpenXR exclusively and it seems far nicer than using the ‘Steam bridge’ technique that has always confused people of what to set where.

4 Likes

And IL-2 is even worse…
Will try that fade to grid and see.

Absolutely. But that’s still a lot more pixels than the good ol’ Rift S.
I turned the resolution all the way down to 25% to get the performance I’m accustomed to in the Rift S. But hey, even at that resolution it looks as good as, or better, than the Rift S. The G2 is clearly better suited for faster PC’s :wink:

Ah! Good advice.

Oh, and I tried 60Hz… No thanks! :dizzy_face:

I could never get on with 60 Hz either, as could see a very distinct strobe/flicker, so I think it is very much eyes dependent. One thing worth saying is that if you try it in WMR Home then it tends to look the worse, as that has lots of white background colors and tends to emphasize everything wrong - sometimes in-game in IL-2 and DCS the 60 Hz sort of looks bearable.

OpenXR has added an additional reprojection mode for sit-down sims, in that you only need to get to 30 fps for it to reproject up to 90 Hz native. So it sort of goes 30 / 45 / 90 as the ratios of what algorithm to use, if any. It’s not perfect but it really helps slow frame games, so hopefully DCS, XP and IL-2 will make that API switch as other new titles come online and use it.

Also, one thing I missed in previous post - this provides a nice explanation of where the settings have gone for WMR for SteamVR - they are effectively use the SteamVR app as the UI for their driver. WMR is doing the reprojection and leaving SteamVR to be the ‘resolution selector’ and on/off settings store per app.

2 Likes

Hmm, i think i am having this with LCD panels. Previously I thought it was only 30Hz panels doing me no good but found out, to my surprise, that my tablet is 60Hz and i usually get eye strain after like one hour of use.
The same with my 60Hz TV. Now it seems that i have only two options left - VR with 90Hz panels or TV with 120Hz panel…

Or i need new eyes :face_with_monocle:

…either that or get really disciplined on when to blink rapidly. :slight_smile:

Floaty bird floating
3 Likes

lol, that was even better than videos of helicopters with not moving rotor

1 Like

Where do I find the setting for that?

So, unfortunately (I can see I set up for disappointment here, but didn’t mean to…) the only sim that uses OpenXR for its VR API is MSFS 2020, and that’s being updated for all to play in VR on Dec 22nd with an update. It works really nicely, and you can see why they needed a 30 fps mode (lol!)

The OpenXR option is here:

Eventually it’ll be part of Windows, but so far is a Store download here:

SteamVR will move over to OpenXR as an option too, allowing you to pick which runtime you like.

It’s not a huge job to move from native Oculus SDK / OpenVR, so hopefully all of our sims get on with that. Being cross-platform, I can probably picture X-Plane doing it quite soon. It basically levels the playing field on ‘which VR API to pick’ so should become common for anything new.

5 Likes
1 Like

Thanks for the info Fearless. I’m getting quite optimistic about VR performance with MSFS2020.

2 Likes

Hopefully it’ll be a brighter future. It was always sort of broken that Valve tried to do SteamVR as an ‘open effort’ which then led to OpenVR. Microsoft as the way in third place part (phones?) recognized that they need to work with OpenVR well to get any games support, which is how ‘WMR for SteamVR’ came about. Oculus just sort of ignored it, as they needed people to buy games on their store and not Steam.

Before Facebook/Oculus left the PC market to hopefully happier mobile shores (with a locked down shop they can control) then it was no real big secret that they at best they offered no info or help for getting OpenVR to work as a standard on the Rift. At worst, they actively changed things in their stack their side to make OpenVR perform poorly, as a way to encourage developers to use the Oculus SDK only API as ‘it is faster’. :man_shrugging:

The Kronhos group owned OpenXR standard is essentially a stripped down OpenVR API, with more responsibility in the underlying driver. It allows Facebook to implement something better without losing face and ‘helping Valve/Steam’. If they were staying in the PC market they probably wouldn’t of joined in, but hopefully it’s look like a single unified VR API will win out and this ‘bridge to bridge API’ comedy will finally be over.

4 Likes

Day 2 with G2.
I must confess that this thing is growing on me…
I’m now running at 30% resolution.
Yes, 30%.
It’s still a little bit higher resolution than the Rift S. The performance is on par with what I had in the Rift S but with a better view. Better audio. An IPD that fits and ever so slightly better FoV. Comfort is also better. The G2 facial interface curves around my face like an Alien Facehugger. There is zero external light coming in and the pressure is evenly distributed across my face. The Rift S Halo put more pressure on the forhead and less on the face. I like the G2 better.

I have now, per the recommendations of @fearlessfrog, changed to WMR and SteamVR betas… Still struggling with understanding how this works.
WMR has reprojection, and SteamVR has motion smoothing…? And they both kick in when FPS is below the 90Hz of the G2? Do I actually have to have WMR running, when using SteamVR?
Still lots to learn…

1 Like

This is what I’ve been curious about. My O+ still works but, man, it’s basically only good for viewing (comfort = bad, sound = bad/non-functional). So, if I got a G2 could I scale it down and keep the same performance, such as it is.

Loved that movie.

Seems like it yes. There’s WMR for Steam version though. I do not use the SteamVR overlay, at all.

  • I plug the headset in. WMR starts up automatically
  • Double-click SteamVR Beta (which runs steam :frowning: ). NOTE: DCS will start this on it’s own, just an old habit
  • Run all the other various bits to support DCS (Simshaker, VoiceAttack, etc),
  • Then run DCS.

I turn on the “smoother-whatchamacallit” via the text file. I know, horrors! And I use my headset without a boundary too. I’m outta control…

4 Likes

Great Troll. I haven’t had the problems that most have reported here with the clip. Perhaps I’m not flying enough BFM :smiley:, but I think that I will add your solution as a little insurance anyway.

Per my lack of understanding how the driver worked, I was running mine set at 50% for the first few days of G2 ownership. My impression of the G2 for that time was that it wasn’t that much better than the G1, and I was having a bit of buyers remorse. Then I installed fpsVR, and in the first report read on the Render resolution line the entry: (HMD driver recommended: 3176x3099). So, I moved my slider to closely match that as possible, 3176x3099, or 100%, and the image improved enough that felt much better about my purchase. Note that Auto sets the resolution a bit higher, requiring you to manually use the slider to get the 100% resolution. I’m running a 2080ti, so maybe others don’t have this luxury until they upgrade their GPU to a 3xxx series. I’ll try some lower resolutions to see if the performance:image quality ratio is worth the reduction.

BTW, I really appreciate your insight fearless, especially on the direction of the VR API. You seem to understand this much better than the rest of us in this thread. :+1:

You may have seen this already, but per the info that @fearlessfrog linked for the WMR 4 SVR 1.2.406, Note: as of this release, you should no longer modify any default.vrsettings files to change settings as that file will be overwritten every time Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR is updated. Our documentation has been updated to reflect this.

Edit: I should voice my complaint here that since I don’t often use the hand controllers (G2 controllers remain unpaired), that editing the file is actually preferable.

3 Likes

Totally doable.

Classic!

I don’t even know what that means… Overlay?

As do I.
One thing that I disliked with the Oculus was that ever so often I had to reset the boundary. A boundary that I then turned off, because I didn’t use it.
I had a big smile on my face when the WMR setup let me chose between a roaming or sitting/standing setup. Why on earth should I be bothered with a boundary when I sit down in VR? Thank you, Microsoft!

2 Likes

To be honest, my only ”problem” with it was that it looks like an afterthought.
And I could really see how people break the clip, when removing it to thread the cable.