So here is my 10,000 foot take on the headset after giving it a whirl in DCS and ED when I got home from work.
Comfort - Mixed bag. It feels about as light as the OG Rift, but the padding feels less firm and for me that’s not as ideal. It seems to hold moisture and overall the headset feels like it’s warmer than the original and my PC is in a cool dry space (basement). Still trying to get used to the halo design.
Visuals - Certainly improved. Brighter display, less noticeable SDE and I think it has a bit larger sweet spot than the original. I have MUCH less eye strain when reading things in the Hornet, but I do still find myself leaning in a bit on the DDI’s to read things clearly. I just tend to wonder if it’s the font ED is using on them that makes it appear just a bit fuzzy? The brighter display makes it a bit easier for me to see other aircraft while in a dogfight and I can now see which way they are turning where in the original Rift I felt like it was a complete guessing game. Ground targets are a “smidge” easier to see from a distance as well, but I’m still pretty blind on them from say angels 20.
Sound - This one surprised me. I don’t have ANY issue with the headset in this regard. That said, if I had my PC in a room where others were trying to watch TV or read or whatever I could totally see where they wouldn’t like the sound bleed. It does feel a bit odd not having something on your ears in VR after all this time with the OG Rift.
Tracking - No apparent issues, but I’m playing in a reasonably well lit space.
One thing that does concern me after trying this set is that my hardware is starting to show it’s age. With the increased resolution even with a reduced refresh rate, my i7 6700k with a 1080ti was working harder at the same graphics settings in game to give me a decent experience. This really makes me wonder if my box would be able to handle the likes of an Index or Reverb.
At 20,000ft you would be hard pressed to spot a ground target smaller than a semi with the Mk1 eyeball. A camouflaged vehicle, not on a road… unlikely unless there is some very pronounced contrast (ie dark green vehicle in the middle of a wheat field).
About the sound…
I tried to just cup my hands over the speakers and my ears and that made a big difference.
Perhaps just some 3D printed covers, that clip onto the halo, would work?
One other thing I find a bit odd (or maybe I’m too dumb to figure it out), Oculus has your IPD controlled by software in Home, but it’s not like there is a cross or anything to look at to know if the setting you have selected is correct or not
I just played around wedge them in. It wasn’t the best solution. What I have found though is that I can wear my glasses in the Rift S far more comfortably than I could with the CV1. Ultimately though, I will be picking up a set of WidmoVR lenses for the S. I am holding off placing an order though because I am due for an eye exam, so I might as well get the lenses with a new prescription.
Black screens, jitter, garbled flashes, usb issues?
Like many, I have had some moderate trouble with my Rift-S due to glitches seemingly centered around USB compatibility and power.
Recently I noticed that my motherboard (Aorus 5 z370) had several types of usb, divided between USB 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 (both Gen 1 and Gen 2)
2.0 was an obvious wash, as was 3.1(Gen 1) as it had intermittent white flashes/scrambling & jitter. Plain old 3.0 was better, but only the Proprietary Asmedia 3.1 (gen 2) controller seemed to almost completely stabilize the headset, especially when I entered the Motherboard bios and utilized the included feature to up the voltage.
However, what utterly fixed the headset (no/flashes/jitter/etc EVER) was purchasing a usb 3.0 to Usb-c adaptor. The headset instantly settled down, and is now working as I suspect it was designed to, with no issues whatsoever, not even very quick ones like the flashes.
For those having glitches, this might be something to try for those with possible voltage/bandwidth difficulty and that have cards with usb-C outputs
When the Rift S launched, haptic feedback on the Touch controllers wasn’t working in SteamVR. Valve released a hotfix less than 24 hours later to resolve this.
Over the last few weeks, Valve has been expanding support for Facebook’s new headset in SteamVR Beta builds. SteamVR now visually shows the new Touch controllers in the Dashboard, Home, and apps which use the default SteamVR controller model.
Before this release, SteamVR (non-Beta) detected the Rift S as a regular Rift with three sensors. This is how the Oculus runtime presents the VR hardware to apps built on older SDKs. Now that Valve is using the latest Oculus SDK, Rift S is detected as its own headset, with its own (higher) default resolution and no external sensors.
The Steam store has also been updated to consider Rift S compatible with all games marked as compatible with Rift. Beforehand Rift S users would see a message warning them that their headset was incompatible.
With the Rift S, users can redraw their Guardian boundary from inside VR using the black & white Passthrough+ mode. SteamVR now detects when this happens so as to position VR content in the center of the space without the need for restart.
The release is also supposed to fix “numerous stability issues and bugs”.
I am leaning towards getting a Rift S however, the Oculus web page is a little scary. I’m pretty sure this is a big teeth/no eyes monster from some 90’s era FPS.
I think you’ll have a good experience with the Rift S - it is very good out of the box, affordable, the software is good, and I think it would be a great first foray into VR for anyone. My only caution is to make sure your purchases are “portable”. I hate that I got locked in to the Oculus storefront with some titles - I’d really prefer to keep all of my stuff on Steam and accessible to multiple types of VR headsets. Of course, there are workarounds for those items that are store specific, but it just adds a layer that I’d rather not be there.
