VR News: HP Reverb - Second Gen headsets are on the way

LOL…reminds me of the Aerosoft A320 copilot…just about jumped through my buskin the first time he coughed.

I think the only thing bearing in mind is (a) that you’ll need a Zen-like calm to waft over you if the day you buy it then the next day the price drops $100 and (b) always buy it from somewhere with easy no nonsense returns. VR is like expensive shoes, in that you can look at pictures but it pays to be able to send them back if walking around for a week with it gives you pain.

A box of not shoes.

Unfortunately, I’ve had exactly 75 minutes of sleep in the last 35 hours, so I have to crawl in my coffin for a few hours prior to giving it a whirl.

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Are you awake yet? Inquiring minds and all…

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I tried calling him but no answer - straight to voice mail.

My next step is some sort of fake medical emergency to get his beeper to go off. :wink:

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Awake. Box opened.

This is the Reverb Pro by the way…

Have not put it on, but it is plugged in. I’m not going to go through all the drama of spending 20 minutes describing the unboxing. I mean, I posted a shoe review - that should whet your appetite for awesome reporting.

The packaging is very nice and professional. Took all the part out of the box.

Initial impression that most others have talked about - yes, the cord that connects the headset to the PC is beefy and stiff. Feels like something that should be running from the UK to France via some underwater route. It would be pretty heavy and “in the way-ey” for room scale VR without a doubt. The heft of the cable does also give you pause about the display port connection. I might try to find a union or something that perhaps might work that takes the weight of the cable off the direct input into the PC.

On the other end, the cable clips in to the headset, and again, I could see where the weight of this cable might actually cause that to come loose. I will probably rig up some zip ties at some point maybe to make that connection more permanent.

Weight of the headset is very, very light. Ridiculously light. Compared to the large O+ Darth Vader helmet, this is much more skiing in the Alps breezy feminine product commercial type weightless. Very, very nice. Build quality seems nice. Some have commented that perhaps the plastic feels cheapy…I didn’t really get that impression. The O+ has a higher gloss plastic that is perhaps a bit smoother feeling, but just different, not really better or worse.

I still have not put it on by the way. It’s just sitting there on my desk.

Put batteries in the controllers, they lit up. The ring geometry looks exactly like the O+ controllers (guess that is just the way WMR sees them) but the O+ controllers are definitely more svelte and curvy. The thumb rests more naturally on the O+ touch pad than the Reverb. The Reverb controllers have a bit of a more angular feel to them. The O+ are definitely better, but it isn’t like existential crisis bad…just annoying that they didn’t put more work into making the critical interaction part of the setup more…well, better.

Plugged the Reverb into the display port on the back of the computer, and the USB 3.whatever port I have and it recognized it instantly. Controllers did some sort of updatey thing (I’m not using 1903 - I rolled back) and now WMR is saying ready. So in I go lads.

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So. Wow. First 10 seconds in - this is going to be pretty special. Very, very first blush impressions just based on entering WMR Cliff House and Steam VR - everything is insanely crisp. Colors are plenty rich, blacks feel fine. Coming from the O+, I can actually see some screen door effect, but it is very, very fine and probably just more evident due to the initial environments. What is insane feeling is how sharp everything is. Again, coming from the O+ which used some magic stuff to sort of smear the screen door effect (which does work), the sharpness of this just instantly pops out at you. I have an IPD of around 68 and all seems fine so far.

I did have to switch glasses. I have two pairs of prescription glasses. One pair is smaller and narrow than the other…I found my larger glasses didn’t really want to fit well in the more smaller form factor Reverb. The smaller glasses fit well and there doesn’t seem to be any danger of the glasses hitting the lenses. With the headset on, slight tug on the Velcro side straps and a bit more on the overhead top strap takes the pressure off your face and transfers it to the top of your head and ring on the back. Leather foamy face seal feels great, almost perfect seat with nose piece not being intrusive and near zero light leakage. I’d guess that if WidmoVR makes inserts at some point there will be literally zero light leakage.

The Reverb has a nice ability to tilt slightly (maybe 10 or 12 degrees?) when you are donning it which makes putting it on way easier than the O+. You can put it on with glasses by simply putting it on your face, then pulling the back strap over. Sounds intuitive I know, but if the headset doesn’t tilt a bit and give, it is a harder process. The Reverb feels very good in this regard.

The weight is simply stunning. Just very, very light feeling. If they could do something about that darn cable the weight would feel even better I’m sure.

Through the lens shot with iPhone 6+…reduced in quality from 6MB to 500KB, so it isn’t as sharp or clear as it is in the headset obviously.

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Oh wow! Looks sharp!

These settings seem right to you @fearlessfrog - Global Resolution 188% showing 2206 x 2160…?

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That’s where the current chicken bones fall for now, yes. Once you’re in something familiar like DCS or X-Plane it might be worth trying 10% above and below that magic number just to see, but if it’s clear in the sweet spot then all is good.

Excited to see what you make of a sim, as that SteamVR house looks very nice in the photo shot.

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In Aerofly 2 now. Worth mentioning - FOV feels slightly narrower to me. But the visuals…wow…

Hard to get the iPhone into the cup of the faceplate…so these aren’t really as sharp as what I’m seeing. “Sweet spot” (hate that term) seems wide enough to me…overall resolution is just so much better than the O+ (sharpness) that it is hard to really quantify the size of the sweet spot…overall the image is just much clearer. Performance (at least in AF) is fine.

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Shots don’t really show how sharp the instrument panels are. Very readable from the natural pilot eye position.

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How bad do the controllers feel? The Samsung ones at least had some curvy plastic, but compared to the really nice Oculus Touch set I’m expecting the worst.

Are they at least usable in X-Plane waving yokes around and stuff? :slight_smile:

Yes…they are fine really. I have relatively large hands that make it over the angles fine…but smaller hands might not dig the reach required maybe. The O+ was definitely better.

In X-Plane now…

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Thanks so much for sharing @BeachAV8R. The screens are impressive.

How sharp are objects at a distance? Is it possible to distinguish a Mustang from a 109 at a few thousand meters? How about a Sabre from a MiG?

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9 posts were split to a new topic: VR Eye Test

X-Crafts ERJ-135 - very nice. Performance is very good (I’ll try to jot down some numbers at some point…just on a world tour of VR stuff at the moment)… Instrument panel sharpness is just awesome. These pics are a bit bigger (size and MB) to maybe start to show some of the resolution…but still hobbled by the iPhone being pressed into the face-mask…so they are better in real life.

Oh wow…

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I think the pics are very nice, but we’re all after your comparison thoughts after lots of time in the Rift CV1 and Odyssey Plus. So, just as many words as you can manage even if the pics are hard to take. :vr:

EDIT: Good grief X-Plane looks amazing.