That looks like PDK on a sunny Spring Saturday around noon…right @chipwich?
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Ha! Well said.
Looks Like somebody changed their minds on the deal. I and others got it for free, but now its only on sale. Wonder what happened…
Shame, it’s an incredibly fun game and was literally a steal for free.
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Possible Samsung Odyssey 2 on the way, although patent registrations don’t always lead to products. It looks like maybe a WMR update, as six cameras on it? Hard to tell…
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Speaking of which, maybe a stock clearance?
$229 USD, 54% off.
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This seems to mirror reports of HP Reverbs also coming with additional cameras as a product update.
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Exciting news!
Before getting the Reverb, I was considering waiting a bit to see what Samsung may come with. But as there were no news coming…
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Wait, can anyone … erhm… would anyone order it for me and I pay you via PayPal?
Wait again, Is the Odyssey good?
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I think the issue isn’t really the initial shipping, but more the sort of support if it goes wrong or you want to send it back. Because VR seems to be a very personal thing, then ease of getting back would be important.
There are shippers for the US, but I’m not sure how good or effective they are - https://www.bigapplebuddy.com/
As for the Odyssey, it’s good value on the cost/ability scale, as in for the money it is quite nice. My take would be:
Odyssey + Pros
- Good value if on sale.
- Great colors on the displays, as most other headsets use LCD/LED while this is OLED.
- Out of all the WMR headsets, the nicest controllers
- Resolution good for general VR gaming, but not perfect for just sims use. Per eye 1440x1600, which means you’ll do better with a top GPU to try to oversample it for clarity.
- Light ish headset and cable. Room and standing VR ok.
Odyssey + Cons
- The Halo headband is a lottery if it is comfortable for you or not, so you might need to buy a $25 3rd party strap or something.
- The controllers tracking is not great for general VR gaming, and even full hand controls for things like XP11. Just two forward looking cameras, making things like throwing pretty meh.
- If you wear glasses, got to watch not to scratch the lenses, as not a lot of room in there from the face.
So it would be good to try out, but be prepared to send it back. Then there is a the whole cost/time thing, of the price difference between the very similar Rift S as being worth it or not. I’m not sure how much the Rift S is in Europe or if it goes on sale - as that’s a good entry level headset for driving and flight simming for sure.
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Also, if anyone is in the US or Canada and is tempted to pick up a O+ for cheap to try, then the Microsoft Store is a better customer support/returns experience than Samsung direct (or so I’ve heard, I only used the MS Store):
The $229 sale is on there as well. The physical stores tend to have stock if you have one nearby.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/samsung-hmd-odyssey/8n2d0nk20p8m?icid=ARVRcat_Hero1_SamsungHMDOdyssey_010120&activetab=pivot%3Aoverviewtab
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My best guess is that the v2 Odyssey will be an improvement in hand tracking, comfort etc, but they won’t do the ‘high resolution’ thing like the Reverb, just because the rest of the PC required makes that more a ‘business option’.
We just got lucky the Reverb works well for flight sims. Samsung (and Valve with the Index) need the best general every-day gaming VR headset, and for that resolution can be more that a nv2060 type card or common mid-price GPU can comfortably drive, i.e. Beat Sabre rather than DCS.
It feels like the Reverb may be a bit of a one-off before the foveated rendering tech arrives and resets things (hopefully in the next couple of years) and they don’t have to sell 4k per entire eye panels. It’s like we’re on the edge of being able to ‘brute force’ VR for simming with high end GPUs and the Reverb fits in that niche.
Of course, I could be completely wrong, and if a bunch of super high resolution headsets/panels arrive this year I’ll probably still buy them if they work better for simming. 
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I’d check my crystal ball for you, but the resolution isn’t good enough… 
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For what it’s worth I’ve been really happy with my Odyssey+ for the past 15 months or so.
If you have a spare $5K you could always buy one of these 
: https://www.roadtovr.com/varjo-ceo-interview-niko-eiden/
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I looked up the price of the new Pimax 8K X as the resolution on that looks interesting for flight sims, it’s $1,828 USD if you want hand controllers and the required base station. 
I guess the good news is there is lots of high end choice, but everyone has a limit… 
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Could be they will have a stab at the eye tracking/foveated rendering tech too…
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The mention it as an option on the store, but I don’t think it is out yet. Actually, not sure they are even shipping these headset units as yet either.
https://store.pimaxvr.com/shop/product/pimax-vision-8k-x-384
I wonder if it would help that much, as it would be a software only solution (sort of telling Nvidia RTX cards which part of the display to VRSS supersample), while I’ve read about foveated display prototypes that have a very high resolution tiny screen in the middle of a lower res panel, as the eye tracking means it can drive both panels optimally.
I still think if anyone is going to crack that first it’s a race between Facebook and Valve, but not sure if Valve even think of resolution as something to work on or not.
If variable IPDs and headshape are causing issue in VR today, it’s going to be crazy to see how they nail consumer level eye tracking - so many things to figure out to get it working at an acceptable level. A really interesting area of research though.
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