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New VR headset from HP

J3nga

Member
The next generation HP Virtual Reality HMD–developed in collaboration with Valve and Microsoft–delivers an immersive, comfortable and compatible VR experience. It’s the new standard in VR.

What are your expectations for this new VR headset? How it could benefit over existing solutions currently on the market and what would you like it to have? Myself I hope the price is somewhat adequate and more significant titles show up that would justify the purchase, such as new Half-Life Alyx, because right now spending 800 euros for a headset + controllers isn't really justifiable to me. What are your thoughts?

Steam store page
 
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Shai-Tan

Banned
higher resolution. some possibility of eye tracking but also a good chance not. inside outside tracking in addition to lighthouse likely. wireless maybe.

doubt it‘s “vr 2.0” with proper eye tracking, let alone varifocal lenses or whatever. that’s still a ways away. I also doubt anything new on the controller front.

edit:

working page


same floating headphones/speakers as the Index
 
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Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
It looks like another WMR kit, what do you think makes it so interesting versus any other higher end WMR kit? It seems to sport the same 2 front cameras. A good successor to the Samsung Odyssey would be nice indeed but only if it costs way less than Oculus which has superior tracking range and quality yet this appears to be aiming to be a premium expensive product rather than something to fit in the budget category that even Rift S is a bit above. With Microsoft seemingly abandoning WMR and sticking with the old tracking/controller standards such products aren't going to be very interesting no matter what cool display/audio technology varied manufacturers add. If it's not actually WMR based but using Valve's lighthouse tracking much like HTC Vive/Pimax and others, basically a third party Index level alternative product with its own twists & balance to the specifications on offer, then there's no reason to collaborate with Microsoft at all. Maybe they've somehow worked on some hybrid implementation that means they use WMR inside out tracking yet the superior controller technology/form factor of the Index with compatibility modes for both depending on the game/app, that could be interesting but it doesn't seem likely, WMR has controller standards as well as tracking standards, Samsung was the only one to deviate from the template design and it was to improve the form factor and build quality, they couldn't change or add inputs. We'll see.

Edit cos someone reacted to this: Outdated post, new developments here and here.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
The controllers need to be right.

That was the biggest issue with Gen1 WMR headsets.

If they get the controllers right this time then I'll probably get one. An upgrade on my Lenovo Explorer has been long overdue.
 

Romulus

Member
And Apple it seems....


More and more headsets are coming.
 
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INC

Member
I'll wait for the next gen of headsets before upgrading from my rift s

I want eye tracking and all the bells and whistles, a better res and FoV arent worth the price of upgrading yet
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
I'll wait for the next gen of headsets before upgrading from my rift s

I want eye tracking and all the bells and whistles, a better res and FoV arent worth the price of upgrading yet
how Ya like the S? I just got it. Kinda think I could go for Quest but I would not be using it in mobile mode anyway.
So it seem for pcvr, S is the best choice unless You want to spend 1k and wait 3 months currently.
No matter how good the next thing is going to be, I cannot imagine any vr headset being worth more than 400-500 for full kit. The S at 450 euro is already stretching it and it's the cheapest thing... Index fingers are nice but I've seen it malfunctioning so many times on streams and people saying throwing is not that easy. While thouch controllers are comfy and work great giving most of the finger positions
These vr headsets are too flawed and will still be too flawed for years or forever, for it to be worth more than this.
And bad vr hair continues lol.
I love it, hl alys is incredible but it's just 1 game. (still worth 400)
 
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INC

Member
Rift s only cost me 350, and well worth that price to me

Quest is meh, rather my pc powering it quest is limited with side loading, and if you wanna use a link cable to get better performance....well ight as well of got a rift s.

I don't even play 2d game now, all VR

All shooters, onward, pavlov, virtual battlegrounds and wardust

Love wardust it looks like utter wank, but great fun to me, basically a janky BF
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
The cat is out of the bag, the recent leak was real (I thought it might be photoshopped cos the controllers look so much like Oculus with WMR tracking rings, haha). It has 4 cameras after all and it will cost ~600.

It's basically WMR 1.5 but a really nice high quality implementation, like Samsung's Odyssey was in its time. Hopefully the tracking matches Oculus in quality. Still, I doubt this thing will be worth it for most, especially if Oculus drop the price of the S (it's already ~200 less for its lower resolution and lesser audio), though it'll probably kill HTC's VR with their Cosmos mishaps. Hopefully other companies will follow suit and provide their own take on WMR 1.5 for varying price ranges that can compete, down to the $200 of last gen WMR models but with the base improvements seen here, just different HMD/screen/build quality specs and stuff. Otherwise if you're gonna spend a premium you might as well go full Index. Although it can also be a great choice for simmers as it has really great resolution for that ~600 it costs, not like a Pimax or XTAL kit.

I like seeing new VR models that don't overhaul stuff too much though, lol, first Cosmos, now this use a very similar controller layout, it only means Oculus controllers/features remain competitive (it's crazy they got it so right in ~2016) and I don't need to upgrade until some real next gen stuff: VR 2.0 with eye tracking for foveated rendering/gameplay features and finger tracking smoother than index for less moneys or whatever. Maybe wireless connection to PC if that becomes possible already (without crazy extra costs like the Vive wireless adapter). I feel like Quest 2 may have proper wireless (5G?) for PC finally, not the homebrew stuff. But not the other things, too premium to sell any time soon unless they also maintain Quest alongside it and that becomes Quest Pro rather than 2, using its power to run the same games at higher res/hz/settings until they abandon the first.
 
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INC

Member
What's the Hz?

Edit: 90hz


Meh decent Res, but only 10hz more than rift.

For the price, rift s is better value, extra 250 for a slightly better screen, better off waiting on the next round of headset
 
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Romulus

Member
What's the Hz?

Edit: 90hz


Meh decent Res, but only 10hz more than rift.

For the price, rift s is better value, extra 250 for a slightly better screen, better off waiting on the next round of headset


I would wager that price won't stick around long at all. It has Index lenses plus higher resolution. That combo might be a noticeable bump in clarity.
 

Relativ9

Member
I used to work for HP in enterprise networking...different business groups but still...the HP business culture doesn't promote quality, I wouldn't buy ANYTHING except perhaps a printer from HP.
 

Romulus

Member
I used to work for HP in enterprise networking...different business groups but still...the HP business culture doesn't promote quality, I wouldn't buy ANYTHING except perhaps a printer from HP.

Not sure how you can even project that a headset will suck because you worked under the same logo in networking. I worked for corporate where next door to us a different department was complete ass compared to our quality work. Same logo. Then three doors down mediocre quality. I could use the same logic and say the printers are good so maybe the headsets will improve. Not only that quallity culture evolves and devolves over time. No hate just my experience. New personnel coming in and leaving its just really difficult to forecast. Original Xbox hardware was basically bulletproof then 4 years later 360 was a flaming pile of of shit. Same logo and hardware successor.
 
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Shai-Tan

Banned
About the only thing interesting to me there is the resolution


Looks good to me but I'll probably be grabbing a quest next time they are in stock somewhere. Not sure I want a permanently wired VR solution anymore.

or their upcoming headset. While specs are nice dealing with Revive to play PCVR (Rift) Oculus games can make some of those games perform badly or be unplayable. If I knew how garbage it would be I would have thought twice about getting an Index considering a significant amount of good pcvr games are oculus exlclusives. For me content is king. And on top of that the Quest has the versatility to have the standalone games.
 

Relativ9

Member
Not sure how you can even project that a headset will suck because you worked under the same logo in networking. I worked for corporate where next door to us a different department was complete ass compared to our quality work. Same logo. Then three doors down mediocre quality. I could use the same logic and say the printers are good so maybe the headsets will improve. Not only that quallity culture evolves and devolves over time. No hate just my experience.

Definitely, and of course everyone should feel free to go for it if they want. I'm just very dubious of it, HP is notorious for outsourcing and cost cutting. We shipped 10k+ $ switches in the hundreds that we knew had a 50/50 chance of being faulty on the gamble that most customers wouldn't claim warranty (small businesses often don't)...these were directives from the top. We had high quality support centers in Ireland and The Netherlands that had masters level engineers working high level support that had their headcounts reduced in favor of call centers in India where the agents were given 2 months training.

Now granted there has been some shifts in leadership since then, but from the people I know who still work there the culture is still very much "you better slave away or we'll outsource you", the headset might be fantastic, but at the end of the day I don't want to support that culture. I even bought a cannon for much more money (HP is kind of king of affordable home printers) just to avoid giving them money.

But yeah, long story short; personal gripe.
 
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Romulus

Member
Exclusive Preview: HP Reverb G2 Impressions – the King of Clarity




Boiling all of this down, Reverb G2 is the king of clarity, and I feel confident that this will be the headset’s defining factor.

When I fired up Half-Life: Alyx, coming from Index, the G2 nearly felt like looking at the game with new eyes. I was drawn to details that never caught my attention before, like scratches in the shotgun’s metal, letters printed on the side of the pistol, and innocuous stickers covering a gutter pipe.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
On July 8 we'll be getting the first review of the Reverb G2, finally including controller tracking impressions from Mixed Reality TV (who's been posting some nice through-the-lens footage of it over the past week).
And it's here. But it's a preview, not a review as he had pimped.


I'll post it up in the usual PC VR thread when it's actually live in ~2,5 hours. Fingers crossed for the tracking to be improved from old-WMR stuff and for this to be the first of many devices so we get more models from other manufacturers for different price ranges with all the same base capabilities.
 
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INC

Member
Gonna replace my rift s for this I think. Considering oculus are probably the worst customer service ever
 

LOLCats

Banned
Gonna replace my rift s for this I think. Considering oculus are probably the worst customer service ever
and fractured ecosystem, infuriating most rift software is not crossbuy on all rift device types. my OG rift isnt bad but ill not buy another oculus device that is for sure.
 

INC

Member
and fractured ecosystem, infuriating most rift software is not crossbuy on all rift device types. my OG rift isnt bad but ill not buy another oculus device that is for sure.

Software dont bother me too much. But the rift s has been left to die, I just want my replacement from oculus so I can sell it to get a reverb 2 (if its decent), but oculus have basically blanked me and refuse to answer now about my fault headset

Never buy off oculus
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Gonna replace my rift s for this I think. Considering oculus are probably the worst customer service ever
Been great for me, got a new cable for my CV1 recently even though it was just out of warranty so that should make it last another year at least depending on usage (though I'll know to be kinder to the cable now, maybe put it off my ceiling pulleys that tug at it), before I consider replacing it. Also they were kind enough to let me give them a friend's address in the UK because they don't officially support my country so that was pretty cool, it would have sucked if they just shot me down and said sorry but we don't sell there and that's that. Other than that two software refunds have gone without a hitch too (back to my bank, not some Oculus wallet credit).
and fractured ecosystem, infuriating most rift software is not crossbuy on all rift device types. my OG rift isnt bad but ill not buy another oculus device that is for sure.
What do you mean? My CV1 works with every game I've tried, old or new, does the S have issues? I find that hard to believe as S is newer (odd bugs and driver/app version fudge ups aside, which happens with pretty much any hardware on PC). Quest also should work fine to my knowledge when connected with Link and acting as a Rift (which it isn't). Obviously for its stand-alone non-PC capabilities it's a whole new portable platform with wholly different architecture and specs so not every PC game can run on it, and of those that do get ported, it's up to the dev if it will be cross buy or not, as it should be since it's extra labor to make it work on such vastly different systems, just like not every PS2 game came to PSP or whatever. And of course that's all just for their Oculus store, they don't have control of Steam or anything (I just get their timed or full exclusives on O store anyway, but maybe if I had a Quest I'd get other cross buy games as well). To me it seems like usually when the games are made for both PC and Quest they tend to be cross buy, those that are first on PC then take extra labor to see if they can also be ported to Quest later charge separately.
 
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INC

Member
Oh God so HP is shit too, fml, guess gonna have to get an index......

Oculus can suck a dick, they refuse to help, or replace my headset, cunts
 

Romulus

Member
I'm thinking this will be one of those headsets next year that will be $299 black friday. By then we should have extensive testing across the board.
 
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Shai-Tan

Banned
Oh God so HP is shit too, fml, guess gonna have to get an index......

Oculus can suck a dick, they refuse to help, or replace my headset, cunts

It's worth considering how good the support will be but HP is a big company. You cant necessarily extrapolate from support on other products. That said, accounts on the Index reddit suggest they go beyond generous when it comes to RMA. There are horror stories about 5-6+ replacements of hardware but it's unclear how much of that is driven by bad user behavior or perfectionistic tech hypochondria
 

INC

Member
It's worth considering how good the support will be but HP is a big company. You cant necessarily extrapolate from support on other products. That said, accounts on the Index reddit suggest they go beyond generous when it comes to RMA. There are horror stories about 5-6+ replacements of hardware but it's unclear how much of that is driven by bad user behavior or perfectionistic tech hypochondria

But at least they're getting replacements, I cant even get a response anymore off oculus
 

GHG

Gold Member
I'm thinking this will be one of those headsets next year that will be $299 black friday. By then we should have extensive testing across the board.

Yeh the Reverb had some teething problems so it makes sense to not be an early adopter for this unless you can buy it from somewhere that has a solid return policy.

This is very much looking like my next VR headset though, I'm tempted to get a Quest at the moment but the whole Facebook thing really puts me off.
 

Dontero

Banned
I hope they will be selling Headset alone. I don't care about motion gaming or shitty VR games made for controlers. I just want good headset with great resolution to play all my normal games in VR like Monster Hunter World, Sims 4 or Dragon's Dogma.
 

zcaa0g

Banned
Pre-ordered today as I want the resolution for flight and racing sims and a tethered cable that doesn't suck like the G1. The motion controllers should be significantly improved from the G1. Will still keep the Rift S for non-WMR titles. I would have liked a higher resolution to eat the Nvidia 3000 series lunch but oh well.
 
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