HP Reverb G2

[Easyscor]

I ordered mine from Connection just as the door slammed shut on the first early delivery batches or whatever. UPS has it in town, so hopefully I'll see it this afternoon.
Excited to see if my old PC can run it. If not, I guess a new PC build is in my future sooner rather than later.

 

[atlau]

Also, one thing I'd stress that a lot of new G2 owners miss (myself included in this list), is to have motion smoothing enabled in both Steam Vr, AND WMR Vr settings.  You need to have the headset on,  and use your G2 right side controller and hit the menu button, and then click on the smiley face icon on list that comes up, which should open up the WMR settings.  Ensure motion smoothing is ON on this list, as well as in the Steam VR settings.

Is that for all wmr headsets? I can't find those settings for my odyssey+.

I've often wondered what the optimal settings are for steam, wmr and the video drivers but can't find much info anywhere

[Eagler]

I ordered mine from Connection just as the door slammed shut on the first early delivery batches or whatever. UPS has it in town, so hopefully I'll see it this afternoon.
Excited to see if my old PC can run it. If not, I guess a new PC build is in my future sooner rather than later.

 

It is a great bang for the buck

I wish the eye space was larger for my glasses and the ear bud speaker was not faulty as I would have tried to keep it as the clarity in the sweet spot when I did not move my head was the sharpest I have seen in VR

Hope you enjoy yours

Eaglet

[Easyscor]

Thanks. It almost installed in my ancient PC. Said a USB driver wasn't MS Windows. lol, had to expect something like that. Up until that point I was impressed the machine recognized the headset and got up to that last step so fast.
I didn't like some of the 'fixes' for the USB drivers that Microsoft recommended as I can afford to let this machine go down for awhile longer.
Loved the fit of the headset the first time I put it on. I'll see how the next few days go.

 

[Rocco]

I've had some ups and downs with my G2. I received my first one in early November and as I was getting it set up it was flaky then just stopped working. Finally had to RMA it, I think the cable was damaged.

Received my replacement a couple weeks ago and it's been great! Easy to read the instruments at a glance, comfortable, great sound. Frame rate took a bit of a hit but to be expected coming from a cv1.

Then on Friday during FSO I was lifting the headset up to check my phone and the screen went black. AH crashed and I couldn't get video in the G2. Sound was working. Tried rebooting a couple times but it would keep losing video as soon as I put it on. No errors from WMR or steamvr. After playing around with it, it finally came back. I tested it throughout the weekend and seems fine now. I think it was software related but now I'm really paranoid it's going to die on me again.

A few tips after monkeying around with it for a few weeks.

- I had to use a powered USB hub instead of the onboard usb-c. The onboard ports would continuously lose connection momentarily, causing the audio to drop out and tracking to go weird. No issues at all with a powered hub

- I start steamvr and let it boot up WMR, then open ah3 (I run standalone, not steam). I found I would get issues with starting WMR first or just running ah3.

- the cable is a lot stiffer than the cv1 and I really had to modify how I ran it around my chair and to my desk to allow full movement.

Overall I'm still happy with the purchase despite the issues I've had. I look at it as the price of being an early adopter nowadays.

[streakeagle]

I just tried AH for the first time since I got the G2. It looks amazing: VR with desktop/flat panel graphics quality.

[Gman]

There is a way to get to the SteamVR settings without wearing the headset, but I had already stumbled on to them when I was first learning WMR/SteamVR with the G2 and its controllers. Once you get them set, you probably won't need to mess with them much unless you are using "per application" tuning. The interactive layered onion effect of WMR/Steam VR/in-game settings is pretty thick. Oculus is far more user friendly. But with complexity usually goes hand-in-hand with flexibility and capability. I just wish I could get the hardware I need to fully appreciate the G2 for a reasonable price instead of everything being sold out and/or marked up 100% or more on eBay.

Just saw this today - Streakeagle, the setting I was describing isn't in SteamVR, it's a WMR setting, and so far as I've seen/tried, the only way into that menu (to set WMR VR motion smoothing to ON, as well as Steam VRs, ie 2 different settings), is to have the headset on and go into the menu as already described.  You're correct, you don't need to have the G2 on your head to set the SteamVR settings, but AFAIK you do to access and change the WMR VR setting specifically for motion smoothing.

[atlau]

What exactly does motion reprojection do for you? Have you played with the other steam vr resolution settings or the nvidia drivers?

[fd ski]

got mine today.
If i'm flying steady, things are relatively sharp, at least in sweet spot. When i start to turn - it gets hazy quick. Seems that my Oculus didn't have that problem.
Any tips ?
Also, MSFS forums have some tips on enlarging the sweet spot, anyone play with that ?

[1stpar3]

got mine today.
If i'm flying steady, things are relatively sharp, at least in sweet spot. When i start to turn - it gets hazy quick. Seems that my Oculus didn't have that problem.
Any tips ?
Also, MSFS forums have some tips on enlarging the sweet spot, anyone play with that ?

I assume MSFS forum is talking about a program like "Oculus Tray Tools"? I know...FaceBook bad....but with my experience with Windows Mixed Media and Acer VR.....I will keep a FaceBook account....Never use it anyway, and its free, so I am not giving them profits

[fd ski]

Bought FPSVR today on steam - nifty little app. Played around with settings playing offline.

Generally but downgrading resolution to native level, there was an improvement in sweet spot and less motion blur. But it was still there and still noticeable. Turning on and off motion blur control didn't give me a noticeable difference.

In essence, if i'm looking straight at the gunsight, and look up using my eyeballs only - i have hard time reading AH FPS counter, similarly, cockpit controls are somewhat hazy. World outside as well, so tracking bandits while looking down the gunsight - which i think is one of the biggest things in VR - much harder.

I didn't have this issue with Oculus CV1, everything looked evenly bad But at least my eyes didn't go stupid jumping from perfect to hazy and back. I must say i'm somewhat disappointed.
Is this a lence shape or something that causes this issue ?

[oboe]

I have a Reverb G1, which broke (not a cable issue, which is more common) and was replaced under warranty, but now the second unit has broken as well, after a few months use.   HP support being one notch less than horrendous, I went out and bought an Oculus Quest 2.   Resolution is almost as good, but the FPS takes about a 10 fps hit even with the lower resolution.   FOV is smaller as well, but I am using the glasses spacer while I wait for prescription lense inserts.

Having said all that, fd ski, I would suggest verifying your IPD and making sure the unit is set to match.  Are you wearing glasses inside the unit, and have you removed the plastic protector shields from the lenses (some people have forgotten, or had not noticed them.  (I actually left mine in while waiting for the corrective lense inserts to arrive).

TLDR version - the Reverb's resolution is so fantastic within the sweetspot that outside this area the fall off in clarity is substantial.  Though I thought the G2 addressed with better optics compared to the G1.

Or, it could be a vision issue - if you wear glasses, make sure your prescription is up-to-date and try them in the unit, but be careful about not scratching the unit's lenses.  If that helps the clarity issue, I recommend purchasing lense inserts.

[fd ski]

i don't wear glasses, just reading ones when needed, not really for VR. I checked IPD, even used FpsVR to increase it above standard max ( i'm ugly that way )
as for protective film- blue one ? i did remove it. I'm starting to wonder if there is more

Maybe it is a question of getting used to..... i'll work on it for couple of days.
 

[oboe]

Yeah, it was just the blue film protectors in the Reverb G1.  Probably the same in the G2.

You could also ask another person to try it and see if they agree with your impressions.   Another set of eyeballs might help.

I was amazed at the difference between the G1 and my first VR headset, a Lenovo Explorer.   I hope hp has solved a lot of the G1's reliability issues with the G2.   I'll follow it closely - I'm considering the Quest 2 as more or less an inexpensive stop-gap until the G2 stock situation stabilizes and more long term use reviews become available.   My impression so far is that for sit-down VR simming, the G2 is the headset, but given my experience with the G1, I was hesitant to buy another hp headset.

[streakeagle]

My G2 started disconnecting when I moved my head. It didn't appear to be the cable or the connector, as wiggling those wouldn't cause the problem. HP's support had me send it back for replacement. After receiving it, they informed me that the soonest a new one would be available would be for a March 12 shipping date, a month and a half delay from when they received it.

In the mean time, I am using the Quest 2 I got my son for Christmas. While the G2 resolution and image quality is far superior to the Quest 2, the Quest 2 is much better than the Rift S. The Quest 2 has some limitations (like battery life), but it is hard to beat for the price. I much prefer the way the Oculus connects to PC games than the complex, unreliable WMR/Steam interface. But the Quest 2 has to compress its image to send it over the USB 3 link. Even with the settings maxed out and the frame rate raised to 90 fps from the default 72, I can see a slight blur in the image due to compression. But the screen door effect is pretty much gone.

While I can still play on the Rift S, the Quest 2 is a huge upgrade from it, but the G2 is by far the best when it is working correctly. Unfortunately, I still have at least a month to go before I get my G2's warranty replacement. Hopefully, the new one isn't a lemon. My Rift CV1 and Rift S still work 100% correctly after many hours of use. I only had the G2 since Thanksgiving.