Virtual Reality

[Lebowski]

It's saying due tomorrow on the tracking now, so quite why the invoice from Meta says estimated delivery 30th October I've no idea. It seems to have reviewed pretty well so far, but there definitely appears to be a consensus that the default strap doesn't provide long-wear comfort, so hopefully, the boboVR M3 will be available shortly.

This guy again, he got his headset for free lucky sod some interesting impressions from a few days play,

pancake lenses are the new standard and are amazing, but the led screens let things down compared to other headsets, (seen a few comments on reddit echoing this as well as other reviewers on youtube/web) i cant see people trading in an index for one but Valve need to get their finger out and refresh their Index headset with the new lens tech. Sony need to think about a mid cycle refresh for the PSVR2 as going into 2024 this new lens tech is gonna be the standard (they did a v2 of the psvr1 with a better pass through box and a few tweaks to the build).

Lack of games with the launch of the headset are a bit of a downer, and only a handful fo games got graphical updates to make use of the improved resolution (things like walking dead coming later this year) seems a solid bit of kit but, wouldn't be of any use to someone like me with a modern set up.

[Asura]

pancake lenses are the new standard and are amazing, but the led screens let things down compared to other headsets, (seen a few comments on reddit echoing this as well as other reviewers on youtube/web) i cant see people trading in an index for one but Valve need to get their finger out and refresh their Index headset with the new lens tech. Sony need to think about a mid cycle refresh for the PSVR2 as going into 2024 this new lens tech is gonna be the standard (they did a v2 of the psvr1 with a better pass through box and a few tweaks to the build).

The problem is pancake lenses don't pair up well with OLED; OLED screens are much dimmer than LCD/LED and pancake lenses need a lot of light. That's actually why I got a QLED TV for my house this year instead of OLED, because I use my TV a great deal during the day in a sunlit room.

[CMcK]

I have zero issue using my OLED TV in daylight. And I certainly don’t fancy having a 600+ nits light source close to my eyes in a VR headset.

[Asura]

I have zero issue using my OLED TV in daylight. And I certainly don’t fancy having a 600+ nits light source close to my eyes in a VR headset.

Pancake lenses don't let as much light through them as Fresnel. That's their one drawback. It's not about blinding people an OLED display with Meta's Quest3 lenses would look murky and dim.

[MartyG]

I think you're understating the light loss a little - it's not just a small amount of loss through Pancake lenses, it's 80% odd - Fresnel lenses are way more efficient in this aspect. So you wouldn't have anything close to 600 nits at your eyes.

[CMcK]

80%! That’s a significant hit. Is it really worth using pancake lenses if there is so much power being used for the screens?

[Asura]

80%! That’s a significant hit. Is it really worth using pancake lenses if there is so much power being used for the screens?

Have you tried them yet? The difference over fresnel is pretty staggering.

It's not just that the clarity/sweet spot is big when you put it on. It's also that with fresnel, whenever you move your head, the headset is never going to stay entirely still, so things get blurry.

The pancake lenses fix all this. Everything is in great focus, all of the time.

[CMcK]

Sounds good. I’m still well impressed with the PSVR2 setup. I know there’s still some little imperfections but once your into a game you largely don’t notice. I’ll probably have to wait for PSVR3 to get a headset with pancake lenses.

[Asura]

Sounds good. I’m still well impressed with the PSVR2 setup. I know there’s still some little imperfections but once your into a game you largely don’t notice. I’ll probably have to wait for PSVR3 to get a headset with pancake lenses.

Admittedly, it has a bit to do with the PSVR's closed system. With it being made by Sony, playing console games, it means Sony can be quite strict on what people put out on it; also, everyone making games for it is working to the same specification (assuming they're dedicated to PSVR2). That's always the case with consoles, so people can make games on PSVR2 that take advantage of its positives and minimise its issues (kinda like how on PSVR1, in Farpoint, you spent the entire game pretty much travelling west, because that meant you rarely had to turn around to face away from the camera/twist the cables).

[Lebowski]

Have you tried them yet? The difference over fresnel is pretty staggering.

It's not just that the clarity/sweet spot is big when you put it on. It's also that with fresnel, whenever you move your head, the headset is never going to stay entirely still, so things get blurry.

The pancake lenses fix all this. Everything is in great focus, all of the time.

Been reading up on the differences between the two lens types, not being able to use oleds with them means worse image overall but a bigger sweet spot pancakes makes them less prone to going out of focus, so their is a trade off. Panckaes require much Brighter screens which means more heat/battery draw too than a Freznel set up.

Ive not had any real issue with having to constantly readjust my headset for blury graphics, so while pancakes would be nice i don't know if id trade an oled headset for one with a led screens. Where not their yet are we we need a new lens tech with the best of both pan-frez ftw

[Neon Ignition]

I tried using the slider last night to see where it would best be placed for myself but in the middle seemed fine, I had to dial the lens very far in width or over close together to introduce blurring which feels a world away from the days of PSVR where narrow movement caused a loss of focus

[Lebowski]

All these people with headsets that aren't a Quest 3 must feel pretty silly now having to stand stock still while playing VR or having to deal with their games becoming a blurry unplayable mess.

[Neon Ignition]

I think with PSVR it didn't bother me too much, largely because the novely factor at the time was greater but also the dependency on tracking via the PS Camera and the cables caused me more issues than the visibility of the lens ever did. I hate talking about PSVR - it makes me want a remake of Blood and Truth so damned badly

[Asura]

All these people with headsets that aren't a Quest 3 must feel pretty silly now having to stand stock still while playing VR or having to deal with their games becoming a blurry unplayable mess.

Experiences vary for different people, especially in VR where people have very differently shaped heads.

I always had a problem with the Quest 2, because its max IPD is slightly smaller than I need, which means at its widest setting, the lenses weren't centred in front of my eyes. The Quest 1 never had this problem because like the 3, it used two square screens instead of 1, so it could accommodate wider IPDs. That meant that on the Q2, I was always working with a sub-optimal experience.

But seriously, I recommend trying a pancake lens headset. It's also to do with how things look off-centre. Text etc. is much sharper. Unless someone comes up with something different, it's what all the next iterations of headsets will use.

[MartyG]

Index lenses have a pretty large sweet spot in them, but they are dual elements design which makes them heavier and larger, however, the optics in Quest 3 and Quest Pro are superior to Index. Clarity is better even with stream compression and not directly over DP and there is less chromatic aberration.

It's the difference between looking at the TV with and without corrective vision.