Meta Quest

Corkstpauli wrote: »

Got mine yesterday, first time headset owner, very disappointed, got it mostly to watch films on large screens and tv via the prime and netflix apps as I travel a lot for work and theres an obvious problem with it. The rooms you watch the films in both have a smoky grey covering which totally distracts you from the film. From other forums it's a problem with black colours that's effecting games too. its like going to a cinema where everyone is smoking all the way through.
Loving the vr in games demos I've tried but if media playing is your thing avoid

I've been seeing people mention that alright. The Oculus Go would have been perfect for your needs.

I suspect that someone will come up with a way to adjust the black levels as people have already figured out how to increase the bit rate via Sidequest.

wes wrote: »

The black levels would be inherent to the LCD tech they are using. Quest 1 used OLED, and LCD won't come close to that.

Now is certainly possible there is a software issue, but you will not get black levels like OLED, no matter what fixes they come up with, and I don't think they have any kind of mini-led or local dimming on the headset.

Having said that, a lot of VR headset seem to have ditched OLED. The Valve Index, the best on the market uses LCD and not OLED.

It's strange.. I checked the spec for the Oculus Go and that uses LCD, but I've never noticed an issue with blacks on that, so it's possible there are software fixes to bring down the levels.

RonnieL wrote: »

I've a birthday coming up so I'm dropping hints for a quest 2, but haven't really used VR headsets before. One thing I'm wondering about (and a google search proved inconclusive), is the option to watch live sports on these things. Anyone care to fill me in? In the times we live in, I'd have thought VR attendance at games/gigs would be very popular, and a good revenue stream for struggling teams/artists.

There's a Venues app which is apparently good, but I've never tried it.

You can sideload lots of viewers too as the OS is native Android.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Got mine from Amazon today. Just had time to complete the initial setup there now. Is it me or is the packaging a lot less premium as compared to the Quest 1? Just a plainish brown box. Who cares I suppose as long as the headset does the business.

I'd say it's all part of how they keep the price down

Mickeroo wrote: »

Quick question, are games only cross buy if you buy them in the Rift store?

You can buy on Quest or Rift store and sometimes there's a discount on one that isn't on the other so always worth checking.

Just be sure that the app is cross-buy though. For example you'd think Superhot is cross-buy but it isn't.

TheMilkyPirate wrote: »

After being initially unimpressed with the headset, I have to say after a couple days of play that's it's fantastic.

Similar here, which is part of the reason I wanted to get a real good sense of the thing before I gave my thoughts on it.

My first impression was that it didn't really look THAT much different to the Q1, but at the time I was just comparing the Virtual Environments as I didn't have any apps loaded to compare.
The environments are quite low res so are not the best way to compare as they look fairly similar on both headsets.

After (finally) managing to load up all my sideloaded content I played it for a good few hours today. I can honestly say it's a fantastic piece of kit, and a worthy upgrade to the Q1...with some caveats...

Positives

- Tiny solid package, highly portable and has a real Apple-esque premium feel to it. Even if it was the same price as the Q1 I think it's more solidly built and worth equivalent value.

- Everything loads and runs faster!

- The built in speakers are great. I haven't felt the need to use earphones yet.

- Comfort is a vast improvement over Quest 1 which gave me pretty bad headaches. Lighter and less weight on the front of the face in comparison. This is with the cloth strap. I do feel the face pad could do with a bit of an upgrade though, so looking to get a VRCover one later. Hopefully the Elite strap makes it even more comfortable.

- At first I thought the screen resolution wasn't that much different, but having compared like for like I can now definitely see a huge difference.
My initial impression was affected by the fact I had been playing an Oculus Go for most of the last week and so I was comparing the visuals to that rather than the Quest 1, but now having compared both Quests I see all the SDE when I load up the same screen compared to the Q2. In fact I never noticed it before, but now it's all I see.
The Quest 2 is approaching the Oculus Go in terms of visual crispness.

- The clarity of distance objects is really noticeable and sideloaded content such as Cosmic Flow which had me hypnotised in a way that Q1 couldn't since it was all just a pixilated blur before.

- QuestZDoom on this is pure bliss... haven't enjoyed it nearly as much as I do now. Plays super fast, super clear and super bloody!

- Playing Half Life Alyx and Superhot via Virtual Desktop were both also a joy and visuals were definitely up to the Link levels, even though I was playing wirelessly (I'd say it's probably on par with Rift S)

Negatives

- Small sweetspot. I find if your not looking fairly straight it does go a little out of focus. Perhaps I need to fiddle with the IPD setting to get it a little between 2 and 3.

- God rays make white text on "black" a little blurry and low definition. This isn't so noticeable on the Oculus Go.

- The main negative of the headset is the faded black level.

I didn't notice it before until it was mentioned in this thread, but yes the Quest 1's blacks really are black whereas on the Quest 2 it's a smoky grey. This was a noticeable issue when I was playing Quake 1 and 2 where enemies in the shadows weren't visible until they were right up in front of me. When I played the same sections on the Quest 1 I could spot them in the shadows.

On Quest 1, the dark sections looked a lot more intense and rich, and most importantly more scary. I can definitely see the black levels being an issue in horror games, or cinema environments.

So, it sounds like I'd choose the Quest 1 for Quake 1 and 2, but in all honesty I'd still go for Quest 2 purely for comfort reasons.

In summary

Q2 is lighter, tighter and a hell of a lot more comfortable relative to the original. Just a shame about the black levels but there had to be some compromises I guess.

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