My VR Gear
I have a quite a few headsets. I own the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve
Index, Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro. I still use the Quest 2, 3, and
Pro regularly so I'll give a little more detail on those. I use all
these headsets with Virtual Desktop, using VDXR and the H.264+ and it's
practically latency-free and lossless.
Meta Quest 3 |
The Quest 3 is my daily driver and what I put on most
of the time when I'm stepping into VR. It has the highest resolution on
a headset without paying close to $1000, and is what I consider to be
the first real viable standalone headset thanks to its higher
performance over the previous generation. I still only use it as a PCVR
headset though.
This headset also has a fairly decent camera and depth sensor for
actually useable mixed reality. When combined with a halo strap as
pictured, you get the real world in your peripheral vision for a view
that blends the physical and digital realm into something pretty damn
awesome. |
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Meta Quest Pro |
The Quest Pro's performance is identical to the Quest
2, so it's very limited as a standalone device. It also cost too
damn much. I got mine when it was $1000, but brand new people were
paying about $1500. It has just a little less resolution than the Quest
2, but it looks higher and sharper because of pancake lenses. It also
features local dimming which gives it better contrast even though it's
an LCD display.
I got the headset mainly because it's the most affordable and only available option if you want full face
and eye tracking. It is also the most compact and convenient for this
use, and has better tracking than other options. I prioritize its use
for streaming VR so I can be more expressive, and mostly use it when
I'm also using full-body tracking.
This headset converted me to being a halo headstrap user, and caused my
preference in VR headsets to be facial-interface free. I learned it is
much easier to perform live using halo headstraps, and even though I
have the real world in my peripheral vision, I haven't felt like I've
sacrificed any immersion. |
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Meta Quest 2 |
The Quest 2 is a great
PCVR headset especially at the price it is now. For standalone
performance, it has a huge library but most titles made specifically
for it, but it will be blurry and little laggy. If you've never
experienced PCVR quality you might not notice.
If you're going to use it for PCVR, this headset is fantastic and I
can't recommend it enough. I was using a Valve Index for a while, I got
this from a friend because he wanted me to perform at events in
Horizon, and I ended up preferring it to the Index most of the time.
The colors are more vibrant, the resolution is higher, and the FOV if
you use a slim interface or a floating headstrap (like the BOBOVR) is
the same.
For standalone, I have known a lot of people who don't seem to mind the
lower performance. Honestly, VRChat is probably the best optimized app
for it. Rec Room and Horizons are playable. Roblox, probably not so much. But at $249, it is priced appropriately and is the best entry into VR since it can scale up.
This headset is also perfect
for Beat Saber and other exercise apps, and that is my main use for it
these days. I would look into getting a good headstrap though like one
from kiwi design, specifically ones with the strap down the middle. The
floating headstraps are good and well-balanced if you're not going to
be exercising. The wait distribution gets a little weird when you start
moving too fast.
In all honesty, if my Quest 3 and Quest Pro were to go down and I had
to fall back to this, it wouldn't bother me at all. It is still a
damned good headset for PCVR.
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