One of my Valve Index's base station just died. I'll see what Valve support says. Cables fraying too. I feel like it's just not built to last.

Wireless VR with (optional) base stations (that last) please.

I just ordered a Quest 2 and am waiting for shipment next week. I know it's not quite up to par with the higher end headsets, like the Valve Index, but it seemed to check a lot of boxes and was super affordable. Seems they have come a long way on the technology and bringing it into the "console price" range.

From what I've read it seems to solve pixelation issues, etc, does 90hz currently and may be getting an update to support 120hz.

I have a good quality 5ghz router so I am going to see how it performs wirelessly connected to Steam VR, but I did get a link cable as well.

Bought it mostly for Sim Racing, but excited to see what else VR has to offer.

I've had a quest 2 for a few months. I had an OG Vive as my only prior headset to compare, but its a night and day improvement imo.

Inside out tracking is a gamechanger. Setup is effortless. Wireless PCVR through virtual desktop takes some configuring but I've toyed around in half life alyx and rogue squadron and its certainly playable with a good 5ghz router. Sim Racing you might want to opt for the link cable I'd imagine, however.

Basically zero screen door effect compared to the vive. I think the headset is more comfortable as well but ymmv. Do some research before buying the elite strap if it interests you, they tend to snap after some time, I'm on my 3rd strap already.

I sold my vive after about a year from a day 1 purchase. Just wasn't quite there yet. Always intended to buy back in when I thought VR had sufficiently matured(primarily looking for wireless VR). Quest nailed it and $300 is stupid cheap for what you get.

It arrived a bit early so I had the weekend to get myself setup and a few hours worth of play (my gaming time is fairly limited these days).

My impressions, keeping in mind this is my first headset and first real VR experience, aside from a quick trial of a Gear VR years back where my nephew put on a roller coaster video and I noped out pretty quickly due to motion sickness.

First impression - It's definitely not what I was expecting quality wise. I had a vision in my head from watching YouTube videos, etc, of what this would look like, and hearing that there is "no screen door", etc. The reality is that the pixel density is still pretty bad. You just can't take a 1080p screen and blow it up over your whole vision. I don't have a comparison to what older headsets looked like, but their is still pretty visible screen door effect, shimmering jaggies, shimmering items in the distance, etc. Also only the center of the screen is really clear and it gets pretty blurry in the peripheral due to the lower budget lens.

At first I was disappointed to the point of wondering if I should bail out, and spent too much time in menus, mucking with fit and IPD settings, etc, hoping for something magical to happen, and it didn't.

Then I gave up on that, moved on, and launched "First Steps" or whatever it is called and all my concerns pretty quickly vanished. Being put into a full scene with no menus to focus on blurry text, was a pretty drastic change and finally let my brain go into "suspension of disbelief". The brief tutorial / experience had me giggling and ducking out of the way of things that weren't really there, etc.

First Contact - As a followup to First Steps was also a fun little experience.

I wish they gave some more freebies, something a bit more substantial, but either way those were a good intro.

Virtual Desktop - Next I knew this was pretty much a must and Day 1 buy, so went ahead with this setup.

Oculus Link - Got a well rated but cheaper cable from Amazon. Got 1.8mbps from a 3.1 gen 2 USB port on a speedtest and it seems to be doing the job well.

After playing around with both of the above, I am not sure how much I am going to even use the cable. I'll probably just use it while sim racing as latency is everything there. Virtual Desktop into SteamVR seems to be doing a really impressive job and not having a cable to trip over while spinning and turning around is worth the slight graphics quality loss.

Other games I've played so far:

Beat Saber - Day 1 buy and part of the reason for the purchase. It's pretty much 100% what I was expecting it to be. Tons of fun, not mindblowing. This game really made realize however how amazing the tracking has gotten, and it makes me think back to the Wii and how this is what we all dreamed of after trying the Wii for the first time.

Portal Stories - Free SteamVR game so diving in here, and have used this for Virtual Desktop vs Link testing. Really fun so far, only a few levels in, but taking to teleportion pretty quickly. This game totally makes me wish I had a bigger play area however, I am so tempted to walk towards the cube / etc, and just don't have the space to do so.


So yeah, overall, the quality is not what I was hoping for but it's still a ton of fun. I am taking a bit to get used to VR / working on not getting motion sickness and think I am in the group that is much more sensitive to it. 30 minutes of even a stationary game like Beat Saber gets my head swimming abit, so I'll just keep taking it slow until I get accustomed to the sensation.

Get Super Hot VR

And Rec Room is great (paintball, laser tag, dodgeball, etc)

I have Rec Room installed, but haven't tried it yet. Looks like the social element of it is pretty big/important and not really my cup of tea.

Super Hot VR is on my to-buy list for sure.

(VR games are expensive! I was a bit surprised at the prices and lack of price reductions on older titles, lack of sales, etc.)

I don’t get into the social aspect; I just go on there to play paintball; others go for laser tag or dodgeball or frisbee golf and others for the social aspect

But it’s free and paintball is awesome

I’ve found vr games pretty cheap on steamVR; usually $10-20

If you like puzzle games then I Expect You To Die is good and there are a plethora of escape rooms for $3-9 each that are good.

Holopoint is a great archery game; you have to shoot targets (cubes) that appear all around you and at all heights in the room you are in and then when you hit them they shoot a ball at you that you have to duck; so you feel like a bad ass shooting and then dodging, shooting and then dodging...work up a sweat as well

And of course Half-life: Alyx but that’s a full priced game.

If you own portal then portal VR is free (not the full game but still)

For steam tho, I basically put any game I’m interested in on my wishlist and then just wait for it to be free.


Also, check out “Eye of the Temple” free demo; it’s a room scale Indiana Jones inspired game; you walk around your room and it uses tricks like moving platforms and rolling logs to pretty much always keep you near the middle of your play space. Feels immersive to be in a huge level and go all over while walking and moving.

Also Budget Cuts free demo (then full game if you like the demo)....stealth puzzler avoiding robots that will kill you if they see you

Yeah SteamVR games seem better for discounts/sales than the Oculus store. I got 6 games from the Fanatical VR bundle, (~$5 CAD each) and so I have a bit of content to poke around with for now.

Rec Room - OK, I'll give it a go. I don't have any qualms with MP I just don't like feeling compelled to converse with randoms. Sounds like the interaction part is not necessary though. I also need to find lighter content for my Wife and I think this will probably suit her well.

Got Portal VR and playing that now. So far so good. We'll see how my legs do once it starts getting crazy. (my brain went into danger mode the first time I teleported close to a ledge)

Thanks for the headsup on other titles, etc.

There is less to Portal VR then I thought. I swear I saw a video of people flying through portals, etc, but I guess not. 10 levels and it's over, but I guess I can't complain with free.

Also finally made the plunge for an Oculus 2. Beat sabre is most of what I've played so far, but it's just an amazing game to kill 30 minutes with.

Rec Room would be fun with a group of friends. Paintball and the lazer co-op game are a lot of fun. haven't tried much else aside from that.

But I can't deal with the kids. half the player base seems to be 11.