Comment by Phillips126 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Phillips126 | Hacker News Reader

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I was intrigued by VR so I picked up the Oculus Go. It was interesting, but felt lacking. I wasn't disappointed but the whole experience felt pretty meh.

For Christmas I thought I'd test the upgrade and purchased an Oculus Quest. Wow, this thing blew me away. The experience is night and day different, so much so that I stuck my Go in the closet and may be selling it down the road. Having two controllers, hand tracking, Oculus Link if you have a gaming PC, overall improvements to display and battery, and of course 6 DOF. I've never been more excited about VR.

The Quest really is an incredible unit. I've so far been able to:

  - Play "native" Quest games which have been very fun

  - Play PCVR (SteamVR) games using ALVR[0] over 
    5ghz WiFi with great performance

  - Sideloaded RetroArch[1] to play N64, SNES, Gameboy 
    and GameCube games with a bluetooth controller

  - Watching full length movies in a cinema-like experience

  - Enjoying many 360 videos on YouTube

I'm contemplating doing some game development in VR again. I tried to build some applications on my Go but the single controller and weak specs really hindered my creativity.

I implore you to test out the Quest if you found the Go experience lacking as I did, it's really more than a minor upgrade.

[0] https://github.com/polygraphene/ALVR [1] https://www.retroarch.com/

How does oculus link on the quest compare to the latest-gen rift? Is there any reason to buy the rift any more?

Depends on the person. Some people say it is the same, some people feel that the Rift is still ahead. I do not own the Rift S or Rift so I cannot make grounded comparison but I can lay out some details:

1. Rift S has less screen door effect as it uses a different (better) pixel arrangement, however it has worse colors and cannot show true blacks like Quest can (OLED panel inside)

2. Rift S has a 5th camera for inside tracking which can/does help increase tracking range. That being said, I'd say Quest works really well and I do not feel the need for 5th camera.

3. Rift S is much more comfortable, if you get a Quest you can solve the comfort by putting a counterweight on the end of the strap, the change in comfort is incredible.

4. Some people report that they can feel a slight latency when using Link with Quest (some don't feel it)

5. Rift S has a slightly better refresh rate (80Hz vs 72Hz)

6. Quest has beta for hand tracking (using your real life hands in VR without a controller), it works decently and will open up new kind of experiences. Rift S apparently won't get this feature to keep compatability with Rift.

7. It looks like Oculus is focusing on Quest for the future, I wouldn't be surprised if their main headset in the future is "Quest" like rather than Rift like.

8. Quest can be used untethered. This is for me the killer feature for VR and when you start using it, it really makes a big difference. One caveat is that I do not have a "pulley" system so when I am tethered, the cable is always around and intrusive. You can even use Quest untethered for PCVR content by using a 5Ghz network and Virtual Desktop or ALVR (probably officially via Link in the future)

9. Quest with using Link is more performance intensive as it needs to encode the image and send it over the wire to the headset, Rift on the other hand just passes the image via cable to the display in the headset.

All of this being said, I'd say that for the vast majority of users, Oculus Quest is the headset to get. It allows you so much flexibility and capability that it is hard to advise against it. Lot of people think that being standalone is not a big thing for them, but when they get the Quest they realize they can use the Quest in the living room, on the porch, take it with them when they travel or as a party tool.

You nailed it on the head. The Quest is a nearly "do it all" VR device. Do you want a mobile VR experience to enjoy with friends on the go (streaming to a TV/Phone)? Check. Do you want to experience the high quality (graphics) of a high end VR experience, you can do that too (both wired and wirelessly)! Aside from the refresh rate which I personally have no issues with, I can't see any reason to purchase a wired PCVR-only headset.

And just to comment on the Oculus Quests SDE (screen door effect), this has been greatly been improved. I honestly do not even notice this at all like I did with the Oculus Go.

If you have only one headset, I'd go for a Quest. If you are experienced VR user, owned a headset previously then you probably know the type of experiences you'll use. In that case it might be better to go for something else, but I'd still say that Quest is the best bang for the buck right now, and potentially will improve even further with advances in finger tracking and potential wireless Link.

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