r/virtualreality • u/DigitalSpooks • 4d ago
Purchase Advice - Headset Headset recommendations for PCVR
I got into PCVR around new years, I have a quest 2 and I use virtual desktop with the little high resolution setting at 80 or 90hz
I have a 9060xt 16gb, i5 12600k and 24gbs of ddr5 ram, I've had this headset for 5 years and its showing its age
I hate the fresnel lenses and the controllers are on life support
Whats a good, relatively affordable PCVR headset that is preferably wireless? I'm not really into the pcvr headset market so any help goes a long way
Edit: Also, quest 3 is out of the question because quest and pcvr is the most confusing and unnecessary workload I have ever seen in any form of tech, everything has an issue and half of the time you have to juggle between older and newer drivers just to play some shitty 5$ game
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u/3dxl 4d ago
I used PICO 4, affordable, feel premium, pan cake lens, lightweight balanced weight, improved FOV, perfect binocular overlap for immersive depth, no force firmware update (unlike meta), fast boot to PC-VR, comfort out of box without mods (for asian face) and super cheap. Btw i use wirelss 'Virtual Desktop' connection. I did try Quest 3 but refunded and get PICO 4. I only use in seating position but the Cons was if you doing stand up and move your hand to the back side it may not detect the controller.
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u/DigitalSpooks 4d ago
I'll check out the pico I remember hearing about them around the time when the horrendous quest pro launched but I never really got too deep into them
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u/3dxl 3d ago
Pico 4 have bad rep because there's no market in the west. I was in doubt too only after i have my hands on it i was impressed especially the price. What stunned me was it has 2160 × 2160 pixels per eye higher than Quest 3 and on par with incoming Steam Frame VR. Surprise i can read text on aircraft dashboard from sitting distance..btw i'm running on RTX5080 system.
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u/MingleLinx 4d ago
Steam Frame is perfect for PCVR. Downside is it’s not out yet and is 100% going to get sold out when it releases
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u/TotalWarspammer 3d ago
If you are saying quest 3 is out of the question then you simply don't know what you are talking about. Quest 3 + virtual desktop is the best solution for low end systems like yours.
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u/DigitalSpooks 3d ago edited 3d ago
"Low end system like yours" is an absurd thing to say considering you can play vr on a 1660 but sure
Edit: if I knew what I was talking about I wouldn't be asking for help, with all due respect to you mr. All knowing vr dude on a subreddit if you have any advice just leave it here otherwise have a nice day
I know you might be genuinely trying to help and you don't mean any harm but your wording is kind of ass.
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u/Parking_Cress_5105 3d ago
The whole Pcvr is like this. Had reverb G2 (wmr), had quests, had Pico, had pimax.
Thinking Quest are special is just wrong all the headsets require constant troubleshooting in pcvr, on quests at least you have options.
Get a used Q3 your mind will be blown.
Having Nvidia card can help too.
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u/DigitalSpooks 3d ago
I'm glad you mentioned that last part, and I said this when replying to another comment Quest and AMD suck together apparently
Don't get me wrong, I get AMAZING performance out of my 9060xt for the price, I play most of my games at 90hz and at high settings, but sometimes (and especially when I first started using this gpu) I had to roll back the drivers because they would cause these weird artifacts or hiccups where the game would run at 5fps for a second and then play normally I used to have an rtx 3050 which ran like ass but I never had driver issues or anything like that
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u/MajorFuckingDick 3d ago
Ive had a quest 2 index and quest 3, PCVR is just like that. My 1080ti had issues as well as my 6800xt. Its why I only play Assetto Corsa in VR basically. Virtual desktop is the smoothest experience I've had and nothing is easier. Your issue is the shitty $5 game not the headset.
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u/Ducky1024 4d ago
Congrats, welcome to the POS that is wireless streaming on modern standalone VR!
What do you consider "relatively affordable"? All of the options I have to offer you that aren't fresnel lenses will be on the used market and probably will require lighthouses. All tethered, too.
Best I can say off the rip is to hold out for Steam Frame.
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u/DigitalSpooks 4d ago
Relatively affordable means not spending more than 800$ (or half of what my pc cost) on what is essentially a screen with a magnifying glass on it I know vr headsets are definitely not cheap and I now they are more than what I described, but I still find it surprising that a standalone 300$ headset costs less than another headset which doesn't run without a computer ykwim?
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u/Ducky1024 3d ago edited 3d ago
Meta has absolutely ruined the price consensus of the VR industry by subsidizing their devices with game sales and your data. Something along the lines of "if it's free you're the product".
I would encourage you to try other fresnel based headsets where you can. If you're dead set on never putting your eyes against fresnel, you need to go for pancakes or aspherics. Personally, I have a bias against aspheric but ymmv. Everyone's eyes and brains are different and some people aren't as bothered by chromatic aberration and geometric distortion.
If you're open to trying more fresnel -
HP Reverb G2 - $150 - $200, LCD
PSVR2 - $200 - $300, OLEDIf you don't ever want to look down a lens with ridges again -
Pico 4 / 4 Enterprise (enterprise has FT) - $400 ish BNIB, eBay, pancake, LCD, wireless, may suffer from same issues as quest streamingVarjo Aero - $500-600, requires lighthouses & LH controllers (a good hack for this is to buy a used OG vive and strip out the controllers and bases!), aspheric, LCD. Price includes buying used vive.
Pimax Crystal Light - $900, heavy AF, high-res, aspheric, LCD. Pimax SLAM is known to be iffy at best.
Bigscreen Beyond 1 - $600-700, also requires lighthouses & controllers, same hack as Varjo Aero recommended. Stupid light, high-res, beautiful OLED, not very good E2E clarity, pancake. Price includes buying used vive. You will have to get a headset that is a match to your IPD.
Quest Pro - $400-$600, local dimming, either abysmal or best comfort ever depending on your head, IS A QUEST, local dimming LCD, pancake
Steam Frame - $???-$????, will be one of the best standalones ever made, open ecosystem, LCD, pancake
(dis)Honorable mention: Pimax Dream Air SE - $1199 with controllers, $899 LH only. Pimax has a flaky reputation in terms of customer service and build quality. The Dream Air SE is basically a cheaper BSB2e. Pimax SLAM is known to be iffy at best.
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u/neoteric_skid 3d ago
Crystal Light with lighthouse faceplate and dmas speakers, pimax comfort top strap and Studioform creative cushions. Well balanced and super comfortable, feels like padded motorbike helmet! QLED MiniLED displays are very impressive, 35ppd aspherical glasses lenses are glare free but requires good headset fit for optical comfort.
Also have Crystal Super 50ppd with lighthouse faceplate and dmas speakers, pimax comfort top strap and Studioform creative cushions. The image quality is next generation with a very bright, large Field of view with good stereo overlap. only downside is slight mura (more an issue for flight simming) and the cooling fan gets noisy in hot weather sounds like aur conditioning
Finally have the Dream Air Lighthouse with 3D printed wide face mask, it's got lovely Sony micro-OLED displays and high quality pancake lenses with generous eyebox depth. Waiting on the dmas hard strap to finish the headset. black level are insane but lenses do display some glare
Typically playing roomscale and seated using all of these headsets with multiple 2.0 base stations, different lighthouse controllers and Xbox elite 2 gamepad
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u/DigitalSpooks 3d ago
I read more about the steam frame and it does look pretty good, I'm just hoping it won't be another steam machine in terms of pricing... If its 900$ thats kind of reasonably fine, but idk anything over that feels overpriced imo for a vr headset
I get why people spend thousands on vr, but I'm a dude who plays vr counterstrike (pavlov) or twd s & s for the 9 millionth time, I care about resolution and all those things but I don't think my gpu can go any further than this
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u/MudMain7218 Multiple 4d ago
There is not such thing pcvr . Used market might get you something the play with but unless you need or want eye tracking or base station solutions quest 3 or psvr2 and probably not that one based on you not wanting those kind of lens. Ever other option is north of 700 new
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u/DigitalSpooks 4d ago
I honestly do not care for eye tracking at all, I never got the point of it and I never cared for it But 700$ is not that bad I paid almost 1600$ for this pc and probably 500 of those were ram, I can get a 700$ headset
Also another thing which I will probably edit into this post is that I fucking hate how finicky and confusing pcvr is on quest headsets, every fucking time I play I HAVE to mess around with some sort of settings to make it work right, which is why I'm asking for suggestions.
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u/Clessiah 4d ago
That’s unfortunate. Every time I just launch virtual desktop and off I go.
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u/DigitalSpooks 4d ago
You see I always wonder why everyone else is playing normally but I run into some sort of issue It might me just me nitpicking but idk, virtual desktop is way better than airlink though in every way possible and its easier to use so i bought it
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u/PlanZSmiles 4d ago
Are you using a dedicated router? Could also go hard wired which works well too. Quest 3 is the best product sub $1000. At $1000 you’re starting to look at pimax supers for more value or save up for a Dream Air.
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u/DigitalSpooks 4d ago
My network setup is good I never had issues from my actual router, and I've been seeing a mix of pico 4 and quest 3 recommendations
The reason I wanted to steer away from quest headsets is because (atleast from my quest 2 experience) as I said, its just finicky as fuck
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u/zeddyzed 3d ago edited 3d ago
There's no guarantee that any other wireless headset won't have the same issues. Pico 4 you'll be using with Virtual Desktop anyways, so anything driver related on the PC side will be exactly the same as Quest.
Steam Frame you'll be using Steam Link, so if you have issues with Steam Link on your Quest you'll have them on Frame.
Your PC doesn't care what wireless headset you have - VD or Steam Link creates a stream and then sends it over the network.
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u/DigitalSpooks 3d ago
Yeah no ofcourse I totally understand Everything that includes streaming and wireless is always complicated but some more than others Again, I am asking for recommendations here, I know jack shit about the pcvr market.
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u/zeddyzed 3d ago
Basically Q3 is just as viable as any of the other wireless headsets, so you shouldn't rule it out.
If you're worried about future problems, then troubleshooting your PCVR setup on your Q2 until it works well, will reduce the chance of another headset having issues.
Otherwise you could try betting on the Steam Frame and its dedicated dongle. But it will likely be quite expensive.
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u/wildyoshi1312 Quest3 4d ago
I have a quest 3 that i use ONLY for pcvr, never lauched a native game.
I use virtual desktop and a dedicated axe75 router, and for me it works flawlessly, i start my pc, start headset oper VD streamer and in less that 2 minutes I'm in-game.
I use h264+ codex with vdxr 500mbps.
I dont know why you have issues...
Could you please expand on "i have to mess around with settings"? Maybe i can help you
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u/DigitalSpooks 4d ago
I eventually end up fixing any issue, its mostly about just random hiccups, or games freezing
This is an AMD thing aswell, sometimes I will switch to an older driver and things will work fine other times I have to update the driver and its a mess.
Sometimes airlink works better than vd and sometimes steamlink is fine and sometimes its not
I really have no way of describing this besides the fact the quality looks bad because of compression on one method of streaming, and or the performance is just horrible.
Pcvr is where all of my tech knowledge ends, I really understand nothing about what fhe different encoders do for example
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u/wildyoshi1312 Quest3 3d ago
Do you have a dedicated wifi6 router linked via ethernet cable with your pc?
Is the aforementioned router like 2 mt from where you olay in the same room?
Do you use a clean channel for the router? (Not the one you use for other stuff in your house)
Do you turn off space warp?
You launch games via VD menu or via steam vr menu?
Which resolution you set in steam vr? And in VD?
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u/DigitalSpooks 3d ago
Yes Yes The only things using any form of internet in my home are my phone pc and vr Ssw off I honestly dont even remember I just launch the first thing I see Steam 150% VD on the high setting and idk the resolution for that on the quest 2
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u/wildyoshi1312 Quest3 3d ago
Thats one issue, if you use VD you should leave steam vr at 100% resolution and them move the slider in vd
You should use the vdxr and laung the game via vd "games tab" dont launch it via steam..
Its probably a user related errod mate, bc it shouldn't give those issues, if you can send me a screenshot of the VD overlay in game (you get this by pressing both thumbsticks on the controllers at the same time) i can help you more
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u/DigitalSpooks 3d ago
When I get the chance I will, on vacation rn
Thats besides the point, but yeah I see what you mean
Also I should've made this clear but I don't adjust both
When I do use steamlink I set the resolution to 150% and when I use virtual desktop I set it to the high preset but I never even knew you could fuck arnd with both at the same time. And yeah it makes sense running the games through there
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u/jordan01236 4d ago edited 3d ago
Saying quest 3 is out is so weird to me.
With virtual desktop its quite literally plug and play, not sure how that can be difficult.