Alright guys, after nothing but hassle…and I do mean hassle with connection issues, my G2 has died anyway. Honestly, bloody good riddance IMO. I’m sure on its own, it’s a pretty standout headset, but pair it with WMR…ugghhh.
So, given it needs to be local, it needs to be attached via cable to a PC, will be used with Heresphere and will also play a lot of local content when not connected the the net, and ideally, never see the light of the day that is WMR ever again…what are people’s current opinions on what’s currently available, may be out this year (without also spending enough money I could buy another car with lol).
Quest 2/Pro seems to be the simplest (despite the fact I despise Facebook and really dislike the needing an account), Pico 4 really takes my fancy but OMG the set up…seriously, it’s 2023…(both may have a new version out at the end of the year?)…Pimax maybe (current, not the new)…the valve index still worth looking at or maybe go old school with a Neo3 or Rift S?
Do you mean the set up for wired connection?
Why not just use the wireless ability via Virtual Desktop? Works really good. Imo the best headset currently. Not too expensive, great visuals, very comfortable and good wireless capability.
Other than the Pico there is really just the Quest 2 currently.
Can’t recommend. Visuals are just way too bad. For VR porn, you need the best visuals as possible.
Good visuals, but you need lighthouse tracking for that. If you already have lighthouse, might be worth a thought. If not, the whole package is pretty expensive.
Quest 3 will definitely come out later this year. Otherwise there some, let’s say, smaller companies who want to get into the vr market, but their headsets are either very expensive or just not good enough.
The good news is that you DON’T need a Facebook account. You still have to make a “Meta” account in order to set things up, but you don’t need to actually tie it to personal info.
The bad news is that the Quest 2 is a terrible value right now. I managed to score a barely used headset about a year ago for $200. In August, they increased the price of new ones by $100. $400 for a three year old headset is pretty shit imo. $1000 for a Quest Pro is 100% dogshit.
The WORSE news is that there really aren’t great alternatives. The price is either awful or the tech just isn’t as good. It sucks, but the best advice I can give you is to wait.
When/if the Quest 3 launches, it will probably also be in the $400ish range. I can’t say that’s a great deal, but it’s a whole hell of a lot better than paying that for 3 year old hardware. Unfortunately, it’s not likely to drop until October-December at the earliest. In the meantime, MAYBE someone will drop a competitive option? Honestly, it’s just not a great time to buy.
Currently using the quest 2 and it’s pretty great. I might upgrade when the quest 3 comes uit, but that really depends on how much visual fidelity improves. The contrast ratio of the quest 2 is pretty horrendous. Blacks are light grey which is the only thing that bothered me and felt a bit like a downgrade coming from a gear VR (phone-based, oled), especially when watching a darker scene or playing games on it.
If you’ve got the money to spend, then index controllers and vive pro2 seems to be the ideal setup at the moment. You’ll need a decent rig to get the power out of it’s capabilities and downside is it’s wired, but the quality is undeniable.
Yes. Install this here, install that there, open this…sorry, not acceptable to me in 2023. Just needless and the less crapware I have/need to install the better in all honesty, unless you can tell that pico’s streaming service isn’t needed after a one-time setup?
Maybe you missed the point of it needs…100%, to be wired and not be dependant on an internet/wife connection. While I do have the paid version of VD I will not always have an internet connection (be on a boat)…and I point blank refuse to be tied to wireless/wife/net connections with anything. It needs to be wired (or have the capability) and needs to be able to be used locally.
@PO0000OP ahh I missed that bit. Good to know. Also yes, it does seem silly to grab one now when the new one should be out later, unless it could be got for a very good price.
@Bounce Not good to hear. Will also be used for a very limited selection of games (3) and for watching films on, so contrast is extremely important. Hmm…
@NoFunn Have looked at that before but the price put me off for a complete package. it’s still not cheap and also old hardware now, though if could find one at a reasonable price I could be tempted.
We’re kind of right in the middle of a hardware cycle right now, plus the metaverse hype has died so Facebook have stopped selling their headsets at a loss to appease investors…meaning it’s a terrible time to buy a headset.
If you can wait, I’d wait until Meta’s next headset is released (it will probably be first to market of a new generation of headsets based on Qualcomm’s newest reference design). That could be anytime between the end of this year and the end of next year.
If you can’t wait, the Quest 2 is still the best headset for the money, even if it is more out of date AND more expensive than it was when originally released. You can absolutely run it via a USB Type-C 3.0 cable, or wirelessly over WiFi (even if you don’t have internet access such as on a boat). But if you’re going to be mainly watching videos, you don’t even need to worry about tethering it to your PC, just put the videos onto the device and watch them directly.
Not to mention that meta is a company you cant trust. Even if their headsets are cheaper, that is only because your personal data is going to be used.
It doesnt matter that you dont have a facebook account, there are a LOT of factors which meta uses to identify you. If your phone has whatsapp, and while whatsapp is running it detects that the device is in the network, it often already knows enough to identify its potential users. It doesnt even need to make a connection, it only needs to know that a certain mac adress in the network was sending something, and it can already match the information.
Tracking goes realy far and even if it cannot get a 100% match reliably, it doesnt even matter. A 60% matching rate is more than enough to already target the advertisements. Since 60% is better than 10%. Add to that pattern recognition, and over time it can often with 99% accuracy tell whether you were using it or someone else. Just because of usualy usage times, and random factors of other people.
To make matters worse, how often have you heard about ‘leaks’ where their ‘black box’ was using information it shoulnt, and having no option to revert it. Its clearly a deliberate risk they take. Sure, some care is taken to avoid lawsuits (and if its rare enough, the cost of them isnt going to exceed the profit gain), but obviously, these loopholes arent covered for the reason that if accidentily it gets triggered, that information is now permanently used. This is part of their design, since in most cases the ones to govern or decide punishements deem instant deletion of the entire data set unviable as it would instantly bankrupt a company.
Meta is a marketing company using its headset and social networks as gathering tools. And this is why you cant trust them. If its too good to be true, it usualy is, and meta exploits this massively.
Poeple usualy only look at money, but cheap doesnt mean best.
Yeah I kinda got the impression that now wasn’t the best time. I am happy to wait, in no rush to get a new headset at the moment. Personally rather not be transferring files from device to device (and deciding what to transfer across and when etc…I have a huge digital film library), small first world hassle I know but prefer to keep stuff where it is (in an ideal world heh).
@SomeoneRandom All good points indeed, especially for someone like myself (while I do use Whatsapp) who is trying to become less connected in the world and going forward. Not so easy anymore and you are making life intentionally more difficult for yourself I admit but I seriously dislike this connected perma-network world. Not for me. Thankfully I’m an age where I can probably get away with it, just.
Well thanks guys, kind of really summed up what I was already thinking. I think I’ll just leave it for now unless something lands across my lap at a deal too good to turn down. See what happens over the rest of this year.
You think you can, but you cant. Thats how far those companies go. They just give you the illusion (and tbf, in most cases this illusion is actualy quite convenient as it avoids truly irrelevant information from being displayed).
Marketing companies are aware of people that want to isolate themselve. And they adjust for that. There is an entire division in those companies dedicated towards misleading people on that regard. And often i cant even call that bad either, as in the end… that same tracking is often part of security systems.
If you use gmail, any information google knows about you is also used to protect your gmail. Tracking is on that a satefy tool. But for someone who doesnt like it, google just adjusts the information to be more general. It gives a feeling of not being tracked, and gives a feeling of being less influenced (and in thise case, you actualy are. its by design that you are given that option. as its to keep you attached to their company).
Even if you arent using any internet connection, a lot of those companies are still aware of your existance and know quite a lot about you. Because while you avoid being registered, the people around you dont care.
And again, if such company can track you, it can use that for safety. Google knows that much about you, it can recognise any odd login (even if the other party tried to fake it as much as possible), and by that already force 2fa. And the better they can track you, the less often 2fa is required. Its sad that this disgusting behaviour by companies is actualy beneficial on many other parts. And that gives them basicly the right to just try anything.
Tracking goes realy far, and you cannot dodge it unless you live in a country where internet barely exists at all…
Yeah the whole modern global economy basically runs on behavioural data at this point. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff is an absolutely fantastic book (I’m re-reading it right now lol) for anyone who wants to know more about how this stuff works and how we got to this point.
