Oculus Rift S - First Impressions

Posted this on iracing but might as well copy and post it here if it helps anyone, or anyone would wish to add re their experience or other sims.

Really great upgrade, I wouldn't want to go back to the rift OG. Seeing things I never saw in my CV1. Stopped on the track to check the distance you could pick braking boards out with real clarity, between 200-300 ft, pin sharp as you go between markers, that alone makes a huge difference, and that was tested at Watkins Glenn with the little white on black boards at the end of the first straight. All the onboard info, relative etc, crystal clear, just takes a glance now, no leaning in which I had to do previously, same with in car dashes.No real sense of a sweet spot anymore though that clearly still exists, and SDE pretty much gone.

Going round belle island was a joy with all the billboards sharp and clear. Best thing I can probably describe is in replay mode, previously it was fine, but mid distant objects and far were more 'well I know that's a tree'. Now they are clear trees. Is it a 1080p rendition, well not quite, but not so far short now that it's going to bother you given the immersive bonus of VR. There is a ton of extra detail to enjoy and things I'd never seen in VR before, from the clarity of grandstands, signage and car detailing, to waves on water and the rendering of grass. Any brake marker you want now you can have.

The sound is not too bad. I tried it with some Cooler Master MH751's and given all the extra fuss of separate headphones, I'll stick to the in build speakers for now, bright and crisp like the displays, though it will definitely annoy sound buffs. The spacial audio is also much better on the S with the build in than on the Rift OG. It gets the job done to start with, possibly better for some VR experiences, but if you want the real gruff sounds then headphones required.

It's a definite upgrade, I'd say a worthy one, and it's no more taxing on the GPU meaning you still have all your headroom for the other aspects of image quality, AA, SS etc.

Absolutely zero change in the experience going to 80hz. Great if you wear glasses too. Tracking perfect. Zero light bleed in the headset and yet to get foggy for some reason. FOV feels slightly wider to me, but it's marginal, certainly felt wider in tin tops.

Very very happy with it, VR feels right now, not just an impression of a great experience. Top upgrade for 400 in my opinion and a sensible path while waiting for VR 2.0. Don't get mega hyped that you are suddenly going to be in the VR world of your dreams, it takes a few hours to understand the delights of the S, but it's way more than a side upgrade and is a great fit if you don't want to upgrade your PC. Solid improvements, really big impact. Highly recommended on first impressions.

NB the only other game I've briefly tested in is rF2, and I have to say it's a bit of a game changer in that too.
 
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I'm thinking of taking mine back as last night when I tried to use it the left hand controller wouldn't work it kept blinking erratically, I eventually got it going but not before I had to uninstall it and reinstall it, this led to problems in itself as my PC wouldn't download the oculus program because my hdd hadn't enough space, I eventually installed it on my D drive.
the Samsung Odyssey+ is on sale atm so might be tempted, though I would like to keep my original rift as I play room scale games with it and have a protube for it.
 
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I'm thinking of taking mine back as last night when I tried to use it the left hand controller wouldn't work it kept blinking erratically, I eventually got it going but not before I had to uninstall it and reinstall it, this led to problems in itself as my PC wouldn't download the oculus program because my hdd hadn't enough space, I eventually installed it on my D drive.
the Samsung Odyssey+ is on sale atm so might be tempted, though I would like to keep my original rift as I play room scale games with it and have a protube for it.
Coming from the Rift CV-1, I purchased the Odyssey+ and returned it after a couple of weeks. While the bump in resolution was nice, I found the image too blurry and the audio quality lacking compared to the Rift. Also, Windows MR caused me quite a few issues and I found the Oculus to be much easier to use and the Touch controllers are easily superior if you like to use those for other games.

Of course, you should give the Odyssey+ a try for yourself but, be sure you have a clear path to return it if you don't like it. I've chosen to wait and see how the new HMD's stack up but, I may hold out for something offering a wider FOV before jumping into a new one.
 
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Thanks for the reply RaceNut, that was the sort of reply I was hoping for, the rift s is a nice jump in clarity which for sim racing is perfect but I'm a little worried about the left controller not responding, I still use the original rift for room scale games i.e. pavlov, onward etc, as the original controllers are far better that the S ones.
 
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  • Deleted member 197115

You will find plenty of users on these board super happy with move from CV1 to Odyssey+.
Blurriness was a real issue on WMR, but thing in the past now. Also audio is pretty darn good on Odyssey, they use AKG phones, but I can see how fitting issues can spoil the bass for some.
For $299 Odyssey+ is the best HMD for the money you can buy today that will keep you afloat for another year or two before real second gen start coming, if VR stays around.
 
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I loved moving from CV1 to Odyssey+ once I got some add-ons to improve the fit and comfort. However, I wouldn't be able to go back after the Rift S based on its LARGE sweet spot compared the relatively miniature sweet spot on the O+.
 
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..... I'm a little worried about the left controller not responding.....

If you're worried about a faulty controller take it back to Argos and they should replace the controller, or even the whole set.

.......For $299 Odyssey+ is the best HMD for the money you can buy today ........

The problem for us in the UK is availability of the Odyssey +. There are some importers who advertise it but it is the equivalent of $470 and I'm not sure how you would stand on returns.
 
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  • Deleted member 197115

If you're worried about a faulty controller take it back to Argos and they should replace the controller, or even the whole set.



The problem for us in the UK is availability of the Odyssey +. There are some importers who advertise it but it is the equivalent of $470 and I'm not sure how you would stand on returns.
Wow, that blows. HP Reverb could be a better option for that price then.
 
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Wow, that blows. HP Reverb could be a better option for that price then.

It probably is for us over here. I paid £450 ($570) for my OG Odyssey about a year back. It's the customs duty that kills it for us, plus there is no warranty at all.

I took a gamble and just hope nothing goes wrong with it for the foreseeable future.
 
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I reinstalled the rift S last night and the controllers are working fine now :)
One thing I did notice is the tracking on the S.
The S is great for race sims with the higher clarity and I love it, but I wouldn't recommend it for room scale games as the tracking is poor, for example I tried the S with sports vr (the pool game) the tracking was really bad, when playing pool the back arm (in my case the right controller, I'm right handed) especially seem to get lost quite a lot, which resulted in a lot of miss hits, which is very frustrating when playing pool (I love pool lol)
But when I fired up the original rift it was like night and day the original touch controllers are great, no issues whatsoever. I just didn't appreciate them before, I suppose it's because I have three sensors (two in front and one behind) basically all the room scale games are better because of the tracking, sure you lose some of the visuals but it makes up for it in the tracking.
I will keep the S for sim racing as I really like it. I hear a lot of people complaining about the lack of sound but for me I prefer not having pads resting against my ears, I only realised this when I went back to the original rift, I found I prefer the design of the S, also a cool feature is that you can switch to the cameras with a double click of the home button ( I think that's what it's called lol) so you can see around the room, ok it's very fuzzy and black & white but it lets you see around while still wearing the
hmd, which is very handy.
 
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I reinstalled the rift S last night and the controllers are working fine now :)
One thing I did notice is the tracking on the S.
The S is great for race sims with the higher clarity and I love it, but I wouldn't recommend it for room scale games as the tracking is poor, for example I tried the S with sports vr (the pool game) the tracking was really bad, when playing pool the back arm (in my case the right controller, I'm right handed) especially seem to get lost quite a lot, which resulted in a lot of miss hits, which is very frustrating when playing pool (I love pool lol)
But when I fired up the original rift it was like night and day the original touch controllers are great, no issues whatsoever. I just didn't appreciate them before, I suppose it's because I have three sensors (two in front and one behind) basically all the room scale games are better because of the tracking, sure you lose some of the visuals but it makes up for it in the tracking.
I will keep the S for sim racing as I really like it. I hear a lot of people complaining about the lack of sound but for me I prefer not having pads resting against my ears, I only realised this when I went back to the original rift, I found I prefer the design of the S, also a cool feature is that you can switch to the cameras with a double click of the home button ( I think that's what it's called lol) so you can see around the room, ok it's very fuzzy and black & white but it lets you see around while still wearing the
hmd, which is very handy.

As much as I have loved my Rift, I really enjoy room scale games and I have seen very little to convince me that I will be happy with any inside out tracking system available.
 
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I reinstalled the rift S last night and the controllers are working fine now :)
One thing I did notice is the tracking on the S.
The S is great for race sims with the higher clarity and I love it, but I wouldn't recommend it for room scale games as the tracking is poor, for example I tried the S with sports vr (the pool game) the tracking was really bad, when playing pool the back arm (in my case the right controller, I'm right handed) especially seem to get lost quite a lot, which resulted in a lot of miss hits, which is very frustrating when playing pool (I love pool lol)
But when I fired up the original rift it was like night and day the original touch controllers are great, no issues whatsoever. I just didn't appreciate them before, I suppose it's because I have three sensors (two in front and one behind) basically all the room scale games are better because of the tracking, sure you lose some of the visuals but it makes up for it in the tracking.
I will keep the S for sim racing as I really like it. I hear a lot of people complaining about the lack of sound but for me I prefer not having pads resting against my ears, I only realised this when I went back to the original rift, I found I prefer the design of the S, also a cool feature is that you can switch to the cameras with a double click of the home button ( I think that's what it's called lol) so you can see around the room, ok it's very fuzzy and black & white but it lets you see around while still wearing the
hmd, which is very handy.

I agree with you that the sound system is OK. I like not having pads on my ears, it mostly drowns out the noises from my rig, and I can hold a conversation with my wife, which wins me much needed Brownie points! Also, Oculus have released a beta v1.38, with new drivers for the Rift S, which makes the sound level slightly louder.

The headset remains comfortable, but I'm getting some eye strain, which I suspect is as a result of my IPD being narrower that that catered for by Oculus. I would not recommend the Rift S if your IPD is not 63.5, or very close to it.
 
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Does the Oculus Rift S also need (like the Oculus Rift) a key combination to center your headset when you are sat on your rig? Or does the lack of external sensors mean this is no longer necessary?
 
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Does the Oculus Rift S also need (like the Oculus Rift) a key combination to center your headset when you are sat on your rig? Or does the lack of external sensors mean this is no longer necessary?

ALL VR systems require an HMD Center button. To my best knowledge there are no exceptions.
 
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Does the Oculus Rift S also need (like the Oculus Rift) a key combination to center your headset when you are sat on your rig? Or does the lack of external sensors mean this is no longer necessary?

My Rift S requires manual centering with an assigned button/key, in the same way as did my Rift CV1.
 
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There was a new update for the Rift S today, hopefully brings much needed bug fixes.

I've had mine now for a month and I can say that I've gotten used to it for simracing and it does what I expected. The picture clarity is so much better with the "smudge" of the old one gone, that I'm really able to enjoy driving fully. Everything is clear and I even can spot cars from the distance much better.

This is also a good unit for glasses users, as there is plenty of space to fit your glasses.

The sound situation is bad, but I've used over ear headphones with it and of course that works, but adds work to make it run.

Overall, I think it's worth the price and I'm going to be using this and following with interest the new and upcoming devices.
 
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6 months on whats people's thoughts. I use my rift CV1 mostly for sim racing but them a few times a year we use it for room scale games and its a good laugh with friends/family. I don't want two headsets, so whats the consensus, stick with the CV1 for now?
 
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I use it only for sim racing and I love it. I come from the CV1 and the oculus S is a nice upgrade over the CV1. More clarity, better resolution and more comfortable. The downside is the audio quality but I ordered a third part audio headset which replaced the oculus rift S headset and it works great.
add to that you don’t have to use an external sensor so I have an extra free USB.
With my motion 5 DOF it works perfectly without any tracking drifting. For the money it is the best VR.
 
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i recently purchased a ORS, after spending some time faffing with the menus and what not settings wise, sadly my pc couldn't deliver due to the requirements i could run medium to high but anything above this i could not achieve. i really did not like to accept the blurriness to compensate with what my system could cope with.

i returned the headset the next day, hoping one day ill be in the position to run all the things in ultra. the tech is there the cost or affordability is quite!
 
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Is Oculus still demanding that you download a 4+ Gigabyte file each and every time you have to do a reinstall...or did they change that?
No sure why they didn't allow you to simply do that once with CV1.
Personally, I found it quite annoying.
 
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With my motion 5 DOF it works perfectly without any tracking drifting. For the money it is the best VR.
Audio has completely packed up on both sides in my CV1 after three left-side losses and RTMs. I don't want to upgrade my PC hardware (980ti/6600k) so the Rift S seems like a good upgrade. I only use the headphones for Crew Chief so the poor audio isn't really an issue, but I run an SFX-100 motion system and have concerns about the IO tracking. Can you expand a little on your experience with the Rift S and your motion platform?
 
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