GrogHeads Forum

Digital Gaming => VR Gaming => Topic started by: Yskonyn on October 18, 2020, 06:45:22 AM

Title: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on October 18, 2020, 06:45:22 AM
Today I pre-ordered the G2!  :D :D
It's going to upgrade my Rift CV1 and will be used mainly for simming. The most important problem I ran into when playing DCS World on my CV1 was clarity. The immersion VR gives is just unparalled, but the lack of clarity made me stop using VR in DCS in the end.
The G2 should fix this issue, will let me get rid of the mounted sensors as well.
Given the specs I believe the G2 will be the best headset for simming purposes for now and a damn fine all purpose VR experience in its own right for the coming time.
Can't wait for my unit to be delivered! :D

One thing I was worried about was loosing access to my Oculus Store games, but aparently there is a solution for that as well:
https://github.com/LibreVR/Revive
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on October 18, 2020, 07:39:26 AM
I don't think you need to use revive anymore. I used it initially with my vive, but did not need to use it with my reverb and all steam games worked on my  rift s too.

I also preordered the g2 back In August, so I should get mine in November with the first shipment. Really looking forward to it.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on October 18, 2020, 09:44:21 AM
Ok that's good news.
I am pretty stoked ! The resolution and pixel density should approach the quality of looking at a regular monitor. That's all I was wishing for, really, coming from the Rift.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on October 18, 2020, 10:07:50 AM
Quote from: Yskonyn on October 18, 2020, 09:44:21 AM
Ok that's good news.
I am pretty stoked ! The resolution and pixel density should approach the quality of looking at a regular monitor. That's all I was wishing for, really, coming from the Rift.

I only wish it had a better FOV. Then it would clearly be the ultimate headset.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on October 18, 2020, 12:57:40 PM
Yeah the FOV is slightly less than the Index at max spec, but its a good bit more than my Rift, so I'll be happy either way.  :)

On the subject of Revive; could you elaborate, cause indeed, I didn't have any issues with Steam games showing up in Oculus Home, but how does this work for the reverse?
For example: I bought Lone Echo and Beat Saber in Oculus Home; how would I get to display them in Steam or otherwise be able to start them without an Oculus headset without Revive?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on October 18, 2020, 01:03:32 PM
Quote from: Yskonyn on October 18, 2020, 12:57:40 PM
Yeah the FOV is slightly less than the Index at max spec, but its a good bit more than my Rift, so I'll be happy either way.  :)

On the subject of Revive; could you elaborate, cause indeed, I didn't have any issues with Steam games showing up in Oculus Home, but how does this work for the reverse?
For example: I bought Lone Echo and Beat Saber in Oculus Home; how would I get to display them in Steam or otherwise be able to start them without an Oculus headset without Revive?

I'm pretty sure I've just run games directly from the Oculus app on my Reverb headset.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on October 18, 2020, 01:12:49 PM
Nice! That's good to hear, indeed.
I suspected that would not be possible. Thanks!
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on October 18, 2020, 01:46:16 PM
Quote from: Yskonyn on October 18, 2020, 01:12:49 PM
Nice! That's good to hear, indeed.
I suspected that would not be possible. Thanks!

Don't break out the cigars yet. Let me confirm, but I'm pretty sure because I run VR games with Oculus on my sim rig that only has a reverb attached to it and I never installed Revive on that system. just Oculus app, WMR and SteamVR. 
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on November 07, 2020, 03:10:46 AM
The Reverb should be delivered to me next week.  :smitten:
Have you got any info about when you'll get yours, JH?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on November 07, 2020, 06:42:30 AM
Quote from: Yskonyn on November 07, 2020, 03:10:46 AM
The Reverb should be delivered to me next week.  :smitten:
Have you got any info about when you'll get yours, JH?

You lucky bastage! When did You Preorder?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on November 08, 2020, 04:41:26 AM
Late. October 17th somewhere. But I was lucky to preorder at a place where I still made the first batch.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: CptHowdy on November 09, 2020, 04:23:00 PM
after watching some reviews on youtube from people who have received their G2's already i went ahead and ordered one  :D they all seem super impressed so i dont think i will be having buyers remorse  #:-)
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on November 09, 2020, 04:24:28 PM
Quote from: Yskonyn on November 08, 2020, 04:41:26 AM
Late. October 17th somewhere. But I was lucky to preorder at a place where I still made the first batch.

I'm so jealous. Still no word. I ordered on September 3.

On a positive note, the Combat Ready Panel from winwing arrived today. The Take-off Panel is due for delivery on Thrusday.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on November 11, 2020, 11:06:15 AM
Well, that was probably to be expected...
Just received word from my retailer claiming that HP was unable to scale up production after a super successful pre order period for the G2, that they have decided to release production on a first in first out bases for countries and then retailers.
This effectively means that my retailer expects to only receive about 10% of total pre orders in the coming week. For those who ordered near the end of sept and later (me!) they now expect shipment to arrive in januari. Boohoo.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Ubercat on November 11, 2020, 11:23:14 AM
JH, how do you like your Reverb controllers? I think I'm within a few weeks of getting a new system with the latest 300xxx graphics card. That should be able to play Reverb games in max resolution. The next step will probably be a Reverb 2.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on November 11, 2020, 11:55:40 AM
Quote from: Ubercat on November 11, 2020, 11:23:14 AM
JH, how do you like your Reverb controllers? I think I'm within a few weeks of getting a new system with the latest 300xxx graphics card. That should be able to play Reverb games in max resolution. The next step will probably be a Reverb 2.

I don't care for them and never use them. I only use the Reverb for seated, flight based gaming and therefore never use the VR controllers. For roomscale or anything requiring VR controllers, I'm using the Rift-S or Quest 2. The touch controllers are more comfortable than than the Reverb G1 controllers, which are much more like wands similar to the original HTC Vive.

Of course, the Index controllers are supposedly the best on the market now. I haven't used them, but certainly considered getting an Index just for the controller experience.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 09, 2020, 08:50:58 AM
G2 arrived just now! No time to unbox yet, but I am pleased it has arrived!  :bd:
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Skoop on December 10, 2020, 06:05:58 PM
Heard there's a ton of performance issues with reverb g2 and dcs which I was expecting cause of the higher res.  Still probably going join the club and make this my Christmas gift to myself.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 10, 2020, 06:22:50 PM
Quote from: Yskonyn on December 09, 2020, 08:50:58 AM
G2 arrived just now! No time to unbox yet, but I am pleased it has arrived!  :bd:

:dreamer: :notworthy:

Expect your full report on my desk in the morning.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 11, 2020, 03:50:19 AM
Not a full report yet, but:

Headset itself is very light, fits very well on my head and doesn't leave any openings around my nose to peek at the desk, but the tracking camera's on the headset can be used in 'flashlight' mode to look around in the room in a monochrome/infrared kind of fashion. Quite clever and pretty usable.
This also works during gaming.

Clarity is out of this world! No screendoor effect and truely a high definition experience, especially when coming from the Rift CV1 like I did.
Near and far, everything is rendered sharply and with a fidelity that rivals looking at a regular monitor.
Due to the lenses there still is a sweetspot for clarity where towards the rims things get more blurry, but its much much better than my previous headset.
No more fiddling with the position of it on your head all the time to get a clear picture.

Controllers are feeling cheaper than the Oculus Touch. They, too, are very lightweight and the buttons feel more 'plastic-y' than the Touch. They also do not have per-finger sensitivity where you can see in the VR world on which buttons you place your finger. That's a bummer.
Tracking seems fine from the short time I played, even in games like Robo Recall, but that might be premature, need more game time.

Performance on my GTX1080 on default settings is very good in all games except DCS.
In DCS it seems that the dynamic shadows and deferred lighting are unoptimized taxing features. Once I disable these performance returns to normal but you obviously loose quite a bit of visual fidelity.

Elite runs beautifully in Ultra and truely is awe inspiring! As does IL-2 BoX.

More games will be tested soon.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 11, 2020, 07:39:32 AM
Wow....didn't realize you were transitioning from a CV1. Thought you had the G1, which also has the torch, or flashlight feature. That's a Windows mixed reality thing.

Anyway, sounds really good so far. I'm hopeful that my 2080ti will run DCS well with the G2.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 12, 2020, 04:47:18 AM
If I had the G1 I don't think I would have upgraded at all. But yeah, the difference is pretty huge from where I come from. :D

I've also read that there are cool 3rd party apps to enable desktop overlays, youtube window overlays and kneeboards in VR games like Elite and DCS. Have to look into that, cause I need to work on information management inside VR now that I am definitely going to fly DCS multiplayer and Elite exclusively in VR.

Any tips would be welcome.

I can't stress enough how impressed I am with the video quality of the G2! The sharpness also helps with keeping nausea under control. I suffer from it much less than I did on the Rift.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 12, 2020, 06:35:31 AM
I was told mine was supposed to ship yesterday, but it's doesn't seem to have. My order status did change from backordered to open though, so that's some positive sign I suppose.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 15, 2020, 06:07:52 AM
Good news and bad news...

Good news, is my unit shipped!

Bad news is that it's scheduled for delivery on Wednesday, right around the time we are also scheduled to get about a foot and a half of snow. Good times.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 15, 2020, 06:57:11 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 15, 2020, 06:07:52 AM
Good news and bad news...

Good news, is my unit shipped!

Bad news is that it's scheduled for delivery on Wednesday, right around the time we are also scheduled to get about a foot and a half of snow. Good times.

Then I hope they don't leave it at your front door right before it starts and you're not home. 😂
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 16, 2020, 05:07:33 PM
My G2 arrived today. She is hooked up and seems to be working well. The image quality is amazing. Definitely improved from the G1 and leagues better than the Rift-S.  However, I am getting some chop and micro studders in DCS.

Yskonyn, how have you configured your G2 settings and DCS graphics settings to get the best frame rates?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 17, 2020, 03:51:29 AM
Yeah DCS seems to be the obnoxious child here.

I have disabled Cockpit Global Lighting and have set terrain textures to flat. This seemed to help initially, but after more extensive testing I still get choppyness in DCS at times. The frustrating thing is that this is the only sim that gives me problems.

I have pushed the question to my wingmates. Several have the G2 as well. Keep you posted.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 17, 2020, 04:59:41 AM
Thank you. Glad I ain't the only one.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Pete Dero on December 17, 2020, 08:32:59 AM
https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/254858-bignewys-reverb-g2-settings-for-high-frame-rate/

Eagle Dynamics community manager BIGNEWY posted a thread today and then shared it around the community with detailed specs of his PC and how he had configured it for best performance with the HP Reverb G2. His configuration is running at 90 fps in VR although it does drop to 45 fps in busy multiplayer scenarios. Those are very good numbers though they are coming from a powerful system. Nonetheless, others with similarly powerful systems are struggling to get the same numbers so power is one thing but software configuration is another.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 17, 2020, 10:27:30 AM
Great find, thanks.

I would not go for high performance texture filtering in Nvidia CP however. Not ever. It disables optimizations to gain a few frames but seriously fucks with transparency in many games.
And he also disables terrain shadows completely.
Those two are serious compromises for quality of picture and I doubt this will help getting lots of frames or reduce stuttering.

The Steam resolution slider, however, is interesting. Debated is that default setting is already 140% super sampling. That's quite hefty.
So that alone might cause the stutters. Need to test.

Still, DCS itself is to blame mostly; its a fairly unoptimized piece of software. We desperately need the Vulkan API update.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 17, 2020, 11:22:27 AM
Quote from: Yskonyn on December 17, 2020, 10:27:30 AM
Great find, thanks.

I would not go for high performance texture filtering in Nvidia CP however. Not ever. It disables optimizations to gain a few frames but seriously fucks with transparency in many games.
And he also disables terrain shadows completely.
Those two are serious compromises for quality of picture and I doubt this will help getting lots of frames or reduce stuttering.

The Steam resolution slider, however, is interesting. Debated is that default setting is already 140% super sampling. That's quite hefty.
So that alone might cause the stutters. Need to test.

Still, DCS itself is to blame mostly; its a fairly unoptimized piece of software. We desperately need the Vulkan API update.

Is it true that DCS runs on only one core?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Pete Dero on December 17, 2020, 11:58:28 AM
Posted on the DCS forum this year :

(https://forums.eagle.ru/uploads/monthly_2020_04/2007636402_dcsmulticore.jpg.7fd9b286aeab925d3402bdce465c6475.jpg)

https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/230617-dcs-amp-multicore-cpus/
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 17, 2020, 12:28:44 PM
Yes DCS still isn't a true (modern) multicore application.
The Vulkan API is what's going to make it into one; seperate threads for sound, ballistics, sensors, AI, etc.

For now the game benefits more from higher core clock speeds over more cores.
I recall reading on the ED forums that the current engine uses 2 cores at most, but mostly for load switching and not for different processes. Which was then argued that this wasnt a feature of the game itself but more an architecture thing of Intel/AMD/Windows.



Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 17, 2020, 07:20:54 PM
I changed some of my nvidia 3D settings based on Bignewy and it seems to have resolved the microstudders. However, I still have a bit of chop when things are busy. Need to work on it some more.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 18, 2020, 04:47:29 AM
Have you pinned down which setting resolved the microstutters?
Did you also change the resolution slider in the Reverb's settings?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 18, 2020, 07:09:36 AM
Quote from: Yskonyn on December 18, 2020, 04:47:29 AM
Have you pinned down which setting resolved the microstutters?
Did you also change the resolution slider in the Reverb's settings?

No. I have no idea which specific setting or settings made a difference. However, a couple were changed from quality or maximum quality to high performance.

I have not changed resolution because, 1. I'm not sure what this will do. Doesn't doing so defeat the purpose of using a g2? 2. The setting is program specific and DCS is not listed in the pull down menu. I have no idea how to get it there. Does DCS have to be running?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 19, 2020, 09:57:11 AM
Ok, I forgot I still had PD 1.5 selected in DCS from my Rift usage. Never changed it.
Changing it back to 1.0, reducing the Global SteamVR resolution slider to 100% from the 150% default and making a 'per application settings' profile for DCS with Motion Smoothing Enabled and a per eye resolution slider of 54% (which is pretty much raw resolution per eye of the G2) has transformed my performance into a smooth ride while still having great clarity. In singleplayer at least. Not tried MP yet.

In the sim I have Terrain Object Shadows on Flat and Global Cockpit Illumination OFF, the rest on the same settings as when using my monitor as I didnt see any detectable performance change from the other settings.

Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 19, 2020, 05:34:51 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 18, 2020, 07:09:36 AM
Quote from: Yskonyn on December 18, 2020, 04:47:29 AM
Have you pinned down which setting resolved the microstutters?
Did you also change the resolution slider in the Reverb's settings?

No. I have no idea which specific setting or settings made a difference. However, a couple were changed from quality or maximum quality to high performance.

I have not changed resolution because, 1. I'm not sure what this will do. Doesn't doing so defeat the purpose of using a g2? 2. The setting is program specific and DCS is not listed in the pull down menu. I have no idea how to get it there. Does DCS have to be running?

Well (I am not expert), what I understand from the reading I did is that in VR headsets there always is screen distortion because of the fresnel lenses which will 'stretch' pixels outside of the sweet spot where your pupil normally tracks the image. To correct the distortion supersampling is used.
The G2 runs at something like 180% normal res by default in SteamVR, which is weird because:
a) usually the ideal SS rate is deemed 140%
b) you could question if there actually is hardware capable of doing this with good performance anyway

The default res slider shows 150% resolution. Which is just a math way of interpolating numbers, because due to the SS effect its actually 180% more pixels that need to be rendered (I cant explain why just like that but there's a thread on ED forums which does). This causes a whole load of confusion ofc.
Reducing this slider to 100% will still show a per-eye res that's higher than native (2160x2160 per eye) so even on 100%, there is still SS going on.

If you reduce the slider to 54% or so, you'll see you approach the real raw resolution per eye of the headset.

So by default, SteamVR pump 180% more pixels onto the display of the G2. No wonder my pc chokes to death.

The strange thing, however, is that on full auto SteamVR settings IL-2 runs flawlessly. So either it intelligently reduces SS or, DCS not being a native Steam game on my system, the full auto system doesn't work. I don't know. But I do know that I run DCS in the G2's native res now, just without super sampling.
It a liiittle less crisp, but still much sharper than any VR experience I had before.

If you want to have DCS show up as an application in the SteamVR settings, first add it to your library as a non-steam title. Then start it from steam. Once its loaded up you'll see it in the dropdown list.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 20, 2020, 12:23:51 PM
This is an interesting idea...

Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 20, 2020, 03:37:00 PM
Yeah its weird that it creates three virtual monitors, but results of performance improvements have been sketchy at best. Lots of users report no change after running a script to prevent their creation, while others -like the video- claim its huge.

I'd like to see some official word first. Also an explanation about why it creates these three virtual monitors in the first place.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 20, 2020, 07:59:19 PM
How important would you say is pixel density? I lowered it to 1.0 and I also lowered the resolution in the SteamVR settings to 54%, but the difference in quality was extremely noticeable and it defeats the purpose in having the G2 over the G1 in my opinion. Still have some chop though with the higher settings. It's pretty disappointing. I guess I need to keep hunting for the perfect balance in settings?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 20, 2020, 10:28:46 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 20, 2020, 07:59:19 PM
How important would you say is pixel density? I lowered it to 1.0 and I also lowered the resolution in the SteamVR settings to 54%, but the difference in quality was extremely noticeable and it defeats the purpose in having the G2 over the G1 in my opinion. Still have some chop though with the higher settings. It's pretty disappointing. I guess I need to keep hunting for the perfect balance in settings?

You control pixel desity already with the resolution slider of the SteamVR settings (anything higher than native raw resolution already increases PD by applying Super Sampling) so its either or, not both.
Its personal really. I've seen a guy run 150% res slider with 0.8 PD in DCS claiming it increased clarity. I don't know, man. It's a minefield.
But Super Sampling is the most effective way to get a sharper image, with the sweet spot being somewhere between 1.4 and 1.8, from what I read.
You will have to fiddle with either going the resolution slider way or using DCS's PD setting. But don't use both.

I am running at PD 1.0 though. Don't have any complaints about clarity, but I don't know what the G1 was like. Still, I don't think DCS will allow silky smooth performance, no matter what we try.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 21, 2020, 07:51:50 AM
Found out that the Preallocated monitors option is actually a known issue listed by Microsoft and the registey key edit to prevent it, is also an official remedy.
Basically it has to do with MS Edge browsing in VR. If you disable the preallocation the system will dynamically allocate a new virtual window if needed, so you don't loose any functionality by disabling it.
Seems like it did make quite a difference on my system for performance in DCS.

I now run DCS with a General resolution slider of 100% in SteamVR and a Per Application setting of 80% for DCS. This way I make sure all games run at full res by default, but DCS gets dialed back a little.
75 to 80% seems to be the sweet spot in terms of still having top clarity (as gauged by the Gun Ready annunciator on the A-10C -which gets blocky from your default position when I go lower and only sharpens again when leaning in-) and running at an acceptable performance.
This is still single player, so probably will have to accept a little less clarity to trade in for additional performance, but I have some room left. Even at native res without supersampling the clarity is acceptable, though definitely less clear.

The tweaking continues, but strides are made.

BTW I don't see any change in quality from running the general res at 150% over 100% (if I dont run a DCS profile) at all, so the default it definitely too high.

HP also seems to stand by their comment that the resolution slider should be set at 100% to get factory spec clarity and performance. So it seems SteamVR is a little too enthousiastic here with its default values.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 21, 2020, 07:59:05 AM
Thanks for all the input.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 21, 2020, 11:08:56 AM
I've also uninstalled Geforce Experience and disabled the Xbox Gamebar. Both are known to cause performance hits in VR due to their overlays.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 21, 2020, 11:48:49 AM
I'm still going to tweak for awhile, but at some point over the next few days I'm going to be sending my headset back to HP for a replacement. This unit has something loose inside the headset that rattles around. It sounds really unnatural and can be really distracting when moving my head at certain angles. It functions fine, but I'd feel more comfortable with a new headset in case it leads to problems down the line.

They apparently have stock for replacements so I shouldn't be without it for too long... :tickedoff:
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 21, 2020, 12:45:46 PM
Ah that's a bummer. Always dissapointing if a new piece of hardware has broken (parts). But best to send it back now, I agree. Hopefully you'll get the new unit asap.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 21, 2020, 05:44:41 PM
So far 90% res on the DCS per-application setting seems to be the sweet spot for me. PD is at 1.2. Image is sharp and noticeably better than the G1. Flight is crisp on a map with a lot of allied traffic, but no combat. Need to check that out and see how it effects framerate. Also disabled the GeForce Experience overlay and the Xbox gamebar. Haven't tried that in flight yet, though. Hopefully it will give me a further bounce.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 23, 2020, 01:23:04 PM
HP shipped the replacement unit overnight. I had it the next day! No rattle in this one. Yay!
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: CptHowdy on December 24, 2020, 01:56:23 AM
just got charged and received my email that says unit has shipped! so hopefully get before the new year  <:-)
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 24, 2020, 03:02:25 AM
Great news for both of you!

I've been spending a lot of time in Elite and DCS with the G2. Very happy with my purchase!
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: CptHowdy on December 29, 2020, 12:16:59 AM
supposed to be getting this thing delivered later today sometime. any tips or tricks to getting it setup properly, any settings that should be adjusted that the user manual doesnt mention etc... thanks.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 29, 2020, 01:22:35 AM
It was a pretty painless thing. Works fine out of the box and is easy to setup.
The only thing is that SteamVR sets the resolution to something extremely high by default. You'll probably need to lower this manually.

It started the slider at 150% on my system.
Be advised that 100% resolution in SteamVR still gets you a higher resolution than the raw per-eye res of the headset. HP has confirmed that this is correct because due to the barrel distortion of the fresnel lenses Supersampling gets used to correct this.
So the 100% setting really is 140% supersampling, or somewhere close.
My GTX1080 is able to run some games well at this setting, but DCS and MSFS are too heavy.
The raw native resolution per eye without super sampling is 2160x2160 on th headset, which equals to about 54% on the slider in SteamVR (you wont get exactlt aligned numbers).
Keep that in mind if you run into performance problems. Supersampling is very resource intensive.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 30, 2020, 05:41:52 PM
Weird thing started happening all of a sudden today;

My Reverb G2 has been plugged into one of my USB3 ports directly on the motherboard since the beginning. I did use the USB-C to A converter plug that came with the unit. Has been functioning without issue until today. Suddenly WMR reports that the headset is unable to start at 90hz.
I tried plugging it into a USB-C port, but no change.
Internet search comes up with mostly AMD related issues, which I don't have.

Then I decide to try the PCI-e addon card I bought for the 3rd sensor of my Rift and now it runs in 90hz again! There is not logic to this at all, imo. Why would the unit run fine for over two weeks on one of the mainboard's ports to suddenly throw these errors?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 30, 2020, 06:04:49 PM
Anything else change on your system? Any updates installed?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 30, 2020, 06:37:43 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 30, 2020, 06:04:49 PM
Anything else change on your system? Any updates installed?

Not that I am aware of, unless Microsoft pushed something behind the scene.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 30, 2020, 06:56:19 PM
Quote from: Yskonyn on December 30, 2020, 06:37:43 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 30, 2020, 06:04:49 PM
Anything else change on your system? Any updates installed?

Not that I am aware of, unless Microsoft pushed something behind the scene.

Maybe try unrolling the last MS quality update?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on December 31, 2020, 04:52:17 AM
Well, plugging it into the addon card usb hub seems to have resolved the issue for now.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 31, 2020, 07:48:18 AM
Ok. Now...don't touch anything!
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on January 10, 2021, 05:36:00 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 31, 2020, 07:48:18 AM
Ok. Now...don't touch anything!

I had to! I discovered that the SteamVR global resolution slider being different from the 'per App' slider causes some weird issues for DCS.
My initial idea was to set the global res to 100% which equals to about 1.4PD or 140% super sampling, cause all other games besides DCS run fine on that setting. I would then make a 'per app' profile for DCS to enable motion smoothing (effectively locking it at 45 fps and use motion smoothing to get smooth movement) and lower the res to as close to raw per eye res of the G2 as I can to get rid of supersampling and have decent performance. This would be around 54% resolution mark on the slider.

Yet, when I run DCS the actual resolution gets randomly set in the 70 - 80 % range. Which is puzzeling and probably the reason I did not get the same performance each time I loaded DCS. Even though its very playable, I did notice apparent changes in performance from one session to the other.

Now that I have set the global resolution slider as close to raw res per eye as I can, the game behaves much more stable and the res doesn't change around.
Weird, but there you have it.

I also installed fpsVR which is an excellent tool to monitor performance. It's made clear that my 1080 is the bottleneck. CPU frametime is between 7 and 18, which is fine, but GPU frametimes are constantly in orange 16 - 23. Still ok, but barely.
VRAM is 7.6 of 8GB loaded so not much room left there either.
This is with raw res, no supersampling. It goes into red immediately if I bump up the res.
I did discover that shadows don't make much difference at all so I've re-enabled them.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on March 22, 2021, 09:45:14 AM
Finally have DCS running comfortably enough.



I can even get away with 2x MSAA to get rid of the jaggies.
Singleplayer it retains 45 fps with Motion Smoothing enabled. Did not try multiplayer yet.
No microstuttering anymore.

Used the video above.

Additionally running PD 0.8 in game and SteamVR 100% res slider (which is about 1.4 SS) which, from my calculation makes the game run on 0.8 x 0.8 x 1.4 res = 90% res.

With DCS's pipeline so unoptimized Steam Super Sampling actually does a much better job sharpening the image for much less performance debt.
Some users are testing PD 0.5 with 500% res slider in Steam. I tried it as well, but image quality suffers in the G2 if I do this.
PD 0.8 however, doesn't really look much worse than 1.0 but gains me some FPS consistency.
Where I had to reduce the Steam resolution slider to native G2 res without SS (About 48%) to get any decent performance, I can now leave it at 100%.

Try it out !

P.S. this is on a GTX 1080 (non-Ti)
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Ubercat on March 29, 2021, 04:33:12 PM
Where did everybody buy their G2's?

I just got my new rig set up and went to HP's website to make the purchase and I can't complete the sale. The site tells me that there can't be any special characters in my shipping address. Well, when I enter my address, either by autofill or manually typing everything, it automatically adds the four digit extension to my zip code after a hyphen. I can't remove the hyphen because they just put it right back. Then I can't complete the purchase ... because there can't be special characters in my shipping address! That hyphen is the only special character I see anywhere.

Idiots.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on March 29, 2021, 05:01:04 PM
Quote from: Ubercat on March 29, 2021, 04:33:12 PM
Where did everybody buy their G2's?

I just got my new rig set up and went to HP's website to make the purchase and I can't complete the sale. The site tells me that there can't be any special characters in my shipping address. Well, when I enter my address, either by autofill or manually typing everything, it automatically adds the four digit extension to my zip code after a hyphen. I can't remove the hyphen because they just put it right back. Then I can't complete the purchase ... because there can't be special characters in my shipping address! That hyphen is the only special character I see anywhere.

Idiots.

I got mine from Connection, which I believe is HP's direct distributor.

That is a really irritating issue. Give them a call if you can't get it sorted out on the web.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Ubercat on March 29, 2021, 06:21:29 PM
Just bought through Connection. Thanks for the tip.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on April 02, 2021, 09:16:11 PM
After another bumpy start, the new rig seems to be running smoothly now. I've installed DCS World, my modules, all my peripherals and have most of settings keyed in for the F-18. It was crazy how long it took to go through everything again from scratch. I have like 10 peripheral devices that I use for DCS...setting them all up at once? Not fun.

In any event, since this is an AMD system with a Radeon GPU I'm pretty lost in knowing how to best configure the Radeon software settings for best look and performance. The G2 looks great and the cockpit gauges and dials look fantastic. With the way I have it set up, it is noticeably more clear and vibrant. Gauges, dials and panels look awesome. I'm not sure why its such a noticeable step up from my settings with the 2080ti.

There is one issue though...seems to be a slight jagged/shimmering effect on the edges of some textures. Anybody know what might be causing this and what settings to tweak to reduce it? But for this slight distraction, it would look damn near perfect.

If the system stays stable and doesn't crap out on me again, she's definitely going to be a keeper.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on April 03, 2021, 04:03:07 AM
Good news, JH!
Its hard to tell without seeing it, but you could look for any Transparency Multisampling setting in Radeon control panel. Turn it off and see it that cures it.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on April 04, 2021, 08:13:05 PM
I came across some random video on YouTube and I wasn't expecting much from it. One thing the guy mentioned to do was to force DX11 in the windows mixed reality steamVR settings. I do not recall seeing anyone else suggest that. At 1.1 PD and pretty much max settings, it really cooks. Extremely smooth in flight. I think the force DX11 setting made a difference. Pretty happy with my settings right now. Probably need a little more tweaking, but very good as is.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Ubercat on April 05, 2021, 05:27:16 AM
I hooked up my G2 yesterday and the PC doesn't seem to recognize it at all. The power light on the headset is dark and I know that the cable itself has power because the light on its little box is lit.

I'm not sure that I have the connector that actually goes into the headset itself correctly attached. The orifice (sorry) that it goes into is so long and narrow that I can't tell if it's completely inserted. Should there be an audible snap when it's properly attached? I'm afraid to damage anything by pushing too hard.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Ubercat on April 05, 2021, 03:44:28 PM
Nobody who owns an HP Reverb G2 knows if the cable that hooks into the head piece should have an audible snap when it goes in properly? There isn't any tactile or audible feedback to indicate that I've inserted it correctly. As it stands, I don't know if it's not in properly or if there's a software issue.

Bueller? ... Bueller?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on April 05, 2021, 04:04:48 PM
I don't remember if it makes an audible "click" or not. Why don't you try to take it out and re-seat it to make sure? You should be able to tell if it is in all the way, just like any other plug and if it is in right, you should have no issue getting the lens cover back in place. Are you sure you have all the cables connected to your PC properly? Both the display port and the USB 3.0 have to be plugged in. I'm assuming if your rig is not detecting the headset, it is a connection issue of one kind or another.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Ubercat on April 05, 2021, 04:27:57 PM
I've pulled it out and put it back in many times. I don't have any problem getting the lens cover back on.

I've connected everything there is to connect. I know that there's power because the power light on the power cord is lit, though it's not lit on the headset itself, which is why I question whether the damn connector is even in properly. I've pushed it about as hard as I dare without risking breaking something.

I'm experimenting now with plugging the USB 3.0 into different spots. Hopefully that will bear fruit.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on April 05, 2021, 04:44:01 PM
Do you have windows mixed reality installed?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Ubercat on April 05, 2021, 04:55:55 PM
Yeah, that and Google Earth on Steam both tell me to plug in my headset when I start to run them. I can't plug it in anymore than it already is.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Ubercat on April 05, 2021, 05:25:06 PM
Watching a video from MRTV on YouTube. He mentioned having trouble connecting the headset and a number of commenters have had issues as well. Even knowing that I can't seem to get a response from the headset.

Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: CptHowdy on April 05, 2021, 09:09:57 PM
i had to use the usb adapter that came with the headset. for whatever reason it wouldnt work without it.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Ubercat on April 06, 2021, 05:34:43 AM
It turns out that the connector wasn't fully inserted into the head set. I pushed and pushed and wiggled that damn thing and it wouldn't go in any further ... until it finally did after two days of trying. And I just figured it out mere minutes before having to turn off the PC and go to work.

Ridiculously poor design.  :tickedoff:
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on April 12, 2021, 03:34:14 AM
The connector is quite stiff to get in but also prone to wiggle itself loose over time if you have some pressure on the cable from the side of the headset.
Make sure its seated correctly and make sure the cable has enough play when guiding it to the side and you should be fine.

@Jarhead, havent come across that suggestion yet. Will try.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on April 12, 2021, 06:55:54 AM
Definitely let me know if you notice any improvement. You can never tell if it's all in the imagination!
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on July 05, 2021, 02:04:58 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 12, 2021, 06:55:54 AM
Definitely let me know if you notice any improvement. You can never tell if it's all in the imagination!

Don't knopw if we've discussed this any further, but I don't seem to experience any difference in performance by forcing DX11 in SteamVR.

On another note; I've found a RTX3080Ti for 1600,- and received a nice monetary gift, so I could pay pretty close to MSRP myself and decided to go for it. It's also the model I was eyeing, so more power to me! It should arrive this evening. Probably will be able to install it tomorrow. I will have to change the PSU as well, so its a finnicky task all in all.
Going from a Corsair M550 to a RM850x to power the 3080Ti.

Looking forward to see the performance gains across the board. Especially curious about how it will improve my Reverb G2 experience.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on July 05, 2021, 06:09:58 AM
Quote from: Yskonyn on July 05, 2021, 02:04:58 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 12, 2021, 06:55:54 AM
Definitely let me know if you notice any improvement. You can never tell if it's all in the imagination!

Don't knopw if we've discussed this any further, but I don't seem to experience any difference in performance by forcing DX11 in SteamVR.

On another note; I've found a RTX3080Ti for 1600,- and received a nice monetary gift, so I could pay pretty close to MSRP myself and decided to go for it. It's also the model I was eyeing, so more power to me! It should arrive this evening. Probably will be able to install it tomorrow. I will have to change the PSU as well, so its a finnicky task all in all.
Going from a Corsair M550 to a RM850x to power the 3080Ti.

Looking forward to see the performance gains across the board. Especially curious about how it will improve my Reverb G2 experience.

Nice! I'm curious too. The crazy thing is that you might not notice much a difference in DCS. You just never know. For instance, I didn't notice much difference in going from the 2080ti to the 6900xt, and the 6900 is a much more powerful gpu.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on July 05, 2021, 06:57:07 AM
Yeah DCS is horribly optimized. It still isnt a multi core application which is what causes bottlenecks all over. This should become much less of a problem when they switch to the Vulkan API. Until then we're on crutches.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on July 05, 2021, 07:07:29 AM
Quote from: Yskonyn on July 05, 2021, 06:57:07 AM
Yeah DCS is horribly optimized. It still isnt a multi core application which is what causes bottlenecks all over. This should become much less of a problem when they switch to the Vulkan API. Until then we're on crutches.

Has ED given any  estimate on when that switch is going to happen? And don't say two weeks....
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on July 05, 2021, 07:38:43 AM
I'll say one thing: v2.5 and merge.  :-X ;D
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on July 14, 2021, 09:41:12 AM
After having battled with VR crashes in DCS for three days it seems they were tied to pagefile settings being too low. No crashes since.
What happened was that either SteamVR crashed with a critical error after mission load, or DCS would crash on 'waiting for pooled tasks' in its loading screen.
Perhaps others can use this info.

Anyway, upping the swapfile allowance to 64GB fixed it, it seems. DCS also caused windows to immediately allocate 40GB of it, despite my system having 32GB ram.

VR runs very well now on high settings in DCS with 2x MSAA and 100% scale in SteamVR, PD1.0 in DCS.
Super happy and finally getting in love with the experience.
Only took an RTX3080Ti to get there... 🤣
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on July 14, 2021, 09:55:13 AM
Quote from: Yskonyn on July 14, 2021, 09:41:12 AM
After having battled with VR crashes in DCS for three days it seems they were tied to pagefile settings being too low. No crashes since.
What happened was that either SteamVR crashed with a critical error after mission load, or DCS would crash on 'waiting for pooled tasks' in its loading screen.
Perhaps others can use this info.

Anyway, upping the swapfile allowance to 64GB fixed it, it seems. DCS also caused windows to immediately allocate 40GB of it, despite my system having 32GB ram.

VR runs very well now on high settings in DCS with 2x MSAA and 100% scale in SteamVR, PD1.0 in DCS.
Super happy and finally getting in love with the experience.
Only took an RTX3080Ti to get there... 🤣

Did you see my last post in the DCS thread?
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Rekim on July 14, 2021, 09:56:08 AM
Be sure to try out OpenVR FSR. From user comments, it appears to improve performance on high-end rigs as much or more than lower spec PCs.

Best performance tweak I have encountered in decades of simming.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Jarhead0331 on July 14, 2021, 09:56:29 AM
Quote from: Rekim on July 14, 2021, 09:56:08 AM
Be sure to try out OpenVR FSR. From user comments, it appears to improve performance on high-end rigs as much or more than lower spec PCs.

Best performance tweak I have encountered in decades of simming.

That's my last post in the DCS thread.
Title: Re: HP Reverb G2
Post by: Yskonyn on July 14, 2021, 12:45:55 PM
Saw it, but with all the crashing I had to get it stable first before adding more stuff. Definitely will look into it, but I do read it introduces some blurryness.
Performance (in SP at least) is perfectly fine without any tweaks so far and I am loving the clarity. So I am weary of adding blur especially if its only to improve an already great performance. But I'll check it out nonetheless one of these days.