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Quest is better just because you can buy it relatively quickly, and for Valve Index you have to wait many weeks in line. Valve Index (or Rift, for example) is l

by vl 6y ago

Quest is better just because you can buy it relatively quickly, and for Valve Index you have to wait many weeks in line. Valve Index (or Rift, for example) is lighter, because it doesn’t have battery, and has better tracking (pros), but is connected by cable (cons). But you need cable for Quest to play PC games anyway! But it’s not significantly cheaper - you want 128GB version because games are huge, this is $500. Then you need a case - this is relatively fragile equipment, and you don’t want your lens to get dirty since it’s hard to clean - $40. Then you need Oculus Link cable to play Half Life: Alyx or other more demanding games - $80. Quest doesn’t have built-in headset - $50 more (I’m actually using over-the-ear headphones with $10 short cable). You may also need grips (magnetic battery cover is the most stupid thing!). You can buy cheaper accessories, but they are hit or miss, so I opted for first-party case and cable at least. Anyway, this is $670, which is getting into Valve Index territory.

vlovich123 6y ago
The Link cable is totally optional & only if you want a 15ft super-light USB3 cable. You can use any USB cable you want including USB2 cables, 26ft cables, cables you already own, the in-box charging cable. On price, the Valve Index is $999. $999 - $670 = $329. Generally a $300 price difference at this level puts you in a very different market price point targeting different users. You may also not already have a Windows gaming PC. Then the TOC difference rises to $~1329-2000 between the two setups because the Quest works just fine without any extra hardware. Regarding the case, it was unclear to me if you're implying that the Valve Index is more robust & thus doesn't need a case? Disclaimer: I work on Oculus Link.
- vl 6y ago
  For 15ft you kinda want light cable. Also you want L-shaped connector on one end. From the speed test it does during setup it kinda looks like it needs USB 3 speeds, so USB2 presumably won’t cut it. Anyway, I was going to get one of the cheaper cables from Amazon, but after reading bunch of problematic reviews for cheaper cables I ponnied up for the Oculus cable since I didn’t want to deal with potential problems. Sure, there is a price difference, but my point was that Quest needs a bit more accessories than Index, so it pushes the price a bit up. I still would recommend Quest to anyone, because people who get Index (or other PC-based headset) know what they need already. My plan is to store Index in the original case. It didn’t work out for Quest because case is not that convenient for reuse, and Quest is not actually stored in the office next to PC (and at the kitchen area I prefer smaller footprint). Also Quest is moved around way more. >Disclaimer: I work on Oculus Link. I sure hope you’ll fix the problems because some VD users report better colors (deeper blacks specifically) and better latency (hard to believe, but still). ;) ;) ;)
  - meheleventyone 6y ago
    USB2 works fine and IME of going from a random USB2 cable to one of the recommended USB3 cables the difference wasn’t that noticeable.
  - vlovich123 6y ago
    We still officially recommend USB3 but USB2 is still functional. > after reading bunch of problematic reviews for cheaper cables I ponnied up for the Oculus cable since I didn’t want to deal with potential problems. That is your choice as the consumer to make. A non-trivial amount of users are using USB2 cables & there are lots of successful reports on the subreddit discussing cables that work. > but my point was that Quest needs a bit more accessories than Index, so it pushes the price a bit up. In my experience I haven't observed the need for these accessories personally but YMMV. Still, even with all the extra accessories, you're still $300 cheaper than the Index. I wouldn't put them in the same pricing category. The pricing disparity grows significantly if you consider someone knew to VR without a gaming PC. The TOC for just trying VR content is significantly higher as is the setup complexity. > I sure hope you’ll fix the problems because some VD users report better colors (deeper blacks specifically) and better latency (hard to believe, but still). ;) ;) ;) I have not heard any feedback that indicates that VD latency is better than Link. There are some color differences. IIRC VD uses the wrong color space for its rendering (intentionally or otherwise) which can make things seem more vibrant, but that reproduces if you compare against Rift/Rift S as well. "Deeper blacks" generally wouldn't be impacted by anything in the Link stack & this is the first I'm encountering of anything like that. If you have any actual links to such reports (lower latency, color issues) that would be helpful so we can make sure to be talking about the same thing. If you have links for reports of these problems that would be helpful. Given what you've described it's hard to link it back to anything actionable.
Guillaume86 6y ago
FYI you can stream PCVR games on the Quest wirelessly with VirtualDesktop (20€ and good AC router required). Experience is surprisingly good, I don't bother with the cable anymore.
- vl 6y ago
  I know, my network can be busy, so I don’t want to deal with potential latency issues and I don’t want to bother with side-loading.
dTal 6y ago
>you want 128GB version because games are huge Can someone please explain to me why 64GB of flash memory costs over 100 dollars/pounds in 2020? That's an order of magnitude too much. Okay, they're probably price differentiating, but that's just insulting.

by vl 6y ago

vlovich123 6y ago

The Link cable is totally optional & only if you want a 15ft super-light USB3 cable. You can use any USB cable you want including USB2 cables, 26ft cables, cables you already own, the in-box charging cable. On price, the Valve Index is $999. $999 - $670 = $329. Generally a $300 price difference at this level puts you in a very different market price point targeting different users. You may also not already have a Windows gaming PC. Then the TOC difference rises to $~1329-2000 between the two setups because the Quest works just fine without any extra hardware. Regarding the case, it was unclear to me if you're implying that the Valve Index is more robust & thus doesn't need a case? Disclaimer: I work on Oculus Link.

vl 6y ago
For 15ft you kinda want light cable. Also you want L-shaped connector on one end. From the speed test it does during setup it kinda looks like it needs USB 3 speeds, so USB2 presumably won’t cut it. Anyway, I was going to get one of the cheaper cables from Amazon, but after reading bunch of problematic reviews for cheaper cables I ponnied up for the Oculus cable since I didn’t want to deal with potential problems. Sure, there is a price difference, but my point was that Quest needs a bit more accessories than Index, so it pushes the price a bit up. I still would recommend Quest to anyone, because people who get Index (or other PC-based headset) know what they need already. My plan is to store Index in the original case. It didn’t work out for Quest because case is not that convenient for reuse, and Quest is not actually stored in the office next to PC (and at the kitchen area I prefer smaller footprint). Also Quest is moved around way more. >Disclaimer: I work on Oculus Link. I sure hope you’ll fix the problems because some VD users report better colors (deeper blacks specifically) and better latency (hard to believe, but still). ;) ;) ;)
- meheleventyone 6y ago
  USB2 works fine and IME of going from a random USB2 cable to one of the recommended USB3 cables the difference wasn’t that noticeable.
- vlovich123 6y ago
  We still officially recommend USB3 but USB2 is still functional. > after reading bunch of problematic reviews for cheaper cables I ponnied up for the Oculus cable since I didn’t want to deal with potential problems. That is your choice as the consumer to make. A non-trivial amount of users are using USB2 cables & there are lots of successful reports on the subreddit discussing cables that work. > but my point was that Quest needs a bit more accessories than Index, so it pushes the price a bit up. In my experience I haven't observed the need for these accessories personally but YMMV. Still, even with all the extra accessories, you're still $300 cheaper than the Index. I wouldn't put them in the same pricing category. The pricing disparity grows significantly if you consider someone knew to VR without a gaming PC. The TOC for just trying VR content is significantly higher as is the setup complexity. > I sure hope you’ll fix the problems because some VD users report better colors (deeper blacks specifically) and better latency (hard to believe, but still). ;) ;) ;) I have not heard any feedback that indicates that VD latency is better than Link. There are some color differences. IIRC VD uses the wrong color space for its rendering (intentionally or otherwise) which can make things seem more vibrant, but that reproduces if you compare against Rift/Rift S as well. "Deeper blacks" generally wouldn't be impacted by anything in the Link stack & this is the first I'm encountering of anything like that. If you have any actual links to such reports (lower latency, color issues) that would be helpful so we can make sure to be talking about the same thing. If you have links for reports of these problems that would be helpful. Given what you've described it's hard to link it back to anything actionable.

Guillaume86 6y ago

FYI you can stream PCVR games on the Quest wirelessly with VirtualDesktop (20€ and good AC router required). Experience is surprisingly good, I don't bother with the cable anymore.

vl 6y ago
I know, my network can be busy, so I don’t want to deal with potential latency issues and I don’t want to bother with side-loading.

dTal 6y ago

>you want 128GB version because games are huge Can someone please explain to me why 64GB of flash memory costs over 100 dollars/pounds in 2020? That's an order of magnitude too much. Okay, they're probably price differentiating, but that's just insulting.