I’ve had issues with my Oculus Rift S for years now and it seems like the proprietary cable finally broke (I made a post about my current issue you can see here on [email protected]) so I’m thinking about making a change but I haven’t really been tracking the scene in a while. That’s not to say I haven’t done any research but it’s largely limited to LTT reviews I’ve had sporadically recommended to me and those don’t really take into account follow ups after extended use and updates.
It seems relatively dominated by the Meta Quest 3 but I can’t tell how much of that is it being the new thing. I am also quite wary of Meta after how they handled the Rift S with updates and replacement cables.
Some other considerations I have are
-
Works with my desktop PC running Windows 11 so that I can play games I have on Steam and elsewhere like Arizona Sunshine and EmuVR. As well as watch VR movies. If it can pair up with a PC running Linux that would be even better.
-
Doesn’t have proprietary parts that I will likely need to replace at some point.
-
Minimal to no mounting of lighthouses and as little cables as possible.
-
Something that won’t require an abundant amount of troubleshooting. The inability to just put on my Rift S headset caused it to gather dust a lot of the time.
-
I’d prefer not to buy a Meta product. I am not super set on this as long as they’ve been better about their more recent products.
-
Some kind of passthrough mode so that I can walk around my place and do things like wash dishes and fold laundry would be nice.
-
I’d prefer to spend $700 or less. I am not sure how often or what headsets are expected to go on sale and for how much. I feel like there are options out there for this price that would be an improvement over Rift S and original PSVR that I’ve used.
If the Quest 3 is my best bet is there anything I should know about it? Maybe concerns over how it would connect to a PC?
I don’t have experience with the quest 3 so I can’t tell you for sure, I’ve just seen people complain about it.
The Vive Pro uses fresnel lenses and comparatively is quite a bulky headset and is really showing it’s age. The Vive Pro 2, I have not tried it but the wireless adaptor can’t stream native resolution. Additionally it is still a very bulky headset. The wireless adaptor for these headsets is pretty expensive too. It’s also a bit fiddly with batteries and stuff though it worked for me. I’d be willing to bet it’s be out of your price range based on your post. The industry seems to have just decided that wifi streaming is the way to go for wireless, particularly over wifi 6 or 6e.
Talking about more things I don’t have experience with, you could try checking out things like Pimax but they’re also expensive and possibly fiddly.
In my opinion, there is no perfect option for VR at the moment and there aren’t a lot of options at the low end. Quest 3 seems like a good all rounder. PSVR2 is an alternative with few pros (including if you have a ps5) and a few cons (such as being bulky and I have seen some discussions on which has a better picture).
I really just want to see what Valve does.