Sharp VR visuals at a high price

Five years after the release of original live and Oculus Rift, HTC and Oculus / Facebook have diverged over their VR headset offerings. In a camp, the Oculus Quest 2 is an affordable standalone VR headset that’s super easy to set up and use. HTC is on the other side, with a PC headset for high-end VR enthusiasts. Even though the Vive Pro 2The starting price of $ 800 (headset only) is more than double the price of the Quest 2, it’s also a key part when it comes to creating probably the best home VR experience you can get right now. now. But is it really worth all that money?

Same look, but huge upgrade

The Vive Pro 2 features an almost identical design to the original Long live Pro, although HTC has made some significant changes. Not only have the company refreshed the headband strap to make it a bit more comfortable, HTC has also modified the headset to provide a 50-50 weight balance, which makes the Vive Pro 2 noticeably more comfortable to wear during long virtual reality sessions. Another advantage of the updated design of the Vive Pro 2 is that it’s also a bit easier to tilt the bezels up, so you can quickly see what’s going on in the meat space.

But the real improvements of the Vive Pro 2 are its new optics. The headset now offers 5K resolution (2448 x 2448 for each eye), up to a refresh rate of 120Hz and a wider horizontal field of view of 120 degrees. Together, this is essentially the sharpest, most immersive VR experience you can get at home, under $ 3,000 from corporate headsets like Shadow’s VR-3. Now I have to mention that some helmets like the Valve index offer a significantly larger vertical field of view (95 degrees for the Vive Pro 2 versus 110 degrees for the Valve Index), which you will certainly notice when comparing the two side by side. That said, with the Index offering just 1440 x 1600 pixels per eye versus 2448 x 2448 for the Vive Pro 2, I will take the increased resolution almost every time, although it would be nice if I didn’t have to choose. .

Thanks to this 5K resolution (4896 x 2448 combined), Vive Pro 2 visuals are particularly sharp. With pixels this small, HTC has almost completely eliminated the screen door effect which allows you to see the space between pixels on low resolution headsets. And when paired with support for 120Hz graphics, the Vive Pro 2 is able to avoid most of the major causes of motion-induced nausea. I rarely suffer from VR sickness, but I have found that the visual quality improvements make the concern for any discomfort an afterthought.

The Vive Pro 2 still includes a handy manual IPD adjustment knob (which now goes from 57 to 70mm) and built-in spatial audio speakers that flip to the side, which I’ve grown to prefer instead. plug in my own headphones (which you can do using a USB-C dongle). Not having to fumble around to put on headphones when entering VR makes the whole process so much easier, and I’ve found that having speakers hovering near your ears instead of being strapped to the side. your head adds to the overall immersion, assuming you’re in a relatively quiet space. I’m sorry, but I don’t make the rules: there is no crying baby or barking dog in the VR room.

The high cost of installation

If you’ve struggled to regain a current gen GPU during the pandemic (I’m in the same boat) the good news is that the minimum specs for the Vive Pro 2 only require your computer to have an Intel Core i5. – 4950 or AMD Ryzen 1500 processor and an Nvidia RTX 20 series or AMD Radeon 5000 or newer GPU, in addition to 8 GB of RAM, an open USB 3.0 port and DisplayPort 1.2 (or DP 1.4 for full resolution) for output video, which honestly isn’t bad considering the massive resolution of the Vive Pro 2.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem is that you need the right add-ons and accessories to get the most out of the headset. The $ 800 Vive Pro 2 is already more expensive than the Valve Index and the HP Reverb G2, and that’s before you consider the need for two Steam VR base stations, two controllers and whatever else you might need to position the base stations appropriately (I use camera tripods). This means that if you’re starting from scratch, you might consider an all-inclusive price closer to $ 1,300 or more. Ouch.

On the bright side, because the Vive Pro 2 supports both HTC controllers and Valve Index controllers, you have some freedom to mix and match, which I would do if I was looking to create the most high end out there. home Virtual reality experience. Standard HTC Vive controllers have remained basically unchanged since the release of the original Vive, and while they are fully usable, they lack the more sophisticated finger and grip sensors you get on Valve Index controllers.

After setting up the accessories, you still need to install the HTC Viveport suite, even if the Vive Pro 2 is fully compatible with Steam VR and Steam VR games. In most situations, that’s okay, but sometimes you can switch between HTC’s and Valve’s VR platforms which can get annoying after a while.

I can’t fault HTC too much for not including out-of-the-box wireless support given that none of the Vive Pro 2’s PC rivals even have the option, shelling out an additional $ 350 on top of everything else. just left to get rid of the wire the tether becomes a very expensive luxury. It also reduces the maximum refresh rate of the Vive Pro 2 from 120Hz to 90Hz.

Virtual reality nirvana

If you can afford the price, pairing the Vive Pro 2 with the Valve Index controllers results in some of the most rewarding RVs you can get right now, and I’d say that’s the best way to go by far. to play Half-life: Alyx. The higher resolution of the Vive Pro 2 makes the graphics very crisp, to the point where the headset can exhibit some of the low-res texture effects used in older VR titles. When you add the Index controllers to provide the hand and finger tracking you really need to fully enjoy the VR masterpiece that is Half-life: Alyx, and you can immediately see and feel the reward for your investment.

The high resolution of the Vive Pro 2 makes text sharper, making you feel like you’re truly in another world of virtual reality instead of constantly reminding yourself of the limits of your technology. Headphone spatial audio creates an all-encompassing scene for 3D sound that really adds to the effect of things happening around you, rather than being routed from the wired box to your headphones. And even though at times I noticed light and real-world snippets peeking out from the bottom of the glasses, I didn’t feel like it was enough to significantly interfere with my adventures.

Perhaps my biggest complaint (which is relatively minor overall) with the performance of the Vive Pro 2 is that it looks like HTC hasn’t upgraded the headset’s built-in passthrough cameras, resulting in a somewhat low resolution view when trying to look at the outside world without removing the headset completely.

Worth buying?

Here’s the tricky part, because trying to decide if the Vive Pro 2 (along with any accessories you might need) is the right headset for you depends a lot on your taste and how much you’re willing to spend. If you look at the headset specs only, the HP Reverb G2’s 2160 x 2160 per eye resolution is close enough to the Vive Pro 2 that you don’t sacrifice much in exchange for an HMD that costs $ 200 less. The problem is, the Reverb G2 doesn’t come with native support for Index controllers, which makes mixing and pairing a lot more tedious, especially if you don’t feel like hacking the Index controller support by. yourself.

The Valve Index headset has a lower resolution of 1440 x 1600 per eye, but it has a higher maximum refresh rate of 144Hz. VR valve indexing kit, which includes everything you need to get started in virtual reality for $ 1,000 (headset, controllers, base stations), is much better value for money. Alternatively, if you want something much more affordable, easier to use, and doesn’t need to be wired to a nearby PC, the Oculus Quest 2 is a fantastic way to dip your toes into virtual reality.

However, if you want the freedom to combine what is essentially the highest resolution mainstream VR headset with the best VR controllers out there today, the Vive Pro 2 is for you. Just be prepared for all the money that’s going to come out of your wallet to make this happen. It’s expensive, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Now, I just hope the next generation of VR headsets can lower the cost a bit.