Dexter are you talking about native games? Because i run my Quest 2 on 5152x2608 and it runs absolutely fine.
I'm talking both about the internal rendering resolution of "Quest-Excl000sive" games on the Quest and the encoding resolution from your PC. It doesn't really matter if you'd be able set your Quest2 to 10992x5760 or whatever, there's usually a Maximum Encoding resolution for your GPU, afaik 3664x1920 was Maximum some months ago for the Quest2 via Link since that is also its native resolution, I don't know if this has changed recently:
https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQues...ts_your_encode_resolution_link_for_a_quest_2/
As he states, due to barrel distortion overhead you might get a crisper picture in the middle of your screen up to 5408x2736, but the pipeline there would be:
1) Rendering game at 5408x2736 on your PC --> 2) Encoding at 3664x1920 or below via your GPU --> 3) Streaming to VR HMD via Link or Wirelessly --> Displaying native resolution or upscaling the video to it.
Depending on your graphics card the Encoding resolution might/should actually be lower than its Maximum though (2016/2352/2912 etc.):
https://forums.oculusvr.com/t5/Oculus-Quest-2-and-Quest/Oculus-Link-Resolution-with-v12/td-p/788858
You'll never get beyond the limitation that you're Encoding and Streaming video with the Quest instead of having a direct video via Display Port or HDMI, which will always require compression/decompression and even have very visible artifacts that get less so when you up that Bitrate really high, adds Input latency and on top of that reserves like 20-25% of your GPU power as Overhead for Live Encoding instead of rendering intensive games, which will make you run into problems especially for Sim games that are at the limit or can't even get 90Hz on a Index or G2. Add to that that it has only a 3 choice IPD adjustment, is made of cheap plastic, doesn't come with proper integrated sound solution/headphones, has like 2 hours of battery life and is more uncomfortable than say the Index or even the CV1 and I wouldn't really choose a Quest2 as my PCVR HMD even if it
didn't have the issues with Facebook, which obviously come on top.
The information you have about link is outdated. Encoding surely was a big problem in the early days of link (Quest 1 era) when the encoding process was unrefined. It led to substancial artifacting and latency and put me off regarding the Quest as a suitable PCVR headset for quite a while (a friend of mine owns one and showed me). But since then and especially after the Quest 2 release they 1)reduced link latency substantially, 2)were able to unlock 90 hz and now even 120 hz support 3) increased high bitrate encoding support which reduced artifacting. I am pretty sure your claim of 20-25% performance hit also is not true anymore, at least if you own a rtx2xxx/rtx3xxx which both have NVEC hardware encoding. If you own an AMD GPU or an older Nvidia model, yeah its still a problem. Virtual Desktop, which is a third party app because Oculus couldnt be assed to implement wireless PCVR, in fact improved on latency so much that you were able to get it down to 33-35 ms motion to photon latency with a high quality wifi 6 router while maintaining 150 mb/s bitrate, which is an amount that was noticable only on expert+ beat saber custom maps for me. AFAIK, native PCVR headsets have a motion to photon latency of 20 to 27 ms, to put things in perspective.
Your point about the IPD slider is fair. I personally don't have any problem with clarity, but there is some ghosting/god rays at the edge of the screen which i suspect is due to a slight IPD offbalance. The Index is not without fault here too though as it has an even smaller sweet spot. There are some people who report to have bigger issues with the IPD settings though. I think this is probably the biggest design flaw of the Quest 2. Another problem and a big reason why there are so many differing opinions about link is that usb slots often do not receive the power necessary to run link flawlessly, either due to powersaving settings in Windows or a lower quality mainboard chipset. Couple that with varying bandwidth capabilities of different usb 3.0 cables people use to connect their Quest 2 to the PC and you get an audience that is equally split into pleased and displeased. Setting up VD was equally finnicky since there are so many things you can do wrong that will affect your streaming quality.
Lets compare a little more. The Index has impressive audio and is better balanced on your head due to a much higher quality headstrap, but it also is heavier. The Quest 2 is durable as fuck, lighter, and if you buy a vrcover facial interface to replace the atrocious standard interface it is way more comfortable than you'd think. Certainly more comfortable than my CV1 (which i just put on a few hours ago). The headset audio is poor, but i simply use mid budget sony headphones which are perfectly suitable. Battery life can be extended to 8 hours with a powerbank. Or you simply switch to cable link for a while.
I also take the personal experiences from Quest 2 users with a bit of a grain of salt, since it's hard to tell what they're comparing it to or if they're overlooking the obvious issues with it because it's the cheapest Option and "just werks". You for instance used to hear that Virtual Desktop used to work perfectly, but since "Air Link" is available you're suddenly hearing a lot more about the problems inherent with VD, from this experience report from one page back for instance it apparently changed from "
image quality is great, controllers and tracking are good, pretty much flawless" to "
Air Link [...] works quite a bit better than VD since it has ASW, somehow lower latency AND a clearer visual image. [...] you could see in some games that it lacked ASW, which meant there were microjitters as soon as you moved your head sideways too much or the frametimes spiked. It also had noticable artifacting":
I have a Quest 2 and i am pretty happy with it. Wireless PCVR is awesome, image quality is great, controllers and tracking are good, pretty much flawless even as long as you dont reach too far back behind your back.
Air Link released today which is the official wireless pcvr streaming tool from Oculus. It works quite a bit better than VD since it has ASW, somehow lower latency AND a clearer visual image.
I dont know how many newborn children the Zuck had to sacrifice for this witchery, but its impressive nonetheless. VD was absolutely fine, but you could see in some games that it lacked ASW, which meant there were microjitters as soon as you moved your head sideways too much or the frametimes spiked. It also had noticable artifacting unlike Oculus Link and now Air Link.
Okay so maybe i should clarify my grade of personal experience with VR headsets. I myself started off with a CV1 which i used until October 2020 when the Quest 2 was released. In the meanwhile a friend of mine bought a Quest 1, which i tested with his setup and he then upgraded to an Index, which i also was able to test. I have no side to side comparison of those headsets on the same PC setup, so yeah take it with a grain of salt, but my personal impression was that 1) The improvements of current day link and air link compared to Quest 1 era link and VD are substantial. 2) The Index still has better visuals than the Quest 2, but with current tech by a smaller margin as many like to believe. Both headsets lack black levels compared to Quest1 and CV1, both headsets provide a sharp and detailed image due to high resolution. The Index has a larger FOV, the Quest 2 has a bigger sweet spot.
I have a Quest 2 and i am pretty happy with it. Wireless PCVR is awesome, image quality is great, controllers and tracking are good, pretty much flawless even as long as you dont reach too far back behind your back.
Maybe i should have been more clear here. I was talking about my overall experience with the Quest 2. Visual clarity was great with link, okay/good with VD. PCVR still was a great experience even back then VD, but you took a hit due to artifacting and the lack of ASW. It was noticable for someone who is sensitive to it but still the graphical quality was lightyears ahead of standalone wireless VR and it honestly was fine for any game that does not rely on darkness too much. If i had to pull a number out of my ass i would say it was about 70% of the fidelity of native PCVR. Now with Air Link its more like 90 to 95%, same as link. Its that close.
Lack of ASW is a very subtle effect. Tiny screen tears at the edge of your screen when something is moving fast (like the floor when you're sprinting) or when you slide your head horizontally in front of a close object fast. It gets more pronounced when frametimes spike. I am a big pedant when it comes to performance/jitter stuff. Most people don't even recognize the problem and say VD runs absolutely flawlessly. Its certainly good enough for a great experience.
Also keep in mind that VD runs every game through OpenVR, which means it still has the motion smoothing you know in SteamVR.
It might be the preferable Option for Wireless fetishists, although personally I'm not really that bothered by the wire, especially given all the things you'd have to take into account and give up if you cut it. It's why I'm hoping PSVR2, Valve and other companies don't drop the cord and fall for the Wireless Encoding Meme, although it'd be good to have as an Option I guess.
Well i guess that's something you will have to try. I can play with a cord and if i adjust my playstyle i am also not "bothered" by it. But it definitely affects your playstyle. I guess if you take the effort to install a pulley cable system you can alleviate most of the problems a cable brings with it. Still, if you weigh the pros and cons of wireless PCVR and step by step you take away all the drawbacks of wireless streaming, i am pretty confident to say that wireless streaming is the future.
What i heard about the Reverb G2 tracking is that it is really sensitive to lighting in your room. So if you can dim your playspace and maybe place an infrafred illuminator you will have fine tracking. But yeah Oculus beats it handily and Index obviously too.
Afaik WMR and the Reverb G2 use visible light low-res Black&White cameras instead of infrared, from my understanding this might have something to do with Facebook patenting certain aspects of IR camera tracking for VR:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/enthusiast-guide/tracking-system
Quick answer: the tracking system uses two visible-light low-resolution cameras to observe features in your environment. The cameras then fuse the information with IMU data to determine a precise position of the device in your environment.
More details: The tracking system uses two low-resolutions black and white cameras to identify features in your environment in visible light. The system will triangulate its position based on the observed features, which then supplements the information by fusing high rate IMU data to produce a continuous pose estimation for the HMD in your environment. The pose information is used by both applications to render a scene and by the system to correct this rendering for any mis-prediction in time and position. Your PC stores environment information so the tracking system can recall environment-specific data like the room boundaries physical location. If you use your device in multiple rooms, you can set up different boundaries in each room and the tracking system can recall the specific boundary for the specific room.
Dimming the lighting in your room and placing "infrared illuminators" would be counterproductive to improving your play experience with WMR. You'd have to have bright diffuse lights with no bright spots, limit reflections and best have some clutter in your room or posters/musters up your walls that can be picked up as features to improve tracking instead of an empty room with clear white walls.
Oh. I was sure the Reverb also works with infra red. Thanks for pointing that out.