Testing the Oculus Quest 2 - My First VR Experience

TSPhillipT

Testing the Oculus Quest 2 was my first experience using VR headsets in general, as it was something I wasn’t super interested in, but looking to get it as a present for my brother.  I had an opportunity to test out the brand-new Oculus Quest 2 and predecessors Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S. Going into this, all I knew about the three systems were their resolutions, refresh rates, and whether or not they connect to a PC.  It was quite an experience!

• Oculus Quest 2 64 GB
• Oculus Quest 2 128 GB
• Oculus Quest 2 256 GB

 

The Oculus Quest 2 is a pretty simple package!

I started with unboxing the Quest 2 and, as I was opening the package, I noticed that there wasn’t a lot going on.  Inside was just a headset with two controllers and some accessories like the charging block/cable and a spacer for those that wear glasses.  I started up the system and had issues getting the Quest 2 over my head due to my glasses.  I installed the glasses spacer accessory to no avail, still having problems wearing the headset.  I took off my glasses and began setting it up, noticing that things were blurry since I did not have my glasses.  

Phillip T taking off his glasses in preparation for a virtual reality experience!

I also noticed that I could see everything that was under me through the cutout for my nose.  Since I was in a bright room, I could see the light in my peripherals from where the nose rest was.  After just a few steps of setup and struggling to read some instructions, I gave the Quest 2 to my coworker who had to set up his Oculus Account with the VR headset and download some games. While waiting, I decided to try out the Oculus Quest 1 he brought in.

 

Giving the original Oculus Quest a whirl

I put on the Oculus Quest and noticed that it’s still pretty blurry and wasn’t sure if it was just due to my poor vision without glasses or the lower resolution than the original Quest has.  I took off the Quest and put on my glasses, and the Quest fit perfectly over it with zero issues.  The Quest is larger than the Quest 2, which allowed my glasses to fit better inside.  This Quest also did not have the glasses accessory in, and it felt OK with glasses on.  The Quest also had the same issue as the Quest 2 - seeing through the nose cutout.  Maybe my nose is just too flat, and I chose to ignore it. 

 

I began with Beat Saber and noticed that some text lines and logos looked more pixelated than blurry on the Original Quest with my no-longer blurred vision.  You could see that there were no straight lines on any text, which was something I was going to look for in the Quest 2.  Once I had a few songs under my belt in Beat Saber, we tested out the Oculus Quest 2, which was now ready for action.

 

Phillip creates the guardian boundary before gameplay

Putting on the Quest 2, I decided to try getting the glasses working again after the success I had with the original Quest.  After a solid 5-10 minutes of struggling, I hit the perfect position and had complete comfort.  I took off the headset and noticed my glasses were deep inside the Quest 2 and secured in place by the cushion that goes around your face.  I put in the glasses spacer accessory and tried a new method of putting it on with my glasses.  I put my glasses into the headset first and then put on the Quest 2.  It helped tremendously!  This workaround is sort of ridiculous, especially after how smooth the Quest was when putting it on with glasses, but at least I could wear my glasses with no issues. 

 

Beat Saber on the Oculus Quest 2 casted on the Oculus App!

I started up Beat Saber, and there was a very noticeable difference as the game was loading.  The first thing was that pixelation on logos and text that I kept an eye on has disappeared.  Awesome.  I knew Oculus built the Quest 2 for higher resolution and a higher refresh rate, and I could immediately see the difference in resolution.  Getting into the songs, I noticed the blocks coming at me in a very smooth manner.  Everything looked and felt better with the Quest 2.

 

The next game I played was Vader Immortal and I accidentally started playing the normal mode rather than the Lightsaber Training mode that I had intended to play.  I quit out of that section pretty quickly and went to Lightsaber Training.  The goal was to bounce lasers back to these flying robots, and did I notice one thing on this, spatial audio on the built-in speakers was not good.  There would be multiple droids around you with a distinct charging noise, so you knew which direction to face to bounce a laser.  It was ridiculously hard to do this with spatial audio using the built-in speakers.

 

How can you not try SUPERHOT on the new Oculus Quest 2?

We began testing the Oculus Quest 2 with the Oculus Link and found the whole system to be smooth to set up.  My coworker, who has more experience with VR and the Oculus Quest/Oculus Link system, told me that the Oculus Link is known to be fussy with the original Oculus Quest.  It’s good to see that there weren’t any issues getting the Oculus Link going with the Quest 2.  We booted up SuperHot, and I noticed that my starting position was very close to the game’s boundary set.  As I was going through the levels, I reached a part where one of the guys I needed to punch was slightly out of the game’s boundary, and I was unable to hit him as the Quest 2 would tell me to return to the gaming zone.  My coworker took over, redrew boundaries, and had 0 issues with the game after that.  I am unsure why the game decided to set a default position to the edge and whether this was an issue with the Oculus Link or something I messed up with positioning when starting the game.  After a few levels of Superhot, we needed to charge the Quest 2, which is pretty impressive that it lasted a solid 3-4 hours directly out of the box. 

 

Oculus Rift S in action!

The last device I tried out was the Oculus Rift S, and I realized how annoying a cord could be after using the two wireless VR Headsets.  I also instantly noticed that the nose cutout was flush with my face, and I couldn’t see anything through my peripheral vision.  The fit felt fine with my glasses and I did not have to resort to the trick I did with the Quest 2; it felt as good as the regular Quest.  As I loaded up the tutorial, it felt extremely more immersive since it was sitting flush to my face, and it didn’t feel like I was in a room with VR, but in the actual VR.  The resolution was less than the Quest 2 with a lower refresh rate as well, but it all felt OK thanks to the headset sitting flush with my face.

 

After finishing up the tutorial, I played Pavlov, a First-Person Shooter.  Pavlov was the first game where I had full moment control, and that was a very new experience and quite headache-inducing.  It’s definitely because this is one of my first VR experiences, but boy does moving in free-roam VR feel quite different.  Due to this, I began feeling that cord more as I was moving around and turning all over the place; I could feel that cord wrapping around me, which took a bit of the immersion out.  I did some target practice and moved into the “Kill House,” which was like a military training course, and navigating that with VR was pretty dizzying, but I am sure once I use VR more, I would get more used to it. 

 

 

Phillip is pretty content with the Oculus Quest 2

In the end, I think my favorite pick is the Quest 2; with the higher resolution and better refresh rate, as well as being wireless, it offered things that the Quest or Rift S couldn’t purely due to hardware.  My small inconvenience was that Quest 2 was not very glasses-friendly, making it hard to wear; that could have some workarounds and doesn’t always apply to everyone.  My next favorite was the Rift S, with my most significant issue being the wired cord, which isn’t a big concern unless you are playing more free-roam games.  The Rift S felt right in the middle of the pack of all three.  My least liked was the original Quest, which does make sense since the Quest 2 is a direct upgrade of the Quest, and the Rift S did everything the Quest did but better all for just a wire.  With this being my first time using VR, I left with a few thoughts in my head, one is the headache that comes with first time experience, and the second is that I know I’m getting the best VR headset on a budget for my brother. 

• Oculus Quest 2 64 GB
• Oculus Quest 2 128 GB
• Oculus Quest 2 256 GB

TSPhillipT

As an update on this!

The day I tested it out, I went out to purchase one for my brother's birthday and got everything setup.  After a few days of use and getting over a few things, here are things I can confirm.

I purchased both the Elite Strap as well as the Fit Pack which includes light blockers.  The Elite Strap was a great purchase as it felt more secure on my head.  The Face Kit 2 came with extra sized face masks as well as light blockers to prevent light from coming in around the nose area.  Neither the extra face masks or light blockers worked for me unfortunately and didn't make a big change for me.  However, my friends did say that the light blockers worked for them!  So it is likely to be different from person to person.  


First thing I found irritating, was that we were unable to stream it to our TV.  The main reason we got a VR system was more for hanging out, as one person plays some games and everyone watches and we rotate.  We found it impossible for us to stream it to our TV.  Looking online, we found that you can stream with a Chromecast with some lag, went to Micro Center and they ran out of stock just a few hours ago... I wonder if other people were buying them for the Quest 2.  We can stream it to our phone using the Oculus application but found this to be very laggy and low quality and this was the same complaint people had with the Chromecast option as well.  I also noticed one of the bigger complaints for the Quest series, the lack of games that the Quest store has.  There were a few games I wanted to play but were not on the Quest store, but SteamVR did have. 


We ended up using the Quest 2 as a standalone and it went well, though not ideal for the amount of people we had around.  Ended up playing games like Beat Saber, Tilt Brush and Five Nights at Freddy and the delay on the stream really messed with our reactions to our friends getting scared.  I think the Quest 2 standalone is great for people playing alone of course, but not my recommendation for group get togethers.  


In the end, my brother and I decided to build a gaming PC, something we have been talking about for a while and the Quest 2 pushed this.  With the PC built, Oculus Link cable connected, all games showed up on the screen like we intended and had 0 issues setting up the Oculus Quest 2 with SteamVR.  Oculus Link had no noticeable lag and we played games perfectly!  I am happy we bought this and although we ended up spending significantly more on this due to building a gaming PC for this, it is definitely for a more specific setup and isn't required for just standalone use!  

JS_MC

Your review and feedback have made it very tempting for me to go and update my VR setup. (I'm still infrequently using my 1st gen HTC VIVE) I know you said that the Elite Strap was a worthwhile purchase, but did you feel like it was necissary or just a recommended addition?

TSPhillipT

@LandShark

I wouldn't say it's necessary, the Oculus Quest 2 is perfectly fine without it, however it 's a great addition and definitely secures it more tightly and is easier to tighten as well.  

AlexS

So I did some further testing with the Oculus Quest 2 with the Maingear Vector 2 Gaming Laptop, and SteamVR has been quite flawless with the Oculus Link Cable.  

I do wish I had a little more room for the Guardian roomscale boundary, but all-in-all, it was still good fun and a great experience!

The first-person shooter, Pavlov, has a control set that is a tad bit different from when I owned an HTC Vive, but once I had the controls locked down, I was zooming.  Shoot house was pretty easy to get through, and I didn't personally feel any motion sickness from the weird movement.  Had zero performance issues (lag, stuttering, etc.)

I followed this shoot 'em up experience with a Cosmopolitan, which I made in Bartender VR Simulator (which, by the way, you learn how to make real cocktail recipes in this game, which is actually amazing).   This performed exceptionally well.

The last title I checked out was Arizona Sunshine.  This zombie survival game is such a blast to play but gets too scary sometimes.  If the zombies looked a little more realistic, this game would be a horror fest.  The sights felt like they weren't on target, and the Oculus controller models were morphed into the hands of your character, so that was sort of weird.  I'm sure there's a way to fix that, but this game was fun none-the-less.

One game I wish to try in particular when it goes on sale is Half-Life: Alyx.  I would really like to use such a title to see how the limits of the Oculus Quest 2 w/ Oculink goes.

The Oculus Quest 2s does not come with an Oculus Link cable, so you will have to purchase one separately or use a high quality USB 3.1 Type-C cable to get you going in the right direction with SteamVR.  

DreadPirateRoberts

I was wondering whether or not I would need to purchase the 256GB version or if the 64GB would be enough.
Is there any other benefit to the 256GB version other than storage capacity?

TSPhillipT

Hello @DreadPirateRoberts

I think if you are using the Oculus Quest 2 all by itself and have no plans for connecting to a gaming PC or making it a portable VR system, the 256GB is what I would recommend as you are storing all the games into the Quest itself.  If you are intending on just connecting it to a gaming PC and mainly using SteamVR/Oculus Link, then I think the 64GB is what I would recommend as you are mainly storing your games onto the PC.  

DreadPirateRoberts

Okay. Thanks for the helpful reply!

Chris1990

Did you notice that if you purchase a game in the Oculus Store on the Quest 2 itself, you can't play that same game without rebuying it while using the Oculus Link?  Example, TWD Staints & Sinners.  Its available in the quest store, but also available to use your PC GPU/CPU.. but you have to rebuy it.

TSPhillipT

Hello @Chris1990

I haven't explored this through the Oculus App.  I do know that you have to buy it separately from the Steam Store which is where I get all my VR Games for the Oculus Link.  I do know the Oculus App which you need to download to have access to Oculus Link has games on it, but I assumed any game bought on the Quest is also with the Oculus App since they were the same company.  The only game I had to rebuy was Beat Saber which I didn't mind having on both.  I am picking out my games for ones I want to work with my PC and ones that I want to do solely on the Quest.  


EDIT!

Turns out yes, you are correct, the Oculus App for Desktop is different than the Oculus Store on the Quest/Phone.  Games bought on one will not transfer over or show as purchased for the Oculus App on Desktop.  That is pretty crazy to me...