# Picking up an Oculus Rift S



## WhiteNoise (Jun 13, 2019)

I own the Rift and love it but setting up the 3 sensors is a pain in the rump...all the cords too. Now that the Rift S is out and Ive read many reviews I think it is a fair trade off moving to it and placing my Rift in storage. Just the inside out sensors alone make me want to make this purchase. I get the advantages and disadvantages and I know it is not really a true upgrade but to hell with it...it's going to be easier to use and move around the house.  I'll post my experience once I have it.


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## xkm1948 (Jun 14, 2019)

Defintiely let us know how it works!


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## WhiteNoise (Jun 14, 2019)

Picked it up tonight on my way home from work. Love Newegg will call. Hooking it up soon.


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## HammerON (Jun 14, 2019)

Sub'd out of curiousity.


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## WhiteNoise (Jun 14, 2019)

I'll snap some pictures of the Rift and Rift S tomorrow but I can lay down a few thoughts right now.

The LCD screens looks good! I was worried that going from OLED to LCD would be a mistake and though I have to admit that blacks are blacker on the Rift, it is close with the Rift S and the Rift S has a cleaner screen for sure. Screen door effect is almost non existent to me. I always thought the Rift was pretty good. You can look past the screen door effect when immersed in a good game and some games just look so much better than others but with the Rift S I can say without a doubt that it really is a BIG improvement in this area. I mean I was trying to see the screen door effect and found it much harder.

Virtual desktop is much easier on the eyes and I can actually read text so much better. Movies look very clean as well. I always thought the Rift didn't do a great job for movies but this is like a night and day difference to me. I can actually see myself watching a movie now, (not that it is a selling point for me but cool all the same).

So IMO this is a big step in the right direction. The lower refresh rate does not seem to make a difference to my eyes. The Rift being 90Hz Vs the Rift S's 80Hz.

Setup was WAAAAAY easier. I mean damn....that was way easy. Nothing at all like the Rift CV1 and it's pain in the butt sensor setup. I used three sensors with the Rift for 360 and once set up it worked great but this is much much better.

The new style band is super comfy. quicker to adjust and fits better with my glasses. I had a lot of issues using glasses with the rift when it came to comfort but this is much better.

Just the one cord running to PC is a god send too.

The only thing I don't like is the speakers. They provide a more spacious sound effect which is actually quite cool. Sounds around my head actually sound more like ....outside my head; but they sound weak. The Rift speakers that laid on my ears have a more robust sound with decent bass. The Rift S falls short in this area. Nothing a set of ear buds can't fix (which can be plugged directly into the rift S head band but I wish they would have put better speakers in.

Tracking is good. It's solid. Compared to my Rift with 3 sensor setup...it works just as good. Moving around, quick actions, even placing my hands behind my head....it all worked flawlessly. Very impressed with its inside out tracking. Oh and being able to see outside the headset is pretty cool. It's black and white but I can see the entire room and thats damn cool. Beats always having to tip the old Rift up so I can see real quick.

All in all this was totally worth the $399 price tag and my old Rift will now go to my other gaming rig for the kids to play with.

I'll post more as time goes by...I have to redownload most of my games which I will do tonight. I'll try to remember to take some side by side photos of the Rift and Rift S plus the controllers. The redisgned controllers work great but I admit they will take some getting used to as I've been using the old style for so long.


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## WhiteNoise (Jun 17, 2019)

So never did take pictures but I did spend a lot of time with the Rift S. It's awesome.

I also hooked up my old Rift to my other gaming rig (the one my daughter uses) and while setting it up I could immediately see a difference in visual quality. Then loading up into the main menu / room where you can see the store, pick a game to play etc...it just looked like crap compared to the Rift S. Good lord I found it unplayable compared to the Rift S just due to the clarity of the screens in  the Rift S.

So good enough for my kids but no longer good enough for me. The Rift S is worth every damn penny.


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## Eric3988 (Jun 28, 2019)

Sounds like a good upgrade to me. I've been waiting years to get into VR and I think the Rift S is where I finally take the dive. What are the best games for VR so far?


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## xkm1948 (Jun 28, 2019)

Eric3988 said:


> Sounds like a good upgrade to me. I've been waiting years to get into VR and I think the Rift S is where I finally take the dive. What are the best games for VR so far?



As of now Beat Saber


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## Eric3988 (Jun 29, 2019)

My sister actually recommended that one too


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## WhiteNoise (Jun 30, 2019)

My favorite games:

Lone Echo
Onward
Arizona Sunshine
Chronos
Star Trek Bridge Crew
Vader Immortal


Great Games: 

Vox Machinae
Robo Recall
Blade & Sorcery
The Climb
Eve Valkyrie
Elite Dangerous
Project Cars
Subnautica
Superhot
I expect you to die


Games I'm looking forward to:

Defector
Rogan

Games I want that are out:

In Death
Moss
Beat Saber
Brass Tactics


I have a lot of VR titles but some are just crap.


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## Octavean (Apr 12, 2020)

I went from an Oculus Rift to an Oculus Quest.  I also have access to a PSVR which I bought for my Son for his birthday some time ago.

Coming from the Oculus Rift I agree on some of the same points.  The Oculus Quest uses a very similar head strap mechanism as the original Oculus Rift (Unlike the Rift S).  This combined with the front heavy weight distribution and lackluster foam cushioning on the facial interface makes it more difficult to wear for extended game play.  This is addressable with third-party accessories easily enough though So no real issue there.

The controllers on the other hand are IMO a downgrade from the original Touch Controllers.  Again weight distribution is an issue here.  Since the new controller design requires the tracking ring to be on top rather then on the bottom, as soon as you pick up the controllers the ring is typically pulled down in your hand and you have to adjust your grip to put the tracking ring on top.  Actual tracking of the controllers is good but not as good as an Oculus Rift dual sensor or triple sensor configurations.  It’s maybe 90 to 95% so that is respectable but occlusion can and does happen depending on how you play and what games you play.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that ease of setup is everything when it comes to tracking so again IMO the controller tracking is a bit of a downgrade.  I also would like my Doctor to go to medical school and don’t care if it’s easier for said medical practitioner to skip it or take a shortcut,.....faster and easier isn’t always better.

screen quality On the Oculus Quest is an upgrade. SDE is reduced but still there.

I haven’t used Oculus Link yet but I am glad that PC use is now supported even if it is still in beta.  I have a PartyLink USB-C cable so I’ll be trying this feature soon.


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## Kissamies (Apr 19, 2020)

xkm1948 said:


> As of now Beat Saber


Beat Saber is the reason why I bought my Rift from my friend when he upgraded to S. What's funny is that he has his second VR headset and still rocking with a GTX 970.


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## Octavean (Apr 29, 2020)

Chloe Price said:


> Beat Saber is the reason why I bought my Rift from my friend when he upgraded to S. What's funny is that he has his second VR headset and still rocking with a GTX 970.



I'm reusing an old GTX 970 I had laying around otherwise going unused.  I used it in my new build where I bought the parts late last year.   Its based on an AMD RyZen 3950X and ASRock X570 Taichi with 64GB of DDR4 3200.  I also have a old GTX 1060 6GB card but didn't want to pull it from its current system especially since the performance is about equivalent to the GTX 970. 

I had planned to buy an RTX 2060 / 2070 Super or wait for nVidia Ampere later this year as an upgrade but that was before the economy took such a turn.  

The GTX 970 meets the requirements for Oculus Link so I can connect my Oculus Quest to play PC VR games. Therefore its good enough for many games with modest settings (lower settings).


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## DuxCro (Jul 8, 2020)

I sold my Rift S. Actually sold it for more than i paid for it thanks to shortage. Think i'm gonna wait for something truly next gen now.


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## WhiteNoise (Jul 15, 2020)

I love the Rift S. I have my CV1 still as well and it's hooked up to another PC. I put it on recently to test it so my daughter could play around in google earth, man I can't use that headset now. The Rift S just has such a nicer display.


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