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Techy111
Honored Contributor
June 10, 2019
Question

The Index thread (please keep to subject)

As per the title, please respect the users who post here and keep it on topic, any nonsense and......grrr

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    RuneSR2
    RuneSR2
    Honored Contributor
    June 30, 2019
    Maybe the best review so far:

    https://youtu.be/-Q2ZlXGNLc8

    Here's a comparison of Index vs. Rift-S from the video. Note that such images are hard to get perfect, but it is what it is:

    SDE, res and image quality:







    Black levels - probably hard/impossible to see differences on a white background:




    Glare test - problably main problem with the Index:




    - and perceived FOV:


    A lot of users comment that they don't see the kind of glare shown in the above picture, again it seems it's primarily visible using white text on a black background. 

    The conclusion according the the reviewer: "All in all, the Valve Index is a very good VR headsets with many advantages and some disadvantages. If you want to be more mobile or save money, you should use the Rift S, if you prefer perfect colors and OLED display the Vive Pro is recommended. People who want the largest field of view or the least screendoor effect should get a Pimax 5K+ or 8K.

    For the Full Kit I personally would prefer the Valve Index to the other VR headsets because of the many advantages and the greatly increased immersion, whereby only the controllers can be described as VR 2.0."

    Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD "Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"
    RuneSR2
    RuneSR2
    Honored Contributor
    June 30, 2019
    More CV1 vs. Index:

    The Full Index Kit. Worth every penny. Former CV1 owner.

    I've loved my Rift, but assuming no glaring issues pop up, it'll be headed to ebay.

    The Index nails every issue I had with my CV1. The Index's FOV improvement is fantastic, the lack of SDE, and the pixel-perfect hand tracking were the benefits I hoped would shine as the scuba mask, screen door and jittery tracking were the noticeable issues that would pull me out of presence in my Rift. Don't get me wrong... the Rift CV1 is an excellent HMD. It's the Toyota Carolla of VR. The Index is a Ferrari.

    A few tips: If your colors seem washed out, goto SteamVR, properties, Local Files, Repair. Seems to help for some.

    Really spend a lot of time dialing in the headset. My first impression was one of puzzlement. Once I had the fit perfect, it went to, "Wow!" This is especially true for Rift owners who are trained in "baseball cap fit"-"pull the back down as low as possible" routines. That will not get you a good fit with the Index.

    Finally, take your time with the controllers. I had the same "huh... Neat, I guess" reaction to the Knuckles... and then I got the fit right. Now, I forget I have them on, fingers are tracked perfectly and I can reach the system button with ease. They, too, are worth every penny.

    See you in the metaverse.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/c76spt/the_full_index_kit_worth_every_penny_former_cv1/



    Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD "Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"
    JaimieVandenber
    Inspiring
    June 30, 2019
    Mine arrived on Friday, and I got it set up last night.
    Level set: I've had a CV1 and Vive since launch; the Rift was obviously the better headset so I ditched the Vive after a while. I picked up PSVR when it arrived. I also have a Quest - and Nintendo Labo VR! I have not tried a Vive Pro or any of the higher-res headsets. 2080Ti, 16gig, i7-7700K, NVMe.
    The Index is a solid improvement in visuals over anything before it. Excellent picture, the sweet spot seems quite wide to me (maybe better than Rift), apparently I already got the SteamVR fix for colour so I'm getting good colour and the blacks are okay - not great but for me an even very dark grey is less annoying than the Rift's very gently glowing cloudy background. FOV does seem wider, but I couldn't put a number on it. SDE almost gone, you can find pixel edges if you try hard but you don't need to consciously keep your head moving a little to avoid seeing them - helped by the better pixel arrangement. God-ray reduction is good enough that I basically haven't noticed any at all. All around huge thumbs up. The reviews all go on about 144Hz making it a lot easier to spend a lot of time in VR, and I've got to agree that something does, I spend four hours solid in there.
    The audio is great - the speakers make a good sound and are nicely movable.
    The
    Knuckles are a bit disappointing. They're fine as controllers, haven't
    had a moment's problems with their positional tracking and they're
    Rift-controller-compatible which the old wands were not, but their
    much-vaunted finger tracking is a bit pish. They don't track them
    particularly well, and the only training game they put you in is a
    finger game. I spent much of it trying to avoid giving the bird when
    attempting other finger configurations. Perhaps that'll be improvable in
    software.
    Putting up the lighthouses is a PITA, and means I have a fixed installation - I was going to take it to a friend's party next weekend, he was on Rift since DK1 and recently bought a quest for every member of the family so he's interested in how it is, but now I'm not sure I can be bothered tbh. I was very pleased to finally find the 'turn off lighthouses when SteamVR is closed" toggle - why is this not enabled by default? They emit an irritating whine as the mirror spins.
    Speaking of, SteamVR seems to have got considerably less crashy. In five hours
    it didn't go down once. Massive improvements have been made there! The 'draw your play area' prep is as sleek as the Quest now (and only needs to be done once of course!). Game filtering isn't the best, I've seen some that require Vive wands say that the Knuckles aren't good enough, while others are fine. Steam being Steam, they really don't sweat the UI details... The default in-VR UI pops up a bunch of store games (nice for discovery) but although it shows when you already own and have downloaded a particular choice it doesn't have a "play" button so you have to jump three clicks to where there is one. It is doing a lot more than the Oculus store, but it's so clunky...
    The various 3rdparty home areas are good fun - I spent a while teleporting around Outset Island (Zelda Wind Waker), plus half a dozen other neat environments.
    So yeah - first impressions are
    +++ Mighty visuals and audio
    + Good controllers that aim a bit higher than they can reach
    - Mildly annoying setup process
    - Steam being Steam
    RuneSR2
    RuneSR2
    Honored Contributor
    June 30, 2019
    Some more stuff:

    How to turn off lighthouses: https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/c75kxt/index_lighthouse_2_dont_they_turn_off/

    How to reduce glare - and a discussion about God Rays:  https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/c74973/the_glare_and_the_lenses_on_index/

    - in short - may depend a lot on using right IPD and finding the sweet spot. 

    Moss is awesome using Index: https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/c73u5d/moss_is_gorgeous_on_the_index/

    Ongoing user discussion about Rift-S vs. Index, but not much substance at the moment: https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/c73nos/rift_s_and_valve_index/

    Index vs. Odyssey+: https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/c72trt/index_first_impressions_from_odyssey_owner/ - in short: "Overall, this is a great upgrade from the O+, without even considering the tracking differences. The best parts being the increased clarity and FOV."


    Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD "Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"
    pyroth309
    Up and Coming
    June 30, 2019

    RuneSR2 said:

    Glare test - problably main problem with the Index:




    - and perceived FOV:


    A lot of users comment that they don't see the kind of glare shown in the above picture, again it seems it's primarily visible using white text on a black background. 




    Nice find, that's exactly the kind of glare i'm seeing in my headset in the glare test. I tried to take a picture and my phone just wouldn't capture it due to the smaller sweet spot. The Index sweet spot is a weird one. It has a very tight limit on where your eye needs to be...but once your eye is there it's clear all over.

    Also, If a lot people aren't seeing glare like that then I need to RMA mine lol.

    And yea, the text looks great in simulations. I just got done with a test flight in DCS and this is significantly clearer than O+. Gauges all looked good and crisp in DCS and will definitely be the headset I go to for sims.
    kevinw729
    kevinw729
    Inspiring
    June 30, 2019
    The more we read this is looking more like a upgrade than a next generation of the current PC VR approach - a big congratulations to the Valve team for achieving this with a smaller team than other VR headset manufacturers.
    https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959
    RuneSR2
    RuneSR2
    Honored Contributor
    June 30, 2019

    kevinw729 said:

    The more we read this is looking more like a upgrade than a next generation of the current PC VR approach - a big congratulations to the Valve team for achieving this with a smaller team than other VR headset manufacturers.



    Maybe an upgrade to Rift-S and O+ but to me it looks more and more like a true second gen to CV1 and the original Vive (which to me define 1st gen). 

    Several users do experience problems, like early Rift-S adopters, and early Index adopters probably should arm themselves with patience in case of problems. This may be caused by Valve only being able to test Index pre-release on a limited number of different rigs - and production weaknesses may initially be difficult to find (like the controller problems). Before 6 months after launch have passed, persons unwilling to spend time on tech difficulties may find that getting Rift-S or Index may not be a good thing... 
    Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD "Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"
    pyroth309
    Up and Coming
    June 30, 2019

    RuneSR2 said:


    kevinw729 said:

    The more we read this is looking more like a upgrade than a next generation of the current PC VR approach - a big congratulations to the Valve team for achieving this with a smaller team than other VR headset manufacturers.



    Maybe an upgrade to Rift-S and O+ but to me it looks more and more like a true second gen to CV1 and the original Vive (which to me define 1st gen). 

    Several users do experience problems, like early Rift-S adopters, and early Index adopters probably should arm themselves with patience. 


    Yea, I'm sure this is why Valve did a staggered release, to minimize the damages to something like this. The Knuckles problem seems to be pretty wide spread, a lot of people complaining. 

    But yea, that Glare had me really down on the Index HMD for awhile and had me ranking it under the O+ because it was so damn distracting. But, I found a way to manage it/it stopped bothering me by moving the eye relief out a little bit. I'm kind of hoping I just have a bad headset and can return it for one without so much glare but either way there's enough other positives with it that I'm over it. 
    RuneSR2
    RuneSR2
    Honored Contributor
    June 30, 2019

    pyroth309 said:


    RuneSR2 said:


    kevinw729 said:

    The more we read this is looking more like a upgrade than a next generation of the current PC VR approach - a big congratulations to the Valve team for achieving this with a smaller team than other VR headset manufacturers.



    Maybe an upgrade to Rift-S and O+ but to me it looks more and more like a true second gen to CV1 and the original Vive (which to me define 1st gen). 

    Several users do experience problems, like early Rift-S adopters, and early Index adopters probably should arm themselves with patience. 


    Yea, I'm sure this is why Valve did a staggered release, to minimize the damages to something like this. The Knuckles problem seems to be pretty wide spread, a lot of people complaining. 

    But yea, that Glare had me really down on the Index for awhile and had me ranking it under the O+ because it was so damn distracting. But, I found a way to manage it/it stopped bothering me by moving the eye relief out a little bit. I'm kind of hoping I just have a bad headset and can return it for one without so much glare but either way there's enough other positives with it that I'm over it. 



    Are you keeping CV1 and/or O+, and going for Index 100% - or is it too soon to tell?
    Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD "Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"
    RuneSR2
    RuneSR2
    Honored Contributor
    June 30, 2019






    BTW, I think this comparison is spot on with Tyriel Wood's experience - that Index had the best image quality of all, and I think he has tried the Reverb? 
    Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD "Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"
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