The "Why I Still Love My Oculus Rift CV1 in 2026" Thread
I've gotten slightly tired of repeating all the awesome stuff about the Oculus CV1 on Oculus Subreddit and in here - so why not try to collect all the great arguments for still using the Rift CV1 in a thread? 1. It's oled. Even with the oled mura (SPUD) Rift CV1 is still a lot darker than lcd hmds. It may not matter to all, and sure you can live just fine with lcd, but for those of us wanting to experience a really dark night in Skyrim, wanting to have true night vision in Saints and Sinners (and not constantly needing a flashlight) - and to enjoy all the very dark horror games - oled is still king. Although Rift CV1 and the original Vive aren't completely the same, they both use oled panels - and these results indicate differences in blackness comparing oled (Vive) and lcd (Index) hmds: "Black level in nits: Index: 0.153 Vive: under 0.02 with true blacks turned off via black smear compensation (default). Vive: 0 with true blacks turned on, black smear compensation disabled via running the headset in secondary display mode." https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/c5sxu5/brightness_blackpoint_and_gamut_measurements_of/ In a few games, like Saints and Sinners - and Westworld Awekening - I found some very dark locations where I basically can see nothing using the Index (lcd), while I clearly can make out objects using Rift CV1. In those cases Rift CV1 provides true night vision, while lcd cannot show very poorly illuminated objects making everything vanish into a grey lcd-fog of pure nothingness 😉 That's probably why all the otherwise dark tunnels in Alyx are lit up with so many lamps, because you need light to create great blacks using lcd, and Alyx was made for lcd (Index). Also having oled or not in extremely dark games like Phantom Covert Ops is the difference of being able to see all the awesome tiny ripples and subtle reflections in the surface of the water or not. 2. Sound is second to none using the CV1, primarily the deep bass, thanks to the awesome Rift CV1 headphones. Even Index cannot provide the same bass as CV1 - at all. It's very easy to test. Try the song Embers in Pistol Whip and compare CV1 with whatever hmd you'd like. Even Index has close to no bass in that song, while the CV1 is simply perfect - the difference is close to day and night: Also the larger Oculus exclusive games took years to make, like Asgard's Wrath, Stormland, Defector and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Although such games were launched when Rift-S and Quest 1-2 hmds were available, these games were primarily developed using Rift CV1 hmd. In short, if you do not use Rift CV1 for these games, you're not experiencing sound effects and music exactly like the devs intended. This may mean you're getting too much or too little bass, and that may affect immersion. Maybe casual gamers don't care about this and might even accept the extremely poor piped-audio quality of Rift-S and Quest hmds, but getting the optimal sound experience should matter to audiophiles and enthusiasts. 3. Rift CV1 Touch controllers are built like tanks. Using Oculus subreddit, the amount of photos showing broken Rift-S and Quest controllers are numerous, and there have been many statements about the poor quality of newer controllers, also including Valve Index controllers. The new Reverb G2 controllers do not get a lot of love too, but more due to design and weight distribution. Instead, old Touch are still considered the reference when it comes to quality, design and durability. Batteries may even last for months - while some never controllers (like for the Reverb G2) may eat up batteries like there's no tomorrow 😉 4. Tracking. Although having sensors is quite a hassle for those needing to set them up for each VR session, permanently placed sensors provide next to no inconvenience and provide a level of tracking probably only beaten by the base stations used for Vive and Index hmds. Having used the Valve Index for 19 months, I really do not notice much difference between CV1 and Index tracking, which is a testament to the awesome tracking provided by the CV1. Although CV1 isn't included here, Index tracking was scientifically measured to be extremely much better than what inside-out solutions provide: Results - tracking accuracy - lower scores are best (hint: Cosmos did not win ;)) https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/91998/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-which-one-has-the-best-or-worst-tracking-of-them-all I would be very surprised if Rift CV1 is much worse than Index. Using Rift CV1 360 degrees tracking (needs at least 3 sensors) you can hold your hands on your back for as long as you'd like - you'll never lose tracking. And you can play in a totally dark room, you do not need any light for perfect tracking. Also kojack compared CV1 tracking here to both HP Reverb G2 and the Quest 2 - I hope he doesn't mind quoting him here: "Tracking seems fine on the (HP Reverb) G2, it just has way worse coverage. It's too easy to lose sight of the controllers below or near the headset. Hold your hands out in front and they seem ok. While moving around the WMR home scene, there's big panels to look up at and I kept the controllers at waist level. The laser pointers on the controllers made it obvious every time the position tracking dropped out when I tilted my head up a little. CV1 tracking is great, I prefer it to anything else. Q2 (Oculus Quest 2) tracking seems ok, but also has worse coverage than CV1. For example in Audica, if I try to throw the guns underarm from a resting position, they just release from my hands and float at my side, while on the CV1 they'd be thrown correctly." https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/91084/hp-reverb-g2-available-pre-orders-up-november-release-date-confirmed/p39 5. Using temporal antialiasing (TAA), which is used for DLSS, does not create a blurry image with the Rift CV1. Some may not be aware of this - and that's entirely plausible for those never having tried using an oled hmd. In games like for example MADiSON VR, Metro Awakening, Riven. Ark Park, Robinson the Journey, Asgard's Wrath and Stormland, enabling TAA or DLSS using a lcd hmd easily creates a very blurry image quality. Like having your eyes dropped with liquid butter - or something. Using TAA or DLSS with Rift CV1 you get super-sharp image quality, maybe due to the screen-door effect (SDE) fooling our brains to experience a holistic and sharp image by filling out the blanks (blanks = the black stripes between rows of lit pixels which essentially make up the SDE). Furthermore, compared to other kinds of antialiasing like MSAA, TAA or DLSS does not cost a lot of gpu performance. Having to replace TAA or DLSS with 4xMSAA (or worse) may provide ok-ish image quality by severely reducing frames per second (fps), especially when combined with high levels of super sampling (ss). 6. Some games profit from the SDE and reduced res of the Rift CV1. Although many are annoyed with the Rift CV1 due to the low res and especially the SDE, sometimes the SDE can be a friend. Using high res lcd hmds with tons of subpixels may provide clarity so far ahead of the Rift CV1 that there's really no comparison. Unfortunately such clarity may also reveal tons of flaws and shortcomings in many (older) VR games. Using high-res lcd hmds, low res textures may easily be spotted and may reduce immersion. The advantage of the Rift CV1 SDE may in many cases be like having scanlines in MAME games (MAME = Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) - or just an interlaced image quality. Remember how some games looked on lcd monitors, when some of us switched from using CRT monitors (or TVs)? The difference in image quality using Rift CV1 or a newer high-res lcd hmd may easily be like: Image quality with scanlines (like CV1 SDE) Image quality with no scanlines (like modern high-res lcd hmds) There are many games where low-res textures look so much better thanks to the Rift CV1 SDE, while everything looks a lot more pixelated using high-res lcd hmds. Again a game like Phantom Covert Ops comes to mind - that game looks great using Rift CV1, but using Index you can easily see all the ugly low-res textures. Even a game like Arizona Sunshine looks so much better using Rift CV1 due to lack of jaggies and it's much harder to notice any low-res textures. One thing that amazed me in that game was the thorns on the cactus plants which looked very real using Rift CV1 ss 2.0, but using Index it's so easy to see the low-res 2D thorns on the plants which now looked incredibly fake and thereby broke the immersion. 7. Physical interpupillary distance (IPD) slider. With the Rift CV1 you do not just have one big panel like in Rift-S and Quest 2, but you have two separate oled panels. One for each eye that can be physically moved. This allows for simply perfect IPD adjustment (or close), covering IPDs from about 58 to 72 mm, probably only beaten by the original Vive hmds allowing for up to 73-74 mm. Rift S is more or less locked to 64 mm, while Quest 2 has three locked positions (58, 63 and 68 mm). 8. Comfort. This is a matter of individual preferences, but it's my impression that many still find the comfort of CV1 as second to none. Personally I do find CV1 comfort a lot better than the Valve Index, even though the Index is great. With the small weight of 470 grams and the way you wear the CV1 hmd, I rarely notice it's on my head when I'm using it. 9. Using high levels of super sampling, visual acuity may be a lot better than many persons seem to believe. Having tested the Rift CV1 with high levels of super sampling I found some quite surprising results. This is a comparison of how many meters you can go back from a text and still be able to read it - note that higher res provides increased ability to zoom out while still sharply seeing objects and textures: Rift CV1: Ss 1.0 = 4 meters Ss 2.0 = 6 meters Valve Index: Res 100 % = 4.5 meters Res 200 % = 6.5 meters Source: https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/91907/testhmd-fov-sde-res-super-sampling-the-rift-s-against-everything-else/p1 I consider these results quite amazing, and they prove that increasing levels of super sampling has a profound effect on Rift CV1 image quality. I've heard several CV1 users say that you don't benefit from more than ss levels 1.3 to maybe 1.5 using Rift CV1. That's why we need science and to test subjective experiences thoroughly. Properly testing the Rift CV1 there's even a noticeable difference comparing ss 2.0 and 2.5. Going from ss 2.0 to 2.5 will probably require a RTX 3080/3090 or better to get 90 fps in many games, and the difference between 2.0 and 2.5 is more subtle than going from 1.5 to 2.0. For many it may come as a great surprise that perceived sharpness and ability to read signs etc. (=visual acuity) may really not be much different using Rift CV1 ss 2.0 or Valve Index res 200% - even though persons subjectively may feel that the res is so much better using a lcd panel with tons of subpixels, like the Index. 10. Many games were made for oled hmds - thus using an oled hmd may be the only way to play these games "the way it's meant to be played". This is one issue I've become more and more aware of since I got the Index. Many games made for Rift CV1 simply don't feel "right" using other solutions than the Rift CV1. Chronos may be a nice example. Chronos plays nicely using the Valve Index, but even forcing res 200% I can still see some jaggies and pixel crawling. And the blacks, textures and colors are nice too, but seem to lack something here and there. Now, using the Rift CV1 ss 2.0 there's simply no doubt I get the vision the devs intended to provide. I no longer see jaggies, and blacks and colors look the way the should - and I no longer notice any textures I think would benefit from a slightly higher res. Same with Mage's Tale: using lcd many surfaces look fake, like made of melted plastic - gold surfaces look fake - but using Rift CV1 everything looks so much more real, even including the gold. In short, there are still many of reasons to love the old Rift CV1. Even if the competition is fierce these days, there are many games and apps where the old Rift CV1 stands tall and bows to no one. I've probably missed something - do let me know in a post below, if there're even more reasons to still love/like the Rift CV1! 🙂
Black Screen randomly during gameplay
Like other posts, same symptoms not game dependent, power off and on, things work ok for a while then 3 dots, screen goes black, sometimes i still hear game, Thrill of the fight in background. If i move my head up and down, vigorously, i get the 3 dots then the game comes on where it left off. It's sporadic. But similar things are happening to others on here. I can't find the support phone number
How do I play Phasmophobia on my quest 2?
So I've downloaded steam, I got the streamer cord and everything. I've looked up tutorials and they were zero help and outdated. I need help, I am very frustrated because I've spent literally hours trying to play phasmophia on my VR. I have the game on steam, no youtube video is helping at all.
Lists of killer apps and games by user ratings - for the Rift hmds and Quest 1 - 3 with Link
UPDATED JULY 2025 Note that due to the malfunctioning Meta phone app, you cannot find all games using the phone app. Also the PCVR Store shown in the Meta PC App may no longer include all games, but using a normal PC, this link should work: https://www.meta.com/experiences/pcvr/ If you cannot find a game in the Store, try searching for it in the Store or using an Internet browser. Searching on the internet, to avoid Quest standalone versions, just add the word "Rift". To get an overview, here're lists of the highest rated games and apps for the Oculus Rift hmds and for Quest 1 & 2 with (Air)Link. If you're new to PC-VR, maybe these lists can be of inspiration - and maybe even old-timers can find stuff they've overlooked... To be included at least 40 users must have rated a game or an app, and the average user rating must be at least 4.5 stars out of 5 (= 90 % or better) - based on user ratings in the Oculus Rift Store (Steam games or apps are not included). Maybe we could call these lists for grade "A" games and apps - or simply current Rift killer games and apps 😉 And why the need for 40 user ratings? In the Oculus Rift Store there are many games and apps receiving high ratings, but to provide sound statistics it's not enough with just 3 user ratings - or 10 - or even 20. I've chosen 40 because it's close to the minimum number of individuals I'd want in a group, if I was trying to get some robust statistics after collecting answers to a questionnaire (for a medical trial and similar investigations). I've provided the current number of user ratings for each game or app, so if some readers only trust average ratings based on 100, 500 or even 1,000 user ratings, the lists will accommodate for such preferences. Note that these lists are not influenced by my preferences - I'm just the guy counting user ratings and associated average ratings o:) Also note that new awesome games or apps may not yet be on the lists due to an insufficient number of user ratings. Highest rated Rift games: 98% average rating The Room VR: A Dark Matter (369 ratings) Altdeus: Beyond Chronos (68 ratings) 96% average rating Beat Saber (13040 ratings) Moss (852 ratings) Golf+ (1067 ratings) Walkabout Mini Golf (239 ratings) Red Matter 2 (70 ratings) I Expect You to Die 2 (45 ratings) Merry Snowballs (44 ratings) - removed from the Store and Steam (Feb 2020) 94% average rating Robo Recall (11352 ratings) Lone Echo (5283 ratings) I Expect You to Die (1273 ratings) Brass Tactics (764 ratings) Trover Saves the Universe (303 ratings) Until You Fall (198 ratings) Racket: Nx (103 ratings) Airtone (99 ratings) - removed from the Store (maybe Jan 2021), still available on Steam 92% average rating Blaze Rush (780 ratings) Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted (778 ratings) Space Pirate Trainer (726 ratings) Vox Machinae (390 ratings) Vacation Simulator (383 ratings) Final Assault (273 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2024, still available on Steam Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (233 ratings) The Invisible Hours (228 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2025, still available on Steam Bending the Light (174 ratings) Virtual Virtual Reality (114 ratings) Synth Riders (115 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2024, still available on Steam Hyper Dash (99 ratings) The Under Presents (58 ratings) Crisis VRigade (55 ratings) Mini Motor Racing X (49 ratings) Down the Rabbit Hole (49 ratings) 90% average rating Vader Immortal (5609 ratings) Blade & Sorcery (4189 ratings) Superhot VR (3690 ratings) Asgard's Wrath (3585 ratings) Elite Dangerous (2566 ratings) Stormland (1946 ratings) Boneworks (1526 ratings) Job Simulator (1489 ratings) Eleven: Table Tennis VR (813 ratings) In Death (726 ratings) The Thrill of the Fight (620 ratings) Brass Tactics: Arena (481 ratings) Windlands (388 ratings) Audica (368 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2023, still available on Steam Racket Fury (346 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2025, still available on Steam Witchblood (265 ratings) A Fisherman's Tale (224 ratings) Raccoon Lagoon (217 ratings) Form (206 ratings) Thumper (196 ratings) Into the Radius (193 ratings) Journey of the Gods (134 ratings) Shadow Point (117 ratings) Catan VR (95 ratings) The Gallery - Episode 2: Heart of the Emberstone (79 ratings) Jet Islands (78 ratings) Iron Wolf (74 ratings) Shooty Fruity (65 ratings) Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin (45 ratings) Audio Trip (44 ratings) Highest rated Rift apps: 98% average rating Art Plunge (79 ratings) 96% average rating Wolves in the Walls (1147 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2024, not available on Steam Oculus First Contact (1249 ratings) 94% average rating Crow: The Legend (891 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2025, not available on Steam Show It 2 Me (203 ratings) Electronauts (104 ratings) Sky VR: Hold the World (83 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2025, not available on Steam Get Lost in Nature with Luke (70 ratings) 92% average rating Aircar (2455 ratings) 1943 Berlin Blitz (1032 ratings) Allumette (870 ratings) Dear Angelica (882 ratings) Fantasynth One (568 ratings) Dance Central (350 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2024, not available on Steam Sensor Bounds (223 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2022, not available on Steam Apollo 11 VR HD (209 ratings) Wonderful You (155 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2024, not available on Steam The Bond (133 ratings) - removed from the Store in 2024, still available on Steam for free Beach Body Bros (117 ratings) Spice & Wolf VR (57) ratings) Jig Space (47 ratings) Breath Tech (45 ratings) 90% average rating Google Earth VR (8776 ratings) Henry (1178 ratings) Wrench: Engine Building Demo (330 ratings) Sharecare VR (300 ratings) - removed and replaced by a new and updated app Tilt Brush (268 ratings) Arden's Wake (44 ratings) Chroma Lab (42 ratings) - to find this game, search for "Chroma Lab Rift" on the internet BTW, to make these lists I selected the Oculus Store category containing all games and apps, organized the items according to user ratings (highest ratings first) and then - one by one - checked the number of ratings and the average score. Finally we could also check which game or app (with an average user rating of at least 90 %) has the most votes in total - and the winner in each category is: Rift game with the most ratings Rift app with the most ratings
Gorilla Tag- Toxic Reporting System and Unfair Bans
*THINK TWICE ABOUT SPENDING MONEY IN THIS GAME* Sadly this game has an aggressive banning system that's driven by a toxic in game reporting system overrun by a bunch of children less than ten years old. They will happily report you en mass for cheating/modding when they have no idea what modding actually is. The system for appealing bans is so convoluted that it's not even worth wasting your time trying, it involves talking to bots on Discord sending you around in circles wasting huge amounts of your time and getting nowhere. It would be impossible for anybody to appeal a ban that isn't technically savvy with this type of stuff. I would strongly advise anybody playing this game to think twice about spending money in it. It's infuriating when you have spent money in the game and end up getting banned for 'Cheating' when you are an honest paying customer. Same thing will happen if you buy Shiny Rocks for your kids, they will get banned and be unable to play the game that you spent money on simply because of a bunch of children are obsessed with this in game toxic reporting system. The bans are aggressive and increase in time exponentially quickly leading to permanent I.P. bans losing all the in game items that you spent good honest money on. If you appeal to Meta about it they will be super nice and understanding but the ultimately have to send you in the direction of the moderators of the game, good luck even getting to speak to a human.... I would say just play for free then you have nothing to lose.
Unable to Redeem Batman: Arkham Shadow with Meta Quest 3S Purchase
Hello, I recently purchased the Meta Quest 3S 128GB (which includes Batman: Arkham Shadow and a 3-month trial of Meta Quest+) on October 23rd. However, I do not see the option to redeem the game, only the option to purchase it. I’ve checked my emails to see if there was a redemption link sent, but I haven’t received anything. Could you please assist me with resolving this issue? Thank you for your help.
