Oculus Rift S vs Rift Review

So with the recent release of the all new Oculus Rift S we got our hand on our first test unit as a potential upgrade for us looms and we must say Wow!!! All our pre-research reviews from testers pointed towards this being a substandard upgrade. The Rift 2.0 this was deemed not to be and it seemed a 1.5 and more of a slight development was to be expected. Whether this was a marketing ploy to lower peoples expectations or not we will not know however our opinion is that it is far closer to 2.0 than the original Rift.

Project Cars 2 with Oculus Rift S

Firstly for us Project Cars 2 is a very high demanding game when it comes to Graphics power and the lowering of the frequency from 90hz to 80hz is not noticeable. This is an added advantage for VR Simulators as it allows us to divert more power to processing graphics rather than trying to maintain 90 frames per second. As for the lenses and clarity it is a massive game changer for us. Colouring seems much better and the clarity is what we would have expected from a Rift 2. Focusing on the overlays, timing screens and menus is so easy and overall it seems quite difficult to get the headset out of focus. With the Rift getting it into focus can be tricky and explaining to the customers about how to do it can be even trickier. The new Rift S seems to stay in focus much easier and it is one improvement that could help us massively especially with motion sickness.

Rift S FOV vs Rift

The field of view from our point of view remains the same as the rift which for sim racing seems adequate. Perhaps with first person shooters you need to see in your peripheral vision however how many people look at their mirrors while driving in real life without moving your head?

Inside Out Tracking

Inside out tracking seems good and we have had no issues with a dark room with green lights which was one of our concerns. We did seem to get some shaky tracking issues when we shook our head violently however this was purely for testing and not something we have ever seen a customer naturally do.

The Halo Strap and Audio

The new halo style headstrap was not something we were keen on however having tried it we actually like it however it does present us with another problem which is getting the headphones over the top and its not easy. The new rift headphones are not ideal and we prefer the over the top earphones however this will require some work before we can get all simulators upgraded. It will also allow a few weeks for any software issues to be ironed out. For all of us here at VR Simulators who are Rift fans great work on the new Rift S!!!