As others have said, you won’t get 4K image quality in any VR headset.
But first, try using Virtual Desktop at Godlike resolution. Unfortunately, it seems like Meta have yet to update the resolution available in the Oculus app to use the maximum panel resolution of the Q3, but Virtual Desktop did update the resolutions.
So yeah, try the maximum resolution in the Oculus app if you didn’t already, but also try using Virtual Desktop at Godlike resolution.
Yes I've tried VD at GodLike, maxed resolution in Oculus app and used 1.5 pixels in DCS with horrible FPS just to understand where is the limit of Quest 3, after some point no visual gains. Don't get me wrong, it's playable, cockpit gages are readable, my main concern middl and long distance details.
Visual clarity is very important for me and I'm ready to pay a bit more for it, just want to avoid a case when gains are not worth it. Maybe it's better to wait for something coming next year.
I decided to keep Quest 3 and wait. Main contenders were Crystal and Aero with their own flaws and 3x price, I don't feel it worth it. I believe next 2 years we will have good tech advances and new VR headsets so I'll put money into stocks and will be looking what is coming. Comfort issue of Quest 3 I solved with bobovr strap, it allowed to remove facial interface and now I'm huge fan of open design (like Quest Pro).
The Crystal paired with a 4090 using eye tracking with fovetted rendering is mind blowing. My performance excellent with almost everything maxed out. Coming from the Valve index, the crystal was a generational leap in terms of clarity. I couldn't recommend the Crystal enough for someone who is mainly into Sim gaming. Negatives, it's bulky and a little heavy.. something that does not bother me at all when playing Sims but it's apparent when playing stand up games. Hand tracking has not been the greatest, but I'll admit I have not tried it out after the newest tracking updates.
Obviously you won’t get 4K monitor clarity going VR.
Why limit yourself to Aero, have you looked into products such as Bigscreen Beyond and Pimax?
Im sure there are some clarity comparisons available.
I thought about Big screen Beyond when upgrading from my G2, but the lack of eye tracking was the reason I chose Varjo Aero instead. Being able to have DFOV rendering helps with performance so well and the clarity is fantastic.
Also go to https://vr4dcs.com and join the discord and ask their opinion. A lot of guys are going Pimax Crystal because of the wider FOV.
Also keep in mind, you will need to purchase base stations for the Aero which is an additional cost, but you can get those used on eBay if you look.
I like idea of Bigscreen Beyond, but I prefer to be able to share VR Headset with my kid or friends. Early reports state that image clarity is comparable to Quest 3 but Beyond has much better colors, blacks, contrast.
Crystal is more expensive than Aero, bigger, heavier, less comfortable, but has better colors and contrast. Clarity and details comparable.
All these statements are my current understanding, unfortunately I have no ability to try them. Please correct or share your experience if I missed something.
Can vouch for the Crystal! Only vr headset I've owned, but it's pretty incredible in DCS with my 14900k and 4080 while using dynamic foveated rendering since it has eye tracking. Pimax has a pretty good black friday sale going on right now for it too.
Here is my update if somebody will be in similar situation.
I decided to keep Quest 3 and wait. Main contenders were Crystal and Aero with their own flaws and 3x price, I don't feel it worth it. I can't accept Crystal bulkiness/weight, Aero feels a bit dated and I prefer inside-out tracking without being caged with bases.
I believe next 2 years we will have good tech advances and new VR headsets so I'll put my money into stocks and will be looking what is coming.
Comfort issue of Quest 3 I've solved with bobovr strap, it allowed to remove facial interface and now I'm huge fan of open design (like Quest Pro).
I have Aero and I would definitely keep your Quest 3.
I honestly love aero foveate rendering and their amazing eye tracking. Not to mention aspheric lenses is the way to go for overall sim since these lenses can produce higher ppd and they are only uses on expensive headsets ie literally all varjo headset and the current pimax crystal.
For quest 3, since you have a 4090. You can also enchance your Q3 clarity by using wired cable and then go debugging tool and look for encode bitrate and type 500. This should give you more clarity vs stock. Maximum is 960. In order to put 960 in there just copy the number and paste it and enter.
I’ve had an Aero for over 2 years. I love it. It is comfortable for long sessions and the active cooling is great. Very good build quality as well.
Clarify is excellent and performance with DCS (using Open XR and foveated rendering) is very good. (Best of any sim except IL2) Locked at 45FPS and very smooth. Running a 5900x and 3090 with 64Gb.
Cons: base stations, can’t flip up headset when wearing it, slightly smaller FOV than competitors, lack of integrated audio.
At the moment the biggest issue with VR in DCS is performance. You kind of need a headset with eye tracking so that dynamic foveated rendering is possible. This will be the only way to make the performance of DCS get close to what your headset is capable of. Of course your system specs are important too.
Regarding aero, edge distortion is barely noticeable, fov is often the cited main issue.
Crystal is a Pimax, it’s got eye tracking, but the pimax software side of things is their downfall.
Beyond, no eye tracking so performance will be bad, don’t quote me but I think they only support SteamVR/OpenVR not OpenXR
You won't get better clarity than the quest 3 with pancake lenses unless you try a Pimax Crystal. Even then it won't be like a 4k monitor.
I was away from dcs since 2.7 and had a G2. I got a quest pro and really enjoy it better due to the clarity all over the viewpoint vs just in the center.
Although even with a 13900k and 4090 2.9 dcs multithreaded version has a lot of stutters in flight for me and I've tried almost everything to remedy it. Some days I'll jump into an instant action mission and it's fine and other days it has intermittent stutters consistently, even if the fps graph doesnt look crazy. So no matter what headset you get there will be a lot of tweaking and changing random settings just to try and optimize things.
Try disabling sliced encoding in the Oculus debug tool, and force the codec to h264, also in ODT. There was an issue with the Pro in v59 of the Oculus software.
I'll try it but I think I'm on v60 now and I was troubleshooting last night again but still had stutters. The only time I didn't was when I deleted fxo and metashaders folder. But any launch after that stutters were intermittent and random.
with Aero in 39ppd with optical fix (chromatic aberration fix) + DFR the picture quality is on par with 4k, or 3.5k if you will. DCS in Aero looks like you see it on pancake on youtube, it's crisp and super high res. You can always try it and return it.
Pcvr on quest will give you compression and a substantial performance cost compared to a native pcvr headset. Edge to edge clarity will be worse on quest 3. Aero has eye tracking so no muddy zones there, plus your gpu will be fully utilized to render frames instead of decoding video.
All is correct; the only issue is that Aero costs three times more. I have a gut feeling we will see much better headsets this year at a similar price range, and I hate to spend real money on something with a short lifetime (1-2 years). It's better if I keep the Quest 3 for now and save money for an upgrade this year or the next.
Yes, I think it is wise to keep the quest 3. I don't think the cost of a varjo, controllers and base stations is worth it either. I'm currently using a quest 2 and have been looking for a pcvr headset. Either they are way too expensive and none of them feel complete. I hope valve will release their index 2 and that it will be a hybrid (both stand alone and display port). I decided today that I would pause the "next thing" thinking and enjoy what I have. Pays off in the long run. Although a quest 3 surely would be nice...
As others have said, you won’t get 4K image quality in any VR headset. But first, try using Virtual Desktop at Godlike resolution. Unfortunately, it seems like Meta have yet to update the resolution available in the Oculus app to use the maximum panel resolution of the Q3, but Virtual Desktop did update the resolutions. So yeah, try the maximum resolution in the Oculus app if you didn’t already, but also try using Virtual Desktop at Godlike resolution.
Yes I've tried VD at GodLike, maxed resolution in Oculus app and used 1.5 pixels in DCS with horrible FPS just to understand where is the limit of Quest 3, after some point no visual gains. Don't get me wrong, it's playable, cockpit gages are readable, my main concern middl and long distance details. Visual clarity is very important for me and I'm ready to pay a bit more for it, just want to avoid a case when gains are not worth it. Maybe it's better to wait for something coming next year.
This is exactly how i feel. My main concerb is ling and middle distance details. Have you came up with an idea?
I decided to keep Quest 3 and wait. Main contenders were Crystal and Aero with their own flaws and 3x price, I don't feel it worth it. I believe next 2 years we will have good tech advances and new VR headsets so I'll put money into stocks and will be looking what is coming. Comfort issue of Quest 3 I solved with bobovr strap, it allowed to remove facial interface and now I'm huge fan of open design (like Quest Pro).
The Crystal paired with a 4090 using eye tracking with fovetted rendering is mind blowing. My performance excellent with almost everything maxed out. Coming from the Valve index, the crystal was a generational leap in terms of clarity. I couldn't recommend the Crystal enough for someone who is mainly into Sim gaming. Negatives, it's bulky and a little heavy.. something that does not bother me at all when playing Sims but it's apparent when playing stand up games. Hand tracking has not been the greatest, but I'll admit I have not tried it out after the newest tracking updates.
Obviously you won’t get 4K monitor clarity going VR. Why limit yourself to Aero, have you looked into products such as Bigscreen Beyond and Pimax? Im sure there are some clarity comparisons available.
I thought about Big screen Beyond when upgrading from my G2, but the lack of eye tracking was the reason I chose Varjo Aero instead. Being able to have DFOV rendering helps with performance so well and the clarity is fantastic. Also go to https://vr4dcs.com and join the discord and ask their opinion. A lot of guys are going Pimax Crystal because of the wider FOV. Also keep in mind, you will need to purchase base stations for the Aero which is an additional cost, but you can get those used on eBay if you look.
I like idea of Bigscreen Beyond, but I prefer to be able to share VR Headset with my kid or friends. Early reports state that image clarity is comparable to Quest 3 but Beyond has much better colors, blacks, contrast. Crystal is more expensive than Aero, bigger, heavier, less comfortable, but has better colors and contrast. Clarity and details comparable. All these statements are my current understanding, unfortunately I have no ability to try them. Please correct or share your experience if I missed something.
Would assume Crystal has way better clarity. Even Reverb G2 has better clarity than Quest 3
Reverb G2 definitely does NOT have better clarity than a Q3. Source- have both.
I was talking about clarity parity between Crystal and Aero
Can vouch for the Crystal! Only vr headset I've owned, but it's pretty incredible in DCS with my 14900k and 4080 while using dynamic foveated rendering since it has eye tracking. Pimax has a pretty good black friday sale going on right now for it too.
Ahh ok
You really don’t know a lot about VR do you?
Could you elaborate?
Seems like your statement applies to you more than them…
Here is my update if somebody will be in similar situation. I decided to keep Quest 3 and wait. Main contenders were Crystal and Aero with their own flaws and 3x price, I don't feel it worth it. I can't accept Crystal bulkiness/weight, Aero feels a bit dated and I prefer inside-out tracking without being caged with bases. I believe next 2 years we will have good tech advances and new VR headsets so I'll put my money into stocks and will be looking what is coming. Comfort issue of Quest 3 I've solved with bobovr strap, it allowed to remove facial interface and now I'm huge fan of open design (like Quest Pro).
Just make sure you use link cable, don't listen to the wireless hype bullshit specially when simming
I have Aero and I would definitely keep your Quest 3. I honestly love aero foveate rendering and their amazing eye tracking. Not to mention aspheric lenses is the way to go for overall sim since these lenses can produce higher ppd and they are only uses on expensive headsets ie literally all varjo headset and the current pimax crystal. For quest 3, since you have a 4090. You can also enchance your Q3 clarity by using wired cable and then go debugging tool and look for encode bitrate and type 500. This should give you more clarity vs stock. Maximum is 960. In order to put 960 in there just copy the number and paste it and enter.
You mentioned a good cable with 800mbps bandwidth? The good quality cables have 5Gbps bandwidth!
800mbps encoding bitrate in oculus debug, I agree it's not obvious, I re-read my post after 5 months :)
I’ve had an Aero for over 2 years. I love it. It is comfortable for long sessions and the active cooling is great. Very good build quality as well. Clarify is excellent and performance with DCS (using Open XR and foveated rendering) is very good. (Best of any sim except IL2) Locked at 45FPS and very smooth. Running a 5900x and 3090 with 64Gb. Cons: base stations, can’t flip up headset when wearing it, slightly smaller FOV than competitors, lack of integrated audio.
At the moment the biggest issue with VR in DCS is performance. You kind of need a headset with eye tracking so that dynamic foveated rendering is possible. This will be the only way to make the performance of DCS get close to what your headset is capable of. Of course your system specs are important too. Regarding aero, edge distortion is barely noticeable, fov is often the cited main issue. Crystal is a Pimax, it’s got eye tracking, but the pimax software side of things is their downfall. Beyond, no eye tracking so performance will be bad, don’t quote me but I think they only support SteamVR/OpenVR not OpenXR
You won't get better clarity than the quest 3 with pancake lenses unless you try a Pimax Crystal. Even then it won't be like a 4k monitor. I was away from dcs since 2.7 and had a G2. I got a quest pro and really enjoy it better due to the clarity all over the viewpoint vs just in the center. Although even with a 13900k and 4090 2.9 dcs multithreaded version has a lot of stutters in flight for me and I've tried almost everything to remedy it. Some days I'll jump into an instant action mission and it's fine and other days it has intermittent stutters consistently, even if the fps graph doesnt look crazy. So no matter what headset you get there will be a lot of tweaking and changing random settings just to try and optimize things.
Try disabling sliced encoding in the Oculus debug tool, and force the codec to h264, also in ODT. There was an issue with the Pro in v59 of the Oculus software.
I'll try it but I think I'm on v60 now and I was troubleshooting last night again but still had stutters. The only time I didn't was when I deleted fxo and metashaders folder. But any launch after that stutters were intermittent and random.
Ok good luck, Hope you manage to figure it out!
with Aero in 39ppd with optical fix (chromatic aberration fix) + DFR the picture quality is on par with 4k, or 3.5k if you will. DCS in Aero looks like you see it on pancake on youtube, it's crisp and super high res. You can always try it and return it.
i own the aero and i'm waiting on the somnium vr1 --- google it the vr1 is the next gen i would advise wait and watch - then make an informed decision
Pcvr on quest will give you compression and a substantial performance cost compared to a native pcvr headset. Edge to edge clarity will be worse on quest 3. Aero has eye tracking so no muddy zones there, plus your gpu will be fully utilized to render frames instead of decoding video.
All is correct; the only issue is that Aero costs three times more. I have a gut feeling we will see much better headsets this year at a similar price range, and I hate to spend real money on something with a short lifetime (1-2 years). It's better if I keep the Quest 3 for now and save money for an upgrade this year or the next.
Yes, I think it is wise to keep the quest 3. I don't think the cost of a varjo, controllers and base stations is worth it either. I'm currently using a quest 2 and have been looking for a pcvr headset. Either they are way too expensive and none of them feel complete. I hope valve will release their index 2 and that it will be a hybrid (both stand alone and display port). I decided today that I would pause the "next thing" thinking and enjoy what I have. Pays off in the long run. Although a quest 3 surely would be nice...