Razer OSVR! Purchased and tested (update 05-06-2017)

I had the 1.4 and was more than happy to get rid of it after a week of fiddeling and trying around .. Its a "it could and can do everything better" but it doesnt in no way . When i got my rift for the full price back last summer i was really happy, this is plug and play ! Since the price is low now, there is no need for the Razor HMDK. I also dont understand it in case of a developer , isnt the SDK for the Rift or Vive for everyone ?

I was using 2.0.
Also since you're looking at other HMD's now check out this link.

You can save yourself a couple hundred dollars if you resell the 1070

seen on youtube:

No positional tracking = nausea. To me is useless. When I tried covering the sensor I couldn't drive 2 minutes...

New toy for the upcoming weekend... OSVR is on the road, delivery is on Saturday.

BTW new firmware and installer update, which sounds not bad at all:


* NEW * HDK Windows Installer (Beta 0.8)

Key Updates:

• Vastly improved positional tracking for both native and SteamVR content
• More intuitive controls, tools, and configuration settings
• Improved configuration files, updated drivers, and components
• Easier-to-use firmware updater
• Officially supports NVIDIA, with beta support for AMD
• Improved overall stability

12 hours spent on the OSVR yesterday, that should be fine for a first review, my very first impressions. More is to come later.

• It worked out of the box, weight is 606 gr, including the cable.
• There is a pixelation and there is a screen door effect, but the lenses are very good, sharp in the center and they remains sharp all the way to the outside if the eye is exactly centered in front of the lens. If not, it's gone with the sharpness.
• If you are glasses-wearer - forget it, there is no space for the glasses. I have -2.5 diopters, I did not need my glasses due to the individual eye focus it was sharp and crisp. I tried contact lens, which makes the FOV a little wider (less tunnel effect), because the lenses are closer to the eyes (very close, sometimes I touched the lenses with my eyelash...lol)
• It works with USB 2.0 so far, USB 3.0 seems to be not mandatory
• HDK 2's display has a 90 Hz refresh rate and a 110 degree field of view, the screen content is very smooth and the FOV is sufficient, especially when I compare it to my 3DVISION triples, they give me a 200° FOV...
• Tracking works, but not constantly. That means as long the PC is on and I calibrated the LEDs before, it works. As soon I restart the PC the calibration is gone and the axis are interchanged, yaw = surge etc.)
• There is absolutely no picture stuttering when turning my head, there is no delay.
• There is a smearing when turning the head fast. I generally don't notice the smearing, it's quite rare but If your're focused on it, you will notice it from time to time.
• No controllers for the headset, there are a few on the way like NOLO
• Despite of a few reviews the there is no issue of comfort. The headset fits fine. The only thing you could dislike is the small space for the nose, IMO guys with a very big nose will suffer...lol
• Screen quality and impressions: Apollo 11, was a great, my first VR experience. The letters are hardly readable, the bigger numbers are ok, small details are pixelated, but this is the Gen1/2 issue generally speaking...AC was super fluid but same here - the resolution (pixelation) cloud be better, the numbers on the speedometer are pretty blurred. pCars was quite good. I tried different super sampling settings in SteamVR, the MSI 1080 ti Gaming eats super sampling up to 2.4 easily. IMO more than 1.8 does not change the sharpness anymore, the display is limited and that's it.

That's my first round up, I'll try to take a few photos later when the OSVR is powered on. Stay tuned and if you have any questions, please ask!!

I have to check this out (C&P from reddit) because I'm using Direct Mode:

I find Direct Mode in most games looks like a less sizable colour spectrum, and lighting issues. However as mentioned below, you gain some anti-distortion and a FPS boost. I also find though that DirectMode tends to have more jitter where extended mode FPS wandering seems less noticeable to me. And DirectMode is only supported on a few configurations. Optimus laptops prevent it.


Personally, I find games look much better in extended mode mode with the OSVR SDK, but extended also inevitably carries a bit of screen tearing.


In Extended Mode its also much easier to watch what a player is doing in the game, because you can mirror displays (great for demoing)

I moved the postings from the CV1 pixelation thread.
I found a few settings to play with:

"renderOverfillFactor"
"renderOversampleFactor"

IMO the screendoor effect could be more eliminated, i found an other source where someone is using DSR. I'll report ASAP.

Congrats on VR, Pit! And nice write up! I have been curious about OSVR and it has some feature advantages. I'm really curious who will get the next significant bump in resolution out there. But racing in VR is a trip!

I don't know how accessible the screens are in OSVR but what we used to do with Oculus DK2 units is put a satin screen protector on the display since it was just a phone display. That would soften the screen door but would also blur very slightly. I certainly wouldn't do anything like that if your screens don't have a protective cover glass on them, though. But it at least was a way to reduce screen door. Not really an option now on Rift and Vive, though.

lol @Zed the screen door effect is present but acceptable. Today I was playing elite dangerous, obviously Assetto Corsa shows some serious issues, while ED is great to play and view, AC (OpenVR) is far away from being perfect.

You laugh, but the satin screen protectors were a "thing" back in DK2 days. It may not seem like VR is that advanced but we've come a long way. The screen door was pretty bad back then. Can't get to the screens so easy now and I don't even know what the technology is in OSVR. At higher resolution it doesn't seem to be an issue and it's not even a desire for me in the Vive now. The screen door is really only noticeable when I look for it but then I can see it.

AC looks great to me in the Vive. Is it just Kunos doesn't have good support yet for OSVR or you just don't like the look?

I dunno, but OSVR is not recommended for consumers. Aside from that,Sensics has added a diffusion screen on the HDK2, unfortunately it blurs the screen as users of Reddit are reporting. At the moment I'm happy, hopefully Razer is going to update it's headset somewhere in the future...

Addendum: Just for information, in Elite: Dangerous the menues are readable.

Hardly possible to take photos through the lenses... I'm going to try out an action cam this afternoon.

Least you can play @Pit I have been out of action now for 2 months because of the tracking on the Rift and the latest update has made it even worse.

Sorry to hear that, despite of earlier reports tracking works on the osvr, sometimes it's broken but a reset brings it back. Doesn't help you but each headset has advantages and disadvantages, for sure rift tracking will come back soon