My vision for the perfect headset

As 2024 draws closer to a new year, I’m quickly approaching my five-year VR anniversary. Around this time in 2019, I bought an HTC Vive kit and spent the next few months improving my PC to support VR infrastructure. So, to say the least, I was just in time to embrace the VR renaissance due to COVID-19.

Now, after all these years of fun on the first generation Vive, I am ready for something new. Yet I find myself indecisive. Technology has certainly improved over the years, but I’ve had trouble finding an “overall best” one to replace my old shoes. So allow me to share what I think is missing in today’s market: my vision for the perfect headset!

Retina-level image resolution

This is without a doubt one of the most desirable features for any HMD, and it carries a lot of weight with me. I recently purchased a 4080 Super, and while my desktop happily overloads me with high-fidelity visuals, I’m still held back by the resolution limitations of my headset. To get the best value from my new GPU, I prefer an option with the highest resolution at a reasonable price.

Meet the Vive Pro 2. It offers a stunning resolution of 2448 x 2448 pixels per eye, one of the highest of any major manufacturer. It’s worth noting that Pimax has developed even larger resolutions, including a 12K model slated for 2025, but 5K is a reasonable standard to desire at this point. As a veteran of the Vive, this was one of my first considerations for a headset.

Human visual field

This is one thing I can admit, it irritates me every time I put on my current headset. For reference, the original HTC Vive has a field of view (FOV) of 110 degrees, and even my other headset, the Quest 2, has a gloomier field of view of about 90 degrees. So believe me when I say: I want to see more!

The best available field of view right now comes from Pimax’s 5K and 8K HMDs, which offer a viewing angle of almost 200 degrees. This is very close to a human’s natural field of vision. Despite being overshadowed in popularity by products like the Valve Index, I can say that Pimax knows how to go the extra mile when it comes to overall quality and clarity.

Buttery smooth refresh rates

Perhaps flying under the radar, refresh rate is quite important when it comes to virtual reality. The biggest complaint people have about using VR is the feeling of nausea. Therefore, it is crucial to keep the experience smooth and stutter-free. Not to mention mine immersion!

90 Hz is the standard operating frequency, although some products reach an even higher bar around 180 Hz, such as the Pimax 5K Super. Since most applications run fine at 90Hz, this isn’t a detail to nitpick, but it is worth noting that some headsets can operate at multiple frequencies, allowing for better experiences overall. I’ve never really had a problem with nausea in VR, but I’d like to see what the experience is like at higher refresh rates.

Ultimate comfort

This is yet another problem I had with my HTC Vive: it was super heavy in the front. Granted, I was able to make some extra money and balance it out (with upgraded audio), but shouldn’t the install have just been shipped that way? I suppose I can forgive this transgression from a pair of first-generation headphones.

When it comes to VR, comfort is of the utmost importance. The award for this category probably goes to Bigscreen Beyond, as they have somehow managed to make high-fidelity VR work on a device that weighs just 127 grams. Like everything else, there are still pros and cons to their product, and even if someone were to offer me a memory foam HMD (Head-mounted Display) with built-in scalp massage, it might still leave a lot to be desired in other areas .

Bells and whistles

It wouldn’t be a beautiful, innovative headset if it didn’t come with a few extras. To me, this is one of the more interesting details to track in VR development. I know what we have now, but what’s next? We have way too many good sci-fi cornerstones to make unreasonable comparisons to!

A feature that interests me at the moment is passthrough. The Meta Quest 3 shines in this area, and even what I can do on my Quest 2 is quite useful from time to time. I participate a lot in social VR, and that involves a lot of interaction with my physical space in addition to my virtual space. There’s also a lot to be said about facial and finger tracking, which could also serve to improve both social and environmental interactions.

Price point

Here’s the real kicker: how much is this going to cost me? I recognize that I’m a bit of a VR nut, so I’m much more willing than the average consumer to pay an exorbitant amount for a kit. It’s also been a few years, and if my recent GPU purchase has taught me anything, it’s that I better prepare to bite the bullet, so to speak.

On the lower end, the Quest 2 was released for around $300-400. Increase that to $500-650 for the newer Quest 3, which is reasonable. A Vive Pro 2 costs around $700 and the Valve Index kit cost $1000. I’d argue that anyone willing to pay over $1000 for VR gear is kind of in the game, and that’s exactly who this “perfect headset” would be suitable. Therefore, I imagine that if I could bundle all these features into one HMD, it would probably cost more than 1000 large ones.

To my surprise, there is such a headset that has just hit the market. For $999, with 5K resolution, a 120-degree field of view, and the native 90Hz refresh rate, the “all-in-one” Vive Focus Vision is available for pre-order through October 17, 2024. It’s also Comes with a back pad, plus eye, hand, face and body tracking capability without base stations. It goes without saying that it also has mixed reality capabilities.

So maybe my wishes have been granted after all and I’ve found something worth an upgrade. That is, of course, until a few years from now, when a dozen newfangled technological developments will inevitably occur, and I’ll continue to write about the exact same situation. But for now, I think I just found the perfect headset!