I've had issues with my Oculus Rift S for years now and it seems like the proprietary cable finally broke (I made a post about my current issue you can see here on [email protected]) so I'm thinking about making a change but I haven't really been tracking the scene in a while. That's not to say I haven't done any research but it's largely limited to LTT reviews I've had sporadically recommended to me and those don't really take into account follow ups after extended use and updates.
It seems relatively dominated by the Meta Quest 3 but I can't tell how much of that is it being the new thing. I am also quite wary of Meta after how they handled the Rift S with updates and replacement cables.
Some other considerations I have are
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Works with my desktop PC running Windows 11 so that I can play games I have on Steam and elsewhere like Arizona Sunshine and EmuVR. As well as watch VR movies. If it can pair up with a PC running Linux that would be even better.
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Doesn't have proprietary parts that I will likely need to replace at some point.
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Minimal to no mounting of lighthouses and as little cables as possible.
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Something that won't require an abundant amount of troubleshooting. The inability to just put on my Rift S headset caused it to gather dust a lot of the time.
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I'd prefer not to buy a Meta product. I am not super set on this as long as they've been better about their more recent products.
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Some kind of passthrough mode so that I can walk around my place and do things like wash dishes and fold laundry would be nice.
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I'd prefer to spend $700 or less. I am not sure how often or what headsets are expected to go on sale and for how much. I feel like there are options out there for this price that would be an improvement over Rift S and original PSVR that I've used.
If the Quest 3 is my best bet is there anything I should know about it? Maybe concerns over how it would connect to a PC?
As far as I'm aware, your options for mid tier are Quest 3 or PSVR2 with the PC adaptor.
I haven't used either.
Quest 3 - if you buy a wifi 6 router that's dedicated to quest 3 streaming, you can supposedly do passable wireless using either the Steam app or Cordial Desktop on Quest. As the other commenter said, you might want to consider a third party headstrap.
PSVR2 - No wireless option but there's a cable (display port or HDMI - I'm not sure which) you plugin to your PC so the picture won't have artifacting etc. Unfortunately eye tracking isn't supported on PC. Also you won't get the passthrough stuff you were asking about.
Pico 4 - I dunno much about. It has a display port connector and can also do wireless but no idea what it's like or if it's still considered an option. Also, if you're avoiding Meta, I'm not sure byte dance is any better. I don't know what the future holds for their vr plans
Then I think we start going up in price.
There is supposed to be some Android VR headsets announced this year (like from Samsung) and there's also the possibility of whatever Valve is doing with deckard at the end of the year (but that's all rumour, leaks and speculation).
Personally, I'd really love to see what Valve are doing but maybe that's just my copium
Virtual Desktop is pretty good for streaming to the Q3 too. Honestly the biggest area of improvement that Q3 could have is in the battery department. But as with anything wireless there's always power banks.
I wonder how it would do coupled with a 20,000 mAh power bank in a fanny pack.
The important part is how much power it can deliver continuously.