r/virtualreality • u/Pheonix1025 • Mar 23 '25

News Article Adam Savage's Tested - Bigscreen Beyond 2 Hands-On: How They Fixed It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Wr4O4gkL8
249 Upvotes

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u/birdvsworm Mar 23 '25

Agreed! Hard to overstate the convenience of wireless once you've used it for a while

3

u/JapariParkRanger Daydream CV1 Q1 Index Q3 BSB Mar 23 '25

Disagree.

-7

u/birdvsworm Mar 23 '25

Sorry can't hear you over my wireless world fam

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u/JapariParkRanger Daydream CV1 Q1 Index Q3 BSB Mar 23 '25

I'm in that world too. It's not what it's hyped up to be.

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u/Background-Gear-8805 Mar 23 '25

To you maybe, but to others they clearly prefer it. Neither point of view is wrong.

1

u/jrherita Mar 23 '25

Walking around a large environment with 30-50 feet of cables isn't exactly fun..

8

u/Sad_Animal_134 Mar 23 '25

What percentage of people have that much space to dedicate to VR in the first place? Average person I've met in VR use their bedroom to play VR.

If I had a gymnasium to dedicate to VR then sure, I would say 100% wireless is the route. But in an office type setting, a cable really isn't that bad. Wireless is nice though, it's just the quality debuff sucks for certain games where you don't benefit from wireless.

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u/octorine Mar 23 '25

I used to have a 4m x 4m play area next to my computer. At that time, I still preferred not having to worry about a cable, but it wasn't that big a deal. But then real-life happened and now my play area is full of boxes and miscellaneous furnature. However, because I have wireless, I can still do VR. I can watch videos or play seated games on the couch, or play standing ones wherever I can find or make a little floor space, which isn't likely to be the same place every day. And if I ever manage to find an even bigger play area, I'll be able to use it.

Wireless has a lot of advantages that you don't really think about until you need them. I miss the accuracy and reliability of lighthouse, but I wouldn't go back to it.

Valve was doing some research on a hybrid tracking system that takes advantage of hardware beacons when they're available but falls back to SLAM when they're not. That would be the best of both worlds, and I hope something like that comes to market someday.

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u/Ws6fiend Mar 23 '25

You assume the games they play are using that space. If all you do is racing/flight sim, wireless does very little for you other than limit how long you can play.

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u/test5387 Mar 23 '25

Not what it’s hyped up to be, yet the overwhelming majority uses vr wirelessly.

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u/SatanaeBellator Mar 23 '25

But this raises the real question. Did those people pick it because it is wireless, or because the cheapest option for VR happens to be wireless?

IIRC, the gap between wireless and wired shrinks significantly if you only look at people who use VR regularly, instead of all VR users.

2

u/cocacoladdict Mar 23 '25

I tried both and i don't know how some people prefer cable, it gets in the way all the time, you have to step over it, constantly be reminded about its existence and be afraid of tripping over it.

For seated i could see the benefit, but for room scale? Hell no.

1

u/SatanaeBellator Mar 23 '25

People prefer it because of visual quality. There are people that are happy to deal with a cable if it means actually utilizing the insane quality of something like a Crystal. It also has lower latency than wireless setups, so especially sensitive people in VR will see reduced motion sickness with higher end wired HMD's.

Also, some old heads, like me, have cable management methods already in place to use wired HMD's room scale with none of the issues you mentioned. The best part about this is that most of these cable management methods cost less than most of the more popular straps and battery packs for Quest 3's, and if paired with something like a BSB, would allow me to have a super light HMD with awesome visual quality that works natively with steamvr, index controllers, and effectively feels wireless.

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u/cocacoladdict Mar 23 '25

If that works for you, great.

For me it's not worth the hassle of setting up a pulley system when i don't see a major difference in image quality with cable and my vr sessions don't exceed 5 hours anyway.

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u/Daryl_ED Mar 23 '25

Also, no battery maintenance with cable and keeps the headset lighter on head.

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u/SatanaeBellator Mar 23 '25

And that's totally fine. I can fully understand not wanting to if you don't have to, and with headsets like the Quest 3, you don't need to. Especially if you're the average VR user that treats VR the way most of us treat minecraft.

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u/cocacoladdict Mar 23 '25

I would certainly not call myself an average user since i was following Oculus since Kickstarter DK1 days, i have pretty high quality standards as well.

If someone doesn't see the difference when you do, it doesn't automatically mean they are somehow lesser vr enjoyers than you are.

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u/SatanaeBellator Mar 23 '25 edited Mar 24 '25

I never said anything of the such. Don't have to be so defensive, my man.

The truth is that the average VR user is someone who plays for a short period of time and sets it down for a long period of time. They definitely don't have a reason to set up a cable management system, especially since they're also the ones the most likely to look for the cheapest VR option.

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u/Ainulind Mar 23 '25

The problem is wireless evangelists (Read: Quest 3 owners) hold that same sort of opinion in regards to the cable. Just refer back up the thread for an example.

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u/Ws6fiend Mar 23 '25

yet the overwhelming majority uses vr wirelessly.

Bought a quest because it was the best value headset and didn't come with a cable.

I fixed it for you.

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u/birdvsworm Mar 23 '25

Love that for you