Valve Index - The Worst Headset I've Ever used

[Clientofwar]

Just gonna summarize the entire thing by saying this headset absolutely sucks.

The biggest and most glaring issue is the clarity of the lenses. They are trash. Quest 2 looks better and its considerably cheaper. I tried so many different spots, angles, and different ways to wear this headset. None of which ever made text clear. It was always blurry.

In order to get the claimed "120 FOV" you need to have the lenses grinding against your eyeballs.

The "sweet spot" is in the completely wrong spot. I don't know what dumbass designed these lenses, but the "sweet spot" is much lower than it should be, it's no where near center. I get better clarity when looking down. Like an old person with prescription glasses. I have great eyesight in real life. However after wearing this piece of garbage for 30 mins my eyes hurt and I feel like I just had a doctor dilate my eyes after an eye exam.

As far as the build quality goes. It's garbage. The rails that allow for adjustments on the length of the headband are the most fragile little pieces of trash ever made. Any slight movement that isn't straight forwards and backwards will bend the rails, forever dooming your headset to be uneven or have issues when adjusting the knob in the back.

The default face padding is literally a joke. I'd rather have a piece of plastic glued to my forehead than this poor excuse for "padding". In order to get your headset nice and snug, you need to to be pretty tight. But when you get there the padding might as well not exist. The headset, according to Steam "fit guides' should be loose and essentially sitting on your face. But when you do that the headset wobbles around and makes your vision blurry and the original fit you setup to move or slide around your face. Meaning you have to constantly re-adjust the headset if it's not super tight.

Why did I pay $1,000 dollars for something that gets out performed by the Quest 2 as a PCVR headset? Before anyone says "just get a better PC and it will look better". I have a Intel Core i9, 32gb DDR5 RAM, and a 3090ti. My PC has the 2nd best available technology. I mean at this point I could go back to standalone Quest 2 and have better clarity. Why was the design of the lenses so poor? You made something of lower quality for more money. Huh?

I've tried so many times to give this headset another chance. Every time I wear it for more than 30 mins I get so frustrated with it. I never had this many problems with a stock Quest 2. I even have some custom items on my Index and it's still more uncomfortable than a normal Quest 2. Maybe Valve should just stick to making one game every 10 years.

[76561199281265327]

that sounds good a i9 9900k and 48 gb ram, that must of cost you a fair penny, what kinda graphics card are you running in that thing?

i need to upgrade for sure

[Mythical]

A little late to this discussion, but I didn't enjoy my time with the valve index at all. I could never seem to find the sweet spot so everything was always incredibly blurry. I use my Quest 2 all the time, for the same reason I think that I use windows instead of linux. The quest 2 works straight out of the box, the sweet spot takes zero effort to find. You throw the headset on and go straight to play games. I don't have to tinker with anything, I don't need mods or extra faceplates, I don't have to mess with 4 different knobs, base stations etc etc. The thing I miss most about the index is it's audio solution.

The Quest 2 can be thrown on and it's good to go. Now, it's certainly not the best headset, but it's well rounded and easy to use. The Index felt like a chore to get ready. I've recently been looking into the Beyond Bigscreen VR headset, but my concern would be the sweet spot. I really wish there was a place to try these headsets out before buying them. They are quite expensive. More than likely I'll just be upgrading to the Quest 3. Are there better headsets? Without a doubt, but for a standalone wireless headset it's a solid choice and reasonably priced. Because it's pretty much not an option to try any headset before purchase, I'm unlikely to risk another brand. It's just too cost prohibitive to justify the risk.

[Green Cat]

Originally posted by Mythus:

A little late to this discussion, but I didn't enjoy my time with the valve index at all. I could never seem to find the sweet spot so everything was always incredibly blurry. I use my Quest 2 all the time, for the same reason I think that I use windows instead of linux. The quest 2 works straight out of the box, the sweet spot takes zero effort to find. You throw the headset on and go straight to play games. I don't have to tinker with anything, I don't need mods or extra faceplates, I don't have to mess with 4 different knobs, base stations etc etc. The thing I miss most about the index is it's audio solution.

The Quest 2 can be thrown on and it's good to go. Now, it's certainly not the best headset, but it's well rounded and easy to use. The Index felt like a chore to get ready. I've recently been looking into the Beyond Bigscreen VR headset, but my concern would be the sweet spot. I really wish there was a place to try these headsets out before buying them. They are quite expensive. More than likely I'll just be upgrading to the Quest 3. Are there better headsets? Without a doubt, but for a standalone wireless headset it's a solid choice and reasonably priced. Because it's pretty much not an option to try any headset before purchase, I'm unlikely to risk another brand. It's just too cost prohibitive to justify the risk.

Before i start i want to say I'm trying to add my perspective and not bs fight tons of people do online

I just got a quest 3. And let me not even start telling you, it's a nightmare for me exactly because i am not used at all with VR, aka the settings and more. As an exemple, sound, i paired the the quest 3 to my headphones and the sound is absolutely horrible, and game lags as a result. I am playing now with a wired connected to the headset. A 3rd version was to have the headphones connect to the pc via Bluetooth... However, despite switching all settings on pc and steam, from headset to headphone, nothing, the headset would still make the sound and no sound from connected Bluetooth (to pc) headphones

Btw, if you have an answer, please tell me since i can't find anything online but i barely started, so maybe i just didn't search enough.

Back to gameplay, yes, i fully agree with what you said, i just pop on the headset and was good to go.... For meta stuff... But i want to use it for steamVR. So i had a lot of setup that i did not know how to handle.

One of them, is the controller. I have no clue who to change it. The steamg games think I'm using an index or similar controller. And i have no clue how to change this.

What i try to say: if there was an index 2, i would have returned the meta 3 already because i want to use a VR for steam vr games, however the meta 3 was still cheaper than index (1) while also having many advantages like.... Just put on and go, no wall or other setups.

[Green Cat]

Originally posted by Heretic:

Originally posted by Green Cat:

As an exemple, sound, i paired the the quest 3 to my headphones and the sound is absolutely horrible, and game lags as a result. I am playing now with a wired connected to the headset. A 3rd version was to have the headphones connect to the pc via Bluetooth... However, despite switching all settings on pc and steam, from headset to headphone, nothing, the headset would still make the sound and no sound from connected Bluetooth (to pc) headphones

Odd, I often use the headphone jack on the Rift-S and the sound is fine and much better than the air sounds that these headsets come with. I wouldn't bother with bluetooth headphones for gaming, they can suffer from latency issues. Use USB wireless headphones if you lack a jack and just switch audio device on the OS. Obviously this isn't an option for standalone.

Solved... Only needed to change 1 single setting in the Oculus Link (PC app)

I find it "funny" how simple the solution for the VR are if you know the correct location-.-

Will write in case anyone else has the same issue
as mentioned, I did everything, PC, steamVR app, and more. However, on Oculus App... there was also said option. And that one took priority over everything else on my PC.... so even if VR Headset is turned off, No SteamVR, no sound was coming from my PC since said App's setting overwritten everything else.... but the moment I changed it to PC... everything works perfectly. I can now use Bluetooth headphones (connected to PC) and all sound (PC and Headset) is coming only through said headphones, so no lag, quality is perfect.


Other stuff
And reason why I use Oculus link is because for me, it works better than the virtual Destop. I don't know why, I have issues with that. This includes controllers not working (thinks I use an Index and other silly things... keybinding might or might not work), but with the quest link, connects (cable or WIF) and go....

Rambling on....
I still wish Steam would team up with Meta since for the price VS others, Quest is incredible, it's still expensive, but it's very cheap vs alternatives and offers quality since just put on head and go, nothing else. The Idea is how we have steam app on phones,but to create a steam VR app for meta. So we can straight away play our games from there without extra steps (AKA no more quest link or Virtual desktop).

[Jarilo]

Ugh, why Necro this pathetic thread.

[Green Cat]

Originally posted by Jarilo:

Ugh, why Necro this pathetic thread.

because people don't suffer from whatever causes you distress and like having chats and discussions about stuff that is relevant to themselves with other people who want to participate in said discussion?

So, the better question: wtf are you moaning and adding insults in a threat you can simple ignore???? Guess what? You did the exact same thing as OP, only different subject! Congrats!

Here is a brilliant solution, that I think you will love: Move your mouse to the top right corner of my comment, hoover over over the 3 arrows and select to block my profile. Repeat for OP as well as anyone else who causes distress to your existence.

And boom, you will never see any of our comments, post, and so on, ever again, and can ensure you will never endure cringe suffering because someone other than yourself exist or even worse! has an opinion or will different from yours.

[Jarilo]

Originally posted by Green Cat:

Originally posted by Jarilo:

Ugh, why Necro this pathetic thread.

endure cringe suffering

This is a very correct description of this debate in here.

[Green Cat]

Originally posted by Jarilo:

Originally posted by Green Cat:

endure cringe suffering

This is a very correct description of this debate in here.

Wow, now read the rest of what I wrote since you missed the part where you are not better then OP, aka showing the others how much you suffer since thinks aren't your way, when you could just move on.

Also: you missed the part where I am trying to point out that other people have discussions about subject that are outside of your preference and values, sadly you did not understand this was answering your question. Or what, will you now say you I am not correct since you didn't add the "?" symbol?

Oh wait. I know, you remember the block function? Please, go ahead, use it.

[Green Cat]

Originally posted by Jarilo:

:rfacepalm:

wow, image someone explain things yet person still doesn't get it.... even worse, thinks the others are the issues :O

Anyways, congrats on actively participating on this thread. Sadly I doubt you understand that this is an irony of what I wrote in my 1st response to you. But who knows, maybe it will finally make a click

[DragonLeigonnaire]

I'm sorry for your experience?

I mean, I'm glad you've shared it- spared someone else your bad luck/bad experience/etc. - but I can't say I've had similar. I've had an index for about two years now, and (while I agree with you wholeheartedly about some of the build quality issues) I've found my experience... fine. It does what I want it to, my eyes have adapted to the LCD display (because I got headaches when I started too). The 'sweet spot' is a myth. It doesn't exist. In any headset.

That last was a joke.

Jokes aside, I've heard of a 'sweet spot' and never gotten it. The Q2 I tried didn't have one. The Vive I had before I got this didn't have one. This doesn't have one. It probably has something to do with my head size/shape/phase of the moon, but I've never found it.

I hope Valve does see your post (though I don't know that they will, since the steamvr engineers aren't the same ones that work on the hardware) and adds it to the next headset that, as you pointed out, should be released in ten or so years.