Oculus Could (and Should) Offer Rift S Accessories for Improved Audio, Visuals, & Fit

With Rift S proper around the corner, a bunch of human beings are approximately to locate that the headset’s on-board audio is lacking in pleasant and that the face gasket will make it tough for some to get the lenses into the best role for max readability and field of view. Luckily there’s a route ahead—the Rift S design is surprisingly modular, permitting both the headstrap and the face gasket to be removed, which means that Oculus may want to (and need to) provide add-ons to improve the experience.

Rift S isn’t a awful headset by means of any approach, however compared to the unique Rift its enhancements come with a handful of downgrades. For early adopters who sold into Oculus’ environment (and want to live in it), this offers a conundrum—are the upsides of Rift S well worth the downsides over the original Rift? Right now it’s now not surely a clear reduce answer, and unique humans will probably come to exclusive conclusions.

 

But, Oculus may want to (and I think should) tilt the scales toward the Rift S by using addressing two three with optionally available add-ons: audio and ergonomics. Luckily, the Rift S’ truly modular design have to make this smooth. And there’s already precedent within the VR marketplace for this kind of issue; in 2017 HTC launch the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap which upgraded the headset’s smooth strap to a rigid strap with headphones. Though it cost $100, many take into account it an important accessory—on Amazon, the Deluxe Audio Strap is higher rated than the Vive headset itself!

The Rift S includes integrated audio, however rather than the on-ear headphones of the unique Rift, it uses small speakers constructed into the headstrap. The concept is that the headphones won’t get in the way whilst putting at the headset or want adjustment, and ostensibly it’s a greater simple layout with fewer components. The hassle is that the audio pleasant on Rift S isn’t always just worse than the authentic Rift, it’s pretty susceptible common.

When using the Rift S I constantly have it set to one hundred% volume, or even then I’ve every now and then wanted it’d move louder. It’s not simply volume; the small audio system simply don’t have a superb frequency variety, and quite missing in bass. Oculus’ other headset, Quest, uses a comparable hidden audio answer, however even it seems to have better variety and greater bass.

There’s additionally the matter of positional audio accuracy. On the Rift S, the sound is output from someplace above your ear, which clearly biases all positional statistics in that path (due to the fact that’s the course of greatest amplitude). It’s now not that you could’t get a feel of positional audio, it simply isn’t as clean because the Rift’s on-ear headphones which direct sound greater evenly into your ear.

Yes, Rift S has a 3.5mm headphone jack on the side which every body could plug their very own headphones into, but the VR market has genuinely shown over the last 3 years that only a few people want to place up with the annoyance of placing any other component on their head after the headset, not to mention every other cable dangling round their fingers. Even if you were willing to, locating headphones that could effortlessly fit across the Rift S headstrap won’t be smooth.

So, how ought to Oculus repair this? There’s alternatives. The business enterprise ought to launch on-ear headphones which snap onto the headband, just like the Mantis headphones for PSVR [Amazon]. These might plug into the three.5mm jack at the aspect with a quick cable that doesn’t get in the manner.

A more stylish answer could be to provide a Deluxe Audio Strap, which would be a complete substitute for the headstrap with on-ear headphones constructed proper in, much like HTC did with the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap.

Compared to the original Rift, which had a completely affixed headstrap, this would be trivial for the Rift S because its headstrap is absolutely removable from the visor via flipping a little switch and the pulling the headstrap off.

Rift S Fit and Visuals

One simple trouble with the Rift S limits the visual enjoy for me more than it need to: the face gasket. That’s the piece of the headset that rests between the visor and your face. While I by no means felt like I had to get my eyes closer to the authentic Rift’s lenses, it’s clean whilst carrying the Rift S that I can get a notably larger subject of view and a bigger sweet spot with the aid of transferring my eyes in the direction of the lenses.

And even as the Rift S has a lens-to-eye distance adjustment, it movements the complete visor (not just the lenses), and the inflexible face gasket approach I ought to uncomfortably press it against my face to obtain choicest visual exceptional. PSVR then again has a very comparable lens-to-eye adjustment that movements the complete visor, but the face gasket is soft and flexible, so it doesn’t save you you from setting the lenses in their ideal position.

Even though it way exposing my peripheral view to the out of doors international, I almost favor to use the Rift S with the face gasket removed absolutely because of the benefits in consolation and readability.

So the restore is quite clean—Oculus may want to provide a tender face gasket that flexes to permit a much broader variety of changes whilst preserving comfort, or they may launch one or more face gaskets of different sizes to allow more humans to get their eyes into the candy spot.

I’m absolutely conscious that this precise problem is depending on the form of every body’s face—specifically, how deep their eyes are as compared to the most a part of their cheeks and forehead. Granted, I don’t assume my eyes are specially sunken, and I don’t run into this precise issue with different headsets.

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For general clients, perhaps these things aren’t too important, however there’s no denying that the present PC VR market consists very closely of early adopter and enthusiast sorts. These are those who spend money on high-end gaming PCs on the way to have a high-stop gaming experience, the type of human beings which are much more likely than preferred purchasers to be willing to spend to enhance their VR enjoy if improvements are available.

It’s lucky that Rift S takes place to be designed in a modular way that would enhance a number of its downsides with non-obligatory accessories. If Oculus doesn’t step up to the plate, third-party accent makers could have a pleasing new possibility on their palms.