HP Reverb G2 - VR Setup Guide for Condor 2

[Buzz77]

Hello HP Reverb G2 users who are new to VR!

This is the attempt to write a setup guide for getting Condor 2 to work in VR with the HP Reverb G2 head-mounted-display (HMD).

As a VR-noob I finally managed to setup my new HP-Reverb G2 with Condor 2. Now it is just 4 clicks to get into the air.
The experience flying Condor 2 in VR using the G2 is fantastic!

I am happy to share my discoveries and experiences with you, but all this is with my rig in mind, so if you find better ways or better settings feel free to use your own - and post it in this forum.

It was a little nightmare to get all to work because, as you maybe know, Condor 2 does only support Oculus Rift S HMD natively at the current time.

Furthermore: Oculus forces the owners of an Oculus headset to use a Facebook account since the end of 2020 - an absolutely NOGO for me. That was the main reason for me not to buy an Occulus HMD and I am very happy now with my G2. I hope very much that Condor 2 soon natively will support WMR or OpenXR, to not being dependent on accounts of other companies - and to avoid much hazzle.

There are several very good guides in the forum and in the I-net to get a Valve Index or HTC-Vive HMD to work with Simulators like Condor 2, but many of them are a bit out of date or very special - or in focus of other sims. So I had to pick only the relevant points and had to avoid wrong ways to get the G2 to work with Condor 2. Many thanks to all of those people, who were taking the time to share their knowledge with others! And especially thanks to TheGreatCabbage2, who programmed the Revive Helper Tool for Condor2. Great work!

WindowsMixedReality (WMR) is the basic layer of software the G2 is communicating with. If you are a noob to VR like me it is a good idea, to first get familiar with VR and the G2 itself, installing and using the WindowsMixedReality-Portal from Microsoft and maybe testing one or two free natively supportet WMR Games. In addition to get familiar with the Steam Platform is a good idea. It is fun anyway.

If you are an experienced VR-User and you are already using other sims or games than Condor 2, it is a good idea to remind - or even better to note – the WMR/Steam-VR settings you are using for these sims, e.g. video resolution. This way you are able to recall your old settings if they are different from the best Condor 2 settings. For most sims you are able to configure dedicated video-settings in Steam VR. This solves the problem with different settings for several sims.

If you will use this guide after January 2021, be aware that with every new version of one of the necessary software-layers and tools (WMR/ Steam / Steam VR / WMRforSteamVR / Oculus Home / Revive / ReviveHelperTool ) or Condor 2 itself, maybe this guide will not work anymore.

Now here is, how I managed to setup my HP-Reverb G2 HMD – Dated: January 2021

It is not possible to upload the pdf with the guide directly here in the forum, so please follow this link for downloading it:

https://magentacloud.de/s/Fcb3gfPJJ7TRyWW
(Updated english version V 1_0_2 - 2021_05_10)

or if you like German language even more:
https://magentacloud.de/s/SHe66tq9PwZHKBB
(German translation of the guide - deutsche Übersetzung der Anleitung)

Greetings - and good luck!

Buzz77

[Guy757]

Awesome post Buzz77, thanks for that. Pretty much my experience but to see it all documented like that is great. Thank you.

I jumped on to the Revive discord and asked whether anything could be done with Revive to allow Condor2 to work with more recent versions but nothing heard back yet.

On the Steam VR resolution settings I've managed to set that quite high which goes some way to making up for the lack of MSAA in WMR.

I also experienced similar audio issues but it happened so often I removed the G2 headphones and use my gaming headset now.

But yeah, Condor 2 in VR is amazing. Here's looking forward to headsets like the G2 getting native support.

All the best
Guy

[Xavier]

Hi Buzz 77,

Thank you very much. I know that is time-consuming to write and correct a fair tutorial.
It is with that kind of booklet that the VR will be a standard with Condor 2.
Hope that some of you will write the same kind of tutorial for Quest 2 or any other VR stuff.

Good flight with your HP Reverb G2

[Buzz77]

Thank you guys,

finally I am so happy with my G2! During setup I realized, why most people new to VR are giving up to collect the widespread information in the I-net that is necessary to get it run.

And interresting that you have similar audio issues, Guy757. I had the impression, that Condor2 audio is not only missing in the HMD, but also on the desktop (problem only on my rig?) but have to check for this again.

My mics and headphones in the G2 keep working (with my discord client) whereas Condor2 audio fails after some time. Also system sounds I can hear in my HMD after Condor2 audio fails. Because of that I suppose that its a problem within the several software-layers. But its only a hypothesis

BTW: What is your current videoresolution-setting in Steam-VR? And what kind of hardware-setup you are using to handle this?

[Gunth3r]

Here's looking forward to headsets like the G2 getting native support.

Exactly this ^. Request for Condor 2 support for Reverb G2 etc.

And thank you Buzz77 for the guide!

[Buzz77]

Yes Gunth3r you are perfectly right!

For sure native support will be the only way to get rid of this nightmare of setup!

Currently I am screwing around with my audio issues, but I have so many screws to turn in the chain of software layers - and possibilitys of failure that its extremely time consuming.

I do not know how much work it will be for the Condor2 Team to get native support for the Reverb G2 programmed - and how long this will last. So I wrote down my steps to get the G2 working with Condor2 - at least in a first approach. I hope that it is useful for one or the other G2 owner who is new to VR.

Greetings

Buzz77

[Guy757]

My mics and headphones in the G2 keep working (with my discord client) whereas Condor2 audio fails after some time. Also system sounds I can hear in my HMD after Condor2 audio fails. Because of that I suppose that its a problem within the several software-layers. But its only a hypothesis

That sounds pretty much like my experience. I'd say your hypothesis is sound.

BTW: What is your current videoresolution-setting in Steam-VR? And what kind of hardware-setup you are using to handle this?

Hardware is:
AMD 5600x (stock works fine but mine is currently on a 4.65GHz all core overclock) on a B550 mb
32Gb 3200 RAM at CL16
GTX 1080ti currently on the 461.09 drivers
Condor 2 on M2 ssd
G2 plugged in to pcie usb3 card I originally bought for the CV1

Software:
I have OpenXR dev tools installed from the Windows Store (because I also run MSFS and it helps with that). Have set to use latest runtime and scaling at 100%. No idea whether this has any effect on Revive though!
SteamVR resolution set to 200%
I can't remember my WMR settings but do not let Windows decide the resolution, set that to G2 native. Otherwise everything's a fuzzy mess.

Umm, I think that's it but feel free to ask more.

I do not know how much work it will be for the Condor2 Team to get native support for the Reverb G2 programme

Indeed. It depends I guess on how decoupled the current Oculus interface is from the core graphics engine. As it was added fairly recently I'd hope the design is modular.
I can also understand even if (hopefully) something is in development the devs would keep things quiet. I would! I'd want to be focussing on the dev work and not fielding endless "are we nearly there yet?" questions
It'd be a huge shame if native support for WMR doesn't happen. I got no reply on the Revive discord. Let's face it, our hobby isn't exactly main stream. But I'm rambling on now as is my wont!

Clear skys and good lift all!

Guy

[wickid]

I can also understand even if (hopefully) something is in development the devs would keep things quiet. I would! I'd want to be focussing on the dev work and not fielding endless "are we nearly there yet?" questions

That is exactly the Condor team policy. Always has been.

We don't want to use an API which is not mature or has missing support.

When its ready, so will we be.

That is the latest statement I know of on this matter. Thread here

[Buzz77]

Hmmm.... is WMR not mature?
Or has it missing support?

Maybe there is hope?

[Buzz77]

Thank you Guy757 for posting your rig. Seems to be in the same class like mine.

Currently I am using 3892x3800 rendering resolution. In some scenerys even higher resolutions are possible, but in some others the frames per second will break down in special situations - and terrible stuttering occurs. Especially when you are near the cloud base, flying in light fog. So at the moment i will stay with this. Then the VR-experience is sooo great with the G2!

Also with the audio I am using now the same workaround like you - thanks again for that.

I have updated the Setup Guide now and added some minor discoverys I recognized during testing, also including my NVIDIA-3D settings.

Updated version (V 1_0_1):

https://www.magentacloud.de/lnk/WQLEglRK

(Also the link on the first page of this thread leads now to the new Setup Guide.)

Condor2 in VR is really worth the effort!

Good luck to all!


Buzz77

[GlenBecker]

Buzz, just seeing this. Thanks for putting in the time and effort to share! Hopefully, we can continue making it easier for more people to get addicted to VR. (And grow the user base to help justify further VR development in Condor.)

[jschubert]

Hi,
thank you very much for the setup guide.
Finally I'm able to use Condor2 because I fly exclussivly in VR with G2.

But there is a problem, my xPlane 11 installation is not working as it did. It is very slow. While starting the Oculus splash window pops up asking for login either Facebook or Oculus account. Guess it has to do with the Oculus installation? I leave the Oculus window alone (closing it always terminates XP) but that doesn't help.
Any ideas? Is there probaly a way to disable Oculus if XP is started?

Thanks
Joerg

[alioth]

I have no problems about sound in my hp reverb g2 headset but... I much prefer:
-Condor sound in the main pc speakers
-Teamspeak audio in the headset

It feels more real for me in this way.

[Buzz77]

Hi jschubert

Sorry, I have no experience with XPlane, but:

Are you using SteamVR for XPlane? If yes maybe the reason for slowing down XPlane is the increased video resolution-setting in SteamVR that is necessary to overcome the missing supersampling things in Condor2 with the G2.

For most games/sims it is possible to use dedicated videosettings in SteamVR so you can reduce the video resolution for XPlane to the normal settings while leaving the general setting higher for Condor 2.

With Elite Dangerous I am using this feature and it works fine for me.
In Steam VR/Options/Video/Videooptions per App choose your App e.g. XPlane and make your settings. (In German: Steam VR/Einstellungen/Video/Videoeinstellungen pro Anwendung)

The Oculus Window I am leaving open - just ignoring it.

Just guessing - hope this helps... (?)

Greetings

Buzz77

[Buzz77]

@alioth

The audio issues are a bit of mystery...

Maybe with a good USB-Connection they are gone. I had increasing problems with Elite in the last days and then I changed the USB-port and all audio-problems were gone in Elite. But I tested it in Condor2 just for a short time. Today I ordered a seperate PCIe USB Card for my PC and will use this exclusive with the G2 in the future. I will post it if this helps...

Greetings
Buzz77